How is OS X Different than Windows?

Para quienes por alguna razon migran o estan migrando de Windows a OS X, aqui unalista compilada por chris.pirillo.compara lidiar con la frustracion del cambio… Object / Field Sorting – The Finder’s auto-arrange option may not work to your liking in OS X. Moreover, you can’t sort folders before all other object types in the Finder.

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Jumping Jack Flash Audio Question  - Nov 6, 2007  - chris@pirillo.com (Chris Pirillo) Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card Review  - Nov 6, 2007  - chris@pirillo.com (Chris Pirillo)How is OS X Different than Windows? - Nov 5, 2007  - chris@pirillo.com (Chris Pirillo)

How is OS X Different than Windows?(Chris Pirillo )

Don’t forget application install and uninstall. Ever meet a Windows user who acts a little “suspicious” of the Mac’s install process (i.e., just drag it to the application folder)? It’s too simple.

I think the reason why TextEdit’s zoom button maximizes the window and Safari’s doesn’t is that the purpose of the zoom button is to alternate between a user-defined state and a program-defined state.

In Safari, the program-defined state is set to be the smallest window width at which all of the elements of the web page are displayed without the need for a horizontal scroll bar. This works in Safari because Safari is made to view HTML documents, which typically consist of columns with defined margins.

TextEdit, on the other hand, is like Wordpad—it doesn’t generally deal with margins; it just wraps the text around and around down the page. So there’s no “ideal” window size like there is in a web browser. The makers of TextEdit seem to have decided that this meant they should assign the zoom button to maximize the window, because that way the button would at least be doing something coherent.

Personally, I’d rather they had just arbitrarily picked some window width—say, a width corresponding to the amount of text that will print on an 8½”-wide sheet of paper with 1″ margins—and had the zoom button do that.

For the most part, though, it’s been my experience that when applications let the zoom button maximize the window, they’re either a) applications like Mail and TextEdit that deal with simple wrapped text, or b) cross-platform applications ported over from Windows and/or Linux, like Firefox.

2. “In Windows, the close button typically exits the application altogether”

Yes. But this is because Windows has no real understanding of the difference between an application and its windows. This, presumably, goes back to the days when you’d only be likely to want, or be able to run, one window per application. Windows does not have the “target-action paradigm”. OS X, being based on NeXT, does. Full, and interesting, explanation here:

http://rixstep.com/2/20050529,03.shtml

Of course, if the application in question is not an application that typically would use multiple windows, developers are supposed to have the application quit when the main window is closed.

3. “Object Rename … nor is there a simple keyboard shortcut for the routine”

Enter?

4. “The only way to resize a window in OS X is by clicking and dragging the lower right-hand corner”.

Yes. But, then again, most OS X windows are capable of being zoomed to fit their contents, and why would one want to futz around dragging window edges, when one could simply click the green gumdrop? I find *other* OSes annoy me in this respect: in a Linux desktop I’ll go to drag a window, accidently get it too close to the edge and the window will strreeeech instead of moving.

5. “when you need to “zoom” an app in OS X, it doesn’t always go full screen.”

See number 4. (I think numbers 2, 4, and 5 are actually loosely related.) The window zooms *to fit its contents*. Since this is related to what the window is likely to be displaying, a developer’s supposed to make it go full screen instead if he thinks that better. It would obviously be inappropriate for something like an address book card that was slightly truncated in the default view to grab the whole screen when zoomed — though, tell that to Microsoft — but not perhaps for a text editor. It’s a judgment call on the developer’s part.

6. “Copy / Move Objects”

It seems flawed on OS X (in the GUI at any rate). OS X seems not to do enough sanity-checking — and, apparently, does less than NeXT did, so it looks like they dropped some sanity-checking code at some point. Data-loss when dragging between volumes has just come up on /.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/05/2328259

Don’t forget…

1) Apple’s FrontRow doesn’t allow you record TV like Window’s Media Center.
2) The Window’s OS is much more compatible with 3rd party software
3) There’s more games you can play on a Windows machine so if you’re not a huge gamer, there’s no reason to get a separate device just for gaming. And if you have a powerful enough computer, there’s less need to get a separate game console.

Highlighting an item and pressing enter lets one re-name an item.

It’s an odd thing to remember, especially since in Windows and most Linuxes pressing enter opens an item, but it is kind of a cool idea. Items must be renamed using the keyboard, so pressing enter to enter rename mode allows one to stay on the keyboard the whole time.

Renaming files in OS X is just hitting enter / return… that allows you to rename a file. Easier then anything in Windows.

In terms of windows closing and programs quitting, MacOS is consistent: closing a window, well, closes the window. You need to QUIT the program to, well, quit the program. There are a handful of system-level-ish programs that can only have a single window and automatically quit when that window is closed, like Preferences, but they’re the exception.

Last I checked — it’s been a while — Windows quit the program when the LAST (or somehow designated most-important) window closes. So if you click the big red X, you could get several different reactions, depending on things you could not see immediately (minimized other windows, if the window was a “leader” somehow, etc).

In one sense, the MacOS X model can be confusing. That is if you close all windows of an application and since you can’t see anything, you assume it’s not running. This mattered somewhat in the MacOS 9 days, but really doesn’t make much of a difference in MacOS X, since a windowless application is in general not using CPU or much RAM. And if you double-click a file to open it, you simply see the window opens much faster since the application is already running. So it’s a “confusion” with no real effect.

Good article, although as a user of both, I still find the Windows Operating system
easier to use. Leopard seems pretty good so far, just a couple of blue screens of death. With a bit of time on either system, a person can easily learn both operating systems and it comes down to a matter of choice. Right now, its still a Windows world

Wayne,

Open iPhoto and then close the window. Application quits. Other programs I don’t have might do the same thing. So your argument there doesn’t really hold. The rest of your comments are sound.

Chris, all these points have been raked over again and again. There is nothing new here. Each OS does things differently, and each has arguably justifiable reasons for doing what it does. Choose the one that makes the most sense to you (and by that I don’t mean what you are used to, but what makes more SENSE).

For instance, for me, it makes more sense for a zoomed window to become ‘as big as it needs to be to fit the content’, instead of ‘as big as it possibly can be, regardless of the content’. The latter is just a waste of screen space on a 30″ monitor :)

Also, a lot of your comments refer to the behaviour of a single applications – the Finder. The Finder ≠ Mac OS X. You can, and I do, use a different app for file management if you so choose.

What’s the problem?

Use bootcamp and you can have your pet XP for gaming.

Then you can play and have a real, stable, secure, virusfree, intuitive, nice OS.

If you stay with Windows you can play and that’s it. Just hassle.

How bout the fact that Windows works and OS X doesn’t? At least Leopard doesn’t. The thing crashes all the time. It is, dare I say, reminiscent of Vista.

You make OSX sound like it sucks :)

God i hate people like you.

Vista is stable! It’s just not stable when people try to run it with computer as old as 7 years old, of course it wont bloody work. The standard hardware of today can run Vista flawlessly.

It’s a fact that Vista is more stable than XP, and i know this so dont say it isn’t.

Dual Boot wont work. Firstly a Mac doesn’t have good hardware, such as a graphics card, which is the backbone of gaming. Also, it won’t support the drivers

He’s just speaking the truth about the two.

You are 1. a paid propaganda trollbot 2. a 9 year old kid with too much time 3. an idiot.

None of your claims have enough connection to the real world (yes, that does exist) to be referred to.

Make sure you at least READ a post before “replying”, trollbot idiot!

Im not gonna Lie, ive worked on Windows Vista and xp and ive worked on Mac tiger and leopard and honestly Windows is better OS X is good dont get me wrong but its just not there for me

If this was not discussed, another obvious difference is how one clicks and switches between two or more apps which are located on the desktop. With Mac, you must click once only to activate that other app and then click AGAIN to input or effect the app. With Windows, just click on the other app and your instantly using that app. This always frustrates me when I use the Mac.

lol i have a 6 month pc (pre vista) and i installed vista and it’s a piece of fucking shit. Lol pc fanboys said xp was bad, but now how bad vista is xp is suddenly like a god operating system when really it’s just as bad.

well then yo have a problem, since you only have to click once and the job is done. And either way, its only a mouse click!

I actually switched from Windows to OSX, and don’t regret it a bit. There are so many help full and use full tools built into the OS, which allows you to access them anywhere.

Vista is great… its your machine sucks..

blueshadow063087—> moron alert !*!*!*!*!

This guy is a joke! Why do you give him so much credit?

Don’t teach him, this guy is a legend! ROFTL

..on the land of stupidity.

ok the diffrences are mac is for editing and making websites. windows is for video games and making websites and games. and linux is only for running the servers for video games. o and im thinking about getting vista. should i stay with xp or get vista for $100?

This makes windows sound better.
I have windos XP,lol.

LoL Wtf is he talking about? =P xD

There is an autoarrange :D!

Listview is not limited! With one click you can arrange it!

Use Apple Key + Q to quit it!

You Suck…

OSX is closed source, more expenive than windows, is incompatable with a lot of hardware and dosn’t have many games.

OS X is more expensive? OS X Leopard costs $129, Windows Vista can cost up to $400.

vista,i have it,but i would rather have a mac but my dad hates macs so we dont have one lol

I have vista,its good,but i wanna try a mac

My bad there about the same price $125-130 for the vista home premium oem.