Compare Mac and Windows System - Essay Example

Compare Mac and Windows System Compare Mac and Windows System The most widely used graphical user interface-based operating systemson desktop computers include MAC and Windows. Microsoft and Apple Inc. develop Macintosh (MAC) and Windows operating systems respectively. While Windows are developed for any personal computer, Apple develops MAC for their line of personal computers. These systems have been put up against each other over decades, and the debate seems destined to be eternal. Cost is key among the cited difference between MAC and Windows systems.

Windows based computers tend to be cheaper than MAC computer. Hence, they dominate the market. The cost difference is mainly because of the hardware running on these operating systems (Junior & Kumar, 2014). Apple has exclusive rights to the hardware produced that run on the MAC operating system. On the other hand, Windows-based system has third party developers. Therefore, unlike MAC system where there is only one manufacturer, competition is often low. On the contrary, in Windows system, there are a number of competitors, which results in lower prices.

Design is another big difference between Apple MAC systems and Microsoft Windows system. In this aspect, MAC products tend to be superior. The unconventional focus on design by the former Apple CEO Steve Jobs explains this. Manufacturers of Windows based hardware often attempt to create more design-oriented models to compete with Apple products with none yet to achieve the popular acclaim commanded by MAC products (Oh & Moon, 2012).However, Windows based systems have the advantage of having a variety of designs.

Consumers have a variety of design options on account of the fact that the Windows based systems have thousands of manufacturers. With MAC products, consumers are limited to Apple’s design. MAC system is more compatible with other software than Window system, which only support Windows friendly software. However, Windows has software that is more widely available with limited number of software written for MAC operating system (Zhang, Sénac, Lochin, & Diaz, 2013). Windows system still has several programs that are specific to it.

To close this gap, MAC collaborated with Microsoft on the popular Office Suite. Windows Office still has more features and functionality than the MAC version. Malware and viruses are often designed to target Windows-based system. This is because a vast number of computers in the world run on Windows system. For this reason, MAC systems tend to be more secure. However, it does not imply that the attack on MAC system is impossible, but it is only that the frequency of attack is less than that of on Windows systems.

Both systems have developed programs to protect users against such attacks. MAC system and Windows system differ in technical specifications. While they have the same components, these components vary in quality, speed and capacity. Macs usually have faster processors compared to their Windows counterparts. Windows-based system usually has larger hard drive space (Pefkianakis et al., 2013). Apple Macs boast of more expensive and better quality parts. In the debate of MAC versus Windows, there is no clear winner.

Both systems offer desirable qualities, and the final choice depends on personal preference. The significance of this debate in the development of operating systems is undeniable. The competition it generates is beneficial to both MAC and Windows consumers. ReferencesJunior, R. B., & Kumar, S. (2014). Apple’s Lion vs Microsoft’s Windows 7: Comparing Built-In Protection against ICMP Flood Attacks. Journal of Information Security, 5(3), 124–135.Oh, J., & Moon, N. (2012). User-selectable interactive recommendation system in mobile environment.

Multimedia Tools and Applications, 57(2), 295–313. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-011-0737-xPefkianakis, I., Hu, Y., Lee, S., Peng, C., Sakellaridi, S., & Lu, S. (2013). Window-based Rate Adaptation in 802.11n Wireless Networks. Mobile Networks and Applications, 18(1), 156–169. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11036-011-0347-xZhang, L., Sénac, P., Lochin, E., & Diaz, M. (2013). A cross-layer architecture to improve mobile host rate performance and to solve unfairness problem in WLANs.

Telecommunication Systems, 53(3), 343–356. http://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11235-013-9702-5