This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my migration away from Apple after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

I was a confirmed Mac user for 15 years. Now it’s been 15 months since I last touched an Apple product. Recently readers have asked me if I’m still happy with my decision to migrate out of the Apple ecosystem. Good question.

In spring 2010 I finished blogging a 10-part series about that migration (see the I’m Not a Mac archive.) I left Apple behind because I was tired of Steve Jobs telling me how–and how not–to use my computer and smart phone. Along the way I jailbroke my iPhone, flirted with Linux, got attacked by Mac fanboy media, and questioned why anyone needed an iPad, among other exploits you can read in the archive. So 15 months since ditching my MacBook and iPhone for a Windows 7 laptop and an Android phone, do I still think it was it worth it?

More than ever–for several reasons.

To recap, last spring I switched to a mini Toshiba satellite laptop and a Verizon Droid Eris. Both were low-end for reasons of cost, but still managed to got the job done and keep me happy. Why?

First of all, not once in the past year and change have I felt deliberately and unnecessarily hampered by the operating system of my laptop or smart phone. I use the specific software and peripherals I want without any Steve-Jobsian roadblocks of incompatibility being thrown in my way. My computing devices simply work as I want them to.

Second, Windows 7 remains a pleasure to use, even after 15 months. Graphically and in terms of ease of use, it is what Mac OS X should be. In fact, I still believe Windows 7 feels more Mac-like than OS X. That means, it feels highly intuitive–as well as fresh and new, something you can’t say of the pickled-in-amber look of the decade old Mac operating system.

Third, the Android operating system still knocks me out with its lack of heavy-handed app-store policing (so endemic on the iPhone side of things) and absolutely perfectly seamless integration of Google Voice and Gmail–which is as it should be.

Fourth, I can easily afford to upgrade my devices. The MacBook I sold originally cost me $1,200. It replaced a MacBook that suddenly died a year before, which also cost a similarly exorbitant price–just like all the Macs I owned in my 15 years as a Mac user. That sudden replacement came out of rent money–and I had no choice but to replace it immediately since I used the computer for consulting work. The iPhone 3G that I smashed to bits with a hammer on camera cost me more than $200 with a contract, and replaced an original iPhone that cost me $400.

Things have been a lot cheaper outside the Steve Jobs reality distortion field. To wit: last spring, my Toshiba laptop cost me $399. My Verizon Droid Eris $99. My Toshiba died this March–it was a refurb of a problematic model, so I wasn’t surprised, and admittedly its anemic processor and tiny screen were never a match for my old MacBook. I replaced it with a surprisingly powerful mid-range $449 HP G62-series Windows 7 laptop that equals or beats a contemporary MacBook in every way for less than half the price. On the smart phone side, last month, I traded up my Droid Eris for a Droid Incredible 2. I paid $150 and got a smart phone that does everything I always wished my iPhone did–including not slow down and die every other time I tried to place a call in Chicago.

So, yes, after 15 months, I’m still a PC, and happily so. That’s not to say I would never switch back to Apple. But it would take a seismic shift in the way the company relates to its users, to developers, and to other hardware manufacturers. Essentially, it would take the exit of Steve Jobs and his caustic, highly narcissistic personalization of the company and a recognition that the customer really is always right. I’m not holding my breath that any of that will happen.

But I am paying my rent on time. And after 15 years as a Mac user, that may be the biggest change of all.

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

After nine months of considering becoming a PC user again, finally ending my 15-year relationship with Apple Mac OS computers isn’t the only titanic technology shift I’ve made recently. Last week, I gave up my iPhone in favor of Google Android. It’s the best phone platform I’ve ever had the pleasure to use–and yes, I did exactly what I promised to do to my surplussed iPhone (think: hammer, and read on or scroll way down for the video.)

As previous posts in this series chronicle, I spent the second half of 2009 increasingly annoyed at Apple’s heavy-handed manner of selling under-featured, over-expensive computers and then sternly limiting the uses to which those machines–and Apple software–could be put. When I finally realized the ease of use, abundant choice, and astounding affordability o the PC side of things, I became an unexpectedly satisfied convert to Windows 7.

Last week, I followed the same trajectory with my iPhone. It was Google Voice that finally drove me away from Apple’s hyper-popular handset. Long a fan of both iPhone and Grand Central, the precursor to Google Voice, I believed that as a user of both I had the right to use them together. When Apple disagreed, by very publicly dumping Google Voice alternatives out of its App Store last year, I did something I never thought I’d do. I jailbroke my iPhone to install a third-party Google Voice app on my own.

I was thrilled when Google began offering an HTML 5 web app of the service for iPhone users earlier this year. I even restored my phone back to its non-jailbroken state to use it. But it wasn’t the same as having a native application on my own handset. So as 2010 continued and my yearning for an OS alternative to Apple on my laptop along with it, I started to wonder whether things might be more happily liberating in the non-Apple smartphone world, too.

I began to ask friends what brand of mobile phone they had. If it turned out to be a Google Android phone or a Palm Pre (WebOS) phone, I asked them to demo it for me and let me play around with it. I also started reading reviews–dozens of reviews–discussing the Android and WebOS platforms, the relative worth of specific handsets and carriers, and how the Google and Palm experience compared to Apple’s iPhone.

To my surprise, I repeatedly encountered people telling me they were former iPhone users who had migrated over to Android or Palm or were planning to do so, and reviews wondering why Apple couldn’t get its act together and offer an iPhone with multitasking, an open app store, and  a unified notification method. And better Google integration, for that matter.

I’ve long loved friend Pastry Chef Chris’s Palm Pre. But learning that an Android phone could offer me Google Voice as a permanent, baked-in option for calls and texting really did it for me. I found myself wondering why a third party was willing to give me what Apple wouldn’t. And, frankly, I was tired of more than two years of dropped calls, delayed voicemails, and spotty data service from trying to use an AT&T phone in urban America.

Last week, after all that research, I walked into a Chicago Best Buy and walked out with a Verizon Droid Eris, the HTC-built alternative to Motorola’s Droid. After a single evening of use, I turned off my iPhone 3G for good. Here’s why:

• Four full bars of Verizon service in my downtown Chicago high-rise apartment, vs. AT&T’s (at best) two bars;
• An entire evening–that has now become an entire week–with no dropped calls, anywhere, at all;
• 3G data download speeds that feel like 4G compared to the consistently pokey service I suffered through with AT&T’s network;
• The ability to press the “Phone”  button and make calls directly and seamlessly with Google Voice;
• The ability to forego paying $20 an unlimited text plan–or paying for any text plan at all, thanks to Google Voice’s native texting feature;
• The ability to see all of my email, voicemail, text, chat, facebook, and application notifications in one place, simply by pulling down a single notification screen, instead of having to run all over an iPhone looking for little, red, separate notification badges (this is like a dream come true for iPhone users);
• The ability to download whatever I want, whenever I want to, from Android’s “Market” app store and third-party app stores, too.

Why Verizon? I wanted the network. Why the Eris and not the Droid? I didn’t like the latter’s keyboard and I wanted HTC’s nifty  ”Sense” interface overlay (that is best used, not described, to fully appreciate its ease of use.)

Why Google’s Android and not Palm’s WebOS? This was a close call, because both platforms integrate your email and Facebook contacts (unlike iPhone), and WebOS adds in your chat contacts, as well. But I really wanted a native Google Voice solution, and only Android phones have one right now.

After a week with Verizon’s network and HTC’s Eris Android phone, I can’t believe how long I bought into Apple’s hype about how iPhone offered the best smartphone solution. Sure, as with all things Apple, iPhone tries to make the mobile-phone experience as painless as possible. But in siloing off the device (i.e. “Use only the approved apps in our app store or else…”) and refusing to allow their own users access to common technologies and features, Apple sends one message to iPhone users–that Apple thinks they’re too stupid to make their own decisions.

Unfortunately, the decisions Apple tends to make for anyone who uses one of their device (laptop, desktop, or handheld) always seem aimed at locking people permanently into Apple solutions. And once users are locked in, why should Apple break a sweat worrying over the relative merits of another phone platform’s feature set?

I’m happy to thoughtfully consider my own mobile-phone experience, and I bet many people reading this are, as well. I will say when I thought about it, I realized how easy making the leap from iPhone to Android would be. All of my favorite iPhone apps had doppelgangers in the Android Market. I can download podcasts directly via Google Listen, obviating the need to sync my Eris with my (new Windows 7) PC, and I can use third-party software like the free DoubleTwist or Mark/Space’s paid MissingSync to move my iTunes playlists over to the device (or at least, as soon as Mark/Space and I figure out why my copy of the software won’t sync with my new Eris.) If I had contacts and calendar information living on said PC instead of in the cloud, I could also move those over with Missing Sync.

Bonus being, I don’t ever have to sync my phone with iTunes anymore. I just plug it in, juice it up, and go. And, yes, I continue to use iTunes, because it’s got a great music store and I’m not a total anti-Apple zealot, though I can also download tunes directly to my Android phone thanks to the Amazon Music store.

The one fly in the ointment? No direct path to sync bookmarks with my Eris from Google Chrome. But since I use Xmarks anyway, I sync my bookmarks with the Xmarks cloud and access them there from my Eris until Google offers a bookmark-syncing solution for Android. (I have no doubt one will eventually arrive.)

So except for iTunes, I am finally, officially, and fully out of the Apple and Macintosh ecosystem, at long last. And although Steve Jobs led me to believe that using non-Apple solutions would ruin me and my computing life, I’m here to tell my former fellow Mac users, after 15 years, I couldn’t be happier.

My old iPhone 3G on the other hand has seen better days. In defense of what you’re about to witness, its mute button was broken, anyway (from the phone being regularly tossed across the room in frustration over rotten AT&T service.) With that, I fulfill a more than two-year-old promise and show you what happens when a hammer meets an iPhone.

Yes. Oh yes I did.

(Click the HQ button for a higher-quality video. RSS subscribers, click here to view the video on CHICAGO CARLESS.)

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

And so the deed is done. Since the middle of March, I have been a PC. Contrary to the popular myth among Macheads that turning to the alleged “dark side” of the computing world would mean time and space as I know them would come to a sorry end, honestly, I couldn’t be happier. After 15 years as a confirmed Mac user, that happiness is the biggest surprise of all.

When last I left off in this series, I had decided to put my desire to migrate away from Mac OS on hold. I still resented the way Apple seems to try and lock users permanently in to Mac-centric software solutions (iTunes, iPhoto, iAdinfinitum), promulgates a myth of reliability, and refuses to even acknowledge Linux–all the while marketing its overly expensive machines as the best solutions in the computing marketplace.

I wanted to give both Windows 7 and my preferred Linux flavor (Linux Mint) an equal chance at becoming my next operating system. Being (for better or worse) a recent CLEAR Wimax convert, though, my new OS would need to let me use my USB Wimax modem–and as of last writing, there just weren’t any native Linux drivers for Wimax modems available. So I sat and waited.

While I was waiting, I continued to migrate my desktop life into the Google cloud, including contacts, calendars, and photos (via Picasa), so I’d eventually be ready to make the leap to a new OS. I also switched from Firefox to Google Chrome as my browser of choice, due to the availability of Chrome extensions to provide me with convenient Gmail, Google Voice, and Google Calendar alerts directly from my browser bar.

Then last month, the economy forced my hand. Needing to further right-size my life to deal with the vagaries of an uneven consulting income, I decided to make the leap once and for all and sell my unibody Macbook. This, the same Macbook I bought 13 months earlier for $1,350 after my previous Macbook died in the middle of a business meeting. (See: myth of reliability.) Having bills to pay and being less than in love with Mac OS anyway, I felt it was the right time.

Linux Wimax drivers still not being available, that meant my only option was going to be a Windows laptop. And after 15 years of listening to Apple fans talk about how much better the Mac OS is, even after all my research into Windows 7, I was leery of becoming a PC for the first time since Windows 3.1…although every time I used Windows 7, I actually kind of liked it. A lot.

What’s more, I realized I didn’t need all the bells and whistles of my Macbook–like a 13″ screen, an optical drive I rarely ever used, or a level of computing horsepower that mostly sat around filing its nails while I confined my use of the machine to email, blogging, and web surfing.

After a week of researching PC laptops, though, it wasn’t just the lightheadedness of learning how many hundreds of dollars cheaper Windows laptops were versus Mac laptops with similar specs that got to me. I was also amazed to see how commonplace technology long desired on the Mac side of things was in the PC world. HDMI ports? Screaming fast, multi-core processors? Built-in Wimax? (Admittedly a new trend.) Really?

Yes really. Who knew? Certainly not a long-term, knee-jerk Mac user like me. I eventually settled on a Toshiba satellite subnotebook (a T115-1100), smaller and lighter than my metal-brick of a Macbook, with a modest processor, an HDMI port for streaming Netflix onto my HDTV, and an absent optical drive that I wouldn’t miss one bit. I bought it for less than $400, including shipping. If the laptop hadn’t been a factory refurb (the likes of which I’ve bought a few times in the past on the Mac side with no problem), it would have cost me $50 more. Oh the horror!

In fact, except for a slower processor, the specs on the amazingly affordable laptop match or surpass what I had on my Macbook, including the same amount of RAM, a multi-touch trackpad, and a much larger hard drive. And although macheads love to suggest otherwise, transferring over my files was as simple as dragging my Documents, Music, Photos, and Movies folders onto a Windows-formatted (FAT32-only, migrating Mac users) USB hard drive, and then dragging their contents into the folders of the same name on my new PC.

I was worried iTunes and my iPhone wouldn’t work without some fiddling after my migration. As it turned out, all the fiddling I needed to do was to download and launch the PC version of iTunes, which instantly found my old iTunes folder in its new PC home, including all my music, playlists, and iPhone apps, with no problem at all.

For fullest disclosure, I did some advance planning to make my migration go as smoothly as it did. I made a list of all the software I’d need to find PC versions of or replacements for, then downloaded them in advance on my Mac and transferred them over to my PC along with my media files so they’d be ready to install when I needed them.

I also made a list of all the Chrome extensions I’d need to reinstall, and synced my bookmarks with Xmarks so that I could sync them back into Chrome after making the switch to my new PC laptop. (Using Xmarks also enabled me to sync my bookmarks with Internet Explorer, giving iTunes a path to sync my bookmarks onto my iPhone.) Overall, it wasn’t an enormous amount of prep work and it was pretty easy to do.

And with that, two weeks ago, I sold my Macbook on Craigslist, making me an almost complete PC, except for my iPhone.  (I became a complete PC a week later when I replaced my AT&T iPhone with a Verizon Droid Eris–click through for my long-promised, I-kid-you-not, hammer-iPhone death match video.)

So here’s how I feel about my migration from Mac to PC two weeks after the fact…

Happy. Because after two weeks of using Windows 7, I have the uncanny feeling that this is the operating system Mac OS X could have been all along, if only Cupertino weren’t so dead set on locking users in and shutting all other current technologies out. Windows 7’s glassy, translucent Aero interface is far more elegant than Mac OS X’s interface, which has looked more or less the same for almost 10 years. And I find the Windows 7 taskbar more useful and far more customizable than Mac OS X’s oddly placed, ridiculously shaped Dock, offering all the functionality of not just the Dock but of Mac OS X’s ill-defined menubar notification area and Apple menu, as well.

Windows 7 also offers more numerous and helpful tips, advice, and suggestions throughout the OS, both in on-screen descriptions and pop-up text boxes. It feels like a breath of fresh air compared to Apple’s overly zealous parsimony of on-screen assistance. (After all, you’re just supposed to be able as if by magic to intuitively use a Mac, since they’re supposed to “just work” out of the box, right? So why bother with richly worded, on-screen assistance? Would that be why Apple devotes an entire section of its website to teaching Windows switchers how to use Mac OS?)

In fact overall, by switching from Mac to PC after 15 long years as a Machead, I have the uncanny feeling that my day-to-day computing experience using Windows 7 is actually more Mac-like than when I was still using my Macbook. Maybe I’m just feeling the difference between using an operating system seemingly designed according to the whims of a single user (Steve Jobs) versus an OS specifically re-designed in response to input from an entire installed user base unhappy with the previous version (Vista).

Either way, that after a decade and a half as a Mac user my day-to-day computing life feels more Mac-like on a Windows 7 PC is a pretty damning outcome for Apple, which has officially lost me as a member of their “locked in” user base. But, you won’t read many similar stories of Mac-back-to-PC switchers no matter how hard you Google for them. (Trust me, I’ve tried.) After so many years of corporate indoctrination, it just never occurs to Mac users to consider what life might be like using a Windows machine.

Let me assure other Mac users considering making a similar back-migration, this new PC is having the time of his life right now. After 15 years as a Mac user, now that’s really thinking different.

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple Computer after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

Now that the jokes have subsided about the sanitary napkin-esque name of Apple’s new tablet computer, it’s a good time to ask: who really needs an iPad? Apple announced the iPad two months ahead of its expected late March retail debut to build buzz around the new gadget. But the more I think about it, the less I can figure out who Apple actually intends to buy one. Families? Business travelers? On-the-go urbanites? I can’t see any of these core Apple-adherent groups being too keen on spending from $500 to more than $800 on a device they just don’t need.

My doubt here isn’t intended as Apple-bashing. Although I continue to explore my exit strategy from the Mac OS platform, I still admit Apple offers certain technologies I wish I could take with me in my eventual leap to another operating system. In fact, now that Google Voice is available as a fully featured HTML5  mobile web app, I have restored my formerly jailbroken iPhone 3G–which I only jailbroke to run the older Google Voice Mobile application in the first place. So I’m willing to give Apple its due.

In the case of iPad, the sleek iPod Touch-on-steroids looks good enough to lick. Apple is banking that the Mac faithful will salivate over the new tablet computer’s large screen, easy interface, and strong networking options to browse web- and server-based multimedia content.

But earlier this month, consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo released a survey showing more than 60% of consumers don’t think they need one. The problem is that most people already have access to the very functions offered by iPad thanks to countless existing computing devices right now sitting in briefcases, on kitchen counters, and in side pockets all over America. Here’s what I mean…

Families Don’t Need iPad
Now that national laptop sales have comfortably surpassed desktop sales, it’s a safe bet most families already have a portable way to watch DVDs and browse the web on a comfortably sized screen. In fact, in many households these are likely later-generation laptops. What happened to the older machines they replaced? I would bet money millions of them are still in use as media servers and living-room netbooks in homes across the country. In this economy, what family do you know that would be willing to spend $500 or more to buy an iPad that mimics the features of the older laptop already sitting next to the Xbox?

Business Travelers Don’t Need iPad
The iPad makes little additional sense for business travelers, either. Most business travelers I know are required to carry their work laptops with them, and I don’t know any who are eager to cart around additional weight. For most of them, if they aren’t permitted to watch DVDs or browse the Internet on their official laptops, their fallback device is likely to be a five-ounce iPhone already sitting in their pocket or purse–not an extra one-and-a-half pounds of weight shoved into their carry-on.

On-the-Go Urbanites Don’t Need iPad
This is the potential market I get least of all. Yes, the cool kids among this group tend to be Cupertino’s early adopters who will snap up any device with an Apple logo on it no matter how questionable the feature set. (Macbooks without Firewire? iPhones with abysmally small storage capacities that no longer let you carry your whole music collection with you?) But like business travelers, they already have personal laptops to carry around. Like many families, they probably already have legacy computing devices sitting around at home. And like everyone else on the planet, they have a smart phone in their pocket. And it does everything iPad does, in a far subway-friendlier form factor.

I fall into the latter of the three groups. Until recently, I had a legacy Macbook doing duty as a music and video server. Now those functions fall to my main laptop which simply follows me around the house as needed. When I leave said house, it and my iPhone come with me. Given that–plus the fact the a fully featured iPad costs more than $800–it’s a mystery to me how Apple expects its new tablet to add value to my life.

Or anyone else’s, for that matter.

(Graphic: That’s one big cat with some really dysfunctional power needs.)

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple Computer after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

When last I left off in my continuing story of exploring alternative operating systems to Mac OS X, I was trying to decide whether to adopt Linux Mint or Windows 7 as my next main OS. That was before my AT&T DSL broadband service decided yet again to tank for a weekday afternoon, making it impossible to work from my home office. My answer to that all-too-frequent occurrence was to take a hammer to the modem and sign up for CLEAR Wimax mobile broadband. (And don’t you know I’m counting the days until I get a Verizon Droid and can similarly hammer my seemingly service-optional AT&T 3G iPhone.)

The Wimax service, newly arrived in Chicago, is like a breath of fresh air. Not as fast as cable modem service (some local friends get 15,000 kpbs out of Comcast), my home Wimax modem and Motorola-built USB dongle both still give me a consistent 4,000-to-6,000 kpbs–which is all AT&T’s DSL ever got me, anyway. Problem is, neither CLEAR nor Motorola offer a native Linux driver for its USB dongle. So unless someone in the Linux community builds a “DIY” driver, my only migration option is Windows 7.

I’d rather not let circumstance dictate my OS choice, so for the moment, I’m in a holding pattern, waiting a bit to see if a DIY driver actually emerges. That means I’m stuck with Mac OS X Snow Leopard for awhile.

That unexpected delay wouldn’t suck so much if Apple’s newest operating system hadn’t decided to eat my Macbook battery. There’s a debate among Mac users (or see this Google search) about why Snow Leopard seems to flag previously good batteries as failing, frequently popping up the warning message atop this post, “Service Battery.”

That would be fine if your battery was actually failing. However, most Mac notebook batteries are built to keep at least 80% of their original charge over 300 charging cycles. And as you might have guest, those complaining about the new warning message–including Yours Truly–have batteries with far fewer than 300 cycles, yet charging capacities far lower than 80%. (My machine’s at 244 cycles and only retains an 1,821 mAh charge, about 40% of my battery’s original capacity.) And oddly enough, our battery capacity only “dropped” after we installed Snow Leopard, and no amount of “calibrating” the batteries seems to help, either. Meanwhile, Snow Leopard’s predecessor OS, Leopard, never showed a battery capacity problem.

Anyone who’s ever suffered through a surprise, potentially mass issue with an Apple product won’t be surprised that Apple has remained silent about the issue, and mainstream Mac press (who rarely disagree with Apple in these latter Steve Jobs days) haven’t discussed the issue much, either. However, reports in some user forums suggest Macbook owners have gotten battery replacements in bricks-and-mortar Apple Stores by demonstrating that their machines are below 300 charges yet aren’t retaining an 80% charge.

On the down-low. Silently. You know, the same way Apple begrudgingly replaces faulty iPods and iPhones after looking for any reason to deny you service (teeny pits and pings suggesting a dropped unit seem to be a common excuse.) I’ve had several faulty Apple products in the past 15 years and only once was I ever made to feel welcome in an Apple store when seeking service. So wish me luck for my upcoming Apple Store appointment to get my battery replaced. I’m not leaving the store without a new one.

Because that Linux USB driver may never emerge. And Windows 7 is notoriously power-hungry when running on a Macbook.

(Graphic: Some things I have to hand to Apple. The ease of Time Machine backups is one of them.)

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple Computer after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

The last thing I want to do in this series is make Mac users happy–especially the rabid Apple fans who spent lots of time raging in previous comment threads. But there are elements of Mac OS X I love. They won’t motivate me to stick with the operating system, but I’d sure like to take them with me when I finish migrating to a new OS.

Primary among them is Time Machine, Apple’s point-and-click, behind-the-scenes backup functionality. I used to be a fan of ShirtPocket’s SuperDuper backup software which accomplishes a similar goal until Apple baked dead-easy incremental backups into the OS, itself.

Sure, Apple’s strategy isn’t perfect–especially when, as recently happened to me, you need to temporarily move a USB backup volume from plugging into your server, where it’s accessible over your network, to plugging directly into your local machine. Without some fancy footwork in a Terminal window, Time Machine just won’t recognize the same drive is still there. (Then again, maybe I should file this right back under Apple software that’s dumbed down for the masses?)

I like how Windows 7 provides a similar, GUI-based function in its Backup and Restore Center. And I especially appreciate that Windows 7 would allow me still to choose as my backup disk a volume on a Mac network. That’s important because I want to keep my media center server (read: my old, old Macbook) running OS X as a fallback OS environment until I’m fully settled in a new OS. And if I go with Linux as my new OS, I’ll need to keep OS X on my server machine in order to run iTunes and have any way of moving music and photos to my iPhone since Apple won’t port iTunes to Linux and the Linux community hasn’t (yet) finished devising a workaround.

Unfortunately, Linux doesn’t have a history of graphical, user-friendly backup solutions. That’s understandable, since the OS has long been the choice of tinkerers and other computer geeks (ahem, like me) who prefer a truly customizable computing environment. That means there are a wide variety of backup solutions requiring you to configure them in a Terminal window or offering up old-school, text-based lists of previously backed-up items when it comes time to recover a file you’ve lost.

Since Linux is the front-runner for my new-OS affections (and especially the proprietary driver-friendly Linux Mint), that’s also annoying. I know I can use the almost baked-in rsync or Time Machine-ish solutions like Flyback or Back in Time, but as Linux users regularly note in community forums across multiple distributions, the lack of a clear, easy, GUI-licious backup strategy may be a roadblock to some users considering adopting the OS. (I’m pulling for Linux, but honestly, one look at the ridiculous verbosity and Terminal-happy strategies presented on the Ubuntu 9.10 documentation page on backups is enough to make the average home user run screaming back to Redmond.)

It’s not a roadblock, though, and I’m sure I’ll make do with what’s out there if I choose to go through with an OS switch to Linux. Equally important to me is the ability to customize my desktop. Not that I have all that much choice about my menubar and dock in Mac OS X, but I have grown great affection for old die-hard Mac application launcher DragThing. With it, I can append folders full of app and document shortcuts anywhere on–or just off of–my desktop as I see fit. Windows has long had numerous app launchers like DragThing, but none that I know of comes close to the Mac software’s finesse and ease of customization.

On the Linux side, launcher-like “drawers” are baked into the OS taskbar. But unlike DragThing, unless I’m missing something, you can’t label the drawers so you can actually see what’s in them before you open them. That’s a hindrance. (If anyone knows of a DragThing-like app on the Linux side of things, I’d love to know about it.)

Another feature I’d like to take with me when I go is Mac OS X’s Stacks, newly updated in Apple’s recent Snow Leopard OS, which allows me to (in Windows and Linux parlance) “pin” frequently used folders of applications and documents to the dock and, more importantly, easily navigate through their hierarchies by simply clicking on them. I use that feature now to instantly drill down to find important client folders and work items.

Windows 7 won’t let you pin folders to its taskbar in a similar way. Try to pin a folder and the OS asks you if you want to indirectly pin it to the taskbar’s Windows Explorer icon. Requiring you to open another app’s Jump List in order to access a frequently needed folder seems like an unnecessary step to make users take in the name of efficiency or speed. You can pin frequent folders to the Mac-clone RocketDock launcher, but the drill-down functionality of OS X’s updated Stacks still isn’t there (yet, I’m thinking.) Meanwhile, Linux will let you go ahead and add a folder to a taskbar. But like Windows’ third-party RocketDock, there doesn’t seem to be a way to get a Stacks-like content preview to pop-up.

Overall, though, no matter how loud Macworld or PC Mag may shout that the desktops of their respective OSes of choice are “customizable,” out of the box compared to Linux, they almost aren’t. Without third-party help, Mac OS X won’t even let you rearrange the notification items in the menubar’s “taskbar” area. And unlike Windows, that menu/taskbar is staying put at the top of the screen. Your main–and only real–choice? Deciding whether you want your dock on the bottom or to the left or right of your screen. At least in Windows 7, you get the choice to put the taskbar on the top of the screen, too.

Taskbar customization options in Linux, however, practically require a seatbelt. At least in GNOME (with KDE, one of the two leading Linux desktop environments), compared to Mac and Windows the choices are astounding. Not only can you decide to use multiple taskbars, but you get to choose exactly which items to display on each of them and where to put those items, to boot. That includes application menus, battery icons, search widgets, sign-off buttons, Wifi indicators…essentially any item you’ve ever seen in a Mac menubar or a Windows taskbar and most likely any item you ever will is pinnable, removable, and movable at whim on a Linux taskbar–on however many taskbars you choose to surround your screen with.

The previous paragraph is absolutely no news to Linux users. However, much like my reaction upon learning this, I’m sure a few Windows–and yes, even Mac–users out there have their jaws on their knees right now. It’s just this idea of an OS that works with me instead of against me to create the kind of computing environment that works best for…well, for me (as it should be for any user) that keeps me coming back to the idea of migrating to Linux.

Of course, that’s this week. Although I’ve zeroed in on two potential new Oses at this point–Windows 7 and Linux Mint–those may change as my explorations deeper into each of them continue. So leaving Mac aside, I’m curious to know the wider OS community’s opinion on the relative merits of Windows vs. Linux. Let me know your thoughts in the comment thread below. Your input has been great guidance so far and I’m grateful for it.

This post is part of my “I’m Not a Mac” series, chronicling my controversial migration away from Apple Computer after 15 years as a Mac user. Find other entries in the “I’m Not a Mac” series archive.

The response I’ve gotten since starting my “I’m Not a Mac” blog series about migrating away from the Macintosh has been amazing, and a little scary too. Many Linux and Windows users have posted supportive comments and helpful advice to guide my exploration of other OSes beyond Mac OS X.

Mac users, however, seem to be taking my decision personally. Many of them have expressed shock, anger, and in the case of the AngryMacBastards podcast, a desire to “put a bullet” in my head for writing publicly about my disillusionment with Apple Computer. For a long time, Windows users have called the Mac community a cult. After 15 years, I think I’m finally getting the message. Click the play button and watch the video for more.

(Click the HQ button for a higher-quality video. RSS subscribers, click here to view the video on CHICAGO CARLESS.)