questions about Mac OS

Hello every1. it is me again. I have a few questions about Mac OSX

So, Mac OS X and linux both are unix. and what is vista & xp written on? Why is unix more stable than not unix?

Does OS X have things to increase performance like swap in linux and turbo memory in vista?

How often new Mac OS comes out? every 2 years?

My friend told me that i-phone can remote control Mac computer. What about PC? is it possible a PC notebook controls a Mac computer or the other way around?

I have read Vista and XP direct X is better than OS X video drive in terms of gaming. Because the games design for windows mostly?

I read a nice article "8 Reasons Windows Users Do Switch to Mac"
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/8-reasons-windows-users-do-switch-to-mac/

 

Linux != Unix

OS X is based on Unix (partly FreeBSD, mach kernel, etc).

Vista and XP are Vista and XP.

Vista does have that pretty cool memory management feature (can't think of the name for the life of me) that will cache/pre-load your most commonly used applications into the system memory (smart if you ask me... memory not doing anything is wasted memory). OS X does not have this, nor does Leopard as far as I know.

OS X releases seem to be about every 2-3 years from the looks of it. They are more like updates than completely new operating systems.

There is no way to remotely control a Mac with a PC as far as I know.

Windows uses Direct X, OS X uses OpenGL. Which one is "better" is subjective. Over 95% of computers out there run Windows. It makes economical sense to create games for Windows.

 

I think it's called Superfetch.

 

Unix isn't inherently more stable than "not unix". But Unix has been around a long time, and is generally very stable.

Vista and XP are based on the Windows NT kernel. This is also very stable. XP is very stable if the drivers you use are well-written (and you manage to keep the malware off your system). IMO, most XP instability is due to bad drivers. Vista is still sort of newish, and may have a few more bugs, but most Vista instability is probably due to bad drivers too. Apple offers fewer hardware configurations, and has more control over the drivers they ship with their systems. However, they're not entirely immune to problems either... for example, there's currently (or recently) some issue with the graphics card drivers on iMacs causing freezes.

I'm sure it has swap (as does Windows). And it should outperform Vista from what I hear, Turbo Memory or not.

Give or take.

Anything computer (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) can remote control any other if you run a program called VNC on both. I hear that people have gotten that running on hacked iPhones.

 

I would take this with a grain of salt. While Linux and OS X are not actually UNIX, they are based off UNIX. And contrary to what some people try to say, UNIX is more often than not more stable than Windows. I has a simpler structure where configuration and system files are predominant over the Windows registry, which is a bunch of random hexadecimal key values that are constantly updated and changed, and can mess things up all the time. System files on a UNIX based system can generally only be modified with explicit consent of the user.

Windows can be a stable system, there is no doubt. Windows XP is about as rock solid in general use as Linux in my experiences, but it suffers long term issues that don't plague Linux or BSD. The Windows registry is easily cluttered, and it hangs on to a lot of old key values and edits long after they are useful or their originating programs are uninstalled.

There are many other reasons why the UNIX-based kernels are considered more stable than Windows NT kernel, including it's modular-based architecture and multi-user design (which Windows is just now starting to catch up with in Vista's ubiquitous UAC). The major consensus seems to be, though, that while UNIX-based systems are overall harder to break and hack, once they are hacked, they fall apart in a much larger manner than NT, which can usually break down into default settings where the system is still bootable. I'd say for general usage, however, a UNIX-based system will be more secure and more stable for those who aren't work hacking. If you really want rock-solid stability, go with BSD, which hardly ever breaks or is hacked (thus the high server usage). But OS X is based on BSD, so it's pretty good most of the time.

No system is short of bugs. As swarmer says, Apple has their own issues from time to time, so don't expect to switch to OS X (or any other OS for that matter) and expect no problems. It's not going to happen. It's a computer; stuff happens. I wouldn't necessarily blame Vista's instability solely on drivers; Linux and BSD have probably the worst driver support out there, many written by code-junkies in their free time, and they prove to be much more stable than Windows for many people's usage.


OS X uses a swap file, just as Linux and Windows (though Windows calls it the Pagefile). It's not really a performance-enhancing feature (in fact works quite the opposite in many cases); it's simply a back-up cache feature if you happen to run out of physical memory. OS X doesn't use Turbo Memory or ReadyBoost, but it does use some sort of caching technology (just as most modern Linux distributions do) that will speed things up. I don't think these work quite as well as Vista's Superfetch, though IMO the advantage is that your hard drive isn't constantly being thrashed (one of my biggest problems with Vista).

 

thank you for your information. this is exactly what i want to learn and know.

 

As for remote desktopping from Windows to OS X, try realVNC. The Enterprise edition is what you want, and it's $50 for one license which you install on your Mac and can connect to it from any other computer with the free enterprise viewer.
Remote Desktopping from OS X to Windows is as easy as getting the Microsoft RDC. It's still in beta, but it works brilliantly(better even than the Windows to Windows Remote Desktop).


And on your question about games:
OS X uses OpenGL, which is (in my opinion, having coded for both OpenGL and DirectX) a much better graphics language. There are games that run in OpenGL in Windows, and those are the games that we see easily ported to OS X. Unfortunately OS X's implementation of OpenGL sucks, so gaming suffers. Apple could solve the gaming debacle by licensing DirectX, but Microsoft won't let that happen, as gaming is one of the big things they have to themselves.