Vista vs. OS X
October 25th, 2007You know it’s bad when having to wait for an operating system to load prompts me to boot up my laptop so I can write about how I’m waiting.
It is taking Windows Vista (Business edition, by the way) an inordinate amount of time to load. It’s been displaying the boot screen for over 2 minutes now….
Ah, finally.
But it doesn’t end there. Once I actually get into the operating system I’ll have to deal with the horribly slow update system. The update process for Windows Defender is so slow that it comes close to causing me physical pain. On top of that, I am forced to click through several “permission” screens because Vista has to double-check every single little action with me before it runs. Even from within the control panel!
In contrast, OS X seems to perform its intended tasks with much more grace. Besides actually doing a convincing job of looking pretty (although I suppose that’s more a matter of taste than anything), it doesn’t bother me with inane messages, or annoying bubbles that pop up from the system tray. It handles security beautifully without me having to do anything. And it boots in a matter of seconds, not minutes.
As a final point, consider this: I’m running Vista on a high-end desktop PC. Some specs:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.14 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB DDR2 RAM
Compared to my Mac laptop:
- Processor: IBM PowerPC G4 @ 1.67 GHz
- Memory: 512 MB DDR2 RAM
I find it odd that the PC (with a dual-core processor!) has to labor through Vista, while the dated Mactop just cruises right along. I think you dropped the ball on this one, Microsoft.
October 29th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Brooke’s laptop for work has a similarly clocked Core 2 Duo and a whopping 512 MB of RAM and it can barely function with Vista Basic… Her personal laptop with a Celeron and 256 MB of RAM is more responsive running XP Home…
Thus, she (and her boss) has given me license to install Ubuntu “Gutsy” whenever she remembers to bring the thing home for me to mess with… :-P