[frgoff]

And yet it does everything I want it to.

I used to think that, too, until I switched to Mac. Then I realized that Apple had thought of some things I didn't know I wanted to do.

• Press a key on my computer during start up and turn it into an external hard drive.
• Boot from any internal, external (firewire or USB) drive with an OS on it.
• See the charge status on my laptop by looking at the color of the LED on the plug.
• Check my battery status with the computer off by pressing a button on the battery.
• Being able to put an application anywhere on my computer and have it run. Then move it to a different place and still have it run.
• Uninstalling a program by dragging it to the trash.
• Being able to use slashes, asterisks, question marks, etc. in my file names.
• Sliding all my windows out of the way with a keystroke our mouse click.
• Installing MS Office by dragging the folder from a CD to a hard drive.
• Having each new version of the operating system run faster on the same hardware.
• Being able to do screen captures on the second monitor when using extended desktop (try this in XP, you'll find the screen grabs won't work on the secondary monitor, only the primary monitor - at least on all the Dell computers I ever used).
• Being able to change resolution and depth on the fly (and, no, XP's implementation isn't on the fly. I'm talking less than a second, not a ten second fade to gray, switch, then fade back to the new depth/resolution).
• Reliable laptop sleep and wake, with wake being less than three seconds.

[Joe Bonforte]

Those are good points, though I believe a few of them are no longer the exclusive province of Macs. For example, my laptop has been utterly reliable on hibernation, and comes back up pretty fast (maybe not three seconds, more like seven or eight). But you are right that Apple puts a great deal of effort into user experience.

As I said in an earlier post, Microsoft has been investing elsewhere. And because of that, here are the things I can do with Windows that I don't believe are nearly as practical on a Mac:

- Run an application with full handwriting recognition (TabletPC) that actually works - invaluable in many healthcare and education scenarios. (I think this factor may drive Macs out of education at the college level. Some colleges already require Tablet PCs, and the software for students to manage their notes and studies is a quantum leap)

- Create a professional, data-driven web site with user authentication, caching, sophisticated themes and menus, etc. - in less than an hour (ASP.NET 1.0 is pretty good, but 2.0 is amazing - you won't believe what can you do until you try it)

- Easily develop smart client programs that can run on a large majority of the desktops out there with a high degree of usability, yet get their data via Web Services from anywhere on the Internet. This enables highly distributed systems to function with the almost all the usability of local systems.

- Plug in just about anything that one can buy at CompUSA or Office Max, and know that the device drivers are available for XP, and it will almost certainly run right out of the box

I'll throw all of your usability points away to save the experience of trying to buy and install peripherals from a much smaller set of options. In my long microcomputer experience, working with peripherals has easily been the source of the most frustrating episodes.

Apple used to have a lead there. But starting with Win2000, Microsoft put in place a program that forced vendors to do a better job on drivers. That, plus the dominant market position of Windows which ensures that almost everything out there will have a driver for it, has tilted the balance back to MS on peripherals.

There is one area where the Mac is clearly ahead, and it is of major consequence. You are quite correct to emphasize the ease of installation of software on Macs. Dependence on COM in Windows has really hurt Microsoft there. That was one of the reasons for changing directions to .NET, which has the same copy-and-run deployment model you described.

It will take quite a while for most software to return to that model on Windows. Until then, complicated install programs are the bane of Windows. There has been some improvement; most installs don't require a reboot now, for example, whereas five years ago almost all of them did. But Apple certainly is ahead there.

[softwarecreator]

Now see, that's the way to make a point.  Very legible, no name calling and intelligently thought-out.

Your statements I read all the way through and agree with most of them.  Once someone starts the name-calling and getting all ugly, I stop reading and move on.

Thanks for the information, it's something I will think about next time I decide to add another computer to my office.

[r5boston]

post # 103 was really great, I found out some things I never knew.