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Windows vs. Mac OS - Stability

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
So far, here are my results:

Days until first crash:
Mac: 0 (this was due to a PMU problem which was fixed at my local Apple Store)
Windows: 7

Longest crash-free period (days):
Mac: 118 (working on 119th)
Windows: 6 (current streak 2, working on 3rd)

Any comments?
 
I can't remember the last time either my Mac (Panther) or my PC (XP Pro) crashed. Both have had application crashes, but neither has had system wide failures.
 
edesignuk said:
I can't remember the last time either my Mac (Panther) or my PC (XP Pro) crashed. Both have had application crashes, but neither has had system wide failures.
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I get application crashes every day ("The application XYZ has unexpectedly quit" on Mac OS X and "XYZ has encountered a problem and needs to close" on Windows XP). QuickTime Player for Mac OS is my worst application as far as crashing goes (certain MIDIs often cause QuickTime Player to crash - I've attached one of them). On the Windows side, it's a tie between Winamp and iTunes for Windows.
 
I can't recall XP Pro ever having either a system-wide crash, or application crash, when using it (at college). It's much easier to crash certain apps in Panther. With Jaguar, you couldn't say the same, since applications at the time overall ran with a lot more stability.
 
King Cobra said:
I can't recall XP Pro ever having either a system-wide crash, or application crash, when using it (at college). It's much easier to crash certain apps in Panther. With Jaguar, you couldn't say the same, since applications at the time overall ran with a lot more stability.
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After XP Pro automatically restarted from the BSOD, I got a message saying a device driver caused the BSOD. I wonder if the unofficial USB driver TiLP for Windows uses caused the problem? TiLP is an unofficial linking program for Texas Instruments (TI) graphing calculators.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
After XP Pro automatically restarted from the BSOD, I got a message saying a device driver caused the BSOD. I wonder if the unofficial USB driver TiLP for Windows uses caused the problem?
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Period, not a question mark...LOL Windows still has hardware issues! :D
 
King Cobra said:
Period, not a question mark! And, LOL Windows still has hardware issues! :D
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That movie explains it all, I guess. I still wonder which of the many device drivers on my Windows system caused the crash. The Windows Crash Analysis site wasn't very helpful in determining the cause. <edit> Did you know that Mozilla 1.7 is out? </edit>
 
Yes, I know Mozilla 1.7 is out. I tried it a week ago. It failed my GUI test because when resizing the browser window smaller so that a horizontal scroll bar becomes visible, the scroll bar appearance didn't refresh. You could see the scroll panel background right through the scroll bar, with and without themes. Also, upon resizing the window larger, the same scroll bar and SE corner of the window had very obvious etches that couldn't be removed unless you opened a new window or did some crazy resizing. So I'll stick with Mozilla 1.6 until something better comes along.

Gee, speaking of on-topic, I just tried to create a new folder and name it, and the Panther Finder restarted on me. Bah! :mad:
 
my longest uptime on window 2000 is 37 days. My longest uptime on mac is 196 days. Acuually the power went out because of a storm and both my PC and my mac shut off. :mad: 1 kernel panic on my mac in 10 months
PC dies about once a month
 
for the OS not actually crashing:

Win XP - doesn't crash unless i try to install drivers that were not mature or overclock
MacOS X - doesn't crash usually, i remember it hardlocked on me a few times in middle of videos.

software within the OS not crashing:

Win XP - don't remember when something died last, but i'd say once a month for a minor program.
MacOS X - Safari crashes repeated daily, Adium crashes daily, says application unexpectedly quit, but no hard lockups.
 
i have had an uptime of a whole year for a windows nt4 workstation that was used as a server - and it would have been more, but i had to install a new scsi card into the machine so that required a shutdown.

i have not yet had a mac server, so these laptops will not get there. not even close.

but the xp thing at my work is crashing constantly. damnit compaqs, that feels cheap.

anyway... maybe it's not the software that windows gets most of the blame stability-wise, but the fact that windows can be run on almost all hardware out there. microsoft just cannot be blamed for cheapo maufacturers that make either crappy hardware or crappy drivers for its products.

bottom line: mac rocks, because apple can select the best from both worlds. nothing wrong in using windows with quality hardware, either.
 
JFreak said:
i have had an uptime of a whole year for a windows nt4 workstation that was used as a server - and it would have been more, but i had to install a new scsi card into the machine so that required a shutdown.

i have not yet had a mac server, so these laptops will not get there. not even close.

but the xp thing at my work is crashing constantly. damnit compaqs, that feels cheap.

anyway... maybe it's not the software that windows gets most of the blame stability-wise, but the fact that windows can be run on almost all hardware out there. microsoft just cannot be blamed for cheapo maufacturers that make either crappy hardware or crappy drivers for its products.

bottom line: mac rocks, because apple can select the best from both worlds. nothing wrong in using windows with quality hardware, either.
Click to expand...

I hear ya... Microsoft's Hardware/Driver certification program isn't making too much progress either... WHQL certified Nvidia drivers that allows application specific optimizations ?
 
The only two programs that I have had crash on me on Panther have been Adium (almost all the time between updated versions) and Word has given me some error about the Framework X and then won't load for me at all until I finally wipe it from my hard drive and reinstalled the whole office suite.
 
Powerbook G5 said:
The only two programs that I have had crash on me on Panther have been Adium (almost all the time between updated versions) and Word has given me some error about the Framework X and then won't load for me at all until I finally wipe it from my hard drive and reinstalled the whole office suite.
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Hello Powerbook G5 -

Those are application-level crashes. I'm referring to system-level crashes (the Mac OS X kernel panic screen and Windows' Blue Screen of Death). BTW, Word X is buggy. Do you have the latest Office X update installed (V10.1.5)? You can get it at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/.
 
Powerbook G5 said:
I haven't seen a kernal panic yet. How would one go about getting the system to do one?
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I wouldn't if I were you - you DON'T want one of those. If Mac OS X experiences a kernel panic, all you can do is hard restart the Mac (hold down the power button until the Mac turns off, then reboot it), losing all your unsaved work in the process. BTW, a kernel panic screen is gray, with the text "You need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button for 5 seconds" (or something similar) in 4 languages. One other possible KP screen includes a translucent Terminal window in the upper-left hand corner with the text "waiting for remote debugger connection".
 
In my 2 years of using XP, I never had a BSoD. 90% is about the user and how stable the design of the system it. XP isn't perfect but people slam it more than they should, mostly info gathered from "hearsay" and the rumor mill. I have a high use server sitting in the other room with XP and its been running solid for 2 months and the last reboot was from a multi-hour power outage where I had to shut it down. I won't comment on OSX, in the time I seen it used, its crashed and froze a few times so I don't see how it can be a godsend over XP. But as I said before, it depends on the user, the hardware and how much they know about using it.

EDIT: Also forgot to mention 80% of the MS boxes out there are underpowered, as meaning the powersupply powering the computer isn't supporting all of the hardware installed. When you run into lower voltages than needed, then you will generate errors like crazy. A IC7 board, Radeon X800, Audigy 2 ZS, 3 hard drives's and 2 optical drives, all on a 300watt power supply, YOU WILL have problems. Most of your brand name systems come from the factory right at the threashold of what they can do and adding a few devices can put you over your limit.
 
EDIT: Also forgot to mention 80% of the MS boxes out there are underpowered, as meaning the powersupply powering the computer isn't supporting all of the hardware installed. When you run into lower voltages than needed, then you will generate errors like crazy. A IC7 board, Radeon X800, Audigy 2 ZS, 3 hard drives's and 2 optical drives, all on a 300watt power supply, YOU WILL have problems. Most of your brand name systems come from the factory right at the threashold of what they can do and adding a few devices can put you over your limit.[/QUOTE]

lol, I guess that's why Apple puts ridiculous 700w PSUs in their systems. Unless you own an Apple Display of course (monitor is powered through computer).

Lately my Mac has been "hard-locking" (known on the Apple Discussions as a Powerbook coma) by not waking from sleep. I suspect it's the BT dongle. It's always the source of my problems. I plan on getting an official Apple recommended one when McD's finally gives me a schedule to come it (2 weeks since orientation, methinks they be stalling).
 
Jaguar was rock solid in my experience, rarely ever had a system crash or a application crash.

Panther is less stable over all, had a few more system crashes(and a heck of a lot more finder restarts), and alot more application crashes.

XP Pro is in my opinion a little less stable than Panther. I've only had my system at work crash once I think and not that many application crashes.

My old Win98SE machine was fairly rock solid, more so than Panther is today.

For me:
Jag
Win98SE
Panther
XP Pro

Still, both Win machines suffer from what I think is a problem in how Windows manages memory, which though as stable, are alot less responsive.
 
mac vs windows

6blue
hello well let me tell you the truth about mac and windows i'm a telecommunications consulatant and apple mac osx is more stability than windows some of you may or maynot have peroblems with mac or windows
but thier is less virus for mac than thier is for pc windows pc has hundereds
or more viruses than mac has and more security risk than mac as well but that does say that mac should not have an anti -virus or a security protocall installed and just to let you know that mozzila 1.6 will not run as good on the panther system it is not wrtten for panther you should use mozzila 1.7 whice is wrrtten in . check my website at http://www.freewebs.com/troy01
thanks,.
 
hobbyiest o/a said:
but that does say that mac should not have an anti -virus or a security protocall installed
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There is one installed on your computer if you use Panther. Luckily I read these forums enough to know how to activate the Firewall... System Preferences > Sharing > Click the Start button. You can configure your Firewall using the Services tab to allow certain activites to go through. And considering that I'm also using a non-static IP and dial-up, no one will get through to my system. :D


and just to let you know that mozzila 1.6 will not run as good on the panther system it is not wrtten for panther you should use mozzila 1.7 whice is wrrtten in
Click to expand...
First, it's "Mozilla." Second, in contrast to about 100% of the posts you've made so far, Mozilla 1.6 has no issues with Panther (as opposed to what other system?), as the browser itself has issues that are supposedly being worked on. Mozilla 1.6 on my Panther system has only crashed two or three times in the 700 hours that I've used it. I can't say that about any other browser at all without lying. Not to mention, it has an adjustable Cache size (unlike Safari), a ridiculous amount of preferences, and the Google search engine is built right into the one and only URL entry bar at the top of the Mozilla window. Third, I've tried Mozilla 1.7 on my system. It has serious GUI redrawing issues. If you resize the damn thing to allow a left/right scroll bar, and then resize the browser large again, you'll see obvious rectangular outlines, and you can see right through the left/right scroll bar upon resizing back.


check my website at http://www.freewebs.com/troy01
thanks,.
Click to expand...
Fourth, your website seems to be about promotions or offerings for your telecommunications business. Do not promote/advertise such services on MacRumors. That is against forum rules.
 
broswer like mozilla

King Cobra said:
Yes, I know Mozilla 1.7 is out. I tried it a week ago. It failed my GUI test because when resizing the browser window smaller so that a horizontal scroll bar becomes visible, the scroll bar appearance didn't refresh. You could see the scroll panel background right through the scroll bar, with and without themes. Also, upon resizing the window larger, the same scroll bar and SE corner of the window had very obvious etches that couldn't be removed unless you opened a new window or did some crazy resizing. So I'll stick with Mozilla 1.6 until something better comes along.

Gee, speaking of on-topic, I just tried to create a new folder and name it, and the Panther Finder restarted on me. Bah! :mad:
Click to expand...
blue[/COLOR
hello yes i know your that mozilla failed in your gui test but mozzila 1.6 is not written in for panther where is mozilla 1.7 is and when you install it you also have to install applaction regerestry and place both in your applacation
folder then drag duplaced to your doc then set all up when your done .when you are finshed installing it place it in applacation folder then click on
it to unpakg the applacation regerstery and place in your applaction folder as well, then under keys program added file as the name as mozzila
1.7 in name filed then in next feild or box add mozzilla1.7.org than save it now you should be able to use it correctly. but if your not haveing any peroblems with mozzila 1.6 great but again it is not wriitten in for panther. i had nothing but crasheses and lockup's and very slow and could'net understand websites when i used moziila 1.6 on panther.now i use mozzila 1.7 it's not bad but could be better but it is written in for panther. but before you intsall it you must not remove your mozzila 1.6 untill you have installed all of the programming for mozzilla 1.7 then you can remove all of the programming for mozziila 1.6 not 1.7. how do i know well i'm an telecommunications /computer consultant if you like check out my site whice is http://www.freewebs.com/troy01 good luck. hobbyiest o/a and you other peroblem well you could try this go to your
diskcopy program and click on what you would liked checked then get program to check permisstions and wait to see and if no peroblems then you still might want to repair your disk persisstions or permisstions this should correct everthing and you could check that satus of you system by going to apple system profiler and check everything thier as well after that restart your computer.
 
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