macs suck., pcs rule. Options

[sadolakced acid]

well, really, it's just a friendly mac v pc thread, and i know it's been posted before, but really, more people will click here if i name it 'macs suck'

my beef with macs-

i used mac OS way back when. bad experiences. not too much a legitimate reason today, but a reason none the less.

but the major one:

proprietary.

i don't know about now, but i know before that everything apple makes, they make it proprietary if they can.

for example, a PC owner can easily upgrade thier optical drive. they could pop in some more memory, or add in a new sound card.

now, sure, mac hardware may be good already, but you won't deny it's not the best, that would be much too expensive.

and as time goes by, it means the only way to upgrade is with a totally new computer.

i mean, sure, it works fine for people who don't want to be bothered to upgrade thier computers, and for the average user, macs are probably pretty good.

but i can't be hassled to buy a new comptuer if i want a CD burner and don't have one.

now, maybe apple has changed and i'm not up with the times. but irregardlessly, i severly dislike and avoid any company that insists on proprietary measures at any time.

which is why i do, and probably always will, hate apple.

[*mipadi*]

well, i'm intersted in reasons mostly because, well, i've never really seen a list that didn't include some comparison to windows and how mac was better.

i mean, yes, i'm not interested in switching. but i do want to know more about OSX. whats so great about it, etc.

It's hard to explain a choice from a list of options without a comparison to other options (and I'll note that you made a lot of comparisons to Apple to justify your choice ) but I'll see what I can do.

I think that, unlike most people who have responded in this thread so far, I'm going to take a few moments to level some criticisms at my platform of choice—because, after all, no one is perfect.

Keep in mind, too, that this list comes from running systems with Mac OS 7, Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows XP, Ubuntu Linux, Fedora Core Linux; as well as using Sun Solaris and Red Hat Linux fairly extensively.

(Side note, this is a pretty long list, but I thought I should be as clear as possible.)

1. Cocoa API. Probably my favorite part of OS X, Cocoa, the programming API on OS X, makes programming fun and easy. First of all, it's highly dynamic. Unlike APIs based on Java or C++, Objective-C (the language used by Cocoa) emphasizes the object-oriented paradigm by allowing a high degree of runtime (as opposed to compile-time) dyanamicism. This allows highly flexible applications, as well as easy support for plug-in interfaces. OS X offers a lot of ways to alter the behavior of an application without having to touch a line of source code (a necessity in closed-source apps).
   
   Furthermore, Cocoa emphasizes frameworks, or common repositories of code, and Apple consistently updates its own frameworks (SQLite was a nice addition in 10.4, for example). Third-party frameworks can also be easily used. This allows developers (like me!) to focus on making apps cool, not making them work. One of the nicest frameworks is, of course, the open-source project WebKit, that allows easy HTML/XHTML rendering in any application.
2. Proprietary hardware. Some people think this is bad, but I think it's a good thing. It makes Macintoshes just work. I don't have to mess around with drivers, for example. I just boot up the system and it works.
   
   This doesn't mean I can't add new hardware; in fact, generally adding new hardware is a breeze, too.
3. Installation/Uninstallation. Most applications on OS X can be installed by simply copying them to my hard drive, or even run from a CD, virtual disk, or external drive. Uninstallation is a matter of dragging an app to the trash. (Some applications to require an installer, but most don't.)
   
   Plus, applications can just be dragged around from place to place to move them, and, as noted, run from an external drive, usually without problem.
4. Simple, elegant interface. The interface is beautiful, but also functional and, most importantly, simple. No need for wizards like in Windows, and I can log in without a million bubbles popping up on my screen. Apple takes great care in designing the interface, and their interface development software, Interface Builder, makes it almost impossible to design a bad interface.
5. Simple, but powerful. I've never felt limited by OS X. It's simple but everyday use, but powerful for any task. Has a nice Unix foundation, too, so I can do the same stuff I'd do on Linux or Unix, but without all the hassle. Subversion, CVS, telnet, ssh—it's all there. So is powerful scripting support, enhanced by the default installation of Perl, Python, Ruby, and PHP.
6. Unix stuff. Piggybacking on my last point, OS X adds some handy Unix stuff, like the bash and tsch shells, all that those entail. I almost feel crippled when I switch to a system without a bash or tcsh command-line interface, since there's so much that can be done with it.
7. Unicode. Alright, a minor point, but Unicode is cool, and an industry standard!
8. Wireless that just works. I set up my preferred networks, and OS X automatically connects. I plug in an Ethernet cable, and OS X switches over flawlessly. I think this is supposed to happen on Windows, but it doesn't seem to work as consistently on all laptops.
9. Sleep. I'm a big advocate of putting computers to sleep. Reduce energy usage, man. My Mac goes to sleep automatically without problem. My PC's have to be put to sleep manually—I've never had consistent and flawless power management on any PC. (Linux is even worse—last I checked, most distributions didn't even support sleep! It may have been added to the kernel in the last year, though.)

Here are some things I don't like so much about OS X, or Apple in general:

1. Proprietary software. Proprietary hardware isn't my concern—proprietary software is. Apple open-sources a lot of OS X: the kernel; a lot of the core utilities, drivers, and software; and WedKit, just to name a few components. I'd like to see them add more to open-source development, though—or at least not use proprietary file formats (although many of their formats are open). I'm not saying they should take the GNU approach and release everything under the GPL (the GPL doesn't exactly encourage innovation per se), but releasing more under, say, a BSD license would be cool. (Of course, again, Apple does open-source a lot of stuff in OS X.)
2. Consistent interface. Overall Apple's UI design is better than anyone else's, but geez, make it consistent. Brushed metal here, standard interface there—make a choice and stick with it. (Apple does seem to be moving towards a consistent theme with 10.4, but it's not there yet.)
3. Mount points. Where are my mount points? On most *nix systems, I can mount a second hard drive at, say, /dev or /Users. The OS treats the system as a single system, not a bunch of hard drives. Why can't OS X do that?