33 replies to this topic

[darran]

I am surprised this discussion has not been initiated in this forum. This is one of the most hottest topic in the IT world and it has been going on for several years with no conclusion to it because it changes from time to time.

Out of all the operating systems in the market today, the 2 most popular ones are Windows and Macintosh among other operating systems such as Linux. Windows has proven on the market share to be the most popular operating systems purchased by consumers today. And the majority of us use Windows as compared to the lesser audience who purchase Mac.

I am sure we have all experienced the screw ups while using Windows. Be it performance, bugs or even compatibility. There is not only 1 rare occurence of those problems but multiple frequent ones. We want a system which doesn't have so many screw ups like Windows. Now here's the consideration of Mac. Putting the 2 side by side will not distinguish which operating system is better or lousier. However the way to tell which is better between Mac or Windows is through implementation. Mac implements their stuff better on the system than Windows and this is the hugely obvious factor which puts Mac in a better position than Windows in terms of functionality.

Design wise, Apple are well known to design one of the best custom GUI (Graphical User Interface), even their hardware is designed with a sleek and stylish theme. Their mouse especially is unique and completely different from the regular mouse you see sold in the IT retailers. That aside, within a Mac OS itself, the designs of the dock (Another feature of Macintosh OS), animation, icons and overall look and feel, they are pure creativity. Even the latest Windows Vista IMO does not match to Mac's design. I am a design oriented person, if something which is being promoted is packaged well, that would already half-convinced something about the product. Of course everything should not be based on design alone but also on the substance of the product.

So if Mac is so good, why have so many potential users been scared away from it? Making Windows STILL the dominant OS system consumers look to?

• Lack of compatible software
  One of the biggest worries of potential users is that there are not many compatible software available for Mac, another indication that we are over-reliant on Windows. Many games are not available in Mac but are so in Windows. However this thread is gradually changing, many game developers are making their games compatible in Windows as well as in Mac. To solve this problem, Apple has invented something called 'Boot Camp' which will be elaborated with more detail at the bottom.
  
  
• Mac price
  Potential buyers have been totally scared away from the idea of purchasing a Mac because it used to be so expensive. However now there is a micro mac which is considerably cheaper than IMac or an IBook. I was looking around in a Mac retailer the other day, and I came across a Mac desktop at SGD 2185, which is equivalent to USD 1000+.
  
  
• A completely new system
  An issue windows users have with regards to switching over to Mac is to know how to use a Mac. It would be no different from learning how to use a new type of computer. The way Mac works is considerably different than Windows but most of the standard functions are of the same. However this would be a huge problem to non-IT savvy users.

In April 2006, Apple came out with a software called 'Boot Camp'. So what does it do? It basically partitions another drive which can be used to emulate a Windows OS. So you can boot up and use either Macintosh or Windows. A 2-in-1 package. This is a very smart market plan because they are not only promoting their brand but also grabbing Windows consumers. They have pounced on Windows' constant liabilities and provide a much better solution to its users.

http://www.apple.com...05bootcamp.html

So what is stopping you? If you are looking for a computer to purchase, do not hesitate and consider a Mac!

I will definitely buy a Mac in a few years time when my current desktop is unable to keep up with the current standards of today's computing requirements.

[master_bacarra]

i actually feel like shifting to mac after i get my first salary when i get a job i promised myself that i would buy a mac and probably stay there. most of my professors in school use mac and i really find it interesting. i've seen them use the laptops while teaching and i've seen how fast a mac runs, compared to windows... my thesis professor is a mac addict (or so i think) because he you could see him carrying mac products anywhere he goes.

the primary reason i wanted to shift to mac is because i'm tired of using windows. aside from the fact that i usually get virus attacks frequently, i really find windows loading slower and gets slower as time passes by. i've read from a blog somewhere over the internet that a typical windows os degrades every 6 or so months before you could reinstall it again. in my case, that's the longest. i usually have to reinstall windows like three or four months. what a pain if you ask me.

second is that since i've seen how mac works, i'm quite impressed with what it has to offer. the virtual os is one of the coolest (in relation to mac being fast). i mean imagine installing a windows as a virtual os and not have the hassles of a slow loading time? what could be better than that?

true, mac may be pricey, but what the heck right? if you have the money, why not spend it to something that offer better service and could last a long time than something that is cheap but really unreliable.

[fffanatics]

The reason most people use windows is because it is very easy to use and everyone has been using it for a while. Macs, on the other hand, are becoming easier to loose but still are an Unix OS. If you have a mac, you will have to use the console quite often to do tasks unlike windows. Dont get me wrong, i am not saying windows is better. I currently am one 1 of my 3 computers of which i have windows on this one, linux on my laptop that i take to class, and Mac OSX_86 on my other desktop. I use all 3 so i am proficient in them and i love my Linux OS but for a novice it can be hard to pick up.

[xboxrulz]

I for one, will definitely grab a MacBook or MacBook Pro than a IBM-clone laptop. Too bad they don't use the old PowerPC processors.


xboxrulz

[gaurdro]

I personally would go with the basis for the mac os. which is linux. while it has a history of being difficult to use and lack of support for windows and mac programs, it has become very user friendly. I use suse linux enterprise desktop 10 on both my desktop an imac and my gateway latptop. it works wonderfully and without any learning curve whatsoever. it can be setup easily to look and behave like windows or mac. the support for windows and mac progams are slow in coming but are getting much better and in a few years linux most likely will be able to emulate windows and macintosh perfectly as far as programs are concerned.

The technical side of linux is easily taken care of in suse by very easy to use administration tools located easily on the program bar.

Edited by gaurdro, 15 September 2006 - 04:05 AM.

[Panzer]

Im happy using both, i feel at home using both. My Dad is a total Mac man, he got the G5 Rev2 when it came out, he feels sorta cheated now that the intel chips have come out.

I myself use a Windows, its pretty good, the viruses get annoying but the number of different programs is great and someone always knows how to fix it if its broken.

Both are good, Linux isnt lol.

[BooZker]

Hmm which is better? i wish i could take a picture and show you what i am doing. I am installing Ubuntu (Linux) on my Mac for dual booting, and writing this post on my Windows XP (with Vista GUI). Here is what i would personally take from all the OS.

Mac:

The GUI.
The iLife and other preinstalled programs. These are not like AOL and crap like that by the way.
The look of them on the outside.
Built in cameras, audio, and AirPort (wireless internet) in every new Mac
Easy to install Windows XP (or other OS)
Never need to defragment
great utilities (Windows users, this would be Accessories on the All Programs)
No viruses, no spyware, no crashes.
Spot light, instantly find files.

Windows:

The compatibility between games and software
keyboard layout (default. Yes, you could by another USB keyboard for a Mac.)
Not really anything else. Sorry, Windows lovers. I mean they main reason is the large selection of games and programs/applications for them

Linux:

open source
free
free programs
the Workspaces feature on most Linuxs
Ability to completely customize


Remember i have used Windows up until this year. I was using a Windows system for 10+ years. Then i had to get a Mac for Graphic Design which i am majoring in fell in love with them. I have found a lot of applications to make it a hybrid of windows and linux. Also if i missed some Linux stuff please dont get mad haha. I have been using that only for a few months.

Edited by BooZker, 29 December 2006 - 02:58 PM.

[Watermonkey]

fffanatics, on Sep 14 2006, 07:09 AM, said:

The reason most people use windows is because it is very easy to use and everyone has been using it for a while. Macs, on the other hand, are becoming easier to loose but still are an Unix OS. If you have a mac, you will have to use the console quite often to do tasks unlike windows. Dont get me wrong, i am not saying windows is better. I currently am one 1 of my 3 computers of which i have windows on this one, linux on my laptop that i take to class, and Mac OSX_86 on my other desktop. I use all 3 so i am proficient in them and i love my Linux OS but for a novice it can be hard to pick up.

I don't know what you're talking about with the Mac. I've never used the console. It's there if you're some kind of geek who gets thrills from opening the hood and digging in to the guts. If you don't know Unix, there's no reason in normal operation to open the console. There are some tweeks you can do, but usually they're outlined in the industry pubs like Mac Addict or Macworld and it's simple step-by-step instruction. I say, go Mac and never look back!

MC: Windows for Mac isn't "virtual" anymore. Mac is running on Intel chips now so it's able to run Windoz like any other PC as an alternative boot. You download the free app from Apple called Bootcamp to do this. Alternatively, I think if you use "Parrellels" you can run Windoz in its own window while still running OSX at the same time. That, I suppose, could be considered "virtual". Anyway, I love my new Mac; it's stable, fast, and a joy to use and I never have to worry about spyware or viruses. It cost quite a bit, but I think there's good value there too with all the software it comes with. Let's just hope they stay small so the virus makers don't start looking our way...

[MusicOnly]

Although i dont like windows because GUI is poor i ll stick to them. I was raised on windows and i ll probably die with windows. I know that mac has better gui than windows but like you have said this is new os for you, price is high and you wont get all the programs working on mac. i know that price of the mac is very high in UK but i can tell you that price is for about 40% higher in my country. and i dont have money to buy it like the most of people in my country. sad but true! i ll maybe try linux besides windows but i am sure that i wont be working on it for a very long time. i need all of my software running on my pc and my family isnt that good in windows so i guess they ll hate me if i change os!

[blendergalactica]

gaurdro, on Sep 15 2006, 04:05 AM, said:

I personally would go with the basis for the mac os. which is linux. while it has a history of being difficult to use and lack of support for windows and mac programs, it has become very user friendly. I use suse linux enterprise desktop 10 on both my desktop an imac and my gateway latptop. it works wonderfully and without any learning curve whatsoever. it can be setup easily to look and behave like windows or mac. the support for windows and mac progams are slow in coming but are getting much better and in a few years linux most likely will be able to emulate windows and macintosh perfectly as far as programs are concerned.

The technical side of linux is easily taken care of in suse by very easy to use administration tools located easily on the program bar.

Wrong. The Core of MacOS X is BSD, which is UNIX not "unix-like". Technically it's freeBSD with Mach Kernel. Here is why I switched about four years ago:

My PC tower didn't work right. The motherboard hated the soundcard which hated the 3D drivers which hated windows and I was sick of it. I was doing a fair bit with linux based webservers and FreeBSD servers. It was okay, but my printer lacked drivers, so did my scanner, so Linux on the desktop still wasn't the best option for me.

About that time I wanted a laptop and was getting ready to leave out of the country for 3 months and finally wanted something that worked. So I got an iBook. Finally I had a single platform from which I could use Microsoft Office, Photoshop, plus do all my Unix work I needed to with MYSQL et. al., and ran handy mac only software like final cut.

Since then I've transitioned into video production which is dominated by tools like Final Cut Studio. I know of more and more people who are buying Apple laptops over everyone else. Desktops are still dominated by PC, but this past year I bought my dad an iMac to replace his old Windows 98 box that had crapped out finally.

I wasn't totally sold on the switch to Intel, but now with the software I need out in Universal, it's a good move. Especially since the rendering engine in programs like Lightwave are tuned for x86.

Now my Dad could run XP if he wanted via bootcamp, but why?

Yes Apple is a few dollars more, but it's also a far more flexiable platform at this time. The main reason why Linux has stayed in the server room is Apple. Most people like me switched from Linux to Mac early on because we saw the flexiablity and abilty to have a system "That just works". Those firmly in the Linux camp get off by having to configure everything and think that's cool. I used too as well, but then I got into the real world and discovered how valubale time was. I want a computer that just works with a minium of fuss. Macs do that.

I think people are starting to trend back towards Mac now with the iPod and iTunes. This new Apple TV device will probably help as well.

[BooZker]

Macs are better period. I never thought they were. My dad always said Macs suck since i was a little kid. Now that I am older and i tried out a Mac it's been amazing.

• They hardly ever freeze. I think i have had mine for about a year and it has frozen up like 2-3 times.
  
• Applications are simply copied into the Applications folder and to delete you just throw that folder in the trash. No uninstall then finding out you can't for some dumb error.
  
• There is almost no errors except no responding applications once in awhile and that is almost always due to not enough RAM. I sometimes have BBedit, Fetch, Firefox, safari, opera, netscape, fireworks or photoshop, textedit and more all open at one time and there is fewer crashes then when i have 3-4 programs on my PC.
  
• Comes with great applications such as iMovie and even little apps like Dictionary which are so basic yet Windows doesnt even have that except for in Word.
  
• Looks great on the outside and in the GUI.
  
• Never EVER had a virus, spyware, or anything like that problem and i have Limewire!

[Word]

I must say that i hate microsoft and all that trash !!! Apple mashines is more reliable but it much cost ok

Quote

My PC tower didn't work right. The motherboard hated the soundcard which hated the 3D drivers which hated windows and I was sick of it.

haha its right !

[shigajet]

I used to use a Mac myself - my dad used to have one of the first "fat" Macs (512K RAM?) back in 1984 and a Power Mac in 1994. For some reason, though, I've been using Windows for the next 10 or so years. Now I'm considering switching back to Mac; they've certainly come a long way since the early days. Trouble is, the price is a bit too high...perhaps if I make monthly payments....

[TripleH13]

It depends on what your doing Mac's are for more design. But windows runs more programs and a lot of programs are supported on Mac.

[KR0631]

For me its windows. Its easier for me to use, even though I like Macs too. But I just hate how you kind of have to update a lot for vista if you don't have that great of computer. Thats why im just going to wait until the new computers come with vista or might just get a custom made computer off the internet with a free home premium upgrade for vista or something. But its 50.50 for me.

[Zlash]

I have never tried mac before. I have always been a windows kinda guy. One of the reasons I wouldn't want Mac is the compatability problem with a lot of softwares. That Boot Camp thing sounds complicatex and many others may think so too and that may be the reason they wouldn't want Mac. As Windows Vista has come out, a lot of people would rather have that because of all the new offline features it has.

As for iPod and iTunes: I HATE IT - or i dislike them. I'm not really fund of Apple products, and the iPod is one of those wich I like the least.

[BooZker]

Zlash, on Mar 4 2007, 08:22 AM, said:

I have never tried mac before. I have always been a windows kinda guy. One of the reasons I wouldn't want Mac is the compatability problem with a lot of softwares. That Boot Camp thing sounds complicatex and many others may think so too and that may be the reason they wouldn't want Mac. As Windows Vista has come out, a lot of people would rather have that because of all the new offline features it has.

As for iPod and iTunes: I HATE IT - or i dislike them. I'm not really fund of Apple products, and the iPod is one of those wich I like the least.

If boot camp is too complicated for you, you probably dont even know how to install a video game. All you do to install Windows on a mac is

1. Download boot camp
2. Install Boot camp
3. Partition your HD
4. Restart your computer

And there you go! Next is all Windows installation. You know, that icky, horrible, disgusting blue screen? Yep thats all you have to do on the Mac side.

And why dont you like iPods? if you HATE them so much why didnt you give at least one example why? I "HATE" WMP because its bulky and not as slim line and clean as iTunes. It has cover flow which is a nice touch also Plus, iTunes you can download for BOTH mac and PC, yet PC hasn't released a WMP except for WMP9 and thats only for Power PC and i have an intel so your screwed.

[RedAlert]

Windows, because Macs are a major hastle. I use a mac twice a year when I go to my cousin's house (that's all he has) and it's really annoying. We wanted to play 2 player starcraft, but we only had 1 game, so we were going to make a disk image on one of the comps. Should be easy, right?

Well, it wasn't. Mac's disk utility would go through the entire process of making the disc image, only at the end to say the file could not be used. Apparently this only applied to one disc, since disk utility would make images of every other disc he had. Fantastic.

So I went online in hopes to find a better image writer for mac. Since there's almost no third party software available for a mac, it took me a while to find it. I finally found one though, but there was another problem. For some reason Safari decided to name the program .dmg.txt (instead of .dmg, which the file was), a text file, and did this no matter how many times I tried. There was nothing I could do to fix this, since on a mac, changing the extension does not change how the comp tries to read it. Great =/

We never did get to play starcraft. He ended up having to download an iso image for the game so we could play next time I was there =/

[saga]

Mac is great as what everybody says and I think its true, but when it comes to selling itself to the market and the users it is poor. To run Mac u need a different set of hardwares. Meaning you have to buy it as a package. And when it breaks no one can help you. Too few people knows how to repair it or diagnose it. With pc, I can customize the hardwares and stuffs. If only Mac runs on pc machines . Here in my cuontry Mac is a ghost. To own a Mac here for personal use is being stupid. You can not find stores that sells software for Mac, not even in the black market. Too few softwares to work with. For businesses its bad also becuase there are no good programming tools for fast system development like Visual Basic for Windows. THe only option I guess is using Java in creating programs. Mac, when it comes to entertainment, its boring, too few games. In WIndows I can even play arcade game using emulators. Play Marios Bros, Battle City and other arcade games or even gameboy games.

To cut it short, Mac is for selected users (5% of all the computer user heheheh) while Windows is for everybody. And the winner would be the OS which everybody can work with easily. When I said everybody not all of us but most of us.

[BooZker]

I have to say one thing about Macs because people always bring this up and it sort of makes me mad because i never bought a mac because of this. People always say 5% of people have them and that is it. Well lets say 1% have them. Does that make it a bad thing? No. I want to compare it to a car. Think about this. How many people have a Ford or Chevy compared to a Ferrai? I can tell you right now its not even close. I can also tell you a Ferrai is a hell of a lot better them so ford car or truck. Percentages don't matter it's about performance.

My Mac at school (i have a laptop and a personal desktop mac at school) froze today. The first time all year. About 5 months. Every USB device i have ever plugged in has had no problems. I can list tons on my PC.

PC
1. The mouse sometimes gets choppy
2. My external HD somtimes freezes the entire computer and doesnt read at all
3. I can't get my printer to work at all with the software even.

On my mac:
1. Never, ever had a problem
2. Takes a little while to start up compared to my PC, thats when it even does, but it always works
3. I didnt even need to install the software included and it worked. Not only that i have plugged it in to more then one printer and never needed the software.

Those are only three. Also if you think its a problem with my computer. I have a 2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 100GB, DUO processor AND is brand new laptop. Bought in July of last year.

Quote

So I went online in hopes to find a better image writer for mac. Since there's almost no third party software available for a mac, it took me a while to find it.

Kidding? Apple.com has thousands and thousands of freeware. Thats on THERE site even. Microsoft doesnt have thousands of freeware from third parties. By the way i'm only talking about Apple.com

Quote

Windows, because Macs are a major hastle.

Ok that is for sure a joke. Calling restart after every installation, whole uninstaller to delete a program that doesnt even work every time, freezes, plug and play isnt really plug and play, blue screen of death, ctrl+alt+dlt over and over again to turn one non-responsive program off, or how about amazingly fast search feature that works like *BLEEP* (by the way that was sarcastic) Macs MAYBE a hastle to someone who doesnt know how to use them or to Gamers.

Quote

For some reason Safari decided to name the program .dmg.txt (instead of .dmg, which the file was), a text file, and did this no matter how many times I tried. There was nothing I could do to fix this, since on a mac, changing the extension does not change how the comp tries to read it.

If it were actually Safari why not try, Camino, IE 5, Firefox, Opera, or just any other browser if you really were trying. And just to let you know, I just tried changing an extension to see if what you said was true, and it isn't. I just changed .jpgs to .pngs and a .mov to a .wmv and both of those said "Unable to read tha data" But when i switched them back they worked fine. Plus, each time i went to change the extension it gave me a warning that you changing the extension and could make the file unreadable.

I'm a little hostile of people saying Macs are bad because i have used Windows, Macs, and Linuxs and i love Macs the best. That is not the main reason why i hate people who hate macs its because the are ignorant and they speak out there *bottom*. They all have had no real practice on macs and grow with propaganda about how Macs are so bad and dont work and freeze up and turn off at random times in reality they do not what so ever. If they did would 90% of designers use them? Would Adobe make Photoshop and Illustrator and programs like that, FIRST for the mac?

[everflame]

Neither of them!
Why choosing between 2 expensive OS when you have all these Linux distros out there and each of them is in times more powerfull than any of these 2. But since there is no place for Linux in this topic I guess it all depends on what you are going to do on your computer. If you are going for game station then go for Win, but if you are going to do some serious multimedia development or something like it...the Mac is what you need. Linux can do both...but its faith is being always the next step, while those 2....lets call them stepping stones in computer experience

[Watermonkey]

BooZker, on Mar 6 2007, 11:40 PM, said:

I have to say one thing about Macs because people always bring this up and it sort of makes me mad because i never bought a mac because of this. People always say 5% of people have them and that is it. Well lets say 1% have them. Does that make it a bad thing? No. I want to compare it to a car. Think about this. How many people have a Ford or Chevy compared to a Ferrai? I can tell you right now its not even close. I can also tell you a Ferrai is a hell of a lot better them so ford car or truck. Percentages don't matter it's about performance.

My Mac at school (i have a laptop and a personal desktop mac at school) froze today. The first time all year. About 5 months. Every USB device i have ever plugged in has had no problems. I can list tons on my PC.

PC
1. The mouse sometimes gets choppy
2. My external HD somtimes freezes the entire computer and doesnt read at all
3. I can't get my printer to work at all with the software even.

On my mac:
1. Never, ever had a problem
2. Takes a little while to start up compared to my PC, thats when it even does, but it always works
3. I didnt even need to install the software included and it worked. Not only that i have plugged it in to more then one printer and never needed the software.

Those are only three. Also if you think its a problem with my computer. I have a 2 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 100GB, DUO processor AND is brand new laptop. Bought in July of last year.

Kidding? Apple.com has thousands and thousands of freeware. Thats on THERE site even. Microsoft doesnt have thousands of freeware from third parties. By the way i'm only talking about Apple.com
Ok that is for sure a joke. Calling restart after every installation, whole uninstaller to delete a program that doesnt even work every time, freezes, plug and play isnt really plug and play, blue screen of death, ctrl+alt+dlt over and over again to turn one non-responsive program off, or how about amazingly fast search feature that works like *BLEEP* (by the way that was sarcastic) Macs MAYBE a hastle to someone who doesnt know how to use them or to Gamers.
If it were actually Safari why not try, Camino, IE 5, Firefox, Opera, or just any other browser if you really were trying. And just to let you know, I just tried changing an extension to see if what you said was true, and it isn't. I just changed .jpgs to .pngs and a .mov to a .wmv and both of those said "Unable to read tha data" But when i switched them back they worked fine. Plus, each time i went to change the extension it gave me a warning that you changing the extension and could make the file unreadable.

I'm a little hostile of people saying Macs are bad because i have used Windows, Macs, and Linuxs and i love Macs the best. That is not the main reason why i hate people who hate macs its because the are ignorant and they speak out there *bottom*. They all have had no real practice on macs and grow with propaganda about how Macs are so bad and dont work and freeze up and turn off at random times in reality they do not what so ever. If they did would 90% of designers use them? Would Adobe make Photoshop and Illustrator and programs like that, FIRST for the mac?

I'm going to start calling you "The Great Mac Defender"! If you think your mac starts slow, I think it may already be time for you to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo 2.33. My Mac is a 17 MacBook Pro running said processor with 2Gb RAM, 160Gb HD and all that. I've got a few complaints, but it's really nothing major. Oh, btw, I've got a Dell on my desk running XP too. I mostly use it to look at Streets and Trips and test my web site on its browsers. Anyway, you do have to restart the Mac every once in a while due to major software upgrades and installs. That being said, it doesn't seem like it's required nearly as often as the windows machine. Other than the extremely cool and friendly package, and I mean everything from the keyboard to the widgets, the biggest reason to love Macs is they're just not vulnerable to viruses and all that crap. And did I mention this laptop is FAST? It's wicked fast. Boots up in a matter of seconds, wakes up in a matter of tenths of a second... This machine is da bomb. Period.

[BooZker]

Quote

I think it may already be time for you to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo 2.33

Actually i have a duo 2.33. Thanks for the offer though

And thanks for the name!

I know mine wakes up before i even open lid all the way! It's awesome.

[TripleH13]

I would say Windows becuase of what I am doing on the computer. And the fact that more programs are Windows only and don't work on a mac. Mac's or good but for a different type of user.

[badea]

Thanks man good topic