A power user's highly-opinionated notes on OS X (By harold whose mail server is hotelling in the net TLD) October, 2005 Yeah yeah, it is more expensive and won't run every game that comes out. Yeah yeah, XP is much better than any prior Windows version. Here are some of the reasons I still prefer OS X, and some other thoughts. Mac OS X - Windows XP ( equals -P ? ) ------------------------------------- More attractive UI. Smoother animations and better rendering performance with same 3D hardware. Far less visual blemishes when starting programs/minimizing/etc. Slick show-off features, e.g. fast user switching. More consistant UI design between system dialogs, e.g. layout of buttons and terminology. Spring-loaded folders for easier drag-and-drop file copy/move operations. Unified set of keyboard shortcuts designed by Apple are used in (almost) all applications. Undo for finder changes, e.g. rename a file. Does not drop keystrokes when busy, e.g. with a CD or heavy disk access. UI is more responsive. More screen real-estate because of unified menu bar. Better CPU and memory efficiency. Slightly more stable kernel. Comes with the best development tools for the platform. Distributed computation across all available machines. Unix file system provides better interoperability/easier porting. Better shells by far - and a variety to choose from. Built-in faxing works better, better support for receiving faxes. IR remote control support. Wireless support does not pop up messages all the time - just works, can make any system a base station. Preferences changes take effect immediately. Applications are encapsulated in a single directory that you double-click to run - hides directory tree/internals. Provides greatly simplified directory tree. No .dll conflicts. Expose. Absolutely the best way to work with multiple windows or applications I have ever seen. Spotlight. Indexes all of your documents/etc. Built-in CD/DVD burning functionality. Well integrated into applications. Most hardware supported, all supported hardware works. Windows: all hardware supported, most suppported hardware works. Firewire built-in and works great. Firewire networking is automatic. Fastest intra-system/device bandwidth. Target disk mode for backup/restore and file transfers between computers. Changing the startup/boot partition/drive is trivial. Can run OS 9 as an application, rather than a buggy backwards-compatibility mode API layer. Sleep and hibernate just work on all supported hardware. Apple stores have in-store support staff who are usually available and take appointments. Free in-store classes. OS utilities support making bootable backups on a different drive or partition. Forth interpreter in BIOS allows for extensive system diagnostics when OS will not boot. Built-in HP printer drivers don't use the HP software, it just works. Print anything to a PDF file. For MDI, individual windows are free from some arbitrary bounding window. Alternately, the full screen is an MDI bounding window without the ugly grey or white background and no waste for borders and scroll bars. Menu bar is more responsive than the task bar. Comes with top-quality applications for many tasks (email, photo, movie editing, music composing/editing). Microsoft Office is more stable on a Mac. No product activation yet, but free internet-based updates. Only two editions (desktop and server) - Longhorn is predicted by Microsoft to have 11 editions. Zeroconf networking and service discovery in OS API and integrated into many applications, including file and printer sharing and IM/video conferencing. Applescript commands for scripting GUI application operations is easier for end-users than COM. Automator does same to a lesser extent, but provides GUI scripting. Centralized password management for applications. Ability to view decrypted passwords. No registry. Drag-and-drop software installation. Drag-and-drop software backup/restore. Per user per application preferences files may be deleted if corrupted and software still works. Built-in ssh/ftp/http/etc. server(s). Fink's F/OSS support is better than Cygwin's. Hooray for apt-get! Problems with OS X ------------------ Difficult to add a group/add users to a group. Applications do not support replication (.Mac is not good enough). 10.2.8 can't see a 10.4.1 shared printer. Can't undo preference changes. Quicktime Pro is a $29 upgrade for each version. Otherwise, no full-screen videos for you (DVD Player does do full-screen). Bluetooth sync with phones is reportedly buggy. Using my video camera via Firewire works for video conferencing, but iChat won't use the camera's mic. Does not come with scanning software, need Adobe Photoshop or VueScan. I could not get Gimp/SANE to work, but supposedly it should. Hardware nicities ----------------- Firewire standard on all systems. Disk transfers of 40 MB/s with Firewire 400 Mbit, versus 34 MB/s with USB 2.0 480 Mbit (www.lacie.com). Mac Mini - cheap, high-quality, quiet small form factor computer. No major competitor outside of I-built-it-myself crowds. Powerful enough to run Sims 2 on any Mini. > 2/4 GB main memory just works (64-bit). High-quality components, e.g. slot-load CD/DVD drives, thermometer controlled fans (maximizing convection cooling via physical layout), cases and peripherals. Excellent OS support for older hardware. 2004 version of OS X runs smoothly on a 1999 system (350 MHz G3) with minimum amount of memory supported (128 MB at 100 MHz) (my actual experience). GUI was smooth, did not stall when browsing filesystem or pulling down (shadowed, translucent) menus - that surprised me. I have never had an issue plugging in a USB or Firewire device - it just works. Immediately. Without a silly baloon in the taskbar that I need to compulsively dismiss. I use a Microsoft joystick on my Mac. Scanners, printers, digital cameras, video cameras.