“Mac or PC” – Oh Really?

19Oct09

I get asked this question by so many people that I’m tired of having to repeat myself all the time. It’s commonly phrased something like, “What’s the difference between Mac and PC?” or “How do you compare the two operating systems?” Well, the answer is quite simple.

You can’t.

Why can’t you compare the two? Well, because the Macintosh and Windows operating systems are fundamentally different, going deep down into the roots of Apple and Microsoft’s software practices. And what is this difference of which I speak? It’s the hardware-software relationship.

Basically, the hardware-software relationship dictates how software works with hardware, i.e. which hardware an operating system runs on. As we know, Macintosh is built to only run on Apple hardware, while Windows was developed to be able to run on as diverse environments as possible. Therefore, we simply cannot compare the two operating systems, because their overall environments are drastically different. You might disagree in that it is possible to compare UI elements – well, of course you can compare how certain parts of the interface are implemented and argue that one operating system is better than the other, and this will go on forever, but here, I wish to find the fundamental difference between the systems – what is the main underlying difference between the Macintosh and Windows operating systems? That’s why the hardware-software relationship is so important.

Now, let’s take the diversity we just identified and expand upon it a little bit to form a general view of the two sides. Let’s start with Mac, again. If we know that the OS was built to run on only Apple hardware, what does this mean? Well, it means that Apple put the kibosh on third-parties. By that, I mean that they aren’t willing to accept third-party technologies in the general development and function of their OS. Just as their hardware is limited, so are drivers – the number of devices manufactured by other companies that connect to computers through USB or other popular protocols is very small, in comparison to Windows. This just shows that Apple’s goal is not to create a system that others can contribute to, in the way that Windows runs. Really, how many times have you tried connecting a peripheral to a machine running Windows and drivers weren’t built in or available on an accompanying disk? My bet: very few.

Naturally, one could go on to assume that Apple is, in a way, monopolizing users of their operating system by creating such a bond between hardware and software. However, I do not want people to think that this article is biased – yes, I despise Mac (Windows & Linux FTW!), but I don’t want that to get in the way of our little analysis (I could write a lot about why I greatly prefer Windows over Mac, but that’s another story).

As you can see, Macintosh and Windows are very different, but the most important difference is their fundamental standpoint, expressed in the hardware-software relationship. Without these being equivalent, we just cannot compare one operating system to another.

Filed under: Apple, Feature, geek, Technology   |  2 Comments
Tags: apple, different os, drivers, fundamental, hardware, hardware-software relationship, linux, mac, mac vs pc, microsoft, monopoly, operating system, os, software, third-parties, windows