Okay, I decided to buy a copy of Windows 7 after testing the evaluation copy for six months and was impressed with it; the speed is acceptable running on my iMac, which was never the case with previous versions and older Macs. Also, the interface is actually, ah-hem, pleasant to use, which I never thought I would get to say about Windows. Even though I mostly use it for one particular Chinese program unavailable on the Mac, I decided to buy a license of Windows 7 Professional at a discount through my niece.
Then I installed it on my iMac with ease; it was actually as easy to install as the Mac OS. The timing couldn't be better, too, as my evaluation copy was ending, and the nagging prompts won't let me forget it, not to mention it reboots on auto.
Yet, to my horror, when I opened the Chinese program on my new OS, the text was scrambled, completely incomprehensible. I tried all settings but nothing worked. After much troubleshooting, I found out Windows 7 Pro doesn't support other languages. The evaluation copy I've been using is Ultimate, I later learned, which is the only one that supports multiple languages. I am not happy. To those Windows users who say I should have found that out BEFORE buying the Pro version, I say, no, I shouldn't have needed to find out, because Mac OS X comes in one version and contains all languages under the sun, so it never crossed my mind that the Professional version was still not good enough. It's just not fair to consumers that each version of Windows 7 has something crippled to differentiate and justify the premium pricing.
I am now left with either hacking my Professional to support Chinese--the process looks scary as hell--or buying even the more expensive version, Ultimate. There is no way on earth I am going to buy one more copy of Windows 7, so I guess that leaves me but to go to hell.
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