[OlsonBW]

{quote}Do you use both Windows AND Mac on a regular basis?!? Sounds as though you do not. I use both regularly in an enterprise environment as well as at home and have a very good grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of both.

This article is a synopsis of the bigger picture. Windows is a "hacked" system, with 20+ year legacy code, inconsistent interface design and general inefficiencies and degrading issues. If you have not used the Mac on a regular basis (at home or at work) you have no right to make the comments you're making. I hated the Mac at first until about 2 weeks into using the machine. Around the 2 week timeframe a light clicked on and I've been amazed at the intuitiveness and attention to detail of the Mac OS ever since. Give it a chance and I think you may agree.{quote}

I couldn't have said it better smurfman. Except that I never hated Macs. I just didn't have one until 1998 due to cost.

[JMPieper]

Thats true, the article touched on the "missing" elements in Windows. But based on what I currently learned about the author (read above) he is obviously bias, heavily, toward Macs. Not to say I'm not heavily biased towards Windows myself, but if you want to write an article about this at least try and remain objective.

[thebitguru]

bq. Windows Meeting Space, built into Vista, offers similar functionality but only over a local network, so sharing your screen with a remote relative isn't an option.
Windows Meeting Space is not limited to local network. I have used it for hours (yes, hours) while connected with a friend over the internet. All you have to do is email them the invitation file and everything else it figures out.

[Nanotube]

This article is utter rubbish. If he wants a Mac then he should use a mac. It's exactly like one of the guys here wrote:

Mac's should have a task bar, a start button and whatever...

By the way, I use both a Mac and PC. The task bar is better then the dock in my opinion.

Windows is also quite faster in a lot of things, more snappy.

Don't even get me started on the peripherals, hardware and software available on windows and not on Mac. Games on the Mac are a joke.

The Mac is a great platform but it's not superior to Windows. I just wish MS will come to it's senses and stat doing what they know best - writing code and operating systems.

Their paranoia with google is killing them. They should do the OS, Office and XBox. Hold MSN as a website but enough with the search crap.

By the way, it would be nice if Mac Os X would have decent networking capabilities - it's utter crap. Trust me I use it every day (with Leopard!).

[WeatherManNX01]

Number of features in this article: 18

Number of features that will slow down Windows even more: 18

Number of features I'd actually use if included: 0



Enough said.



(Let's change the article to 18 Features Windows Doesn't Need And Three People Would Use But Should Be Added Just To Tout That It Has Them. Becuase, you know, if Mac OS and Linux have them, then they've got to be good!)

[OlsonBW]

{quote}This article is utter rubbish. If he wants a Mac then he should use a mac. It's exactly like one of the guys here wrote:
Mac's should have a task bar, a start button and whatever...
By the way, I use both a Mac and PC. The task bar is better then the dock in my opinion.
Windows is also quite faster in a lot of things, more snappy.
Don't even get me started on the peripherals, hardware and software available on windows and not on Mac. Games on the Mac are a joke.
The Mac is a great platform but it's not superior to Windows. I just wish MS will come to it's senses and stat doing what they know best - writing code and operating systems.
Their paranoia with google is killing them. They should do the OS, Office and XBox. Hold MSN as a website but enough with the search crap.
By the way, it would be nice if Mac Os X would have decent networking capabilities - it's utter crap. Trust me I use it every day (with Leopard!). {quote}

It is plainly obvious in many ways that you have never used a Mac much at all despite your claim of using both.

The Dock is vastly superior to the TaskBar.

Exactly what peripherals don't work on a Mac?

Networking? Again, what is the problem you are having. I have almost zero problems with my Macs. I have plenty of issues with Windows computers which I fix each and every day as a Computer Systems Analyst.

We support both PCs and Macs. There are lots more phone calls for support on PCs than Macs. Our boss is again Macs for one reason. Quote: If we were to replace all our PCs with Macs a lot of us would lose our jobs because there wouldn't be enough work to do. And I'm here to make money. The more people that work for me the more money I make. EndQuote.

Games are a joke on both PCs and Macs. BUY A CONSOLE. Preferably a Wii or PS3.

What Microsoft does best is choke off distribution channels to other companies. THAT is how they became #1. They learned how to do that from IBM who did it very well until Anti-trust problems caught up to them. Sound familiar?

[sickofpcbashing]

18 Features OS X & Apple Should have (but Doesn't)



1) Group Policy. Dont BS me with garbage like "We have workgroup manager and you can set options in there!!!11". OK, so you have .plist files. How excitement.

2) The reliable ability of different versions of OS X server to
control different versions of OS X workstation. Windows 2000 has group
policy plugins for XP & Vista.

3) A Start menu. It is much easier having hundreds of apps sorted in a start menu than having everything sitting on the dock. Or in the /Applications directory.

4) An easy way to hook up to printers on different architectures. No, Control-Click-Add printer for Windows IP Printing is not intuitive, nor easy.

5) A good, free compression program. We have 7-Zip and many others, what do you guys have? Even stuffit expander isn't part of OS X, let alone the version that can compress.

6) Games!!!!!!111one

7) No BS Ads that lie about "Apple doesnt have cryptic error messages". Have you ever tried configuring OS X Server's Open Directory with anything else?

8) The choice to buy hardware from who I want, shop for the best price and choose the best service. OK, Hackintosh exists, it is a bit of a stuff-around

9) The choice not to be associated from one eye'd zeolots who preach OS X more than even the most hardcore religious extremists. I like to purchase computers without the contractual requirement forcing me to post how good it is, on every website I visit.

10) A right click button!!! How did this get to position 10?? Sod off with "we now have mouse gestures!!111" or "just hold down control and click"

11) A choice to buy laptops that you can use on your lap, without it setting fire to your pants and sterilising you.

12) A choice to buy laptops that have non glossy screens, with strong, solid hinges.

13) Decent error reporting when an application bombs out. It allows me to fix the problem easier and quicker. Quite unlike OS X's method of laying a digital turd somewhere on the HD and only telling you "Sorry something has gone wrong and you must now restart"

14) A decent task manager. Windows allows you to see a multitude of things by adding columns to the Networking and Process tabs. Sysinternal's ProcMon is even better.

15) Fine grained filesystem permissions, that are GUI based. Sure, OS X allows you to change permissions via the GUI, have you ever had a look at how many options are really available to Win2000+ operating systems?

16) A physical eject button on the optical drive. No, a keyboard button is unsuitable. So is holding the mouse down while powering on.

17) A decent GUI explorer. Windows had a better one since Win95. XTree Gold was even better many years prior.

18) Finally, the abilitiy to buy a computer without meeting OS X's prerequisites - a) I'm not an artist, b) I dont have to be unemployed, c) I'm not in a band. I must thank Maddox for this one: He lists the most important thing PC users can do, that Mac users can't: http://www.thebestpa...cgi?u=macs_cant

[Nanotube]

I have been using a Mac for the last three years on a daily basis. Power Mac G5 with 2.5gb of Ram and Radeon 9600XT, ACD 20". Used Mac OS panther, tiger and Leopard. Don't patronize me.

I have also been using computers on a daily basis for the last 26 years. So I have been around you know.... Now, with regards to PC games - I OWN and MANAGE a games development company. The last thing that one can say is that PC gaming is a joke. The PC maybe a hard platform to develop on with regards to the countles possible configurations and there is a growing piracy problem too but it is also an open platform on which the possibilities are endless. Furthermore, new revenue streams are presenting real opportunities for those who knows how to grab them. I assume that you are from the US in which consoles do rule (hope I am not wrong - if I do I apologize). The state of the PC in the rest of the world is different though, but this is not a thread about gaming so I'll leave it there.

The problem I have with Networking on Mac OS X, is that it's not convenient. It works but it doesn't work as great as it should. I prefer the way windows does it. Hardware wise, the Mac is not in the same Universe as the Windows PC. Come on! Windows support virtually any hardware you plug into it. If you claim that the Mac has the same breadth of hardware support as windows than you are high.

And Yes, the task bar is better then the doc. Deal with it.

[OlsonBW]

I'm very happy for you that you are making good money making games for Windows computers. I really am.

The best time I ever had with a computer game was with three other friends on a local network playing death match with DOOM 2. We laughed ourselves silly playing for 6 to 10 hours depending on whether we started on Friday after work on started Saturday afternoon. If someone had to go pee they hurried there and back. If we were hungry we called for pizza and whoever was furthest behind in frags had to go to the door and get it. We didn't stop playing while we ate.

The last really good game for death match was Quake II. After that games just never kept our attention. Yes we've tried playing lots of different video games since then. At least for a few years. None of the games could keep our attention like those did. Until the Wii. There are several games on that that are a lot of fun. Even Tiger Woods golf is pretty fun on the Wii.

I've tried World of Warcraft. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Right. Run after and kill a hundred wolves to get a shiny new sword. zzzzzzzzz

I used to build computers for a living. After awhile I figured out that I don't care about "researching and finding the perfect parts" anymore. All I need is a very good computer that works that I can EXTERNALLY add anything I need to it.

What do I need to add hardware wise to my computer? More disk space? Anything that supports USB 2, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800 works perfectly every time.

Better video card? For games I get a game console. I stopped messing with Windows for games a long time ago. As for things like video and audio editing, I'll take better software with a weaker video card any day over a better video card and much weaker video and audio editing.

What else do I need? Not TV. I have TiVo with my flat screen TV. That's better than anything you can get on a Windows or Mac.

There is always someone with a faster computer just like there is always someone with a faster car. Both of those things bored me a long time ago.

Again, anything I need to upgrade for my computer I can connect on the outside. And I've yet to run into something that didn't plug in and just work.

PS: If you were really worried about being able to upgrade your Mac you should buy a Mac Pro. Sure they are expensive but if you really want to upgrade things inside, that's the way to go.

[Nanotube]

Nice memories from Doom2. I sympathize with that. I don't agree though that death matches stopped after QuakeII. There good games today that are a lot
of fun to play. But that's a matter of personal taste.

The fact that YOU don't have a need for peripherals doesn't make the Mac an equal to windows in this category. When I wanted to buy a digital camera a year ago, I had to check if the model I wanted was compatible with the Mac. This check does not exist with regards to windows. You know it will work.
The up side with the Mac, is that if it's compatible it will 99.99% just work perfectly. On windows you can have driver issues.

The Mac Pro is definitely the way to go pricey or not. But I want to go with the Nehalem CPU, Blue ray and a new ACD. These will probably also have the next GPU architecture from nVidia or ATI (AMD) by then so it's an added bonus.

With regards to software - I agree. Better software beats the crap out of better hardware.

[onesam]

as an apple fanboy (yes, I admit it) I have to agree with the majority of comments here. I use a Windows PC at work and even with my meagre knowledge dislike of Windows I know that most of this can be easily achieved in Windows, even without 3rd party software.
Also wanted to point out that software removal on a Mac is pain in the butt. Dragging the application and it's folder to the trash is one thing, but knowing where to find all it's associated elements and preferences is another altogether. I use 3rd party software for this. Such a simple thing to not be built in. Stupid on Apple's part.

[jvalidazion]

You should be careful about comparing Leopard to XP. Leopard was released five years after Windows XP. It's like making fun of a 2002 Ford for not having a CD player that reads MP3s like a 2008 Honda Civic does.

[jvalidazion]

"From intuitive interface features like Apple's application dock..."
If you are a user who has a lot of open windows, this interface is anything but intuitive. It becomes a nightmare to manage miltiple windows. Right now I have 14 windows open. On a Mac, this would be extremely difficult to manage.
If you are a user who runs one or to programs at a time, the application dock works great.
Because it's so easy to lose a window, there's no doubt that a feature like Expose is needed on a Mac. It's just really not needed on Windows because of the taskbar.
Also, Windows does have a similar feature thathas been in Windows since Windows 95. Right click the Taskbar and click Cascade Windows, Tile Windows Vertically, or Tile Windows Horizontally.

[jvalidazion]

3. Back to My Mac
Um, Remote Desktop? UltraVNC?
4. Screen Sharing
Again, you've forgotten the obvious. Windows Live Messenger?
7. Stickies
I don't really see this as a feature that an OS must have. But if you must have stickies, Stickies for Windows works just fine.
11. Application Dock
See comments above. Great if you use few windows. Nightmare if you run many windows. I'm glad Windows doesn't ship with anything like this.
17. Standardized Menu Ribbon
"Navigating through application menus in Windows can be a crapshoot, because Windows lacks a unified menu ribbon for all its applications." This is what makes using multiple programs so nice, is Windows "lack" of this "feature." Again, I'm really glad that Windows doesn't have this feature.

[drewdegruyter]

""From intuitive interface features like Apple's application dock..."
If you are a user who has a lot of open windows, this interface is anything but intuitive. It becomes a nightmare to manage miltiple windows. Right now I have 14 windows open. On a Mac, this would be extremely difficult to manage."

Excuse me, sir, but your fail is showing.


You can't seem to wrap your useless mind around the fact that the dock doesn't reflect how many instances are running, but how many applications are running. Here are pictures of me with 22 windows open. 22, yes, you heard me. And look at my dock. A nightmare? Hardly. extremely difficult to manage? Not at all. Expose F9=all windows out, F10=windows of active application out. F11=desktop


22 windows.
Apps running: finder, adium, safari, apple mail, itunes

[drewdegruyter]

" This is what makes using multiple programs so nice, is Windows "lack" of this "feature." Again, I'm really glad that Windows doesn't have this feature."


The standardized menu ribbon changes every time you have an application activated. For example, if you opened Safari, you would get "File Edit View History Bookmarks Window Help", and then if you switched to Mail, you would get "File Edit View Mailbox Message Format Window Help"

Therefore, your argument is invalid.

"Because it's so easy to lose a window, there's no doubt that a feature like Expose is needed on a Mac. It's just really not needed on Windows because of the taskbar."

The dock serves as a sort of taskbar. If an application is running, there is a white indicator mark underneath it. To bring that application's instance to the front, you simply click the icon for said application and it is brought to the front.

Therefore, you lose.

[drewdegruyter]

Then do it, or shut up. This article is about NATIVE APPLICATIONS. Not alternatives.

For crying out loud, please THINK BEFORE YOU POST.

[drewdegruyter]

Talk about a joke of a Comment

it's almost like you are a windows fanboy who has never even used OS X and gets all his OS X information from mindless assumptions.

[jvalidazion]

My apoligies. I guess I didn't know how to switch windows on a Mac. If I had I would have said something different.
I would have said, "Holy crap, you have to use that mess to switch windows?"
Let's make our window switching functionality bound to some keystroke and make no intuitive way to do it without digging through menus. Wait, what menu? That's Safari's menu. Where is my Finder when I need it? Gotta get to the desktop; then I will see my Finder. Nope. That's the maximize button. Wait, that's maximize? That doesn't even take up the whole screen! OK. Now I'm at the Finder. What's that keystroke now?
Hang on one sec... I need to respond to an IM. Click in Taskbar. Type. Click. OK I'm back.
You? F9. Whoa. That's hard to see. Get in car. Drive to eye doctor. Come back. Now that you have glasses you can read those tiny windows to find your IM window. Click. Type. F9. Wow. Thank goodness for eye doctors. It was easier this time. Click. Wake up in cold sweat. Wow. What a nightmare.

[drewdegruyter]

You fail again. Expose is OPTIONAL. You can just click the application icon in the dock to change the current active application, which also changes the menu ribbon to the active application's file/edit/view set.

Finder is the OS X version of explorer.exe, so you fail.

When you mouseover the close/minimize/maximize colors, symbols appear on them, an x on the red, a - on the yellow, and a + on the green. The maximize adjusts the window's size to it's content.

Now, you saw in the picture I had an IM to respond to. Well, when I responded to that, I didn't use Expose. I just clicked the icon with the red notification on it, and it was brought to the front for me. So,

Hang on one sec... I need to respond to an IM, and I can tell because in the dock, on the Adium (IM) icon, there's a small red circle with a number depicting how many unread IMs I have! OH LOOK! It can also tell me who has IM'd me! Okay, let's respond. Click Adium icon. Type. Click. OK I'm back.

You? Taskbar. Jesus, what the hell does that say? I can't tell, all I see is text with a 8x8 icon flashing.