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redoid · May 10, 2005, 06:27 PM

Excellent Mac vs Windowz comparison here:

Goes into great depth and seems very accurate, with scorecard of various features (it compares almost anything you could do with either system)..

I found it interesting, maybe you will!

http://www.xvsxp.com/

Weyland-Yutani · May 10, 2005, 06:42 PM

In my scientific and unbiased testings I've found OS X kicks the snot out of XP.

k thx by

ghporter · 07:44 PM

I'm surprised at how evenhanded the results look. Obviously this site doesn't have an axe to grind (unlike a lot of people on this site!) nor some unreasoning hate of Windows.

The overall score is basically what we already knew: usability leans way toward X, while technical, nerdy stuff leans toward XP. It doesn't mention that all of the nerdy stuff can be done on a Mac, it's just not in your face. Still, a difference of anywhere from 10% to 12% overall is very significant. OS X wins on merit, not just jingoism.

Edit:W-Y, this isn't aimed at you-I got that you were kidding. It's the other folks who think they're "annointed" because they use Macs, and that anyone who even thinks about using Windows is something less than human.

mduser63 · May 11, 2005, 01:46 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

The overall score is basically what we already knew: usability leans way toward X, while technical, nerdy stuff leans toward XP.

I find OS X to be much better for technical, nerdy stuff, and I think a few days hanging around on Slashdot will indicate that a lot of other nerds agree. The UNIX core is much more nerd-friendly than Windows. Of course OS X is also better than Windows for new and less technical users. Overall though, I'd say that site is pretty fair.

gururafiki · May 11, 2005, 02:55 AM

Originally Posted by mduser63

I find OS X to be much better for technical, nerdy stuff, and I think a few days hanging around on Slashdot will indicate that a lot of other nerds agree. The UNIX core is much more nerd-friendly than Windows. Of course OS X is also better than Windows for new and less technical users. Overall though, I'd say that site is pretty fair.

My step-dad writes code, and he thinks OSX is much better with it's terminal and the other technical nerdy stuff. He should know too, his company is Nerdworks.

Big Mac · May 11, 2005, 03:03 AM

I was going to post a thread about this site a couple of weeks ago, but with Tiger's launch I thought it would be ignored. It is a well-done site, and the Mac comes out ahead. Of course, the scoring system that they employ is flawed, as it is quite unbalanced. I saw that someone compiled a set of balanced scores, however.

Weyland-Yutani · May 11, 2005, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Edit:W-Y, this isn't aimed at you-I got that you were kidding. It's the other folks who think they're "annointed" because they use Macs, and that anyone who even thinks about using Windows is something less than human.

Yep I was kidding. I've never used XP to any significant degree. I'm sure it is a fine OS.

ghporter · May 11, 2005, 09:05 AM

XP is the best Intel-based commercial OS around. On the other hand, I don't consider Linux to be commercial, so I don't compare the two on that basis.

I'd like to see the major Linux distributions compared with OS X as well, though. I think it would be very enlightening. For my part, there's a lot of "Unix-like" stuff in OS X that still slows me down, but from a user perspective that's not a major problem. It's doing the background stuff that sometimes needs to be done that gives me issues, and that sort of stuff is, as I said, "in your face" with XP because you HAVE to pay attention to it. OS X just does most of it for you in such a way that you can ignore the nuts and bolts almost all the time, while many users still bump their heads into the structure of XP daily.

theolein · May 11, 2005, 10:36 AM

Mmmmm, Red Hat, Novell, Mandriva etc might argue with you on that first point.

toffe · May 11, 2005, 11:45 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I'd like to see the major Linux distributions compared with OS X as well, though. I think it would be very enlightening.

That would be very interresting

discotronic · May 11, 2005, 04:44 PM

Someone needs to put the timeline up for this thread

besson3c · May 11, 2005, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

XP is the best Intel-based commercial OS around. On the other hand, I don't consider Linux to be commercial, so I don't compare the two on that basis.

If Linux isn't included, than you're basically saying that XP is better than FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD? Isn't that a little apples vs. oranges?

iKevin · May 11, 2005, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

XP is the best Intel-based commercial OS around. On the other hand, I don't consider Linux to be commercial, so I don't compare the two on that basis.

I'd like to see the major Linux distributions compared with OS X as well, though. I think it would be very enlightening. For my part, there's a lot of "Unix-like" stuff in OS X that still slows me down, but from a user perspective that's not a major problem. It's doing the background stuff that sometimes needs to be done that gives me issues, and that sort of stuff is, as I said, "in your face" with XP because you HAVE to pay attention to it. OS X just does most of it for you in such a way that you can ignore the nuts and bolts almost all the time, while many users still bump their heads into the structure of XP daily.

Paaalease! . . . everyone knows that win3.11 (for workgroups) is still the best OS ever made!

I know that at work (ISP gateway provider) we run about 40 different national ISPs and do support for almost all of them. WinXPs spyware/malware issues have far outweighed any positives the OS has IMO . . . And i'm not just saying that as a biased Apple user. Our network admins have just switched their personal laptops from Windows in favor of Linux (they would be using OS X if they weren't cheap) and i've noticed an increase in new users calling to setup their new Macs.