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what softwares win10 has, that macos doesnt not?

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whichimac

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 19, 2018
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Hmm... What about something common, like Microsoft Access, or MS Publisher? If you occasionally get Publisher files (like I do), you would know that there is no good Mac substitute to open and edit Publisher files. You have to use Windows for that.
(don't mention OpenOffice/LibreOffice - which goes a long ways, but doesn't quite make it to some of the complex formatting I have to often edit)
Or, versions of software that on a Mac are STILL not quite like using the "same" apps on Windows, such as some of the more advanced formatting in most Office software. Mac version gets close, but some kinds of formatting is only on Windows versions. You continue to hear about that, even today. Subscription Office 365 is somewhat closer, but some offices don't care to have that level of expense just to support Macs better.
Microsoft Office, etc, is the main reason that I have a Win 10 BootCamp setup. I use that a couple of times a week, and it's a big time-saver - at least for the kinds of documents I have to share.

So, I more-or-less agree with your premise. However, in my experience, Mac software may be similar - but sometimes close is just not close enough for some business use. (I do my best try to avoid those kinds of things, but sometimes I cannot keep away from Windows, even if I try. :D )
 
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In broad terms, probably true when dealing with specialty software or specific programs.

For example, there are engineering, CAD packages that are not on Mac. Medical equipment seems to be primarily attached to Windows machines.

An example from my past, I used to use a recipe management package, and it was only on Windows, and no way to export the data in a useable format for some other similar package (wound up printing it all as a PDF and then use Preview going forward to add new recipes to the "cookbooks"). There is a version of Quicken for Mac, but not as feature rich as the Windows versions.

Games (particularly old ones). Childrens education software.

Sure, Mac has many programs that generally solve a particular problem, but as mentioned in post above, might not have 1:1 features, compatibility, or some people might be so ingrained with a particular package that they do not want to go to something else.
 
Plenty of "specialized" software. I work in the legal industry, and there are many pieces of *required to be used by courts* software packages that are Windows-only. Want a recording of a trial? Have to use Windows software to listen to it. The software I support has a web interface that is only minimally usable on Safari, and our "desktop software" interface is Windows-only. The web interface's full access requires ActiveX, which means Microsoft Internet Explorer is the only "full featured" way of using the website. So, either way, you need to use Windows.

Many CAD programs used by commercial engineers are Windows-only.
 
Anonymous Freak said:
Plenty of "specialized" software. I work in the legal industry, and there are many pieces of *required to be used by courts* software packages that are Windows-only. Want a recording of a trial? Have to use Windows software to listen to it. The software I support has a web interface that is only minimally usable on Safari, and our "desktop software" interface is Windows-only. The web interface's full access requires ActiveX, which means Microsoft Internet Explorer is the only "full featured" way of using the website. So, either way, you need to use Windows.
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Seems like any current developers dream. We ( probably just me ) try not to build specifically to a single platform, but to all platforms. Hmmm... trial recordings...
 
updating it to say commonly needed instead of commonly used tho the meaning i intend is essentially the same

DeltaMac said:
sometimes close is just not close enough for some business use
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what are specific software apps where they are very helpful in common use cases?


NoBoMac said:
recipe management package
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packages are part of a software or app i believe. what software was this 'package' for?

and was there no other way to easily do whatever this package did?


NoBoMac said:
Childrens education software.
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i'd guess and am pretty sure there are better softwares (or ways) to do what these 'kids education apps' do

if not, what's are specific kids education software that are done better in windows 10?


[doublepost=1528258735][/doublepost]it's nice to see knowledge from across fields/topics on this forum since not any of my previous questions was answered (and typically the questions i ask are cos they're hard questions)


satcomer said:
-
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why exactly was this suggested or said? this link/site doesnt seem very good and seems lacking in many aspects and uses
 
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While I agree that generally, for most things, one can find equivalent or better tools, please understand 3 things:

1. There are tons of legacy programs that are Win only, that do not have exact Mac equivalents.

2. Organizations: Some can argue that even if their tools are old, inferior, etc., without an exact replacement, they will not even entertain switching. Often used as a crutch to NOT change, improve, grow, or invest in modern tools. Not about Macs....all about fighting any change.

3. Users: Some love their platform, and don't want to change. Any change. Having Win-only anything strengthens their position...to not change...so they have good incentives to hold onto, and accentuate platform differences.

Ultimately, it is most often not a technical challenge, it is a fighting-change culture hurdle.
 
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whichimac said:
...
i'd guess and am pretty sure there are better softwares (or ways) to do what these 'kids education apps' do

if not, what's are specific kids education software that are done better in windows 10?

it's nice to see knowledge from across fields/topics on this forum since i couldnt get any of my previous questions answered (and typically questions are asked cos they're hard questions)
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Answers to your questions really is not about which platform as better software, or more popular, or more common, but the better question is how do you convince an organization or company about your opinion that software is better. If that organization is not going to change anytime soon - without some compelling reason, then your opinion about what is better ends up being ignored.
The "children's educational software", typically that used in schools, is a good case in point. Software used in schools, and the folks that support that, tend to be very high inertia, and use older software until they can no longer use the hardware.

@whichimac: I think you would need to explain your position a little more. Sounds like you may be in that place where you want to convince the "powers" that you have a better idea about software that you have to use. Good luck on that!
 
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without significant evidence to the contrary,

this point stands: there is not a single software that is commonly needed that macos does not have

1. legacy, 2. culture/values, and 3. biases are separate topics outside of the scope of my post

but sure i agree, and ill add the most important cause of this overall problem is a resource allocation problem (which is different from resource limitations),

and that is ultimately is a values/cultural problem


DeltaMac said:
typically that used in schools
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like what specifically & exactly? i dont know of any end-user software that is commonly in
  • all school systems,
  • or all school systems within a populous state

DeltaMac said:
convince the "powers"
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these are all your assumptions and biases that are affecting your interpretation. the post is simply responding to someone else's post, which i had linked to in the OP. also i am the controller, power, and designer, so im not concerned with all this nonsense of society

=)


--

extremely minor note: you quoted, 'it's nice to see knowledge..' but this was not a specific reply to what you said. this is one of the many reasons it was the start of a new comment. the machine had auto-merged my comments (which it shouldn't have done, bad bot), as again could be seen by

whichimac said:
[doublepost=1528258735][/doublepost]
Click to expand...
 
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hmm... your initial premise doesn't have all that much relevance to a Mac (or to Windows). If software is needed that is Mac only, a buyer pretty much needs a Mac to use it. Does that make the Mac software inherently "better"? Nope.
If Windows-only, and the buyer only has a Mac, then the Windows-only software is fairly easy to use, as is, on your Mac, just through the use of some Windows solutions, either a boot camp install, or one of the VM solutions.

Then, following that line of thinking, Mac-only, or Windows-only software is just related to the operating system that you might be required to use. All things being equal, software on either platform would not necessarily be better, or worse. It all comes down to deciding if your software needs are being met, and you can do the task that you need to do.
Does each platform have examples of software that might be a better "fit", than that same software used on another platform? Of course.
Then, each user gets to decide if the software does what you want successfully. The operating system used really is not part of that decision, as long as the operating system stays out of the way. Seems like THAT would be an issue for the software designer, eh?
 
I can't decide about what you mean, as you don't offer any specific examples about what might be both "common" (commonly-used, I suppose), and there are versions released for both Windows and macOS.
All I can guess is what you mean by that...
However, I already offered two, by name, in post #2

You only offer nebulous references to un-named software.

Anyway, there's almost no apps that are the same on both platforms. Much more common, you have to decide what apps to substitute, that do an equivalent task. Sometimes, you end up with better software, or at least better for you. Other software does not fare so well.
 
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whichimac said:
topic is about commonly needed
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You seemed to be acutely focused on this concept, and I'm not sure your meaning is well understood by others. I'm of the the opinion that essentially all software is different between platforms, even those made by the same developer. For example, the latest versions of Office are not completely compatible between platforms. They certainly seem the same until you come across something that behaves differently (such as fonts). Certainly browsers are different. Video editors can sometimes be partisan about the various packages available to them (FCPX = Mac only, Vegas, Pinnacle, Corel = Win only).
 
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I can only agree a bit on what @DeltaMac wrote a bit about in the first post.
Some apps are available on both plattforms but deliver far from the same user experience.

MS Office is deffo one of them. Its come a long way and is much better than it used to be, but it still lacking behing on the Mac.

Just simple things such as recalling a sent mail is stuff that isn't available on the Mac but on the PC.
 
Reverend Benny said:
recalling a sent mail is stuff that isn't available on the Mac but on the PC.
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I used to work at a very large tech company that ran on Outlook. Half the laptops are Mac, the others Windows. We always had a good laugh when someone tried to "recall" a message. This called attention to the message, so you read it extra carefully. And least on Macs, it didn't actually recall it. Outlook has some great features, but I've never understood this one. I understand the *desire* to vaporize a message that's already been sent. I just don't think it actually works.
 
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Quickbooks- commonly used by tons of businesses, no equivalent version for Mac.

OP, you seem to be really wanting the argument that there's pretty much nothing mainstream on Windows that isn't on macOS, but then you are defining the arguments to make that seem true and/or ruling out software as not mainstream enough. So I'm sure you'll find that QB is either not mainstream enough or that something comparable on Macs is basically the same. There is something called QB for Macs, but it's definitely not the same. I wish!

If the general premise was actually true, the distribution of Windows machines vs. Mac machines would not be so overwhelmingly bent to the Windows side. The arguably superior Apple hardware and software would own a bigger bite of the market. The reality is that almost everyone NEEDS a Windows computer in some way... if not for themselves, probably as the system they use at work. Macs still don't typically fit right in. The Mac versions of mainstream apps are not the same as the Windows versions. Try to make do, edit in a Mac version, save it so that Windows people can work on it and often you'll have "messed it up" in the Mac version.

Note that I like my Macs and use them every day. I make my living with Macs. But it's very much a Windows world... not because Macs can do anything and everything that Windows can... but because they can't. The world is full of custom software- that may not be considered mainstream- available only for Windows. Or another way to say it, the world could mostly go on without much of a hitch if macOS failed everywhere tomorrow. But the other way would be a global IT disaster.
 
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whichimac said:
someone says there's on softwares on windows that is not on macos

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-running-windows-applications-on-mac.2115357/

aside from games,

- there is not a single software that is commonly used on win10 that macos does not have a:

1. same / very similiar version
2. or better version

if there's any, feel free to mention it cos macos has the same or better


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click to see all posts here: https://forums.macrumors.com/members/whichimac.1123719/
Click to expand...

It’s really of no importance.

The list could be considerable depending on how explicitly specific your needs are.

Comparable/better are relative terms that amount to nothing but personal preference and or personal need.

If the software that you need is available on the platform of your choice, then great. If not, then you find the platform that it does exist on.

Personally, I like the MacOS. And it does what I need personally. But professionally it can’t do a single thing I need to do in my field. I can’t get into a title list, because generally speaking, the software isn’t available for consumers, you don’t know that it exists, and I can’t tell you that it exists or that my company uses it without violating security protocols and NDA.

In the corporate world, there’s a vast number of Windows and Linux software that the average person doesn’t even know about.

On a personal level, for personal use, any platform may or may not meet your needs.

In my world, the Mac isn’t even able to get past the security credentials to write an email. I can’t even connect to my work files remotely over the Internet from my Mac.

And even general software, can’t authenticate against my security badge. So even if I could get it on my work computer, it would have no mechanism of authenticating against my badge to verify that I am in-fact the person composing that document.

So, in that case, absolutely no Macintosh title exists that can authenticate against my badge given the level of security required by my company.

MacOS doesn’t even have the built-in mechanism to authenticate who I am at startup to the security level required by my company. And no, fingerprint, and Face ID isn’t enough. The authentication goes way past that.

In some levels of security, they go into the theoretical what if someone chopped off my finger, injected saline, and used it to get into the computer. Same with a face. Who knows what a crazy person might do. Lol.

So a badge method, in combination with multi-factor authorization (and I mean multiple levels) is used. The badge cannot be stolen, misplaced, etc... I’ll leave it at that.. additional knowledge is required... other devices must be nearby and verify me, and if I can’t interact with all said devices, and activate my badge, and input the required knowledge, then nobody is getting into that computer. Not at any level of authority.

Some companies take security a bit serious.

Windows does have the built-in ability to manage that level of authentication to log in.

And yeah... talk about a pain in the butt if I happen to not touch the computer every so many seconds and have to do it all again just to wake the screen back up.

So... again... it really comes down to how specific your needs are.

Out of the box, MacOS doesn’t offer the level of Enterprise security that Windows does. It’s not built for that level of Enterprise networking.

Sure, you can integrate Macs into some company networks. I’ve worked with that. It’s really dependent on how tightly that network is locked down, and which tools they use to administrate that network.

But... I could just about guarantee you that MacOS is not the operating system that Apple has running their server farm.

But, if you want to limit the discussion to consumer software, then certainly there are word processors and spreadsheets and general apps out there for every platform. In that respect, who needs anything more than an old Amiga or Commodore 64 to do basic tasks??? And yes... I have had both a Commodore 64 and an Apple IIgs on DSL browsing the Internet graphically and doing email just fine. And they both have games and applications in every category.

So... depending on your specific needs, perhaps any computer will do.
 
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