Re: 15 reasons Macs are still better than Windows PCs


"Chance Furlong" <t-bone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:t-bone-5F6D7D.15301517112008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From APC Mag:

http://apcmag.com/15_reasons_macs_are_still_better_than_windows.htm

Cuss and discuss.

15 reasons Macs are still better than Windows PCs

Dan Warne
14 November 2008, 10:19 PM 3 days 9 hours ago.

With Windows 7 coming up, it's time to yet again ponder on whether
Microsoft has the upper hand in operating systems. Here's 15 reasons it
doesn't.

A journalist colleague of mine recently put this question out there:
"I'm sure I'll either get ignored or flamed for this but what's with all
the pro-Mac stuff at the moment? It seems as though everyone [S] is
either using or recommending Macs these days.

I'm not wanting to start a flame war here but I'm genuinely interested
in why this general shift has occurred.

Do people think Vista is truly that awful that they can't use it or even
recommend a normal Windows desktop/notebook? I use it every day and I
admit I don't like it much either but I don't think it's that bad that
I'd jump to using or recommending a Mac instead."

I long ago stopped actively seeking out Mac vs PC discussions (partly
because Macs are now PCs, so the argument is more about Mac OS X vs
Windows vs Linux than a proprietary Mac architecture vs an x86 PC
architecture), but I still find it confounding that after all these
years, people still don't know the basics of the upsides of Macs and OS
X. Perhaps it's because of the tiresome arguments from people like this.
So here's my answer. Note, despite what I said above about the argument
really being between operating systems these days, I've looked at Macs
as a hardware and software combination in this article, pitted against
regular PCs running Windows.

Do you agree/disagree with the points here? Tell me why, but make sure
your points are solidly argued, and make sure you read the whole article
before flaming me. There's an important bit right at the very bottom.

1. Reliable sleep mode
The killer feature of every Mac which can't be underestimated (and you
don't realise how important it is until you own a Mac) is OS X's 100%
reliable, near-instant suspend and resume.

Horse ***. NOTHING is 100% reliable. Oh wait there is one thing that's
reliable, you always have some Mac user that buys into the "Macs work
better" myth.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8445255

http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/10/fixing_macbook_pro_sleep_problems.shtml

How silly can they get? 100% my ass.


Windows PCs have just never had this. Reliability on Windows is hit and
miss, and it's nowhere near instant. As a result most people are in the
habit of shutting down their PC totally, or worse, leaving them on 24/7,
chewing up power.

Or they can have the monitor shut down since that uses the most power.
Reliability is what you make of it. I've used Windows installations for five
years with no reinstalls. It depends on what you do with a computer.


The difference between Mac and Windows in this respect is the difference
between broadband and dialup internet. Back in the 90s, many people
couldn't see the point of paying extra for an always-on internet
service, as "it only takes a minute to connect using the dialup."

I always shake my head in bemusement when I read about Microsoft working
on dramatically shortening boot time on Windows. Boot time shouldn't be
such a pivotal issue if suspend and resume worked well. Mac users
probably reboot their Mac on average about once a month, and often only
to install an OS update. Which leads to my second point.

Where did you get that statistic? Did you make it up or do you have an
actual source?



2. Extremely fast boot times
Rebooting a Windows PC can be such a painful experience that you really
procrastinate doing it. Unless you're running on the highest spec
hardware, Vista can take minutes to start up.

Sure can and there's a reason for that. Drivers and other smaller
applications. In Windows there is a lot of compatability with a wide array
of hardware. There are also games and other apps that use things like
DirectX. It takes a little longer to load but there is so much more you can
do with Windows. So much more quality software out there.

OS X needs less drivers as it has limited hardware support. Also OS X
is a Unix distro so it is streamlined when it comes to things like DirectX,
it doesn't have them in memory. Sometimes this can cause longer load times
for programs. Much less so since the Mac is now a PC that uses Intel CPUs.


3. Apple uses good quality parts.

Aside from the operating system, Mac hardware is usually good quality.

And sometimes it's not. Just like any other manufacturer, they have bad
systems. I remember throughout the 90s, I would see stacks and stacks of
Macs(hey that rhymes) at the local Mac repair shop. Some systems were
particularly problematic. I don't know where they got this myth of Mac
hardware superiority. It just never existed. Good quality parts were all
over the place in Dells, Compaqs and HPs. They lasted for decades because
the circuits weren't as tiny and the traces on the IC boards were not so
small. Now they're tiny and the components are too and many don't last as
long. So now you just have to buy good quality in the first place. Apple
buys the same memory, HDs CPUs that other PC makers buy. Same brands and
models I know I checked. The only thing they might get made special is the
case the DVD/CD-ROM mechanism fits into.

Apple's fit and finish doesn't generally bend and creak like the plastic
panels on many PC laptops; Apple's keyboards are high quality; Apple
selects good quality parts like very good LCD panels for its screens.

You can essentially buy a Mac product sight-unseen and know you'll be
happy with the quality of the display, whereas PC laptops are a huge
grab bag ranging from horrendous, dim rubbish to spectacular. (I have to
admit I personally don't think the basic MacBook screen is of a quality
that I would want to buy, but then, I think it's still better than a lot
of PC notebook screens.)

First you have to know that Macs are now Wintel boxes, PCs as in your
usage. So they are mixed into that group now. You can't say Apple isn't a PC
maker.


4. Less blinking lights.
PC manufacturers are starting to understand this and are producing
increasingly clean designs (The HP 2133, pictured right, is quite a good
example), but it's still my #1 bugbear about PC notebooks.

When I'm using my laptop in a dark room at night I don't want five
bright purple and orange status lights blinking away at me. And when I'm
using the laptop propped up on my legs on the sofa I don't want to be
constantly accidentally turning off the WiFi. I don't want the headphone
jack mounted on the front of the notebook, because when I plug the
headphones in, the jack will be bumping in to my body if I've got the
notebook propped up on my knees, lying on the sofa.

Hmmmm. Exactly what are you ding in the dark with that Mac? Now this
gives something away. You're lying in the dark on the couch while using your
Mac and you don't want a headphone jack to bump into something. Now this
tells me you're trying to hide something. You have headphones on so nobody
can hear what's on the Mac. Then you worry about it bumping into your body.
Hmmmmm. You know maybe you shouldn't do that with your Mac, you can go
blind...


This lack of basic design refinement can make PC notebooks annoying to
use for the entire lifespan of the unit (and it's not always something
you can 'see in the shop before you buy,' consider how many PCs are
corporate-issued, or bought mail-order these days.)


That's funny I see a lot of PC notebooks with the jack on the side.

5. OS X + Windows is better than just Windows
Ignoring Linux for a second, on a Mac I can legitimately run OS X and
Windows (natively, or under virtualisation). On a PC I can only
legitimately run Windows.

I can buy OS X and legitimately run it on my PC. You can build a PC from
certain parts and install OX on it legally. You can also install Darwin Unix
which is what OS X is based on. There are other Unix distributions that you
can "legitimately" install. What idiot told you that it is illegal to
install OS X on whatever machine you want? Even if Apple puts in it's EULA
that they forbid you to use this on any PC, does not make it illegal. You
have certain rights as the owner of the product and they can't be nulified
by a companies contract. You read that contract and it will even tell you
that this may not apply in certain states.

..

6. Easier to troubleshoot Macs.
It's usually pretty easy to figure out what's going wrong with a Mac.
There are three applications that help you and are all in one place and
easy to find in the Applications/Utilities folder:

Activity Monitor (a more powerful version of Windows Task Manager)
Console (which shows all system logs in one place)
Disk Utility (which helps you identify disk integrity issues).

It's very rare that you can't get a decent hint of where a system
problem lies from those three apps. On Windows, similar apps are
available in the system, but they're more scattered and immeasurably
more difficult for the average user to find.

Horse ***. Once you know were to look and you can even set up Windows
to save everything in one place.


A culture of good quality community software
There's a culture of very good quality freeware/shareware with excellent
user interfaces on Mac, probably a result of Apple leading by example in
user-interface design and shareware authors emulating this.

The same goes for Windows. However there is a lot of crappy Mac freeware
out there just like for Windows. This is an argument made by someone with
limited knowledge of freeware and shareware and who produces it.


The average Mac user could get away with only purchasing Microsoft
Office and using freeware/shareware and Apple provided software for
everything else.

A Windows user only needs Windows provided software for everything. They
don't need any Mac anything on a Windows system.


8. More useful apps out of the box
Every Mac comes with some very useful apps that don't come on Windows.
(Of course, you can easily download them for Windows, but ubiquity of
app distribution can make or break a platform, it's why people have
never really equated Symbian Series 60 phones with "useful
applications".) Useful apps on every Mac:

Stickies
iPhoto
Expose
iCal
Time Machine

Let's say you have a Mac mini. How do you internally add the second
drive for use with time Machine other than slow USB or Firewire?

Yes, this is no barrier to a Windows power user. But remember, the
majority of computer users are not power users.

9. Neat and contained system settings.
Apple is very neat with its OS config settings. In Windows, there's
many, many places you can change system wide settings, the registry,
add/remove programs, the hardware manager, the services manager, network
connections, control panel, etc.

This just proved you're clueless. All those things before "control
panel" are settings, control panel is the folder all those settings are in.
They're in one place. The registry never need be touched.


On a Mac, the OS config settings are basically all in the control panel
(with a few exceptions, notably, the default browser can only be changed
through Apple's own Safari browser, evil.)

In Windows they are all in control panel.


It makes both using a Mac and supporting other people using Macs much
easier. One specific example: it is overcomplicated to guide a user to
editing the TCP/IP settings for a particular network adaptor on Windows,
but it's one of the most common things you have to do to resolve network
issues. But accessing network adaptors is a cinch on Mac OS X.

And TCP/IP settings are easily accessible under "advanced."

They just as easy to access on a windows system. You can even set it up
to access them from the startup menu. Even the icon on the taskbar can be
right clicked and have access no need to go into the start menu or control
panel. But then again that's what you get with Windows, lots more options.

11. Tonnes of small reasons make Mac OS X better.
There are a large number of very small reasons a Mac is great to work on:
Every version of OS X has sophisticated screenshot capability built in.

CMD+4 provides a selector marquee. CMD+4+Spacebar takes just one window.
CMD+3 takes the whole screen. You can set the format of the screenshot
file and where Mac OS saves it.

The built in image viewing app is powerful, it can view PDF and
open/export to most other image formats; you can crop, resize, rotate,
adjust colour balance, etc.

Expose lets you quickly see all your open windows, or your desktop, or
just the windows of your current app. Way better than ALT+Tab (which
Macs also have) or Flip 3D (which Macs thankfully don't have.)

The Dock is much more efficient to use than the Windows start menu and
taskbar, the icon opens an app or returns to it if it's all ready open.
It doesn't become crowded when you have lots of windows open.

Target disk mode allows you to boot a Mac into a mode where the whole
machine acts like an external hard drive. Plug it to another Mac using
Firewire and you have the easiest way in the world to do a
system-to-system drive mirror. (Though, disappointingly, Apple didn't
include this feature in its latest MacBook.)

Quick look lets you view pretty much all major file formats by clicking
on the file and pressing the space bar, no need to wait for an app to
launch. Windows simply doesn¹t have this.

12. Still no need for additional security software.

Now I know you're clueless. Just wait.

On a Mac, you don't have to run additional security software, which
therefore doesn't slow down the computer, doesn't cause problems, and
you don't have to shell out for an annual subscription for it.

This is an enormously contentious point. Some people will argue black
and blue that you need to be a good citizen in the world and make sure
you're scanning for Windows viruses on your Mac email in case you
accidentally forward on a virus sent from one Windows user, to you, to
another Windows user.

There is an increasing amount of malware for OS X. There are even a few
virus/trojans/worms in the wild. No computer is 100% safe. Apple rutinely
fixes gaping security holes in OS X. If they didn't have security holes, why
is Apple constantly patching OS X with "security updates"?


My opinion is: if Fords have a problem with their wheels falling off
that's never going to be resolved, I'm not going to drive my Holden
slowly on every road just because a Ford might find its wheels falling
off at any time.


I see you go back to the car analogies. Totally irrelevant.


13. Apple seems largely to be lameness free
On the whole Apple seems to come up with far fewer lame ideas that were
non-starters to begin with. Microsoft, on the other hand, is the master
of lame ideas. For example, Sideshow in Vista. Windows Ultimate Extras.
10 editions of the same OS. XPS file format to compete with PDF. One
size fits all UAC, "You just tried to change the date. Did you really
mean to do that?"

Apple put out the Mini a home computer that came with no monitor, no
stereo speakers(has mono speaker), no keyboard and yet it costs as much as
computers that do come with them and have more memory and speed. Apple
basically shoehorned a low end laptop into a tiny case and sold it to
clueless people as a slick looking machine.


14. Power of the Linux command line with Photoshop CS4
Just for a moment, let me diverge from Mac vs PC and take a look at Mac
vs "all the alternatives."

First of all it's not a Linux command line. It's a command line but it's
a Unix command line.


There are a few key apps that are, for many people, 'must-haves'.
Microsoft Office. Adobe Reader. Adobe Flash. Photoshop.

Linux can satisfy almost all of those needs. But Photoshop is a sticking
point. Although there has been great progress in WINE, even sponsored by
Google, you can still only run Photoshop CS2 (or CS3 if you're lucky.)


Windows systems come with Photoshop for free depending on who you buy it
from. This is a totally moot point of OS X over Windows.

And don't tell me the GIMP is a total Photoshop replacement. I've tried
it many times. Its user interface just isn't up to scratch yet.

Maybe to you, but others think it is.


With OS X, you get a polished OS, with the power of a UNIX/Linux command
line (not the lame DOS style prompt of Windows) and the ability to run
the latest, officially supported version of Photoshop.

15. File sharing is much easier
Sharing files between computers has always been something that feels
like it should be a lot easier than it is. Of course, one of the reasons
for this is the need for security, which is opposed to ease of use,
because security is about putting up barriers.

But it's also about user interface design. Mac OS hasn't always been
easy for sharing between computers; in fact I'd say it's only 10.5 which
has got it mostly right. But in 10.5 it actually is easy enough for
ordinary users to use, if you want to share the files on your computer,
you switch on file sharing in control panel.

Shared computers on the local network appear in any file management
window in OS X like a disk drive -- and when you try to open them,
you'll be prompted for a system username and password.
It's the first form of computer file sharing that really puts it in
front of the average user's eyes without them having to do anything to
get to it.

Whoa, hold up there, anonymous flamer.

Before anyone tries to put words into my mouth: here's what I'm not
saying:

I'm not saying a Mac is a remotely good choice if you're a career gamer,
though there are enough games and adequate performance to satisfy a
casual gamer (someone who likes to play a game once a week, isn't
involved in the gaming scene and wouldn't know what LOLZ actually meant.)

I'm not saying Macs 'just work' and never have problems, because like
any computer, they do.

I'm not saying hardware compatibility is the same with Macs. There are
endless hardware devices that don't have Mac drivers. It's just that
there's enough good ones in every category that do have Mac support for
it not to be a problem.

I'm not saying Macs are for people who like building systems from
scratch, or having maximum opportunity to chop and change parts at will.

I'm also not saying Apple is a nice company to deal with -- it's not.
Its whole corporate ethos seems to be "be smug and arrogant; turn your
back and pretend everything's fine, oh and also, polished plastic never
gets scratched" as often as possible. (Though frankly, the superior
hardware and software goes some of the way in actually allowing them to
get away with this, and mostly, the front-end customer service is very
good.)

I'm not saying that Apple is always good at admitting faults. While it
is generally good with warranty if it admits a problem, if it is in
denial about a problem, it will sometimes make people wait a year before
they will begrudgingly accept the cost of fixing it across the board.

And finally, I'm not saying Apple's DRM (which it refuses to share with
anyone else) is anything other than a repellant policy, from a company
that has a monopoly position.

On balance, though, Macs just let you get stuff done, whereas Windows
computers constantly find ways of annoying you.

That's my take on it. What's yours?

Making Megakat City safer one troll at a time

You're the one who's trolling. Why did you post a OS X vs Windows
thread in the first place?

The fact is most Mac users from the old school still don't realize that
the Mac vs PC war is over and the PC won. The only differences are OS X and
Windows. Both are great OSes and if I want to run OS X I can put a system
together and have it run just fine and it will do everything the PC clones
from Mac can do and do it for hundreds or thousands of dollars less.

John


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