wininet.dll – Mac vs PC – Mac finally wins! PC goes in 1 month timeout.

I’ve been working as a paid software engineer for the past 25 years, and have, like most other developers, been in the middle of the mac vs pc battle for the entire time.  I’ve always been a pc supporter and avoided the cult of mac.  As of last night, I’m officially putting my pc in a 1 month timeout, and using my macintosh exclusively.

For years, I couldn’t justify the extra expense of a mac.  I bought my first macbook 3 years ago when I started developing apps for the iPad / iPhone.  If there had been a way to develop ios apps on the PC, I would have done it, but I felt forced by Apple to purchase the laptop.  It look a few months until I felt comfortable with the macbook, but even after the experience, I still preferred by PC for everyday computing.

What was holding me back from converting to the Macintosh was:

1. Price – My 17″ Asus Laptop with 8 Gigs of Ram, i7 processor, and 2 Gigs of Hard Drive space
   ($1,000 in December 2012) costs half as much as an entry level 15″ macbook pro ($1,999 in December 2013).  Software and Hardware generally seem more expensive on the apple.
2. PSPad – My PHP / FTP ide is the majority of my computing day.  PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/) is freeware, and has a very simple ftp tool so I can edit files directly on remote websites.  It is small, lightweight, clean and easy.  The equivalent on the mac would be TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/).  I find PSPad easier since the ftp explorer is docked with the text editor, and on textwrangler, it is a seperate window.
3. Beyond Compare – (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler) – When I’m looking at 2 sets of code, this software will help me quickly find differences and merge 2 sets of code.  I haven’t found anything that works as well on the Macintosh side.

So what caused the change?  wininet.dll

About a month ago, pspad started having issues uploading my work to the server.  At the same time, I was having problems with a hostgator account.  I assumed (you know what happens then) that the issue was on the server side.  I tried different ftp programs and php editors, and had the same problem and assumed the issue was on the server.  Last night I ran across an article on Microsoft.com.  Basically, after my automatic update from Windows 8.0 to Windows 8.1, this small little driver, will cause ALL FTP programs on your computer to go “glitchy”.  Basically, the problem I’ve been suffering through has been on my pc.  The “solution” would be to downgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 8.0.  I’m putting my PC in a timeout, and working on my Macbook for a complete month.

I’m a Taurus and born the year of the Dog, which basically makes me the most stubborn and slow to change person you will meet.  No doubt, after the month is over, I will probably continue working on the Macbook.   As an analogy, you could say I’m trading in my Chevy for a Ford because my lug nut doesn’t work on my Chevy.  Yes, it’s a very small thing, and is probably only a few lines of code to fix compared to the millions of lines developed for the entire operating system, but the fact is: I cannot get my job done with Windows 8.1 until Microsoft releases a fix.

On a side note, I did put SSD drives in my Macbook and it did seem to make a BIG improvement in the performance.  I have very little storage space on the machine, but than goodness there’s the cloud to store the overage.

I’m back to work on my Macbook… exclusively after 20 years.

Aaron Jay