From what I've read lately, Apple wants out of the O.S. bidness, anyway, so maybe I don't have to be concerned about it.

That's an interesting FUD type rumor that is soo unlikely. They built on an opensource kernel (MACH-O) and used a relatively small team of really sharp programmers and analysts to add the UI. Not expensive, and a major sales point for them.

Did you hear that Microsoft is giving up on Vista, seeing that the code is just not fixable, and they are going to license OS X?

That rumor is absolutely as true as the first one above.


It was just reported a few days ago in Apple's latest quarterly SEC filing that half of all Macs sold are bought by NEW Mac users. That indicates something.

I'm sure some percentage of those machines were bought because of the elegant hardware design, but I suspect for most it was a matter of them getting tired of downloading Windows security fixes and virus updates sometimes several times per day.

Of course part of the reason for the absence of viruses on the Mac is their lower market share, so the virus writers don't get the same bang for the buck.

But the fact remains that OS X is much better designed from a security standpoint than the current Win XP hodgepodge, and the default settings are vastly more intelligent.

I'm curious what part of OS X you find to be primitive compared to Windows XP?

I'll give my nod to XP pro. It has to be able to accomodate everything on Earth and it doesn't screw up unless something is wrong with the machine. I'm sure if the hackers decided to jump on the MAC it would have the same constant updates as XP pro. Programmers are kind of one dimensional, only make the program work and don't worry about the 800 new holes you put into the system.

JJK

I'm still looking forward to vista.

Thurrot is angry due to the long delays from Microsoft (understandable), the headache of UAP, Glass Windows, and Media Center. Of those the only real problem for me is the UAP hassle, and I'm sure (just like security center in XP SP2) users will find ways to disable it.

Here's an article outlining what Vista has to offer:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931946,00.asp

This is the stuff I like...

"A key improvement to the root file system and memory management of Vista is a technology called SuperFetch. SuperFetch learns which applications and bits and pieces of the OS you use most and preloads them into memory, so you don't have to wait for a bunch of hard drive paging before your apps or documents load. Microsoft has developed a pretty sophisticated prioritization scheme that can even differentiate which applications you are most likely to use at different times (on the weekend vs. during the week, or late at night vs. in the middle of the afternoon).

The scheme is also smart enough to make sure background tasks like virus scanners don't get priority over the foreground tasks you're working on. In fact, the whole I/O system now has a priority structure not that different from services, so your computer shouldn't bog down when some peer-to-peer file trading program has to do a hash check on a big file or something. SuperFetch also takes advantage of external memory devices—plug in that spare 256MB USB key (any size will work, really) and Windows can cache a lot of the working set to it. It's not as fast as your system RAM, but it's much faster than randomly grabbing small bits of data from all over your hard drive. "

I won't have to turn off Virus Scan when capturing...shorter load times for programs I use regularly...using USB drives to cache to...

Those features make up for the delay and a bad interface, IMO.

... and a year or two after it is first released, it may even work OK.

Vista has the feel of bungled mega-bureaucracy.

Immense complexity with at least 50% more code than Windows XP, all written in a very short time. Will be interesting to see what the early adopters have to go through.

i don't have any load/capture delays because of my virus scanner with Win2k. Maybe you should downgrade since that's aparently something "added" to XP. :) I dno't WANT my USB drive to cach too eigther. I'm tried of cache on it. I already have to click a few time jsut so I can unplug my "plug & play" device. They could of eliminated that.

Anyway, Vista looks like what 98 was to 95, XP to 2K, ME to 98... a bell, a whistle, yet the same old metal hammer ringing the bell & the same air blowing the whistle.

>>I'll give my nod to XP pro...

Same here.

Ya know, it seems that once everyone gets a system down really well (tweaks, fixes, etc.)...it's time for a new OS.

XP works great (now); I don't see how things could be much better. But...I also said the same about Windows 98...and MSDOS 6.0. :)

here's a list of XP tweaks someone on another forum posted yesterday:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060422/tc_cmp/186500837

aparently, you can set XP to defrag automaticly simular to Vista.

Not that defragging is a good thing, of course.

>>Not that defragging is a good thing, of course.

Here we go again! I guess we're due! :)

for my C it is. :) Don't really NEED it for other drives!

Just to bump this thread back up near the top:

> I'm curious what part of OS X you find to be primitive compared to Windows XP?

Mac's file system UI does not immediately reflect user actions. Let's say one deletes a file. Eventually that action will be reported by OS X, but one can never be sure about when. Often, it takes a reboot.

Or do a file search. OS X might report several copies of a file. If you try to use them, all but one will be inop.

OS X third-party software developers are even less likely than Windows developers to conform to a platform-wide convention such as (surprise!) keyboard "shortcuts."

I don't know enough to know whether it's the software developers' fault or OS X's. But save a project while it's playing back, and playback stops. Mute or unmute a track in FCP while playing back, playback stops. You get the picture.

We'll address the lack of context menus some other time.

But, dang, them Apple monitors sure do display our footage beautifully.

I'm with James. I've had XP Pro on three computers since its release and not had any real problems to speak of (any I've had I created).

With age, and experience, I've learned not to get caught up in these upgrade frenzies. I'm tellin' ya, they'll kill ya!

I do too have to work with Mac quite offten, yet not on the same scale as i do on PCs so my annoyance with them probably comes from not tkowing the nuts and bolts of the system (again though user usability here seems to be over hyped):

-- i get annoyed that the tootbar doesn't stay there all the time
-- i get annoyed that it doesn't have it's own field the way it is on XP
-- i get annoyed that tootbar is so full of crap so finding an app that i'm actually working on or a window of a browser is close to impossible (especially when working with multiple windows of say Safari)
-- i get annoyed that sometimes "by mistake" i click on the transparent part of the window and am taken out of, say, photoshop -- the whole transparent app window things really bugs me
-- i get annoyed that Safari or any other web browser is so prone to the spining rainbow icon, on XP if stuff takes too long i just click back button and don't have to wait for the spining icon to stop spining
...list goes on and on

I recommend "Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, The Tiger Edition" by David Pogue and Adam Goldstein, I paid $15.72 at Amazon.

It tells you all about how to configure the Dock (Taskbar equivalent, "tootbar"), to make it stay if you want, to show less stuff if you want, and more.

More importantly, it tells you how to work comfortably in OS X if you come from a Windows environment.

It does it very nicely and competently, with none of the "Welcome to The Second Coming of Christ" that one might expect.

For example, to see the different windows you have open in ONE application, press F10 to have Expose' spread them out for your easy picking.

Or press F9 to pick among all windows of ALL applications.

Or use Screen Corners instead of function keys if you prefer, even quicker.

And Tab Completion of file and folder names, etc., etc.

And after using Keynote, Powerpoint seems very much like a 19th century steamshovel...

And I just like FCP, Livetype, and Motion, these programs are incredible value. And the mile-long built-in codec list in FCP? Priceless.

Just like in Windows, there is a lot of good functionality in OS X, but you have to learn about it.

I certainly don't see any beach balls in my Safari or Firefox browser. Are you using an old, slow Mac? Some Dual G5 users have said they're trading up to an IntelMac to get more performance, and in some rare cases the MacBook Pros even outrun a Quad G5.

There are quite a few things that are just plain better in OS X than in Win XP. Ranging from the simple, like requiring a system password to install an executable anything (even if your running as an admin user), to Spotlight being way more versatile than even Google Desktop Version 4, font handling is better in several ways, etc., etc.

And I was happy to get a $65 teleprompter program for my MacBook that was better than my $200 Windows ditto program.

And are there any PC notebooks that can drive a 2560x1600 30" LCD monitor? I kinda like it, wouldn't want to cramp my style... :O)

Hmmm, maybe we better switch to talking about something safe and less blood pressure increasing, like religion?

:O)

Thanks for the book recommendation, Coursedesign, and the tips.