The Add-on Market
Another area where there is no comparison is in add-ons. Yes, the Microsoft camp has tons of programs, far more than Apple. Yet Apple has add-ons that cost hardly anything or nothing. I guess you pay for power, yet how many people use it? Apple has it all over Microsoft in this camp. A small add-on that costs, say, $10, that you’ll use all the time is worth a lot more than a $100 program that tries to pin you into their interface and makes you learn how they want you to work.
Feature Set
Although I’ve been using Apple’s OS and business productivity suite for a while, I have to admit that Microsoft wins this comparison by a handy margin. Apple’s OS is indeed easier to use and less cumbersome. You don’t have eight ways to do something, you have one or maybe two. We only remember one or two ways to do anything anyway. I really like that.
Yet when it comes to the overall feature set, Microsoft gives you many more options. Outlook blows away Apple Mail. The Outlook task list is far more robust that that in Apple Mail. For the most common tasks with programs, Apple is easier to use, but you’ll have lots of those little moments where you’ll say “why the heck doesn’t it work like [you fill in the blank]?” Every day I use Outlook at work and Mail at home, so I always have these moments.
Flexibility
If you’re a power user, you’ll love Windows and yawn over Apple. Even “lightweight” Microsoft Access is light years ahead of the meager Apple database program offerings. You can just do lots of stuff in Microsoft programs that go beyond daily activities that you’re hard pressed or can’t do in Apple. Yet the funny thing is that most power users aren’t really doing that much with the power that’s available, so I guess this is a double-edge sword.
In Part 4, more comparisons for you.
John Simpson, MAI
