Windows 7 VS. OSX

[garrthbarrttinn]

@MaxTheLimit

I’ve been looking around for an unbiased speed comparison between Snow Leopard and Windows7 and unfortunately I can’t seem to find any even handed ones. Either it’s strongly weighted to Windows, or OSX. You’d think something like this would be easier to find.

You’re not gonna find one. The only people who give a shit enough to do a speed test are the ones who already have a strong bias.

What I want to see is a test where they get 6 people. One half gets macs, one half gets pcs and they get to pick out their own computer using a set budget. In the mac half, there is one person who’s never seen or used a computer before, another person who is a a mac fanboy but has an average knowledge of computers, and then the third is a mac fanboy who knows every single last nook and cranny of the os and computer. Do the same with the pc half, but with Microsoft fanboys instead of mac fanboys. Then monitor them and record their experiences with their computers.

[loony636]

@garthbartin

You’re not gonna find one. The only people who give a shit enough to do a speed test are the ones who already have a strong bias.

Huh? Most of the people who do speed tests are magazines who give reviews based objectively on the facts at hand. In the absence of facts, they go on a mission to find some; vis a vis, speed tests.

All you’d really need to do is get a laptop with comparable specs to the MacBook Pro and compare them.

[Deathmonkey7]

You seem to be missing the part where the previous person said all speed tests are giving completely opposing results.

[sersoft]

IMHO If windows was also based on unix it might be totally comparable, but since it’s based on a totally different design, it would scale differently on different hardware, making all those benchmarks useless.

[MaxTheLimit]

While I do see what you mean, you could make segregated comparative tests. The nice thing about PCs is you can make a PC however you like. You can have a Corei7 machine that still runs an old 6600GT, or you can plop a 5970 into a machine running an Athlon 2800+ so long as it has a PCI express slot.
I have a feeling that given the same OS the Microsoft system would scale down lower, because of a very mature driver database for older hardware, and the new OS designed to run well on lower end hardware of netbooks. However I’m not about to put the work in to test this, frankly I don’t care. I’ve got a high end gaming machine, that is heavily overclocked. Quite frankly I don’t recall any task I spend waiting thinking ‘This should be faster’ I do have this problem with a couple macs at work, but they are older and being asked to do tasks that are beyond the hardware in them. Not a fair comparison.

[Medevilae]

Alright… Give me 5 things that a Mac can do that a PC can’t, that isn’t due to Apple restricting their competitors. (i.e., Running OSX on a PC. Which is technically possible anyway, albeit not legal)

[MaxTheLimit]

Who are you talking to?

[Medevilae]

@MaxTheLimit

Who are you talking to?

Anyone.

I could see how it might seem I pointed my finger at you, sorry.

[mental2k]

Hi,

Well I can’t comment too much on macs, because my only experience dates by to trying to surf the net on one a couple of years ago on a friend’s. The interface baffled me, but then that’s only to be expected as I’m used to windows.

Aside from the, already addressed, gaming abilities of windows, there are other benefits to a windows/linux setup. Especially if one is an engineer. You guys talk about the mac’s abilities and stability when doing intensive tasks like rendering, and how windows underperforms or is unstable. Well I often run CFD and FEA calculations with many thousand nodes on windows XP 64bit, simultaneously with lower fidelity sim models (much less intensive), all being controlled by algorithms written by me which are running in matlab (which is a scripting language which requires the interpreter to be running too). It also requires me to have CATIA and excel running at the same time, to allow me to change model geometries on the fly for the next run of sims.

I can still do this and surf the web and listen to music. Not once has this caused me BSOD. While running 3 high end engineering programs, Excel, Firefox and WMP as well as 2 lower level engineering programs, and MATLAB (with my buggy code).

[garrthbarrttinn]

And yet mac fanboys still cling to the myth that pcs crash every 10 seconds.

[danielsangeo]

@garthbartin

And yet mac fanboys still cling to the myth that pcs crash every 10 seconds.

Which is a really strange myth, if you think about it. Why would so many major multinational corporations use Windows for their workstations if they crash so often?

[Level]

@Medevilae

that isn’t due to Apple restricting their competitors.

Well, this pretty-much invalidates your own question. Part of the reason so many people dislike Apple is because of the restrictions, which is the same reason why less people develop for macs. Most of the things you can’t do on macs ARE because of Apple imposed restrictions, so if you remove those, it’s just a PC running a unix OS.

[danielsangeo]

@Level

Well, this pretty-much invalidates your own question. Part of the reason so many people dislike Apple is because of the restrictions, which is the same reason why less people develop for macs. Most of the things you can’t do on macs ARE because of Apple imposed restrictions, so if you remove those, it’s just a PC running a unix OS.

I can see Apple’s side about not opening their systems to other companies. Doing so would invite instability into their system…which, apparently, is the main and seemingly ONLY selling point that they have.

However, these restrictions are akin to clamping down on freedoms in societies. Sure, you’re safe. But at what cost?

[COLOR=‘Black’]“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” --Ben Franklin[/SIZE]

[OldDirtyBastard]

@CTID

Didn’t know Maya worked on Macs, tbh.

Then do your research before posting ignorant nonsense. No offense, just a suggestion.

@garthbartin

And yet mac fanboys still cling to the myth that pcs crash every 10 seconds.

I can’t see why that should be only applicable to “mac fanboys”.

Fun facts. My experience:
Windows XP - crashed, like, over 9000 times during 8 years.
Windows Vista - no crashes whatsoever
Leopard - never crashed
Windows 7 - crashed on the first day (not RC). Never crashed since.
Snow Leopard - Cinema 4D crashed it twice, since I used 64-bit mode with 2 gigs of RAM. Switched Cinema 4D back to 32 bit - everything goes back to normal.

[danielsangeo]

@OldDirtyBastard

Fun facts. My experience:
Windows XP - crashed, like, over 9000 times during 8 years.

[sersoft]

@danielsangeo

Doing so would invite instability into their system…which, apparently, is the main and seemingly ONLY selling point that they have.

Which is just an illusion at this point.

[danielsangeo]

@sersoft

Which is just an illusion at this point.

Why, I really have no idea what you’re talking about.

[sersoft]

[loony636]

@garthbartin

And yet mac fanboys still cling to the myth that pcs crash every 10 seconds.

Woah woah, wait a second. Firstly, I and nobody in this thread said that PCs crash every 10 seconds; we just said they crash more than Macs. Secondly, this entire thread is rampant with myths that PC fanboys believe that are simply untrue (cf. that Macs can’t do anything because they’re not compatible with any software for one).

[sersoft]

PC’s do not, I repeat, do not crash more often than macs, considering the amount of PC’s (97%) and macs (3%?) and the huge amount of software written for PC’s compared to mac programs.