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Windows vs. Mac - Challenge: What Software

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by boitsfort 1 view

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In a lot of discussions and forums, people discuss the Mac vs. Windows war: how good is one and how better is the other. Very often, Windows fans claim that Mac's world lack the applications.
Let's have a challenge online right here. Please nominate any application for Windows and the challenge is to find equivalent (or same) for Mac. The focus I propose is on Home computing. I'm not talking about specific business apps.
The goal is not to find the same application, but an application that will achieve same or similar results.

Windows fans, please shoot first. Mac fans, please respond quickly.

And let's enjoy the (friendly) fight.
My bet is that no application (should say function) will be absent from Mac's world and force a Windows buy. let's see...

33 replies

by boitsfort

I'll be the first to shoot. Adobe Premi?re Pro is not available for Mac! You will need a Windows XP machine for it!

by boitsfort

Final Cut Pro is the Mac solution for professional video editing (and more).
So the function: high end video editing definitely exist on Mac. OK, Final Cut Pro is certainly not 1 to 1 equivalent for Adobe Premi?re Pro, but for sure both application do deliver the feature requirements for quality video editing.

That was my example of the proposed challenge. Go ahead guys, shoot now.

by bfilmfan

VMWare Workstation which allows the operation of virtualized guest operating systems on a host OS. This allows an engineer to model an environment for testing purposes without buying additional hardware.

VMware Workstation 5 does not run on RISC architectures, including SPARC or PowerPC. It cannot be installed on a UNIX-based or Apple machine.

I am not aware of any virtualization software which operates on MAC.

by gordonk

Virtual PC made by Microsoft! It can virtualize Windows 2000/XP Home/XP Professional on a Mac OS X 10.2+.

by allanjder

VPC came from the original Mac OS developer, they developed it for x86 systems. With the Intel based Macs, they will be able to boot with Windows. VPC will still be useful if one needs to run both platforms at the same time. Could be even faster if it were to address the Intel hardware directly.

by mjwx

If you are like me you use your home PC (I should really say Computer) for entertainment as much as practical work. To many a geek, video games are the chief from of relaxation. Many video games only run on a windows box. I will name a few now:
Far Cry
Battlefield
WoW
Call of Duty

In video games alone a Mac looses 50% of its entertainment functionality.

by boitsfort

I'm not a specialist, but I can admit that video games are quite specific. Some are available on both Mac and Windows, and other solely on one or the other. So one willing to play that particular game not available on Mac would have to go for a Windows PC.

by bobmollyralph

The last time I checked, Macs were limited to Abracadata Design Your Own Home, and Design Workshop which offers a free Lite version. Design Workshop only works in the Macintosh Classic environment, which is not supported in Mac OS 10.

This debate might be mute in near future, now that Macs are using Intel processors.

by mjwx

That for once I am not having a go at Mac?s. I would like to say however that Mac?s (IMO) are built for a singular purpose, which is producing graphics. As graphic design is not my forte I can?t say how well they do this purpose.

For the record Windows is built to do everything and does an OK job at doing everything but it can?t do anything one thing very well. Linux is built to be a server, which it does very well but has little in the way of desktop functionality.

Cheers
Mike

by freddo212

Apple cheata (the newest apple opperating system) are built
with the cappability of accepting ALL programs designed for
windows, which means you get the sleakest designes and the
most options, and, as well as that you get everything in ONE
box, My 10 year old son set up my Imac G4 with internet, it
so easy, particularly with an inbuilt modem. I remember
when we had a PC we had to hire 3 technitions to get it set
up whereas with a mac, you just take it out of the box and
plug it and go...

by phil

I have a Mac at home, and use XP at work.
When web browsing on the Mac, and trying to fill out a form, I HATE it when you have to reach for the stupid mouse to click the drop down box for the State. On windows, be it Iexploiter or Firefox, you can tab into the field and cursor down. On the mac, tab just skips over the drop down boxes. This is just one example of how Mac software is "harder" to use than windows. It seems like Apple is just so proud of the mouse that they want to force you to use it.

I use Safari, Firefox and Explorer on the Mac, depending on which one will not crash on the particular website I am visiting.

by allan.cass

I have yet to see an end user friendly alternative to the Outlook/Exchange server suite. This includes not only email but calendar and contacts sharing as well. I would love to see a suitable alternative, whether it be for Windows, Mac or Linux.

by apotheon

He asked for home use. Anyone running Exchange at home is insane, or otherwise outside the realm of this discussion. Anyone not using Exchange doesn't need Outlook (and there are alternatives anyway).

That aside, however, check into Open-Xchange, at http://www.open-xchange.org -- it's pretty much an exact duplicate of MS Exchange in terms of available functionality, including providing the ability to (with a relatively small expenditure of capital) provide a standard MS Exchange style application interface. Unlike MS Exchange, you can pretty much just use the mail and/or calendaring application(s) of your choice.

by ronin701

I dabble in electronic composition and I like the ease of use of this software, you just drag and drop your loops and then paint them into to the over all mix, very cool. In fact it's the only program that has kept me from going fully unix, (and those silly MS only games.............got to have my BF2 and UT2004 fix ).

by bfepistle

Garage Band is the Mac's program for editing MIDI music and loops. I'm not familiar with Acid (although I've certainly heard of it), so I can't testify to correspondence between features.

by ronin701

Garage Band is for recording and editing. Acid has prerecorded loops that you drage into the workspace allowing to create your composition by mixing and matching.

by c_tharp

I work with MS Access. It is a simple DB solution with a lot of potential. Don't climb on the soapbox. I don't think it's the best.

Recently, I bought an ibook and I'm looking for something similar to run in the Apple environment.

by crabbyabby86

normally ill stay far away from win v mac debates, but i ALWAYS admit that MS office is a ripoff when openoffice hasn't failed me yet. i havent tried it on a mac (because i stay far away from macs, too), but i would imagine that the openoffice database program works well enough.

by gordonk

There is a MySQL database edition for Mac OS X, but it is a more advanced tool for a simple database processing such as Access.

BTW - It's a smart idea to stay away from such discussions ;) There is always an application that you get in one and not in the other one... The important part is that you can do a most of what you would do in all these systems. Sometimes it just depends on what you really need to do and whether you can accept visions of system designers.

by ed

If you want more choice in hardware, you build or buy something that is going to run Windows. Then you pick what software you want to use, such as OpenOffice or MSOffice or Premiere or Final Cut.

by macinthehouse

Yeah MS still has not made Access for the Mac. Why? Three guesses.

FileMaker Pro has been on the Mac for years. Originally made by Claris. Apple spun it off to be it's own corp I think when Steve came back. It is probably Access' biggest competition ... it's also Windows. Works cross platform very well.

I have done a fair amount of developing with it. It also works directly with Excel on the Mac for importing/exporting data, graphing, etc. Much more user friendly than Access IMO.

Filemaker Pro was a Mac app from the beginning and is more graphically oriented and WSIWYG. Whereas Access is customized more behind the scenes with menus.

Filemaker's consumer version now out called Bento. I haven't tried Bento but it's priced right.

by choppit

IMO Linux has (or can have) all the desktop functionality of Windows but not yet I'm sorry to say the stability of the Windows GUI.

by taggalucci

An incredibly useful DVD backup tool. Whilst I am aware it is possible to backup DVDs on the Mac using various tools in a multi-step process, I am not aware of a tool that provides this in a single step with the same ease of use as DVDxCopy.

by apotheon

Macs aren't what you remember, apparently. With the advent of MacOS X they've gained significantly in flexibility, stability, and functionality in general. They're not just graphics workstations any longer.

Linux has great scads of desktop functionality. What absurdity is this claim that it doesn't? Try backing that up with at least some examples of stuff it lacks as a desktop system.

by duane.wills9

OpenOffice.org Writer for documents
OpenOffice.org Calc for spreadsheets
OpenOffice.org Impress for presentations
OpenOffice.org Draw for graphics
OpenOffice.org Base for databases
OpenOffice.org Math for formulas
Mozilla or Mozilla Firefox for web browsing
Mozilla Thunderbird for email

All run on both platforms. All run the same on both platforms. All handle files from native apps on both platforms (where applicable). All free. What do you want?

by ed

95% of home PCs run on some flavor of Windows. That results in more choice in software, hardware, everything. There is really no comparison and no point to this debate anymore. It's just hardware and it's just an operating system. What do I want? I want the one with more choices and a FAR larger user base... a Windows based PC. Stay in your very very small niche if you want to. I will move on with my life and just get done what I want to with my computer. Photo/graphic work, video editing, games, it does it all, I don't think about the fact that it runs Windows, I just use it.

by mattboreland

hi

I came across this thread whilst hutting to solutions for being a mac owner.

I have a new intel imac at home. I mostly got it for iChatting with the folks. In hindsight i shoulda gone PC and done Skype. Or at least bought a cheap mac to sit in the corner.

So what software? Deep breath....

100% functional/compatible instant messaging for mainstream IM...no can do...and i mean 100%!

MSN Messenger Mac: no winks, no audio, no video
Yahoo: no audibles
If you're thinking Adium...text only, can't do custom emoticons, no audio, no video
What about aMSN?: no audio, no winks.

Sure iChat looks nice (limited emoticons) but i only know 4 people i could chat with using iChat. So really not much benefit there. No sense having an IM that none of your friends use.

Browsers:
I prefer Firefox...cross platform etc. But still some things i've found only work on IE. IE for mac is several versions to old. I mostly get by with Firefox, which is good. I gave up on Safari very quickly,

Office suite:
For basic use sure Mac/PC MS Office is compatible. But if you're using high level functions eg visual basic especially, then the incompatibilities come thick and fast.
Sure could use OpenOffice (downloading to try it out), but the reality is MS Office PC is what is standard at work, and i'd rather use natively compatible, i don't want the risk of finding that i can't open/edit something when i least need the drama (i thought MS Office Mac would do that but doesn't).
So now i have MS Office PC running under Parallels...which doesn't do much for total cost of ownership on the iMac.

Outlook:
Nothing is compatible with Outlook files. OK that's an MS issue, but hey, OSX is not core business for them, i'm surprised they do anything for OSX.
Before you mention O2M...tried it...it looses data. Besides i don't want to migrate away from outlook (standard at work), i want to work "with" it in an OSX environment. Oh i forgot there is Thunderbird, but it doesn't have the full suite of Outlook functions...yet.

Windows explorer:
Sorry, but Finder is rubbish with very little flexibility. Oh yeah i can get something like pathfinder, but given that WinExplorer/Finder is one of most used applications, shouldn't it work "straight out of the box", why should i have to pay extra. Can't do folder/tree view with preview thumbnails, no filmstrip equivalent

Play Casio AVI:
Works on Windows as standard. In OSX...nope. Can use VLC, which i do, but the movies don't show up in preview, or iPhoto. Yes i've downloaded the component for my "no need to download drivers" iMac...worked for about 10mins, now not.

Mindmanager:
Without doubt my favourite most useful program. Actually when i found that it was available in Mac version, i figured i might give mac a go...the iMac is a pretty box afterall. Alas Mindmanager for Mac is not full featured...for all the functions i have to use the full featured Win version under Parallels. Sure this could be said to be a software developers problem rather than an OS issue, but it's symptomatic of using a minority OS.

Sync with my phone:
I have a motorola E680i. The software for syncing contacts is PC only, can't find anything for OSX. But given that all my contacts are in Outlook it wouldn't help anyways.

The Latest Version of almost anything:
...always comes out waaaay after mac...the OS of tomorrow, the software of yesterday. Again the down side of a minority OS. And in truth, i don't really find it vastly better than working under windows, mostly just prettier, and i spend most of my time trying to find replacements for software that i can't get on OSX.

I think the real question to be asked is, what software on mac can't you get for windows?
Mac is all fine for basic home-computing and some nice eye candy. I bought my parents a mac and it was the perfect choice for their first computer. But at beyond that i run into incompatibility everyday. I can't wait until my new PC tablet/laptop turns up and i'll have a full section of software again.

matt

by jimlahey1

hey man...for mac there is a program called qnext that lets you im, share files of any size, and video/audio chat, between anyone you want, regardless of if they are using mac, pc, or linux. its very cool, fast and secure.

by freddo212

Garage Band was created by the same programers as sony
Acid, like all of Apple's programs in Ilife the aim was to creat
a user freindly symple way of getting things done, And by
the way, Garage band does have loops (1000) to be precise,
and the creative scope is amasing, I know some composers
who wright traks for games who use it. Garage Band the
latest version of garage band does everything that acid does
and more.

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