Don’t roll your eyes.

I had been thinking of doing a constructive “why upgrade” post in some way that wouldn’t get me run out on a rail at WWD, and then Om suggested I do a “10 Reasons…” post. I’ve been following all the press, and have been entertained by how much of it is about Apple/Mac OS X.

I decided to do the post, but I set some ground rules for myself (and the readers) up front. No OS comparisons. Switching platforms is not an easy decision. It’s not something you do because one operating system has Instant Search and the other has Time Machine. It’s about the applications, the hardware, what collaborators are using, budget, lifestyle, etc. It’s the whole experience. So even though I may personally prefer the promise of Leopard over Vista, that’s not the point. A person with thousands of dollars invested in Windows hardware and software isn’t going to care that Mac OS X is better. And they’ll resent you for even making the point. Even when I introduced Windows into my work life 3 years ago, I had too much in Mac software to even think about making a full switch.

Posting about Microsoft software with a positive spin is dangerous business, but I did it anyway. I spent some time with the Windows Vista Business Test Drive (in Parallels) and read as many articles as I could about the new features. I wrote “10 Reasons for the Windows Web Worker to Upgrade to Vista…Or Not” looking at Vista’s productivity non-Enterprise features solely on their own merits or as they compare to similar features in Windows XP, forcing myself not to make any comparisons to OS X. In some cases, that wasn’t easy. After listing 10 reasons to upgrade, I listed 10 perfectly valid reasons not to upgrade. If I didn’t make those arguments, the commenters certainly would. Once again, not allowing myself to touch on a different operating system’s strengths as a bargaining point.

Truth is, if it wasn’t for all the reasons I gave not to upgrade, I would think about it. The search feature works very nicely (better than Spotlight, IMO). I like the fact that Microsoft Office documents have live preview icons in Explorer (in OS X, only images and PDF files have live preview). The very functional Windows Calendar exposes OS X’s iCal for the lightweight candy that it is. But no, I will resist. There are about 3,560 things on my to-do list that are better uses of my time right now than spending $200 and all the time to install Vista into my Parallels drive.

Ironically, one of the first places I noticed the post was picked up was on MacSurfer.com. Go figure.