PC vs Mac

[metallidevils]

Macs are less likely to crash or get a virus, but for general use, I don't really see why Macs are any easier than PCs. AntiVirus software is pretty powerful these days, and I'll take an incredible library of software, with a few crashes here and there, over software for Mac any day. The interface for a Mac is no more or less intuitive than that of a PC.

[Don]

Macs are less likely to crash or get a virus, but for general use, I don't really see why Macs are any easier than PCs. AntiVirus software is pretty powerful these days, and I'll take an incredible library of software, with a few crashes here and there, over software for Mac any day. The interface for a Mac is no more or less intuitive than that of a PC.

[David Puddy]

The other issue is physical durability. I have a MacBook, and I've already had the case replaced once under warranty... no funny stuff... it just cracked from normal use.

But as a lifetime PC user... I love my MacBook... wish I would've switched sooner.

Macs suck, computers for non-computer people. Just because something is easier to use doesn't mean it's better.

Vista sucks too, wtf was Microsoft thinking. Gunna ride out my XP as long as I can.

Edited December 26, 2007 by David Puddy

[njskaguy33]

Here's my two cents on the PC vs. Mac discussion...

Macs are great if you stick to Apple software. The ads all say, "Macs don't crash, Macs don't get viruses, Macs are so cool, strange women will assault you in the library when you boot that sucker up, etc, etc. While this may be true to a certain extent, Apple does not play well with other software. Here's a good example...

My brother is a film student who does a ton of film editing. He uses a software called Avid, which is pretty much industry standard for film editing...every major film studio uses it. Now you would think Mac would be the way to go...anything video or audio related, Mac is the way to go, right? Well, it turns out that Avid crashes on brand new G5's just as often, if not more than they do on the Windows machines.

You see, if a program crashes on a PC, all you have to do is Control + Alt + Delete, stop the program and maybe kill a few processes, if you are slick like that. On a Mac, if your program dies, Mac will never admit something is wrong and, as a result, not let you fix it. Mac basically says, "What do you mean the program crashed? I'm Mac! I never crash! YOU must have done something, so I'm gonna to sit here and wait for YOU figure it out!" Windows realizes it's a faulty program and let's you fix crashed programs. OSX assumes it's perfect and won't let you do anything.

My girlfriend is a die hard Mac fan yet I've had nothing but problems trying to get her dumb G3 to run OSX, even though Apple swears it will run with no problem. I even got her a iPod Nano for Christmas...updated iTunes, added her mp3 library, plug in the iPod and I get a neat little error message stating, "This iPod requires OS 14.8 to run". She has OS 13.2. Her Mac basically said, sorry! Time to buy an upgrade that wont install!

I'm still on the fence, but I'll still take my ugly PC laptop over my brothers beautiful new 17'' MacBook Pro.

Edited December 26, 2007 by Bulletproof

[El Diablo]

The MAC vs PC argument always reminds me of those rags fans' attendance argument. As I life long MAC user/IT manager I will never prefer to sit in front of a PC - it doesnt mean I dont own one or that they are not superior in 80% of specified software. If you cannot see that they both have their place, then skip this thread because you have no clue what the real world functions of the two platforms are.

[CADevilsFan]

You see, if a program crashes on a PC, all you have to do is Control + Alt + Delete, stop the program and maybe kill a few processes, if you are slick like that.

[DevilNurn]

What I meant by Macs being easier is this: I'm using a PC and go "Hm, why didn't they do x" and on a Mac I go "I'm glad they did x". It's mostly little things like that. Obviously for games, there is no contest, I tend to plug in a PC mouse and keyboard to play any games that I do have for Mac, as I do for Photoshop as well. All the Mac programs are really good for Mac, and would never work on a PC interface (Dashboard, for example). But the main reason why Mac is better for me: it's smoother to run the two programs I use most, the internet (firefox) and word. The other Mac programs are good additions and make it more fun and user-friendly. Don't get me wrong though, for most other programs, I'd prefer PC, and I use a PC. But I think people have to understand that although Macs are easier, it doesn't make them worse.

In this way, I think Macs are better for laptops, which most people don't use for games and more complicated programs. But for a desktop computer I'd always prefer a PC.

[metallidevils]

What I meant by Macs being easier is this: I'm using a PC and go "Hm, why didn't they do x" and on a Mac I go "I'm glad they did x". It's mostly little things like that. Obviously for games, there is no contest, I tend to plug in a PC mouse and keyboard to play any games that I do have for Mac, as I do for Photoshop as well. All the Mac programs are really good for Mac, and would never work on a PC interface (Dashboard, for example). But the main reason why Mac is better for me: it's smoother to run the two programs I use most, the internet (firefox) and word. The other Mac programs are good additions and make it more fun and user-friendly. Don't get me wrong though, for most other programs, I'd prefer PC, and I use a PC. But I think people have to understand that although Macs are easier, it doesn't make them worse.

In this way, I think Macs are better for laptops, which most people don't use for games and more complicated programs. But for a desktop computer I'd always prefer a PC.

You can't run the internet and word at the same time on a PC?

[Winona Ryder]

All computers suck...thankfully.

[DevilNurn]

You can't run the internet and word at the same time on a PC?

No of course you can, that's not what I meant. I mean, if all you want to do is run word and firefox at the same time, I prefer PC because its a little more user friendly for those two programs specifically. You can do both on either, but just tends to be simpler on Mac.

[metallidevils]

No of course you can, that's not what I meant. I mean, if all you want to do is run word and firefox at the same time, I prefer PC because its a little more user friendly for those two programs specifically. You can do both on either, but just tends to be simpler on Mac.

My 3 year old laptop has a gig of ram, so this was never a problem for me. I don't really see what you mean by it being 'simpler' on a mac, I mean in both cases it involves clicking on two desktop shortcuts. Media editing, at least to me, seems to be the only clearcut area where Macs are better suited. In areas like word processing and the internet, I don't really see why one would be simpler/better than the other.

[David Puddy]

I like Mac because the only time I have to shut down my computer is when I need to update software. 20 days uptime. Never had that with my PC. But who knows, that could just be because the software was leaky.

[metallidevils]

I like Mac because the only time I have to shut down my computer is when I need to update software. 20 days uptime. Never had that with my PC. But who knows, that could just be because the software was leaky.

Did you try?

[Winona Ryder]

I like Mac because the only time I have to shut down my computer is when I need to update software. 20 days uptime. Never had that with my PC. But who knows, that could just be because the software was leaky.

My computers (PCs) stay on for months on end and only reboot when I install something or there's an update and even then a reboot is not always required.

[PeteyNice]

Here's my two cents on the PC vs. Mac discussion...

...

My brother is a film student who does a ton of film editing. He uses a software called Avid, which is pretty much industry standard for film editing...every major film studio uses it. Now you would think Mac would be the way to go...anything video or audio related, Mac is the way to go, right? Well, it turns out that Avid crashes on brand new G5's just as often, if not more than they do on the Windows machines.

[thefiestygoat]

I thought that it was bad in general to keep a computer running for a long time (multiple days), I guess thats not true?

[metallidevils]

Keeping it in a sleep or standby mode shouldn't be harmful. Definitely not moreso on a PC than a Mac.

[David Puddy]

I just think on my PC memory leaks and such accumulated to the point where the performance was so bad I had to restart.

[njskaguy33]

There is no such thing as a "brand new G5". Apple has not made PowerPC based machines an a while. Every Mac you can buy new is Intel based.

A G3? And you wonder why it won't work? Apple drops the facade of that in 10.5 but really even in 10.4 a G3 would be a struggle. In PC terms it is like trying to run Vista on a Pentium 3 or trying to make an iPod work with Windows 95. I am assuming you mean she has 10.3.2 and not 13.2. The iPod box clearly says it needs 10.4.8 or higher.

I use both and overall I prefer the interface on a Mac. There are some work applications that I use that are Windows only and for that I have Fusion which lets me run XP for those rare times something does not work.

Some corrections :

1) When i said new G5, I should have specified "new for the film editing computer lab at Montclair State". Good info though...didn't know they stopped making the "G's"

2) Yeah, 10.3.2...head cold can be blamed for that brainfart. Yeah, the machine is held together with duct tape and twine. Not only does the thing run slower than a pocket calculator, she can't switch back to Classic Mode to run all her stolen copies of Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc, etc. Luckily, I think we are inheriting my uncle's G5. He got a new machine for Christmas, so we get his old one.

3) As for the iPod box, I got it off of Amazon and didn't read the fine print. No biggie, as we should be getting that G5 this Saturday.

Thanks for the clarification!

[ZuljinRaynor]

After using PC since 1995 extensively, both PCs (MacOS based ones and Windows based ones; Macs are PCs people ) I can say there is no difference besides the GUI and Software library.

Pre Windows XP/2000 and Pre OS X, both types machines were crash happy bastards. BSOD was a bit better than the Mac "Bomb" screen. BSOD were recoverable a few times, though usually did end in restarts (this is Win 95/98 people). Mac OS 8/9 wasn't any better. When it crashed, the bomb screen showed up and one tries to press force quit or restart, it would sometimes hang the whole machine. Time to reboot manually.

Win XP and OS X are both great, though I find OS X to beach ball/spin a lot more than my XP BSOD. I think I got like 5 BSOD tops on my XP from 2005 or 2004, don't recall exactly. The Macs (PowerPC based) crashed like dirty ones, mainly in software that was like Photoshop or something the other like Flash, you know the stuff that's supposed to be better on Macs? I haven't had much experience on the Intel based ones since when I got one handed to me I quickly restarted it and booted up into Windows.

It's personal preference. I love the GUI in Windows much better. I like how everyone of my windows has it's own "File Bar" and doesn't have the stupid bar on top with everything. I also like my icons being on default on the left, minor things like this. Do you like iTunes? I don't. Do you like iFilm? I don't. I rather get more professional programs. And tell you what, most of that stuff is on both platforms. I might be lucky or something but I've always had hardly any problems with Windows.

Oh and viruses? Last one I got was... I don't remember. Never? I just have AVG Free (Vista version costs I believe). Mac OS has no viruses because there is no point. Unless Macs are a considerable portion of the market share, there is no point to make a virus affect only 500 ( sorry, had to) people. Viruses are supposed to terrorize. Not go under the radar like: "Macs can have viruses but only 500 affected; in other news... yadda yadda yadda."

And everyone saying Vista sucks, have you used it? I know a bunch of my gamer friends were skeptical at first but they say Vista is fine once you get used to the look.

Bottom Line: It's all about personal preference.

[metallidevils]

we have vista on our desktop at home, but on my laptop i prefer xp. Why? There doesn't seem much of a point of upgrading. I haven't had extensive Vista use yet, but so far it seems not much more than a gui upgrade.