[muglo] Re: Survey Windows vs. Mac design philosophy
- From: "Eric D" <hideme666@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 13:34:34 -0500
>From: Charlie Melanson <cmelanson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > What are the problems with System 10 that you've encountered?
> >
> > Eric.
> >
>SNIP
>
>Monitoring the newsgroup on System X leaves the impression that it is a
>_new_ system and that many simply don't understand it.
Of course, there are as many people who simply don't understand computers.
As a Mac user you will find that the learning curve for OS X is
*negligible*. You'll find that the learning curve for Windows is
surprisingly low (as a Mac user) but once you're done that you'll be
frustrated by the limitations of the OS!!! Yes, 95% of the world uses it,
*but* that doesn't mean it's better (95% of the world doesn't use Bang and
Olufsen speakers afterall).
That's not to say Windoze is bad, but if you like the philosophy behind OS 9
(which evidently you do) you will likely find the philosophy underlying
Windows to be anathema to your way of working.
OS X is simply an evolution (and serious improvement) of the Mac OS like
shifts from 6 to 7 and from 7 to 9. Windows' design philosophy is one which
assumes its users are idiots or computer geniuses. You are either babied
every step of the way, or left to fend for yourself.
The idea behind Mac is not to baby you, which means that for the first 10
hours of computer use Windows wins, but after you learn a little bit the
advantage kicks in. Windows keeps on babying you and _restraining_ you. With
Mac you can then do a *lot* more WITHOUT having to be an expert. Of course,
at the extreme end of things (i.e. computer programming expert), UNDER OS 9,
Windows won out in that you couldn't get at the engine in Mac without some
REAL heavy duty programming. OS X has given Mac OS an advantage again in
that everyday tasks are still as easy (often easier) as in OS 6/7/8/9 and
for Joe-blow there's _no_ need to touch the Unix underpinnings but getting
under the hood is *much* easier than in Windows, even for non-experts (since
Mac OS X is mostly open source *and* it's effectively a real Unix so all the
Unix programming tricks work with Mac).
>Factor in the fact that some developers ignore the Mac and I'm left with
>the
>feeling that if i _must_ learn a new system, it might as well be the one
>that 97 per cent of the world uses.
Of course, _far more_ developers ignore OS 9 so I'm guessing that you're
trying to be an agitator <hehehe>. OS X has actually resulted in an
explosion of computer apps available for the Mac since OS X can accept many
(really useful) Unix tools with only minor modifications. In some areas
there are far _more_ apps for Mac than Windows since Mac OS X = Unix =
Linux. I predict we haven't even experienced the true benefits of OS X yet
in terms of app availability.
Mac OS (8/9) was virtually shut out of the open source projects since OS 9
programming was very primitive compared to Windows/Unix/Linux but with OS X
there are few conceptual differences in programming between Mac OS -- Unix
-- Linux -- and even (to a lesser extent) Windows. Of course, the place that
Mac OS X has the advantage is in the user interface experience. Mac OS X has
about as much in common with Mac OS 9 as a solar powered lightbulb does with
a 100,000 candle power stadium light hooked up to a hydrogen-powered
electricity generator under the hood, but above board it's about the same.
>In the meantime, 9.1.2 works quite well for me.
I really hope you mean 9.2.2 b/c if it's 9.1.2 you're running a beta which
would be extremely unstable in all likelihood ;).
Very true. 9.2.2 can work quite well for some tasks, especially if you don't
need new software. I could do just about everything I do with OS X in OS
9.2.2 and for the longest time I did use 9.2.2 more than I did OS X (10.0.x
and 10.1.x) and then I used OS X (10.2.x) with Classic most of the time and
now I _exclusively_ use OS X (10.3.x)).
What draws me to OS X is the stability of the OS (it really never crashes),
slick/fast/stable web browsing (compared to OS 9, not Windows... IE 5.5/6
really is the gold-standard in many ways :-(, protected memory (one app
crashing doesn't take down everything else... the the sinking feeling I got
in OS 9 whenever IE or Communicator crashed (& I had an unsaved spreadsheet
open for e.g.) doesn't happen in OS X), and multitasking (NEVER having to
wait for one app to finish a task or load a web page). The GUI is no
different from OS 9 and the OS is _infinitely_ more stable than OS 9 (the
reason you see so much about OS X is b/c few people are still on OS 9).
However, you probably should know how to use Windows even if you are a Mac
user. And, guess what, the best Windows users I know are actually devout Mac
users!!! Us Mac users know how to use a computer and understand the
limitations, but we also appreciate an OS that actually lets us do what we
*want*, not what a programmers wants us to do (this is slowly changing in
the Windows world, but surprisingly it's not happening that fast... plus,
Windows apps have copied the Mac-interface down to the short cuts (which is
why us Mac users can use Windows better than Windoze users).
Eric.
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