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AnchorDesk: 'Macs don't crash, Windows machines do'

updated 02:30 am EST, Tue February 24, 2004

AnchorDesk

Writing his weekly column on his 15-inch PowerBook, Executive Editor David Coursey of ZDNet's AnchorDesk touts the compared to Windows: "The nice thing about Mac OS X is that it's darn near uncrashable. No matter what programs I install or uninstall or how I use it, OS X just runs. I've been using it since before the commercial release and have had only one serious crash--and that was during a hardware installation. The machine then booted right up without further incident. Other that that, the OS has been--at least in my experience--rock solid. And that's more than I can say about my Windows machines."

by MacNN Staff

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02/24, 03:28am | report spam | close Reply |
You know, the thing is...

he's right.

fp :]

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02/24, 03:29am | report spam | close Reply |
games

He wants a crash? Try a game demo or some glitchy games. Those full screen dealies forces a hard reboot every time there's a crash. That's one advantage to (stupid) Windows. Each 0.1 increment of OS X has still been awesome, though.

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02/24, 04:10am | report spam | close Reply |
games?!

dunno about your janky-assed rig, but my powerbook kicks some serious a** at UT 2k3 and 2k4 plus I have a spanky new PRophetview 920 DVI for lush better than a cinema display graphics. No crashes AT ALL. check your stuff man, maybe you arent connected to the intraweb or sumtin. :)

seriously, no crashes here, not even on FS games, with crazy code like Quake 3.

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02/24, 04:13am | report spam | close Reply |
Hmm

My dual G4 MDD PowerMac often gets a kernel panic when I shut it down. I haven't found any solution to this problem yet. Appart from that, I have only had a crash once but I admit a messed things up big time.

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02/24, 04:42am | report spam | close Reply |
different here...

...os-x caused me enough grief that I actually went out & bought a $200 pc to try - which then morphed into a cheapo laptop & now a full on pc laptop - so OS-X actually convinced me to switch alright - can't remember the last time XP crashed on me in the last year... And it has that nice little restore feature just in case something might not quite work after an update, which is very handy, although everything has worked well to date...

I still run my mac, but the pc is getting just as much use, is so much faster (about 4) for the same price, and hasn't had any of the issues with drivers or lack of software that X has had - finally downloaded a proper 'X' driver yesterday for a now ~2 year old HP printer that had 'X' on the box - I'm running as much as possible in dual platform mode to keep my options open for the next upgrade round...

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02/24, 05:02am | report spam | close Reply |
David Coursey

This is the reformed PC zealot that tried a Mac instead of a PC for a week so he could write an article on the experience.

Before he started he was full of contempt for Apple & Macs and was expecting to hate it.

However he enjoyed his week on a Mac so much he then extended the trial to a month for the article. Then he never went back.

Good to see he's a true switcher.

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02/24, 07:06am | report spam | close Reply |
Powerbook 15

I love my 15" powerbook but there are still some problems with this machine (I never had one problem with my ibook). This morning when I hit a key to wake it up, the sleep light went away but I had a black screen. I suspect it wasn't crashed but not updating the screen. I've had this problem on occassion and the only way to fix it is hold down the power key until it shut's down and then power up again.

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02/24, 08:02am | report spam | close Reply |
re:different here

I have Dell 2 ghz laptop less than 6 months old that is the most unstable thing I've ever used. I can't remember the last week when XP didn't crash. You can't remember in the last year? What are you doing, playing Mine sweeper all the time. Any serious apps I run the thing acts stupid. My eMac 700 has never crashed and I develop on it and put it through it's paces. I then test on XP and cross my fingers.
What lack of software? Games?

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02/24, 08:20am | report spam | close Reply |
meh

My TiBook 1 GHz is fine after a fresh installation of 10.3 (however, it was *not* fine after a fresh install of 10.2.8, which was the pre-installed OS). As I add more software, it continually gets slower. I've just come to expect this from computers, and I haven't found OS X to really be any different. Photoshop has, on several occasions, refused to force quit (even with Terminal kill commands, even with -9) and my only option was to hold down the power button to turn the machine off. I'm sure I'm in the minority here, as my TiBook was a refurb, so who knows what was wrong with it before Apple repackaged it.

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02/24, 08:32am | report spam | close Reply |
Mac OS 8.6

Using 8.6 on a 604e (I know I know) at work, and I haven't had the restart the machine since November

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02/24, 08:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Windows DOES crash

This is bull about windows. I am an IT consultant for a living, do over 90% of my business on windows networks. But I run my business with Macs and OS X. I can tell you without a doubt that Windows XP crashes too much, is highly sensitive to hardware and software changes, and loses stability over time. The "I can't remember when the last time Windows crashed" line is not true in the real world. Ask any office with 100 XP machines if they had it crash on them recently. Everyone will raise their hands. OS X is far more stable.

And then there are all the viruses and spyware issues to deal with....

There is no comparison. Apple's tight control of the software and hardware environment has paid off.

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02/24, 09:01am | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Mac OS 9.2.2

Using 9.2.2 on my 867 Dual MDD at work. Again, I know, Iknow like the previous poster. My mac has not crashed in ages... comes to show if you know how to use your mac and take care of it... and OS 9 machine can be all so stable, but an OS X can be oh so much more.

About to put Panther on it which will allow me to use a supposedly PC only Java Web application for website maintenance. That app is supposedly to only work in Explore, but Panther with the later Java support allows me to run it awesome in Safari, yeah Safari. Beats the slow speed of Virtual PC and Win98, but hey.. that option gave me compatibility.

Only quark gives me some concerns since we only have 4.11, but hopefully it works okay in classic, otherwise I will just dual boot.... into OSX for web work with the Java app, and back into OS 9 for Quark. Either way I win.

We tried PCs... after a while they would just not boot unless into safe mode after shoving big photoshop files around and PDF'ing all day... the mac just keeps going and if it does crash.... even a nasty one... it just reboots. This is just from experience.

MacMoose

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02/24, 09:12am | report spam | close Reply |
odd?

Boy that macmoose guy is still using 9.2.2, and yet he comes across as the biggest fanboy ever!

I'd be embarrassed to own up on these bulleting boards that I don't use X, never mind actually identifiying myself with the email. (especially on a duallie - man what gives?)

In fact I'd be embarrassed to be here, if I hadn't personally installed every incremental upgrade since Public Beta within hours of getting my hands on it.

In my opinion, if you ain't using X, then you have no right to be discussing the future of Apple computers.

MacChicken

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02/24, 09:19am | report spam | close Reply |
ah, either can be solid

Frankly, if you know what you're doing (or alternatively, if you can truly NOT muck around with the system at all), either operating system can be pretty stable. I've had several occasions where a buggy piece of software has crashed or almost crashed both systems (by almost crashed I mean stuff's so messed up you have to reboot anyway).

In my experience, as far as stability OS X is better than Windows XP, but not by much. The main difference is that OS X seems much more resilient against weird network problems (where network shares drop, etc.)

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02/24, 10:12am | report spam | close Reply |
uninstall?

Windows, the OS that made "uninstall" a verb. Things so complicated it went beyond "remove" a program.

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02/24, 10:46am | report spam | close Reply |
re: uninstall?

I like having the option to "uninstall" a program -- it gets rid of all the bits and pieces like preferences and (under OS 9) extensions that don't all reside in the application's folder. OS X's "package" concept helps a little, but simply deleting the package still leaves behind whatever Library files it created while installing or running the program.

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02/24, 11:47am | report spam | close Reply |
OS X is stable

Tell me something I don't know. It doesn't get any better than OS X (except for maybe the next release)

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02/24, 12:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Windows not up to speed

Even if you mind everything carefully in XP, use good known hardware, lock down the machines to prevent unauthorized installations by users, use professional corporate-grade antivirus software, carefully test each and every M$ service pack, patch, and security update before installing it (a daily ordeal), run automatic spyware stopping software, lock down IE or use Mozilla, etc., XP is still not stable enough, and far inferior to OS X. It gets worse in a domain setting, where group policies apply themselves when they feel like it, network problems come up with no warning, workstations slowly begin to degrade to the point where they have to be regularly wiped out with Ghost.

OS X is far superior. The networking is stronger and more robust than Microsoft. The OS is far mote stable and does not degrade over time. The only reason that IT guys like myself have to put up with Windows is because of all the other IT guys that refuse to learn about other OS's (it must be that investment in the useless MCSE...)

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02/24, 12:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: uninstall

I like having the option to "uninstall" a program -- it gets rid of all the bits and pieces like preferences and (under OS 9) extensions that don't all reside in the application's folder. OS X's "package" concept helps a little, but simply deleting the package still leaves behind whatever Library files it created while installing or running the program.

Uninstall in windows does NOT delete preferences or user registry settings, it only removes what was installed. Which means, it usually leaves the program directory around after you uninstall, leaves some files laying around half the time, won't delete the stuff from the start menu if you had the gall to move them for organizational purposes, etc.

Plus, half the uninstallers I've used ends up asking assinine questions like "Windows says file "TG452.DLL" is no longer used by any registered programs. Do you want to remove it from Windows. This may cause some programs not to work if they use the file." How is a user supposed to know whether its used or not.

What should be going on is that the installers that install stuff into anyplace other then their package should (a) be shot for doing c*** like this, and then (b) be obliged to make an uninstaller for their garbage.

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02/24, 12:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Hey

"Uninstall in windows does NOT delete preferences or user registry settings, it only removes what was installed. Which means, it usually leaves the program directory around after you uninstall, leaves some files laying around half the time, won't delete the stuff from the start menu if you had the gall to move them for organizational purposes, etc."

Calm down, zealot boy. Uninstall in Windows can remove preferences, entries from the registry, icons in Start, its own folders/files etc. Sometimes it does not because of lazy programmers and greedy corporations. Got nothing to do with Windows. If AOL wanted to it could also have left a bunch of trash in your Library folders and what not as well.

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02/24, 02:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Can still be undermined

By poorly designed software. Take Powerpoint for example... please. PP will crash while saving a document and corrupt it to the point that it will not open it again, losing all your work. I know its not Apple's fault, but it hurts all the same.
Anyway, I agree with the article. OSX is rock solid. the only crash I've ever had was the fault of Fruit Menu and that was with 10.1 maybe two years ago.

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02/24, 04:20pm | report spam | close Reply |
something

Ducktherian winter b****** off the port bow.

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02/24, 05:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
MAC NOT CRASHING?

HMM,
Can I switch macs with him? my DP 1000 crashes all the time, I have tried everything remove all the hardware, reformatting the drive, upgrades, downgrades, the machine just freezes when it wants to, as usualy apple just keeps telling me to reformat - but I tell them that it was I have done..

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AnchorDesk: 'Macs don't crash, Windows machines do'

updated 02:30 am EST, Tue February 24, 2004

AnchorDesk

You know, the thing is...

games

games?!

Hmm

different here...

David Coursey

Powerbook 15

re:different here

meh

Mac OS 8.6

Windows DOES crash

RE: Mac OS 9.2.2

odd?

ah, either can be solid

uninstall?

re: uninstall?

OS X is stable

Windows not up to speed

Re: uninstall

Hey

Can still be undermined

something

MAC NOT CRASHING?

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AnchorDesk: 'Macs don't crash, Windows machines do'

updated 02:30 am EST, Tue February 24, 2004

AnchorDesk

Related Articles

Recent Articles

You know, the thing is...

games

games?!

Hmm

different here...

David Coursey

Powerbook 15

re:different here

meh

Mac OS 8.6

Windows DOES crash

RE: Mac OS 9.2.2

odd?

ah, either can be solid

uninstall?

re: uninstall?

OS X is stable

Windows not up to speed

Re: uninstall

Hey

Can still be undermined

something

MAC NOT CRASHING?

Login Here

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