Apple Mac OS X vs Microsoft Windows

From WikiVS, the open comparison website

Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows are the two most widely used line of operating systems. Apple Mac OS X is more commonly known as Mac OS X and is developed by Apple for Mac computers. Windows is developed by Microsoft for PCs. For a comparison between Macs and PCs, visit Mac vs PC.

[edit] Releases

OS X and Windows both have a long line of releases in their history. The X in OS X stands for 10, signifying the 10th version of the Mac operating system. Within the X line-up, there have been incremental sub-versions named after felines. Windows began with 1.0, following the numeric system until 3.1 and then switched to NT4. Since then, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, and Windows Vista have followed for personal computing, while others, including Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows 2008 were released as enterprise operating systems.

[edit] Market Share

Windows has a market share of 91.8% compared to OS X with 7.3% [1]. This does not necessarily reflect the popularity of Windows as most new PCs come with Windows pre-installed.

[edit] Software

[edit] Bundled Software

"Awesome out of the box" - Mac touts the software that comes bundled with their computers.

Software Type	Mac OSX	Windows
Web Browser	Safari	Internet Explorer
Music Management	iTunes	Windows Media Player
Photo Management	iPhoto	Windows Photo Gallery

[edit] Available Software

Software	Mac OSX	Windows
OpenOffice	yes	yes
Adobe CS3	yes	yes
Microsoft Office	yes	yes
Firefox	yes	yes
3ds Max	no	yes
AutoCAD	no	yes
Maya	yes	yes
Houdini	yes	yes
Logic	yes	no
Final Cut	yes	no
SoftImage XSI	no	yes

[edit] Security

[edit] Malware

In order for software to significantly modify Mac OS X, you have to type in your password... A Mac gets much of this out-of-the-box protection from its open source UNIX heritage. The most critical components of Mac OS X are open for review by a worldwide community of security experts.

—Apple Inc. , Get a Mac

Apple touts this feature as an advantage over (pre-Vista) Windows: "On a Windows PC, software (both good and evil) can change the system without your even knowing about it."

Windows Vista recently started to focus more on security by implementing a stricter user-permission policy, but many users feel that the strict policy is more annoying than useful.

Hence, there is no architectural advantage in security between Mac OSX and Vista concerning this point.

[edit] Viruses

Developers often capitalize on Window's large market share and significant vulnerabilities when creating viruses and other malicious software. Some counts place the number of Windows/MS-DOS viruses at over 50,000. In the past, Microsoft's solution to this problem was insufficient.

There has been one virus released for OS X, OSX/Leap-A, (although its status as a virus is disputed). Actual infection of Macs running OS X is extremely rare, and there has never been a large-scale infection of computers running OS X. The latest version of Mac OS X added sandboxing to improve protection against malware and trojans, but it cannot protect against all possible applications users can install.

[edit] Perception

The general public assume Macs to be more secure than Windows only because there have been more occurrences of public security announcements for Windows.

Also, most arguments against Windows concerning security is aimed at Windows released before Windows Vista, which has improved its security architecture.

Additionally, because of the significantly larger user base for the Windows operating system, as well as the number of businesses using it, it has been more effective to target.

[edit] Patches

Both Macs and Windows have patch updates provided online by Apple and Microsoft, respectively. Mac OSX downloads those patches by default; In Windows XP and Vista, the user has the option of turning automatic updates on or off.

[edit] Reliability

A big selling point for Mac is their reliability and ease of use:

It just works... all the hardware and software just works, and works well together.

—Apple Inc. , http://www.apple.com/getamac/

That’s because a Mac offers absolutely flawless integration of hardware and software. Only with a Mac do you get a system built by the same people who make the OS, the applications, and the computer itself.

—Apple Inc. , http://www.apple.com/getamac/works.html

Mac users who have Windows in their past tend to agree on a simple point: The Macintosh operating system and its custom-tailored hardware make for a far more reliable, less trouble-prone environment than Windows. It's difficult to put a price tag on that advantage, but it's the advantage that I find the most compelling.

—Scot Finnie , Ding! Mac vs. PC cost analysis, Round II

[edit] Philosophies

[edit] Freedom

Many Linux users prefer Macs over PCs because of the Mac's UNIX architecture. However, Macs are no more open source than Windows.

Comparing Apple to Microsoft is almost completely meaningless in this context, because Apple is a company in the hardware business that happens develop and bundle an insanely great—but non-free—OS with their hardware.

—Raganwald , Apple is in the hardware business