Macs just work

I bought a Macbook Pro from someone on craigslist.com.  It was the 2006 model but it is faster and smoother than any Windows 7 64 bit machine that I've worked on.  For work, I've bought 6 different Windows 7 64 bit laptops in the past 2 1/2 months and set them up for the owner, his wife and several employees.  Windows 7 is definitely better than Windows XP or Vista, especially with the new Intel processors, but in comparison this 3-4 year old Mac outperforms and is more stable.  3 GB of memory on a Mac is amazing compared to 4 GB of memory on a Windows 7 PC.

What I love is the software just runs.  In 3 months, it has locked up on me once when I had the settings for a printer incorrect.  It reminds me of the stability of Unix when I used it 15-20 years ago.  I guess that is why Macs are so stable.  I never understood the value of controlling the hardware and the operating system when I was only using Windows.  But Windows software has to be written to supports thousands of different kinds of PCs from thousands of manufacturers with hundreds of thousands of different peripherals.  It has allowed the PC market to grow so huge but it has caused PC's and Windows to perform with mediocrity.  Working on these Windows 7 machines, they stall and lock up from time-to-time while I am getting everything installed and working on them.  It is just dealing with all the different kinds of hardware attached.  Controlling both the hardware and the operating system enables Mac software to optimize itself for a short list of different machines and peripherals.  It enables Macs to deliver superior performance and stability that I forgot existed.

Spotlight - I love how fast this finds everything on my computer related to whatever I typed in the search box.  The answers are coming up as I type instead of some whirling icon that spins for many seconds or minutes.  I don't see the same performance from Windows and when Windows software is indexing my computer, I feel a performance drop.  I never even knew when my Mac was indexing everything on my computer to pull it up so fast.

Safari - I really like this browser.  I like the top sites feature.  I like how fast it goes to my websites.  I like how fast it goes to the links.  It doesn't perform the same way with the Windows version.  I like how it works with the key chain to remember my website passwords.  Just smooth.