MacOS Panther vs. Windows XP: A response

If you're going to do a platform comparison, compare platforms, not bundling

Published on November 2, 2003 By Draginol In Personal Computing

ActiveWin has an article that compares MacOS X to Windows XP. There are a lot of good points in the article and a lot of his findings are based on pretty solid and reasonable analysis.

But I take issue with an underlying "ground rule" with a lot of these comparisons -- he is comparing what comes with Windows XP with what comes with MacOS X. Considering that a Mac machine costs a great deal more than a comparable Windows machine, I think a more fair comparison is to look at what you can get for both as a platform. Especially since any OEM can always bundle whatever they want to with the machine.

Below are the points he considers to be in favor of the Mac. Most of these I agree with but I'll comment below in red.

Dialogue boxes: In windows you get things like Yes, No and Cancel - on a Mac you get Don’t Save, Cancel and Save – logical text information that is an improvement over Windows. This is just one really plain example, I could literally list loads. Open Recent dialogues easier to read than Windows

Absolutely agree here. One of the first things I noticed about MacOS X vs. Windows was the bits of polish like this that make is a better experience.

Drag and Drop: Far, far better in OS X over Windows. Things like dragging files to a Printer Icon to print, dragging images from the web to the desktop, drag folders to e-mail, drag a picture or photo to you desktop picture control panel sets it up as the desktop background, dragging pictures to your login icon sets that as your login picture. You can also drag reorder items in any Window toolbar or sidebar.

This isn't really a fair comparison. First, drag and drop on Windows XP is pretty thorough. But more to the point, Windows, because it is based on a 2 button mouse, does a lot more with right click menus. I'd still give the edge to the Mac though.

Exposé – Nothing more needs to be said

Agreed.

Navigating the file system: A Mac does in 3 views what Microsoft does in 5.

Yes and no. For one thing, you can't just type in a path into some URL-like field in Finder. I find that very annoying and limiting. Not having the ability to simply type into finder where you want to go is a major restriction IMO.

Colour labelling: excellent way of creating user defined groupings of items.
Icons: Nothing Windows has right now can touch the specs of 128x128 pixels and 8-bit transparency. You can also change icons really easily in OS X compared to Windows.

Wrong wrong wrong. First off, for the price of a Mac I think one can safely say you can pick up Object Desktop. Object Desktop has been giving Windows (and OS/2 before that) features long before they showed up on the Mac. First with Zooming icons on mouse over? Object Desktop. First with Alpha blended shadows under windows? Object Desktop.

And I can replace everything on my system with 128x128 icons/objects right now. First, most modern icon packages come with 128x128 icons and have for a long while. And secondly, ObjectDock and yZ Dock have helped popularize 128x128 (and larger) PNG files that you can download and use on programs like DesktopX, ObjectDock, or IconPackager. All of which is either part of Object Desktop or in the case of ObjectDock, freeware.

The price difference between the mid range Mac and a high range PC is about $600 in favor of the PC and the PC includes a lot more software (such as Office, DVD authoring tools, etc.) that aren't being considered. But on top of that, $600 can buy you a lot more after market software too. Object Desktop is $50 for the whole thing and it addresses a good chunk of the issues Byron speaks of.

Fonts: Better quality and quantity of fonts, various ways of previewing fonts, including the excellent and new Font Book. Overall a better Font Management now that Windows too. Better Anti-Aliasing of fonts.

Agreed.

Find and Search: Massively better in OS X than Windows. As soon as you start to type OS X starts searching. Sherlock is there to let you search the internet for Pictures, Stock and more.

Agreed.

Keyboard: Makes better use of Keyboard shortcuts, navigating the file system by the keyboard, application and document switching via the keyboard (Exposé), shutting down via a keyboard and more.

Once again, because a Windows system is less expensive, inexpensive extensions should be part of this comparison. Object Desktop, once again eliminates this advantage and then some. Keyboard LaunchPad not only allows you to assign hot keys to any program or website but can even be assigned to control parts of individual programs and apply saved clipboards automatically.

Installing Applications: You may think this is a strange one, but in my view, dragging a Mac OS X Package (applications behave like folders) to the applications folder is a much easier install than Microsoft offers us in Windows. Multiple versions of the same program can be kept on the computer this way, uninstall is simply a case of dragging the folder to the trash. Neither Windows nor OS X is perfect.

I don't think this is that clear cut. Most Windows programs behave as he describes. They just simply include a "install wizard" to walk the user through the process.

Video editing: iMovie ships with OS X and works very well with improved editors, filters, audio editing, and transitions

And for the amount of money difference in cost, you can purchase some pretty impressive video editing packages on Windows. And as a Mac user myself, I can tell you that you need pretty good hardware for iMovie to be useful. For one thing, in 10.2 (I haven't tried this with 10.3) some actions with video files had to be done as the foreground app. iMovie would pause the action when it wasn't the active program which makes having a high end (read: expensive) machine key.

DVD Playback: OS X comes with a DVD player that plays the video without having to have a third parties software installed to run it, unlike Windows.

So?? What is this? Bundle wars?

Let's recap: In my view, the minimum spec'd Mac I'd purchase today is the 1.8 Ghz PowerMac G5 with 512MB of RAM (which I'd bump to 1 gig). Add a 17 inch flat panel and your price is $3,348.00. This right from the Mac store.

Then I go to the Dell store. Without even really working much to cut prices, a 3Ghz Dell machine with a gig of RAM and 21 inch flat panel display with a ton of software bundles is $2,700 (like Office for example which I'd have to add on to the price to the Mac).

My ThinkPad T40 comes with WinDVD. Does Byron think that the Mac's DVD player remotely compares to WinDVD in features?

DVD creation: iDVD is bundled with all Macs that ship with Super Drives. Windows Movie Maker requires additional software if you want to burn DVD’s

See above.

E-mail: Mail is a much better free mail program than Outlook Express, especially for Junk Mail.

Agreed except my $2700 Dell with Office 2003 comes with full Outlook which is as good at junk blocking. But that's irrelevant anyway because I can use free programs like SpamPal for junk mail.

Calendar: iCal comes free with OS X and can be synced with Palm or iPod devices. Windows has no free Calendar program.

How can you call iCal "free"? It's figured into the price of the Mac. Outlook 2003 comes with a similar scheduling program.

Free developer tools: Apple offers a more complete set of free developer tools than Microsoft does for Windows XP.

Is he suggesting there aren't free developer tools for Windows? I'll concede that developer tools should come with the OS though.

Photos: iPhoto is far better at managing photos you have on your computer than Windows.

Again, this is bundle wars.

Voice recognition: This has been around on the Mac since OS 7 and is built into the OS – if you want it in Windows, you need to buy Works or Office.

Voice recognition is not something that is very practical yet on either Mac or PC. And voice recognition on the PC - Dragon Speak Easy, IBM ViaVoice are both excellent if you need it.

Speech Synthesis – OS X supports system wide voice synthesis and has various voices to choose from. OS X also has Talking Dialogues.

See above.

Screen capture: 6 different types of screen grab shortcuts are available.

Print screen! In fact, I can't believe that he mentions this because when trying to take screenshots on the Mac I found this infuriatingly annoying. On Windows, I can hit Ctrl-Printscreen to take a screenshot of a Windows or just Print Screen for the whole desktop and paste right into Front Page, Word, etc. Maybe there's a trick I don't know of on the Mac but I find it much more cumbersome to get a screenshot on the Mac. And I take a lot of screenshots, people like me are the target market for that bullet point.

Scripting: Improved in OS X for workflow automation.

I'm not experienced enough here to comment.

CD-R: Advanced options are far better in OS X. Add icons to CD’s you burn.
Sticky Notes: Free and built into the OS

Bundling Bundling Bundling. For a $600 premium it should come with more stuff out of the box.

Password Management: System wide password management through Keychain

I haven't used this enough to comment.

Spell-check: Excellent system wide spell checking – While posting in a forum on the Internet, I can have it check my spellings on the fly.

Agreed.

Crashes: So far I haven’t had one crash or needed a reboot (other than updates) with OS X – something that can’t be said of Windows XP.

Oh come now. Crashing on either is a non-issue. Windows XP is just as solid as MacOS. I've had forced reboots with both on occasion but it's not statistically significant.

No Viruses: This is a bitter point for a lot of Windows users, who usually then say it is because OS X has fewer users. Fact is – it is far more secure.

No, it's not a "fact", it's a matter of virus writers focusing on the market with 25 times more users. This could just as easily be said about OS/2. Is OS/2 more "secure"? It doesn't even have security for it. But I've never seen a OS/2 virus or Worm and yet REXX on OS/2 allows the potential to create worms the likes no one has ever imagined. But none have happened?

My magic rock here prevents earth quakes from occurring in Michigan. As proof I can show that there have been no earth quakes here. Would you like to buy my rock? $3348.

As soon as I get a chance, I'd like to do a video demo of both. Does anyone know of a freeware screen video capture program along the lines of CamStudio for Windows but for the Mac?

Anyway, I don't want it to sound like I'm bashing the Mac. I consider myself a realist on OS wars these days having been an OS warrior during the OS/2 era. But I don't like strawman arguments. And comparing what comes bundled with the OS is just that. Not only that, but it only encourages business practices that, in the long term, harm consumers. If OS vendors are to be judged purely on what they happen to bundle with the OS, you're going to get more and more bloated OSes with fewer and fewer healthy third parties to write software. And it's third parties that help drive innovation in technology.

Comments (Page 2)

Pam

on Nov 03, 2003

It is interesting reading all the replys to this comparison. Since 1987 there has been a Mac sitting on my desk--the first being a Mac Plus then generating upward over the years to the 1.8 G5 that is positoned there now. Now for the however; there is also sitting on my desk a 2.4 ghz Intel pen. 4 running Win XP. In fact both models (mac or win) have been in use by me since 1993. Why?, because I can. No I am not rich. Just a geek.

What is the better one, well since having the Mac as my main computer for seventeen years there is a tendency to lean in that direction, but as one reader indicated you get a little tired of seeing the same old thing every day. So, the Win machine can be fun to play with because it allows the user to modifly the shell, or replace it with something else.

Out of the box comparison, not really sure there is one. Again the Mac is the better, but when you look at the addons along with the larger amount of freeware, and shareware that can change the look and feel of the Win plateform then you lean toward Windows. However, there is something else you have to look at in favor of the Mac, and that it does a better job of running graphics programs along with desktop publishing apps.

Yes the Mac has a betting looking GUI, and yes with programs/applications/addons that are out there for MS Windows (like Object Desktop, Aston, etc.) an indivilual can make a Win Machine look just as if they were working on a Mac. Now for us Mac Users that should be considered a plus; think about it the MS Windows users are probably thinking, "GOD I SURE WISH THIS WAS A REAL MAC, AND NOT JUST AN ADDON."

To end this let me quote a computer science professor who classes I attented: "It really doesn't make a difference what type of computer you have, or what operating system you use just remember this; regardless what you have it makes no difference because all a computer does is run programs/applications that you place on them. Again all a computer does is run applications, period."

With that I leave you to argue amongs yourselves. I use both, and both are great plateforms.

Pam

on Nov 03, 2003

Last line; the word "amongs" should have been "amongst." Damn, and to think I used to teack fifth grade. My students would really jump me for that mistake.

Draginol

on Nov 03, 2003

Most people using Object Desktop make Windows look different from MacOS or Windows. They're not using Object Desktop to look like a Mac.

On the other hand, changing the environment of MacOS X is quite difficult and you are very limited in what you can do. There is no, for instance, DesktopX for MacOS. The best they get is Konfabulator which is a sub-set of features.

Hanoj

on Nov 03, 2003

For spell-check on the fly why not try out Tinyspell.

Keep up the good work on Object desktop!

kthxbye

on Nov 03, 2003

Oh! Yes, your Draginolness - you asked if anyone knew of a free alternative for CamStudio for the Mac?

I don't know of any such beast that exists (I even bothered to look too, be amazed,) but there /is/ the OSX version of Snapz Pro available here: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

I don't know what kind of restrictions or whatnot it would place on the unregistered version though.

zargon

on Nov 03, 2003

Nicely written article, but I think you missed the point of the original slightly. Byron was comparing software and software only, you bring hardware into the picture. If you assume that you already have a an imaginary computer that will run anything and are just going to put an OS on it, you would have to consider what $129 will get you for OSX versus the $150+ you pay for a non-upgrade version of XP.

kthxbye

on Nov 03, 2003

Really though, Zargon - you /can't/ bring just software into the picture. Or rather, you /can/, but not without looking at a slightly larger picture. Apple is both the OS manufacturer as well as the computer manufacturer.

Microsoft is merely the OS manufacturer. Insignificant? Not really - there are two entirely different business ideals there - and bundling is quite a significant factor.

In the Microsoft world, MS' idea is that manufacturers (your Dell, Gateway, etc.) will provide the additional software which will be included with the PCs purchase to add additional functionality. MS Office, MS Works, Lotus Smartsuite, other little (or not so little,) apps and utils, etc.

The Apple view can be viewed as actually being the same way - only, a little different. Apple both builds the hardware as well as creates the OS for the system. The retain control throughout the entire process, and consequently apps which have little do to with the actual OS itself get put in with the operating system - the functionality provided by many of these would be added by the manufacturer of the /computer/ in the PC world - and that's exactly how MS has always intended it to be. (Though with the upcoming Longhorn, who knows?)

Both methods have their strengths. Both methods have their failings. It's just two different ways of doing business.

In my opinions though, honestly, a more accurate comparison wouldn't be Panther vs XP - it would be more along the line of 'iMac vs. Dell or Gateway'.

Tim Dorr

on Nov 03, 2003

"Apple fanatics have been claiming for YEARS their fav
operating system will surprass MS ...someday.

In actually, Apple's desktop market share has consistently
~declined~ !"

Bzzz! Wrong: http://www.thinksecret.com/news/appleq2idc.html

zargon

on Nov 03, 2003

Sorry, I got caught up in the moment (I'm pro-Apple, anti-Microsoft). I had forgotten that at it's core Apple is a hardware company and only makes good software to sell their computers. My apologies.

Tim Dorr

on Nov 03, 2003

Also, perhaps you'd like to explain these rising revenue numbers? http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=AAPL
Or perhaps the 2% quarterly and 7% yearly increase in units sold? http://www.apple.com/pr/pdf/q403data_sum.pdf

kthxbye

on Nov 04, 2003

Zargon: Enh, it's all good. Such are the dangers of zealotry - even if it's only a momentary occurance! ^_~

Both companies are high profile names in the computer industry, and both companies create and sell an operating system. It's easy to forget that the two might follow drastically different business models. Heck, the last time I checked "Conquer the world." wasn't on Apple's business model, but I could be wrong! ^.^

Elliott P.

on Nov 04, 2003

This is rediculous. Start adding all that system-slowing software and extensions, which all costs quite a bit, and you'll be up to that premium. Mac OS X can do it "free", and with elegance. Really, the original article was correct. All the comparisons were basically true.

And, don't forget, right now you're factoring in the HARDWARE premium. Let's look at just the software for a second. $129 for top-quality features, and a kick-ass GUI. $199 for Windows XP Professional UPGRADE, which is indeed very lacking in comparison.

Draginol

on Nov 04, 2003

LOL. So when Apple bundles system slowing extensions, it's "free" but when you pay $50 for it, it suddenly is slow and costs about the same?

The Dell machine comes with Windows XP. Add Object Desktop for $50 and you get a superset of the coolness that you can get with MacOS X.

Please explain how system extension software "slows" the machine down? WindowFX on my PC is a lot faster at doing shadows than my Mac is at doing them. Resize a window on a Mac compared to a PC and you can really feel the Mac's eye candy bogging the system down.

kthxbye

on Nov 04, 2003

And don't forget that Dell's going to have Office and whatnot with it too. Yeah, that's still a very important factor to me, and required for any truly fair comparison!

I'd love for you to do a video demo, Draginol - I'd try to do up something with OSX myself, but it's rather hard since my roommate sold her Mac (Hey, she got a free notebook, & already figured we had too many computers about the house! ^.^)

I'd even offer to do the XP part - but, I don't think my WindowFX is the latest, and I've got an nVidia card, so the results often cause you to laugh.

zargon

on Nov 04, 2003

in response to the Office comment: Appleworks comes with a Mac, or you could download OpemOffice.Org for free (on either system)

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