OSX vs. Windows

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eddiejoepopcorn

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I just bought a new 15-inch GS4, and I like it. However, it really drags its feet when reading this forum, and doing other web activities. When I want to do some web work, I go to my Pentium III, 233 Ghz. running Windows 98se, and using Firefox. It's LOTS faster (at least twice, maybe thrice)! I'm using Safari, which I like better than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. I haven't tested Explorer yet to see if it performs better.

The Mac also has other annoying characteristics, such as View handling in the Finder, but that's another story (thread?)
 
I assume you have 512 MB of RAM? It should really be fine on your PowerBook. I don't have any problems on my 800 mhz iBook which is a lot slower than that PowerBook.
 
I run a p4 at work with XP....SLOW. I have an iBook 1.2ghz 768 ram...rocks. Half the clock speed and runs faster. I also have a slew of Xp and Win 2k boxes / laptops (including one centrino) which run pretty well. The best of which is still no faster than my iBook...
joneSi

edit: how do you change view characteristics for future notice. That is annoying. I want to see list in all except specified (Like photos etc)
 
Are you running any antispyware apps or antivirus apps on that Windows 98 SE computer? If not, then I would be wary of sending personal information on it. Thankfully on the Mac, that's not a problem considering you are running a UNIX operating system under the hood and you don't have to worry about those pesky issues. This means you don't have to run any extra apps that slow down your computer. All that memory is being used for USEFUL apps.

And speaking of security, Windows 98 SE is the swiss cheese of operating systems. I hope you aren't sending any personal data on that computer.

Incidentally, if you have gripes with the Mac and the Mac OS, why bother using it? Why not just stick with your PC?
 
One more thing. Have you updated your Mac OS? Which version are you running anyways? The only one that began to show any signs of performance was 10.2, and versions beyond that have only gotten better.

RAM is definitely a factor, as was mentioned earlier. Mac OS X loves more RAM, and performs MUCH better once the RAM is sufficient...unlike Windows, which feels slower even with more RAM (I went from 512 MB to 1.5 GB on my Athlon XP running WinXP SP2 and for some reason it feels slower).
 
Well, web browsing simply is quicker on Windows. We don't really need to discuss that any longer. Use that 233 MHz computer for webbrowsing if that's better for you.
 
fryke said:
Well, web browsing simply is quicker on Windows. We don't really need to discuss that any longer. Use that 233 MHz computer for webbrowsing if that's better for you.
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That we can thank on corporate MS drone companies that optimize everything for Microsoft without considering standards, which I'm sure would make it an optimal experience for ALL computers running ANY operating system. But such is life... ::sleepy::
 
I dont think the problem is that sites are optimized for IE. Heck apple.com comes up faster on the PC. Anyway at my last job, one of the designers was using a dual G4 500 with 768mb RAM and at the time he was running 10.2.x. He asked for a windows box because he wanted to learn a little since he'd never used windows (or not really). All I had was a toshiba satellite PII 300 laptop with 192mb RAM running XP Pro. He comes to me a few weeks later frustrated asking why in gods name is surfing 2x faster on the slow as dirt laptop than on his dual G4. I had no real answer but I watched him surf and I noticed that the browser appeared to be loading pictures and things one at a time but doing a bandwidth test revealed equal bandwidth as the laptop.

If I was using that computer, I would I'd hurl myself over a cliff and then grab the G4 tower with me so we could both plumet to our end.
 
Just so you know, you CAN install Firefox on a Mac.


But it's not usual for it to be DOG slow. Could we have some specifics on your configuration (RAM, MHz, OS)?
 
To be fair, Safari isn't the most responsive beast on the planet. Sometimes when loading up flash intensive sites, or even browsing with a few tabs open, I get loads of beach balls. This is truly annoying, as I have a 1.33 GHz G4 processor, 1.25 GB RAM and a 7.2K RPM hard drive on my Powerbook 12". This baby should be anything but slow. Surfing on my Powerbook is just slightly better than on my Dell Inspiron laptop, which is 6 years old, has a 433 MHz Celeron and 256 MB of RAM (runs Linux though). Something is wrong somewhere.

I don't like Firefox on the Mac. It does not behave like a proper Mac application. Ah well, the trade-offs :).
 
Ya we know installing Firefox is possible but I personally dislike firefox so thats not an option for me. So are we saying that Safari needs 2-3x the processor power for proper surfing compared to a PC with IE?
 
How about Camino? Does Camino act more Mac-like than Firefox? I would probably use that anyways on the Mac before I use Firefox even though I love Firefox on any other OS.
 
You can't compare Windows 98 to OS X... you gotta compare Windows 98 to OS 8/9, since those operating systems were available about the same time.

And, as you can see, Windows has gotten slower over the years as well -- Windows 2000 was slower than 95, XP slower than 2000, etc. Same for Mac OS X.

Sure, if you upgrade your computer at the same time you upgrade your OS, then you'll probably perceive a speed increase. Try loading Windows XP on that Windows 98 machine and see how slow browsing is.

The point is that you're comparing a 7 year old operating system with half of the bells-and-whistles of the current Windows release with the most recent release of Mac OS X. That's not apples-to-apples.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
You can't compare Windows 98 to OS X... you gotta compare Windows 98 to OS 8/9, since those operating systems were available about the same time.

And, as you can see, Windows has gotten slower over the years as well -- Windows 2000 was slower than 95, XP slower than 2000, etc. Same for Mac OS X.

Sure, if you upgrade your computer at the same time you upgrade your OS, then you'll probably perceive a speed increase. Try loading Windows XP on that Windows 98 machine and see how slow browsing is.

The point is that you're comparing a 7 year old operating system with half of the bells-and-whistles of the current Windows release with the most recent release of Mac OS X. That's not apples-to-apples.
Click to expand...


To add, I have installed OS X Tiger on an old G4 (one of the first gens) with 384 MB of RAM. I definitely have to say that it's quite snappy, even for an old system like this. Something comparable would be a PIII system. I doubt that Windows XP would feel snappier than Windows 2000 on that computer, and that's not even including all the supplemental apps that need to run in the background (antivirus, antispyware).
 
I find that the features that come with Safari more than make up for the speed loss. With browsers it is always less features = more speed, IE is sometimes up to three times slower than a simple browser that I made myself.
 
toddski said:
I find that the features that come with Safari more than make up for the speed loss. With browsers it is always less features = more speed, IE is sometimes up to three times slower than a simple browser that I made myself.
Click to expand...

That argument kinda falls flat, when you see that Firefox is faster than Safari and still offers comparable features.
 
I guess that's a personal opinion thing, then. Firefox doesn't offer me the same comfortable feeling I have using Safari. Still: Sure, I want Safari to get any speed improvement that is possible without sacrificing comfort/features.
 
I agree with you fryke, about Firefox and Safari. I use Safari even though it is slower than Firefox, mainly because it actually feels more like a Mac OS X application. Still, it makes no sense why Safari would be that much slower than Firefox. After all, Safari is made for OS X and optimized for OS X while Firefox is cross platform, with no special optimizations for OS X.

I hope for the day Safari becomes faster.
 
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