In the Windows world, moving an application can be a real pain. Thanks to reliance on the registry, it can sometimes be easier to reinstall an application than to move it from one internal drive to another. Of course, Mac users have no problem with this concept - even before OS X. Want an app in a different location? Just drag-and-drop it where you want it. Of course, on a corporate network, you may be restricted to where you run an app from. However, this run-from-anywhere mentality extends to removable media, including USB flash ("thumb") drives.
This is why I had to smile a bit when a friend was telling me how great the new U3 standard is. "I can install a U3 enabled app on my thumb drive and carry it around with me! I can just throw it in a USB slot on a free machine and I'm up and running."
"It has to be an enabled app?"
"Yes, vendors are writing their apps to conform to the standard. This way registry entries work correctly."
(I like Windows, for the most part, but after using OS X, most of it is a chore. OS X makes the bulk of an administrator's work so easy - especially the important stuff - that it highlights how clunky and backwards Windows can be.
That said, Windows Server 2003 really makes a great file server, and Active Directory has gotten pretty mature. It's also pretty tough to beat MS-SQL Server. Sorry, MySQL, you just don't make the grade here.)
On the end-user client side, though, OS X wins hands down for ease of use. And it's just so darn good-looking (which, yes, has a genuine impact on usage).
Mac users: don't forget that the portable applications strategy mentioned here extends to your iPod in disk mode, too.
Serious?
"That said, Windows Server 2003 really makes a great file server, and Active Directory has gotten pretty mature. It's also pretty tough to beat MS-SQL Server."
You must be joking right? Mac OS X Tiger Server blows the lid of Windows 2003 any day, minute, and second of the week. One recently installed xServe at our company just replaced TWO bug-ridden Windows 2003 servers that consistently crashed and slowed things down to crawl. Our userbase of about 220 people have been dead silent since.
Windows 2003 might work O.K for about a month if you're doing ONE (maaaaybe two) very simple things on it. After that, God bless your patience and more importantly your backups.
Tony
--
ACSA
MCSE 2003
No, I'm not
Joking? No.
Depending on your needs, sometimes OS X Server is appropriate, sometimes Win2K3 is the right fit, and sometimes, it takes a combination of the two.
In a very large environment, Active Directory currently scales better than Open Directory (Apple didn't name its management tool "Enterprise Manager" for a reason - it's "Workgroup Manager").
If you have a sizeable Windows client base, there's little question that Win2K3 is much smoother than Samba.
Nice thing is that, as of 10.4, the AD plug-in on OS X got so much better. Now it's drop-dead simple to integrate with Active Directory. Add in Group Logic's ExtremeZ-IP, and OS X clients can have very fast, native AFP access as well.
Win2K3 isn't the blue-screening Windows of old. Room for improvement? Sure! Of course, the same can be said for OS X Server on its best days, too.