canicemcavoy: A spirited defence of an OS acknowledged to be bedevilled by malware for the average user. Are you an IT technician or someone whose livelihood depends upon preserving the status quo? I know there are users of Windows who have absolutely no problems whatsoever, but these usually are confined to the
geek community and do not represent the majority of Windows users.
In referring to build quality, I was saying Macs are put together with greater attention to detail than is usual with generic PCs. All components are matched and work together with the software to produce a supremely crafted, reliable machine. Certainly, any man-made objects,
Apple products included, can malfunction. Customer satisfaction amongst Mac users is highest for both hardware and software. See this news item on a survey conducted by Forrester Research in 2009 - tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/04/18/apple-only-good-dell-poor-and-very-poor/. There are several of these surveys published in Mac-centric sites but I will link to them so that I preserve at least some degree of impartiality! Naturally, there are customers who make purchasing decisions based on lowest common denominator values. These customers look at the initial price without considering TOC. Based on this criterion alone, Macs represent greater value.
I agree, the Mac OS interface is different from that of Windows and, for a casual user steeped in the Windows tradition, it can prove frustrating. But this usually is short-lived with persistent Mac use over a period of several days. Remember, most computer users navigate interface elements and keyboards by familiarity and muscle memory and will find it frustrating to switch between the two. But once the Mac file system is understood, most 'switchers' adopt speedily and acknowledge it the to be more intuitive interface.
Certainly, there is far more software available for the Windows OS than for the Mac, but how many word processors, e-mail apps, Internet browsers, spreadsheet apps, database apps, image editors, graphics creators, video and music creators, and FTP apps does one need? I'm sure you are aware that, while there are a large number of excellent, well-made freeware apps available for Windows
and the Mac,
on Windows, much freeware is unreliable and basically is a back door for malware.
As far as software written for previous Mac OS versions is concerned, you are under a huge misapprehension. For software written before 2000 for Mac OS9, an emulator was used to run it on the new OS X introduced in 2000, with no reduction in speed or functionality, and the software vendor did not need to to this. This situation remained until Apple adopted Intel CPUs in 2006. After this CPU change, any software written for the older OS could not be used on Intel Macs
unless it had been recompiled by the vendor to run under the new CPU architecture. Software written for OS X 10.0 (Cheetah)
by Apple, or any other vendor still works on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and runs on Macs with PPC CPUs. Because OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was rewritten to run only on Intel CPUs, software written for Mac OS versions prior to Snow Leopard runs on Intel Macs with an emulator but with a slight reduction in speed. So, to say that software written by Apple itself for older versions does not run on the current version, Snow Leopard, is, at best, misleading.
I'm pleased to see that
you know you can download music to your PC. But know also that many PC users doing this will be using iTunes. I use iTunes both for buying music and listening to it and do not find it at all unfriendly. Nor am I aware of other Mac users who find it so. I do know that Windows users find the Windows version of iTunes a real pain in the This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language, complain incessantly (but do they 'rant'?) about it. Although both versions look similar, this may be due to the way Apple have implemented what is essentially a Mac app to operate on the Windows OS. Personally, I find this to be sheer madness because this is the single piece of Apple software most used on non-Apple hardware, and you'd think Apple would want to make the experience as pleasant as possible for those customers. Wait, I'll say it for you; Apple are an arrogant company.
In fact, even Mac users will rant about the unfriendliness of iTunes.
While I do not answer for the behaviour of other Mac users, or for
your experience of these users, I hope you were not suggesting my previous post was a 'rant'.
I'll give you this one: Because I do not play games on my Mac, I have little interest in them and do not know all that much about the industry. But I know that, while the range of games available for the Mac was not all that great several years ago, today, the range has increased considerably. My assertion that titles from the major manufacturers were released before those for Windows was mostly tongue-in-cheek, though not, hopefully., foot-in-mouth! If the games industry were to collapse tomorrow, I'd be none the wiser!
Your assertion graphics cards are not available for the Mac is simply incorrect. As with software titles, there are many more GPUs available for WinTel machines, but to say this kind of peripheral is not available easily is sheer poppycock! A visit to a reputable vendor's site will prove my point.
Mouses? Mice? Nice. It's interesting you appear to avoid this issue. Is this because there is nothing in the WinTel world like Apple's touch-based mouse? I've seen fairly recent computers with wheeled mice, so they are not dead yet.
Sad Note; I cannot post a functioning link to the
Fortune news item above apparently because I still am regarded this site as a
baby poster!