microsoft windows vs macintosh
Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows are two of the most widely used desktop operating systems. Apple's Mac OS X is more commonly known as just simply: "OSX" and is developed by Apple Computer for their own line of PCs, often referred to as "Macs." Windows is developed by Microsoft for any PC (including Apple's).
Releases

OS X and Windows both have a long line of releases in their history. The X in OS X stands for 10, signifying the 10th major release of the Mac operating system. Within the Mac OS X line-up, there have been incremental sub-versions named after felines. Windows began with 1.0, following the numeric system until 3.1 and then switched to NT4. Since then, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 have followed for personal computing, while others, including Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows 2008 were released as enterprise operating systems.

Market Share

The percentage of the market held by either OS is always going to be a murky, unclear answer. According to one source, Windows has a market share of 91.8% compared to OS X with 7.3% [1]. While other sources may claim only 5%, or 3% for OS X depending on how they look at the data. Although the iPhone does run Mac OS X, some do not count it as such in their market share research. Also, sales numbers do not necessarily reflect the true popularity of Windows as most new PCs come with Windows pre-installed, but some users may opt to install a different OS after purchase.
Software
Bundled Software
Software Type Mac OSX Windows
Web Browser Safari Internet Explorer
Media Player iTunes / QuickTime Windows Media Player
Photo Management iPhoto Windows Photo Gallery
Movie Production iMovie Windows Movie Maker
Development Tools XCode None
PDF Viewer Preview None
Calendar iCal Windows Calendar
DVD Authoring iDVD Windows DVD Maker
WYSIWYG Website Authoring iWeb None
Chat iChat Windows Messenger
Available Software
Software


Mac OSX Windows
OpenOffice


yes yes
Adobe CS3


yes yes
Microsoft Office


yes yes
Firefox


yes yes
3ds Max


no yes
AutoCAD


no yes
Maya


yes yes
Houdini


yes yes
Logic


yes no
Final Cut


yes no
SoftImage XSI

• Malware
Apple touts this feature as an advantage over (pre-Vista) Windows: "On a Windows PC, software (both good and evil) can change the system without your even knowing about it."

Windows Vista recently started to focus more on security by implementing a stricter user-permission policy, but many users feel that the strict policy is more annoying than useful.

Hence, there is no architectural advantage in security between Mac OSX and Vista concerning this point.
• Viruses
Developers often capitalize on Windows' large market share and significant vulnerabilities when creating viruses and other malicious software. Some counts place the number of Windows/MS-DOS viruses at over 50,000. In the past, Microsoft's solution to this problem was insufficient.

Infection of Macs running OS X is extremely rare, and there has never been a large-scale infection of computers running OS X. The latest version of Mac OS X added sandboxing to improve protection against malware and trojans, but it cannot protect against all possible applications users can install.
• Patches
Both Macs and Windows have patches and/or updates provided online by Apple and Microsoft, respectively. Through one simple button-click change in the System Preferences this can be on or off, to differing degrees. Ever since the release of Mac OSX 10.1 on September 25, 2001 as a 'free update' to version 10.0, Macs can download these automatically or the [owner or administrator] user has the option of accepting these downloads or not: "New software is available for your computer. If you're not ready to install now, you can use the Software Update preference to check for updates later." In Windows XP and Vista, the user has the option of turning automatic updates on or off as well.

RCA
An RCA connector, sometimes called cinch plug or lotus plug, is a type of electrical connector that is commonly used in the audio/video market. The name "RCA" derives from the Radio Corporation of America, which introduced the design by the early 1940s to allow mono phonograph players to be connected to amplifiers. For many other applications it began to replace the older jack plugs used in the audio world when component high fidelity started becoming popular in the 1950s. The corresponding plug is called an RCA plug or phono plug, for "phonograph". The name "phono plug" is often confused with a "phone plug" which refers to a jack plug or TRS connector.

Uses
In the most normal usage, cables have a standard plug on each end, consisting of a central male connector, surrounded by a ring. The ring is often segmented for flexibility. Devices mount the jack, consisting of a central hole with a ring of metal around it. The ring is slightly smaller in diameter and longer than the ring on the plug, allowing the plug's ring to fit tightly over it. The jack has a small area between the outer and inner rings which is filled with an insulator, typically plastic (very early versions, or those made for use as RF connectors used ceramic). As with many other connectors, the RCA has been adopted for other uses than originally intended, including as a power connector, an RF connector, and as a connector for loudspeaker cables. Its use as a connector for composite video signals is extremely common, but provides poor impedance matching. RCA connectors and cable are also commonly used to carry S/PDIF-formatted digital audio, with plugs colored orange to differentiate them from other typical connections. Connections are made by pushing the cable's plug into the female jack on the device. The signal-carrying pin protrudes from the plug, and often comes into contact with the socket before the grounded rings meet, resulting in loud hum or buzz if the audio components are powered while making connections. Continuous noise can occur if the plug partially falls out of the jack, breaking ground connection but not the signal. Some variants of the plug, especially cheaper versions, also give very poor grip and contact between the ground sheaths due to their lack of flexibility. They are often color-coded, yellow for composite video, red for the right channel, and white or black for the left channel of stereo audio. This trio (or pair) of jacks can be found on the back of almost all audio and video equipment. At least one set is usually found on the front panel of modern TV sets, to facilitate connection of camcorders (through 3.5mm Jack to 3 RCA, also called Mini RCA plug), digital cameras, and video gaming consoles. Although nearly all audio-visual connectors, including audio, composite and component video, and S/PDIF audio can use identical 75 Ω cables, sales of special-purpose cables for each use have proliferated. Varying cable quality means that a cheap line-level audio cable might not successfully transfer component video or digital audio signals due to impedance mismatch and poor shielding quality (causing signal-to-noise ratio to be too low). Cables should meet the S/PDIF specification as defined by the international standard IEC 60958-3 for assured performance. The male plug has a center pin which is 3.70 mm in diameter, and is surrounded by an outer shell which is 8.25 mm in diameter.

Disadvantages
One problem with the RCA jack system is that each signal requires its own plug. Even the simple case of attaching a cassette deck may need four of them, two for stereo input, two for stereo output. In any common setup this quickly leads to a mess of cables, which is made worse if one considers more complex signals like component video (a total of three for video and two for analog audio or one for digital coaxial audio). There have been numerous attempts to introduce combined audio/video connectors for direct signals[citation needed]but in the analog realm none of these have ever become universal, except in Europe where the SCART connector is very successful[citation needed]. For a time the 5-pin DIN connector was popular for bi-directional stereo connection between A/V equipment, but it has been entirely displaced[citation needed] on modern consumer devices. Though RF modulators inherently transmit combined A/V signals in video applications, they depend on broadcast television systems and RF connectors which are not universal worldwide; RF signals are also generally inferior to direct signals due to protocol conversion and the RF limitations of the three major analog TV systems (NTSC, PAL and SECAM). Nearly all modern TV sets, VCRs, and DVD players sold in Europe have SCART connectors[citation needed], though sometimes supplemented by RCA and/or RF connectors and there are also SCART-RCA adapters.[1] Outside Europe, separate RCA connectors are the norm[citation needed], supplemented by RF connectors for backward compatibility and simplicity; though mini-DIN connectors are sometimes used for S-Video connections, composite video, component video, and analog audio (mono or stereo) all use RCA connectors unless RF is used. In the digital realm, however, combined A/V connectors are gaining ground; HDMI is commonly being used today, and DisplayPort is a potential competitor to HDMI. For audio signals, an RCA connection is called unbalanced, and a true balanced connection is generally preferred in certain applications because it allows for the use of long cables while reducing susceptibility to external noise.

Color Definiton
Analog audio Left/Mono White
Right Red
Center Green
Left surround Blue
Right surround Gray
Left back surround Brown
Right back surround Tan
Subwoofer Purple
Digital audio S/PDIF Orange
Component analog video (YPbPr) Y Green
PB Blue
PR Red
Component analog video/VGA (RGB/HV) R Red
G Green
B Blue
H(Horizontal sync)/S(Composite Sync) Yellow
V(Vertical sync) White