Windows

Top Five List Why You Should Pick Windows Vista Over OS X Leopard

Posted by on Dec 25, 2007 | 10 Comments

Gnomie Ryan Grier writes:

Hey, Chris, I’ve been a computer power user for about five years now. I’m 13 and live in Scotland. Anyway, here are my top five reasons why you should have Windows Vista over OS X Leopard.

  1. Plentiful popular software. Almost every program and device works with Windows — like Photoshop and Sketchup. Not a lot of program providers are focusing their attention on the Apple market.

  2. Ease of accessing removable disks. With Windows, you can easily access your removable disk and mod the files inside of it easily without the need to be a power user or for third party software.
  3. Email’s flexible. You can use almost any email service/program you want, like Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Exchange without the need to use the Mac’s built-in software.
  4. Windows is a good springboard for the power user. If you are intending on becoming a power user or a computer geek, Windows is a good place to start. You can learn new things quickly and easily, and if you mess something up, it can usually be easily repaired.
  5. A PC’s internal hardware can be mixed and matched. You can use any hardware that fits your motherboard, completely custom made to your exact specs, speeds, and memory. With Macs, all you can upgrade is RAM and the HDD.

Well that’s my top five list, Chris. Hope you like it.

  • Harry

    there is no reason why anyone should pick Mac OSX when you can achieve everything in Windows. Mac is like a pot plant by the window.

  • http://kinyonsoftware.com Anthony Kinyon

    Can we say FUD? :) What a load of nonsense. :) Most of the “top 5″ reasons to use Vista over OS X are completely misleading, if not outright untrue.

    So let me offer this:

    Top 5 Reasons to use OS X over Windows Vista or XP:

    #1 Plenty of popular software for Mac OS X also: Most of the Google software (Desktop, Gmail + Google Calendar Notifier, Gadgets, Google Earth, Sketchup, Picasa plug-in for iPhoto, and more). Microsoft Office – with a new version due in January – 100% compatible with Office for Windows. NeoOffice (based on OpenOffice.org), PhotoShop, Microsoft Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Adium universal IM (based upon libpurple from Pidgin, which runs on Windows + Linux). And many many more. Bear in mind that Macs have a reputation as more secure and more stable than Windows. Mac OS X is built atop BSD UNIX. Windows is still built atop the NT kernel from back in the early 90s. Macs do not suffer in general from problems like viruses, spyware, etc. that inflicts Windows. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen, but Mac OS X is generally considered superior when it comes to security. With *any* OS the user is ultimately responsible for using good judgment and common sense.

    #2 Ease of accessing removable disks. With Mac OS X, you can easily access your removable disk and mod the files inside of it easily without the need to be a power user or for third party software. Just connect your USB or FireWire drive and an icon appears right away on your desktop – open it up and there are all your files – you can easily manipulate them as you see fit, be the disk formatted as Windows or Mac format. Not a problem at all. No extra drivers/software required.

    #3 E-mail is VERY flexible on Mac OS X. You can use Apple Mail, comes with the OS – like Outlook Express on Windows, except Mail is much smarter and more intuitive. You can ALSO use Microsoft Entourage from MS Office, which is the Mac version of Outlook. You can use Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, and *several* other e-mail clients, whichever one you prefer.

    #4 OS X is a good springboard for the power user. If you are intending on becoming a power user or a computer geek, OS X is a good place to start. You can learn new things quickly and easily, and if you mess something up, it can usually be easily repaired. Unlike Windows, an OS reinstall is not usually required and most things can be undone easily.

    #5 It is true that PCs in general are more modifiable than Macs internally, however, on Macs you can replace, customize and upgrade the following with relative ease in most cases: CPUs, RAM/memory, hard disk, optical drive (CD-ROM/DVD), and any external devices (USB/Firewire) as you see fit. It isn’t like there are no upgrade options if you want to. Any computer expert can tell you the main performance affecting factors in a computer are the CPU and memory and the hard drive RPMs (7200 vs. 5400 for example). On the Mac Pro you can also replace the video card and other components if you wish, just as you would on a PC. However, bear in mind that generally Macs do *not* suffer the constant driver problems, blue screen of death (BSOD) and so forth that plague Windows PCs. Drivers on Mac OS X are extremely stable and highly optimized in most cases.

    If you look at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140814-page,1/article.html you will see that quote “it was a record-breaking year for Apple. The company celebrated outstanding results for each financial quarter and saw its best ever financial year. The company’s market cap hit $161.84 billion, more than IBM and Intel, and it became the third largest PC supplier in the U.S., with 6.3 percent of the market, according to IDC.” end quote.

    Obviously, Apple must be doing *something* big correctly.

    Meanwhile:

    http://tinyurl.com/yp7geu

    quote “Shares of Apple Inc. hit the $200 mark for the first time Wednesday, as investor confidence in the company continued rising near the end of what has been a strong year for the iPod and computer maker.” end quote.

    By comparison, Microsoft is trading at $36 and Dell is trading at $25. Apple is already worth considerably more than Dell and is catching up to Microsoft quickly. For now Microsoft has more overall worth but Apple is gaining ground very fast.

    My opinion: Macs are not perfect. Windows PCs are not perfect. Each person should us what they prefer and what works best for them and their needs. However, much of the “anti-Mac” or so called “reasons Windows is better than Mac OS X” are complete nonsense and often given by Windows fanboys or people who really do not have a clear understanding of the topic. Many self-proclaimed “experts” are anything but experts. :) Don’t believe the nonsense until you try it out for yourself, that’s my advice.

  • Jeff

    I must agree with Anthony here although I’m not an Apple fan. I used Macs for years and became frustrated with the move to OS X. I figured, if I had to struggle with doing any command line stuff I might as well use Windows. Win XP changed everything for the PC and brought it closer to the Mac user experience. But even with my great displeasure of Apple, I would hardly say that the reasons you mention here are good enough to make anyone use a PC over the Mac. You need more meat with those potatos man. And I do believe the DO have Photoshop for the Mac so find another software example. Vista is a nice change and is another step closer to the Mac user experience. I like the way Vista feels and moves. I feel I have more customization and info available at my fingertips than ever before with a PC OS. MS should have just skipped Vista and came out with its next total re-write OS. The Mac did it with OS X and you hardly heard a whimper (that was my lonely voice crying in the distance back then) and people will adapt (once again, look at the OS X change over). Hurry up Microsoft!

  • Holden

    hey i am 13 and used vista and Mac OS 10 and vista is better but not with the apps because mac has really good apps like Garage band, Sketchup, and Safari.

  • MacBoy14

    Why would I want to get Vista??
    1.. BSODS!!!!!!!!
    2.. Errors every which way you turn. Every time I try to do something I get an error.
    3.. Windows isn’t the best at gaming….All the games I have played on mac a beautiful and run perfectly.
    4.. Leopard is just as pretty as Vista or even prettier without the massive resource hogging.
    5.. Vista has all these little rules..especially product keys..Mac NO SUCH THING. What happens if you bought ultimate then 5 days later your computer dies? Then you go buy another computer but it only has Home Premium and you want ultimate.. You can’t install you’re copy because of the stupid validation.. You have to buy a whole new key. With Leopard you don’t have to do that.

  • Anuv1z

    actually “macboy14″ windows IS best at gaming, i own a 680i chipset, 4gb ram, x6800 and i have installed mac leopard, linux – debian, ubuntu, XP 32x, and Vista ultimate 64x.

    to tell you the truth i love how mac looks, i just LOVE it, the exteriors and the OS are plain awsome, however i actually configured my LINUX programs to look quite similar even more estetic in my opinion, this is easily done with KDE and a bit more complicated on GNOME yet possible, linux is another world, i fell in lvoe with it the day i installed it, however gaming on it, and i love gaming cs-source, ut etc.., sucks… just a couple of programs can run natively on linux such as quake 4 and doom3. gaming on is possible but yet the FPS are way lower that windows, most games run beautifully on XP and just a couple like fear actually run better on Vista, however any of this windows will run them better than mac, another thing iv noticed is that mac has some awsome programs for editing etc… however the programs iv found most useful are available for pc, and work just as good, and if they are not, they are easily substitued, the only exception i can think of would be parallelum, i think thats its name, a great mac virtual pc program.

    i usually find myself most of the time on Debian or Ubuntu, only going back to windows for gaming, and to vista to run DX10 games, but i bearly ever boot into LEOPARD, there is no need for it, except to show off :p

    Overally i find Linux>windows>mac
    though… macs are soo sexy i that if i have to choose a laptop MAC FTW!!!

    anyway thats just my opinion… but i own you… ^.^

  • Matt

    Lockergnome,

    Maybe MacOSX isn’t available in the hinterlands of Scotland, but you probably should at least try it out before making patently false claims about it. (Sounds like you got your list from some other Windoze fanboy’s site.)

    #1 Um, Apple has a huge amount of software, with a much higher ratio of quality to crap than the Windoze world, where you mainly get crap. Sure, if you’re a 13 year old boy or even a 30 year old manboy and just want to play games all day, then WIndows is your thing.

    #2 is completely false. Removable media pops up immediately on the desktop. “Superuser privileges” to access removable media!?! Are you making this up? Sounds like your referring to Linux ca. 1995.

    #3. Yeah right…. It’s the Mac world that dominated by a crappy corporate email client… Sure… Nothing of the sort has ever happened in Windows… (Seriously, do you want me to make a list of all the Mac email software out there?)

    #4. What?!? So learning UNIX core of Mac OSX is not a poweruser activity?!?

    #5. O.K., I’ll grant you that. But OSX and Linux are close enough that I could put together my own PC and run Debian, Ubuntu, or some other distro any time I wanted to.

  • case17

    I would have to disagree. I think both Windows Vista and OS X are great operating systems. I think really what it all comes down to is your personal preference. I have both a mac and a pc. Personally, I prefer windows navigation better, and like it better for gaming, but they are both great systems.

  • Neill Silva

    I have to say, none of these points were points at all. Nor were they sensical or true.

  • http://oxhousecameldoor.blogspot.com snehalbhai

    I’m a “relatively” happy Mac user, but there are definitely pros and cons to using a Mac:

    Apple is lagging behind Google when it comes to apps (yes, most Google apps were simply bought by Google, but they have a good eye when it comes to buying).

    iPhoto is really inefficient. It copies all of your photos into a colossal library, making it really hard to edit the files except from within iPhoto’s. Also, iPhoto lacks Picasa’s smooth scrolling, so it’s easy to get lost while navigating though thousands of photos. Rumors that Picasa is coming out with a Mac version have persisted for years, to no fruition.

    As an architect, I’m still somewhat bound to Windows because AutoCAD hasn’t come out on Macs yet.

    But on the other hand, OS X Mail is a good supplement to Gmail. As a rule, I don’t use POP because I tend to have three or four major data losses a decade. Yes, I back up my data, but I’d rather not have to restore my email if I don’t have to. The less I keep on my hard drive, the better. But OS X Mail can be set up to sync with my Gmail account, and I think it’s easier to search for really old emails in OS X Mail than in Gmail, which forces you to scroll through extensive search results 20 at a time. Gmail also groups conversations together, which is mostly a good thing, but if you’re looking for a message sent on, say, Jan. 1, 2008, it’ll be harder to find if it was part of a longer, multi-week conversation.

    Vertical and horizontal scrolling with the Mac’s roller ball is a big plus. Yes, Photoshop is available on both Windows and OS X, but it’s much easier to navigate in OS X. Cooliris for Firefox is way more fun to navigate on Mac than Windows because of the roller ball. The MacBook’s trackpad “gestures” also make navigation easier than in Windows.

    And another big plus for Mac: it’s 1000% easier to search for files on a Mac. I still don’t understand why Windows has a clumsy search interface that’s slow and doesn’t return results. Google Desktop is OK, but it requires indexing first, it’s not as efficient as OS X for searching Contents, and it forces you to do your searching inside a browser.

    Another plus for Macs: it’s impossible to type foreign characters on a PC. Anytime I want to type an é, on a Mac I simply type Option-E. On a PC, there’s a long Unicode to memorize, or I’d have to have my keyboard already set in French, or I’d have to pre-program keystrokes. It’s so tedious I usually just wind up Googling the foreign word I want and then copy and paste. Not very efficient. Same goes for em dashes and en dashes (Option-hyphen and Shift-Option-hyphen on Mac; God knows what on a PC).

    And yes, OS X is more stable. After my last (and only) PC got fried, I’m not likely to go back. I’m just waiting for Picasa to be available in OS X. Most of the other good third-party apps already are.