| I can't tell whether this is a serious post or not, but as someone who uses both every day: > - Virtual invulnerability to malware - no need to buy and use crippling and intrusive anti-malware systems. > - Partly as a result of the above, it's noticeably faster. If you let Windows Update do its thing and recognize that downloading and launching freevideo.avi.exe and granting it admin access seems like a bad idea, there's nothing to worry about. Microsoft Security Essentials is free, stays quiet, and uses a negligible amount of memory. > - Time Machine (albeit it would be much nicer if it were based on ZFS). Backup and Restore. It's not as pretty nor well marketed, but it does the job just fine. > - It comes bundled with pretty computers that have no blue LEDs (and most users, Windows and Mac alike, just stick to whatever came pre-installed). My last HP had 18 blue light sources piercing my retinas all the time. So does Windows. You have a choice of whether to buy a Latitude or the pink Alienware XPS Mega 8000 with the Lady Gaga vinyl faceplate. > - The company comes with a very charismatic CEO. Windows comes with a jolly bald guy and an awesome well known philanthropist. Can we call it a draw? > - It's prettier than Windows. This depends on the person really, but I do love the borderless windows in OSX. The super-fat window borders in Win7 look silly (although you can make them smaller). The other big difference is the Dock, and that probably falls under UX rather than design. I hate how much space it wastes compared to the Taskbar though. > - It just works. And keeps working. Except when something goes wrong, as tends to happen in tech built by anyone running any OS. I think you'll find that the general consensus is that Win7 is rock solid and just as stable as OSX. > - If you are a developer, it offers a rich Unix environment matched only by Linux machines - that, I have to admit, don't work as consistently. It also comes with a kick-ass IDE for free. Win7 has PowerShell and MS gives away Visual Studio Express too. It really depends on what you're developing for, of course. > - It already ships with a decent web browser. No need to download and install one. IE8 is more than decent - it is by far the most popular and reliable method for downloading Firefox. Also, do any OSX power users even use Safari? All the OSX people I know use either Chrome or Firefox. > - The App Store promises near-Linux ease for finding, selecting, downloading and keeping software up-to-date. It certainly beats the Windows way of googling for the software, hitting a malware site, going back, searching more, finding the correct site, downloading an executable and giving it the keys to the kingdom so it can do whatever it wants with your computer, something it may never recover from. My first experience with the App Store was being asked for credit card information when I tried to download the free Twitter app. Ninite is a Windows app that comes close to doing what the App Store does. |
I am only half-joking
> If you let Windows Update do its thing
I find the "don't turn off the computer just now, applying update 10 of 130" very annoying. I am glad I only see it in VMs these days
> Backup and Restore. It's not as pretty nor well marketed
Time Machine (and the time slider in Solaris) allow you to see and restore last week's version of any file without you consciously having to back it up.
> You have a choice of whether to buy a Latitude or the pink Alienware XPS Mega 8000 with the Lady Gaga vinyl faceplate
You have a strange notion of what would be a pretty computer.
> Windows comes with a jolly bald guy and an awesome well known philanthropist
Both of them accused (and found guilty) of monopoly abuse. I stay with Jobs.
> Except when something goes wrong
The only time I had to reinstall a Mac was when upgrading hard disks. With Windows it's so frequent I keep disk images and VM snapshots to help me.
> It really depends on what you're developing for, of course.
Indeed. Windows is the best platform for developing for Windows.
> IE (...) is by far the most popular and reliable method for downloading Firefox.
Can't argue with that, but, unless I am developing on the Mac, I stick with Safari.
> My first experience with the App Store
Give them some slack. It's a first attempt. Too bad they couldn't decide to just copy what Linux has since the early 2000's...