To those who have used Windows and OS X:

My macbook's line-in seems to have died. I'm going to look into getting it fixed/replaced, but in the mean time, I've been looking back on my use of the laptop; OS X hasn't struck me as a stunning improvement on Windows. Most people seem really enthusiastic about switching to OS X. I got nuthin'.

What do you do with OS X, and what's stood out to you as great features specific to Macs? I want something cool to appreciate and play with when it gets fixed

 

Mine isn't here yet but it's not supposed to get blue screens

 

One really cool thing is Automator. It is basically AppleScript in a drag and drop form. Check that out. But mainly i just find myself doing more work/play and a lot less tinkering and tweaking.

 

No need to manually defrag or format, no viruses, less spyware, improved caching, no need to restart after installing a random program, no need to go through an installer while installing programs, no need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader, expose, and a unix terminal. Those are just some of the things keeping me a Mac user.

 

Both my Sony T250 and my friends new PC laptop could not share wirelessly with my Macbook Pro when my Powerbook could easily share. After jumping thru all kinds of hoops and changing options and havin my Sony work for like 5 minutes and quit for no reason I formatted the HD on it. Now it seems to work but not sure how long it will last. I never have a problem using the Macbook Pro as a wireless base station without routers or dongles and the Powerbook shares the internet seamlessly with it. Can my PC laptop even act as a wireless base station? I dunno. Right now I'm too scared to even try it and rock the boat. I'll suggest a format to my friend though; it seems to work. A young lady asked for help because a virus had eaten up the innards of her computers software. I just formatted her hard drive. We could not save her work because whatever virus it was it kept the CD from burning, etc. Fortunately the re-format worked.

If you feel Windows is just as good I say jolly well knock yourself out, but right now with Bootcamp I'm enjoying the best of both worlds and would never settle for Windows only. When I think I almost bought a plastic Sony SZ I feel like kicking myself. So glad I chose the 15" MBP 2.33 Ghz and remained on the Mac side.

I'll probably give my little Sony T250 laptop to my God daughter as a birthday present. I have little need of it anymore...

 

You get grey ones without the scary information on them.

Thanks for reminding me. I made an Automator script to mount my samba shares. It works well; really a cool tool.

I don't have problems in Windows with formating, viruses, spyware, or Adobe Reader (I use Foxit). Defragging isn't a huge burden for me... I have had some annoying program installations with OS X that require restarts, and some that required installers for who knows why... (I am learning about the Windows Installer system, from the programming side. It's a *****.) Expose's neat though. And it's nice to have the terminal around, along with all those basic unix tools I'm becoming addicted to.

(edit) Not that I'm trying to make this a debate; just trying to figure out what it is that really impresses people, so that I too can be impressed. (And most of the hype is... not completely indisputable)

 

I think the reason why ppl(mac users) talk so greatly of mac and so lowly of windows is because were sort of the underdog, so naturally there going to try and support it more then the average windows user does of windows. I have been using windows since 1995 and just last week i bought a macbook pro ...Not because i had a horrible experience with windows but rather to simply try something new. In my opinion Mac OS X is not superior to windows. Yes it does have its advantages but so does Windows. I think in the end its a matter of personal preference rather then OS superiority!

 

Personally I just generally like the environment. Perhaps even more than Mac OS X, I think I like a lot of the third party shareware and apps that people develop for OS X (I can't put my finger on it, but it seems to bring out the best in people). Personally I love stuff like BBEdit, TextMate ( www.macromates.com), Quicksilver, Transmit, etc. And I do like having the UNIX command-line, etc. which is a nice perk (but not really something that matters all that much).

But I wouldn't feel like you're missing something if you're just not feeling it. It's not like everyone is going to think it is stunningly better, easier to use, etc.