Why Macs are better than PC's?

[MagnusVonMagnum]

My experience as a tech support person suggests that most Windows users can drive a Mac, but original Mac users somehow get lost in Windows when switched - Need I say more?

And it never even once occurred to you that is because Windows is so flipping obtuse for no appreciable reason and thus a life-long Mac user might be confused as to why nothing on it makes any logical sense?

So to put it bluntly if you want to learn how to use any computer properly get a PC first.

I'm confused by the word proper there. A proper computer in my book wouldn't be obtuse. And yes I did learn Windows before OS X and a couple of Amigas before that and a C64 before that and a Vic20 before that. Windows just plain sucked up until XP SP2 (Win98 and earlier were horrible, just horrible for crashing all the time for no discernible reason). XP SP2 and SP3 sucked "less" but still sucked for usability. Yeah, it had more games and gaming support. Just when I thought Windows couldn't possibly suck any harder, Windows Vista came out and proved me wrong.

Windows 7 was a huge improvement, but honestly, I've never enjoyed having to run malware checkers 24/7. They have a way of eating up performance of the CPU and especially the hard drive when you least want them to. I had to disable scans on my Windows game machine for that reason. Yet you are tempting fate if you don't run one. I would never feel truly safe doing banking and shopping on a Windows machine.

Windows 8's default interface was Vista all over again. Yes, classic shell restored functionality but since when should you have to run 3rd party software to fix an operating system's basic behavior? Windows 10 is either 8's salvation or a hybrid monster behemoth depending on how you look at it (WTF wants metro apps on the start menu period? It makes it enormous). And now Microsoft is collecting key logging data and other things even if you turn off as many privacy invading options as possible. That concerns me even more.

At least Windows gives you an understanding of how a computer works- I feel some flaming coming on, ha ha.

Windows 95/98/Me and Dos gave you an understanding of how some of the hardware add-ons interfaced back then, but I'm not seeing how Windows XP and beyond give you any idea of how a computer "works". Take assembly language programming (I have had two classes in it as part of digital systems and interfacing hardware to the bus) if you want a real idea of how a computer works at the most fundamental levels. An operating system only tells you at most how it does things. I don't call the Registry an education in anything but mind-numbing awfulness of design.

Linux can give you an idea of how things work on more fundamental levels, but even it has been moving away from requiring you to learn how to compile your own software, etc.

Yep, Linux is easier to use, I agree- I cannot argue with that. Its my preferred OS,

I've used Linux on/off for over two decades and while it has evolved quite a LOT over that time, I have yet to have a "flavor" that can truly update itself to a newer version consistently and flawlessly like OSX has managed. Repositories are truly mind numbingly awful (you are entirely dependent on others keeping applications up to date and there's always lag and setting most flavors up to even get at things you actually want (e.g. DVD decoders, etc.) means manually doing even more since those are no-no copyright hazards for companies distributing Linux. Your "alternative" is to compile yourself (not all that much fun over time). So unless something has radically changed in the past three years, I could/would never say Linux is easier to use unless you just want a web browser and even then it might not stay up-to-date. And if you need Flash or something, forget about it. Linux support has been dumped for some time now.

 

[lowendlinux]

I've used Linux on/off for over two decades and while it has evolved quite a LOT over that time, I have yet to have a "flavor" that can truly update itself to a newer version consistently and flawlessly like OSX has managed. Repositories are truly mind numbingly awful (you are entirely dependent on others keeping applications up to date and there's always lag and setting most flavors up to even get at things you actually want (e.g. DVD decoders, etc.) means manually doing even more since those are no-no copyright hazards for companies distributing Linux. Your "alternative" is to compile yourself (not all that much fun over time). So unless something has radically changed in the past three years, I could/would never say Linux is easier to use unless you just want a web browser and even then it might not stay up-to-date. And if you need Flash or something, forget about it. Linux support has been dumped for some time now.

DVD decoders come with VLC
BluRay comes with MakeMKV
Flash comes with Chrome along with Netflix / Amazon Instant or if you prefer choromium-pepper-flash with chromuium
Repo's can be arcane especially in RPM land
I use rolling distros because I think the STS/LTS model is flawed so I really don't know

Because you don't find something easy or easier doesn't mean others don't which is again my point not Linux is teh bestest lulz

 

[avkdm]

Hiding your hard drive and home folder from you in OSX doesnt turn you into a super user. Does that make any sense? Dumbing down the OS is fine for some users but attacking Windows and Linux as an OS is dumb also. You must also go to a lot of dodgy websites if you are getting infested with malware. I have only ever used The Windows built in anti-virus (MSE), only problems with malware have been a couple of times over the years when I tempted fate on "dodgy" download websites and paid the price.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Hiding your hard drive and home folder from you in OSX doesnt turn you into a super user. Does that make any sense?

No it doesn't make any sense. I don't hide anything or let OS X hide anything.

Dumbing down the OS is fine for some users but attacking Windows and Linux as an OS is dumb also.

Who is attacking it? I'm simply telling you how my experience has been. If you love Windows so much, go use it. No one is stopping you. Personally, I got tired watching as my machine gets slower and slower due to registry bloat and hard disk fragmentation. While SSDs mitigate the fragmentation problem to a large extent due to their inherent random access nature, it changes nothing for large traditional drives (see how much 4TB of SSD space costs you). I got tired of security updates every other day. I got tired of waiting for my malware checker to scan the hard drive and scan emails and scan everything imaginable because there have been so damn many malware attacks over the years including tens of thousands of viruses (zero viruses on OS X to this day). If you haven't had malware on your PC, consider yourself lucky. I haven't had anything but one key logger once from an untrusted site (malware checker caught it), but I've had family members who use Windows regularly get a lot of malware (they blame it on their kids, but it wouldn't have happened with OS X because those things didn't exist on that platform)

I'm not saying there aren't satisfied PC users (obviously there are and they let their Apple hate be known all the time on PC forums), but some people are perfectly happy to put up with all kinds of crap some of us would rather avoid. I'll take Carbon Copy Cloner and freedom to have bootable external drives over the hoops you had to jump through on Windows due to M$'s paranoia any day. I spend virtually no time maintaining my Macs compared to the amount of time I've spent updating crap on a PC and don't have to be paranoid that every web site might be hiding malware in some image or video. Peace of mind is worth more than a few extra software packages I may never need or want. A slight premium for the computer is worth the lack of hassle. And I can leave my Mac on 24/7/365 and NEVER have to worry about rebooting due to some crash or instability. I haven't seen a kernel panic on OS X since about 2008 and that was a on PPC server I was still using.

My only complaint about Macs have been the 2D ugly Yosemite interface that replaced the perfectly lovely looking Mavericks, the lack of hardware configuration choices these days and Apple's abysmal support for Mac gaming (i.e. OpenGL was never up-to-date and drivers were rarely updated; Metal may change that to some extent but I won't hold my breath long term).

 

[tuxon86]

Every windows version after XP does background defrag of the drives. Fragmentation is a thing of the past like many other problem you may have had with windows in the past. The only reason there isn't any virus on Mac is the same why there are none on linux also... You are only a tiny fragment of the overall market. Virus and malware creators are on a net fishing expedition and they target the masses not the exception. Beside while you may have no virus you do get rootkit and malware which are the biggest threat to your security.

You can also boot windows from an external drive and Ghost or any other drive imaging software will do the same thing that you are doing with Carbon Copy... I also haven't spent any time maintaining my PC running any version post XP either... And haven't rebooted my PC for quite a while for "instability". And the only blue screen you'll see today are for the same reason you see it on PC, hardware failure...

Have you used a windows PC post windows XP?

 

[filmak]

You can also boot windows from an external drive and Ghost or any other drive imaging software will do the same thing that you are doing with Carbon Copy...

True. But windows needs reactivation and you may not able to activate, not to mention drivers needed for the new installation etc.
os x + ccc = a lot smoother and trouble free due to controlled hardware.

 

[tuxon86]

True. But windows needs reactivation and you may not able to activate, not to mention drivers needed for the new installation etc.
os x + ccc = a lot smoother and trouble free due to controlled hardware.

No reactivation if you ghost an already activated windows unless you also did major hardware changes. and in any case, how entering a code one time can be considered too complicated? And unless you need optimized GPU drivers, Windows 7 and up already includes drivers for just about everything. The only drivers I have to install are my priter drivers, but then again I also have to install them on my iMac.

 

[filmak]

No reactivation if you ghost an already activated windows unless you also did major hardware changes. and in any case, how entering a code one time can be considered too complicated? And unless you need optimized GPU drivers, Windows 7 and up already includes drivers for just about everything. The only drivers I have to install are my priter drivers, but then again I also have to install them on my iMac.

No , it's not complicated to enter a serial nr. The problem is that if you want to ghost an installation going to another machine it will need to be activated again and if you have already activated the same installation for any reason it may be rejected from ms servers. As you know you can freely transfer your current OS X installation to another machine without this trouble.

And of course win 7 are a very stable and useful OS especially compared with earlier and later win versions.

 

[avkdm]

Whats the difference between downloading roughly 200mb updates in Windows every month, or 5 gb every year to update OSX? To call it a brand new OS is stretching it a bit. I think Windows wins on that front. As others have pointed out cloning isnt a problem, defrag is a thing of the past.
Never had a BSOD the last few years since win 7, but my Mac has crashed numerous times, however a reboot has fixed it. Theres a lot of misinformation about Win 7 instability, I wish it would stop.
I remember Mavericks (or was it Yosemite?) update broke every shared Printer on our network (you could not connect without some ridiculous workaround and most of the time it didnt work) at the Uni and it took Apple months to patch it. If this happened in Windows you would never hear the end of it.

 

[Larry-K]

Why are people so susceptible to marketing?

And why is "PC's" a conjunction or a possessive in the title of this thread?

 

[DeltaMac]

Not the first time (today) that I have seen apostrophe's used incorrectly. (couldn't resist, eh?)

 

[tuxon86]

No , it's not complicated to enter a serial nr. The problem is that if you want to ghost an installation going to another machine it will need to be activated again and if you have already activated the same installation for any reason it may be rejected from ms servers. As you know you can freely transfer your current OS X installation to another machine without this trouble.

And of course win 7 are a very stable and useful OS especially compared with earlier and later win versions.

Just a friendly hint if you ever get rejected from MS servers... Just call the number on the registration card and use the automated activation service. You just follow the instruction and they reset the profile. They don't do any check... I switch computers about every 6 month, a perk from my job , and I carried the same XP, VISTA, 7, 8 and now 10 licenses from machine to machine without any problem.

And it's even easier in a professional setting were the IT dept host the authentification server themselves. We just finished migrating 30k pc and workstation from XP to win7 and they were all installed using the same disk image. No need to enter a serial number...