Windows releases its new operating system today, but is it better than Macintosh?

Kristina Deckert | Daily Kent Stater

Credit: DKS Editors

We’ve all seen the Mac vs. PC commercials. You know, the one where two guys represent Macintosh and Windows computers.

But are Macs really all they’re cracked up to be? Is the release of Windows 7 – Microsoft’s new operating system out today – going to blow Macintosh out of the water?

Nick Searle, junior international relations major, said “No.” Searle is an Apple representative and said Windows 7 is nearly as good, but Macs are better computers all around.

“It’ll be close to on par with it. The big difference is that Windows 7 is more tied into multi-touch and things where you can use a touch screen because they expect that to be the future,” Searle said. “So theirs is more looking forward in that respect, but it’s still really old technology, so it’s really slow.”

Searle says the reason why Macintosh computers are so much better is because they scrapped the operating system before the current one. OS 9 was the system before, and Macintosh essentially started from scratch to create OSX.

“Windows kind of thought about it, and just kind of ended up adding and taking things away,” Searle said. “They’ve never actually said, ‘We’re no longer going to support this. We’re going to move on and make a streamlined, fast operating system.’ They’ve never done that, and that’s their problem.”

Students can purchase Windows 7 for $29.99. Installing it will wipe your computer clean, so make sure to back up your work. Visit www.win741.com for more details.

Mike Carson is the senior user IT support analyst for Tech Spot, the computer repair center at Tri-Towers. He said they get about two Macs per semester and about 100 PCs.

Macs are built with their software in mind, he said. That makes the operating system more compatible with the hardware, and therefore more stable.

“Whereas, Windows has to support a vast amount of hardware – like from Dell to HP – and even if you build your own computer, it has to support all the different kinds of hardware,” Carson said. “Apple kind of limits the hardware that you’re able to use on its systems, but I think it’s a fair trade off to make it more stable.”

But Carson said he’s seen Windows 7 and thinks it’s better than Vista.

“It’s a lot faster, and it doesn’t require as much memory, or RAM, but I think it’s still gonna have the same issue that Vista has, like with Windows updates and program compatibility and even stability,” Carson said. “So far, I think it’s even better than Windows XP in my opinion.”

Brandon Zawicki, junior architecture major, was able to try out the beta version of Windows 7 Professional and says it’s more intuitive than Vista was.

“It still has the whole stupid pop up occasionally with a window that says, ‘Do you approve?’ But for the most part, it isn’t as bad as Vista was and is more user-friendly.” Zawicki said. “It worked a lot of kinks out that was needed.”

Carson said most students want Windows computers because they already know the operating system.

“Price is another issue – they are definitely cheaper,” he said. “You can buy a laptop for about $400, whereas the cheapest Mac laptop is around $1,000.”

He said McAfee AntiVirus will be compatible with Windows 7, but it won’t catch everything.

“It’s one of the main reasons why we still do virus removals, because it can’t catch everything,” Carson said. “We’ve been noticing a lot of viruses are from Facebook; a lot of the applications that are on Facebook actually contain viruses.”

Carson said despite the popularity of Windows computers, Macs are becoming more and more popular on Kent State’s campus.

“We can check on Clean Access what operating systems people are running, and we’ve noticed that steadily the amount of Macs are increasing,” Carson said. “I think a lot more people are getting them, which is good.”

Contact technology reporter Allison Smith at [email protected]