Mac or PC

[markallan]

I run a simple Compaq laptop, that way i can take it when i do shoots in nature and see my resuults straight away, Cheater i know Windows Vista, although i would love to try Windows 7, but Windows XP still is my fav OS.

[Forevernowphotography]

dont like the macs they always feel a bit to cheaply put toghter, have thought of buying a mac before but always end up getting the pc, have just pought a monster of a machine, with all the latest bits and i couldnt be happier, it runs so fast and smooth. couldnt ever imagine going to a mac, even thought every one keeps telling me to.

[JM Tran]

dont like the macs they always feel a bit to cheaply put toghter, have thought of buying a mac before but always end up getting the pc, have just pought a monster of a machine, with all the latest bits and i couldnt be happier, it runs so fast and smooth. couldnt ever imagine going to a mac, even thought every one keeps telling me to.

big LOL at the macs feel like they are cheaply put together comment.........really!?

[ricktas]

big LOL at the macs feel like they are cheaply put together comment.........really!?

Agree with you here Jackie, Mac's in generally are very nicely finished, Many PC's still look chunky and the panels just screwed on (which they are), whereas Macs are sleek, all parts in the case fit and allign extremely well.

[Wayne]

dont like the macs they always feel a bit to cheaply put toghter, have thought of buying a mac before but always end up getting the pc, have just pought a monster of a machine, with all the latest bits and i couldnt be happier, it runs so fast and smooth. couldnt ever imagine going to a mac, even thought every one keeps telling me to.

Unibody, check it out...

[Charmed]

I wanna change my vote to mac

[olympuse620]

Just got a macbook pro and I am wishing that I had done it years ago. Feels like I am driving a luxury car as opposed to the holden/ford PC that I have to use for work.

[98kellrs]

I'm not an Apple fan by any means, hate the iPhone, wouldn't even look at an iPad (although I do have a 4 year old iPod) but I bought a MacBook back in 2008 and have enver looked back. It's still going strong 3 years later, I still have no viruses and in terms of design it hasn't aged one bit.

I'm actually slightly annoyed that it's lasting so well because I like the look of the new MacBook Pro's but just can't justify having two laptops!

[shelly1170]

I have a trusty old Toshiba notebook that would have to be from around 2004 or 2004 I guess. Still working, though a bit slow now. Biggest selling point is that it has a 17" screen.

But my everyday computer is a MacBook Pro from early 2008. Just LOVE it. So easy, everything is preloaded (like pdf reader) and it's true PNP.

The battery has just died (second one) which is a pain. We are looking to upgrade soon to a newer MacBook Pro.

[Bax]

PC all the way for me. I'm running a PC that I built myself 5 years ago and occasionally get out my 6 year old Acer (for when I need to move around and play with network settings)

Surprisingly the Acer still works, the CPU fan died sometime this year, I'd replaced something in the screen a couple of years ago, the CD drive no longer works. But for some reason, even without a CPU fan, it will run all day.

I wouldn't mind getting a Mac, it's hard to say they don't look nice - but I really can't justify the price, especially when comparable laptops are so much cheaper.

[ameerat42]

How can you have either MAC or PC without GRAVY???
Seriously flawed poll IYAM.
Am(bivalent Abacus Aficionado).

[abbyp]

I guess if you have a little bit more to spend then you should go with a MAC. I think Adobe Photoshop would be really great for it

[fishographer]

I remember way back when I had an Amiga 2000......all we did as play games though

I heard a great quote years ago that stated:
"PC/Microsoft are like the volvo/commodore of the computer world...cheap, nasty and a bit like a##holes as everybody's got one, Macs however are like the formula one racing car of the computer world, a fine tuned performance machine but only run on 5% of the roads....!!"

Back in my Uni days, a few years before home computers really took off, we had IBM labs and Mac labs, anyone who needed to do serious work seemed to use the Mac labs and the IBM labs remained mostly unused......my how things have changed hey.

I have since used Microsoft/PC for most of my time all of which have been off the shelf Dell items, I am no customiser and I guess that is the big issue.....really we need to be comparing apples to apples as a highly customised PC is always going to be different to an off the shelf unit.

My brother is deep in the professional videographer/media/audio editing world and his partner is a photographer/graphic designer, they use Macs exclusively, when I asked why there was a simple explanation, when it comes to graphics and video editing the Macs are faster, handle multi tasks more efficiently and are more stable. Once linked to iPhones, iPads and iTV everything connects seamlessly and just works. He also said to custom build a "PC" system that would be able to run the programs that he needs with the speed and power would cost a lot more than an off the shelf Mac.
My Dell desktop is an old Pentium 4 system and the laptop is not much younger but do an ok job, after playing with the Macs and a newer PC with PS I will be going for a Macbook Pro for a christmas present.....cant wait

cheers
Jamie

[ricktas]

My brother is deep in the professional videographer/media/audio editing world and his partner is a photographer/graphic designer, they use Macs exclusively, when I asked why there was a simple explanation, when it comes to graphics and video editing the Macs are faster, handle multi tasks more efficiently and are more stable. Once linked to iPhones, iPads and iTV everything connects seamlessly and just works. He also said to custom build a "PC" system that would be able to run the programs that he needs with the speed and power would cost a lot more than an off the shelf Mac.

I think that used to hold true, but today you can generally get a PC with similar specs to a Mac at around the same price or cheaper, and that the PC holds its own on processing speed etc.

Mac's have also come a long way, now being able to run windows programs etc. And iPhones, Ipads will connect to a PC just as easily as they do to a Mac.

I have stuck with PC's cause they are in the majority in the business world (except for graphics design/photographers etc), and I can easily add things like extra memory, new hard drive, new graphics card. Doing so on a Mac (from my understanding) is not as easy for the user.

I could not give a damn what anyone else uses, after all it is the output that matters. A photo can be badly processed on either, so it's the user that matters. It is much like camera brands. The photos are what is important, not the brand of camera body or lens used to take them.

[Xebadir]

I'm in a world torn apart by both PC and Mac. For work I use a macbook pro (terminal for programming/high performance computing (256 core supercomputing in Canberra at my disposal for big uni tasks ) is a far better alternative to the rather clumsy putty/xterm arrangement that I can manage on PC), and find the stability and everything about it fantastic. But as I don't technically "own" my laptop I can't really use it for image work/video stuff (and quite frankly I don't have the space to do so on the configuration). When I was planning to upgrade my PC I was rather torn whether to wait for the money to get a new/updated Mac or instead go with a high end PC. Eventually the relative ease of upgrading components sold me on the PC (not to mention the fact that not all games run on Mac), with the same/greater power being far cheaper and easier to obtain. While it does mean that I do have to put up with the somewhat more unstable OS (I have only had 5 crashes on my Mac in three and a half years, each from too many processing tasks ), it still does the job just like Rick says. There is also the slight issue of different licences being needed to purchase a Mac or PC version of processing software, which I find confines you to one or the other. In the end its how you use the computer, not what it is .

[MissionMan]

I switched to Mac about 4 years back, don't think I could ever go back to Windows again. I still use Windows (virtualised for customer sites) but I hate it every time I use it and I've generally ported all my software to Mac so I don't have to use it unless I really have to. Whats interesting is there are very few people who switch to Mac and want to go back to PC again. Speaks wonders for the environment. The only software that still crashes on my Mac ironically is Microsoft Office for Mac.

[SamNabz]

I'm a PC user and always will be... Most people who use Mac's seem brainwashed to me.

Firstly, Mac's were the must have item for any musician/artist.. Then it was the must have item for graphic, marketing and web designers and now they are telling everyone they are the must have item for students and the likes.. What a load.

Whilst Mac's are getting cheaper, for the money you buy a Mac for you can build a PC that will be at least 3x quicker with money to spare.

I don't deny that Mac's are good computers, they have definitely come a long way and seem to be smashing the market, but it wasn't until they used PC components and good marketing ads/campaigns that they were able to achieve their current status. Before that, they were an ugly boulder resembling computer that came in a variety of colours..

End of the day, I would never choose a Mac over a PC.

[MissionMan]

I'm a PC user and always will be... Most people who use Mac's seem brainwashed to me.

Firstly, Mac's were the must have item for any musician/artist.. Then it was the must have item for graphic, marketing and web designers and now they are telling everyone they are the must have item for students and the likes.. What a load.

Whilst Mac's are getting cheaper, for the money you buy a Mac for you can build a PC that will be at least 3x quicker with money to spare.

I don't deny that Mac's are good computers, they have definitely come a long way and seem to be smashing the market, but it wasn't until they used PC components and good marketing ads/campaigns that they were able to achieve their current status. Before that, they were an ugly boulder resembling computer that came in a variety of colours..

End of the day, I would never choose a Mac over a PC.

Its interesting you say that Mac users are brainwashed when majority of PC users have never actually used Mac for any extended period of time (other than potentially walking into a store and playing with one) and therefore can't compare the two where most Mac users have used Windows for an extended period of time. One could easily argue that Windows user are more brainwashed given they've never had used both systems.

Its also worth noting that when you say Mac's were ugly boulder resembling computers that most PC's weren't any different in that day and age.

PC components were always used in Mac's. It was only with the switch to Intel based processors that Mac's were capable of running Windows which is the switch you are referring to. What this did help is give Mac users a level of comfort in knowing that if they purchased a Mac, they could still use Windows if they didn't like OSX. Ironically, most Mac users I know (including a number in the business workplace who have moved from Windows to Mac) start off with Windows for their PC based software but eventually end up converting to the OSX alternatives as virtually every piece of software required now has a Mac equivalent. Both my directors started off with Windows virtualised and over the space of a year used it less and less to a point now where they don't use it.

[Xebadir]

Its a fairly solid point there MM, having spent the past 3 and a half years on both I can agree with you that there are features to both OS that are attractive. For example, the Mac filesystem is a total pain in the backside if you need to operate in a coding/programming environment - its all stored in relatively strange tunnelled places which makes accessing critical application files sometimes difficult and configuring the laptop a real PITA. I'm also not really a fan of the image viewing programs that are stock. I also hate how unstable the MS Office is on Mac, I don't know why, but it makes the windows version look like a pillar of stability. Probably something to do with the file system differences.

I've also at one point had Mac virtually OS tunnelled to Ubuntu (Unix) virtually OS tunnelled to Windows on the Mac and just found that OSX tends to provide me with the best programming solution over the other two OS systems - I don't think I could ever tolerate a Unix based OS all the time though as I find it a bit nerdy and unpolished as a GUI. But thats open source for you.

The massive sell for Mac is the stability, and relatively safe working environment with malware/viruses - it seems that still they are too bad for Mac users, while an omnipresent threat for PC windows systems. A big detractor though is the cost of parts, the still run more expensive especially closer to the cutting edge. The Mac systems also tend to be less plug and play with components, and while rather smick and smooth in the design, the cost of this is more difficult to access internals if you want to do some work. One particular area that hurts the Macs (at least prior to recent models) was the limited opportunities to add SSD to the machine and really bump the speed, and the hurdle with smaller drives in Mac laptop systems. The latest macbook pros have addressed the SSD limitations somewhat, but you still can't really easily swap it yourself.

PCs your big sell is hardware - its cheap to bump that RAM big, swap hard drives, to switch up your processor, swap out your optical drive for a second HDD, fix your heat paste etc. The software options for gaming (if thats your alley) are also much better with Mac not being able to be clocked in the same way or work in an optimal fashion (the cooling systems of PCs are far more effective, the sealed case of the Macs hinders cooling and hence drops maximum flops in power). The limitations lie in a somewhat less smooth design, a less optimal screen display (Mac certainly do that well), and an Operating system that is prone to malware, viruses unless you take alot of precautions and needs heavy configuration to ensure you get the best performance out of your OS - Prior to the release of 7, Vista made Mac OS look like heaven, but 7 was far more competitive with the alternatives.

My big problem with the switch to Mac software alternatives is just the cost atm - its quite expensive to switch all your software over and I don't see that being worth it.

[nogi]

Ok, my take on this. Technically, it’s not Mac vs PC it’s Mac vs Wintel or Windows. A Mac is a PC as is a Windows box. PC = Personal Computer. With that out of the way, this whole debate is about as old as religion itself. For me, I run whatever offers me the best fit for what I need. At home, I run this:

• Fully spec’d 2010 27” iMac (SSD, 8Gb RAM, etc….)
• 2010 Mac Mini (xmbc media PC)
• Windows 7 Laptop
• FreeBSD on 2 servers
• ESXi on one server which hosts an Ubuntu and Win 7 VM

I used to have a fully decked out PC (32Gb RAM, 4 SSDs, dual 27” U2711, etc…) as well but sold that late last year and changed to my iMac as the main desktop PC. My observation on the Macs have been 3 OS upgrades and not a single hardware upgrade was required to maintain speeds of day 1. The compartmentalised application installs on OSX also leave the system fairly fresh.

Also, whilst the iMac had a higher upfront cost, I think over a 3 year period the cost works out to be the same with a PC for me when I factor in upgrades along the way to run the new version of Windows well and time spent cleaning up registry messes and full reinstalls to return to day 1 speeds. So, one platform has a higher cost to entry but lower maintenance and the other has a lower cost to entry but higher maintenance. And people forget that the total cost of ownership has multiple dimensions, money is only one of them - time is another and just as valuable.

But everything I’ve said above applies to my use case. If I was a hard core gamer, the iMac wouldn’t cut the mustard. Oh, and I am by no means an Apple Fanboi, my phone and tablet are Android. OSX users != iOS users.