My Mac knows that when I press the Volume Up button while the computer is muted, it means that I want to !&*^*&!-ing UNMUTE the computer.

My PC, on the other hand, seems to think I’d like to spend several minutes checking the connection with the speakers, checking the Control Panel settings, the settings in Windows Media Player, the headset, etc.

In what world is it logical that when I’ve press Volume Up roughly 6,278 times should the computer think “Yeah, he wants the volume maxed out, but muted.”

The fact that it may be supercalifragilistically stupid of me not to press the Mute/Unmute button is utterly and completely beside the point. The computer is supposed to make my life easier. It should not require me to think about how it works, it ought to anticipate what I would want and how I would work.

Windows XP doesn’t do that. Mac OS X does.

Is it a little thing? Of course. But add it together with all the other little things and it makes a big difference.