Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard — The poison taste test

re: Re: AC - 4 desktops

> girl on girl action

That is what VM boxes are for. No worries with browser history as the box can go bye bye in a second.

A different perspective

>>Whichever OS you choose, you can only run them both 100% native, 100% reliable and 100% legally on a Mac.

>>Either way Apple wins hands down. Beige box crapware manufacturers be damned.

Silly Ty - There is a couple of things wrong with this;

1) Being able to run windows on both pc and apple hardware is a big advantage to MS (and presumably nix too) as this is what we call a 'barrier to entry'. If apple want to convert windows users (and they do) then they need to convince them that OSX is not only 10x better than windows to justify the pita of learning something new, but they have to convince them to shell out for new hardware. Whereas MS 'just' have to convince apple users that windows is 10x better than OSX but they can still use their hardware (and if you don't like it they can go back - if windows to OSX users dont like it, well then you have a shiny paperweight!)

2) Beige boxes!?! Are we back in the 90s? Next you'll be going on about 'only use windows if you like blue screens' (The only blue screens i've seen since XP were due to hardware failures - not sure I can blame XP for that!)

>>That would never have made it past the Mac design tyrants. Thats a Microsoftish fanboi comment isn't it? ;)

Funny I read that and thought it was an apple fanboi dig at MS quality control! Depends on your perspective I guess.

>> Microsoft's Open XML is best avoided in mixed environments.

Yeah that line made me laugh too! (Because I'm guessing its true)

>>Don't forget.

>>Whatever M$ funded FUD you may read in the tech press...

>>Every iteration of Mac OS X gets FASTER...

>>Every Iteration of Windows gets SLOWER...

Ty again! seeing a pattern:

1) Surely that should be 'windoze' not Windows

2) M$ - Is the dollar to signify they are a company - it shouldn't be surpising they want to make some cash! (Almost as greedy as apple?) Either way as soon as I see someone typing M$ I know I can safely assume you are a 14yr old boy with nothing sensible to say - and you didn't let me down!

3) Didn't you read all the reports saying this one is faster!?! Idiot

Don't get me wrong MS get plenty wrong, and suck at plenty of things (which I often critisise them for) but I can help respond where I read some of these f'ing stupid / plain wrong comments. Grr.

re: Loving all the Apple fanbois comments

Actually it's a doddle to burn a folder or files to a disk in Finder. Just right click on a folder and choose "burn to disk". Alternatively click File -> Burn to Disk, or add the burn button to the toolbar.

As already pointed out, you can also change OS X's default behaviour when you insert a blank disk in the "CDs and DVDs" control panel. You even have the choice for different behaviours for CDs and DVDs.

Yes it does "just work". I'm amazed your "long time Mac user" didn't know these basics! Next time try typing "burn dvd" into OS X's help ..

@Mark76

I mgiht have to nostalgically crack out my Risc PC 700 later, and remind myself what a real OS looks like...

Risc OS 3.7 FTW :-)

@ magnetik

Yeah, you can do exactly the same on any Linux installation -- it also "just works". And I've noticed that you end up with fewer dead disks and faulty burns from Linux that I do from my Mac.

Fanbois, eh? Never cease to amaze.

The cost is a really important factor...

...that often gets overlooked in discussions on The Reg, presumably in part because this is geek world and hence people are happy - indeed very willing - to shell out for tech kit. In the real world meanwhile, the price disparity between Windows boxes - produced by multiple competing manufacturers - and the rather more costly Macs is *very* significant. And open out that issue beyond the western world and one soon realises that Apple kit is really pretty pricey.

I'm not a fanboy of any sort, and I certainly rate the simplicity and ease-of-use of Apple Macs, but they are expensive.

yay \o/ OS X ftw!!!!

in your face you wintards!!!!!

flameon!!!

:-)

@ups and downs

"one can proceed within minutes of starting a machine"

Gosh, as quick as that? Twenty years ago, I had a PC that was ready to use in around 15 seconds. Progress, eh?

@AC 7:51

"Try mounting an ISO in Windows without third party software. Oh, that's right, WINFAIL."

uh... you better check again... Microsoft has a Windows tool for mounting ISO. So you DON'T require anything "third-party". So I guess that's YOUFAIL. :-)

I'm always surprised at so much Mac fanboi false information posted here...

@ Anonymous Coward 14:38

Yeah, because that officially UNSUPPORTED hack is really intuitive... In a Mac all you need to is double-click on the ISO.

May I draw your attention to Microsoft's readme? http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/620/xp_small_free_way_to_use_and_mount_images_iso_files_without_burning_them/

Is there a way to mount ISOs in Vista or Vis7a?

@magnetik

"True enough, mobos can't be upgraded. Doesn't bother most Mac users though, since most people just want to get stuff done, not play around with system internals, just as most car owners won't ever bother changing their shocks or installing a freeflow exhaust."

Maybe, but for those that have a car and want to change their shocks or install a freeflow exhaust, the option is there for them to do it, they are not limited and prevented from purchasing 3rd party parts for their car to get better performance. If you want to take it to the highest degree, with a car you can rip out the engine, upgrade suspension, add nitros if you so desire, you can make the car perform a lot better, some car companies have a wing with just that in mind, taking the stock car (PC) and upgrading it to the Nth degree (Gaming PC).

With a Mac you don't get these options, you're stuck with what you are given and are thankful for it. With a PC you can have a cutting edge system *now* that through upgrades was a P1 133Mhz a few years ago, simply by swapping out parts here and there, a quick case upgrade, a new motherboard with CPU, using the same RAM, later on a new motherboard and CPU combo with DDR2 RAM, a few years later, a new CPU, later on, another motherboard and CPU keeping the same RAM and with the ultimate choice of controlling the price *you* want to pay for the upgrades.

Got a £300 budget, you can upgrade based on that, a £150, you can upgrade on that. I can upgrade my AMD X2 on the same motherboard to a AMD X3 as long as it uses the same pins, my upgrade potential has no limits at all, very few PC's have limited upgrade potential.

That in itself does cause an issue, with an almost infinite number of ways to upgrade a PC, you need an operating system which can cope with an almost infinite number of drivers for the hardware, and for driver support for an almost infinite number of hardware combinations? That'll be Windows.

Sorry, I know you said fanboys go home, but...

The Mac gets praise for having WORKSPACES?

Why does Ubuntu not get to join the fray?

- "fast, elegant, and powerful"

- free

- runs on any hardware

- "benefits from countless applications"

- "performs well"

Meanwhile Unix turns 40 in the background

Windows and OSX are as bad and as good as each other sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. The pople I feel most sorry for are they legions of users who can barely use an OS of any description.

Windows (the design from PARC) is 30 odd years old as is the mouse and in that time nobody has managed to improve on the clunky, counter-intutive, windowed desktop design. The Open Source community have to the power and abilty to really show the "Pretenders" to the throne how it should be done, only they seem hell bent on making a "BaskIn Robbins" job of getting there with more flavours of x-windows icing then I thought could be possible. Clive Sinclair where are you now!!

For me, it's the contempt

I use windows 7 a lot, I have to for my job.

I've used Windows in all it's versions since Win386, through WfW, W95, XP and so on.

I have also used Mac OS X since Tiger (10.3).

What strikes me is the difference in attitude towards the end user from both Apple and MS.

I just get that feeling that the MS developers put code first, and user experience last, whereas with Apple, the user experience is EVERYTHING it's even written into (for example) the iPhone SDK agreement.

I was using windows 7 the other day and was trying to do something simple like copy a file off of my memory stick onto the desktop. The explorer window was just cluttered, poorly laid out and confusing - even for an experienced computer user like me.

The Apple finder isn't perfect - but it is leap years ahead of it's rival when it comes to user friendliness.

Anyway, each to their own.

Bye for now.

Nice...

But as (surprisingly few) others mentioned before:

"Here's another pro-Mac detail. Spaces."

Been there, done that, almost a decade ago or so...

(I don't know the details of the OS X implementation of this, but the basic functionality can't be much different from "workspaces", "virtual desktops", "whatever your DE/distro decided to call it")

slowly getting there

another few years and they'll have caught up with most of the contextual ideas

and facilities offered by AmigaOS a decade ago

MS

Shill

@David Webb

And smug Linux fans are even worse than that...

Why do you think OS X performs badly on your non Apple laptop? Perhaps you should switch to Ubuntu, that seems to work on hardware that OpenSuSE struggles with - Arch seems to as well. Or, do as RMS suggests, and write you own if they are "quite rubbish". I get the whole "tech" website thing, fair point, so who are you trying to convince?

@ all the passionate commentards:

You all are lusers.

That is all.

boring

This is like listening to kids arguing about ps3 v xbox360..

Ubuntu

Nice to see Ubuntu users screaming for attention as usual....

Cakes anyone?

Unbaised and fair! Maybe you will go to the WWWDC

As an Apple Fanboy for 20 years anything I say will be biased......

Well done for making a direct comparison and giving both OS a fair report. I sincerely hope all your views are proven right and both platforms perform admirably. I'm upgrading to 10.6 soon and hope all the Vista sufferers get the OS they deserve to make up for it.

Why Paris? Cos sometimes getting a new stuffing does her a world of good too.

fanboys

I cannot believe apple fanboys claim it as a plus for Apple that you can run both systems legally only on Apple hardware!!?!?!?!

Windows is engineered to run on whatever hardware the user decides. Mac OSX is designed to run on whatever hardware Steve Jobs decides, which (hardly coincidentally) means his own. Kerrrrchiiiiing!!!!!!! And Apple will try to put you in prison if you dare attempt to use the software on another computer.

This is a plus point for Apple in what way!!??!?!

@Ty

So what if Microsoft prevented Windows from installing on a Mac? There would be no point of buying a Mac!

All the Mac guys out there know they need Windows so it is fortunate for you Mac owners that you can install Windows on a Mac *Legally*. Don't forget to send Redmond a letter of your appreciation.

I was really looking to cross over to the dark side with a purchase of a 13" Macbook Pro. But if I got it, I'm afraid my attitude may change and I'll become a smug, arrogant Mac owner like the ones I see on this board.

@wrenchy

That was the inverted snobbery that I was alluding too, which is just as bad and possibly worse as the smug mac users. Why were you considering the MBP 13"? Just so you could use that throw away line? Poor. All you have done is made an attempt at trolling someone and it's a poor attempt too! Well done.

@Simon Banyard

I apologize for my trolling. Whatever was I thinking???

I was considering a Macbook Pro 13" because hardware alone. If I could buy a similarly made notebook without an OS, you can be sure I would buy that instead. But I have no choice in the fact that it comes pre-installed with OSX. I did however consider trying the platform to see what all the fuss is all about and where the animosity towards Windows comes from. Somehow, I get the feeling that I will see improvements in some areas and faults in others. I will admit that I admire the attention to detail and build quality Apple puts into their products. Credit where credit is due. But as far as how Apple acts as a company, I think they are no better, if not worse than Microsoft.

In all honesty, I have no allegiances to either Redmond or Cupertino. I use Linux primarily and on occasion, Windows when I have to run windows only programs that don't work well in WINE. I use whatever works and if that means booting Lin, Win or OSX, so be it.

My comments are not an attempt to 'troll'. I speak my mind and if you construe this as trolling, you know where you can shove it.