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Is there ANY reason to use Windows other than windows-apps?

P

Panini

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 12, 2012
204
0
Palo Alto, CA
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
 
Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...

personal preference
 
It handles windows better. Even the third-party apps you can get to add windows-like functionality to OSX aren't quite as good as what Windows 7 can do. I prefer Windows file/folder management and context menus to OSX as well.

Keep in mind though, most people who spend all day working on a computer didn't have any say in what kind of computer they got. So it's not like the entire enterprise workforce chose Windows - it came with the job.

(I like Windows 7. I like OSX. They do different things well.)

Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...
 
Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...

IMO, my entire family and friends all grew up using windows. Switching over to a different system and adapting to it, is just too much for some people. I'm always trying to convince friends and family to switch over, but some never budge. CHANGE....is one of the biggest detractors.
 
I have to agree. I have to use Windows 7 at work so I use both systems daily. I prefer OSX and its software. For instance I prefer writing on Pages rather than Word, and prefer Numbers to Excell. It is my preference that I find the Apple products better.

My brother in law switched to an iMac last year when his very old Windows based computer died. Because he partially runs his business from his home computer he had to put windows on it as all his records were in Windows based programs. He used Parallel to do it and is very pleased. He believes that Windows runs better on his iMac.

Apparently that is also the opinion of Steve Ballmer as well. At least according to Urban Legend.
 
Is there ANY reason to use Windows other than windows-apps?
Click to expand...
I mean, is there any reason to use OS X other than OS X-apps?

Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...
If we're going to ignore apps, and just look at frameworks, than Windows beats OS X in just about every way. It has frameworks dating back to the 16-bit days, and there's a rumor that Windows 8 can run some program from the late 80's... Natively! but again, that's an app....

They both work just as well for making monitors light up. Sometimes OS X doesn't like to recognize keyboard input...

Without programs, what is the purpose of a computer?
 
Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...

This is my opinion :

As I remember, this is microsoft vision : a computer on every desktop and in every home. Youngster are educated with microsoft based computer in a lot of countries. I believe Apple based computers are used to educate youngster only in western area.

This makes a huggggeeeee difference. If you are used to use Windows , the chance you prefer Windows for your work in the future is very high. This why Windows are used in every company.

More people use -> more applications are developed -> because there are so many applications -> more people use.

I personally had used Windows until I was 18 maybe. Then I'm forced to use freeBSD and somehow I use a Mac since then. So that's why many people use Windows. I personally like to use Mac because it doesn't require OS reinstall, multitasking support is faaaar advance than windows can provide, and of course the user friendliness :)
 
zerotiu said:
This is my opinion :

As I remember, this is microsoft vision : a computer on every desktop and in every home. Youngster are educated with microsoft based computer in a lot of countries. I believe Apple based computers are used to educate youngster only in western area.

This makes a huggggeeeee difference. If you are used to use Windows , the chance you prefer Windows for your work in the future is very high. This why Windows are used in every company.

More people use -> more applications are developed -> because there are so many applications -> more people use.

I personally had used Windows until I was 18 maybe. Then I'm forced to use freeBSD and somehow I use a Mac since then. So that's why many people use Windows. I personally like to use Mac because it doesn't require OS reinstall, multitasking support is faaaar advance than windows can provide, and of course the user friendliness :)
Click to expand...

What exactly are you referring to here? Multitasking is extremely similar on both systems. Are you talking about task switching? If that's the case, that is a very subjective thing and I would argue that OSX has inferior task switching when compared to windows.
 
I like both and will continue to use both... I much prefer the office apps for windows vs officemac.
 
mikeo007 said:
What exactly are you referring to here? Multitasking is extremely similar on both systems. Are you talking about task switching? If that's the case, that is a very subjective thing and I would argue that OSX has inferior task switching when compared to windows.
Click to expand...

I was referring to space feature. I can divide my works easily using OSX and use 'all windows' feature (F3). While in Windows, I think alt-tab and windows-tab are the only features it has to support multi task. Don't forget about the smoothness when you use Mac trackpad.

I don't know this is personal preference, a fact or someone who is lazy to learn new OS (I don't say it is you) but in my experience, the combination of OSX multitask features and trackpad makes your work very efficient. Faster than windows.

I've used windows and macs now. PCs and laptops. So in my case, I prefer OSX than windows, it's faster with all that shortcut keys and trackpad actions.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
I mean, is there any reason to use OS X other than OS X-apps?
Click to expand...

Yes.

You could argue it's more RAM and battery efficient and more secure. IMO the UI elements/icons/animations look better too. The scrolling/zooming/panning/rotating animations are more fluid and natural when you use a trackpad. As for productivity it depends on if you prefer OS X features like Mission control/spaces or Windows 7's window snapping. The rest like window button location, shortcuts, filesystem structure and such depends a lot on what you're used to.

Other than Windows apps and games, Windows will generally offer better game performance because of DirectX. OS X uses OpenGL instead since DirectX is made by Microsoft and Windows-only. I don't know if DirectX is technically superior to OpenGL or if it's just developers that focus less on their Mac OpenGL port since less people use Macs.
 
Panini said:
Third-party apps aside, is there any area where windows bests OS X?

So far I've come up with gaming (portal on windows runs better on a mac than portal on OS X - same can be said for many other games).

Is that all? There must be something windows does better so that even the people who spend most of their day with computers choose it over mac...
Click to expand...
Business software, not just enterprise software, usually only runs on Windows.
 
pgiguere1 said:
Yes.

You could argue it's more RAM and battery efficient and more secure. IMO the UI elements/icons/animations look better too. The scrolling/zooming/panning/rotating animations are more fluid and natural when you use a trackpad. As for productivity it depends on if you prefer OS X features like Mission control/spaces or Windows 7's window snapping. The rest like window button location, shortcuts, filesystem structure and such depends a lot on what you're used to.

Other than Windows apps and games, Windows will generally offer better game performance because of DirectX. OS X uses OpenGL instead since DirectX is made by Microsoft and Windows-only. I don't know if DirectX is technically superior to OpenGL or if it's just developers that focus less on their Mac OpenGL port since less people use Macs.
Click to expand...

You're right. You COULD argue. No one can force you to be right.
Can't speak for ML but it's well documented Lion couldn't handle RAM properly.
Security on mac is/was (improving but i stopped following the details) far behind windows. You're just less likely to need to rely on security measures "at the moment" due to windows being far more popular/targeted. The major documented cases of people actually targeting the mac over the last 2 years have all been laughable exploits.
Can't say much for battery life but I do believe there is some truth in this, OS X typically lasts longer on a low workload (web/office) but given something intensive both systems should be more or less equal.

zerotiu said:
I was referring to space feature.
Click to expand...

this "can" be done in windows with relative ease but OS X's native support is more convenient obviously. But essentially if it exists, you can probably do it in windows.

This whole thread is basically "is there ANY reason to run windows other than the reason to run windows" :S

but to sum it up. Applications, Greater Hardware Support, Likely to be used by your school/workplace, In my opinion more "robust", probably some other things I'm forgetting.
I'm not saying OS X is bad but I far prefer windows for just generally using an operating system from day to day, I know my way around it better and the mac interface just seems ridiculous and backwards to me all the time, whilst missing very basic things. I'd ditch spaces any day to have the keyboard short cuts and run command I can quickly pull up in windows. There's no substitute I could find for the mac whereas most mac features have windows substitutes.

That being said, I only just got my first mac this week.
The reason I own a mac is pretty much just native RAW support

/long pointless post.
 
Orihara said:
......but to sum it up. Applications, Greater Hardware Support, Likely to be used by your school/workplace, In my opinion more "robust", probably some other things I'm forgetting....
Click to expand...

.... and the number 1 thing: Doesn't have iTunes or the App Store :D!
 
Orihara said:
You're right. You COULD argue. No one can force you to be right.
Can't speak for ML but it's well documented Lion couldn't handle RAM properly.
Security on mac is/was (improving but i stopped following the details) far behind windows. You're just less likely to need to rely on security measures "at the moment" due to windows being far more popular/targeted. The major documented cases of people actually targeting the mac over the last 2 years have all been laughable exploits.
Can't say much for battery life but I do believe there is some truth in this, OS X typically lasts longer on a low workload (web/office) but given something intensive both systems should be more or less equal.



this "can" be done in windows with relative ease but OS X's native support is more convenient obviously. But essentially if it exists, you can probably do it in windows.

This whole thread is basically "is there ANY reason to run windows other than the reason to run windows" :S

but to sum it up. Applications, Greater Hardware Support, Likely to be used by your school/workplace, In my opinion more "robust", probably some other things I'm forgetting.
I'm not saying OS X is bad but I far prefer windows for just generally using an operating system from day to day, I know my way around it better and the mac interface just seems ridiculous and backwards to me all the time, whilst missing very basic things. I'd ditch spaces any day to have the keyboard short cuts and run command I can quickly pull up in windows. There's no substitute I could find for the mac whereas most mac features have windows substitutes.

That being said, I only just got my first mac this week.
The reason I own a mac is pretty much just native RAW support

/long pointless post.
Click to expand...

Windows vs mac is a never ending story. One must choose which OS is best for him/her.
Maybe you should use and learn OSX longer.. since this is your 1st mac. I like to learn new things and move from my comfort zone.

That's why I realize that it is difficult to have a debate with someone which has different level of experience and understanding. There is no superior OS actually.

Windows are preferable because what I've said in previous comment. Mac user are fewer than windows user because people are sometimes too lazy to learn new things and Mac machines are more expensive than windows. That's it :)

Even if we all use Linux, we will debate which linux distribution is the best :D
 
zerotiu said:
Windows vs mac is a never ending story. One must choose which OS is best for him/her.....
Click to expand...

Not necessarily .....:eek:

P1000838.JPG
 
  • Proper file copying (i.e. merging folders)
  • Proper photo editing (Windows 7's Paint is amazing)
  • Proper drive formatting
  • Proper network file access (i.e. it doesn't matter what the file system is, FAT32 or NTFS)
  • F5 Firepass support (Work VPN)
  • Share and security changes
  • Proper WMV support including DRM-locked WMV streams
  • Direct Android connectivity either for file management or straight up ROM/root/bootloader management


And you said "other than windows-apps" but just for the record.

  • Microsoft Visio which has literally no peer on the OS X side
  • Microsoft OneNote - see Visio (and no, Evernote doesn't even come close)
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Visual Studio for developers
  • VMware Worksatation for VM development (Fusion is fundamentally deficient in this arena)
 
revelated said:
  • Proper file copying (i.e. merging folders)
  • Proper photo editing (Windows 7's Paint is amazing)
  • Proper drive formatting
  • Proper network file access (i.e. it doesn't matter what the file system is, FAT32 or NTFS)
  • F5 Firepass support (Work VPN)
  • Share and security changes
  • Proper WMV support including DRM-locked WMV streams
  • Direct Android connectivity either for file management or straight up ROM/root/bootloader management


And you said "other than windows-apps" but just for the record.

  • Microsoft Visio which has literally no peer on the OS X side
  • Microsoft OneNote - see Visio (and no, Evernote doesn't even come close)
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Visual Studio for developers
  • VMware Worksatation for VM development (Fusion is fundamentally deficient in this arena)
Click to expand...

Hmm.. I always use omnigraffle pro (http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/) to substitute visio.

Open Project = microsoft project
 
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