I'll Say It - I Don't Like Apple

So we recently lost an employee who was using a pretty spanking new MacBook Pro as her daily work machine. For some reason, completely unfounded, I've wanted to try switching to a Mac for awhile so I took this opportunity to give it a go. Maybe it's because I'm a bit of a techie, but whatever the case, I was back to a PC in less than a week.

Let me say something upfront - aesthetically speaking, nothing beats Apple. They are stunningly gorgeous. But, for me, they severely lack in functionality. Let me count the ways...

1. The MacBook Pro has a touch pad, but you can't use it to click on/select items. You have to use the giant click bar beneath the pad. Furthermore, there is only one(1) giant click button even though OS X supports right-click context menus. So to right click on something you need to move with the touchpad, hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard, then hit the giant click bar. It couldn't be more awkward. It was only recently that Apple even introduced a mouse with more than one button. How can a company that prides itself on usability have such ridiculously poor human interface devices?
2. No standard delete key. This is a bit petty because it's only on the MacBooks, but there is no delete key - just a backspace. So to delete a word you need to go to the end of it then backspace. After awhile I discovered you could mimic delete key functionality by holding the FN key whilst using the backspace, but that's stupid. Why change common functionality?
3. Installing applications sucks. Maybe this is because I'm a techie and I want to know exactly what's going on with my machine. To install apps on a Mac you simply drop the program into the Applications folder. To remove it, you drag it out. However, to remove it completely you need to read the application specific docs to find out all the system-level files that also need to be deleted. Why can't I just have an installer and uninstaller?
4. This one is work specific, but integration with Exchange is worthless - making it impossible to use a Mac as your day-to-day work machine in an Exchange environment (unless you're really to put up with all the retarded work-arounds available on the internet). I have to assume Apple has something up their sleeve here because the new iPhone is rumored to have full Exchange sync capabilities next month. That would seem pretty outrageous if you could fully sync your $300 Apple phone with Exchange, but not your $2000 laptop Apple computer.
5. Here's a nitpick - expanding a folder in the computer view resets the view back to the top. So I scroll down, expand the folder, then get reset and have to scroll down again. What is this? 1989?

I tried for two days, gave up, tried again for another two days, gave up. Finally, after having my hands on this machine for almost a week I put it down for good. As much as I wanted to love the Mac, I just couldn't. I've worked with every OS under the sun. The Mac OS X is nice, it's stable, but it's certainly no easier to use than Windows or even a good Linux distro.

Switching to the iPhone, I'm really tempted to get one next month - provided they fully support Exchange synchronization. However, I have to say this - am I the only person in the world who wants buttons!? I currently have a Windows Mobile device with a touchscreen and I loathe it. I absolutely hate having to use two hands to do everything (one to hold the device, one to select items on the screen). I want to be able to pickup my phone with one hand, slide it/flip it/whatever, dial with my thumb, and hit go - all while keeping my other hand free to drink a beer. I hate having to put stuff down just to make or answer a phone call. Because remember, at the end of the day, this is a phone. Sure it's also an iPod and can take pictures and videos and connect to the internet via WiFi, but how's the call quality? How's the reception on this baby? Deep down, I know I'll end up drooling over the iPhone and then getting a BlackBerry Bold instead - at least that's what I hope I do.

So he's the summary... Apple - pretty and nice, but for me, ineffective. Oh, and did I mention they cost about 2x as much as comparable hardware that lacks a picture of fruit on it?