Windows .vs. Mac

Recent poll results show that 82.6% of 1073 computer users have a Windows operating system (OS). Only 6.3% have Mac, 6.9% have Linux, and 0.7% are running another OS. Seeing as Windows, Mac, and Linux are the three most well known OSes, these results are not wholly surprising. Except...

Macs. Brought to you by Apple, the company that preceded Microsoft, and consequently was made to look a fool by Bill Gates and his fellows. What I found truly surprising is, that more people use a Linux OS than a Mac. Though I can understand why...

Macs are generally very specialised computers, focusing on the media industry mainly. Macs are useful if one wishes to be a music editor (though you can get some perfectly good Windows-orientated software for such activities), movie editor or CGI creator, and such like. This is, indeed, a very small section of the overall computer market.

Linux however, is almost a watered down version of Windows. Usually found on laptops and netbooks, it runs its own version of most Windows software, such as a word processing agent, and Internet browser. It is an open source OS, that offers free alternatives to the offerings made by Windows and Apple. You can understand, then, why some people choose Linux over the two other rivals.

Windows, in my personal opinion, will never really be beaten in the OS market. Even with the disaster that was Windows Vista (released Jan 30, 2007), its previous OS XP (released Oct 25, 2001) was a big hit with almost all computer users. Even today, Windows XP remains strong in the midst of its more advanced successors, such as Windows 7 (released Oct 22, 2009). Microsoft has announced though, that security support for Windows XP running SP2 or earlier will be stopped Jul 13, 2010. Though this means SP2 users can continue to run their prefered system, they will not recieve updates from Microsoft, leaving their systems open for hackers and worms. SP3 security support, however, has been extended to Apr 8, 2014.

In conclusion to this somewhat one-sided argument, I think that Windows wins the battle against the Apple Mac hands down, purely due to its friendly usabilty, and widened market views.