Without a question of a doubt, IBM's AIX UNIX operating system, configured in a trusted mode is the most secure server operating system. Now, having said that, you can configure the most secure operating system in the world to resemble the most insecure OS! From a PC perspective... MAC or a well configured Linux.

 

I really do suspect you're in the minority on that one. I have Vista 64-bit and also the 32-bit versions at home (one version is running on a Mac!) and it's nowhere near as stable as it really ought to be. I do hear, however, that Windows 7 is shaping up to be everything Vista ought to have been. It needs to be, as in many respects, Vista seems to be the Windows ME of its generation.

 

I use Vista x64 at home and at work. I have had no problems whatsoever using the systems. Be sure to install drivers ONLY from the original manufacturer. (Like for your graphicscard, get them from: www.nvidia.com or www.ati.com)
Don't install the drivers provided by Windows update, these are generally slower and as it turns out, cause crashes.
Also disable all services you don't need, at least half can be safely disabled if you don't require really specific functions (you can find lists of these on the internet).

Every setup requires some effort to get it up and running properly. That's the case with Windows, OSX and UNIX/LINUX systems.
I'm very security conscious because a lot of my work is quite valuable and is stored on my home network. Nobody's getting that, even if they break in and take all of my computers (i'm using TrueCrypt to make sure of that)

 

Man you are talking exactly as a Windows user (and probably with limited experience on other OSes). Of course you should install drivers ONLY from the original manufacturer because of course MShit cannot be trusted. You are defending in a way the very crap product that came out from the company that can't be trusted. Drivers provided by Windows or Microsoft should not be trusted but what does that say about the company? Yet again, if something crashes in VIsta you get the Sole Problem pop up that directs you to the manufacturer to settle the problem (thanx). For example Windows Explorer has crashed....solution found go to Tohshiba website to update the Bluetooth driver.

Also you advice a Windows user to disable all services that are not needed. We all know what those services are (ex: Windows Defender) but then again why did MShit put them in the first place if they are so useless or cause a lot of slowdowns for the system. What does that say about Microsoft then?

I disagree that every setup requires some efforts to get it up and running properly. My OSX needed no such effort at all, ready from the get go. NO TWEAKS, no mods, no nothing, only small adjustments to the mouse sensitivity and other "personal preferences". Linux also is quite ready to go from second one, but it lacks smth that OSX doesn't. Being under the GNU licensing this causes some problems with drivers from different vendors that don't offer the source code. Some Linux distros made some compromises like Ubuntu with their Nvidia propriety driver but that helped the end user alot. With OSX i don't even to worry about drivers aka WHAT DRIVERS!?

So as a potential Microsoft client you are not only asked to pay a ridiculous amount of money on a the most unstable and unreliable OS in history but you also have to know some more than basic OS administration to be able to make it work acceptable (as in speed, stability etc etc).

 

I probably have more experience on Linux platforms than on Windows platforms, but that's not the point here.
Mac OSX works out of the box because it runs on a limited amount of platforms, namely: Macintoshes.
It's much easier to develop a product that works on just 4 or 5 platforms than on a combination of 1000's of product, all drivers are simply built in because there are only 3 or 4 drivers required for each possible component.

I'm not defending Windows on anything, people should pick their own OS, but because the world is so Windows centric and most programs i use are run on Windows, i use it. I use Mac OSX too and i use Linux (Ubuntu from version 6.06 and up) probably more than any other, but i use Windows on my main machine, simply because all the programs i use require it.

(On the topic of useless services: just for fun, watch what's running in the background on your Mac. Open up a terminal and run "top" or "ps ax". You'd be amazed how much useless junk is running on Apple machines)

It's fine that you're a big Mac fan and all (because that's just what your reply is SCREAMING), but don't go shouting stuff about somebody you don't know. I probably have way more experience on the PC platform than you, buddy.

 

Fir of all i'd like to say I am so very sorry if my tone was inappropriate and i want to apologize if i offended you or rushed to judge you. I was in a very bad mood yesterday.

Second, we can talk about certain stuff. Like for example what you said: i opened the terminal and hit top and this was the result:

I don't see really any useless process. In fact i have opened: iCal and i can see it, smbd for sharing and i can see it, login (well i am logged in) and i can see it, Terminal (used to hit "top"), Sync Server (i run a Mobile Me account and want to sync), Address Book (it is opened by me), PrinterPro (i printed some documents and it's openen) so in essence pretty much everything in there is USED. No worthless things!

Also the CPU usage is very low and i never ever had slow downs or idiotic behaviors as in Windows.

For example as you can see HERE i even started to gather all the 'nice' things about MS. You can also spot a print screen in there that shows the PC RAM filled up completely by Windows Defender in Windows Vista. I ran windows update, it found a windows defender update and as soon as it finished the update it started a scan (by default) and it filled the RAM instantly to 4GB. Besides the fact that Vista never dropped under 1.5 GB of used RAM in idle freshly restarted, it then occupied completely my RAM. Do you know how long it took to do a print screen and then open MS Paint and paste it? Around 3 minute or so (due to insufficient RAM).
And this is just one of the funny things happened in Windows. You can see other beautiful gifts of Windows XP and from my laptop with another Genuine and original Windows Vista Home (on the PC i have Ultimate). "Failure to create security options dialogue"??? WTF IS THAT?

Don't get me wrong, Mac or Linux is not without bugs or crashes but since i switched to a Mac i HAVE NEVER had an applications or the whole OS crash in an "inexplicable error". You know...countless of idiotic messages that don't mean anything to the user. The same with blue screens. WTF should i understand from a blue screen? Oh yes i had some crashes in OSX because certain applications froze but i only had to do is force quit them, nothing unusual that could potentially destabilize my OS.

So you see as as a Windows user to get the system to work most of the time you have to learn some voodoos and some "tweaks" and that's just a waste of time, and a rip off (close to 500 Euros for a Vista Ultimate).

And get this Windows 7 isn't any better either (at least that's what users experienced)
Look here and follow the links in the thread!

Oh wait! It's in the infant stages, it's still Beta. Wanna bet that once it is released problems and issues with blue screens will continue?! Then users will faithfully say: Well it's still didn't mature, and vendors still have to work on drivers (old story) but then again why does apparently MS keeps pouring out OSes unmatured and unready to be used in a stable environment??

 

Well, in short, i know Windows isn't perfect (far from it actually) and is way overpriced. I use it, because i have to, not because i want to.
If i had a choice in certain programs i need for my work or if there were fully functional alternatives on Linux, i would immediately ditch Vista and install Ubuntu on my main machine.
There is a reason i use Ubuntu on my production machines in the field (i write software for narrowcasting btw), because it's stable and because i can transform it to my needs.

But unfortunately, i still play the occasional computer game (for which WineX is NOT a reasonable alternative) and i use a couple of software products for which there is no Linux alternative.
That's why i'm sticking to Windows, and that's also why i know and use the tricks to make Vista a stable OS, because it CAN be and because i WANT it to be.
(Oh, i would never be using a Mac as my desktop PC, if you think Vista is overpriced... Macs are MUCH worse...)

To get back to the process issue you showed, you can see there are 97 processes running, not just the 16 you talked about. Stretch out your window or use "ps aux" to view all processes and stats.
97! That's a LOT, that's even more than the processes running on a reasonably clean Windows machine (which are also almost always in a dormant state like on the Mac, sleeping doesn't mean "using NO resources"!!!).

/edit:
Oh, one little thing, you say every Windows install comes with lots of blue screens and crashes.
That's simply not true, i've used my current Windows install for one and a half years and i had NO system crashes and NO blue screens (ofcourse i had the occasional process crash, same as on the Mac, but you can simply close that process)

 

Hmm..ok we'll leave it that way then.

PS: I also have a Windows XP in a VMWARE Fusion Virtual Machine which gets my job done really well with a windows clinet program used over the network to connect to the server (Ubuntu). Due to the fact that Wine was not able to install the program (quite old program) i chose the VM way.

PSS: Mac IMHO are not overpriced. They are premium goods and such carry premium prices. It's like BMW compared to VW, like 5 series compared to a Passat. OSX also costs aroun 100$ and iwork costs like 79$, unlike 5x more for a Windows OS or 8x more for Office suite.