Why Windows rocks (and Macs, not so much)

By David Mendoza, staff writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Apple hype and Windows stereotypes warrant unfair comparisons between the two. The recent hysteria around Apple products, namely the iPod and the iPhone, has now gotten into the new Macintosh OS X 10.5, codenamed Leopard, operating system. Despite the positive publicity over the platform, Windows, even with the release of the confusing and frustrating Windows Vista, still remains supreme over the platform that it had crushed years ago.

First of all, the prices of Macs are way above their reasonable PC counterparts. To illustrate, since the average computer purchase in the U.S. costs $1000, I will compare buying the cheapest iMac to a competing configuration from Dell, which according to Fortune holds the largest PC market share in the U.S. At the time of my evaluation, the least expensive iMac cost $1,199 whereas the Dell computer only cost $1,099 but came with a faster processor, triple the memory, double the video memory, double the hard drive space, double the DVD and CD burning speed, and also included a monitor the same size as the one on the iMac.

In addition, critics have falsely labeled Windows Vista to be pricey, but Mac's “Leopard” is even more costly. Although an upgrade from Windows XP to the most popular edition of Vista, Home Premium, costs $40 more than buying Leopard, Microsoft released the latest iteration of Windows five years after Windows XP;  Apple released Leopard only two and a half years after Mac  “Tiger,” the previous edition to the Macintosh operating system. Therefore, judging these two products up front does not accurately determine the long-term cost.      

Next, Windows supports nearly every application created for computers whereas Macs can only run a dearth of software. These many, eclectic programs include fun games, such as Halo 2 and BioShock; productivity software, such as a more expansive Microsoft Office; and programs necessary to certain fields of work.

I acknowledge current Macs can run Windows through dual-booting applications, like Apple's Boot Camp, or virtualization software, like Parallels' Desktop or VMware's Fusion, but why go through the hassle of running two operating systems on a single machine and switching back and forth between them? Furthermore, this method adds to the cost as the user must buy a copy of Windows in addition to his or her Mac.       

The success of Microsoft's operating system has caused users to hurl many unfair arguments against it. Consumers have long lambasted Windows' security and reliability, but those two flaws are not of Microsoft's fault. Virus writers have always attacked Windows due to its vast market share, and the sheer number of Windows customers contributes to the excessive publicity of the problems compared to those on the Mac.

Another major criticism is the ease of use on Macs and Windows. Windows has become so ubiquitous that users have taken its standard features for granted. One of them, for example, is the Windows taskbar. Microsoft's unappreciated innovation allows users to see what their open programs were and click to see them whereas in Apple's operating system, the user has to navigate through a menu on the upper right hand corner.

Moreover, to close an application in Windows, the consumer clicks close box on the upper right hand corner of a window, but in a Mac, the consumer is forced to navigate another menu to close it.

Finally, Microsoft pioneered the two button mouse. Apple is now coming out with this convenient piece of hardware only after about a decade of its appearance on Windows machines. It's about time!