But I can’t help it. I’m a rebel. So I went out and bought another Macbook.

When I say “signs,” I mean it. Macbook number one, after a bit more than two years, is on its last legs. The “white stallion” that swept me off my feet in ‘07 developed a bad case of overheating, and some kind of fan allergy – very noisy and slow. The fan slowed down, the processor temperature shot up, and when it hit 85 degrees or so – shutdown!

Of course, the thing to do would be to get it serviced (after all, I had the extended warranty). But iDigital, the local Apple dealer really makes you jump through some hoops in order to get the service you paid for. You can’t just bring your computer to the Genius Bar like you can in the States (there are no Genius Bars in Israel). If you want to have your computer serviced, you have to call up Apple in the U.S. (at your own expense, of course), and request a “case number,” which you then bring to the local Apple dealer, who then checks out the case number to make sure you opened up the file. Only when that case number is authorized do they consider working on your machine. You can expect to wait about two weeks (“five business days”) before you get your computer back. And don’t dare bring it in on a Sunday or Thursday – you lose out on an extra couple of days because of the weekend. Clearly, not a user-friendly operation. Of course, the hassle can all be avoided if you buy your computer here, and pay the “Israeli price” – but that’s for rich Israelis, who can afford to pay 50% more than what the thing costs in the States. And other than iDigital, there are few (I know of just one) other organizations that can service your Mac.

I don’t mean to put down the iDigital people, who now operate the Apple concession in Israel, because they’re at least more polite than the old Yeda crowd, which used to run the authorized dealership here. And iDigital will, if you ask them, very politely point out the reasons why they “have to” run their shop the way they do, whether it’s repair policies or prices. My point is that you really have to like Macs to want to buy one for use in Israel. I guess I’m one to talk, though, because I now have in my home five Macs – 2 Macbooks, 1 iMac, and 2 Mac Minis (for those inclined to do so, please reread that sentence before you drop me a nasty e-mail about my anti-Mac feelings). But in terms of convenience, etc., it’s just much easier to go with a PC.

And if you’re in the market for a PC laptop, now’s a great time to go shopping. Netbooks, those mini-laptops that started out as half-pint notebooks designed for web surfing have undergone some “feature creep,” and many of them have robust hard drives and enough memory to qualify as a “real” laptop. And the prices can’t be beat – around $500 or so in the U.S. (order it here, and with the shipping and VAT, the price is still great).

And yet, and yet. Many of the bargain laptops/netbooks still come with Windows XP, which fits like an old glove. Windows 7, a much nicer OS, is still in beta, and the computers you can get for less than $1,000 aren’t powerful enough to run it anyway. With the better machines, you get a version of Vista, which, if you’re used to the simplicity of OS X or even the unclutteredness of XP, can be a shocker. And indeed, all the laptops I could have considered to replace Macbook I would have required my adapting to Vista. Which I could do, if I had to, just like I could install a Linux distro (which, if you know how to work with it, would be a refreshing choice instead of Vista).

Or, I could spend a little more and get another Macbook. As so many have pointed out so many times, the Mac in general comes with stuff you would have to add if you were buying a PC – like the iLife software or its equivalent, the built-in video camera, etc. Price was never the issue, though – as mentioned, it was reliability, and the ability to get the machine serviced, if necessary.

The latter is something no one, other than the people in charge of the local Apple operation, can do anything about. If enough of us complain, I suppose they might take these issues more seriously. But what about reliability? Was I ready to take a chance on another weak-fanned hot-running first-generation experiment?

Absolutely not – but the Macbooks are now in at least their third generation, and from what I gather, Apple has learned something about heat control and fans (and processors) that help these computers. And what a generation it is! I got the $1200 Aluminum 2.0 gHz Macbook, immediately upgraded to 4 GB of RAM (it can supposedly take up to 8 GB), so I could run XP on VMWare (so you really get two machines for the price of one). The aluminum shell (crafted out of a single piece of the material) is just beautiful, and although the processor on this machine is nominally slower than the processor on the original Macbook, a faster bus and faster and more efficient memory actually makes the machine faster. The graphics are great (LED screen, nVidia GeForce 9400 graphics chip), and despite the misgivings some have, I personally love the glossy display (the matte one on the Macbook now seems much duller). It just feels like a solid machine, It was enough to sell me – hopefully, I’ll be able to void the repair bench altogether. So, despite the signs, I went with a Macbook – again. And I’m very glad I did.

And they can’t even come up with a decent copy of the stuff they’re ripping off, the critics say; Windows throughout its life span has often been notoriously unstable, and thanks to the Windows Registry and the million and one ways it can be manipulated, Microsoft basically created the computer virus business. Dissatisfaction with Vista is so high that many new computer buyers opt for the seven year old Windows XP instead of the “latest technology” Vista version of Windows (beginning today, the only version of Windows you can buy on a new laptop is Vista, with MS now requiring customers to ‘upgrade’). And Microsoft has traditionally done everything it can to discourage open source systems and software use and development. Recently, the company has become a bit more open to working with open source developers (like it had a choice in this open-source day and age?), but it’s still doing its best to hold on to its old attitudes.

What emerges is a picture of a company – and, by extension, a man, as Gates is so closely identified with Microsoft – that at best bumbles through, using less than wholesome tactics to retain its market position. You can’t blame a company for wanting to make money, of course, but Gates has more than enough (about $65 billion, according to http://philip.greenspun.com/WealthClock). You’d think he would give a little “back to the people” – not only in cash donations to charitable causes, but to the computing public, where he made so much of his money. I could go on and on, but you get the picture; here is a man who is hated by many. Even the people who admire him don’t necessarily like him as a person, it seems.

Now, I don’t want to give the wrong impression here: I am not a friend of Bill (not Gates, nor even Clinton); I don’t know him, personally or otherwise. But it seems to me that a positive word is due to this man, flaws and all, who really has had a major impact on computing today. Below are some of the accusations hurled at Mr. Gates, and why in my very humble opinion, they don’t apply.

Bill Gates is a robber baron: In the manner of railroad and banking barons of yore, Gates quashed the competition to get ahead, and rigged the system to keep his company on top. That, at least, is the received history. But if you want to blame anyone for Windows’ dominance, blame IBM, which allowed MS to sell versions of DOS to other PC manufacturers. In fact, according to this article, Gates would have been perfectly happy to make a deal with IBM on his Basic computer language; had suggested that IBM investigate an OS called CP/M (refuting another accusation leveled against Gates, that he somehow thwarted IBM’s adopting the competition to his as yet unwritten operating system).

It was only when that deal fell through that IBM sought Gates’ help on building an operating system. It’s hard to imagine any business willingly giving up its customer base – you were expecting MS not to try and convert customers from MS-DOS to Windows 3.1, then to Windows 95, 2000, XP, and so on? As Gates said in a 1995 Time Magazine interview, “If you’re accusing me of competition, then yes. You have to decide. Are we optimized to help competitors, or are we optimized to help customers?”

Windows is a ripoff of [insert OS name here]: When people say that Windows “ripped off” its OS from Apple or other companies (most notably Xerox’s PARC system, which Apple itself is accused of ripping off), they mean that Microsoft stole the idea of a GUI (graphical user interface), using icons, drop down menus, and other visual interfaces to interact with a computer OS. On the surface, it would seem to be a legit charge; DOS was as text-based an OS as you could get, and Apple’s Lisa and Mac systems preceded the release of Windows in any form, as demonstrated by the timeline at http://toastytech.com/guis/guitimeline.html.

However, the timeline indicates that there were a number of other GUI systems on the market. And while today MS is accused of having stolen its GUI ideas from Apple, at the dawn of graphics interfaced OS systems it wasn’t Microsoft that Apple had a problem with – it was Digital Reseach’s GEM system that ripped off the Mac’s “look and feel.” It was only several years later, with the introduction of Windows 2.0, that Apple targeted Microsoft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation).

The point is that clearly GUI work was not being done in a vacuum in the mid-1980s. Today, of course, the arena of who took what from whom has expanded significantly, as the New York Times link above demonstrates. Let’s say that historically, as well as today, the various operating systems (today that would be Mac OS X, Windows XP/Vista, and Linux GUIs) are “derivative,” meaning that one looks at the other and attempts to duplicate a good idea – much like car manufacturers do when they add new features to new models. Anyone who remembers word processors like Wordstar, though (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar) knows that there’s no comparing its DOSsy interface to the menus used in GUI-type word processors. Meaning that sooner or later, all word processors were going to go GUI – as were all operating systems.

Windows is buggy, prone to virus infection, etc.: I have never worked for MS, and have never been within 500 miles of its headquarters in Washington State (see how provincial I really am?). So I’m really not in a position to comment on the company’s culture. For example, some have tried to link the preponderance of viruses for Windows to some factors in the company’s methods of work and research (being reactive instead of innovative and fighting last month’s battles instead of looking forward) – but others say that it’s to be expected, since hackers seeking to inflict damage will aim for the OS used by 90% of the market – Windows – in order to wreak the most havoc.

One thing that is clear about Microsoft, or any other large corporation: It’s not a startup, where you can run through experimental ideas on the dime of a VC angel. MS has a responsibility to its stockholders and clients, and accusations like “they don’t innovate, just duplicate” have to be seen in this context. Knowing their clients, it would probably be irresponsible for MS to put IT managers in the position of trying some new, little tested innovation just because engineers in the company believe in it. In other words, you would expect nothing less than a conservative approach to the computing field from a company the size of MS.

Which brings us back to Mr. Gates. Say what you want about him, but it takes a lot of talent – and innovation – to build a Microsoft. Now that he’s free of the restrictions of the CEO’s desk, he might really surprise us, and come up with a very non-corporate innovation. He’s certainly got the money to invest in his ideas. Like good ol’ Colonel Sanders, retirement could be the next big career move for Bill Gates!

Well, the legend has come to pass. The war that began down here between Google and Microsoft – in the form of their earth 3D virtualization programs – has now spread to the skies. Last August, Google introduced Google Sky, an “extra” for Google Earth which lets you look up virtually from the ground – as opposed to down below from the sky, as in GE (Sky has since moved online for those without Google Earth installed, at http://www.google.com/sky/).

Microsoft also has an earth virtualization scheme, called Virtual Earth. As opposed to Google Earth’s desktop application, the MS version is strictly an on-line affair (some role reversal there, considering that Google is the online king, while the desktop is MS’s domain), accessible at http://maps.live.com/ (you may need to download a 3D display component from http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/ in order to use the site properly). Both earth programs have been around for a few years; in early reviews of both, many users gave the advantage to the MS program because it had more ready made buildings and landmarks, and rendered better 3D images up close, but by this time, most people consider both programs to have more or less the same capabilities.

Last week, Microsoft launched its own space-based virtual mapping program, called Worldwide Telescope. The early reviews give it high marks (even GE-focused Ogle Earth called it “stunning” at http://tinyurl.com/6nhqvy). In terms of experience, WWT really gives you a bang for the buck (don’t worry, it’s free!), allowing you to explore the ends of the universe, just like Google Sky – except the attention to detail seems greater, and the pictures seem sharper. WWT’s images are taken from the Hubble Telescope and ten major earthly satellites, while GS relies mostly on the Hubble. With WWT, you can move back in town to the beginning of the common era or move forward another 2000 years, and view the sky as it was or will be seen from any point on earth, complete with labels on what you’re looking at (stars, constellations, etc.).

You can zoom into an area of the sky as far as the telescope image supports (ie viewing from the same spot in space that the photo was taken from). You can see the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and four of Jupiter’s moons (not Titan, thought) in full rendered 3D. You can view panoramas of the sky or the planets taken by spacecraft that have flown there, such as panoramic views of Mars taken by the Rover, as well as collections of images taken from some of the most famous observatories and planetariums in the world. And, using the ASCOM (AStronomy Common Object Model) driver, you can attach supported hardware – like telescopes – to your computer and record your own images, which you can add to WWT and integrate into your virtual universe. You can build your own “guided tours” of the universe (similar to building a Powerpoint presentation). WWT even has an earth component, offering many of the views available in MS Virtual Earth (although it uses a different engine).

WWT sounds wonderful, and it is. But (there’s always one of those!): Wimpy computers need not apply. This is an application designed with the Vista Age in mind. You need memory (gobs) and a video card capable of accelerated 3D graphics (to display DirectX 9.0 compatible graphics, a must for WWT). However, if you have a relatively new computer, you should already have all the hardware you need for it; I got WWT to work on my Macbook with virtualized Windows XP (SP3) installed, using a virtual 3D graphics card. It wasn’t the fastest horse on the track, but it did the job.

Indeed, “professional production” is written all over WWT. For a company often called unimaginative by its critics, WWT really is something new and different. According to Microsoft, they are not planning to work out ways to profit from WWT (until daily space shuttles around the Solar System become a reality, I guess) – it’s more of a prestige project, unlike the case with Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth.

As such, you download, install and use WWT on Microsoft’s terms – and if your computer doesn’t meet the standards they’ve set for use, then it’s not for you (in other words, you really, really need a Vista machine to enjoy this to the fullest). And of course, Mac and Linux users are not invited to the party (don’t expect one, either). And, unlike in Google Earth and Sky, where any old Joe can feel right at home, the community in WWT is associated with prestigious publications or groups, such as s the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and or Sky & Telescope magazine. It’s truly humbling to be able to tap into the knowledge provided by these groups, and even more humbling to see the miracles of outer space up close. If you’re really into the stars and take astronomy seriously, though – if you’ve ever wanted to “see the distribution and illumination of massive primordial hydrogen cloud structures lit up by the high-energy radiation coming from nearby stars in the Milky Way” – you’re going to love WWT.

But wait – before you download and install (or if you’re not a Windows user), keep in mind that there are other virtual universes out there you can download and use. The one I like best is Stellarium, a free open-source program that lets you examine the universe from anywhere in the world, and works in bunch of languages as well (no Hebrew, though). You can also install user scripts of events that occurred in the past, record presentations, set the earth time for previous or future cosmological events, and check out over 210 million stars (!). Between Google Earth/Sky, WorldWide Telescope, and Stellarium, you’ll be busy flying around the universe whiling the light years away – until you come back down to earth and explore the briny deep, with the upcoming Google Ocean!

Note that I said “some” of the class-action suits. Nobody (except lawyers, of course) ever got rich off a class-action lawsuit – the class tends to be too big. But if you join a bunch of such lawsuits, you can get more than one piece of the pie. It’s like getting on the gravy train!

Class-action suits (in Israel, the concept is known as a teviah yitzugit) are generally complaints that a large group of people have in common – usually over a substandard product or service (http://tinyurl.com/2olctv). The idea behind such suits is, among other things, to make the legal process smoother and more efficient, as judges or juries only have to consider and decide on a single complaint.

Attorneys like them too, because, the thinking goes, the bigger the suit, the more of an impression it makes. In addition, the damages done to each individual plaintiff may not be enough of an incentive for a court case, meaning that defendants can continue to get away with whatever it is they are doing wrong. With a class-action case, complainants who feel ripped off are more likely to demand justice.

But not everyone is a fan of class-action suits; the settlements are usually very small and disproportionate (the settlement is spread out equally among those with greater and lesser claims of damage). On the other hand, a class-action suit is often the only way a lowly consumer is going to have a chance to get justice from a business giant like Microsoft.

But if you picked up a “Vista-ready” laptop or PC on a recent trip to the US, you may have a chance to recoup some of your money (and/or other restitution; I wouldn’t expect a check). The firm of Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP is at your service, presenting a class-action suit against Microsoft for misrepresenting the capabilities of computers to run its new Vista operating system.

“Consumers paid for Vista capability (the computers were priced higher because of their Vista capability), but allegedly did not receive ‘real’ Vista capability,” reads a US District Court decision from several weeks ago, certifying the case as a class-action suit.

The computers, many of them low-end, were labeled as being “Vista-ready,” but customers found that they were incapable of taking advantage of many of the features of Vista, because their video cards were not able to use the Aero display, Media Center PC interface or Flip 3D window-switching. In addition, many of the peripherals that work with Windows XP won’t work with Vista, because drivers are not available or don’t work.

The lawsuit was first brought last year by a Washington State woman, but the law firm successfully argued that many consumers have similar complaints – opening the way for the suit to be certified as a class-action suit.

Apparently, the issue is one of either a misunderstanding between customers and Microsoft, or over-enthusiastic sales on the part of salespeople. Any new computer sold with Vista is capable of running Vista – in its basic version, that is. It would seem that many people got or were given the impression that even cheap computers were capable of running Vista Premium, with all its bells and whistles.

Should Microsoft have known better or been more careful in the way it presented Vista? That’s for the court to decide, but if you want to get in on the action, check out http://tinyurl.com/28rjuy to see if you qualify. It appears that Microsoft is going to have a hard time contending with this action; apparently Vista’s “dog” status was well known to Microsoft insiders (http://tinyurl.com/2tcnc9), who in a series of e-mails (released for the trial) apparently knew all about the problems with Vista – and went to market anyway, with what the plaintiffs contend was deceptive marketing.

If you were one of the early adopters who bought a Samsung Blu-ray DVD player, you’re in luck – you, too, can sue! Now that Toshiba’s HD-DVD has more or less thrown in the towel, with Sony’s Blu-ray standard the winner in the next-generation DVD format war, Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray DVD owners (other models have issues as well) have an extra reason to be hopping mad; their “victory” has been marred by the fact that their machines can’t play several popular movies (http://tinyurl.com/2ty4mt).

Samsung may just be the tip of the iceberg, industry insiders say, with the company likely to claim that it cannot be at fault, since standards for Blu-Ray were still in development when the machines in question were sold (June 2006). Purchasers of Blu-ray DVDs from other makers have also had their share of complaints, but this is the first certified class-action lawsuit against a Blu-ray DVD maker (other manufacturers in the industry have been sued over patent or other issues).

Because of the standards argument, and being that Samsung has issued several firmware updates to ensure full compatibility for players, the company has a better chance than Microsoft of surviving the consumer onslaught.

Then there’s the scam Network Solutions has apparently been running, according to yet another lawsuit. The company would automatically buy domain names that potential buyers searched for, and hold onto them for at least several days (http://tinyurl.com/ytu67u). Anyone who wanted to buy the names had to buy them from the company – for $35, instead of the eight bucks it would have cost you at a service like Godaddy.com.

Network Solutions has a story, of course, but a lawsuit is in the works, and may be granted class-action status as well.

If you’ve ever been a customer of Verizon Wireless in the US and had to pay an early termination fee to get out of your contract, you could get a piece of a whopping $1 billion that the company is being sued for in a class-action suit (http://tinyurl.com/2slx6u).

And if you own a Treo 600 or 650 PDA and have had to repair it two or more times, check out http://www.palzasettlement.com/ and file for a cash rebate ($50 or $75) in a recently settled case. It may not solve all your financial woes, but like I said, if you can get in on a bunch of these suits, you’ll be riding down Easy Street in no time!