Symantecs, I know.

Not another mac/pc comparison! but seriously guys, hear me out. For a while now I've been working back and forth between with the latest mac OS and windows XP, so I am going to review them from a GUI (graphical user interface) stanpoint alone. I don't know if it has been done, but as a user and a designer, how the interface looks and works is very important to me. I'm not going to talk about software, or hardware... just the look and feel.

PC pros:

• Full-Directional Window Scalability (Macs can only scale windows with the bottom right corner and can't expand windows vertically)
• File Explorer/Internet Explorer (XP's File Explorer has a textfeild that shows the file string that can also open web pages)
• Taskbar Hiding (Macs can hide the dock menu but can’t hide the taskbar)
• Application prompt button navigation (being able to answer a question your computer tasks you using the only the keyboard)

Mac Pros:

• Window Shading (mac windows cast a shadow giving a dimension layering, mac menus are also transparent allowing sight beneath selected menu items)
• Icon Sizing and Customization (mac icons can be uniformly scaled to whatever pixel-by-pixel dimension(from 16-128), changing individual icon appearances is a simple cut and past job)
• Component Customization (mac OS allows users to decide which shortcuts and buttons are shown in the finder toolbar)
• Dock (Allowed most control over size and positioning)
• List View (File display option that allows users to navigate through files without double clicking each one)
• Spotlight (10x better than XP's seach tool, make that 100x)
• Force Quit (being able to quit out of an app quickly instead of exiting the system, like say when you open a file in the wrong prog... not having to wait for the prog to load all the way just to close it)
• Vertical Window boundary (I don't know how it happens, I just hate in XP when the window close buttons are out of my mouse's tiny reach )
• App files (having(most) applications contained in a bundled icon makes it REALLY easy to uninstall and use)
• Sub Window Hiding (you know those satellite windows in photoshop? yeah, they don't go away in XP when you switch programs)
• Hot Key for making a New Folder

so far that is all I can think. I know many of you will read this list and say none of this stuff matters, but I can tell you then make the world of difference when you have to go back and forth. I would say the devil is in the details, and the mac OS has Lucifer at bay.

for those of you who actually read this... here is a list of parody videos that portrays operating systems as humans BETTER than the apple adds.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

-r