OSX, Any pros using over windows ?

[Dicehunter]

Got the chance to have a play around with a mac soon and I've never really tinkered with one, Any pros or cons over a windows OS for games, apps, productivity etc.. ?

 

[SuB]

you can't really break it :S kinda..

i wouldn't say it has advantages over windows, but it's different

 

[Feronix]

Yeah, comes down to personal preference. OS X is more closed, you can't change anything & you can't break anything. Windows is a bit more open and you can change more, but then there's people that say it makes it complicated

 

[Snortan]

I stick with windows because I play games, but I like OSX for being somewhat simple, interface looks good and it's kinda straight forward. You'll find alternatives for most software that you use on windows.
If you're a tinkerer I would go with linux.

 

[SuB]

if its free, i'd give it a look. Alot of people who use it tend to stick with it for daily tasks, but being back into gaming now i barely use my Mac Pro

 

[equk]

I switched to OSX for doing work stuff for a while (a few years ago) and this is what I found

Good Points:
The interface on OSX is nice
Seems quicker for general use
Customisable with the right apps
Very easy to install apps
Based on unix style kernel (filesystem layout etc is very easy to understand)
Most hardware is actually plug and play (I know windows is much better since win7 and windows update but you can still have problems)
Seems more widely used for audio recording and photo editing
Can run a lot of unix/linux software/commands
Time machine

Bad points:
If it breaks, it normally breaks in a bad way
Mouse movement is horrible*
Doesn't support a lot of games**

*mouse movement: the movement speed option is actually a setting for mouse acceleration. People have released software to try to fix it but the only way I found was to disable mouse accel and set my deathadder to 3500dpi

**games: most games are designed for windows or directx. Some games developers released a lot of games using cider (aka wine). Using wine/cider can introduce a few problems with some mac pro configs (mainly relating to gpu)

I moved back to linux for most work stuff & boot into windows for gaming.
The main reason I stopped using mac os was the annoyances (mainly the mouse movement) & also that linux is 20x better for what I do.

 

[AverageNinja]

If you want to use it for gaming, don't get it.
For workstations, it's OK

 

[DarthDudo]

Can you have 3 OS on a single drive/raid array?for example Win7,Linux and another linux based os?

 

[Josh Weston]

Can you have 3 OS on a single drive/raid array?for example Win7,Linux and another linux based os?

Yes.

To the OP, I far prefer OSX for every day use on my laptop. The interface is so smooth, especially with all the multi touch gestures. I wouldn't say that any applications open faster on a Mac, but then mine's running a 3 year old hard drive, so perhaps it's not the best evidence.

No harm in trying it out, and you can always install a VM/use BootCamp to run Windows on it too.

 

[Dicehunter]

Thanks for the replys all