Benz Blog

Some of you may remember my previous bout with a Powerbook in 2003. Back then I thought it would be a good idea to ease into the Mac world with a notebook computer, which only becomes my main computer when I travel. That computer was gorgeous, but it was just too slow for my needs. I’m a software developer, currently building J2EE applications in Java, and compiling my Java project at the time took 19 seconds longer on the Mac than it took on a Pentium III 800mHz Thinkpad! I just could not live with this, so I sold it. In retrospect, the speed issue was directly related to pre-compiling JSPs using WebLogic 6.1′s compiler, and perhaps I could have trimmed this time down by with various compiler or JVM options.

That was then, this is now. The G5 processor has since been released, and my preliminary tests indicate that it’s a much better performer than the G4. Below are the results of building a test project composed of 364 Java classes and 242 JSP files. The results, expressed in minutes:seconds, include time to pre-compile the JSP files and create 3 different EAR files. The tests were performed using Sun’s JDK 1.4.2_06, Ant 1.6.2, and run under both WebLogic 6.1 and 8.1. (8.1′s JSP pre-compilation blows the doors off of 6.1). The times were the average of 2 runs:

Dell Latitude D800 1.7GHz
6.1: 4:56
8.1: 1:25

Dell Precision 350 3.06GHz
6.1: 5:05
8.1: 1:09

AMD 2200 running Mandrake Linux 10.1 (older box)
6.1: 7:46
8.1: 1:49

1.8GHz PowerPC G5 running Mac OS X 10.3.7 (512MB SDRAM)
6.1: 6:00
8.1: 1:25

I would hope, and expect, that the dual 2.5gHz PowerMac would top all these numbers. So with the performance problems out of the way, I’ve begun to drool again over OS X, while simultaneously growing more and more tired of Windows XP.

It’s not that XP is unstable – quite the contrary. Many of the early switch-to-Mac reports were from people tired of constantly rebooting or crashing Windows, but my Dell Precision 350 has never blue-screened once for as long as I’ve had it (about 2 years). I’m just tired of all the little annoyances in Windows: like Explorer occasionally thinking I have 17 desktops after “upgrading” to SP2:

Or how XP lets you rename a network place (I prefer to group shares by computer name), but somehow manages to create a new network place using the default name (sharename on computername) over time. Or how it constantly insults me by reminding me that my firewall is turned off. There are many other minor complaints of this nature. And don’t even get me started on how MS changes things for no technical reason whatsoever. Their Java compiler was called “jvc” when everyone else’s was “javac”. Their Java runtime was “jview” when everyone else’s was “java”. And why on earth did they have to use “default.htm” as the default HTML file when every other web server on the planet was “standardized” on “index.html”. I can’t stand arrogant crap like this, and I even experienced this “do it our way or else” attitude first hand while doing some development work for MS several years ago that I won’t get into.

Enough MS-bashing. Like I said, XP has been rock solid for me and I am very productive in it. It’s going to be very difficult for me to get used to a lot of the nuances in OS X, and I know that life is certainly not going to be perfect once I switch, but it’s time for a change, and this blog will document my switch-to-Mac experience as best I can.