We evaluate the main characteristics of each software to decide which is the best: macOs or Windows
There is an eternal struggle to decide who better: macOS vs Windows. Even though the company's operating system (OS) Microsoft the most used worldwide, macOS from Apple it has a very considerable number of users who defend the superiority of the OS in relation to its main competitor. In this article we will thoroughly analyze several aspects and characteristics of the different OSs to determine who wins this digital battle.
macOS Catalina vs Windows 10
Without a shadow of a doubt, Windows 10 is currently the most popular OS in the world, with over 800 million users. Its biggest rival, macOS Catalina, is well behind. Even with the lack of official Apple reporting data, the company's OS is estimated to have about 100 million users in the world.
However, in the world of technology being popular does not necessarily mean being the best, so the first section of this article will make a general comparison between the two OSs, showing the unique features that each system has.
The family macOS X appeared in 2001. Apple often releases minor updates, but major changes only occur once a year. Gradually the OS evolved to acquire more characteristics in common with the iOS. The current macOS version, Catalina, was released late last year.
In the following we will explore each of the features and functionality of both operating systems that are more useful, unique and also those that are similar for both software.
Design
Everyone knows that Apple is a company famous for the design of its hardware, so the expectation that the design of the software is equally beautiful. Microsoft, on the other hand, tends to be considered a little simpler and more practical when it comes to the appearance of its products and, for many, the design of Windows 10 reflects this company's philosophy.
The last time that the design of a macOS changed significantly was with the Yosemite, when there was a general overhaul of the system design by the golden hands of Jonathan Ive, for the purpose of aligning the OS with iOS. Since then, macOS has changed little. Catalina very similar to Mojave, which in itself is practically identical to High Sierra, which was similar to Sierra, and so on.
MacOS is designed to high resolution retina displays. That way, the Mac interface takes advantage of this with little touches that wouldn't look so good on low-resolution screens, like thin fonts and transparency effects.
Other features include a Dark Mode that was introduced in Mojave. Previously, macOS only allowed you to darken the menu bar at the top of the screen, as well as drop-down menus and Dock. However, in Mojave, you can choose to have the entire interface use a darker color scheme. In addition, the Dark Mode makes the macOS interface a little more comfortable to use at night or in a dark editing studio, for example.
Like many other systems, MacOS has also adhered to “Dark Mode”There are also several design touches that take full advantage of the small screens of some MacBook. For example, you can hide the Dock, move it to the side, or hide the menus at the top of the screen. In addition, several elements of the interface have been “flattened”. For example, previously the Dock had a 3D appearance, but now it is transparent and flat and, as a result, it looks more simple and modern.
In terms of design, Windows 10 initially lacked the clean, modern look of macOS, but since it launched in 2015, it has received a design update – known as Fluent System Design – bringing more animations, translucency and blur elements, which make it appear that the design elements of Windows are behaving like objects in the real world.
The changes brought new 3D elements, in addition to more light, depth and movement. Now, for example, the minimize, maximize and close buttons are incorporated into the window itself, perhaps in an effort to reduce the space occupied by these interface elements, as in the case of macOS.
Windows 10 has a cleaner look than its previous versionsA dark mode arrived with the Windows 10 update in 2016. When you activate it, the main system applications change from light to dark mode. Supported applications include the File Explorer Windows 10, the Microsoft Office, The Edge browser and others.
The May 2019 update also added a new Light theme which brings a little sunshine to areas like the Start menu, taskbar and notifications. This means that users can now easily change their themes to suit their mood.
User interface
The interface of an operating system of your choice is probably the one you are most familiar with. If you've been using a Mac for years, you may feel lost on a PC and vice versa.
When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak invented the Macintosh, they had a philosophy that the interface should be really intuitive. As a result, the Mac interface has always been really simple to use, in addition to having an elegant design – like the Mac that runs it.
You interact with your Mac mainly through the Dock, which can house shortcuts to your favorite applications and frequently accessed folders; the menu bar at the top of the screen; the file browser of Finder; and research Spotlight.
Spotlight is a practical tool that allows users to find applications and documents on macOSThere are other elements of the interface that you can use, like the LaunchPad, which shows all of your apps. Looking for a document you are working on? You can search using the Spotlight or use the file browser of Finder. Wondering if the file you were looking for? You do not need to open it, as you can get a quick look by clicking on it and pressing the space bar.
One of the favorite features of many users who came to Sierra was the ability to share their desktop folders and documents on multiple Macs. So if you were working on something and saved it to your desktop on a Mac, it would be accessible from the desktop on another Mac that you were connected to. This is really useful if you work on more than one Mac – say one at the office and one at home.
A new feature that arrived with Mojave the Desktop Stacks. With these desktop stacks enabled, files are grouped according to type (or date, if you prefer). Therefore, if you take a screenshot, it will automatically appear in a stack that contains other screenshots. If you tend to put everything on your desktop, it can significantly reduce the mess and at the same time keep what you need the files you need in the right place.
MacOS Desktop Stacks organizes your files on the Desktop according to specific criteriaOther differences in the way you interact with the Mac compared to the PC include the keyboard – with the Command key on the Mac essentially replicating the Control key on the PC. People say that Macs have mice with a button, but that's not really – you can right-click on a mouse or trackpad on the Mac. But there are other differences in this method of interaction.
For example, the TrackPad on a MacBook allows you to use multiple gestures to interact with the Mac. Sweep your fingers, or use the pinch of your fingers as a zoom, remembering the way you use on a iPhone. Once you get used to it all seems very natural, but it can really confuse you at first. Windows 10 has several trackpad management controls, but they are shallow compared to those on macOS.
An interesting new addition appears with Catalina the Screen Time, which is already a feature on iOS. This monitors the time you spend on your Mac, producing reports that provide a deeper insight into your behavior. It also offers the ability to set limits for certain applications or websites, if you think you are wasting too much time on them.
With Screen Time the macOS user can check how much time they are spending on each programSimilar to the Finder on macOS, we have the File Explorer on Windows 10. The program allows you to browse and open all files stored on your PC. THE Quick Access a useful feature that is automatically populated with your most frequently accessed folders and recent files. You can also fix it automatically to make it easier to find. To achieve a similar effect in the Finder on Mac, you can add a file to the Favorites bar.
File Explorer has been enhanced in Windows 10 with more functions for the userThe Windows taskbar is located at the bottom of the screen that includes shortcuts to your favorite applications, the menu Start and research. a little like the Dock on a Mac and a little like the Mac menu bar. It takes up much less space than both and makes accessing programs and applications very easy.
There is also a full-screen mode in Windows 10, as well as in macOS, but Windows adds the option to “Adjust” up to four apps per screen, each taking up a quarter of the total space. When you have docked an app, you can also see a tab view of some of the remaining open apps, so you can fill the entire screen.
In windows 10 you can adjust your Desktop to display up to 4 windows at the same timeWindows 10 users can also press Alt-Tab or Windows-Tab to see a thumbnail view of the running applications, or they can select the Full Screen Task View on the taskbar, which provides an overview of the open applications.
At that point they can use the mouse to select the application they want. The resource of Task View to add workspaces an option that allows users to separate certain applications. These features look very similar to Spaces and Expose, which have been on the Mac for years.
A feature that came to Windows 10 recently was the My People – where you can pin up to three contacts on the taskbar to keep constant conversations with them. If you click on them, see two ways to contact them – Skype and Mail.
The People function in Windows 10 allows you to place your favorite contacts in a prominent place on your DesktopTHE Action Center Microsoft's response to the Notifications Center macOS. You can choose which applications can send notifications and respond to notifications as text messages. Both Mac and Windows have the mode Do not disturb – known as Focus Assist on a PC. With this feature enabled, you can stop all visual and audio notifications that may distract you.
THE Snip & Sketch is a new tool for taking screenshots on Windows 10 that arrived in its last update of 2018. In contrast, with Mojave, for example, you can capture images and edit, crop, rotate or annotate without opening any other application.
Snip & Sketch is an enhanced version of the Capture Tool with more featuresIt is already a feature that Snip & Sketch in Windows 10 offers that macOS does not yet have the ability to draw a freehand shape around the area of ​​the screen you want. To open Snip & Sketch, press Windows + Shift + S. Most Windows users probably use the key PrtScn on the keyboard to take screenshots. However, ironically, the PrtScn key does not open this tool.
A change that came with the 2017 update can be seen as Microsoft's answer to how a Mac user's files are stored on iCloud and can be accessed and edited on all other compatible devices.
Where Apple owns iCloud, Microsoft has the OneDrive, but the implementation is not so simple. For example, before the fall 2017 update, a synchronized copy of all files stored on One Drive would also exist on your computer – which could take up a lot of space.
OneDrive supports cloud storage for files on WindowsHow Files on Demand, you can see a shortcut to the files stored on OneDrive along with the files on your computer – these files no longer need to be stored on your PC. You still need to download a file before you can edit it.
Apps and software
There are many applications provided as part of macOS, but instead of covering them all, we will focus on the photo editing and web browsing programs for each operating system in detail (as these are the main features used in both OSs) and, in Next, we'll look at some of the other applications.
THE Photos the photo library and editing application for macOS and iOS devices. He gained new editing tools, more advanced with the High Sierra, including professionally inspired filters, color curves and the ability to turn a photo taken with your iPhone into a GIF.
The macOS Photos app is simpler to use and has many featuresThanks to iCloud integration functionality, you can access all of your photos on all of your devices – and if you make an edit on one device, that edition will be logged on all of your devices.
Catalina brings an updated look to the layout, which removes duplicates and allows searching for days, months and years, in addition to reminding you of what happened on birthdays, anniversaries and holidays.
J the application Windows Photos allows you to store, share and edit photos. This includes cropping, adding filters and assembling videos of moving or static images and full of effects. There is also the Photos Companion application that allows users of iOS and Android quickly transfer images to the PC.
The Windows 10 Photos program allows the user to manipulate their photos with some basic featuresA new addition to Photos in the 2017 update was the Story Remix. The functionality uses machine learning and mixed reality to generate an algorithmic film montage using your photos and videos (like the Memories macOS). Windows also adds the ability to add 3D objects and animations to these stories.
And in relation to web browsers, like Safari it's the Microsoft Edge (which replaced the Internet Explorer) compare? One of the new features in Safari that came with High Sierra was the ability to stop automatic video playback and prevent web advertisements from disturbing the user.
After so many criticisms due to the poor performance of Internet Explorer compared to other browsers available on the market, Microsoft decided to create a new web browsing software to accompany Windows 10. Now, Windows users have a new browser called Edge, which replaced Internet Explorer.
As in Safari, there is a combined URL and search bar. Speaking of search, Microsoft makes the default search engine its own Bing. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't make changing Bing much easier, and based on the fact that Bing isn't exactly a popular search engine, it should be the case that many users choose to use a different browser.
As always, Safari remains a simple and intuitive browser to useEdge, for example, offers a reading view similar to Reader, from Apple, which removes all ads and distractions from a page. As with macOS, there is also a Reading List that lets you save things to read. However, unlike him, you cannot consult these pages when you are offline.
Edge can also be used as a PDF reader, with fillable fields, markup and even the ability to paint a digital signature directly on the app – meaning that no one needs to download the Adobe Reader. In addition, both Edge and Safari have a dark mode.
Microsoft Edge was Microsoft's answer to Internet Explorer criticismApple's voice control technology, previously available on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV, arrived at macOS with Sierra in 2016 as a personal assistant Crab. Having the ability to search using useful natural language and usually a Siri command takes less time to implement than through various menus – for example, ask Siri to: "Turn off Bluetooth".
The Microsoft Siri equivalent called Cortana. It has been available on PCs since Windows 8.1, but has been updated on Windows 10. With Cortana, you can ask the same kind of questions you can with Siri. For example: "How will the weather be this weekend?" and get a forecast or "Remind me to finish my tax return tomorrow night" and receive a reminder at the appropriate time.
Siri is a personal assistant capable of performing various tasks on macOS only through user voice commandsOne of the differences is that, where Siri is separated from the Spotlight search function on a Mac, on a PC, you can search from the Start menu, starting to type – and this gives the same result as tapping the Cortana search box. You can also type into Siri on a Mac, but you need to change your settings to do so.
Another difference is that Cortana searches the web using Bing (Microsoft's search engine), on a Mac Siri used to search on Bing, but in 2017 Apple switched to Google due to its popularity.
Cortana has full integration with Windows 10 and web resources to assist the userA useful feature of Cortana that you can request information, such as your passport number. The next time you need to, just ask Cortana "what is my passport number" and you will see.
In addition, Cortanda is still able to play and identify music, set alarms, record notes, launch applications and provide instructions on a map. Siri can do a lot of that too, but unfortunately it is limited compared to iOS devices, and there are many useful things that Cortana can do and Siri cannot. For example, you can ask Cortana to restart, shut down, lock or exit your PC, which Siri is unable to do.
Security
The Mac is generally considered to be more secure than a PC. Apple has included several security measures that make attacking a Mac particularly challenging. Among them we have:
- Gatekeeper, which prevents software that has not been digitally approved by Apple from running on your Mac without your consent;
- Xprotect, a malware scanning tool;
- Sandbox, which isolates applications from your Mac's critical system components, your data, and other applications, so that they cannot access anything that might cause harm.
There is also a technology anti-phishing on Safari that detects fraudulent sites. It will disable the page and display an alert warning you if you visit a suspicious website. In addition, plug-ins like Adobe Flash Player, Silverlight, QuickTime and Oracle Java they will not run if they are not updated to the latest version – another way to ensure your Mac is safe.
MacOS has several security features that the user can configureCatalina takes it all a step further, keeping the OS separate from other data and in a read-only volume that prevents something from being overwritten. There are also increased permission requests to ensure that none of your applications can start doing anything without your express permission.
The latest Windows 10 update brought protection against ransomware and added controlled access to folders that protects your files and folders from unauthorized changes by unfriendly applications.
This means that if unauthorized software attempts to access a protected folder such as Documents, Images, Movies or work area, it will be blocked and you will be notified. You can choose to whitelist individual programs to access controlled folders and manually protect folders that are not protected by default.
With Windows Sandbox, developers can run programs in a secure environmentWindows 10 Pro users also received a new feature in the May 2019 release, as the Windows Sandbox has been included to allow developers of software and websites to host applications on dedicated continents that are kept separate from the main operating system. Home users unfortunately do not receive this feature.
Price
MacOS Catalina is a free upgrade for anyone with a compatible Mac and will remain free for the life of the product. Apple's operating systems have been free since the launch of the OS X Mavericks in 2013.
On the other hand, Windows 10 was also a free upgrade until July 29, 2016 (from Windows 7 or 8) – but now you need to pay about R $ 730.00 by the Windows 10 Home version and around R $ 1,099.00 through Windows 10 Pro.
Looking at this values ​​point of view, this makes macOS favorable, as it is free to upgrade and does not cost money for most users. However, it is necessary to take into account the real cost of the Mac, which is always higher than any medium-sized PC that normally comes with a copy of Windows 10 previously installed.
Final verdict
Despite being a very good evolution of Windows 8, many PC users were annoyed with Windows 10, mainly because of Microsoft's pressure for Windows 7 users to update their system. What a shame really, because Windows 10 good. The new features combined with the familiarity of Windows 7 make it very attractive (in addition to giving the feeling of being a natural evolution of the OS).
However, macOS remains the dream of many users looking for an easy-to-use and feature-rich system. Siri is still a highlight, even though voice control on the desktop is an area where Apple is still trying to catch up with Microsoft, the interface, despite the advances in Windows 10, remains much more intuitive.
In terms of resources and practicality, macOS is the winner of this disputeSo, if you are looking for a flexible system, with a practical and simple to use interface and, most importantly, have the money to make this investment, look for the winner of our technological dispute: macOS!