Mac OS X Leopard vs Microsoft Windows Vista

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I have over a terabyte of music - a collection over 20 years in the making. Show me a program that catalogs music better than iTunes.

user friendly, home network happy, 64-bit operating system for consumers than Windows Vista (even with SP1) could ever hope to be. This isn’t a classic “Apple vs Microsoft” argument so much as it’s a “Windows vs Users” one. FULL article atChris Pirillo

I’ve been using PCs and Windows for over 15 years, and I switched to OS X this summer. I’ve come to the same point you mentionned: I want a computer that works and don’t want to bother anymore with the technical stuff.
Obviously, it depends on your needs, but I think that unless you play games, you can do anything on OS X you could do on Windows, in an easier way.
My PC is now an expensive video game platform, and I basically don’t use it anymore.
On the other hand, I work full-time on my mac and I’m a lot more productive.

It’s nice to see you playing in the greener side of the field and making some honest comments about OS X. Keep it up. I think you’ll find that the more time you spend with your Mac, the less time you’ll want to spend with Windows–any version.

All in all a good article I have used OSX for about 18 months now and still do Windows IT work. I don’t agree completely with your iPhoto Itunes comment but I understand them. My brother in-law felt the same about itunes for Windows till he started to think a little more like both programs do. He had a different mindset of how a itunes should arrange and work. I never had an issue or was even aware of this till i saw him struggle alot and finally figured it was how he approached it and I helped him see how it worked. Of course you dont have to use them and there are alternatives on the Mac.
I tried Vista Ultimate for a while under bootcamp and was sorely disappointed at it’s sluggish response, the fact that so many things seem to be tucked away and renamed (try and find the folder for the start menu they moved it way down the folder list and renamed it!) Also the apps like the DVD making and photo handling programs in Vista look nice but are very immature comparison to OSX’s .

@patrick
Windows Media Player works just fine for me

Hi didn’t read a lot of it. But the main reason why i love OS X is for all of the uses it has. Like I’m able to have Windows and Mac right at my finger Tips. The best part of it is with my being a Computer Tech i can run all over the World with my Mac and be compatible. And still be in control of my PC for actually a low price. The heat does get turned up on the war of Mac vs PC. It’s really wild to get into i started over 6 months ago in it. Still in it today. I’m pulling for Apple because of all the pressing froward they have been doing. Not saying Microsoft hasn’t. But they went for more of Eye Candy this go round rather than putting the User in control as they said they did. Unlike Mac they put the user in control and let you have the OS of your choice. So if your looking for that extra pull go with OS X or if your needing a simple gaming PC run Windows on the Mac. Seems easy but you can do both. With Boot Camp. It will be free. Or is Free. I got it free from Apple to test when it first came out. And i got Windows XP Pro. And Vista Ultimate. It was a great thing. All the Drivers where ready. But Not as for Vista as it was for XP i had more of a issue with Vista but hey for it to run on EFI and it do that so clean and have a good setup i loved it.

Nice post Chris. I switched (back) after seven years of total Windows and Tablet PC immersion and I haven’t regretted my decision at all. I’m actually installing Vista in a VMWare Fusion virtual machine as I write this (on my iPhone. Yes - the RDF is powerful). Best of both worlds in a single portable computer. I do miss the Tablet features though. Fortunately I have one handy when I need to work in ink or want the slate form factor.

Great article! I used to be big on Windows, I also have written a fair amount of specialized software in Windows. I raised an eyebrow when OS X came out, and got my first OS X system about six years ago. Since then I never looked back. My office productivity via OS X sharply increased. I still keep up with Windows and was part of the Vista beta program. As a computer consultant I have too keep up with what’s out there. From my experience with Vista, I am very disappointed. I think that we are seeing the beginning of the end of Microsoft as we know them. History is repeating itself as it did with IBM in the eighties.

Well I personaly belive that windows vista comes in to play when we are speeking about Os X (with from what i’ve seen I love, I was thinking of building a costome Pc that was going to be bad *** you know 4giges of ramm , quad core 2.18 Gh and 2 640mb decated video cards but….) It not only looks good but is good especaly the new iMovie (with i never have seen iMovie ‘06 so i don’t have much to go by except windows movie maker witch i think is the equevlant of HELL for people who want to make nice short movies.).Witch alot of you may disagree with my choice of aplactions but I wood move to mac for Just the simpole applactions let alone the coolnes of apple and the better Os and interfcae. I just think that apple is superiour to windows mechins also because I can run any Os i wish to from what i have herd as long as you have the space. So some people complain about how mac has combalty issues I say windows has compabilty issues.;)

Great post, Chris, but dude, do a spellcheck! I had to interpolate a lot of words there.

Your foray into the Mac environment has been just as enlightening as my own into GNU/Linux. When you take the time to work with an alternative to Windows — any alternative — you’re pleasantly surprised over and over, and in turn, how disappointing Vista continues to be. As a result, I see the traditional Microsoft defenders at best as uninformed by lack of direct experience with “the other.”

Hey Chris - Great post
Im new to reading your blog consistently and I really like this post. At the moment Windows Vs OSX can be a touchy subject and can quickly start a flame-war.
I personally am a mac user, I switched relatively recently. I decided I needed to try the “mac thing” and I havn’t looked back. I wouldn’t be so bold as to say it is a “better” operating system but for one thing I am a hell of a lot more productive and its a hell of a lot less irritating.
I believe the OS should be as transparent as possible and just help get your job done - no yellow bubbles showing off at what its doing, no updates continuously telling you to restart. While OS X isn’t completely transparent I do feel less interrupted using it on Windows.
This has resulted in me really trying to avoid using a Windows machine, the more I use my mac, the less I want to touch windows - its as simple as that.

It’s very refreshing to read a review about soemthing Apple that isn’t written by some Jobs obsessed iFanboy. Personally I like Vista but then I have always used Windows and am happy to admit that there are lots of flaws, though as is always the case with MS detractors not nearly as many as people claim.

Bizarrely, despite being somewhat of a gadget freak, the thing that puts me off giving a Mac a go next time i replace my computer is the the fanboys - reviews like this are so incredibly difficult to find - most of them are written by iFanBoiyz telling you how Steve Jobs is the second coming and Macs are the solution to all the world’s ills.

My only real contact with mac stuff has been iTunes, which is greta for podcasts but not much else unless you are happy doing everything the way you’re told to do it by Apple and Safari which crashed after 15 seconds. In an effort to be more objective than your average mac user I do intend to borrow my friends MacBook to see if I get on wth it but just like you have niggles with Windows, I have them with MAC OS - the way it maximises windows and things like that. Anyway, once again thanks for an objective review with some actual content insteead of the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth I have come to expect of Mac reviewers.

Show you an application that catalogues music better than iTunes

iTunes, hah, try Jriver Media Center, beats it hands down.

http://www.jrmediacenter.com

I can’t be evangelical enough about it, more powerful, more flexible, more formats, more features.

R

I have not yet had the pleasure of playing with Leopard (as I can’t yet afford a Mac of my very own), but I’ve been playing with Vista on my new Dell.

First impressions are that I like the layout ant general ‘feel’ of the system more than XP. It seems to think more like I do.

However, a week or so on, and Vista’s continuous prompting becomes wearisome. Also, if I hadn’t Googled a few problems, I would never know that in order to get new software to work at all, you need to right-click the application file (not the shortcut, apparently) and choose ‘Run as Administrator’. As a beta tester, and newest-software-junkie, this is annoying.

Networking? It’s meant to be easier and quicker. What Vista appears to have done is to give many more options, which don’t seem to be universally-accepted. I am continuously stumped when my tray-icon tells me I’m online, only for Firefoxo to complain about being offline. Settings are not intuitive, though the interface is better for applications and launching. I like Aero, but it’s no MacOS. Finally, why don’t all the things which used to work in XP just notwork in Vista? USB modem drivers… don’t get me started… Vista is into its ‘notworking’

Regards, (www.zachbeauvais.com)

Apple has a lot going for it, a great looking UI, solidity and security of BSD.

There are somethings that I hate, for example why insist on putting the menu bar at the top of the screen even if the application is not full screen?

Application support is fine for “standard” applications, but you move a small way into the enterprise and it starts to get messy. It’s chicken and the egg, enterprises wont move (to Mac, Linux or Open Solaris) without the “big” applications being available and supported, Oracle HR for instance, Siebel, Lotus Notes - ok, the last one has just been released for Linux.

All those macros and vbs spreadsheets that have been built will have to be re-built in OpenOffice in Python, now if OpenOffice built a Python scripting engine for Office, then new scripts could be written “cross-platform” and could be moved easily to oo.org later

asp.net is another thing which is too well embedded, as is active directory.

and finally what is it with Mac only having a single mouse button, come on you can’t still be thinking that using a keyboard button with a click instead of a right click is more efficient.

I could go on..

R

Nice post. Good to see you finding fauklts with OSX as well. Have to say though i totally agree, except itunes which i find really good, iphoto could be better at managing pictures but then i probably just need to spend more time with it!
I have used Macs now for 9 months, have a mini and a mac book pro. I had always been a pc user before then, i suppose working in IT and having to deal with Microsoft on a daily basis i felt i should at least use the products i support at home! Since getting my macs, i am now a PC less household! And never looked back. So nice to have something that does what you want out of the box. The only extras i have had to purchase were a miglia tv tuner and eye tv, as well as iwork! I am looking forward to leopard being released, and holding back on buying an iMac until that time.

Chris, great article.

I have been a Windows support “jock” for about 14 years and just over a year ago bought my first mac (after mulling it over for a long time).
And in true fashion, I have also not looked back.

I still feel “faster” on a Windows based PC and still have my home accounts in Excel rather than Numbers at the moment, but my Macbook is the perfect compliment to my PC.

And it really is true - “it just works”.

Roll on Leopard! Sounds excellent.

I have noticed a lot of the techies at my local computer shop have given up on Windows Vista and are moving to either Mac OS X or even Linux.

There was a lot of chatter the other day about the way Vista slows down networking when playing media files to prevent ’stuttering’ even though other systems can do this with out any problems at all !!

Personally, I think Microsoft have lost their way.

Apple have mastered simplistic elegance and usability, yet with high functionality. While Microsoft are stuck literally decades behind priding themselves on clunky, ugly, and unproductive software. There is absolutely no comparison between the two!!! Often in the creative industry (where I work) people are looked down on these days if they are still using pcs, while mac users are increasingly much more respected people. I used to use pcs, and trust me Change Now!! You will love it!

Well……not a vs article really is it? More of a apple fanboy blog tbh….

That wasn’t an impartial comparison of Vista and Leopard - it was a “Leopard is better because…”

How about you write a proper comparison, detailing the positives and negatives of each, thinking about different applications for these systems? Vista is painfully slow at copying files, and OS X is a pile of rubbish in the corporate environment (unless you pay stupid money for 3rd party software). Vista’s search feature is junk (msn search app is excellent), but OS X won’t let you full-screen an application?!

Both are brilliant pieces of software, and both have distinct drawbacks. It depends on the requirement. Sometimes it’s good to sit on the fense and thinkin about the situation, rather than the badge on the side, or how geeky the latest Apple advert makes you look.

I’ve always been a MS user, however Vista is an abomination!! Still I couldn’t move to a mac as its too restrictive… you can’t even play games on it.

You cant compare Mac OS to Windows!!!!
Windows is built for multiplatform / Harware
OSX is custom built for the hardware it runs on

As for better “Features” in OS X, Microsoft cant just add them with out ISV and the like screaming.

Just as an addendum, I’ve been mulling this over more and more - I never used to buy consoles, always gaming on my PC. Something I rarely do these days. I think should I upgrade my home PC again I will at least give a Mac a try as I will have no need for anythign High -End (for high end I would always go for something like the Toshiba Portegé R400), and for day to day stuff I will put my hands up and say the Macs look like they do the job better than Windows. I think I’ve just been badly disaffected by the ‘look, all the kewl kidz have Apple logos all voer their house’ vomitous advertising from Apple and blind following of the ensuing cult!

I have read a lot written about the Mac and Windows Operating system.

I too am a IT guy now for 17 years and personally use a Mac home, simply because when I get home I find I wanted a computer that wored, its browses the net, reads my emails, editing and prints my photos, plays my music syncs my iPod and to be honest I do not care how it stors the data, as long as I can access it.

When I did have a Windows comptuer it felt as if it was a entensin of my work having to trouble shoot problems . .

ps I am beta tester of leopard, I cannot saw anything but its very nice wat were going to be getting.

Chris PirilloMac OS X Leopard vs Microsoft Windows VistaThere are some Mac fanatics who aren’t very impressed with what’s coming in Leopard - much like some Windows fanatics (and former Windows fanatics) weren’t impressed with Vista. (…) Read more

Chris PirilloMac OS X Leopard vs Microsoft Windows VistaThere are some Mac fanatics who aren’t very impressed with what’s coming in Leopard - much like some Windows fanatics (and former Windows fanatics) weren’t impressed with Vista. (…) Read more

I think Richard needs to find out a little more abouts Macs. He gives his lack of current knowledge away with the “single button mouse” comment. Aside from the fact that the Mac Os’es (both 9x and !0x) natively suppout multi button mice, Apple’s mouse that ships with every Mac for some time now has 5 buttons. (see wired and wireless Mighty Mouse on Apple’s website).

Richard

They are 2 buttons Dumb arse
sorry

hi:)

“iTunes, hah, try Jriver Media Center, beats it hands down”

What?

Funny looks like a iTunes lame copy… I love how iTunes/Apple haters always say that app “___” is better, but they are all just but copies of iTunes in terms on UI and features, WMP included… so sad.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....895DA.html

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/.....0C29C.html

Hi,

I have used Macs once or twice in my life and can’t really have a just opinion on them. But I can have a fair opinion on Microsoft OSs that I have been using for 16 years now.

Mac users, the only thing that I can tell u is that XP SP2 proved to be a reliable OS. Fast enough as well. When I got Vista in my hands I had the impression that it would be an OS that would be as reliable as XP-SP2 if not better plus faster etc. When I installed it (VISTA) it just took me 3 days to uninstall it and revert back to XP. Really stupid network interface, plus some icons making your screen look like its 640×480 and compatibility issues are just some of the events that made me go back to XP.

My impression is that Microsoft is going down big time and this is the last time they are gonna sell many of their products. Alternatives become better all the time (I have also Suse Linux 10.2 installed) and Microsoft managed to create an OS that just makes it easier for someone to install it. I think that Vista is an OS for homeusers only. Games and Word Processing. That’s it…. For anything else it’s just a pain…. especially networking….

I am a computer consultant, i used to design Windows centric slutions mostly for audio and video editing, but a lot of IT consulting and bussines deploy, since Apple turned to Intel chips i have switched too and OMG!, im a believer, really i can not work in windows anymore (i still have bootcamp for the games). ANd to that guy who said Mac Mouse dont have right button, you know that sells you as talking about macs without knowing anything, right now every mac is sold with a 4 button mouse and a fantastic scroll ball wich is much better than the scrool whell, and you can use ANY usb mouse with a mac.

Thanks for being objective Chris, very nice to see ppl coming out of the dark of Microsoft umbrella.

I would like to address a couple of items that Richard mentioned.

First, there is a reason that Apple places all the menu commands fixed to the top menu bar rather than floating around on a windows top edge. It relates to Fitt’s law - there are some areas on the screen that are very fast and easily hit with little to no need for precision aiming. The 4 corners are natural locations for the pointer to home in on. The next best locations are the edges or margins of the screen. Menus located on the edge of a window requires X and Y precision to locate with a pointer while the others only require X or Y action.

Second.. the one button mouse…

Richard… Please wake up and pay attention to what Apple ships with their computers. The Mighty Mouse has been standard for well over a year now. The Apple standard mouse effectively has 4 buttons easily tuned with the System Preferences.
(and while you’re waking up, take a look at the trackpad settings you can adjust for Mac laptops.)

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I received my first experience with Vista yesterday. Took an hour to get the ethernet working (Public/Private network security issues) and in the end had to shut the modem off and back on so Vista could evidently give it a damn good talking too. In that hour, I had approximately 1 security message every 5 seconds while dealing with the networking center. It crashed on me about 3 times (lockup) and ran like a dog.

After investigation, it seems these reasons are simply because I didnt want to pay for Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. 64bit ONLY with Ultimate?? You have to be joking. Or should I quote the actual blurb “Support for high end components and 64bit”.

Tiger. Half the price. Works straight out of the box.
Leopard. Tiger with bells on and 64bit support straight out the box.

If I wasnt going back to Linux for work, OSX would be my only choice.

@ Richard - August 31, 2007 @ 4:40 am: “There are somethings that I hate, for example why insist on putting the menu bar at the top of the screen even if the application is not full screen?”

Well, ****, from the following link…

http://www.asktog.com/columns/.....Fitts.html

…we get:

“Question 5

Explain why a Macintosh pull-down menu can be accessed at least five times faster than a typical Windows pull-down menu. For extra credit, suggest at least two reasons why Microsoft made such an apparently stupid decision.

Microsoft, Sun, and others have made the decision to mount the menu bar on the window, rather than at the top of the display, as Apple did. They made this decision for at least two reasons:
A Apple claimed copyright and patent rights on the Apple menu bar
B Everyone else assumed that moving the menu bar closer to the user, by putting it at the top of the window, would speed things up.

Phalanxes of lawyers have discussed point 1. Let’s deal with point two. The Apple menu bar is a lot faster than menu bars in windows. Why? Because, since the menu bar lies on a screen edge, it has an infinite height. As a result, Mac users can just throw their mice toward the top of the screen with the assurance that it will never penetrate and disappear.

Unless, of course, I’m testing them at the time. I did a test at Apple where I mounted one monitor on top of another, with the menu bar at the top of the lower display. The only way the user could get to the top monitor way by passing through the menu bar enroute.

I then gave users the task of repeatedly accessing menu bar items. When they first started out, they penetrated into the upper screen by around nine inches on average, just because their mouse velocity was so high. Then they learned they had to slow down and really aim for the menu. By the time they adjusted, their menu-access times became so ponderously slow, they took around the same time as the average Windows user.

The other “advantage” usually ascribed to a menu bar at the top of each window is that they user always knows where to look for the items pertaining to the task they are carrying out. This is silly. Users may do various tasks within a given window, and the menu items may change. Not only that, but a great many perverse applications exist, particularly in the Sun world, where the menu bar you need to access is not even in the window in which you are working! That is truly bizarre and mind-bending.

Microsoft applications are beginning to offer the possibility, in full-screen mode, of a menu bar at the top of the display. Try this out in Word or Excel. It is much faster. Microsofts general cluelessness has never been so amply displayed, however, as it is in Microsoft Visual Studio, which has a menu bar at the top of the screen with a one-pixel barrier between the screentop and the menu. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Oh, and Mighty Mouse can be configured to have both left and right click.

—-

Regarding alternative apps to iTunes… they don’t work with iPods/iPhones! But in respect to the wider point of those Windows apps having more flexibility and formats etc, this highlights a major philosophical difference between the world of Microsoft and the world of Apple. As Chris says above, “some of us are at the point in our lives where we only need one config to work. I’ve come to this realization, and I don’t find it sad at all - I find it uplifting.” It’s truly liberating is what it is, by not distracting us or complicating things, but by allowing us to focus on what needs to be done. There is great, and often overlooked, power in keeping things as simple as possible - we may think we need extra features, bells and whistles, but really for the most part we don’t.

Thanks Chris for a good post.

Richard, there are many historical reasons for the differences between Macs and Windows. Some of this was because Apple was first, by at least a decade of development, and staked out the best way of doing things which it then protected by copyrights and patents.

Microsoft had to come up with workarounds that don’t work as well. It’s the reason that many people feel more comfortable on a Mac; it better conforms to Human Engineering. You just need to re-train yourself out of expecting things to go the Microsoft way.

“There are somethings that I hate, for example why insist on putting the menu bar at the top of the screen even if the application is not full screen?”

This has to do with the fact that we are trained in the real world to expect that the most important information on a sheet of paper is at the top and to the left– the name and address of the respondent, for example. Also, it is more sensible to always have the system information available to us, but have the controls available for the application that we are currently working on. That keeps us from getting confused from having many applications open at the same time. But, some of this evolved from how personal computers came from single user and single application machines. I’ll not get into how Microsoft wastes screen real estate, since that is become less important with many computers sold with 20- 24 inch screens these days.

“Application support is fine for “standard” applications, but you move a small way into the enterprise and it starts to get messy. It’s chicken and the egg, enterprises wont move (to Mac, Linux or Open Solaris) without the “big” applications being available and supported, Oracle HR for instance, Siebel, Lotus Notes - ok, the last one has just been released for Linux.

All those macros and vbs spreadsheets that have been built will have to be re-built in OpenOffice in Python, now if OpenOffice built a Python scripting engine for Office, then new scripts could be written “cross-platform” and could be moved easily to oo.org later asp.net is another thing which is too well embedded, as is active directory.”

Microsoft seems to be placing themselves inside an “enterprise bubble” by conforming, too much, to what big business needs. There is an incestuous relationship between “Big Business” IT departments and Microsoft that leaves out most ordinary people’s needs.

I see this as Microsoft cutting themselves off from new customers, since the majority of the world still does not use computers. This is an opportunity for Apple to grab up the consumer side. As the business applications become increasingly complicated and esoteric, decreasing numbers of people will be attracted to Microsoft Window, because it is too hard.

“and finally what is it with Mac only having a single mouse button, come on you can’t still be thinking that using a keyboard button with a click instead of a right click is more efficient.”

Apple has supplied multi-button mice for four years when the “Mighty Mouse” came out as standard equipment, but it hides this capability for historical reasons. Most Macintosh users saw no need for a multi-button ( right click) mouse, since Command-click gives us the same functionality. Put this down to the “Apple way of doing things.” Most of us rarely need right-click.

Go into the System Preferences application to the Keyboard & Mouse icon and turn on up to four different ways of using the Mighty Mouse– left-click, right-click, scroll wheel and side squeeze. Not that most of us older Mac users would ever think of doing so.

BRAVO!

No attacks from me, only applauds.

okay I give - what is wrong with itunes - clearly you’re not a one-sided fanatic but what as a long time PC user do you loath about itunes? I’m not saying it’s my favorite app but it seems to do what it says it does - not perfect but I have no major problems with it - why do some PC users hate it so?

I run both OSes. I don’t think either one is that great, but both are capable. As a Micro ISV I want to develop software for both platforms to maximize my user base (and profits). As far as software development goes though, Microsoft is definitely way ahead of Apple.

I have tried the mac experience for the first time this past year and this is what I have found.

Out of 4 MacBooks I have used:
1 had the hard drive die and then after getting fixed was effected by the faulty battery problem (Yes I already had the firmware patch installed)
1 track pad stopped working. Sent off to apple for 2 weeks to get fixed.
1 other battery died and that too had the patch installed.
1 was sent back because the screen bowed out and so would not close.

Other annoyances have been,
Asking for my work’s WEP key to be typed in EVERY TIME I log on to it.
Every time I connect wirelessly at home, it always defaults to a access point I have never connected to and has a very poor signal strength. It does not default the my home one, the one of 2 networks it has ever connected too.
Several websites not displaying correctly, and even crashing the computer playing .MOV files on a website.
Browsing a domain a pain.
HAVING to have my picture taken during installation for some reason.

Been a windows user for as long as I could use a computer, and never got a virus and very few problems.

@Richard
‘and finally what is it with Mac only having a single mouse button, come on you can’t still be thinking that using a keyboard button with a click instead of a right click is more efficient.’

C’mon yourself, that teeny problem was laid to rest years ago…just plug in ANY usb/wireless mouse and you get right-click and full contextual menus with no drivers needed. Some, with Macs in mind will give added functionality with their own software.
I can’t believe people are still hung up on this…
I also think it’s a bit much asking the Mac/Linux developers to build-in functionality to get around Micro$oft’s non-adherence to open standards, surely it should be a requirement of all developers to write stuff that does not feed the notion of MS standards. The time has come to cut and run with open standards - Mac or Linux or whatever, I don’t care so long we get to choose and not be coral-led into an endless chain of legacy filth.

I could go on..

Read original article.2 reads

Good article. What struck me is your last line:

“Yesterday’s arguments simply DO NOT APPLY.”

The reason it struck me is because I’ve been saying this for some time now. In fact, in response to some Paul Thurrott commentary on my own blog a month ago I said this:

“You know what, Paul? The days of writing off Apple supporters simply by claiming they’re ‘emotional’ (or should ‘relax,’ are ‘drinking the Kool Aid,’ are ‘in the RDF’ or are, in a derogatory term you used when debasing certain journalists, ‘Apple sycophants’) are over. At least, they are on this blog. That stuff won’t wash here.

You’re welcome to comment here anytime, but please bring something better than a thesaurus and 20-year old Apple vs. Microsoft “arguments” if you do. ”

Full article is here..

Arghhhhhhhh! I didn’t put my e-mail and I got an error. My lengthy post is gone!

Anyway, OS X is really shaping out to be a standout. There are many exciting features and those who don’t think so are not looking hard enough. Coming from WinFX and .NET, one of the coolest features to me are Xcode 3.0, Xray and Objective-C 2.0. The elegance, power and speed of this development framework is simply unparalleled. It’s hard not to get excited.

Nice article, I’m a retired Electrical Engineering Tech. and have worked for Apple, Ampex, and a small R&D company in Colorado called Sturman Industries. I never thought twice about Mac’s until I went to work for them in 1990, Its been my computer of choice ever since. Windows 95 was a bad copy of system 7, and in my opinion it hasn’t gotten any better since. Windows can do a lot, none of it very well. Apple on the other hand can do a lot very well all the time. I find that most objections to Apple applications fade after the learning curve is over, and don’t forget that Apple is constantly improving and upgrading, they listen to their users.

I was a Windows user from 3.1 all the way through to 98, then switched to Mac. OS X, when it first came out, turned me sour because early versions were just awful. But then, after a return to Windows, Vista came along and I loathed it so much, so immediately and - importantly - lastingly, primarily because it is crippleware that constantly spies, asks for confirmation, and comes across almost like an insecure bully, I decided to give the Mac another try.

OS X has matured beautifully. I returned to the fold less than a month ago and have a MacBook Pro that causes me no trouble whatsoever. Your words about reaching a point where you basically want something reliable that works as it should truly resonated with me. It’s so easy.

I truly believe my switch back to Mac is permanent this time, or at least any future move won’t be back to Windows but some future unknown OS, maybe if everything moves completely into cyberspace. But that’s conjecture. What I do know is I’m not the only rebel against Vista, and Microsoft won’t change its approach. I don’t think it can.

Apple is as big and greedy as any other giant company, so I don’t see Steve Jobs as a Saint any more than I’d see Bill Gates as the devil. But the DRM built into Vista turns my blood cold. The security measures are a joke - I know people who despite firewalls and anti-virus, anti-spyware and other protections under Vista who are plagued by viruses and trojans that get through no matter what. Yet when these people want to install a program themselves, they have to jump through hoops.

While not every Vista detractor is going to switch to Mac, a significant number are desperate to go back to XP. Unfortunately, XP can’t be installed on many Vista-capable PCs and so in that respect Microsoft is forcing the hand of the consumer: take Vista, like it or not, and do as you’re told. That, or keep your old PC running for as long as you can and until MS drops XP support.

But there is a third way. Mac OS X. If you really need Windows programs, you can run Windows on a Mac Intel machine easily. But I’ve delighted in using my new Mac laptop as a Microsoft-free zone. It’s easy to do - Apple’s own Pages and the rest of the iWork suite easily compete against MS Office, as does the free NeoOffice which is a port of OpenOffice.

You upgrade the OS on a Mac, chances are you get a speed boost. Upgrade from XP or earlier to Vista, the fact is your machine will crawl after all your efforts.

I urge any other disgruntled Windows users to try the Mac. Sure, it costs a little more. But you always pay for quality.

Great breakdown and thanks for taking the time. A couple phrases left me bedazzled (WTF?), but according to your dev take, I can soon easily search them in Leopard; or even magically click the wiki version. Cool phrase here as well, the hitchhikers guide to wikipedia will surely catch on, you just might it in the IT world Chris, you seem CAF (Cool as F***)

Mr. Pirillo concludes that OSX is more user friendly than VIsta (duh!), and then in order to demonstrate objectivity, makes a statement that, with all due respect, instead demonstrates that his head may at least be partially up his, ummm, ******:

“Before you get your panties in a bunch, remember that I can’t stand iTunes - it’s an unwieldy way of managing media (even on OS X). Moreover, I don’t like the way iPhoto manages metadata; I dream of the day Picasa gets ported to the Mac.Not everything that Apple does is pure genius.”

ITunes is an unwieldy way to manage media? More unwieldy than stacking hundreds of CDs and DVDs in a huge shelf against your living room wall? More unwieldy than WIndows Media Center, which my friend who works at HP acknowleges as a “bust”? Please, the fact that there is no real competitor to iTunes is the proof in the pudding. And its not as if a competing media platform has been stymied by Apple by its employing Microsoft-style anti-competitive tactics, and by buying out any good competition. The simple fact is this: no one has been able to fashion a serious competitor to iTunes because no one has come up with a better design for storage and purchase of digital media.

Pirillo doesn’t like the way iPhoto stores metadata? Answer me this Chris “Dr. Mento the Intellectual” Pirillo: what the hell is metadata? Better yet, who cares what it is? As the average Apple user, all I can tell you is that iPhoto is an excellent, streamlined way to store, organize and share photos, and it’s only getting better. I know of nothing better.

Of course everything Apple does isn’t pure genius. Of course A-Rod doesn’t bat 1.000, and of course it doesn’t rain dollar bills and Jellybeans every other Thursday. If pure genius is the standard for product development and distribution, how does Vista even make it to within 1 mile of Mr. Pirillo’s comparison workstation/desk/cubicle/ what have you?

Perhaps Mr. Pirillo is the “I really want to build my own computer and be able to make all sort of gearhead modifications to the OS” type user, I don’t know. Me, I just want the thing to work like clockwork after I turn it on. And it does, because its an Apple.

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Interesting outlook Chris. I certainly appreciate the view point that you want something that just works and is stable, and I agree that Mac gives you that. Of course that is down to Mac OS X being exclusive to one manufacturer and they have a much better level of quality control. If Microsoft’s driver certification wasn’t such an expense, the 32 bit Windows platforms would be much more stable, the 64 bit edition of Vista is far more stable because certificated drivers are a requirement, though the cost is once again prohibitive.

Windows isn’t going anywhere for a while. However both Mac OS X and Linux will soon become much more commonplace. Linux especially at low-cost levels, or for those that don’t require the power to run modern computer games. Ubuntu, whilst not being the best Linux distro, seems to have caught the public imagination because of its marketing as a operating system for the beginner to Linux. The future for Windows is not certain, by any means.

I’ve had a Mac since 2004, and now have two Macs and a PC. I use a KVM switch box to switch my keyboard, monitor, and mouse between PC and Mac, depending on what I’m doing.

On my Macs I run OSX Tiger 10.4.6, and OS9 9.2.2, I also occaisionally boot into Panther, OSX 10.2 when I need to use Cleaner or Quicktime 6.5 without crashes. On my PC I run Windows 98 SE.

I had a honey moon period where I loved Apple and OSX, and I still extoll its virtues to people, and have no idea why anyone would buy a normal PC again. But…but…I also love my Windows PC, and maybe the reason I’ve been able to overlook any problems with my Mac, is because I also have a PC, and as such the best of both worlds.

To keep this comment short though, I’ll turn to bullet points:

In my experience, Macs are best for:
* Video Editing [ Media100, Final Cut Pro, etc ]
* Desktop Publishing [ Quark, InDesign, Photoshop ]
* Music Production [ Logic ]
* Friendly OS
* Hassle free web browsing & watching online videos.

In my experience, PCs are best for:
* Web Development
* Emailing
* Customising your OS / being a nerd / tweaks, etc
* Games [although if you have an Intel Mac....]

I love OSX for a hassle free, boot up, do what I want, etc, no probs.
But two gripes with OSX Tiger are:
1) I’m getting tired of Expose…I’m much quicker at typing than using a mouse, why can’t I switch between open windows with ALT+TAB as I can on a PC? On a Mac, I can only switch between open applications, not windows - using APPLE-TAB….not the same thing!!
2) I had to get OSX to network with my Windows 98 Machine. This involved using Samba. Whilst I’m sure networking with XP would have been a piece of cake, all the Samba permission settings were at the unix level, and after ticking the box in the preference plane, I had to then follow an online tutorial to go into Unix, and install a Samba control panel, and then use a browser to set all the relevant permissions, etc. Why aren’t Samba options actually in the System Preferences, like everything else? Apple makes some things very easy, but completely neglects other stuff. I didn’t get a Mac just to type in a Unix terminal…that stuff scares me. =P

Finally, Leopard is a disappointment for one reason - they made a big deal about extra secret features not unvieled yet….and with the iPhone, we were all expecting touch screen magic or something, and what we got was stacks. Which I can do already in Windows 98 by dragging a folder to the Startbar, including my recent items folder, so web downloads are immediately visible at the top of the list. And I can get pseudo stacks by dragging a folder to the OSX Dock in Tiger.
So 10.5 feels a bit like a few minor tweaks from 10.4 rather than a whole new OS as Vista is from XP.
Maybe OSXI (v11) will be where the big change comes.
Or maybe there will never be big changes, and they’ll just slowly tweak it all the time.

What I like about Windows is, it’s such a huge platform, that if Microsoft didn’t think of something - someone else somewhere has already coded it and you can download it and install it. For a nerd who likes to do those things, that’s great for setting your system up just as you want it too.

For Apple, you’ve largely got to trust Apple to get it right themselves outta the box, which they do do most of the time…but I’m still likely to download the application switcher for the menu bar, as that was so useful in OS9, and it’s totally missing from OSX.

In conclusion - I don’t think any of them are perfect, but I’ve got them all, so the best of both worlds.^_^ Although I don’t have leopard yet, obviously (and nor do I have XP or Vista for that matter) but that only leads me to thank you for sharing your insights as to what there is to look forwards to in Leopard.

I was actually annoyed recently when I had a folder full of pictures in OSX Tiger, and I couldn’t see what each one was at a glance, whereas in Win98 you get a thumbnail in the side panel upon mouseover, yet in OSX, although the icons were replaced with icon-sized thumbnails, they were too small to see, and I had to double click ‘em to see properly, which brought up preview, but preview didn’t recognise there were other pictures in the folder, so I couldn’t hit NEXT to see the next work, I had to close Preview, then double click the next one, etc, so crazy…so am definitely looking forwards to OSX Leopard’s QuickView feature, that lets you browse files ala coverview, etc.

I think the Windows vs Mac operating system is a misnomer.

It is irrelevent. It is the machine that they operate on that is the difference between them.

It wouldn’t matter if you posted that the new Mac OS was the greatest thing since sliced bread, 99% of PC users are not going to change now, if they haven’t in the past already.

It is a bit about comfort zones, better the devil you know, it is about upgradability, compatibility with programs, prevalence of the PC in business and homes.

PC users don’t use PCs cause they are better, tho many may argue that point, they use them because they are used to them, everything works on them and if they need something changed they can do it pretty easily themselves.

I have used Macs a fair amount, but for only limited things, like Video and Music production, outside of those arenas, I am far happier on a PC because I been using one for over 10 years.

There is one last reason that a few older PC users won’t use a Mac. Apple the Company.

Apple is a very invasive company. It’s programs don’t just run on top of anything, they dig into everything and really become a part of the system, there is a comment above about iTunes and its unsurpassed brilliance at cataloging a music collection…absolutely true, but many PC users avoid it like the plague because it gets into everything and all of a sudden your entire PC becomes about iTunes and Apple products.

A fine example is the new iPhone which you are stuck using AT&T and no other service is available to you, without hacking the phone, typical behaviour from Apple, dictating decisions that should be best left to you as a user. This is something that runs through-out their products and it is why a lot of us older users avoid Apple.

Not because PCs are better, but because with a PC I get to make my own decisions.

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The gist of this article seems to be that Leopard is great because it’s better than Windows Vista. That is truly ‘damnation by comparison’. If the best Apple can say about Leopard is that it is better than Vista, then it isn’t saying much. The only thing I might use on Leopard is Time Machine if it easily allows me to backup my sensitive data.

For what it is worth, I am currently using an iMac with OS X and also an older Windows machine with XP. For some unknown reason, the XP machine runs well, does not cause problems, is not constantly attached by viruses, malware and other nasties of the Internet.

I am getting sick of Apple enthusiasts who have to build up Apple products by tearing down Windows. That is junior high school behavior. Grow up!