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Which operating systems are you comparing?

We compare only the most recent versions of Mac OS X and Windows XP (both Home and Professional editions) — currently, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Windows XP SP2.

When necessary, we elaborate on the differences between Home and Professional. For those of you that would like a more in-depth comparison of these two editions, you can check out Microsoft's own comparison. For a more verbose comparison, check out this comparison on Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows.

What about XP Tablet Edition and XP Media Center Edition?

XP Tablet Edition and Media Center Edition are unique offerings in the marketplace.

If you want a computer with tablet writing capabilities, you have only one choice: Windows XP Tablet Edition. True, OS X can interoperate with pen tablets, but you cannot buy a Mac that allows you to write directly onto the screen.

Front Row marks Apple's entry into the "Media Center" market, making XP Media Center Edition no longer the sole offering by these two companies for "using your computer from your sofa." That said, Front Row is technically not part of OS X (it is preinstalled only on news Macs excluding the Mac Pro), which places it outside of the scope of this site. Futhermore, it merely provides a new interface for accessing your iLife applications (iTunes, iPhoto, etc.) — one that is designed to be used from a distance. It does not actually offer any new features over what all Mac users already have with iLife. XP Media Center Edition is arguably more feature-rich.

For these reasons, this site will not discuss Windows XP Media Center Edition or Tablet Edition in depth. Suffice to say: if you want a tablet PC, you must get Windows XP Tablet Edition. If you want a "digital media center" with OS integration, Windows XP Media Center Edition offers more than Front Row, and is not limited to a specific line of computers.

So the operating system is just what comes in the box, right?

Yes, plus any freely released updates to these operating systems from the manufacturer, such as security patches, system updates, etc. Since each operating system manufacturer also offers additional free software — separate from updates to the actual operating systems — we also discuss these components.

For Mac OS X, this includes:

For Windows XP, this includes:

To assist readers in distinguishing between the value of Mac OS X and Windows XP out-of-the-box versus the additional value that can be derived from downloading and installing the above products, this site also displays secondary scores (in parentheses) adjusted upwards for these items.

Does this site cheat?

When Apple released Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, they opted to remove all of their multimedia applications other than iTunes (so iPhoto, iMovie, etc.) from the operating system. Instead, they repackaged these applications as iLife and sold it separately, although they preinstalled it on all of their computers. Thus, people who purchased a Mac would get the iLife applications for "free" as part of the cost of the computer, but anyone who upgraded to OS X 10.4 would have to pay for these applications separately. In short, they were no longer part of the operating system.

In response, we removed these sections from XvsXP:

  • Video Editing, Adding Video
  • Video Editing, Adding Audio
  • Video Editing, Adding Photos
  • Video Editing, Filters
  • Video Editing, Transitions
  • Video Editing, Titles

Some of our readers claimed that our removal of these six video editing sections amounted to "cheating" in favor of OS X, since, had we left these sections intact, OS X 10.4 would have received a score of 0 for each. These readers claimed that we were reframing the shootout in order to compensate for what would have been an enormous loss of points for OS X in comparison to Windows XP.

However, this is not cheating, and here's why:

This site compares OS X and XP just enough to discern the differences between them, and no more. Since OS X 10.4 lacks included video editing altogether, only one section is required to glean that difference. It is unfair to continually deduct points for 10.4's lack of specific video editing features (transitions, titles, etc.) when it does not ship with any software capable of editing video to begin with. To reverse the situation, this is the same reason why this site lacks the following sections:

  • Workflow Automation via Drag and Drop
  • Workflow Automation via Event Triggers
  • Workflow Automation via Contextual Menus
  • Workflow Automation via Menubar Integration
  • Scriptability, Syntax Checking
  • Scriptability, Syntax Coloring
  • Scriptability, Code Auto-complete
  • Scriptability, Script recording

Windows XP lacks all of those things, but that's because it lacks built-in workflow automation altogether. That can all be learned with one section: Scriptability, Workflow Automation. Thus, it is unfair to continually deduct points from it for lacking specific features of workflow automation.

Anything else I should know?

Since different people have different needs for their computer, the conclusions of this site may not be true for all audiences. For instance, corporate employees have very different requirements for what makes a computer useful than do web designers or home users. In addition, it is safe to say that nearly all users load up their computer with additional software — be it commercial, shareware, or free — that extends its basic functionality. For obvious reasons, we cannot discuss the abilities of Mac OS X and Windows XP with the addition of all third-party software in existence. So take the conclusions of this shootout with a heavy grain of salt.

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