Wil’s request for a WMV-to-Qicktime converter reminded me of something that I’ve had rattling around in my head for a bit.
I’m fairly obvious about having a strong anti-Microsoft bias. However, I do have to admit (and really don’t mind doing so) that the Macintosh team at Microsoft does some truly kick-ass work. Nearly everything that MS has produced for the Mac in the past few years has been fairly impressive. Even with as much as I bash Internet Explorer in all its variations, when IE 5 for Mac OS X was released, it was the best browser on the market. The fact that it’s since been superceded by other browsers and subsequently abandoned by Microsoft isn’t the fault of the Mac team there, I’m sure.
What popped this into my head a couple weeks ago was, of all things, the driver software for the Microsoft Office keyboard, Intellitype Pro. Where the PC version of the software is its own standalone application, the Mac version of the software integrates right into the OS X control panel. More of a standout feature, though, is the fact that on the Mac, you can assign special functions to all the extra special keys on an application-by-application basis — something which I hardly thought about until I tried to do the same thing on my PC and discovered that it wasn’t possible. Score one more for the Mac team.
All that said, though, there is one glaring exception to the rule — and that’s the Mac version of Windows Media Player. Horrid little application, that one. I’m more surprised when I find a .wmv file that it can open, and even then, performace (at least on my 350Mhz G3) is abysmal. At least that’s the only stumbling block I’ve seen from them. I can’t say that I’m too distraught over having limited-to-nonexistant Windows Media functionality on my Mac, anyway.
So, that’s it, really. Kudos to the Microsoft at Mac team. Now, why don’t you all go tell the rest of the company how to write decent software? ;)
(Oh, and incidentally, I was also looking for a WMV-to-Quicktime converter a couple weeks ago, and found diddley.)
We’re supposed to see Windows Media Player 9 on the Mac at some point in the future, but I’m afraid the Mac Windows Media Player will never measure up as a true Mac application. It’s not ‘owned’ by the MacBU, and (IMO) isn’t likely to ever be so, and the incidence of real Mac programmers – and even more, Mac design ‘culture’ outside the MacBU is mighty slim.
Also, the WMP people guard their turf in the company like junkyard dogs. They know they’re one of the hot groups in the eyes of upper management, and they plan to stay that way. Therefore, the MacBU doesn’t generally get involved in MacWMP design or testing until just before a new version ships.
As a Mac person, I was actually extremely surprised when I came to the MacBU as a contractor and found that it contained really hard-core Mac folks. (The ones who aren’t generally move on to one of the Windows groups in a few years.) That’s the reason I stayed on as a full-time employee. That, plus the fact that my wife and I simply can’t breath the air in Silicon valley. Maybe we’ll move back after electric cars really catch on, but until then, I’ll just enjoy this little bubble of Cupertino here in Redmond.
Michael, don’t worry about Mac WMP. For your computer (and mine, as I discovered!) it’s much less of a strain to use Mplayer OS X. (Link: http://mplayerosx.sourceforge.net/.) Its GUI isn’t exactly fantastic – it could, in fact, use some work – but it’s more of a Mac program than MacWMP and blows it away in the performance category.