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(...besides "software availability").
Well, my Mac and I are entering Day Five together, and as my exposure to OS X, and Windows XP, continues, I feel that question growing on my mind.
Let me first say this disclaimer: my expertise and knowledge of OS X is no where near the level I have with Windows, as the last time I'd used an Apple was back in 5th grade. However, despite only having it for just under a week, and despite the many, many, many hours spent playing WoW instead of tinkering with the computer itself, I must say I can not imagine using Windows XP on a daily basis anymore.
Here was the setup involved with Day One:
Pull out BT Keyboard and Mouse, put in batteries.
Take out iMac; set on desk; plug in power cord.
Turn on iMac.
At this point, the computer went through the usual first-time user set up question, as well as the BT connection. It then instantly found 3 available wireless networks: MSHOME, linksys(I assume simply the router, absent any present wireless network) and Home, a network I created in a failed attempt to get my PC to work, see below). I selected the used one, MSHome; AirPort instantly connected, and I was able to download all the software updates for all the programs installed. I spent the first hour or so installing WoW and it's patches as well as iWorks, while my printer was ready to go once I'd plugged it in (incidentally, the printer USB cable is the only cable connected to my iMac, other than the power cord).
My first complaint came when I saw that I had 1 dead pixel in the lower-left quadrant, first spotted during the WoW opening cinematics. I have ignored it, and will deal with it shortly. My second complaint came when I tried to transfer songs over. I suspect that due to the conflicts with the .wmas I have as well as the copy protection which I believe ended up on a few albums, I ended up losing 25-40% of my songs when I transfered them over the wireless network. After several attempts over the course of a few days, I have managed to get ~ 2.3/2.6 GB over.
Part of the problem stemmed from the wierd things that iTunes was doing, creating copies of my songs and putting them into an iTunes folder. I could not find a way to simply search my entire hard drive for all song files that fit a specified parameter like WMP does, nor does it seem to automatically separate the songs by album, artist, etc for easy selection during listening.
My other source of irritation: the inability of Mac users to open a voice chat with PC AIM users. Other than that, though I have not missed anything on my PC, except for Office (although my computer did come with Office for Mac, 30 day trial which I prefer to Pages and AppleWorks.)
So anyway, lets go back to Day -1. In anticipation of getting my new iMac, I unplugged my old HP and set it aside so I could dismantle my computer desk, set up a new one and place my HP back on a temp. desk. I do this without a hitch, until I try to get my HP to connect to the internet. Plugged directly into the DSL modem as I thought I'd had it before, it didn't work. I tried plugging it into the router, and then the router into the modem, with no success. Finally, tinkering around with the Network settings for an hour or so, I finally get it to come back up.
So fast forward to Day 4. My dad comes into town from Virginia, with his brand-spanking new PC laptop. He sets his laptop up 5 feet from the router, and can't get it to connect. Now, I had intentionally set it up so the router was plugged into the DSL modem, making them separate from everything else; I'd figured his 802. card would simply pick it up like the AirPort had done. Nope. Connecting to the internet required tinkering for his laptop as well.
Same thing for my mom's laptop; I had to go in and eventually stumbled on how to change it to allow connecting to networks identified as access points or some such garbage, which a novice user would not have been able to do.
Connecting to internet with iMac: 5 seconds
Connecting to internet with PCs: ~ 15 minutes, with intermittant breaks taken in between out of frustration and boredom.
Of course, even after connecting to the internet with our PCs, there is the inevitable ad garbage that pops up, as my barely computer-literate mom uses a 50/50 mix of IE and Firefox, just clicking on whichever she sees first. I know all about the wonder that is Firefox, but c'mon: in the year 2005, surfing the web without getting bogged down by spyware/adware should not require a third party browser w/ even more third-party extensions. I don't give a **** for the arguments about how Windows is the dominant OS, and therefore targeted by more hackers, etc: with all the resources it has at its disposal, it is time Microsoft secured Windows so that novice, first time users can navigate the internet without being overwhelmed.
Startup/shutdown is also much faster; Widgets are a very cool feature..Spotlight I've only used a couple times, but I found its results to be accurate and quickly pulled up. Overall, my only criticism of OS X so far would be the hassle I had to go through WRT my .wma/.mp3 transfer/conversion and the dead pixel. It would be nice if they had an equivalent of My Pictures/My Videos etc more visible (yes I know it's there, and I use it, but they really should be more up front.
Well, my Mac and I are entering Day Five together, and as my exposure to OS X, and Windows XP, continues, I feel that question growing on my mind.
Let me first say this disclaimer: my expertise and knowledge of OS X is no where near the level I have with Windows, as the last time I'd used an Apple was back in 5th grade. However, despite only having it for just under a week, and despite the many, many, many hours spent playing WoW instead of tinkering with the computer itself, I must say I can not imagine using Windows XP on a daily basis anymore.
Here was the setup involved with Day One:
Pull out BT Keyboard and Mouse, put in batteries.
Take out iMac; set on desk; plug in power cord.
Turn on iMac.
At this point, the computer went through the usual first-time user set up question, as well as the BT connection. It then instantly found 3 available wireless networks: MSHOME, linksys(I assume simply the router, absent any present wireless network) and Home, a network I created in a failed attempt to get my PC to work, see below). I selected the used one, MSHome; AirPort instantly connected, and I was able to download all the software updates for all the programs installed. I spent the first hour or so installing WoW and it's patches as well as iWorks, while my printer was ready to go once I'd plugged it in (incidentally, the printer USB cable is the only cable connected to my iMac, other than the power cord).
My first complaint came when I saw that I had 1 dead pixel in the lower-left quadrant, first spotted during the WoW opening cinematics. I have ignored it, and will deal with it shortly. My second complaint came when I tried to transfer songs over. I suspect that due to the conflicts with the .wmas I have as well as the copy protection which I believe ended up on a few albums, I ended up losing 25-40% of my songs when I transfered them over the wireless network. After several attempts over the course of a few days, I have managed to get ~ 2.3/2.6 GB over.
Part of the problem stemmed from the wierd things that iTunes was doing, creating copies of my songs and putting them into an iTunes folder. I could not find a way to simply search my entire hard drive for all song files that fit a specified parameter like WMP does, nor does it seem to automatically separate the songs by album, artist, etc for easy selection during listening.
My other source of irritation: the inability of Mac users to open a voice chat with PC AIM users. Other than that, though I have not missed anything on my PC, except for Office (although my computer did come with Office for Mac, 30 day trial which I prefer to Pages and AppleWorks.)
So anyway, lets go back to Day -1. In anticipation of getting my new iMac, I unplugged my old HP and set it aside so I could dismantle my computer desk, set up a new one and place my HP back on a temp. desk. I do this without a hitch, until I try to get my HP to connect to the internet. Plugged directly into the DSL modem as I thought I'd had it before, it didn't work. I tried plugging it into the router, and then the router into the modem, with no success. Finally, tinkering around with the Network settings for an hour or so, I finally get it to come back up.
So fast forward to Day 4. My dad comes into town from Virginia, with his brand-spanking new PC laptop. He sets his laptop up 5 feet from the router, and can't get it to connect. Now, I had intentionally set it up so the router was plugged into the DSL modem, making them separate from everything else; I'd figured his 802. card would simply pick it up like the AirPort had done. Nope. Connecting to the internet required tinkering for his laptop as well.
Same thing for my mom's laptop; I had to go in and eventually stumbled on how to change it to allow connecting to networks identified as access points or some such garbage, which a novice user would not have been able to do.
Connecting to internet with iMac: 5 seconds
Connecting to internet with PCs: ~ 15 minutes, with intermittant breaks taken in between out of frustration and boredom.
Of course, even after connecting to the internet with our PCs, there is the inevitable ad garbage that pops up, as my barely computer-literate mom uses a 50/50 mix of IE and Firefox, just clicking on whichever she sees first. I know all about the wonder that is Firefox, but c'mon: in the year 2005, surfing the web without getting bogged down by spyware/adware should not require a third party browser w/ even more third-party extensions. I don't give a **** for the arguments about how Windows is the dominant OS, and therefore targeted by more hackers, etc: with all the resources it has at its disposal, it is time Microsoft secured Windows so that novice, first time users can navigate the internet without being overwhelmed.
Startup/shutdown is also much faster; Widgets are a very cool feature..Spotlight I've only used a couple times, but I found its results to be accurate and quickly pulled up. Overall, my only criticism of OS X so far would be the hassle I had to go through WRT my .wma/.mp3 transfer/conversion and the dead pixel. It would be nice if they had an equivalent of My Pictures/My Videos etc more visible (yes I know it's there, and I use it, but they really should be more up front.
arty:
@ Asher getting more desperate by the day.
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