Is Mac OS 10.5 Leopard ultimately better than Windows Vista?
As someone who has recently migrated from Windows to the Mac, I wanted to provide a pre-emptive answer to this question because recent criticism of Leopard might make anyone contemplating the switch have second thoughts.
On the whole, I think Leopard is superb. The overwhelming reason to move from Windows to the Mac is the Finder. The basic way you store your files and acess them is just so simple and intuitive, I cannot fault it. Supporting systems that enable you to search for whatever you're looking for, including Spotlight, Expose, Quicklook, Coverflow and Column view are all equally impressive tools that add to the OS's basic functionality.
When you're completely familiar with an OS, as so many Mac afficionados are here on AI, it is easy to overlook the basics which make it so user-friendly. You forget why you fell in love with it. By comparison, Windows Vista is clunky, confusing and very often downright difficult to find what you want. Most of the stability issues people are encountering with Leopard seem to be due to running it on older machines, especially those that are pre-Intel. Windows Vista has plenty of stability issues for brand new machines running it let alone legacy PCs. Quite a few not so old machines simply won't run it. Period.
The sheer clarity of the Mac interface is yet another bonus. Then there's Time Machine, the Dock and cool features like iChat. Do I need to go on? More than any single application within the OS, the sheer simplicity and speed of setting up a new Mac means that its promise of out-of-the-box plug and playfulness is genuinely fulfilled. In fact, for Windows users unfamiliar with the Mac, OSX's simplicity is unnerving: you think that it can't be this simple. You think you've forgotten something or that something is missing.
Now that I have a Mac, I am simply stunned at the amount of time I must have wasted configuring or fixing problems with my Windows-based machines. So, despite inevitable glitches with OSX and Mac hardware, my cup is definitely half-full. I am in awe of what Apple has achieved. It has usurped Microsoft's place as the world leader in technology.
I fully suspect that 2008 will be the year that Apple begins to crack the corporate market again. Not just ad agencies and film production companies, but hardcore law firms, consultancies and financial services businesses.
So, my defection from Windows has converted me into one of the faithful. I'd be interested to hear what other Ex-Windows users think.
On the whole, I think Leopard is superb. The overwhelming reason to move from Windows to the Mac is the Finder. The basic way you store your files and acess them is just so simple and intuitive, I cannot fault it. Supporting systems that enable you to search for whatever you're looking for, including Spotlight, Expose, Quicklook, Coverflow and Column view are all equally impressive tools that add to the OS's basic functionality.
When you're completely familiar with an OS, as so many Mac afficionados are here on AI, it is easy to overlook the basics which make it so user-friendly. You forget why you fell in love with it. By comparison, Windows Vista is clunky, confusing and very often downright difficult to find what you want. Most of the stability issues people are encountering with Leopard seem to be due to running it on older machines, especially those that are pre-Intel. Windows Vista has plenty of stability issues for brand new machines running it let alone legacy PCs. Quite a few not so old machines simply won't run it. Period.
The sheer clarity of the Mac interface is yet another bonus. Then there's Time Machine, the Dock and cool features like iChat. Do I need to go on? More than any single application within the OS, the sheer simplicity and speed of setting up a new Mac means that its promise of out-of-the-box plug and playfulness is genuinely fulfilled. In fact, for Windows users unfamiliar with the Mac, OSX's simplicity is unnerving: you think that it can't be this simple. You think you've forgotten something or that something is missing.
Now that I have a Mac, I am simply stunned at the amount of time I must have wasted configuring or fixing problems with my Windows-based machines. So, despite inevitable glitches with OSX and Mac hardware, my cup is definitely half-full. I am in awe of what Apple has achieved. It has usurped Microsoft's place as the world leader in technology.
I fully suspect that 2008 will be the year that Apple begins to crack the corporate market again. Not just ad agencies and film production companies, but hardcore law firms, consultancies and financial services businesses.
So, my defection from Windows has converted me into one of the faithful. I'd be interested to hear what other Ex-Windows users think.
Comments
And Windows in general just seems to get really sluggish over time. I haven't had the Mac long enough to see if the same can be said for Apple's mighty OS
I've had my MBp for about a year and a half. Its probably faster now that I've put Leopard on it. No degradation in performance in the time that I've had it and long time users tell me that I shouldn't expect to see a performance degradation.
Most of the windows performance issues seem to be related to viruses and spyware. Even with programs to detect and eliminate these they still get through and wreak havoc.
It's just an OS to me - I need Windows to get my work done (Office 2007, especially Excel and Access, and for MS SQL and Visual Studio 2008 development).
Sure, I could use VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox, but my laptop is faster.
I use my Mac Mini at home for web browsing, e-mail, and I've been looking into Xcode lately, do some Perl, a bit of Java, and RDC, but the majority of my actual work is still Windows-based. Samba works well between Leopard and Vista too, so I'm happy there.
MS doesn't offer Access on OSX, Mac:Office 2008 is a major disappointment, and iWork 08 just can't cut it for me. I'm disappointed with some of the iLife 08 apps too, iPhoto crashes on me a lot, and is sluggish when working with my camera's RAW files.
I haven't had any issues with Vista for some time, it reminded me of every other Microsoft OS at launch; buggy video drivers, and games didn't run well. It wasn't until SP2, that XP became really good.
I love how OSX can go from a cold boot to up and running in no time, how most features are a lot more streamlined, but I really do dislike Finder - it's such a piss poor file manager IMO. I just prefer Vista's Explorer so much more. Bluetooth gives me problems on my Mac at home too - Vista works better in that regard.
UAC is a good thing (in theory), as there really is no reason to run as an admin at all times, but it suffers from poor implementation and poorly written apps. I find it really stupid that changing the time on the clock, causes a UAC prompt (Ubuntu raises a prompt too, but it's just the clock).
The lack of a 'sudo' command in the CMD drives me nuts, as I then I have to remember to run the entire CMD with admin privileges.
Outside of that, I maybe see one, two UAC prompts a week, about the same number of password prompts I get at home on my Mini. I've found more UAC problems with our enterprise apps than anything - we have to disable UAC on the work machines, as the apps are still written around admin rights. Boo.
I've never had a virus in 10 years running Windows, so it's never been an issue, and I do believe that any computer on the internet is potential vulnerable to exploits and spyware, nothing is perfect.
For me, the more I use both Leopard and Vista (with the latest updates, which should've been there in the first place), the less difference I see between both (outside of my work needs).
don't ask that question.. apple's always better than windows
You're comparing a company to an operating system?
For me Leopard and XP are kinda 50 50. However, I do have to say that it is probably because I use leopard 80% of the time and xp 20% of the time (via vmware mostly, but sometimes through bootcamp), so I notice the mac annoyances more, and remember the xp annoyances less.
I have never found finder to be all that great, and is getting on my nerves more and more, and am increasingly yearning for the windows file manager, which I find more user friendly. This may be because I used xp for so long, and am more used to it. I moved to mac 6 months ago, and pretty quickly mastered most of the things I needed, but am aware that there are a few things I don't know how to use (very few).
Similar to Guinness, in my non-mac days, using windows was no problem for me. I never (well, hardly ever) got viruses, so that was not an issue. I also took full control of my hardware issues, keeping up with latest drivers, and sorting things out when needed. As I kept up on maintenance, that was no problem.
I am aware this is a comparison between leopard and vista, and I have been comparing leopard and xp. I think leopard vs xp would be a more appropriate comparison than leopard vs vista. I have not used vista that much. I never really had an urge to move from xp, as it was pretty secure for me, and after 5 or so year on the market before vista reared it's ugly head, it was pretty much a good enough standard. I still find it tricky navigating vista, and a bit bloaty. It looks great though, but that's about it for me.