This is a ginormous electronic billboard right in the middle of Times Square.

Yeah, that’s a Windows error there — right in the middle of the rainbow. I don’t know for sure if the box is actually running Vista, but either way — it’s a Vista advertisement with a massive Windows error on it. They make me sad.

With the new release of Microsoft’s Vista operating system, many are considering their upgrade path. Is it time for a new PC? Should I wait for Vista? What’s this Mac stuff all about? In this article I’m going to put forth a very simple argument, which essentially boils down to this:

For anyone wanting to perform basic computer tasks such as browsing the Internet, checking mail, writing papers, and working with photos and movies, you should strongly consider what Apple’s OS X has to offer before making a move toward Vista.

When someone talks about how much they enjoy their “computer”, they’re mostly talking about how well their operating system handles these core activities. It’s also important not just be able to perform these functions, but to be able to do them in a consistent, worry-free fashion. In this article I’m going to give a few reasons why I believe OS X accomplishes this better than Vista.

** By the way, I am an MCSE and happen to respect and enjoy a number of Microsoft’s products.

1. Interface

While the Vista interface has definitely seen some improvements over XP, they are mostly in the realm of visual enhancements. They didn’t seem to focus on making things more intuitive — but rather more on making the same basic workflow in XP look better.

Apple’s approach to designing a desktop is very different. They take user interface quite seriously, and the focus with OS X is to create an experience that people instantly feel comfortable with. Have you noticed how passionate people are about OS X? They often can’t resist telling others about how much they love their computers, and this is in large part due to the intangible connection you develop with the OS itself.

Quite simply, OS X gets out of your way and lets you work. The difference between this and Windows is very hard to describe to someone who’s not experienced it, but trust me — you’ll love it.

2. Fewer Security Issues

Debates have raged on for years over why OS X hasn’t been attacked as successfully as Windows. The arguments basically break down into two categories: design, and marketshare. Those in the design camp feel that OS X is designed better, which provides a smaller attack surface to hackers. The marketshare group thinks it’s just because there are fewer Macs, which makes it a less desireable target.

Since I’m an information security consultant who uses both OS X and various flavors of Windows on a daily basis, I’ve dedicated a bit of thought to the matter. The answer in a nutshell is that both views are correct.

I believe OS X to be more secure overall for a number of design-oriented reasons (not the least of which is being based on FreeBSD), but an ever larger percentage of its excellent record comes from not being much of a target compared to Windows. The bottom line, however, is that it doesn’t matter what the reason is. As it stands now, if you use a Mac you’re simply not going to have to worry about being plagued by viruses and spyware like in Windows. This means you spend more time doing what you want to do and less time fixing your computer.

3. Stability

Stability is one of OS X’s absolute strengths. If you use Windows regularly, how often do you have to restart your computer? Quite often, I know. On a Mac you will hardly ever have to compared to on your Windows system, and this isn’t likely to change much with Vista (now with ~50 Million lines of code).

OS X is designed beautifully, with much of the system being protected from tampering by both malicious software and well-meaning but ill-informed users. Mac owners can go for months without needing to restart their systems. And this is with hundreds of applications being opened and closed, being put to sleep and awaken repeatedly, etc. Again, the credit here goes to the Unix core of OS X.

Conclusion

The time of the Mac and OS X is upon us. Vista took 5 years to make and ended up being little more than a collection of graphical enhancements to XP that require most to buy a whole new PC. In fact, many of Vista’s features were obvious copies of Apple’s ideas (watch the video). Even the current version of OS X is arguably more advanced than Vista, but the next version is going to be absolutely amazing. Here’s a short list of features coming soon in Leopard.

• Time Machine
• Mail 3
• iChat
• Spaces
• Dashboard
• Spotlight

(I also think Apple is about to reveal a number of secret features now that Vista has been released)

Seriously. I made the change to OS X two years ago, and I’ve never been happier with a computer. Plus, if you go buy one as a result of this article, I’ll give you some free email help to get you on your way.:

…he was waiting for Microsoft to have their fun with Vista. Only then will they reveal what they’ve really been doing with Leopard. It’s like poker, you want to be the last one to act.

I expect a repeat of what happened with the iPod and the Zune:

Microsoft: And we present to you the Zune! Now with a wannabe iPod interface! Apple: LOL, we’re doing touch-screens, dumbass. Nice wheel, though…your idea?

So my thought is that Apple is waiting to spring another identical trap on Microsoft. Notice how quiet they’ve been about Leopard for all this time? Nothing at MacWorld — nothing since then. They’re letting Microsoft have its day because they know precisely what Vista has to offer. Steve has all the information and is basically setting them up for complete failure.

As soon as the buzz dies down from Vista, they’re doing to bust out with their equivalent of what the iPhone was to the Zune. In other words, something to make all the Microsoft fanboys who just bought Vista say, “Damn, I hate Apple…Why couldn’t Microsoft do that!?! I should have bought a Mac…”

I don’t know what Apple’s going to do with Leopard that’s going to make Vista look silly, but I have a very strong feeling it’s going to be something major in the UI arena. Hell, I just hope it involves replacing Finder.:

With Apple OS X’s surging popularity many are wondering how vulnerable Apple’s OS X operating system is relative to Windows. You essentially have two sides — one saying that it’s inherently more secure (and hence less successfully attacked), and the other side saying that it’s only because of marketshare that fewer issues have surfaced.

A Model

I think I have a model for explaining the interaction between these two theories. Essentially, OS X has issues just like FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, or any other OS does; the issues just haven’t surfaced yet because of the lack of interest in exploiting such a small user-base. Where people go wrong, however, is assuming that it’s going to get as bad as Windows has been. It won’t.

Conceptualize this as if there are two ratings — one is the potential for attack, and the second is the degree to which the potential has been actualized.

So let us say that Windows has a 100% potential with an 50% actualized. In other words it’s highly vulnerable and has been and is being exploited considerably within that potential. OS X, on the other hand, has a much lower potential — say in the 30% range — but it’s seen virtually no exposure due to the lack of interest from attackers (due to limited marketshare). I’d say it’s actualized rating is around 5%.

The Future

What this means is that over the next year or so you’re going to see a massive increase in the flaws found in OS X due to the exponential increase in its popularity. Notice that using my model and numbers this means that OS X has 25% of its vulnerability potential untapped, whereas Windows (XP, 2003 Server, Vista, Longhorn Server, etc) has a full 50%.

The key here is that we’ve seen 50 points of vulnerability and exploitation activity come from the Windows side, while we’ve only seen 5 points from OS X. But as OS X becomes increasingly popular it’s numbers are going to spike radically.

Notice that OS X’s numbers can triple and even quadruple and still remain within its vulnerability potential. To the public this will seem to indicate it’s just as vulnerable as Windows, but in reality it will simply indicate how few OS X flaws have been previously discovered.

So, all the Mac zealots who think their platform is invulnerable are in for a violent awakening. But at the same time, the loyal Windows disciples are equally wrong if they think OS X is going to end up in as bad of shape as 2000, XP, or even Vista.: