I've had a PC for years and haven't really been troubled by these so-called "viruses." If you're smart, you don't get them. That seems to be the ONLY thing Mac users ever think about. Even watching Apple commercials, it's like, VIRUSES ARE THE ONLY THING ANYONE TALKS ABOUT.
Forget viruses for a sec. What ELSE does Leopard have over Vista? (Don't try and pretend Apple invented file backups, cuz they didn't. Giving it some space background does NOT make it any better. Pretending this is somehow "insanely great" is just the sort of thing that gives Mac users a bad name.)
That's because you don't understand the difference between it, and what MS offers in its systems. It isn't just the visual interface, though that's nice. Read a little.
It sounded like science fiction the first time I heard about it: Windows Vista includes a feature called ReadyBoost that lets you use a USB 2.0-based flash memory device--typically a USB memory key--to speed up the performance of virtually any Vista PC. After grinning like an idiot for an uncomfortable amount of time, I realized the Microsoft rep telling me about this feature was serious. Huh. Hmm.
Now, there are prerequisites, of course. The USB memory device must meet certain performance and storage characteristics (2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes; 64 MB to 8 GB of free space; 256 MB of overall storage or more) which virtually no human being understands or knows how to discover. Don't worry about that stuff too much unless you're literally shopping for a new memory key: Just plug one of your exiting keys into a Vista machine and see if it works.
ReadyBoost works by augmenting your system's memory with the memory on the USB device. The first time you plug in a compatible device, the Vista AutoPlay dialog will present "Speed up my system" as an option (Figure). You can then access the Memory tab of the device's property sheet to determine how much storage space to set aside for ReadyBoost (Figure). Note that this storage will no longer be available for other uses (unless you format the device or change the properties in Vista). You can't use a single key on two or more Vista machines. You can't use two or more USB keys on one PC. And, yes, Vista will recommend how much to set aside. (It typically wants a lot of space, so it may be a good idea to dedicate a USB memory key entire to this project. Hey, they're cheap.)
Why is this good? With a typical desktop PC, it's not necessarily hard to add RAM, but that's not true of most notebooks, and in either case, you may be limited by technical ability and desire, corporate restrictions preventing you from mucking around with your system, or actual hardware limitations where you've already maxed out the system RAM. In any case, you can simply improve the performance of your system by plugging in a compatible USB memory key, configuring it, and getting back to work. Bliss.
There have been some concerns that ReadyBoost will shorten the lifespan of the USB memory key because they're only rated to a certain number of reads and writes. My attitude is, who cares? These things are cheap, and if you're wise, you'll dedicate one solely to this purpose. If it dies, it dies. Get another one. (Besides, Microsoft refutes these claims, noting that its research shows that you will get at ten or more years out of life using ReadyBoost.)
ReadyBoost will give the biggest improvements to low-RAM PCs and, of course, the more storage on the key the matter. Adding a 1 GB USB memory key to a PC with 512 MB of RAM (ugh) will provide dramatic results. Adding the same key to a PC with 4 GB of RAM, well, not so much.
So the bottom line is this. ReadyBoost is a set-it-and-forget-it feature with no downsides at all, a small financial outlay (assuming you don't have a compatible key sitting around; I understand they come in cereal boxes now), and it delivers a nice performance boost. Who could ask for more?
The joke about ReadyBoost amongst the PC commumity is that Vista needs it to just function at a usable level.
Flash isn't meant to be written to more than about 100,000 times, after that it can begin to fail. But, that sounds just about right.
Please remember, though, that I am myself a MAC USER. I LIKE MACS BETTER. But I am just trying to point out some of the cool things in Windows Vista, and it bugs me when everyone gets all sarcastic and negative rather than admitting that Windows actually has good points, not JUST bad.
You're not a real Mac user, because you haven't bothered to find out anything about the features, which are right on Apple's site.
Actually, you don't understand much about Vista's feature's either. Oops! They had to remove all of them.
Since when does that ship with Windows? turnwrite wanted to hear a feature Mac OS has over Windows; this is one. Obviously, you can extend Windows to have more features through third-party products, just as you can do the same for Mac OS with third-party products.
The eye candy is just as good as OSX, too. It's even 3D eye candy.
So come on.
What does Leopard HAVE that Vista DOES NOT HAVE?
Name something worthwhile. Seriously.
First of all, I'm not a naysayer wrt to Vista. I think it looks good overall, despite some shameless, ah, "inspiration" from OS X. It's still Windows, of course, which means 57 control panels and *lots* of wizards and letter drives and a sort of bland, cheesy corporate feel to the whole thing, but it's a serious challenge to Apple with "Windows iLife" (1.0, anyway) bundled in and it looks like it's going to be a much improved OS over XP. I look forward to trying it out.
That said. It's pretty clear that Apple is keeping quite a few of cards secret because they don't want MS to copy them at the last minute -- or they're not 100% done -- or both. So we're not going to find out what Leopard really consists of until (I suspect) MWSF in January.
Right now: over Vista, Leopard offers Time Machine (a much slicker way of handling backups than Vista's "Previous Files", and quite innovative in the way it ties directly to the application), nifty-looking, Exposé-savvy virtual desktops (Spaces), screen-sharing in iChat (very useful and cool!), and systemwide to-dos.
And OS X still offers a simpler, more elegant UI... but that's my opinion of course.
Is that enough? Not even close. I think there'll be much more to come.
Supports EFI (on Intel) & OpenFirmware (on PPC) both vastly superior to BIOS
Core Video
Core Audio
Core Data
Core Animation
Unified 64 bit and 32 bit system (i.e., you don't get either a 32 bit version or a 64 bit version. You can mix 32 bit and 64 bit device drivers. This is very, very significant and not a minor achievement on Apple's part; I'm surprised more hasn't been made of this)
ColourSync
Keychain (don't know if Vista has an equivalent)
The thing is, on the whole, I don't really care about which OS has more features, or who came up with what first. The important thing is which OS implements the features you need the best. For me, that is OS X by far.
Windows ReadyBoost is a press-release marketing feature with no real merit. If it does give a significant performance boost to Vista, all it does is highlight that Vista's virtual memory implementation is highly odd and probably deeply flawed.
USB sticks are slower, and lower capacity, than Hard Drives. Using a USB stick as a store for virtual memory is a ridiculously bad idea.
Honestly, the best thing about Vista is that brings Windows up to speed (mostly) with OS X... all in one huge release.
The stuff it adds for consumers that Tiger doesn't have -- you can count on one hand. Parental controls, better file recovery.... um.... that's about it.
But the best thing about Vista is also the worst thing. It's a monster of a release, and MS's struggles with it have been very visible. They'll be working out the bugs and compatibility kinks for some time to come.
C'mon guys...let turnwrite wallow in his misery. Why do you all feel compelled to show evidence that OS X has superior features? We have nothing to prove.
Honestly, the best thing about Vista is that brings Windows up to speed with OS X... all in one huge release.
The stuff it adds for consumers that Tiger doesn't have -- you can can count on one hand. Parental controls, better file recovery.... um.... that's about it.
But the best thing about Vista is also the worst thing. It's a monster of a release, and MS's struggles with it have been very apparent. They'll be working out the bugs and compatibility kinks for some time to come.
Parental control has been around for awhile in OS X. They're definitely there in Tiger and were there in some form in Panther and Jaguar (although they weren't called Parental Control back then.)
Hm. Spaces. "Innovative?" Are you JOKING? Linux has had that for HOW many years....?
Automatic file backups is another idea that is HARDLY new.. Perhaps Apple's approach is slightly different from what other people are doing, but not hugely. And Windows DOES have "Previous Versions."
"USB sticks are slower ... than Hard Drives." Super. Now go back to your home planet.
It is stuff like this that I am talking about: "Actually, you don't understand much about Vista's feature's either. Oops! They had to remove all of them." COME ON, PEOPLE! Admit it, Vista has some really cool things about it. SO DOES OS X. BUT SO DOES VISTA. I'm not saying Vista is better. I LIKE OS X BETTER. I just think it is cleaner. System Preferences vs Control Panels would be a good example. But I am pointing out how disgusted I was with WWDC, where Apple was just being so stuck up it ended up being FUNNY. Because they are acting like they own the world, when HOW MUCH MORE MARKET SHARE DOES MICROSOFT HAVE? It just makes me mad when they completely diss Microsoft, who is actually doing a STELLAR job of improving from XP...
Comments
OK.
You guys.
Antivirus is good.
But, like, GET OVER IT.
I've had a PC for years and haven't really been troubled by these so-called "viruses." If you're smart, you don't get them. That seems to be the ONLY thing Mac users ever think about. Even watching Apple commercials, it's like, VIRUSES ARE THE ONLY THING ANYONE TALKS ABOUT.
Forget viruses for a sec. What ELSE does Leopard have over Vista? (Don't try and pretend Apple invented file backups, cuz they didn't. Giving it some space background does NOT make it any better. Pretending this is somehow "insanely great" is just the sort of thing that gives Mac users a bad name.)
That's because you don't understand the difference between it, and what MS offers in its systems. It isn't just the visual interface, though that's nice. Read a little.
One good feature?
Here:
Windows ReadyBoost
It sounded like science fiction the first time I heard about it: Windows Vista includes a feature called ReadyBoost that lets you use a USB 2.0-based flash memory device--typically a USB memory key--to speed up the performance of virtually any Vista PC. After grinning like an idiot for an uncomfortable amount of time, I realized the Microsoft rep telling me about this feature was serious. Huh. Hmm.
Now, there are prerequisites, of course. The USB memory device must meet certain performance and storage characteristics (2.5MB/sec throughput for 4K random reads and 1.75MB/sec throughput for 512K random writes; 64 MB to 8 GB of free space; 256 MB of overall storage or more) which virtually no human being understands or knows how to discover. Don't worry about that stuff too much unless you're literally shopping for a new memory key: Just plug one of your exiting keys into a Vista machine and see if it works.
ReadyBoost works by augmenting your system's memory with the memory on the USB device. The first time you plug in a compatible device, the Vista AutoPlay dialog will present "Speed up my system" as an option (Figure). You can then access the Memory tab of the device's property sheet to determine how much storage space to set aside for ReadyBoost (Figure). Note that this storage will no longer be available for other uses (unless you format the device or change the properties in Vista). You can't use a single key on two or more Vista machines. You can't use two or more USB keys on one PC. And, yes, Vista will recommend how much to set aside. (It typically wants a lot of space, so it may be a good idea to dedicate a USB memory key entire to this project. Hey, they're cheap.)
Why is this good? With a typical desktop PC, it's not necessarily hard to add RAM, but that's not true of most notebooks, and in either case, you may be limited by technical ability and desire, corporate restrictions preventing you from mucking around with your system, or actual hardware limitations where you've already maxed out the system RAM. In any case, you can simply improve the performance of your system by plugging in a compatible USB memory key, configuring it, and getting back to work. Bliss.
There have been some concerns that ReadyBoost will shorten the lifespan of the USB memory key because they're only rated to a certain number of reads and writes. My attitude is, who cares? These things are cheap, and if you're wise, you'll dedicate one solely to this purpose. If it dies, it dies. Get another one. (Besides, Microsoft refutes these claims, noting that its research shows that you will get at ten or more years out of life using ReadyBoost.)
ReadyBoost will give the biggest improvements to low-RAM PCs and, of course, the more storage on the key the matter. Adding a 1 GB USB memory key to a PC with 512 MB of RAM (ugh) will provide dramatic results. Adding the same key to a PC with 4 GB of RAM, well, not so much.
So the bottom line is this. ReadyBoost is a set-it-and-forget-it feature with no downsides at all, a small financial outlay (assuming you don't have a compatible key sitting around; I understand they come in cereal boxes now), and it delivers a nice performance boost. Who could ask for more?
The joke about ReadyBoost amongst the PC commumity is that Vista needs it to just function at a usable level.
Flash isn't meant to be written to more than about 100,000 times, after that it can begin to fail. But, that sounds just about right.
The eye candy is just as good as OSX, too. It's even 3D eye candy.
So come on.
What does Leopard HAVE that Vista DOES NOT HAVE?
Name something worthwhile. Seriously.
The PC community has also been complaining about how badly that has been done.
Can't you come up with something real?
Please remember, though, that I am myself a MAC USER. I LIKE MACS BETTER. But I am just trying to point out some of the cool things in Windows Vista, and it bugs me when everyone gets all sarcastic and negative rather than admitting that Windows actually has good points, not JUST bad.
You're not a real Mac user, because you haven't bothered to find out anything about the features, which are right on Apple's site.
Actually, you don't understand much about Vista's feature's either. Oops!
Can't Windows do that too..
No.
And for what it's worth, your response should have been "ah, but Windows has Previous Versions! Mac OS X doesn't have that!".
http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...indows103.html
Sure it can:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...indows103.html
Since when does that ship with Windows? turnwrite wanted to hear a feature Mac OS has over Windows; this is one. Obviously, you can extend Windows to have more features through third-party products, just as you can do the same for Mac OS with third-party products.
The eye candy is just as good as OSX, too. It's even 3D eye candy.
So come on.
What does Leopard HAVE that Vista DOES NOT HAVE?
Name something worthwhile. Seriously.
First of all, I'm not a naysayer wrt to Vista. I think it looks good overall, despite some shameless, ah, "inspiration" from OS X. It's still Windows, of course, which means 57 control panels and *lots* of wizards and letter drives and a sort of bland, cheesy corporate feel to the whole thing, but it's a serious challenge to Apple with "Windows iLife" (1.0, anyway) bundled in and it looks like it's going to be a much improved OS over XP. I look forward to trying it out.
That said. It's pretty clear that Apple is keeping quite a few of cards secret because they don't want MS to copy them at the last minute -- or they're not 100% done -- or both. So we're not going to find out what Leopard really consists of until (I suspect) MWSF in January.
Right now: over Vista, Leopard offers Time Machine (a much slicker way of handling backups than Vista's "Previous Files", and quite innovative in the way it ties directly to the application), nifty-looking, Exposé-savvy virtual desktops (Spaces), screen-sharing in iChat (very useful and cool!), and systemwide to-dos.
And OS X still offers a simpler, more elegant UI... but that's my opinion of course.
Is that enough? Not even close. I think there'll be much more to come.
Write a PDF file from any app.
Run any of the wonderful OmniGroup software.
Automator
Seemless use of multiple displays
FW target disk mode
boot from FW HD
drop to unix shell
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34268
Here's a fairly typical review of Vista RC 1. Some reviews are better, and some worse, but this is pretty much average.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34268
No, that's about as absurdly harsh a review as you're going to find.
The Inquirer is a well-known sourpuss rag. Same goes for their acidic articles on Apple.
Here's an actually average report on Vista RC1.
Core Video
Core Audio
Core Data
Core Animation
Unified 64 bit and 32 bit system (i.e., you don't get either a 32 bit version or a 64 bit version. You can mix 32 bit and 64 bit device drivers. This is very, very significant and not a minor achievement on Apple's part; I'm surprised more hasn't been made of this)
ColourSync
Keychain (don't know if Vista has an equivalent)
The thing is, on the whole, I don't really care about which OS has more features, or who came up with what first. The important thing is which OS implements the features you need the best. For me, that is OS X by far.
One good feature?
Here:
Windows ReadyBoost
You are joking, right?
Windows ReadyBoost is a press-release marketing feature with no real merit. If it does give a significant performance boost to Vista, all it does is highlight that Vista's virtual memory implementation is highly odd and probably deeply flawed.
USB sticks are slower, and lower capacity, than Hard Drives. Using a USB stick as a store for virtual memory is a ridiculously bad idea.
The stuff it adds for consumers that Tiger doesn't have -- you can count on one hand. Parental controls, better file recovery.... um.... that's about it.
But the best thing about Vista is also the worst thing. It's a monster of a release, and MS's struggles with it have been very visible. They'll be working out the bugs and compatibility kinks for some time to come.
Honestly, the best thing about Vista is that brings Windows up to speed with OS X... all in one huge release.
The stuff it adds for consumers that Tiger doesn't have -- you can can count on one hand. Parental controls, better file recovery.... um.... that's about it.
But the best thing about Vista is also the worst thing. It's a monster of a release, and MS's struggles with it have been very apparent. They'll be working out the bugs and compatibility kinks for some time to come.
Parental control has been around for awhile in OS X. They're definitely there in Tiger and were there in some form in Panther and Jaguar (although they weren't called Parental Control back then.)
Of course, Leopard will have this too.
Automatic file backups is another idea that is HARDLY new.. Perhaps Apple's approach is slightly different from what other people are doing, but not hugely. And Windows DOES have "Previous Versions."
"USB sticks are slower ... than Hard Drives." Super. Now go back to your home planet.
It is stuff like this that I am talking about: "Actually, you don't understand much about Vista's feature's either. Oops! They had to remove all of them." COME ON, PEOPLE! Admit it, Vista has some really cool things about it. SO DOES OS X. BUT SO DOES VISTA. I'm not saying Vista is better. I LIKE OS X BETTER. I just think it is cleaner. System Preferences vs Control Panels would be a good example. But I am pointing out how disgusted I was with WWDC, where Apple was just being so stuck up it ended up being FUNNY. Because they are acting like they own the world, when HOW MUCH MORE MARKET SHARE DOES MICROSOFT HAVE? It just makes me mad when they completely diss Microsoft, who is actually doing a STELLAR job of improving from XP...