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Apple's OS X iMacs are the only computers you can buy that come standard with color-matched flat LCD displays.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

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How to tell Windows users about Mac OS X computers


May 5, 2004


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2004, The Post-Standard

   Mac owners are ambassadors, like it or not. Windows PCs are so common that Macs stand out simply by being different.
   This has nothing to do with whether Mac OS X computers are better than Windows PCs or easier to use. It's just a reflection of the way the world works. If you show up in a Toyota at the Ford Owners Club meeting, you'll be noticed. If you use a Mac when everybody else in your office uses Windows, you'll be singled out.
   Your coworkers, friends and neighbors are sure to ask you why you use a Mac. Before the Unix-based Mac OS X operating system was introduced, the standard answers ran something like this: Macs last longer, are easier to use and look neat. But it doesn't take an OS X user long to discover what matters most these days: When Windows users ask why we use a Mac, all of us who use modern OS X Macs can recite a stanza of strengths.
   Here's what we can tell them:
   OS X Macs are champs at multitasking, handling dozens upon dozens of simultaneous tasks without taking a breath. You'll get a willing audience for that point among experienced Windows users, who know that even the latest versions of Windows falter when faced with the same load. At their worst -- Windows 95, 98 and Me -- Windows computers crash under heavy loads.
   OS X Macs employ genuine Unix security, and no one can install anything on an OS X computer without permission. (Windows users probably already know that even the lowliest virus can install any sort of junk on any Windows PC. Windows has no built-in security whatsoever.)
   Mac OS X computers handle memory right. Windows users who know that "resources" can easily run out on older Windows computers, causing a total lockup, will pay attention to this point. (Explain to them that Windows 95, 98 and Me have only 64 kilobytes of memory to keep track of everything going on, even if the computer itself has hundreds of megabytes of memory. When that "resource" memory runs out, as it always does given enough time or programs that are running, the Windows computer dies.)
   Modern Macs running OS X are immune to all Windows viruses, and there are no Mac OS X viruses. (There was a virus scare a few weeks ago, but it turned out to be caused by a discussion about a possible Mac OS X virus, not a real one.) Give your Windows pals the figures: 100,000 active Windows viruses, zero active OS X viruses.
   Every OS X Macintosh comes with spam-blocking software. It's part of the OS X e-mail program, always working unless you turn it off. Windows is far behind.
   OS X Macs have a built-in word processor that can open and save Microsoft Word documents -- including the ones that come from Windows users. (It's called TextEdit.) And all OS X Macs have an image-viewing program, called Preview, that can open any image or Adobe PDF document sent from another Mac or from Windows. It can even convert any kind of image into a PDF document.
   Apple's OS X iMacs are the only computers you can buy that come standard with color-matched flat LCD displays. Unlike the washed-out screens typical of Windows computers, the LCD displays on iMacs use Apple's award-winning color matching system, so that what you see on the screen will be what you took with the camera and what you will print on a color printer.
   Windows users are still waiting for a reliable version of Microsoft Office -- one without security holes, virus sensitivities and Porky Pig memory requirements. Mac OS X users have a brand new version of Microsoft Office, called Office 2004, arriving on May 18. Even Bill Gates, inventor of Windows, demanded a better Windows version as soon as he saw what the new Mac version of Office could do. (Tell your Windows friends that Microsoft can't get those features into the Windows version until next year or the year after.)