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Whats so great about OS X?


Lkr
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I don't know if we have a thread like this, but I've been dieing to make this to see some of the reasons. My one and only reason(only been using for a week) is the stability and speed of the OS. Booting Windows seems like a chore, but I can actually sit down and enjoy the OS X boot it feels like. Windows while taking 5 minutes to boot gives me time to put an english muffin in the toaster and take a {censored} in the morning. OS X feels full of energy when booting because it is speedy. Not to mention Adium is worth OS X alone. So what are your reasons?

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one of my main reasons is that i just like the way it feels. os x always manages to cheer me up, windows just feels depressing to me. i also like the stability, and lack of viruses.

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5 minutes? Are you using Vista? XP doesn't take that long for me to boot in a virtual machine. Anyhow, OS X. It's UNIX without having to bother with administration, the UI is consistant across nearly all apps (and IMHO, far more efficient than X11 and windows). Then, I suppose my favorite thing about OS X is that the third party apps are generally very nicely put together, because mac users are UI snobs and few in numbers, and any software company that makes {censored} for the Mac sinks. As opposed to windows, where the installed base is so large that even {censored} can be profitable (also see: PS2).

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Ease of use: I personally think OS X is more well laid out and could be used much more quicker than Windows. There are no nag screens telling you that your virus checker needs to be updated, no popup ballons (except for growl...but I like growl and its design and the way it sends the "popup"), and spotlight is fantastic. Everything from changing an icon of a file/folder to how fast you can access apps is much more efficient and faster under OS X than it is under Windows. Installing apps 80% of the time in OS X is just a breeze, since most of them come in packages...and each application is just one file (80% of the time), so its very clean and organized. Dashboard is awesome, and can truly save time depending on the widgets you have loaded. Expose is also a major time saver...and it does it in style as well, and actually increases productivity rather than just the eye candy. Its things like this that make the OS much more user friendly and fun to use while being much more productive at the same time. And all of thse come by defualt in OS X...not through 3rd party addons.

Quality of Software: While OS X's software library in general pales in comparison to that of Windows, the quality of the softwares designed for OS X are extremely beautiful and have a higher sense of design and usability than those that are designed for Windows. Windows does have few...like very, very, very few though when it comes to quality in the software. For OS X...this is thanks to its Core archietechure, and how the developers take advantage and use it to better benefit their apps...which in the end look stunning. Take Delicious Library, Picturesque, AppZapper, Pages, Keynote, iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, PhotoPresenter, Genius (memorize mode), RapidWeaver, Podcast Maker, Shiira, Cha-Ching, Acquisition, Overflow, FrontRow (opening transition), CoverSutra, QuickSilver, MainMenu, and iTunes (coverflow mode) as some examples out of the many for software excellence designed for OS X.

 

Stability: This again is a personal experience, but for me...OS X (Tiger) has only crashed once in 8 months of owning my Rev.2 Macbook Pro (non-santa rosa)...and that too it was my fault in using a filter wrong in Photoshop CS3 Beta...it was not the OS's fault at all. I tried the same filter again in the final version of CS3...and it did not crash. I could literally open up 1000 windows (I've opened up that much just for the sake of trying it out..yes), and the OS will still run stable and fast...and this is on 2Gb of ram. I tried doing that in Vista (on my friend's Vaio with also 2Gb of RAM), and the OS locked up after 128 windows (yes, I counted). I tried on an Toshiba Satellite running XP at BestBuy, and it locked up in 64 windows. Maybe it was just the computers that I happend to use..but 128 and 64 do not look like numbers of coinsidence to me. Again, I could be wrong..but that was my experience.

 

Memory Management: OS X has a far more superior memory management than Windows XP...and is still ahead of Vista....although Vista did vastly close the gap now. Under XP...you would not notice a speed improvement in the general OS if you went above 1.5Gb....under OS X, you will notice a difference even when you reach 4Gb (tested it myself at an Apple Store on 2 Mac Pros that had 2Gb and 4Gb). Upon using Vista at Best Buy...I tried it on an Acer with 4Gb of ram...and it did not feel any faster than the one with 2Gb of ram my friend had. Yes...OS X gulps up memory, but its being put to better use in terms of management

 

Security: This is a given. It is monumentally safer on the internet under OS X than it is on a PC. No viruses to worry about (please, no one bring up that proven wrong argument on market share). The core UNIX/BSD hybrid foundation that OS X is built on top of is extremely resillent permissions database. It feels awesome when you are on the internet without a virus checking program covering your computer (albeit not always fully proofed) and constantly maintaining its databse. There is no DLL library...thats a huge point IMO. Kext files on OS X are no where as spattered around as DLL files are on Windows PC's.

Visually Appealing/Minimalistic Style: The GUI in OS X does not by any means act intrusive or hurt your eye from prolonged usage of the computer. It's got subtle animations...just when and where you need it, which IMO is perfect (Tiger). The UI (although dated) is still very beautiful to look at even by modern standards...and still easily competes with other OS's today that use flashy looks everywhere, but fail to do anything to increase productivity. Like they say..."if it aint broke, dont fix it". I think that applies and IMO should apply to OS X.

 

My 2 Cents. :laser:

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5 minutes? Are you using Vista? XP doesn't take that long for me to boot in a virtual machine. Anyhow, OS X. It's UNIX without having to bother with administration, the UI is consistant across nearly all apps (and IMHO, far more efficient than X11 and windows). Then, I suppose my favorite thing about OS X is that the third party apps are generally very nicely put together, because mac users are UI snobs and few in numbers, and any software company that makes {censored} for the Mac sinks. As opposed to windows, where the installed base is so large that even {censored} can be profitable (also see: PS2).

I'm on XP, but I have so much {censored} on it, and 2 versions of AIM come up, wireless utility, msn, etc all have to load up at startup. IF i remove their startup key, they still come up >.<

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Well, Mac OS X is much faster than Windows, doesn't get viruses and it is very compatible. I also love the OS X Aqua visual style.

parrot.jpg

Your a Parrot! (repeating what gets driven into ours heads almost every day!)

OS X is faster? On two Identical computers, one running OS X the other Windows, you will find the difference is Minute. Call Windows ugly, clutsy, over-the-top, copy-cat, whatever but Windows is not slow. Dont worry about the above, I reguraly experience drawing issues as described in the following post.

Im not going to argue the virus point, Windows gets viruses. Even if OS X had the same market share as Windows, sometimes I doubt (because of how secure it is) that there would be the same amount of viruses. But I will argue this. I use Windows, I dont get viruses. I am not a moron :thumbsdown_anim:

Mac OS X is... very compatible
Yep, it sure is! But, uhh Windows is too!
I also love the OS X Aqua visual style.
Same, it looks great! Back when I used Windows XP as my primary OS I used to skin it with Windows Blinds, Icon Packenger and Object Dock to make it look as purrty as OS X. Even in Vista I still use Object Dock. Its a shame Apple is really drifting away from Aqua in Leopard, but I still like the new look. Anyway not trying to flame, but I am sick of Windows being cut to boost OS X.
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My 2 Cents. :tomato:

 

That was a very thorough 2 cents - nice post!

 

One thing (out of the many reasons) I like about OS X is how it's different to what everyone else uses. I like to be original - and many people who haven't seen OS X always ask "What's that?" when I boot up my computer.]

 

- Sabr. :shock:

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OS X is faster? On two Identical computers, one running OS X the other Windows, you will find the difference is Minute. Call Windows ugly, clutsy, over-the-top, copy-cat, whatever but Windows is not slow.

I beg to differ. While Windows might run just fine if you only want to do one thing, I'm normally running between 5 and 20 programs at a time, and constantly switching between them. OS X does this instantly (unless you have too little RAM), but XP takes a long time to do something like this, particularly if you have high processor usage. That's even if you have plenty of RAM. Since I'm using a Hackintosh, I can compare directly on the same hardware, and OS X is definitely faster for multitasking.

 

At work I'm forced to use a PC, and I spend much more time than I'd like to just tapping my finger waiting for the computer to do something that should be instant. Think of it this way - when was the last time you saw OS X draw just the border of a window, while you waited for it to draw the contents? I've never seen it. I see it daily in Windows.

 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I think the great things about OS X are it's multitasking, consistent interface between applications, and unix core.

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I beg to differ. While Windows might run just fine if you only want to do one thing, I'm normally running between 5 and 20 programs at a time, and constantly switching between them. OS X does this instantly (unless you have too little RAM), but XP takes a long time to do something like this, particularly if you have high processor usage. That's even if you have plenty of RAM. Since I'm using a Hackintosh, I can compare directly on the same hardware, and OS X is definitely faster for multitasking.

 

At work I'm forced to use a PC, and I spend much more time than I'd like to just tapping my finger waiting for the computer to do something that should be instant. Think of it this way - when was the last time you saw OS X draw just the border of a window, while you waited for it to draw the contents? I've never seen it. I see it daily in Windows.

 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I think the great things about OS X are it's multitasking, consistent interface between applications, and unix core.

 

^i agree, i get windows predraw more often that i care to think about... i can go use my brother's g4 ibook and be wowed by the responsiveness of osx.. and that's on ppc architecture

 

i can't wait til i have enough $ to buy my macbook pro

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I like OS X because it's a unix-based OS that I can also run Photoshop and Microsoft Office on. Apple's built-in software (i.e. iPhoto, iTunes, Safari, Mail) is also very good quality, and independent Mac-only software like Textmate and Adium are miles ahead of anything on the Windows/Linux side.

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I beg to differ. While Windows might run just fine if you only want to do one thing, I'm normally running between 5 and 20 programs at a time, and constantly switching between them. OS X does this instantly (unless you have too little RAM), but XP takes a long time to do something like this, particularly if you have high processor usage. That's even if you have plenty of RAM. Since I'm using a Hackintosh, I can compare directly on the same hardware, and OS X is definitely faster for multitasking.

 

At work I'm forced to use a PC, and I spend much more time than I'd like to just tapping my finger waiting for the computer to do something that should be instant. Think of it this way - when was the last time you saw OS X draw just the border of a window, while you waited for it to draw the contents? I've never seen it. I see it daily in Windows.

 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I think the great things about OS X are it's multitasking, consistent interface between applications, and unix core.

Your right, I get this a lot on my rig actually. I edited my oringinal post.

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I went to school to for cisco networking, I have my CCNA, CCDA.. I'm not a idiot when it comes to computers. So here is my take. I grew up on windows/dos. Windows XP is full of problems, I switched to OS X after having to re-install XP 3 times in 6 weeks. From my experience, XP gradually gets slower and full of bugs. During my times as a windows user I ended up having to re-install dozens of times. OS X never gives me that problem. The only time I've "re-installed" on my mac is when I upgraded to the leopard 9A466.. so I had to reinstall 10.4.10.

 

Windows can have the same look as OS X with a program called window blinds. But that program takes a TON of system resources. Why not just have a nice look built into the OS?

 

Microsoft are computer Nazis, they think they have the computer world by the balls, and they are the big guy in the industry. Its a good thing for them to have competition. Otherwise they can just put out pure {censored}, like vista, and expect people are going to pay $500 for it.

 

Overall, OS X is stable, it looks clean, it boots fast and my programs run smoothly. OS X makes sense. I don't screw around with settings trying to get my computer to run better.. I don't run spy-bot twice a day.. I don't have to run Norton anymore.

 

OS X just runs better...

 

My one complaint about it is that Safari sometimes doesn't work the best on all websites, but its a apple program on a windows internet. 78% of internet users run IE, and only 5% run safari.. so it only makes sense that safari doesn't work on some sites.

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But I will argue this. I use Windows, I dont get viruses. I am not a moron :(

 

Then you must know some kind of magic unknown to us lesser mortals. At the time of the Blaster/Sasser Worm even some between the best sysadministrators got caught.

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Stability, security, speed, and TASTE to just name a few of my reasons.

 

To the guy who says windows boots in 5 min: that can't possibly be true unless your computer is ancient. Neither XP nor vista take so long to boot.

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Mac Vertigo Said it best. And it's true you have to install Windows on average once a month, I have gone a year easily with 10.4.x {x = 1...9} it was an awesome year. I always felt bad cause my brother liked windows an was having problems and the system does get clunkier as it goes on. Thing is though after 10 years he finally is going to get a Mac (intel version of course) but still...

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As i am developing i think that OS X is an much more flexible platform than windows as *Nix used to do in those days

 

You've got all the tools to develope in an *nix environment and windows on it ( With parallels )

 

X10 and X11 are provided so every one's is happy with is gui

 

And to manage the software or clean you've got a tons of scripts

 

so what's is more needed ?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I use (and have always used Mac OS exclusively) Mac OS because it only does what I tell it to do.

 

Every time I boot the XP laptop it does a hundred things on it's own, launching programs that I never downloaded or installed, never use, and cannot disable.

 

If I disable the automatic updates shield during install, the God D#$! thing pops up to tell me that it's not turned on every fifteen minutes. (so it doesn't matter if it is enabled or not, it still interrupts my work like a bothersome kid)

 

I use mac, because it does not delay me or try to think for me. You can "test" and "benchmark" all you want, but at the end of the day I get more done than you do because I don't ever have to "click this balloon to fix this problem" or "click here to learn more about security updates" or acknowledge that I removed a USB Stick Drive without following the four step process required to make XP happy or other such nonsense.

 

I don't need the OS to tell me that I unplugged the F#$%ing Ethernet cable, because I was there when I did it.

 

I know it's unpluged. I unpluged it. Thanks.

 

Also, I find that it is much easier to change the hardware in my Mac, (adding a HDD or changing out a CDR for a DVD+RW does not send my OS into the "new hardware found" BS, or worse yet, Windows can't boot because I changed a DVD+RW for a HDD.

 

I have wires hanging off the back of a G4 tower that I hotswap IDE drives on. It is the end of IDE Channel 1, which you cannot even use as a slave with XP.

 

Oh, and I have never had a critical systems failure. Not in 21 years of using Apple stuff.

 

I have seen hundreds of crashed Windows machines in those years, including my wife's Toshiba Laptop that I have to reinstall XP on about every 3 months or so.

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