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Preston Gralla's picture
Preston Gralla

Seeing Through Windows

Five reasons why Vista beats Mac OS X

The conventional wisdom, that Mac's OS X is superior to Windows Vista, is flat-out wrong. In fact, despite much belief to the contrary, Vista is a superior operating system. Here are five reasons why.

Reason #1: Vista runs more software

Mac OS X is a very pretty operating system, but beauty runs only skin deep. An operating system by itself is a poor thing -- it's the applications that run on top of it that matter. And here's where Mac OS X falls short. It can't run much common software, including enterprise applications and games.

Virtualization software like Parallels Desktop for Mac won't solve the problem. Parallels can't run even the most basic Vista games such as FreeCell, Hearts, Pinball, Solitaire and Minesweeper, because it doesn't support DirectX 9. And virtualization software creates big problems for enterprises with regard to volume licensing, technical support, creating standard enterprisewide images and so on. So it's no good for running enterprise applications either. Vista beats OS X here, hands down.

Reason #2: Vista is safer

As I've written before, Vista is a more secure operating system than Mac OS X. Mac OS X was easier to crack in a recent hacking contest. And security researcher Dino Dai Zovi had this to say about Vista versus Mac OS X when it comes to security:

I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly-written code.

Reason #3: It's the money, stupid

If you're got a lot of extra spare cash laying around that you don't care about, then by all means, buy a Mac. But if, like most of the world, you've got to work for a living, then you'll find that a Vista machine is far less expensive than a Mac.

Reason #4: The Mac is closed; Vista is open

Any person or company who wants to build a PC with Vista on it, and either sell it, or use it themselves, is perfectly free to do so, as long as they buy the operating system. Try to do that with a Mac, and you'll be spending some face time with Apple's attack dog lawyers.

Reason #5: Two words -- Steve Jobs

There's no doubt that Steve Jobs is a master marketer. And he also knows good design. But he's also vindictive, sends his lawyers after people who report leaked information about Apple products, and has hypnotized Apple users into drinking the true-believer Kool Aid. Don't reward him by making him richer.

By the way, if you're interested in a head-to-head death match about whether Vista, XP, Mac OS X, or Linux is the superior operating system, check out OS Smackdown: Linux vs. Mac OS X vs. Windows Vista vs. Windows XP. As you might imagine, I argue for Vista.

What People Are Saying

Check facts

I wish this joker would actually look things up.

He complains about Mac not being a gaming platform and can't run windows based programs and a lot of useless programs.

If he wants to play games on his Mac, he can install Boot Camp and then download his precious Vista or Win 7.

The mac isn't a gamin platform; it's a nicely designed workplatform.

And I'm not that worried about hackers, who the hell would hack my computer in my home? Besides, I'm more concerned with the small FACT that if I run windows, it will get bugs, viruses, error messages up the wazoo and frequent system crashes.

I bought a Mac a while ago (wow, I'm a student who can afford a mac when that joker said himself he couldn't, maybe he should get himself a real job) becuase I've been stuck on a PC for three years and hated every moment; if it wasn't the software raping my every sense, it was the hardware.

Has this moron ever even tried the Mac? I only have this left to say: When you go Mac, you never go back to the stinking cesshole of Windows.

one more thing

It is funny because years ago I use to have a TI-99, a Commodore 64, and Amiga. And back then many of the BIG PC arguments is that is just a game machine, not a business machine. Therefore we do not need graphics like that. However, Windows came out and eventually even the PC folks could not live without a working mouse. Again, being stuck on the technology they know. And this article tries to make the case that there are more games out there for the PC than on Mac. This may be true in the stores but I am not so sure if in whole this is true.

A good example of Apple technology is the iPhone. Everyone said it was too expensive, it would never be a dominant player in the cell phone industry, etc. and they were proven wrong. The iPhone gives developers a chance to write programs on this platform and submit them for review and to go onto the Apple store at very small cost. This gives a huge audience to your program and yet you do not have to have a big business or work for a corporation where ultimately your software will have to manufactured, put in a box, and put out on store shelves if they desire to carry your product. Instead, very small cost, huge audience, and now small time developers with good ideas can bring stuff to market as easily as the big guys. There have been quite a few self made millionaires (many very young) because of this. There are over 25,000 apps available just for the iPhone and at your fingertips. No PC or other cell phone has ever done this.

I guess a PC owner ONLY would feel proud of this.

I must admit that only in the last two years did I jump on the Apple band wagon but I am really glad I did. Over the last two years when a good friend or family member came to me about fixing their PC I went onto craigslist and bought a fairly new iMac with Intel Duo core chipset for them as a replacement. Each cost me around $600. And none of these people have come back to me with any more problems.

This all started for me because I wanted to get my wife the iPhone and because we were moving I decided to by my mother a Mac in hopes that she would not be calling me with lots of questions or problems with the machine. I know an machine has many different flavors of IM but the iChat works great and my parents love it. The camera on these machines is superior to anything I have seen so far on anyone else's PC for speed and quality. So my parents get to see the grand kids.

I have been in the computer business a long time and have learned to not jump to a different technology or new upgrades so quickly but there is also that time where you have those who believe what they are using is the greatest and that they will not lose and in the end they do. I witnessed this when I was certified Novell engineer but then NT took over. I made the switch but those diehards who stuck it out with Novell where I was located ended up losing their jobs.

I like Mac for a lot of reasons. I do not need to spell them all out on here. But you can get a Mac cheap online if you just look and in the end I think you will be very happy with it if you give a chance. It took me about two weeks before I really got the feel for my Mac and started to realize I should have probably switched a little earlier.

what?

this review is saaaaddd
you were obviously payed by microsoft to do this

Did you get your job by

Did you get your job by blowing somebody? Obvious it was not for your insight or ability to properly research your subject.

I've done a recent study

I've done a recent study regarding apple pricing and pc pricing. I can't get too detailed because I'm in a time crunch, but I'll give basic data. I compared the 13" white MacBook to a similar hp product with the exact same specs. The macbook was about 200 dollars cheaper. I found similar results in my imac comparison. The only one that was more expensive was the 17" MacBook pro, which was about two or three hundred more than the hp. That was before the release of the new MacBook lineup which featured many improvements and about a $200 price drop on all models.

Sorry, but your study is flawed.

What you forgot to take into account is that HP and Dell discount their products a lot. You can't compare retail prices because that simply isn't realistic. A lot of times you can either stack a few coupons or just get them from costco for around $400 cheaper than macbooks. Even with the price cut, the old Macbooks with their oldder specifications are still more expensive than the newer round laptops from HP and Dell going for around $500-600 with 3-4 gigs of memory.

Now, this is just laptops we're talking about. If you get into the desktop arena it's an even bigger price gap. (of course)

Yes, I do see your point,

Yes, I do see your point, but I'm talking about customizing the pc to the exact specs as the mac. Some of the discounts may not apply if you customize it. Sure, the base price is different, but if you make them exactly the same, then the price is the same too. Take note that the extra software to make the pc comparable the mac is significant too. Macs also have little things that add to the price but make them much better. Ex. Backlit keyboard, 7 hour battery, MagSafe powerecord, iSight, aluminum unibody, multi touch glass trackpad, standard mic and speakers (quite good quality too.), standard bluetooth, environmentally friendly for the most part, thin, light, sexy, you get the point.

Preston Gralla is said

Preston Gralla is realy a said person.
Or he get payd well by MS.

I never have seen a person who can write so much bull sh*t.

But hey he do it for a living and ppl buy his books..

You, my friend, are sad

Much of this article is true whether you like it or not. It is more than likely that this man is not getting paid one cent from Microsoft either. Some people pride their PC's and MAC's, that is why they like to highlight the good things of each side. This is no different.

The fact that you can't spell "sad" or "paid" gives people a very good idea of your level of sophistication.