ONE reason why OS X is better than Vista and Linux

By Davey Winder
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 04:19

Technology

The iTWire Vista Vs. Linux battle has been great fun to watch unfold, however it does seem to have missed the point that Apple Mac OS X is better than them both...

Forget 10 reasons why Vista is better than Linux, or 20 reasons why Linux is better than Vista. All you really need to know is that there is one single reason why Apple Mac OS X is better than them both.

That reason is simple usability. A single word that encompasses everything about the Apple approach to an Operating System.

You might consider that usability is wrapped up in terms of security. Certainly Apple users do not have to worry anywhere near as much as Windows users, even 'the most secure Windows OS ever' Vista users about malware, infection and system compromise.

Now there are no doubt many people jumping up and down at this point waving the red card at me and saying that Linux is just as secure, just as capable of beating Vista on the security argument.

Well, yes, maybe. But the point being that Apple just provides the secure environment to work in, whereas Linux demands a certain amount of work on behalf of the user to get it and leaves the novice potentially exposed to danger.

That's what I mean by security in the sense of usability.

Or you might consider usability in terms of the applications available for the OS. Again, Apple hits the front running here. Neither Vista nor Linux has any serious contender to match the 'pick it up and get productive' functionality of the iLife suite or the automatic backup tools for example.
 
Then there is the small case of defining usability as consistency of the user interface, ease of use of that interface, immediacy of that interface.

What else does OS X offer that Linux and Vista cannot? Where does my 75 year old mother fit into the argument, and what can we conclude from the OS X is better than Linux is better than Vista debate? More on page 2...

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