PianoWow

I recently switched from a Windows machine to a Mac.  After 3 months of using my MacBook, I feel comfortable enough writing this post, to fully document my impressions of the difference between Windows XP and Mac OS X right now.

Please note that while I could write this about Vista, not many people use it.  I have read that many of the things I will discuss have been upgraded in Windows 7.  But my complaint on this front is simply that Windows 7, in the near future, will be doing what Mac OS X did years ago.

I am going to list features that support three different arguments: 1) Windows is better, 2) Windows and Mac are equal and 3) Mac is better.  Please note that I am only restricting this to the base installation of either OS.  The availability of software on either platform is widespread: free, commercial, or otherwise.

Windows is Better

Windows does a couple of things better, in my opinion, mostly because I’ve grown used to the behaviors, having used PCs and Windows for many years.

• GUI – resizing a window by using the mouse is much more flexible and easier on Windows.  In general, any corner or edge can be dragged as opposed to the Mac, where only one corner (and no edges) can be dragged.
• Keyboard
  1. Home and End Keys
     

     Action	Windows	Mac
     Move to beginning of line	Home	Command+Left
     Move to end of line	End	Command+Right
     Move to beginning of document	Ctrl+Home	Home
     Move to end of document	Ctrl+End	End

     It’s not often that I need to move to the end or beginning of a document.  But I move to the beginning and end of a line very often, when editing a document.  On the Mac this costs me an extra keystroke, when compared to Windows.  The keystroke savings when going to the end or beginning of a document aren’t enough, because this operation isn’t used as often.

  2. Insert – The insert key on a PC causes most Windows programs to toggle between insert and overwrite behavior when editing text.  This is not an option on a Mac, and the extra keystrokes required to delete characters are a minor nuissance.

Windows and Mac are Equal

Certain things they both do well.  In some cases, I wanted to move a few of these itmes to another section, but the difference wasn’t large enough to merit a “completely better” argument.

• Killing badly written programs that freeze
• Compressing and decompressing ZIP archives
• System options – Windows’ Control Panel and Mac’s System Preferences both do what they are intended to do
• Background apps – System Tray (Windows) and System Menu (Mac) processes function without bothering the user too much
• Beauty – For the most part, they are equal, but I like Mac’s animations better.
• Windows manager – while they are slightly different, they both allow multiple programs to run and the user can switch easily between them.

Mac is better

• Installation – Installing and uninstalling apps, in most cases, is as simple as adding and deleting the .app file to and from the applications directory.  In other cases, an installation and uninstallation program will do the job, just like Windows.
• Search
  1. Spotlight – best way to run a program.  Just Command+Space, and type the first few letters of the program name.
  2. Finder Search – best way to find a file.  The feature itself is easier to find than Windows Search, works faster, and is more powerful than the Windows counterpart.  I attribute this in part to good UI design, and a better file system.  NTFS/FAT might as well have been designed in the dark ages.
• Programs – the base installation of Mac OS X is much more powerful than Windows.
  1. GarageBand has no Windows counterpart
  2. iMove is more intuitive than Windows Movie Maker
  3. iPhoto has no Windows counterpart
  4. iTunes beats Windows Media Player in every category
  5. Safari is better than IE
  6. Preview has no Windows equivalent
  7. Finder, while it has its quirks, still trumps Explorer
  8. TextEdit is Notepad and Wordpad combined
• Disk management – Every mounted, internal and external drive/disc appears as an icon on the desktop.  They also appear as a place in Finder.  Disc image creation, maintenance, and burning are all supported natively on a Mac.
• Backup – Time Machine, which comes with Mac OS X, has no Windows equivalent, 3rd party or otherwise.  I attribute this to the file system Mac uses.
• Print – both have a large array of printer drivers built-in, but the Mac can print to a pdf out of the box.
• Networking – Airport is easier, and more reliable than Windows’ wireless network utility.  Any shared resource on the network appears in Finder automatically, and can be accessed with no configuration.
• Internet Publishing – Mac OS X comes with basic web publishing software and the ability to serve web pages easily.
• Console – UNIX (Mac) vs. DOS (Windows).  Enough said.
• Launch Bar is like Windows’ task bar and and quick-launch menu combined.  You have to play with it to appreciate it.
• USB – devices are recognized and usable much more quickly.
• External display – Mac remembers the resolution, position, and hierarchy (primary/secondary monitor) of any external display when it is disconnected.  This way, plugging the monitor back in resumes the previous state with no configuration.  Windows forces you to re-configure each time you plug-in.
• TouchPad – it’s a small thing, but MacBook has multi-touch gestures for things like scrolling, right-click, swiping through a list, changing programs, and many other things.
• Corners and Spaces – another small thing, but once you get used to it, you really miss it on Windows.  Spaces allows for multiple desktops to run different programs.  You drag the program to the desktop you want.  Windows can have this option as a 3rd party program.  Corners, as far as I know, has no Windows equivalent, and allows you to execute certain commands simply by dragging the mouse into one of the corners of the screen.  Things like start screen saver, sleep, show spaces, etc.
• Dashboard – again, no Windows equivalent.  Vista sort of did this with the sidebar, but that takes up valuable space.  Dashboard is a collection of small utilities you can run at any time with a shortcut.  They are hidden from view when not running.

So what have I concluded?  I decided that an extra keystroke here and there when trying to replace text or move to the end of a line is worth all the goodness I get from the rest of what Mac has to offer.  I love my Mac.