A little over two months ago we undertook a simple test. The purpose
of this test, which we called the "Mac Challenge," was to do a direct
comparison between a Wintel PC and a Mac. The test's primary focus was
on stability, with secondary emphasis on performance and usability.
For 30 days, I used a Mac exclusively; for the next 30 days, my sole
computer was a Dell running Windows XP. Here is a recap of the
configuration of each computer:
PC
Hardware
- Dell OptiPlex
- 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 processor
- 256 MB RAM
- 20 GB hard drive
- 3.5" floppy
- CD-RW/DVD
- 2 USB ports
|
Mac
Hardware
- iMac
DV+/450
- 256 MB RAM
- 40 GB Maxtor hard drive (5400 rpm)
- DVD
- External FireWire CD-RW
- USB
- FireWire
|
Software
- Windows XP
- Microsoft Office XP
- Internet Explorer 6
- Netscape 6
- Outlook (in Office XP)
- Adobe Acrobat
- Front Page Express
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
- SmartFTP
- Adaptec EZ CD Creator 5
- Adobe Photoshop 7
- LimeWire
- MP3 player TBA
- Civilization III
|
Software
- Mac OS X 10.1.3
- Microsoft Office v. X
- Internet Explorer 5.1
- Netscape 6
- Entourage (in Office v. X)
- Adobe Acrobat
- Claris Home Page (Classic app)
- Macromedia Dreamweaver (Classic app)
- Fetch
- Roxio Toast Titanium
- Adobe Photoshop 7
- LimeWire
- iTunes
- Civilization III
|
NOTES:
- On the Windows PC, I settled on WinAmp as the MP3 player.
- The computers remained on 24/7 unless I was to be away for more
than 24 hours. As it turned out, this translated to the Mac being off
for one weekend and the Dell for one 8-day period. I extended each test
a corresponding number of days.
I logged any problems, discrepancies or abnormalities I encountered
with each platform. Any problems encountered were classified into one
of the following categories, in descending order of severity:
- Complete lockup, blue screen of death (Windows), other situations
resulting in computer non-responsiveness. Crashes or problems so severe
that the only way to recover was to turn off the power and turn it back
on.
- Performance seriously compromised, reboot required to restore
normal functionality. Severe crashes, but ones which allowed restarting
using normal methods.
- Performance impaired, able to continue working in some form, but
reboot advisable. Crashes, but crashes which allow some sort of
continued use of the computer.
- Other anomalies. Misc. problems, oddities, and other things that
make you say, "Huh?" Reboot not required, perhaps not even
beneficial.
- Discretionary reboots. Usually, restarts required as a result of
installing software, updates, or changing settings.
For each platform, every problem encountered is categorized,
described, and listed in chronological order.
Mac
|
Day
|
Description
|
Category
|
|
Days 1-7
|
None
|
|
|
Day 8
|
Software update installed; reboot.
|
5
|
|
Days 9-26
|
None
|
|
|
Day 27
|
Microsoft Word "unexpectedly quit." I have autosave turned on at
5-minute intervals. Word crashed about 4 1/2 minutes after the last
auto save. I simply launched Word again and everything was fine.
Irritating, though.
|
4
|
|
Days 28-30
|
None
|
|
Windows PC
|
Day
|
Description
|
Category
|
|
Days 1-2
|
None
|
|
|
Day 3
|
Explorer crash. These are usually caused by some background process
gone bad. Windows gives an error message, Explorer restarts, and many
of the icons in your system tray disappear (the programs they represent
are terminated). Windows Explorer (not to be confused with the Internet
Explorer web browser) is roughly equivalent to the Mac OS Finder. This
happened when I was away from the computer for several hours. I
returned to find it in this state--I wasn't doing anything! I had left
a document open in Word. Fortunately, Word was not affected by the
crash and I was able to save the document. Microsoft Outlook was
similarly unaffected. My experience has been that Explorer crashes will
often not affect the program you are working on in the foreground. I
exited the two open programs normally, rebooted, and everything
returned to normal.
|
3
|
|
Days 4-6
|
None
|
|
|
Day 7
|
Netscape quit working. It would start to load a page, but would just
stop. There was nothing wrong with the Internet connection, as Outlook
worked normally and I could ping various Internet web sites. Exited
Netscape and restarted, nothing. Tried Internet Explorer. It behaved
very erratically and stopped responding as well. Now, Outlook is flaky.
Something is very wrong. The whole system had become slow as molasses:
I mean everything, and I mean so slow as to be unusable. I attempt to
restart, but the system hangs on shutdown. I leave to run an errand--I
want to give the PC the benefit of the doubt. I return an hour later
and it is at the same place. The three-finger salute (Ctrl-Alt-Del)
brings up nothing. I have no choice but to turn it off and back on.
|
1
|
|
Day 8
|
None
|
|
|
Day 9
|
Another Explorer crash, same fix.
|
3
|
|
Days 10-11
|
None
|
|
|
Day 12
|
Internet Explorer locks up and has to be killed with Task Manager.
System slows noticeably and I decide to reboot. Normal functionality
restored.
|
3
|
|
Day 13
|
None
|
|
|
Day 14
|
Explorer crash
|
3
|
|
Days 15-16
|
None
|
|
|
Day 17
|
Netscape problem again, same result.
|
2
|
|
Day 18
|
None
|
|
|
Day 19
|
Serious Outlook problems. Takes 3 minutes to load, f-o-r-e-v-e-r to
check mail (only had 2 very short text messages). Exited and reloaded
to no avail. After several tries, had an Explorer crash. Gave up and
rebooted.
|
2
|
|
Day 20
|
None
|
|
|
Note: The computer was off for an 8-day period while I was on
vacation. Due to this fact, Day 21 actually takes place 8 days after
Day 20.
|
|
|
Days 21-25
|
None (The rest must have done the Dell some good!)
|
|
|
Day 26
|
Excel acts up and has to be killed through Task Manager. Shortly,
Netscape does the same thing; Internet Explorer, ditto. I know when I'm
beaten. I give up and reboot.
|
3
|
|
Day 27
|
None
|
|
|
Day 28
|
Windows Updates installed; reboot
|
5
|
|
Day 29
|
SmartFTP problem; had to kill with Task Manager.
|
4
|
|
Day 30
|
Same Internet Explorer problem as Day 12.
|
3
|
Recap
Here is a summary of the number of problems of each type experienced
on each platform. Category 5 issues are not counted, as these are not
the result of any system problem, but were simply logged for
informational purposes:
|
Category
|
Mac
|
Windows
|
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
|
3
|
0
|
6
|
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
|
Total
|
1
|
10
|
As an observation, I would note that the Windows PC setup seemed
less stable than my normal AMD Athlon running Windows 2000. I don't
have hard evidence to prove this; it is merely my subjective
observation.
Conclusion
Microsoft has come a long way. I vividly remember when the above
totals would be considered a good week with Windows 95. MS also
deserves kudos for their design of Office v. X for Mac. The fact that
Word can crash, be restarted, and resume normal functionality with
absolutely no implications for the rest of the system is, to me,
incredible. When I experienced the Word crash, I was working on a
document with some very complex tables. There is in fact a known issue
in the OS X version of Word in this situation. Microsoft has
addressed it in one of their patches, but I have not installed the
update. Even without keeping everything patched, Microsoft's OS X
programs, including Office and Internet Explorer, run almost flawlessly
on the Mac. Office: Mac 2001 for the Classic Mac OS was even a cut
above its Windows cousin in the stability department. Some of the
programs released by Redmond over the years have been real dogs; their
recent offerings for the Mac definitely do not fall into this
category.
While Microsoft has come a long way, Apple has come further. I was
able to keep my Mac powered on for 30 straight days, using it daily,
and it never had to be restarted. Until Apple released OS X, the
only other experience of this nature I ever had was when I had a Sun
Solaris box on my desk a couple of years ago. Talk back to me, and let
me know your take on our results.
The Practical Mac may revisit this Challenge in the future as reader
feedback flows in. For now, we will let the results speak for
themselves. 
