IE9 could be the start of a new dawn

June 15, 2012

image via browseryoulovedtohate.com

Not so long ago my flatmate who is a little younger than I brought round one of his friends who is a little younger than he – I thought he was 12, turns out he was 21. Anyway he sat on my couch and started preaching about why Windows and PCs were rubbish and Apple was an eternal god. Some of what he said was undeniably true, but a whole load of it was utter-brainwashed-crazy-commercialistic-fan-twaddle!

After listening to it for a while I told him a story of a time long ago when apple was a grey square box that neither looked pretty nor did very much. I then told him of another grey box that existed at the same time, it didn’t look very pretty either, but it was much cheaper than Apple, could be customised anyway you liked, was compatible with almost everything – including freeware software, had thousands of games and was loved almost universally by the world. He looked at me wide eyed and asked what was this mythical machine. I looked him in the eye and said …. a PC running Windows!

He looked like he might have choked on his own tongue and died right there and then.

The thing is for the last 10 to 15 years Microsoft have been about as cool as my granny’s knitted sweaters (although I don’t know are they cool now?). IE6 has been hanging around almost as long as Margret Thatcher and Windows itself has hardly been breaking any new ground.

But unlike Apple, Microsoft didn’t tell you what to wear, where to go, how to talk or what to buy. Apple ‘says’ that it is about facilitating you, to do what you want to do with your life, but in my opinion its turned the world into a bunch of beard growing, new balance trainer wearing, vegan, organic coffee drinking people that all think they are either in a band or about to release a new documentary about social enterprise in their local community.

I loved Microsoft when we first met, I admit our relationship has been on the rocks for a long time, divorce has been on the cards many times, but listening to this young man made me realise why the world needs competition, why the myth of Apple needs a competitor and why we need to teach history better in our schools.

I like IE9 its good. Here’s hoping Windows 8 is good and all these little Apple children will disappear in a puff of smoke.

This video is quite funny too.