X vs XP: Plugging in a printer
Today is the 1 year anniversary of when I ordered my Powerbook
This morning I moved my old Dell laptop around, unplugged and replugged in the printer, and was reminded of yet another reason why OS X is better than XP.
I have a Dell laptop with 4 USB ports (via PC card) and a Powerbook with 2 USB ports.
XP: If I setup a printer (Brother 1240) while it is connected to one USB port, and then disconnect it and reconnect it, I have to make sure that it is put back into the same USB port. Otherwise, XP installs a new copy of the Printer “Brother 1240 (1)”.
How genius of them! That way if I setup the preferences that I want, or use Windows Sharing to share the printer on the network, I can do it four times! Then all I have to do setup the printer four times on the other machines on the network.
OS X, on the other hand, doesn't care what USB port I use. It looks and says “Ok look, that's the same printer that was over there before. I bet they want to print from it.”
And it just works.
In a year of using OS X, it’s not been just the big huge features that make OS X better than XP, it’s these little touches that you don’t realize until you use the two of them side by side.
CNet continues to say “Well, they are copying these features from each other” but what XP doesn’t have, and never will, is the thoughtful design that makes so many things easier.
Another example I may have shared before: One of XP’s “improvements” was a Network Wizard that made it “easier” (compared to other versions of Windows) to setup a network. It’s still a several step process where you have to answer several questions.
OS X’s networking: “Step 1) Plug in the Ethernet cable. Step 2) There is no step 2.”
Assuming you are on a DHCP network (which most are), everything “just works.”
Wireless networking? Microsoft claims XP has made improvements. Reality? My wireless card has (several times) prompted me “Network is insecure, join anyway?” and I click “Yes”... and then it asks me again (without connecting). OS X? Just works.