Operating System: Win8.1 vs. OS X Yosemite (1)

Operating System: Win8.1 vs. OS X Yosemite (1)

 

With the official release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite and the completion of the update cycle of Windows 8.1 within 2014, these two models represent the highest level of solutions in the PC operating system field. Who can beat the competition and win the first funding?

Windows 8.1 and a series of updates in 2014 allow users to get rid of a lot of uncomfortable experience caused by Windows 8, its adjusted philosophy of returning to Windows 7 also made us feel comfortable and friendly for a long time. In contrast, the advent of Yosemite has pushed Mac to a new era, and its cooperation with the new collaboration mechanisms of iPad and iPhone is closer to iOS's design philosophy. In short, because the new version officially launched next year is the real focus, Windows will be doomed to fall into silence this year, while Apple continues to steadily promote its evolution of OS X to iOS.

My colleague Woody Leonhard had a deep evaluation of Windows 2013 in 8.1, and the Update 1 Update in 2014 did not escape his eyes; I personally suggest you click here to read his experiences and conclusions on the Microsoft tablet/desktop hybrid operating system. In addition, I also commented on the new features in OS x Yosemite in my previous article. I also recommend that you take a look. In today's article, I will emphasize the key differences between the two operating systems and their respective weaknesses. As early as the beta version of the two was released, I began to use the user experience, and used each item in the InfoWorld desktop OS scoring center to examine both parties.

At the same time, the new generation of OS x Yosemite, while completely switching the OS X visual solution to the iOS 8 style, continues to make most of the system functions remain effective. This time, Apple focused on building new functions, including using Handoff to make OS X more closely integrated with iOS and iCloud, providing functions such as iCloud Drive and Continuity.

For example, with the help of Handoff, the new Mac device has been able to detect the iPhone in the surrounding area and transfer emails, calendar entries, and even documents in the process between the two sides. With Continuity, almost all Mac devices can be directly used to receive calls to the peripheral iPhone or to participate in text message conversations on the iPhone.

 

With the support of Continuity, Mac devices running the OS X Yosemite system can detect incoming call information received by the iPhone and transfer the information to FaceTime voice calls.

However, at the fundamental level, OS X Yosemite is the same as Windows 8.1, and it can only be regarded as a small-scale upgrade as compared with the earlier version. Both Apple and Microsoft are facing the era of incremental and non-leap changes.

Ease of use: Windows 8.1 vs. OS X Yosemite

Rating

Windows 8.1:

OS X Yosemite: 9 points

It is apple that defines the graphical user interface that we are familiar with today, and despite the long evolution of the past thirty years, its core design concepts have not been shaken. It is this long-standing consistency that makes every new version of OS X maintain good usability features, and Yosemite is no exception.

However, this operating system also expands the support for gesture operations in a very natural way-of course, through touch-style mouse and touchpad. In addition, Apple has added a series of auxiliary tools for it, such as Quick Look preview, notification center, embedded sharing, and Spotlight search tools. These are what Apple is best: it only provides some complex functions when the user needs them, rather than directly providing users with a daunting learning curve. The Dock and the classic menu bar still exist and are responsible for simplifying the application access process. The full screen mode that appears since OS X Lion continues to help users focus on the current function in the Yosemite version, however, it also allows them to quickly access other functions in the system when necessary.

Yosemite has made a series of minor improvements in the user interface: first, the notification center, similar to the corresponding mechanism in iOS 8, the OS X notification center now provides functional components, that is, 'extension '), this includes the stock market trend, current weather, Evernote updates, and other third-party information. OS X also makes adjustments to dashboards that have never been quite insightful-the interface provides feature components in Early Forms-so that users can directly overwrite existing desktop Screens without having as a separate desktop. However, in all fairness, the practicality of Dashboard is still very limited. I believe that in Versions later than Yosemite, more accessible designs will eventually replace the Dashboard solution.

Another major change is the conversion from the original iCloud Documents to the iCloud Drive. The iCloud Documents are not easy to use, including a large number of open and save dialog boxes that are hard-coded from the standard Finder, and the method of file migration between the iCloud Documents and the Finder is very clumsy. In addition, iCloud Documents only supports the first-party applications provided by Apple.

The new iCloud Drive works more like Dropbox or Box, the display effect is like a virtual disk. You can access the files and folders in the dialog box with the standard Fnder window. Various applications still have their own independent folders and are fully compatible with iOS applications using iCloud Documents, including Apple's own iWork office suite ). In iOS 8, iCloud Drive acts as an import/export function, while on OS X Yosemite, it acts as a storage/Open mechanism, therefore, there is still a hard separation between the iCloud Documents and the iCloud Drive.

 

The iCloud Drive in OS X Yosemite adopts a virtual Drive mechanism similar to other cloud services. However, it can still provide compatibility for the specified application folder designed for the previous generation of iCloud Documents, as shown in the Pages interface.

In Yosemite, Apple also introduced iCloud Drive into its mail application, in this way, large attachments contained in emails can be automatically stored in the iCloud Drive, and a copy link to the corresponding file can be directly provided to obtain related files without an iCloud account ). This design helps you avoid the attachment restriction rules set by the email server.

However, OS X is also faced with the dilemma of splicing different user interfaces and different environments, namely Windows 7 or the connection between Windows desktop mode and Metro mode, in Windows 8.1, this issue is concentrated on the residue of the iCloud Document and the poor design of the Dashboard.

For example, Windows 8.1 inherits the unfriendly Design of Windows 8 and adds the toolbar to the File Explorer File Manager. To be fair, this design has become a standard solution for Microsoft's first-party applications. However, unlike the toolbar in other applications, the toolbar of File Explorer is always hidden unless you click or click the corresponding menu. So far, the situation has been quite good.

However, the most frustrating thing is the status after the toolbar is displayed. It will overwrite some content display windows, and the information at the top of the screen cannot be viewed smoothly. In the file manager, this problem becomes particularly serious. Fortunately, you can disable the automatic adjustment function to ensure that the toolbar of File Explorer is consistent with that of other applications, that is, it is always fixed on the content display area.

In contrast, the Metro mode of Windows 8 has a simpler, more focused, and more elegant graphic display effect. You do not have to distinguish between window boxes and menus. In terms of appearance, the Metro design makes Windows 7 both shabby and outdated.

The Snap feature allows you to run two Metro applications in parallel. Although the activation method of this function is not intuitive, you need to right-click the upper left corner of the current application), once you find out the usage mechanism, you can use the Metro screen space more efficiently, especially when running functional parts that do not need to occupy the full screen area.

 

Snap view in Windows 8.1-as long as we understand how to enable this feature, we can use the Metro Screen Space in a more efficient way, especially when viewing weather information and other functional component applications.

Metro still cannot find a unified operation solution that can adapt to both keyboard/mouse combinations and touch scenes. For example, you can call out APIs in two ways without the options directly displayed on the application screen. In addition, it is very convenient to use gestures to perform operations. However, if you use a mouse and a keyboard like 99% of device users, the process of accessing the sharing and setting service is called 'charms' by Microsoft. Moreover, if you do not have a physical keyboard for your tablet, you cannot use certain Metro functions. For example, you cannot enter a name to search for an application on the Start Screen, because this part of the interface does not support the soft keyboard outbound call mechanism. In other words, Windows tablets cannot implement all functions without a physical keyboard.

Fortunately, Windows 8.1 Update 1 comes with two brand new feature icons-search and power management-now we can more easily find and use the search, restart, or shutdown features.

 

In Windows 8.1, the search and power management buttons are in the upper-right corner of the screen. These buttons are two more subtle but practical designs added to the Metro Start Screen. They help users easily find and use these two common features.

Despite its outstanding simplification performance, the Metro environment may still be difficult for users in some cases. For example, the navigation effect of the Store application and Internet Explorer is very poor, and it is easy for everyone to get stuck in an endless loop. One of the reasons is that Metro applications often do not have a clear hierarchy, we must always use the application bar to navigate to specific functions, rather than switching between different functions smoothly through an intuitive navigation control mechanism. This is a bit like forcing you to accept a maze of Oriented designs when you want to directly access certain features.

However, the design scheme of the Alibaba Cloud Safari label mechanism copied by IE 11 is effective. It allows you to directly use the website links that have recently been accessed on other PC devices through your Microsoft account. Windows 8.1 also re-adjusts the PC setting application to provide more functions. However, in Windows desktop mode, you still need to use an independent control panel, this is because more control options for PC devices are provided only here.

Windows desktop mode is the foundation of Windows 7 and a more popular design mode. The good news is that you can set Windows 8.1 to enable PC devices to directly display the Windows desktop mode that we are more familiar with after startup, instead of forcing everyone to start the screen in the face of Metro, and then switch to the desktop mode by clicking the button. In addition, the taskbar displays the currently running Metro applications, not just desktop applications.

 

The Windows 8.1 taskbar displays desktop and Metro applications at the same time, which greatly simplifies the access process for these two types of applications.

However, when you double-click a file that needs to be opened by a Metro application rather than a Windows program, you will be forced to directly enter the pop-up Metro environment. Microsoft apparently hopes that users can use the Metro model more, therefore, by default, core applications such as e-mails and media players are set to the Metro version by default, which makes the work that should have been done more complicated.

At the same time, the classic Start Menu is still invisible in Windows 8.1, so it is difficult for us to quickly start our Windows 7 Application. Although Microsoft has restored the start button design, all it can do is switch back and forth between Metro and Windows desktop-the effect is no different from pressing the Windows key directly. To call out a convenient advanced user menu as shown in, you need to right-click the start button or continue to use the Win key + X shortcut key combination as in the past .)

Just as the Metro mode works well in touch operations, but does poorly in combination with traditional input methods, windows desktop mode works well in combination with traditional input methods, but does poorly in touch operations-and Windows 8.1 does not solve this problem. On the screen of a tablet device, various icons and menus are often difficult to view because the size is too small. Let alone touch or operate the icons accurately. In addition, the point-to-touch operations that correspond to common operations such as right-click are not stable enough in Windows desktop mode.

In general, Windows 8.1 is equivalent to sharing the same file system with some core services on two different computing devices, in addition, each computing device is optimized for differentiated input methods. As InfoWorld mentioned in its previous evaluation, the best way is to leave the Metro mode to tablet devices and Windows 7 mode to be dedicated to laptops and desktop PCs, then, like Apple, OS X and iOS are gradually integrated. For most users, Windows 8.1 is still a messy mix-even though the two models have been relatively more clearly differentiated.

Hope has gradually emerged: the coming Windows 10 will adopt many InfoWorld suggestions and integrate desktop and Metro environments in a more intelligent way. However, the official release of Windows 10 will wait until next year. Now, on Windows 8.1, we still have to endure the experience of transforming to a doctor, which generally has severe mental splitting.