Thank you, Apple! We are now running operating system OS X 10.1, and as you might expect, the iBook is now a very happy camper. A special thank you to a number of the Mac readers of this site that have been helping me try to sort out problems I have encountered on this little system (Brian, you really are the Messiah). Also, a special thank you to my place of employment for listening to me for the past year complain about how we do not support OS X, and actually allow me to purchase this system to learn it, and to ultimately support it. (We do have a few Macs running in the office, but none of them, until now, ran OS X.) It has been a wonderful experience so far, and we will likely have a third part to this series.
the mac really is viable (part 2)
8 february, 2002
by johnmichael patrick monty monteithAs well as our usual group of helpful readers, we have gotten our fair share of visitors with, how shall I put this, less than positive feedback about our little experiment. Some have accused me of being a biased Mac freak, and slightly more have accused me of being a Microsoft employee. Maybe I should take this as a hint that nobody likes these articles and I should just shut up? Nah.
I suppose I could do an entire piece on readers that say negative things about 'the other product' without ever spending the time and money to try it. This is true in both the Windows and Macintosh camp. The one thing that our little experiment has proven is that both Windows XP and Mac OS X 10.1 are more alike than they are different. In fact, we really have to dig deep to find problems with either operating system. If you need to get work done, both will do the job. As for these claims that either operating system is 'awful' for whatever reason: these are people that have not used them enough to know, or just plain are lying. (Of course, if your reason for hating XP is solely based on it being made by Microsoft, we sort of agree with you there.)
That being said, we shall continue our comparison. This time we finally received the 10.1 CD's from Apple (which we should not have had to pay for, but we'll ignore that), and the comparison has been far more enjoyable.
Before I start, let me remind everyone what this comparison is. This is not a Macintosh versus Windows comparison, as many of you have taken it. I do not believe such a comparison is worth typing about since there is no question that both operating systems are excellent and serve their purpose. This is a comparison of a Windows user switching from using Windows to using OS X. We are taking this openly biased perspective on comparing OS X because Apple would like Windows users to switch to their operating system. With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to Apple to know any issues that might arise from such a switch.
So, here is comparison part 2:
+Windows Once again, taking far longer to install OS X than the Windows XP upgrade. Plus the 'time remaining' list is not even in the ballpark of accurate (the '6 minutes' ended about 50 minutes ago.) I then had to upgrade to OS 9.2 as well. Ah, good things to those who wait.. Shame I am so impatient.
+Windows I was able to get the Mac to connect to multiple shared drives through the "SMB://workgroup;workstation/share" notation. (Yea!) But, compared to the ease of browsing to shares in Windows, this is a very crude system. Also, I could not get it to automatically map the shared drives every time the system rebooted (necessary in most corporate environments.) Any Mac users know this secret? +Mac Icons and buttons and other graphics are much nicer done in OS X than in Windows. Easy to tell which platform the hip graphics designers use. +Mac The OS just all-around is more fun to use. I know Windows users will complain that I am using the ambiguous "fun" category, but if Car and Driver can do it on comparing automobiles, I can do it comparing operating systems. +Windows The disconnect issue between the buttons and the pointer appears to continue in 10.1. There is a disconcerting delay in the clicking, and just generally feels like I am not clicking what I am seeing. Hard to explain, but annoying. +Thoughts Why is it that I have to dump CD items into the trash to eject the CD? I should be able to just press the eject button, and the computer should be smart enough to take care of that for me. Not a big deal - but something that I felt compelled to mention. +Windows Starting classic applications takes way too long. Although, I must admit I find particular enjoyment in maximizing the "Starting Classic" window and watching 9.2 boot in X. Even if it is slow and annoying, it is geeky fun. Reminds me of the days of Mac OS 6 booting in a Workbench window on my Amiga 3000. +Mac The Classic mode, despite the above issues, does run Mac software much better than the 9.1 version, so compatibility is much improved. I score one here for the Mac because I am generally more impressed with the compatibility of the Mac with stuff than on WinXP. I may be biased here because I have less old Mac hardware / software to test than on XP, but - sometimes the bias favors Windows -- sometimes it does not. +Thoughts It seems the dock concept of centered / moveable / sizeable / changing to meet the apps running, could have been done with the menu bar as well. Are you paying attention, Steve? +Thoughts I could not place folders on the dock. It seems to me that this would be valuable, or perhaps a folder on the dock would create some sort of a 'sub-dock' when you pointed to the folder. +Thoughts OS X 10.1 is much faster and more responsive than the original OS X. In fact, it is now a very usable and enjoyable operating system. It suffers in the speed area compared to XP on the comparo-laptop, but I can not tell you how much happier I am with 10.1 compared to my original experiences with X. Perhaps it was good for me to see how bad X was so I could really appreciate 10.1 +Thoughts Bought an iMac or iBook and the I.T. people are telling you that you can not do 'work' on it? Tell them to set you up with the Metaframe client. It will allow you to remote control a virtual Windows machine. It works great on OS X 10.1, and you will not need to fill your hard drive with the wretched Microsoft XP code to run Windows applications. Even better, you will not have to give a dime to Microsoft since your place of employment fit the bill for the Citrix server. +Windows Loading up applications - from the "System Preferences" (Control Panel) to Internet Explorer all take much longer than in Win XP. For whatever reason OS X, even the 10.1 version, is an operating system that is much slower than the 9 series. Clearly I have errored somewhere, so I am now under the impression I need to make a system change and run this comparison again. +Windows Trying to connect to a Watchguard device (fairly common Linux VPN / Firewall system), I could not find any Mac OS X PPTP / VPN software that would work. DigiTunnel is not released, PPTP-GUI would not work. According to Watchguard, there are no third party secure (encrypted) VPN/PPTP options available for the Macintosh yet that work with any of the standard Linux VPN systems. Cisco does have a VPN client specifically for their hardware, but the vast majority of VPN's in use are Linux or Windows based hardware, not Cisco.
+Mac The design of the windows are much more user friendly and pleasing to the eye than Windows XP. Clearly the folks in Cupertino spent some time making this a very elegant looking operating system. (Still too many lines, but I will ignore my design preference there.) +Windows Energy saving options in 10.1 are still not based on AC / battery and other categories that are in XP. Important for laptop users. +Thoughts In OS X every item opened is an application running, and require that they be "quit" (closing the window is not enough). IE, System Preferences, etc.. I prefer to be able to just close the window and have it close the application. It is faster. +Mac Overall, I think I like the functionality and design of Word v.X better than Word for XP. There are some areas that are better in XP, but overall I give the nod to the Mac groups version. It runs too slow at present, but I think RAM will fix this problem. +Windows Excel is better in Windows. They did a nice job with converting the functionality of Pivot Tables with v.X, but fell down on data connectivity, which is used quite regularly in almost all businesses. +Windows The "Task Bar" on XP is more functional than the "Dock" in X, even if the Dock looks cooler. Being able to look at and instantly know that the Word document is "Christmas Card", and in the same space as the huge dock icons makes it better designed. (Yes, I did change the size of the Dock and put all my apps on there for easy access, but the Task Bar is far more functional for finding the exact document I am looking for.) +Windows 1024 by 768 is a fine resolution for XP. However, OS X, with the way that windows are done and the layout, it begs for 1280X1024 resolution. Applications like Word v.X have windows set up in such a way that you have a far smaller area to work with the document. One can change many of these settings to make it usable, but I still feel that OS X is an operating system that begs for higher resolution. +Windows Boot time: Windows XP is 41 seconds, OS X is 2 minutes 4 seconds -- an improvement from the original X, but still unacceptable for laptop use. +Thoughts I changed my preferences for background and so forth, yet when OS X boots and shows the login screen, it still show the Aque Blue background. That should change with my settings. +Mac Love those hip new screen savers. +Windows Windows XP is more user definable for background changes, color settings, font settings, window settings, etc.. OS X is even more limited in this regard than OS 9. +Thoughts iTunes seems to work well, and is nice. I prefer the options and functionality in Music Match to both iTunes and Windows Media (respective platforms), but Music Match works well on both systems, so this is a draw. +Mac iMovie is far more user friendly than Ulead Video Studio, which is the best home video studio I have used on Windows. There are not as many options, but iMovie just plain works, and I had no problem encoding for DVD burning. I could not say the same on the Windows side where I spent hours (literally) fixing encoding problems with different mpg formats. +Thoughts Do we need a finder icon and arrow pointing to it on the Dock? Is there a time the Finder is NOT operating? To get back to the finder, have some slick standard way to do it (a tiny icon next to the clock or something) but do not waste Dock space. +Thoughts iPhoto is nice, and better than the built in XP photo software, yet not as good as the software that came with my digital camera for Windows. The software that comes with these devices tends to have far more features and abilities - although not as easy to use as iPhoto. Still, we do digital photography every day in my family, and we just take the memory stick / flash memory from the camera - plug it into the printer (new HP photo printer), select the picture, size, and quantity - and out it prints, nicer/faster than from X or XP. This has convinced me that digital photography for most will eventually be a computerless affair.
+Mac Despite my gripes with the iBook screen not being able to go back far enough, I think I prefer it over any laptop I have used, save one. (A Dell Latitude CE from a while back was slightly more hip in looks and functionality.) So, considering the hundreds of laptops I have used, and this one finishes second (and would have been first if that screen could go back far enough to make it comfortable), that is quite an accomplishment. +Thoughts As far as stability goes, I would put 10.1 in the same category of XP/2000, which is in the same category as Linux. All are quite stable and usable (I have been able to crash all of them, but that is just me, really.) I have written part of this on the Mac and part on the Windows laptop, both running MusicMatch, Internet Explorer, Word, and Excel all at the same time without a hitch. Claims that one is more stable than the other are generally bogus. Windows 12, Macintosh 8, Neutral 10
Part Three Still To ComeOnce again, I must qualify the limited results to help reduce the nasty emails I am about to be the recipient of.
For the Mac users: Please note that we will be increasing the RAM on the iBook for the third comparison to try to address the speed issue. (I have a clear conscience doing this since the iBook cost less than the comparison Windows XP laptop.) Also, in the third round we will focus more on some of the multimedia features that a home user might take advantage of, rather than the heavy emphasis on business use that we have been comparing.
For Windows users: I know the biggest gripe so far has been, "no mention of software". Yes, if one is a Windows user at home, they will need to purchase new software for their Mac. But, if this is a second machine (laptop), to be legal, that is necessary anyway (wink wink - nudge nudge)? Then there is the argument about software supplied by the office since many companies will purchase licenses for users to work at home. For that I believe the answer is Citrix Metaframe. The Mac can connect to a Citrix server and use any software that is available at work, even if it is only available for Windows, and it works very well in OS X 10.1. There is the issue of needing to VPN into the office to connect to the Citrix box, but I discounted the Mac for not having that issue cleared up yet.
Another Windows user complain might be that Mac OS X does not support Intellimirror (being able to install software on all machines in a corporation from a central server - a feature built into 2000/XP), and Roaming Profiles (being able to log into any machine and have your profile and docs travel with you.) These are major features that make having a Mac inside corporate walls a major disadvantage. However, this is not a comparison of replacing Windows machines inside a business with Macs. This is a comparison of a current Windows user replacing his or her Windows machine, or adding a second machine that is a Mac. While this might include someone that does work from home, or carries around a Windows laptop for business purposes, we are not going to address replacement of Windows workstations in a company with Macs.
Some Mac users have taken issue with my heavy annoyance with the whole VPN problem. I am not certain that these users realize that VPN will shortly overtake PPP (dial-up) for the number one way to connect to work. If you can imagine a computer that ships without the ability to dial-up on a phone line, you start to get an idea of how big an issue this is to corporate users. Many corporate Windows laptop users do not even realize that the reason they can work from home on their broadband connection is because their laptop automatically connects via VPN to the office. Yes, it is that integrated into the OS.
Many have screamed, "There is VPN software for the Mac". There is PPTP GUI, which I have yet to find anyone that has gotten it to work on a secure PPTP VPN device. There is a proprietary Cisco client which only connects to Cisco VPN devices, which is a miniscule number of the VPN devices being used today. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel: DigiTunnel will hopefully be coming out shortly and can fill this void. So, while it is a big deal, it only counts as one of the twelve marks against the Mac in this comparison. And, who knows, maybe by part three of this comparison, that issue will be solved?
The speed issue is more troubling than the VPN one, however. I believe that, were it not for the speed issue, the fight between the two operating systems might have been tied, or (gasp) perhaps OS X 10.1 would have won. What am I doing wrong Mac users? Do you really endure the speed of this tragically hip Aqua interface, or do iBooks automatically slow down for Borg drones like me?
Two possibilities we can see:
a. I purchased the wrong iBook. While this particular one might have been in the same price range as the comparison laptop, the 66mhz bus may be overwhelmed by the cool-blue colors of OS X.b. I do not have enough RAM. 128megs is just not enough in the day and age of bouncing dock icons.
Well, since my place of employment shelled out the bucks for this laptop, I can hardly make them purchase another. And, I am too damn poor to buy one on my own. (Although, as soon as DigitTunnel is released, I will definitely entertain the idea.) So, we will try bumping up the RAM by another 256megs to see if that does the trick.
It is my guess that the boot time issue will not be corrected by a RAM change. Microsoft apparently went to great pains to change the boot time of XP, and I suspect that it will be OX XI before Apple catches up in that regard. For laptop users this is a bigger deal than desktop users, since someone sitting in an airport with a few minutes to kill before a flight is likely to be burdened more by a two minute boot time. Still, it is a major issue that I hope Apple is working on. Frankly, I hope Microsoft can improve their forty-one second time, as well.
In any case, I have taken enough of your precious time with my rambling for today. Readers, start your flaming now! I thought I would save you time by putting this CLICK HERE so you can scream about how bad my comparison is in record time. By the way, if you are either a Mac or Windows user that has ideas on things I have missed in my comparison, I would be happy to hear constructive thoughts, as well.
