Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Congratulations. I still use a Windows machine at work and I like XP. But I also appreciate being able to compare two robust operating systems. Mac laptops awake and sleep more easily than most Windows laptops. I have noticed a bit of a problem lately finding some wifi hotspots lately. Bottom line: both OSs have benefits and problems. Now you get to learn exactly what they are.

Sorry, Ernie, Windows is not a robust operating system and never has been. It has always been buggy crap which got a stranglehold on distribution when IBM moved into PC's and licensed DOS, which incidentally, Microsott didn't even write. Despite their greater resources, Microsoft has never been known for innovation.

The difference between Windows and Tiger on a laptop is really not about Mac laptops waking and sleeping more easily than PCs. Tiger is remarkably more advanced than Windows and that's the objective viewpoint from critics on both sides of the computing divide. Tiger has technology built into it that Windows can't touch. And here I'm speaking of ( Core Image and Core Audio ), not to mention its search technology ( Spotlight ) or even those fun little dashboard widgets

Tiger is built on a rock solid UNIX foundation and is not susceptible to viruses the way Windows is. There's just no comparison between the two operating systems and Microsoft knows it.

Noel,

I've used both OS X and XP - I like both, OS X slightly better, but XP isn't by any stretch a buggy piece of crap. I've had no more issues with my Thinkpad than I did with my Powerbook. And I DID have issues with OS X and the powerbook... it's a piece of technology, not a magic object, after all.

Tiger may have cooler, more advanced features, but that's a silly war unless it being real user benefits. As a user I don't care about CoreAudio, only what people do with it. The one thing I do miss (I'm on Windows now) is the lack of viruses. No issues on Windows so far, but on the Mac I just didn't have to worry...

David - I understand that the 1.5 version of FF is much better on the Mac than the 1.0 series, so you may want to try it vs 1.07.

David, don't forget about Mac support. I had a question years ago and they answered it very quickly and correctly. So your WiFi Windows networking question might be an easy fix from them.

Rick, first of all, viruses are an issue for anyone using WIndows who goes online. Not a 'cool' feature or a silly war, but a waste of time for those who've been unlucky enough to be visited by great Italian painters et al that have shut them down because viruses happen to be so much easier to write for Windows than they are for the Mac. This is reason number one for my rating Windows a buggy piece of crap since if it isn't buggy when you first launch it, chances are it bloody well will be once you start using it online.

You said that unless you're getting some benefit out of Tiger's advanced features, why have them. Well, who knows when you'll need them? In my case, Core Audio and Core Image make a big difference to my work which at times requires graphics rendering and use of sound. With Tiger, the work for doing these tasks is taken off the main processor and put directly into the sound card and the graphics card, greatly speeding up performance and also allowing the computer to continue doing other tasks. With Tiger, it's true multitasking.

Everytime I switch on my Powerbook, the logical part of my brain tells me that it's just a piece of technology, but the part of my brain that appreciates beauty, science and art tells me that it is pure magic.