Hi, and I’m a PC

My name is Nick Bostic, I’m one of the Sparkplugging  interns and I’m a PC.

The fact that I’m a PC has been further solidified lately and is part of the reason you haven’t seen me here yet.  Apple has been killing my PC.  Let me back up a moment…

I grew up on PC’s. I assembled my first Intel 8086-based computer when I was five and that was before it was normal for a five year old to even be on a computer, let alone building one. I was a beta tester for Windows 95. I helped my dad in his consulting business switching out advertising agencies from Mac’s to PC’s.

The whole Mac vs. PC thing annoys me and it reached a critical climax in the last few weeks. Consumers complained that OS X was “prettier” and more stable than Windows XP, so Microsoft came out with Vista. I LOVE Vista. But so many people I encounter say, “Vista is too different, I can’t get used to it, so I’m going to Mac.” As Jon Stewart would say, “Whaaaa??” You wanted different, they gave you different, you don’t like different so you’re going MORE different?

I’ve been using Vista for a while now, it works great with the only real issue being that ATI doesn’t know how to write a drive to save their lives. The Mac ads have been grating on me since I hate the idea of lugging my computer to the mall to get help instead of just looking it up online and helping myself. I also like that I had options when buying my computer instead of just one overpriced one. Then my Vista problems started…

When at home, but not out and about, I couldn’t put my computer into sleep mode. It would crash first, then stay on and drain my battery. I also couldn’t uninstall or install any software. But again, just when I was at home. The location-dependence made me realize it had something to do with my network, but at first even that stumped me. Then I came to the revelation that it must be some software accessing my network that was causing the problems, but it couldn’t be my browsers since they all work elsewhere.

That’s when it hit me: iTunes, the software I hate to love. It’s a great media player, yes. But the forced updates that always try to install additional software I don’t want infuriates me.  I have it setup to detect my network attached storage where my nearly terabyte of music resides, but that what is creating the issue. Now, it was working, but a recent update changed the story. A quick uninstall of iTunes and my computer is back to working great.

So, my biggest problem to date with Vista has actually been caused by Apple. The stress and frustration this has caused me for the last few weeks has further solidified that I am proudly a PC.

Nick Bostic has been an entrepreneur and internet marketer for the majority of his life. He currently works in corporate America helping independent business people be more successful and has been blogging to some degree for close to 8 years.

Follow Nick on Twitter: @nbostic