At 5:09 PM +0100 9/14/08, Ashley Sheridan wrote:
I'm not a big fan of Windows in any of it's incarnations, but I think it
is a little unfair to compare it to the Mac OS and say that Microshaft
(as I will now refer to them) has had more time and comes out with
something not as good. Admittedly, I do think this is the case, but you
have to take into consideration the main advantage Apple has: it only
has to write an OS for a very limited set of hardware it controls. A
typical PC usually comprises of dozens of dozens of bits of kit, and
there are literally infinite hardware configurations a user can have.
<flame suit>
Is that why for every piece of hardware I have ever purchased for my
Mac it already had a driver installed?
I think you may have this turned around a bit
True, Mac's from the get-go controlled the primary hardware they
required (i.e., monitors, cpu's, hard-drives, printers,
graphic-tablets, plotters, etc.). But they never tried to control
those making other, or similar, peripherals. They simply maintained
standard communication protocols and those making peripherals could
either use the same communication protocols, or not -- unlike their
M$ counterparts, which was more of a wild-west show.
M$ considering that they were only concerned with their OS sales,
they cared very little for peripheral problems. It wasn't until it
because a problem and sales started dropping that M$ that coined the
term "Plug and Play" -- ironically it was because they were the first
to have a real problem with peripherals not the other way around.
Mac's on the other hand always "Plugged and Played" and use users
never knew it was a big deal.
It's similar to the ironic terminology as the first "Personal
Computer" being an Apple ][, but the term "PC", which came several
years later, was coined by M$. Go figure.
IMO, the real beauty of the Mac is/was two fold. 1) All the GUI stuff
was burnt into the firmware; 2) Mac had a superior memory management
system.
With [1] programmers did not have to reinvent the GUI every time they
wanted to do something -- everything was standardized in firmware,
and programmers were expected to conform to the user guidelines as
set out by Apple.
Whereas, M$ coding was subject to constantly changing GUI software. I
remember reading that Windozes 2000 had over two million lines of
code -- I dunno if that was true, but it gives you an idea of the
problems that one might face looking to software for your GUI
routines (and being able to modify them) as compared finding them in
firmware and not being able to tamper with them.
With [2] applications could use memory more effectively and
efficiently because all memory allocations went through the memory
manager and not via programmers request for pointer allocations. This
meant that memory was less fragmented and was more stable.
As for GUI stuff, I think Apple has always done a far better job of
looking at what the user needs and the way users work than M$ has. M$
has always trailed Apple in this regard.
M$ has always let Apple R&D the idea. If the idea works, then you'll
see it within two years later popping up in a M$ inspired "Look what
we just invented" claim. On the other hand, it the idea fails, then
M$ passes. Maybe that's why Gates loaned Apple money when they need
it -- he did not want to lose his R&D arm -- I dunno, but it seems
that way to me.
In any event, I try to make life easier for myself and my family and
we all have Mac's -- it works for us. And now that I can write
software for all OS's via php/mysql/et al, I am in pig heaven. I no
longer have to listen to those "in-the-know experts" telling me how
fracked up Mac's are or how they wouldn't hire a Mac programmer to
wipe their butt. Instead, I get to play on a level playing ground,
and things are sweet.
In any event, outside of family members (who already know better), I
don't recommend any computers to anyone anymore -- sometimes you just
have to let people find out for themselves.
A long time ago, I had one guy slam me and my Mac by telling me that
only four percent of the computer users out there used Mac's so there
must be something wrong with them and me. I replied (in my smart ass
way) "Well that's understandable, we ALL can't fit under the top four
percent of the intelligence bell curve!"
Now, don't flame me because you might see things differently -- I
don't really care. But at least Mac users have a different browser to
use than IE.
</flame suit>
Cheers,
tedd
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