Doing things the "Mac" way: A Skitch mini-review

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I had a discussion earlier today with a friend of mine who is a die-hard Windows user and occasional Microsoft fanboy/Apple basher. You know, the kind who buys a Zune or Sansa just because it isn't made by Apple. We were talking about Skitch, a cool little app that I was just "invited" to beta test. What is Skitch? Essentially it's a whiz-bang annotation tool that allows you to add text, lines, shapes, and arrows to a screen or webcam capture (see the sample skitch above). I've heard a lot of good things about Skitch so far, especially from Merlin Mann, so I was overjoyed when I was allowed to download it. I even stayed up extra late just to play around with it a bit. Indeed, I was so excited that I saved the overview of Skitch (available in Skitch's help) as a Quicktime file and e-mailed it to my friend. I also sent him a few of my early skitches (see my tumblelog for these) to show him what I'd been doing with the program. I was sure he'd be as impressed with it as I was.

He wasn't. First response: "It's like Paint on Windows. I've had that for years." My response: dumbfounded. How could he even be comparing Skitch to Microsoft Paint? I asked him to elaborate. "I can take a picture with my webcam, save it, open it in Paint, and draw on it. Then I can save it again, and do whatever I want with it." Ok, I thought. I can see he is not getting this.

"But Skitch can do it all in one program." I thought I had won him over - yes, you could perform the same functions in Windows and get the same end result. But it was not as easy, and by no means as slick. I thought I had him for sure. Then comes the kicker:

"I don't see the point of it. I don't think I would have any use for it." And that was where it ended. How could I argue with that? If you don't need a program, why use it? I let the conversation stew all day and then while at work it hit me. I have discovered what I feel may be the fundamental difference between Windows users and Mac users. And it all comes down to one thing: my thoughtful rebuttal to his final comment. What do I think the point of Skitch is and what do I use it for?

It's only been a day so I'm not sure if I'll be using Skitch a year from now - I'll say that much right from the start. I think I've already hit on what the point of Skitch is in my introduction - annotation. But why do I need to annotate? And what? This part almost stumped me until I arrived at this: I don't need Skitch, Skitch needs me. I have never had the need to annotate a screenshot or webcam capture before nor have I ever attempted the procedure. Why? Because the old way of doing it - the Windows way - is a difficult, multi-step process that requires multiple saves and several programs. Why would anyone want to do this on Windows with tools like the "PrtScn" key and MS Paint? You could draw a picture of what your trying to say quicker. Skitch is useful because it's there - because it does something that heretofore had been difficult and time consuming. Yes, I might not have a need for Skitch, but because I have Skitch I will find ways that it will work for me. In essence, I am more productive because of Skitch because I am doing something that I would have never considered doing before.

I think my take on Skitch can be applied to the whole OS X experience. OS X is an operating system just like Windows and I will not deny that there are strengths that are inherent to both platforms. But OS X's true strength is its ability to reveal a level of productivity that Windows can only dream of. I do things with OS X that I had never done before on my Windows machine - not because I couldn't do them but because it was either difficult or not readily available. And I'm sure if you would have asked me back then if some of the things I do now were "useful" or had a "point" I would have said no.

Skitch is a fun, easy-to-use app. Do I need its functionality in my daily life? No, not in the least. Do I need to annotate screenshots and webcam captures? Not at all. Will I do these things now because I can? You bet.