Mac vs PC

[vinylphilemag]

Indeed. In 1980s I managed development of Unix systems where we ported and optimized it for new hardware we had built. During that time, the first set of reports of viruses came for the OS. The level of breaches were mind boggling:

1. The main email background process had a debugging interface. If you logged in into it and typed "wizard" it would give you a root (super user) login and you could do anything to the system! It was put in by the key developer of the OS!

2. You could type a special command at the text editor (vi) and get root privileges.

3. There was a command called "finger" that would let you update your own personal information (office location, etc.). This was added to the end of the line in the password file for your user name. Well, all you had to do was type a newline and that way, create a new root user with a password of your choice on the next line!

4. Someone wrote a program which just passed on random arguments to the OS system calls (the main way you tasked the operating system to do anything). Well, there was little syntax checking, causing the OS to crash left and right as soon as you ran the program. I remember we fixed something like 150 different bugs because of this.

I could go on but you get the picture. #3 and #4 are some of the core techniques utilized today to breach modern operating systems.

Umm, none of the above (including the Sendmail Wizard hack which is decades old!) are viruses. Bugs and security holes, yes. But not viruses.

 

[amirm]

Umm, none of the above (including the Sendmail Wizard hack which is decades old!) are viruses. Bugs and security holes, yes. But not viruses.

I don't know that the clarification of the term makes any difference. These were blatant security holes which had we had the internet we have today in 1980s, would have surely been exploited by viruses and such.

BTW, one of the main ways these exploits get created today by hacker is to watch what Microsoft fixes, and attack all the computers which do not yet have that fix! Hackers examine the fix, figure out how to trigger it given the comparison of the new code against the old and they are in business. No need to go and search for the needle in the haystack of millions of lines of code. This is why it is super important to set your computer for automatic update for critical fixes.

 

[StickMan451]

I use both but overall MAC is FAR BETTER than Windows... I'd say that my Windows machine has ten times more issues/problems and crashes than my MAC ever has... Okay, maybe 30 times more crashes... MAC is not perfect, but lets just say, they don't use Windows on the Space Shuttle...

 

[Steve Williams]

Don't tell Amir they don't use windows on the space shuttle

FWIW I have never had a Mac crash. The only thing I hate is the little spinning colored ball when something won't load as there is no way out of it except to reboot. Similar to the famous Windows blue screen

 

[FrantzM]

I use Mac, Windows and Linux in my personal and professional lives .. I have seen Mac crash .. What they don't do is becoming slower and slower as time passes .. Windows machines will slow down as you use them .. The machine you had when you just bought it .. becomes after a few weeks a memory .. it slows down to almost a halt .. There are ways to solve this but ... none , easy or reliable ...
The Linux has not committed itself very much toward the home/casual user, else it is a very solid OS .. stable and high performance .. It can be tweaked to extract the max from almost any hardware however old it might be ... If you 're not ready for a stiff learning curve ... stay away

 

[DaveyF]

Windows 7 is by far the best OS for PC that I have seen... I'm writing this on my 27" iMac as the PC is still thinking about booting up, or is it that "I need to send to Microsoft to report a problem"
Seriously guys can anyone really compare Mac to PC, if you have tried both...IMHO, PC is a JOKE!!!!!!

 

[Jay_S]

it slows down to almost a halt

Frantz, that's a bit overstated. Things aren't that bad, in fact I've never had speed issues with Windows 7. I agree that some things can slow down but overall speed is not a reason to avoid Windows 7. Just be careful about what you install.

I still have a slight preference for Windows 7 over Mac OS. But as of a few months ago, Windows 7 still had some surprising security vulnerabilities. I will write about them in another post. On the other hand, Windows 7 is surprisingly robust. It seems to be very stable and I haven't really had crashes. I transferred a system hard drive from an Intel computer to an AMD computer and Windows 7 found all the new drivers and continued to work well without a reinstall (not recommended for a work computer but the result was interesting).

I've had just few crashes with Snow Leopard. For some reason iPhoto seeems to be the culprit.

 

[amirm]

Seriously guys can anyone really compare Mac to PC, if you have tried both...IMHO, PC is a JOKE!!!!!!

You are definitely right. You can't compare the two. I am typing this in front of a media center PC driving my TV playing digital television. I built that PC to exact specs I wanted. It boots lightning fast because it has an SSD for boot drive. It has precisely the components I want in it. There is no Mac that is like it. As I said, you are right about that .

 

[amirm]

Don't tell Amir they don't use windows on the space shuttle

Funny and scary story. I once worked for a company and had built their own PCs running their version of Unix (parent of the OS which runs on the Mac by the way). We tested the box and found it very fragile. It would frequently crash. One day I am in certain country with my counterparts, going by Disneyland and I am told proudly by them that the Space Mountain roller coaster there was being controlled by the very system!!! As you can imagine, you could not get me within a mile of that ride.

FWIW I have never had a Mac crash.

Googling the words "Mac crash" shows 18 million hits. So I imagine your experience is rather unique . Googling "Windows crash" shows 25 million hits. Seeing how there are 10X more Windows machines than Mac, those are not such bad stats .

 

[amirm]

Just to be clear, I think there are a thousand things wrong with PCs in general and Windows specifically. I wish that was not the case but it is. But as folks reading my writings know, I want the freedom to buy what I want. And Windows PCs offer me that. I don't have to wait for Apple to create that configuration for me....

 

[DaveyF]

Amir, It seems that you like PC. so be it. I use both PC and Mac and I dislike PC. Like Steve said
"My son laughs when he talks about PC's ( he calls it a piece of crap) and asks why do you have to push start to stop etc." I totally agree,that is my feeling exactly.
You say "I want the freedom to buy what I want. And Windows PCs offer me that", I say, only problem with that is the PC probably won't work when you do buy it
BTW, I have a very good friend who is a Prof. of Computer Science at one of the top schools in the country and he likes PC even less than I.

 

[amirm]

I don't get married to these things Dave. They are just machines . I play the PC defender here because Steve likes me to do that .

To wit, I used a Mac for a decade both personally and professionally (we have a couple of Macs in the house still). I finally got tired of waiting for Apple to build the PC I wanted so I switched (back). Anyone who builds a religion around one platform or the other is doing themselves a disservice. Figure out what you need and see which one fits you better. Right now, for me, Windows is best. Figure out what you need and pick that platform. Don't believe the stereotypes of either platform. 1 billion+ people use PCs. If they are so horrible, then I am not sure how they are getting anything done with them. And there is no denying that Apple packages their hardware and software nicely together.

As to your professor friend liking Macs better, that is neither here nor there. I used to teach at UC Santa Cruz the very operating system Apple runs! I have even written a book on the topic. But here I am, using the opposite platform. People make their choices for many reasons. That doesn't make it right for you unless you do exactly as they do with their PCs.

 

[DaveyF]

Jeez Amir, I thought Bill Gates wanted everyone to marry a PC..

 

[Mark (Basspig) Weiss]

PC-based today. Way back in the early 80s, I worked with Lanier word processing systems. In '84, I was using a TI 99/4A. A friend tried to get me interested in the Commodore VIC20, but the graphics were just .. ugh.. In 1986, I got my first Intel-based PC, an 8088. My next PC was an Everex 80286 with a TARGA32 graphics card from AT&T and TIPS software. That card was $4,995 and the optional RGB to NTSC card was an additional $995. The PC itself cost me $795 in 1987. In 1988, I got me a HP LaserJet II and added a QMS JetScript card for about five grand. That was the start of my publishing business.

Later that year, my contact at the graphics company where I bought my TARGA card interested me in a Sun SPARKSTATION 2 with OpenWindows 4.1.1 OS. That machine was just.. wow! Multitasking and powerful with 14 MIPS which, at that time, was a lot of computing power. But it was awful difficult to maintain and software was insanely expensive. Wavefront Technologies modeler and animation software was $15K at the time and I was really wanting to get into doing my own animation.

By 1990, I moved back to PCs and up to a '486/33. This was the beginning of my color prepress phase, though I was still running a WYSE 700 paper white phosphor display. I was doing some spot color work for a local marketing company, and had a unique way of keeping track of the colors. But soon I got an angel investor to put up five grand, which got me a #9 GXiTC graphics card and a NEC 6FG 21" CRT.

Over the next two decades, I would go through a half dozen upgrades. Currently I am running two quad core PCs with 2560x1600 graphics on 30" displays. Today I do video production and 3D CG work. The DVD authoring package that I use is only available on Windows NT, which is Sonic Scenarist. Another reason I have stayed with the PC architecture is because I am a DiY'er who builds his own custom systems to fit my particular needs. There are no off the shelf systems that do what I need, so I build what fits my application and workflow. It's less expensive, enables me to maintain and repair as needed, and gives me exactly what I want.
My work machine is not connected to the internet. My other machines have up to date Norton Ghost hard drive images, so if anything goes haywire, I just reload the image of C: drive and five minutes later I am back in business. The OS is only as good as the person tweaking it. Keeping temp files off the C: drive, and having separate drives for data, audio, video, etc. is essential to keeping the system running smoothly. My C: drive never fragments because nothing writes to it. I have E: for all the scratch/temp files. D: and F: and G: are general data, audio and video. Then I have other drives for temp scratch for applications, separate from the OS scratch drive. Here's a recent photo of my work area:



I do everything from sound editing, to MIDI music composition/arranging, to 3D animation, to HD video editing on these two machines. On the right are my music-making tools. Everything is arranged in a horseshoe, so I need only spin my chair to get from one computer to another.

 

[amirm]

Jeez Amir, I thought Bill Gates wanted everyone to marry a PC..

Bill certainly wanted the home turf defended . But he also let people spread their wings. To wit, I was managing the digital media division and in an instant, he agreed that we should license our Audio/Video formats to anyone including those running competing systems. This is why you see WMA playback on Sony PS3, Android phones, etc. And of course, Microsoft has always had a Mac applications group which developed the Office product for the Mac.