Counterpoint: Top 5 Reasons To Use OS X Over Windows
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In response to Top Five List Why You Should Pick Windows Vista Over OS X Leopard, Gnomie Anthony Kinyon writes in with a counterpoint:
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: 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 inflict 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 this article in PC World, you will see that “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.”
Obviously, Apple must be doing something big correctly.
“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.”
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.
4 Comments
Matt
December 27th, 2007
at 4:28pm
All of solid tips my friend. Also consider that your digital media, your camera, camcorder, ipod, all works flawlessly with iLife and no software is required to use them on your pc.
DaveN
December 28th, 2007
at 11:58am
Not sure how you can say Apple is worth more than Dell. Dell is #34 on the Fortune 500 with revenues of $57 billion. Microsoft is #49 with $44 billion, and Apple is #121 with $19 billion. While they’re obviously doing a great job, I don’t think they’re making anyone sweat quite yet.
The other thing is that, while Apple may be on fire in the home market, they’re dead in the water in businesses. While their entertainment products have huge market share, their personal computer penetration world wide is only a few percent.
Jim Fidelholtz
December 30th, 2007
at 11:04am
I have [almost] always known [almost] all of the 5 points mentioned for buying an Apple. Their OS has always been better than that of PCs in general, and when have been forced to use one on occasion, the experience has been generally intuitive and pleasant. And I have still *never* entertained the notion of buying one. I really only have two reasons for this (the first along with most other people who have never bought an Apple computer):
Reason no. 1: Apple’s superproprietariness (resistance to open hardware arquitectures and open software) and extremely high pricing. In fairness, I should mention that *very* recently I have seen signs of *some* modification of the points mentioned in this reason.
Reason no. 2: My first personal computer was the Commodore64. I had learned computing (assembly language) basically on a PDP-1 in the late 60s (16K total memory, only 4K directly addressable, speed about 1 *kilo*Hertz, worth over 100 Kilo$). So I was amazed and pleased at the more than 4-fold increase in memory (10 years later) and speed and accessibility and that it had native BASIC programming, which I learned. All of this for a few hundred dollars. What I was displeased with was the unfair and false campaign Apple waged against the Commodore (the 64 was then much superior to the then-current Apple computer model, even then much more expensive (about 3 to 5 times, if memory serves)). This campaign continued against the Amiga Commodore (which I never bought one of), which was easily the best-designed personal computer of its era, but which, thanks largely to Apple’s sneaky campaign, in my opinion, became defunct after a while. I am not a very vengeful person: I tend to get mad quick and get over it quick. I have never, however, forgiven Apple for this attack against Commodore, and they, for their part, have never yet made their computers so appealing and cheap that I *had* to get one.
I admit that Apples, even then, had more reliable hardware than Commodore did. The difference, though, was relative, and I preferred to spend a few times fewer dollars for a few tens of percentage points (say) poorer hardware reliability, since buying a second Commodore computer still would have left me on the plus side financially, and with a better computer otherwise.
This, then, is why, over 25 years later, I still don’t think about buying Apple computers.
Eric Legault
January 7th, 2008
at 6:48pm
“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.â€
“By comparison, Microsoft is trading at $36 and Dell is trading at $25. ”
I don’t think comparing share prices like this is very useful. These companies don’t have the same number of shares outstanding and they also are not trading at the same P/E ratio.