Michael Nollan
English 10
Due 5/10/10
Compare & Contrast
THE CURSE OF WINDOWS
There are two well known brands of operating system available for computers: Apple Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows. The continued argument of which operation system is superior has battled on for decades now, and it seems to get more hostile as time goes on. Here, I will present my evidence to support my belief: Apple’s operating system is clearly the better choice.
POINT ONE: STABILITY
In all likelihood, the most well known argument in this debate is the issue of stability. Upon suffering a “Fatal Exception”, Windows will give you the infamous BSoD, which kills your operation system and reboots the computer, causing you to lose anything you had been working on at the time. The “Fatal Exception” in question could be a software error or hardware error. The Mac equivalent is the “Kernel Panic” screen, which simply gives you a grey dialogue box stating that you must force reboot your computer. Upon rebooting, your system will be just as you left it. The Kernel Panic is activated when a serious hardware problem is detected (Such as the hard disk suffering damage when you dropped your computer.) The Kernel Panic is considerably rarer than the BSoD, (I’ve had several Blue Screens as opposed to only one Kernel Panic in my life, and I use Mac a lot more.) and more effective at its purpose (dealing with serious exception errors.) Upon a software error in Macintosh OSX+, the offending program is shut down rather than the whole computer. If the operating system itself suffers a failure (which I have not personally experienced), it reboots while your other programs stay open (and usable, for that matter.)
POINT TWO: USER FRIENDLINESS
Upon an application’s unexpected termination, MacOS simply opens a dialogue box telling you what went wrong, and gives you the choice of reopening the program, sending a bug report, or simply doing something else. Windows gives you some unusable hexadecimal gibberish that cannot be utilized without a major in computer sciences.
My grandmother managed to crash her windows several times, infect it with a virus, and worry that she’d broken the law upon being informed that she had attempted an “Illegal operation”. It took her about five years to render her Apple computer unusable, and it took me about 10 minutes to fix the issue. (She’d erased all her applications; heaven only knows what compelled her to do this.)
All Macintosh settings can be easily accessed from the control panel, whereas Windows settings cannot be changed without first hunting them down through a multitude of menus and dialogue boxes, and it sometimes doesn’t even work after you’ve changed the setting, or it won’t let you change the setting, or it simply reverts the change the next time you log in.
POINT THREE: SAFETY
I refer to each system’s respective tendency to fall victim to viruses, trojans, worms, and other general hacker mischief (or not). Despite the title, this section will not expound upon Sony’s infamous exploding batteries occasionally found in both brands of computer laptops, but will point out that those batteries are neither Microsoft’s or Apple’s fault , but Sony’s.
Windows has numerous brands anti-virus software available for it, from the standard pre-packaged stuff we use at the school to programs that cost a hundred dollars a month. However, it will still invariably catch something at some point. (Been using this Windows computer four years, and it has caught about a dozen viruses in that time.) Mac has NO brands of anti-virus programs for it – the antivirus stuff is built right into the system, and works like a charm – I’ve never had a single virus on the Apple I’ve been using for the last eight years.
Also, when larger holes appear in security, Microsoft hems and haws before finally admitting that it’s a bug, not a feature, and fixing it. This is rather troubling.
POINT FOUR: COST
This does seem to be a bit of an issue for many people – Windows computers are cheaper. However, Apple computers are consistently shown to be faster, safer, and more stable – and they last longer before going obsolete. (Remember what I said about that eight-year-old computer?) At the core of it, it simply seems that we can turn to the old adage, “You get what you pay for.”
Conclusion
If you’re a computer wizard that likes solving ridiculously complex problems and repairing broken machines, then Windows is for you. If you are an average person that just wants the superior choice, then Apple Macintosh is the way to go. One last thing: Some argue that more programs run in Windows, and it is therefore superior. Although this is true, it is really due more to the programmer’s short sightedness than any true superiority in the operating system. Apple now comes with a program called “Boot Camp” that allows you to run Windows software.
