Top 5 Features

[TonySwartz]

If you had to pick the 5 most useful/best features in OSX, what would you choose? I'm looking more for 5 things that you could show a Windows user to "switch" them. As for me:

1) Intertwined iApps all just "work" with eachother
2) Spotlight searching saves a lot of time
3) System Preferences is a lot easier than Windows control panel
4) Finder lays everything out there for you
5) Looks good -- not a big one for functionalty, but it matters in the long run!

I'm sure a thread like this exists somewhere but searching for posts like this is like searching for needles in a haystack on a forum this large.

 

[celebrian23]

1. comes preinstalled with pretty backgrounds!
2. easy to move things to and off the "desktop"
3. frontrow allows me to turn on the tunes without having to sit beside my computer
4.there are a lot of system preferences to tweak it to be what I WANT
5.osx has pretty cat names!

 

[jsw]

Well, they aren't the 5 best things, but 5 cool things to show Windows users would include:

1. Setting up Universal access so ⌥-⌘-'-' and ⌥-⌘-'=' (or '+') zoom in/out... which you can also do with a Mighty Mouse by holding control while scrolling the mouse pea.
2. Pic a bunch of images in Finder, right-click, pick "Slideshow", then press 'I' to see all of them, press the arrows to navigate between them, then press 'return' to zoom to a given image. Repeat as necessary.
3. Select a bunch of text, then use the Services menu (under the app name menu) to choose Speech->Start Speaking Text
4. Dashboard. Set it up beforehand so you don't take forever to do the initial showing.
5. Utilities->Grapher. Or, for that matter, just go through every app and utility that comes pre-installed.

 

[DaveP]

3) System Preferences is a lot easier than Windows control panel
4) Finder lays everything out there for you

Well, I would disagree with both of these as I think Windows is better in these aspects (especially finder versus explorer). But my 5...

1) Look, no virus software slowing things down
2) I'm downloading stupid little games and stuff and am not paranoid of it crapping up my system
3) I can get a tremendous re-sale value if I chose to sell
4) Things are just a little nicer looking
5) Less maintanence required than Windows

 

[Max on Macs]

Well, my five are as follows I guess.

1. The really awesome Zoom feature in Universal Access. This is really good if like me you are visually impaired. It's also very good at what it does and in many ways is better than the £300+ apps you buy for Windows (but not as many features, but faster and doesn't mess up stuff). Much better than the Windows Magnifier - it's there but it's useless!

2. I love the simplicity and ease of use. Ok so Finder needs some work done on it to compete with Explorer at the moment, but the whole interface on the mac is so simple and easy to use and I can just get things done.

3. Considerably less maintenance. I'm not running any antivirus software, and only the standard firewall found within System Preferences which uses a very basic standard feature in BSD and gets the job done well. I have to do updates every couple of weeks, but the process is very simple and very fast, which can't be said about Windows Update, and no spyware/virus scans.

4. Multi-tasking to the next level. Because it's based on UNIX, MacOS X (and indeed NeXTstep before it) is incredible in the field of multi-tasking. You can run huge amounts of apps on a Mac at once with minimal lag, assuming you have the memory for it.

5. The all-inclusive deal I get with Apple. They make a fantastic product (be it a desktop or laptop) which is not only a very stable and reliable bit of ahrdware but also a fashion accessory. Then there's the operating system which just works brilliantly with it. And these days, I get a webcam, wireless mouse/keyboard, remote control with a simple app for using iLife away from the computer and loads more all bundled with it.

Well, that's five. I could come up with a whole lot more. The whole setup is just fantastic.

 

[thewhitehart]

mouse pea.

'Nuff said.