I love OS X

[richard.mac]

i just had an instance of why i love OS X so much.

i bought a new Netcomm NB6Plus4W wireless router a while ago which includes a USB interface for computers that dont have an ethernet port (must be pretty old computers lol). it says in the manual that Vista does not support it and XP needs drivers.

curiously, i just tried plugging in a USB cable from the router to my MBP to see what will happen. straight away a window popped up saying a new network interface has been found and i clicked open Network preferences and then clicked connect. straight away i was on the internets! i mean no drivers needed (not that there is any for this router anyway) and instantly online!

how does OS X handle hardware drivers so well? i mean cameras, most popular phones, printers and now something as obscure as a USB network interface on a router.

and this router is mainly targeted at Windows users and the USB feature still doesnt work in Vista and needs drivers to be installed in XP .

 

[The Awesome]

i just had an instance of why i love OS X so much.

i bought a new Netcomm NB6Plus4W wireless router a while ago which includes a USB interface for computers that dont have an ethernet port (must be pretty old computers lol). it says in the manual that Vista does not support it and XP needs drivers.

curiously, i just tried plugging in a USB cable from the router to my MBP to see what will happen. straight away a window popped up saying a new network interface has been found and i clicked open Network preferences and then clicked connect. straight away i was on the internets! i mean no drivers needed (not that there is any for this router anyway) and instantly online!

how does OS X handle hardware drivers so well? i mean cameras, most popular phones, printers and now something as obscure as a USB network interface on a router.

and this router is mainly targeted at Windows users and the USB feature still doesnt work in Vista and needs drivers to be installed in XP .

Haha, good on ya!

Though I think Ethernet is much older than USB. They probably did that for MBA users or somethin'... or to promote the "one-less-port to clutter your PC" ideology.

I had a much harder time installing a Printer/Scanner from Brother on OS X.4 (the scanner still doesn't work).

Installing stuff on Windows usually gives me a headache. I plugged in this "Vista-Certified, no drivers needed" USB2.0/FW400 Handycam on my Compaq running Vista and it still can't identify it (not even as a "Generic Video Capture Device" or something).

The "find drivers automatically" function never EVER works and installed drivers drift between full functionality to treacherous uselessness. OS X handling drivers better is partly due to it not supporting that much devices compared to XP/Vista. Microsoft insists on providing support for 10/20 year old devices but ends up stretching itself too thin to maintain backwards compatibility for all of its 32-bit (or maybe even the 16-bit ones) systems and future-proofing for its 64-bit ones.

That's one thing the Get A Mac ads hit dead on.

 

[xUKHCx]

Though I think Ethernet is much older than USB. They probably did that for MBA users or somethin'... or to promote the "one-less-port to clutter your PC" ideology.

FYI the computer I am currently typing this on came with USB ports but no Ethernet, in fact it was only about a month or two ago that I added one via a pci card.

In regards to drivers with Windows you can get just about any piece of hardware to work where as with Mac OS X you have to hope and prey that they are supported. If they are supported it works great but the number of devices available to each platform aren't really inn the same league in my opinion.

 

[richard.mac]

did you remove "God" from my post title due to religious regions? if so im deeply sorry. im Christian and it was used a slang manner and not in vain.

what about card readers, Firewire cards, raid cards etc.? they all work without drivers in OS X. i just think the way OS X implements and uses drivers is far superior to Windows even though it doesnt support every bit of hardware.

though i do admit we need more support for audio cards and video cards. but this is most likely due to Apple being OEM-like and making their own computers. we would have to rely on the manufacturers/developers of the devices.

scanners would probably need software and particular drivers which you would have to hope for. but the basic functions of the printer would work perfectly

although we dont have support for every bit of hardware under the sun most of the useful and standard hardware addons and devices work.

 

[Erwin-Br]

Most Windows drivers are not written by Microsoft, but by the hardware manufacturers. And they are to blame for their crappy drivers.

 

[richard.mac]

good point! nearly all the drivers for OS X are written for Apple, except for a few like the NTFS ones.

 

[macrem]

I was housesitting and plugged my MBP into a USB hub in the study which was loaded with cam, keyboard, mouse, usb connector for touch screen (which I plugged into other free usb port on MBP besides hub), card reader, headphones with mic + added my Touch. Everything just worked flawlessly no questions asked, including the dvi connection to an external monitor. I had the same feeling!