XP vs OS X

Is there any positives and negatives you can tell me about Mac OS X? I'm definitely getting it, but I'd like to let myself know what I'm getting into. I've used macs for years, and love em, so an upgrade now sounds ideal once I have the money.
 
Ziusudra said:
Is there any positives and negatives you can tell me about Mac OS X? I'm definitely getting it, but I'd like to let myself know what I'm getting into. I've used macs for years, and love em, so an upgrade now sounds ideal once I have the money.
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A friend of mine recently complained to me about her Mac. She has two laptops. One is PC and other is Mac. She thought getting a Mac would be the best thing for her. Now, she has problems with internet software as well as getting exactly what she wants. She prefers to do things her way and Macs don't exactly do it your way. They simplify it for you in a way you don't want it. That's one big reason why I hate Macs. For instance, with Windows... I can open one file with any program I want within a click. With Mac, I'm stuck with one program... no matter how I rename the file. Grr!
 
VamPyroX said:
A friend of mine recently complained to me about her Mac. She has two laptops. One is PC and other is Mac. She thought getting a Mac would be the best thing for her. Now, she has problems with internet software as well as getting exactly what she wants. She prefers to do things her way and Macs don't exactly do it your way. They simplify it for you in a way you don't want it. That's one big reason why I hate Macs. For instance, with Windows... I can open one file with any program I want within a click. With Mac, I'm stuck with one program... no matter how I rename the file. Grr!
Click to expand...
No matter how you rename a file... so if you rename yourself Mike Tyson Jr, your dad will be Mike Tyson? Thats how it works with PCs. This means that you often have files which you can't open because they you lost track of which application it belongs to. They play "Who's my daddy?" all the time, even with deadbeat dads.
Macs have something called 'metadata' to identify files. MS has been hyping that they will add something like this in longhorn.
With a mac, you highlight the file, select 'get info' from the menu bar, then chose the program you want your file opened with.
Oh, you can also 'get info' through a right-click, a command-click, or by pressing 'command-i', or through the 'actions' button. Or go directly to 'open with' through a right click or command click OR the actions button. Thats EIGHT different ways. EIGHT ways to access the SAME thing that WON'T erratically change depending on the situation, or which application you have open. What you call 'simplifying' is called standardization. Things behave the same no matter what, and you can CHOOSE which of varying standard means to access it.
I actually believe that you spend less time fighting with a mac to get it to do what you want. Its standard behavior is a major reason for that. Every operating system has its own way of doing things that you have to learn. The less you have to learn its way, the more you will be productive. This means standard behaviors, which you can access in various ways.
Many people are familiar with PCs, and automatically assume that PC behavior is the 'right way' because their computer TRAINED THEM. Because of this, Macs have been emulating PC behavior to make it easier for people like this. If you change the name of a file from 'text.txt' to 'text.rtf' in Panther, it will ASK you if you want to do this.. then change the type of file.. just like you were complaining that wont happen with macs.
Oh.. they way I showed you changes the application a file belongs to permanently. You can just drag and drop the file on the program you want, and it will open.
 
bree said:
No matter how you rename a file... so if you rename yourself Mike Tyson Jr, your dad will be Mike Tyson? Thats how it works with PCs. This means that you often have files which you can't open because they you lost track of which application it belongs to. They play "Who's my daddy?" all the time, even with deadbeat dads.
Macs have something called 'metadata' to identify files. MS has been hyping that they will add something like this in longhorn.
With a mac, you highlight the file, select 'get info' from the menu bar, then chose the program you want your file opened with.
Oh, you can also 'get info' through a right-click, a command-click, or by pressing 'command-i', or through the 'actions' button. Or go directly to 'open with' through a right click or command click OR the actions button. Thats EIGHT different ways. EIGHT ways to access the SAME thing that WON'T erratically change depending on the situation, or which application you have open. What you call 'simplifying' is called standardization. Things behave the same no matter what, and you can CHOOSE which of varying standard means to access it.
I actually believe that you spend less time fighting with a mac to get it to do what you want. Its standard behavior is a major reason for that. Every operating system has its own way of doing things that you have to learn. The less you have to learn its way, the more you will be productive. This means standard behaviors, which you can access in various ways.
Many people are familiar with PCs, and automatically assume that PC behavior is the 'right way' because their computer TRAINED THEM. Because of this, Macs have been emulating PC behavior to make it easier for people like this. If you change the name of a file from 'text.txt' to 'text.rtf' in Panther, it will ASK you if you want to do this.. then change the type of file.. just like you were complaining that wont happen with macs.
Oh.. they way I showed you changes the application a file belongs to permanently. You can just drag and drop the file on the program you want, and it will open.
Click to expand...
In my opinion, Macs are good for people who like it simple and can't handle complexity. A perfect person for this would be my mom and dad. My mom has been using computers since the early 1980s and she still doesn't know how to work the computer well. She only knows how to use two programs, MS Word and AOL. Now that my parents cancelled AOL, she now has to learn how to work the internet through Internet Explorer since their new ISP is Comcast. A few years ago, she had a question about something on MS Word. I fixed it up for her within seconds and she was shocked that I could get it done that fast. Why? I simply did the work using right-click shortcuts. She never knew that there were shortcuts from using right-click. As for my dad, he's almost the same. He uses the computer for MS Word, AOL, and a couple Bible-related programs. He's always installing programs on the computer and using each once. Whenever I visit for Christmas Break, I get annoyed when I use the computer at home. My dad has about 4 columns worth of programs... over 175 things listed! He even has AOL 9.0, AOL 8.0, and AOL 7.0 on one computer. Why does he do that? "Oh, I prefer to keep them as back up in case I get lost." My dad thinks that most of the programs are time-activated. He thinks that if he doesn't use a program for a specific amount of time, the computer will clean them out for him... which explains why he's got a bunch of programs that no one uses and needs to be uninstalled! :crazy: Both did use to have a Mac. My dad did all of his work on the Mac. He loved doing it and it was very simple for him. He loved being able to do it "one-way" since there's only one big cute button. The same goes for my mom.
 
I was busted once for having nude pictures on the computer. It was the Mac that the pictures were on. I had put the pictures in a folder that was in another folder in another folder... 15 times. I even named it with something that my dad would never check. I even renamed the files so my dad wouldn't recognize them and think they were something else. I even renamed the files from "GIF/JPG" to something like "DOC/TXT". I had expected the computer to ignore the pictures since the file types were different... but I thought wrong. Macs already know what kind of file it is, no matter how you name it. That's why people can't really "hack" the computer or create "trick files" on Macs. Anyway, my dad decided to back up some files and found mine. He simply clicked on them and they opened automatically with a graphics program exposing what they really were! Ahh! I got in trouble and was forced to delete them all. From that moment on, I always kept my pictures on floppy disks! Heh!

Now, if I did this on a PC... it would have never happened. PCs do exactly as you tell them to do, unlike Macs doing the thinking for you. That's what I mean by PCs being a bit complex but for smart computer-literate users and Macs being for dumb computer-illiterate users... no offense. ;) Anyway, if my dad clicked on those files and they didn't open... he would simply do one of two things: delete them or talk to me. If he deleted them, I'm in the clear! If he talked to me, I'd simply tell him that those were my computer work from community college and required specific programs that's only found at the other college. I simply "stored" them on this computer for back-up purposes. He'd then ignore them and move on. :thumb:
 
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