Microsoft Products Are So Damn Slow!

I have recently left Microsoft after being a customer since 1986. I am with Apple now. I left Microsoft for many reasons, but if I had to summarize them I would not say propensity to crash, but slowness.

We can argue about Apple’s design vs Microsoft’s design forever, but what we can’t argue with is that it takes much less time to start a Mac than a PC. Same to turn it off, which is something you just don’t need to do with a Mac. And, in general, everything you do on a Mac happens much faster. Now if slowness is the case with Windows on PCs, it is even more so with Windows Mobile on phones, as phones are something that we are not used to be patient with.

I try all WiFi gadgets that come out to see how easy they will connect to FON. So lately, I have been trying many Windows Mobile gadgets such as the Samsung Blackjack in its European version with both WiFi and HSDPA (the only 3G that really works). But with Windows Mobile the problem is not the connection. The disappointment is the speed at which everything happens in Windows Mobile 5.0. Same with HTC.

I was testing this wonderful model full of admiration for the engineers that put all this power in such a small device, but then it´s sad to see it all wasted cause it runs on turtle speed Windows Mobile. My recommendation is that you should just avoid any mobile gadget that comes with Windows Mobile. No matter what the hardware engineers do, and both the Samsung and the HTC are amazing gadgets, Microsoft destroys their work with its incredibly slow software.

I ran some comparisons between Nokia models like the E61, the N80 and the N93, which I have, vs the HTC and Samsung, and while I love the design of the last two I could not use them. Symbian, the operating system of Nokia, is so much faster and simpler than Windows Mobile that speed wins over design. The way I see things Nokia helps me play, Blackberry helps me work, but Windows Mobile just slows me down.