Forums | MacLife

I always thought OS X booted up pretty quick until I had my PC booting up side by side with it. It really is an amazing difference... Not a big deal really, since I keep my mac on pretty much all the time, though.

Actually, this is explained easily.  With Windows, all that is loaded is Windows when you start up.  Everything else happens after the login screen.

The Mac boots up and puts in all the system extensions, etc.  Hence a longer starting time before you hit the login screen.  What you might want to do is log out and log back in on both machines and then see what happens.

Actually, browsing on a windows machine will feel faster even on the same connection... Both my machines are on cable, the pc renders pages a lot faster. The reason for this, is, basically, that ALL mac browsers suck. Except Lynx.

Amen.  And to those who will say "IE is integrated with the OS" argument of why Windows renders pages faster -- I run Phoenix on Win2k with a Celery 500 and it renders way faster than any Mac browser.

give me some hard evidence, concrete evidence:
what does windows (any version) have over mac OSX?
-fluke

If I told you. I'd have to kill you.   

-=Jax=-

How many things get to show up in your system tray?  I ask this, because as we all know, unless you request otherwise (and even then...), every program will want to go into the system tray.

good opinions and arguments. yes, the mac gui is slow compared to that of windows. i don't know about the web loading speed, i havn't really payed attention to the two. on t1 it's the same, on 56k maybe it's different, i'll give it to you cuz i just don't know! haha. one thing i do know, though, is that my mac has never "died". i've never seen a "blue screen of death" on my comp and had to get new one. i think three people at my college ON MY FLOOR have already gotten the blue screen of death. two had to get new comps.

heres one thing for you to learn. the BSOD isnt an actual 'death', its an error that simply requires a 'restart'. do you understand those concepts? its really not that serious, people just like to make fun, and its easy for them to do so because the screen is so cryptic. no other reasons.

How many things get to show up in your system tray?  I ask this, because as we all know, unless you request otherwise (and even then...), every program will want to go into the system tray.

In XP, any app that sits in the tray can be disabled from running in the background by entering 'Administrative Tools>Services'. From this GUI, the user can decide exactly what gets loaded at starup; what only gets loaded when it's requested; and what cannot be run under any circumstances. 'MSconfig' has also been moved from win98 to XP to do much the same thing, only on a simpler level.
I boot my XP machines with only 12 processes running accounting for 69MB used (and I can still network fully). Not every program that gets installed in XP wants to appear in the system tray or wants to always run in the background.

XP has been a pleasant surprise for me, but I build my own workstations and I know exactly what's in them and what needs to run and what doesn't (bloatware).

On a Mac, you're interacting more directly with whatever you're doing. You're not always reminded that you're using a computer. The OS just doens't operate as mechanically as Windows does.

I have no idea just what in the blazes of hell you're talking about.

XP Users - how annoying is the activation feature?  Seriously - I can understand the whole pay for software due to basic human eithics, but truly is it getting in the way?  I know that when you replace a bunch of hardware, you have to re-activate it, but is it really that big of a deal?

Just curious!

Cheers!

Activating a legally-purchased copy of XP takes about three clicks and thirty seconds over the Internet, then you literally forget about it.

In a year of use, I have had one issue with XP that forced me to call Microsoft up and re-activate. It was a software issue. Having said that, calling them up was a hassle-free experience. They picked up the phone immediately, there were no hold times, there was no interrogation and the process took about three minutes.

Them: Thank you for calling Microsoft. How may I help you?
Me: I'd like to re-activate WinXP Pro.
Them: OK, where are you calling from?
Me: Cuba.
Them: OK, give me your installation ID (shown on the activation screen).
I gave them the number...
Them: OK, now write these numbers down and put them into the activation screen.
They gave me the numbers.
Me: OK Thank you.
Them: Thank you for calling Microsoft. Have a nice day.

As a side note, I would like to see a feature in XP that lets you back up your activation data. It would have prevented the problem I had.

As for people who swap hardware a lot, simply don't activate. Windows gives you a 30-day grace period after installation during which activation is not necessary. Plenty of time to evaluate your latest hardware combination. Once you decide on a configuration, activate with that.

In addition, your activation info is deleted from their servers after six months, so if you stick with one config for six months, then decide to swap out everything, you're still covered. That covers the vast majority of PC users.

As much as everyone likes to badmouth product activation, the simple facts are that it is not a hassle (for legit users) and it effectively blocks casual piracy - which is the goal.

There is something about a Mac that you can't forget. It is very User Friendly.

I maintain 3 platforms on my home network. 2 Macs (both on Mac OS 9 & X) 3 Windows Machine (Triple boot Win98, Win2K, WinXP) and a dedicated Linux box server.

If you want to play the latest NEW games the PC is the choice.
If you want to get "the job" done the Mac is more productive
Linux... Linux is Linux. Small, efficient, stable for a server.

The thing I like about the Windows platform is job security. I make money fixing Windows client and server platforms. I set up a Linux box for server use, I don't see my clients for months. My Mac clients I just keep in touch with email just to check on the status of the Machine.

So, Long live Microsoft for job security
Long live Apple Computer for my piece of mind and sanity
Long live Linux

Hey guys, first time posting, but long time Mac user(MacPlus in '87)/MacAddict(I think I've still got Issue 1 lying around somewhere). For me the main things that XP has over Mac OS X is basicly what's already been stated. More software, cheaper systems, and it's everywhere. I have a 400MHz B&W G3 tower that is my main machine, but in a few weeks I'm going to be using a PC because I cannot afford to upgrade my Mac. With the money that I have I *could* make my mac into a G4@400-500, faster then my G3, but with that same money I'm going to have a AthlonXP 2000 with Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra with 512Mb DDR Ram, and a GeForce4 Ti 4200 with 128Mb. (I'm going to reuse my Hard Drives from my mac on the PC) That is what (in my view point) XP has over OS X. I love OS X, it's great, but I cannot affort the hardware to run it well.

blugu64

I'll take that as a no.

Does X have an equivlent of Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop?  If not, that's a definite one up over OS X.