Windows 7 and Mac OS X side by side.

I've recently been given the opportunity to really test out a Mac and compare it to my Windows 7 PC and here are a few things I found.

My First Impression:
Wow this is hideous. I'm not one to really care about how an operating system looks as long as it works well, however, over the past few years, I've become more and more comfortable with my Windows Vista/Windows 7 look. The transparent windows and stunning Visual effects have really gained on me over time.

Features:

The Dock/Superbar
In past versions of Windows, Mac has certainly one-upped Windows with the Dock,however with the "Superbar" in Windows 7 (which may have been an idea stolen from Mac) Microsoft now has a chance in this race. It wasn't long ago when I left my Facebook up in an Apple store and was quite surprised to see my status when I got home. I feel that I may have left it up because that window looked like nothing more than another icon on the dock. I imagine that this is something that Mac-users get use to, however, I MUCH prefer the Windows 7 method of organizing open windows and icons. If a window on the taskbar is open, it has a luminescent box around it. If a window is open on a Mac's dock, it looks just like every other icon.

Finder/Indexing

One of my favorite things in Windows Vista/7 has been the incorporation of indexing into the start menu. This was another thing that was claimed to be stolen from Mac, however, I feel that that is a total lie. I have always been amazed with the search results found in the Windows start menu (like typing scarlet and finding every picture of my mom), however, I was overwhelmed with the search results I found in the search function in the top right corner of a Mac. It started out telling me a definition of the word for which I searched, then split all of the files into different categories by file types (which is also done in Windows). The only real thing that makes Mac's finder better, is the definition, however, that is one thing that isn't found in Windows, and small improvements like that really add up.

Dashboard Widgets/ Desktop Gadgets

Another thing claimed to be stolen from Mac (you may here me referring to that a lot in this article) is the incorporation of gadgets in windows. Gadgets are found on the desktop on Windows, and Widgets are found in the Dashboard on Mac. I find that it is much more convenient to have these tools on the desktop so that you can just minimize a window and get to them all. Plus, it's really convenient to be able to use a window and a gadget hand-in-hand, which can't be done in a Mac because you have to open the Dashboard, not just drag a winow beside the gadget like you can in Windows. Plus, a recent improvement in Windows 7 allows you to view all of your gadgets without even going to the desktop or opening something new. You do this by just hovering your mouse above the lower left-hand corner of the screen, which allows you to peek at all of your gadgets, which I find really useful, because I have an RSS, Twitter, and Facebook gadget on my desktop, and would like to see if anything catches my interest without minimizing any window. There are, however, less gadgets to choose from and download in Windows Vista/7 than there are in Mac.

One thing that I would never be able to get use to is the lack of third-party application support. I have so many third-party programs on my computer that if I removed them all, it would probably clean up about half of my hard drive. This is one thing that Apple will neverbe able to measure up on. I also would like to be able to replace a piece of hardware with whatever I want. Not necessarily something made by Apple.

As for Viruses, I pretty much have no comment. If there were NEAR as many mac-users as PC users, there would probably be more people to generate viruses (though I don't have an eye to see into alternate realities). Also, I don't get viruses, and I use a PC. Microsoft Security Essentials has really come through for me, and it is made by the "dreaded" Microsoft.

I use a Dell Studio 1555 with 4 gb of RAM, 2.1 gHz processor, a high definition graphics card, and 320gb of hard drive space. I'm fairly certain that my PC will run just as fast as any Mac out there once it starts up. If I decide I want to go out and spend a few thousand dollars on a PC, it will more than likely startup just as fast, if not faster, than a Mac, and it will probably zoom through everyday tasks.

As for features, Mac and PC are just about tied in the race, however, one thing that will always keep me on a PC is the simplicity of EVERYTHING. Mac has nice hand gesture capabilities, however with the help of third-party software, I have the same gestures on my computer. Aero features (snap, shake, peak, and flip 3-d) are now a necessity for my daily computing. I now use them on a daily basis. Any feature that is on a Mac, can be added in about 10 minutes by downloading on a PC. You can't say the same for a Mac because of the poor third-party software support.

Please pardon the bad grammar and the random capitalizations. I have no clue if features should be capitalized, so some are and some aren't. Also, I'm tired, so things aren't really flowing well right now.. Thanks for reading!