Mac and Windows operating systems: differences, similarities, and historical development

¶ … Macintosh Operating System in 1984, there has been a battle resembling the Coke and Pepsi War, this time between the Macintosh/Apple OS and Windows. Ironically, the battle has also bled over to the new electronic revolution of the 21st century -- the Smart Phone. This time, it is a three part battle between Apple's I-Phone, Google's Android OS, and Windows Mobile. In the personal computer world, though, there remain really two choices -- the PC Platform or the Macintosh platform. Clearly, every user has their own opinion on which is best, which has better programs, support, hardware, and price vs. reliability. One caveat when doing a comparison: there is only one authorized Macintosh producer -- Apple; there are literally hundreds of PC manufacturers, including those made from parts from various companies and built at home by the end user. Despite opinions, though, we can certainly begin our analysis with a comparison chart:

Issue

The Mac Platform

PC Platform

Comments

Stability

Macs more stable because it separates most programs from OS and each other

All Windows components are somewhat connected

Different philosophy about tagging programs; Windows is slower in program connection as well.

Security

Mac has yet to be threatened by a major security breach

Windows is notorious for viruses and security issues

Market share numbers mean higher vulnerability

Reliability

Less crashing, movement of files and folders more reliable

Some locations on the computer are harder to access.

PCs crash more often than Macs

Multimedia

Superior hardware for DTP, music, graphics

Better equipped than every

Less an overall market for design than information management

Affordability

Expensive

Cheaper

Even apples to apples, PC's are less expensive

Selection

9 basic models

Infinite Choices

PC users choice

Compatibility

Can run Windows OS

Cannot run Mac

Moot issue most of the time

Gaming

Mac cannot connect to certain Xbox applications

Most of the games available are for PC

Again, due to market share, development costs, etc.

Popularity

5% businesses use Macs

95% schools and businesses use PC

PC captured the market early due to price and compatibility

Speed

Faster

Slower

In startup, shutdown, and browsing

Market Share

5.11%

92.21%

More PCs in business and homes

Units Sold (2009)

11.2 million

300 million

PC clear winner

(Mac vs. PC - Who's Really Winning?, 2011; McCracken, 2010)

From the perspective of the Operating System, there are two divergent philosophies. Mac began as a graphical user interface, PC's evolved from DOS and more information based. Mac is faster in opening and closing the system, and has a platform that allows quicker access to ROM and RAM, allowing reading and writing data quicker. Windows must access information multiple times. Both systems have undergone tremendous changes since 1984, but the Mac certainly pushed the innovation button and forced PC engineers into innovation.

For instance, as computers and mobile technology grew smaller, and memory less expensive, the push towards larger, more complex, graphics and multi-tasking became even greater. Gone were the days in the late 1980s in which the popular view was that one would never ever need to use a Megabyte of memory; now we are seeing standard Gigabytes and inexpensive Terabytes. New chip design also contributed to quad and greater core processing systems, particularly in memory allocation and types of graphics available (Willington, 2010).

PCs are far less expensive, and frankly, own the market share. However, one manufacturer of Pcs never really dominants the entire market year after year, but instead, the Windows OS and Office 2010 from Microsoft, are the dominant programs in the global marketplace with over 92% market share. Mac's crash less, have superior electronics overall (one company controls QC and manufacturing, assembly and distribution), but Macs are quite a bit more expensive than PCs, even ones that are similarly configured (Mills, 2010).