The Mac vs PC debate will never end…
November 27th, 2007 by Mike
One thing we can always count on is the fact that the Mac vs PC debate will always be around. The problem is too often the comments made in these debates are from people who only know one of the two Systems in question. What’s with that? My daughter says she doesn’t like certain foods she hasn’t ever tried before but she can get away with it because she is 3 years old, that just doesn’t cut it any more once you hit about 12 years old…
I came across a Mac vs PC forum post where the member made a point of telling responders to say whether they have actual even ever used a Mac or a PC and not to make comments based on hearsay. So let do that!
I would love to hear what you think about the Mac vs PC debate, just make sure your comments are based on your own personal findings and if you haven’t used one of the Systems in the past five years it doesn’t count. Furthermore, if you only have experience in one or the other OS’s you can comment but only on the one you have experience with. And be nice! I will delete any posts that are just made in spite and that do not have any merit so state your background.
I’ll start it off by pasting in what I wrote in response to the forum I mentioned that gave me this idea.
“The Mac vs PC debate is always a heated one, and I agree with Dan, many Mac haters are PC users that have little or no Mac experience or used a Mac 10 years ago. I also agree that Mac users commenting about how bad a PC is when they have never used one is also something that should be kept to oneself…
My background:
My first PC was whit-Box 486SX machine that I purchased for audio recording back in the day when about all you could do was 4 tracks of audio and when you wanted to mix them down you would have to walk away for lunch and come back to work on the rest of your song. Anyways I spend thousands of dollars trying to get that machine to reliably record audio/midi and did eventually get it working with a combination of Logic for midi and SAW for audio synced together using two SMPTE interfaces on the same computer.
Meanwhile my friends where using Macs that yes did cost twice as much as my original PC but about half as much as what mine Cost me in the end to do half of what their Macs where doing in the audio world. They had Logic Audi, one program that did both audio and midi with no SMPTE interfaces needed!
I sold my PC for about 1/4 of what I paid for it and Got my first very expensive Mac, it was worth every penny.
Jump ahead, not only have I been a Mac guy for over 10 years but I worked as an Apple Rep for about 8 of them. I also took some time off from Apple to go and work for HP as a Territory Sales Manager, I wanted to see if the PC world was as bad as the Mac community I was so well ingrained into was saying, myself included.
I only lasted about 8 months at HP before I had to leave, I simply couldn’t honestly sell PC’s to people that I new in my heart should be buying a Mac.
I really tried to give the PC a chance, I even set out to use the bundled HP photo, video, music and burning software but it seemed like this software combination from a myriad of companies was purely designed to break the human spirit. Everything took ages to do, non of the programs shared any kind of continuity and none of them spoke each others language, end result - hours of your life gone and nothing accomplished??
One thing I used to do allot of with my Mac was Internet and Printer sharing, this was done by simply clicking a Box in the System Preferences - Sharing section. On the PC it took me about 45 minutes the first time to navigate through the multiple levels of navigation required to share Internet from my PC to another computer (PC Wireless over Ethernet to another Computer) and every-time I disconnected the other computer I would permanently lose the shared Internet connection requiring setting it up from scratch again.
That’s just one thing that used to baffle me there where many…
I now run a Website/Forum called SwitchingToMac.com, I started this site mainly because as an Apple rep I encountered the same Mac questions over and over again and wanted to create a place where Switchers could go and get this information. The site is doing better then I expected.
So why do I think Mac’s are better then PC’s:
It’s mostly about control, Apple has control of the entire computing experience, Hardware, Operating System and much of the core Software. Windows PC’s are a conglomeration of a bunch of companies working independently all competing against each other but trying to make product that are harmonious at the same time?
Let me use the example of a vehicle made in two separate factories:
Factory A designs the car from the ground up and specifically build their cars with specific components, some they make themselves and some they have other companies make to their specifications, everything is perfectly matched and quality tested to be 100% compatible with all the other parts in the deign. There are no bottle necks.
Factory B is an assembly plant, they build cars but instead of designing them from the ground up they go out with their shopping cart and pick up a bunch of parts and mix and match them till they end up with a car that works… well kind of. It might have a 300HP motor in it but unfortunately it only has a fuel injection system from a 150HP motor rendering the motor to half of its intended output. The other problem is the electronic ignition system is brand new but the rest of the parts are from last year so most of the features the customer is paying for in the new expensive electronic ignition system are useless. Of course there are other fit and finish problems because in the end it is a really just a Franken-car.
Facts about Macs:
- Macs crash less then PCs (they do crash but very rarely)
- Macs require very little to no maintenance, you can run a Mac for years and years without reformatting, defraying, reorganizing. Macs use Unix based maintenance scripts that do all this for you.
- Macs are easier to use.
- You can get more done on a Mac, spend less time fighting your machine and more time using it.
- Macs do cost more but give you more back in return and hold significantly more resale value meaning you can sell it and use that money to by your next Mac for about the same price as a PC that is half as good.
- Macs are very Virus resilient. (I have never run Virus or Spyware software on any of my Macs and have never had a Virus or Spyware incident).
- Mac people are the most customer loyal bar non, why is this? PC people will buy what ever brand of PC they can get the best deal on.
- Macs just look cool, any PC that looks even near as good as Mac will set you back just as much if not more then a Mac, it’s not just about what is inside.
And the kicker, Mac’s can be PC’s when ever you want them to be and the comment about the MacBook Pro being the fastest Vista Laptop of 2007… Apple wasn’t even trying to make the MacBook Pro the fastest Vista machine, they couldn’t of given a crap, it was simply a byproduct of a quality made computer…”
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November 27th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Excellent bio/experience post. I’ll have to chime in on this when I have more time to sit down and write. My tales is very similiar to yours.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
OK, my experience with computers goes way back to the very late 70’s. Back in 1979 I bought my first personal computer. An Apple ][. I used Apple computers for quite a few years until I bought my first IBM PC. A 80286 based system.
Up until last year, I used Windows based computers. That’s about 20 years. I lived through Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. I have been pretty happy with Windows throughout most of that time. ‘ME’ was a piece of crap, but I only had one system that had ME and I switched to 98 after setting it up.
Last year, I took a peek at Vista during the beta 2/RC program that they offered to a few folks. I took one look at it and went out and bought a MacBook.
I had used Mac’s during the Windows era, I hated all the OS 7’s, 8’s and 9’s. OS X was not very stable back in the 10.0 - 10.1 days. So I got rid of the Mac I had bought and stuck with Windows. When I bought the MacBook, I knew that OS X had become way more stable. I had used it for a short length of time on a Mac Mini at work. I was very impressed with it’s speed on such a small low end system.
I realized it was time to buy a desktop system when I started using my MacBook as a desktop computer. I bought the Mac Pro a few hours after it was released.
In all fairness, I haven’t used Vista for any major length of time. I have had to do some work on it where I used to work. I found it very frustrating and had all kinds of problems attempting to copy some rather small files between my desktop computer and the Vista box I was using. Plus, from what I have been hearing from many Windows folks about Vista that have downgraded back to XP, I’m convinced that I made the right choice to switch to Mac and OS X.
November 27th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Right, I will start by saying I am an IT Support Consultant for a Large UK based Medical Information Systems Provider. I deal with servers and customers PC’s on a daily basis.
I have been with PC’s since the release of the Pentium processor, and used them at school on the 386 and 486. windows 3.1 era.
I used to work as a PC Repair Technician, and built and repaired PC’s and was probably one of the biggest Fanboys out there.
Then I saw Vista, and it put me right off of going that rout. After trying a few alternate OS’s BEOS, Ubuntu Linux, AROS Etc. I decided to research what the Mac was doing. This coincided with the switch the the intel chipset. I did my homework, and on the 11th of November 2006 I bought the 20″ iMac.
I had never used a Mac other than the Apple II years ago. And Tiger blew me away. I have never looked back since.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hi; I might not be posting here, since I am a 1 day switcher. Right. We received yesterday our new macbook. Notwithstanding that, here’s my experience:
I am an aerospace engineer but relating to computers I am a “prosumer” (heavy use of many different applications, mostly graphic-intensive, including a slight amount of programming).
I’ve used PCs since MSDOS 3.3’s days (1991), to Windows 3.1, OS2 Warp, and then Windows 98, 2000, and XP (as of yesterday). I’ve had quite some nearly-totally-homebuilt PCs which gave me a lot of headaches, to more recent web-bought Dells with maximum guarantee not to EVER have to open and diagnose or repair anymore a PC.
Right now I use on a daily basis a couple of medium to high performance PCs at home, both with winXP, and your typical corporate PC with win2000 at work. Experience at home is fair now, compared to past experience before XP (regular crashing, reinstalling windows, many network difficulties), and compared to nowadays daily work instability, and it has gone for the better since I started using mostly opensource software for windows, portable or not.
I used for a very brief period a G3 with System 8, I think, and was very surprised by the straightforward, userfriendly, robust impression of the mac. But I couldn’t afford one and there was no such thing as OS X, nor so many opensource software and freeware apps for Mac (at least that I know).
I had also a very brief experience with Mandrake Linux, totally unsatisfactory, even compared to then recent Win 2000 (I also tried recently Ubuntu, which worked fine on live, but the installation brought problems, and I felt that switching to Ubuntu keeping my XP power-user productivity would take a lot of time).
So I kept suffering with stoicism the orcish look-and-feel of my PCs with Windows.
Until I heard some months ago from friends I trust to know way more than me about computers that OS X “was a Unix for the people”: Robust and powerful BUT userfriendly; what Neal Stephenson praised BeOS for in his remarkable essay “At the beginning was the command line” (incidentally, that essay is from 1995, and recently, when asked to update it on an interview, he just said: “I discovered OS X and never looked back”).
So I went on reading a lot (really a lot) of articles, posts, reviews… and realized that I don’t use any crucial windows-specific application, save maybe for Excel.
Also, when time recently came to upgrade one of the domestic PCs, very few people I know praised Vista, and they all work selling PCs, so I tried myself Vista at a friend’s PC. No demo, nothing weird, just using it to do the same things I do at home on a typical evening, exactly as I would have done it at home.
Very disappointing. It just felt like XP with only a new visual theme, more clumsy and resource hungry.
So I went to actually see, touch, try Macs. It felt no way close to any past experience with computers, not even with that old G3 ten years ago.
So we ordered a Macbook (we wanted a laptop anyway).
Unpacking, installing, booting, configuring… less than 15 minutes.
Beautiful, user-friendly, fast… it even recognised my PC in the domestic LAN out-of-the-box!
I was surprised to see how my wife, who has by no means my long and painful experience with computers, and does not like them at all, found her way very fast to do anything alone (eg using photobooth and then mailing that same picture, checking webmail and blogger…)
It rocks. It works the way all computers should. Just as all present day cars feel the same. I will not become a PC-hater “witness of Jobs”, but I will never again come back to windows and its clunky, orcish feel. I am buying an iMac for myself shortly.
Sorry for the length of this comment, but I really wish I would have switched before.
I really encourage every “would-be-switcher-but-I-hesitate” to make the step.
November 30th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I recently (in Aug) switched from a PC to Mac. Bought a nice
customized 2.4 ghz MacBook Pro & was excited to finally be a Mac user.
It looked so clean & nice +
using iPhoto, to look at and organize my pictures was pretty neat.
But.. for web surfing, chatting, and gaming I kept booting up in XP.
As time went by I found myself not even going onto the Mac side, unless I had some new pictures to upload to Facebook or Flickr..
All the games that I wanted (ie Bioshock, Orange Box, COD 4) are not on the Mac. + Most of the chating programs (I’m Korean, thus use Windows Live Messenger & Nate) are not on the Mac as well.
I really started regretting the fact that I got a MacBook Pro when I could have gotten a cheaper PC.
And to my disbelieve my computer started making weird clunking sounds during Mac OS boot up (not Windows XP boot up)2 weeks ago right before Thanksgiving >_
November 30th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
The Ubuntu Live CD working for Acido Cinico (above) but not on install happened to me, also (and I’m talking about 7.10, too).
I’ve been using PCs with Windows for about 14 years and, apart from my first computer (pentium 75) I have completely built every system since (Pentium 100, Pentium 166MMX, Athlon600, P4 2.8, Core 2 Duo E6400, Core 2 Quad E6600). On these machines I’ve used Windows 95, Windows 98, a little dabble with Windows NT/2000, and Windows XP, with the occasional flirtation with Linux (Debian, Mandrake, SuSE, Xandros, and Ubuntu).
I’ve been using Macs at work now for 12 months. I’m responsible for supporting 24 Intel iMacs. At first I was completely dazzled by them and found myself getting a bit too preachy about them at times. Slowly, though, the honeymoon faded as the following began to really get to me:
1) No upgradable/affordable Mac offering. Mac Pros are overkill in both performance and price and iMacs have no upgrade path. Across the whole spectrum, Mac hardware is expensive; just try adding a bigger hard drive or extra memory at the Apple store online - the jump in price is phenomenal!
2) Size of updates of Apple software. OK, I’m mainly talking about iTunes which seems to need a regular 50MB every few weeks. That’s just insane!
3) Weird keyboard shortcuts. As a long-time PC user, some Mac keyboard shortcuts are just impossible for me to get used to -e.g., Ctrl-Left and Ctrl-Right to go to the beginning and end of the line instead of Home and End (which go to the beginning and end of a document, which most people do far less frequently than moving around sentences!). Enter to rename a file, Cmd+O to open the file. I could go on. Suffice it to say, this old dog can’t be taught new tricks and can’t switch to Mac until Apple add a preference pane to assist PC-users in using Mac keyboards.
4) GUI that’s a little too dumbed-down for my liking. No move? That’s a major pain! You also can’t set details view for all folders (you have to set it for every folder you go to and keep doing so until you don’t have any folders set to anything other than details view). No path bar until Leopard. Get Info on multiple files opens multiple Get Info windows instead of a grouped summary for all files. No way to unminimise a window in the dock with a straight-forward keyboard shortcut.
5) No docking stations for MacBooks. I had the option recently of getting a MacBook Pro or a Dell Latitude for work. I chose the latter because Dell laptops can use docking stations. I don’t have to disconnect and reconnect half a dozen or more cables at the beginning and end of each day. Apple seriously need to discover docking stations to be taken seriously in the corporate sector.
6) Apple Remote Desktop is a little feature-poor. Compared with Altiris or ZenWorks, ARD is a toy. You can’t even drag Macs onto pre-defined commands to have those Macs execute that command. This, from the supposed Kings of drag and drop GUIs! You have to open the command window, drag it aside so that you can see the main ARD window, then drag the Macs onto the command. This is totally lame in every conceivable way. Macs also don’t support wake-on-lan, or “boot-on-lan” as Mac people are prone to call it. I have to set a schedule to have all 24 Macs wake at 8:00 AM in case I need remote access. Wasted power. But, what’s worse, is that I still can’t wake them from sleep most of the time.
So, if Apple could somehow find their way to improving their products along the lines I’ve mentioned above, I could quite easily see myself buying a Mac (and the same goes for some of my friends, too, who are basically holding out with XP until a better deal comes along).
December 1st, 2007 at 8:30 am
homercycles:
I love it when people complain that Mac’s are too expensive. They “were” too expensive. However, that “myth” has long since been killed with Apple’s aggressive pricing. Yes, they dont’ sell a $200 P.O.S. computer. I’m glad they don’t. Leave that to the Dell’s and HP’s of the world.
Also, you are correct, RAM and HDD’s are not cheap from Apple. So don’t buy from Apple. It’s not like Apple is the only place you can get RAM and HDD’s for a Mac. I upgraded my MacBook’ RAM for 1/4 the price Apple was asking from NewEgg.com. I upgraded my HDD in that same MacBook just recently to 160GB’s for $110 and now have a 60GB external HDD to boot.
#2: Your “size of updates” argument is ridiculous. What OS has small updates? Plus, the item you are complaining about isn’t even an OS update. It’s a program that you don’t have to update if you don’t want to. Also, are your iMac’s on dial-up? Are you really complaining about 50MB’s on broadband? 50MB’s take about a minute to download. Sheesh. Let’s talk about needing to do 86 updates after installing WinXP SP2 shall we? And 6 reboots to go along with that.
I haven’t played with Linux in a long time, but my memory of updating the kernel of a Linux Distro was pretty much download the “CD”/”DVD”, then do the update. Hopefully that has changed since then, but if not…
#3: This is a personal complaint. Sure, there are differences with keyboard shortcuts. However, every OS has different keyboard shortcuts from every other OS. Complaining about this is just silly and not really relevant to why someone would or wouldn’t switch to a different OS.
Your point #4 isn’t quite correct. There is most definitely a “Move” with the file system. (At least that is what I assume you were talking about)
When dragging a file to a new location, if that file is on the same drive, it “moves” to the new location. If it’s to a different drive, then yes, it does a copy. However, you can change that by holding the command key down during the drop. In fact, there is a visual cue to. The file will have a green circle with a plus in it to show the file will be copied. When the command is held down, the green circle goes away.
#5: I want to make a small point about docking stations. I have my MacBook connected to my Home Entertainment system. When I want to take it with me someplace, I only have to remove the power cable and 2 other cables. The video and audio cables. I suspect that in a corporate environment, there would be a network cable as well, but wireless works just fine for most needs and would eliminate that cable. Keyboard and mouse are wireless so they don’t need to be connected/disconnected. So what other cables do you need to connect to your notebook computers that you need a docking station to satisfy?
For #6, the Wake-on-lan does work, however, the computer needs to be wired to the network. There is no support for wireless wake-on-lan. This is true with any computer, not just a Mac. It’s just not part of the wireless specification.
Also, why are the computers going to sleep in the first place? Why not make sure the monitor goes to sleep and leave it at that. Computers take very little energy to run. The only part of a computer setup that takes a decent amount of energy is the monitor. Set the monitor to go to sleep after a certain amount of time and leave it at that. Where I used to work, we needed our computers to be left on so that we could work from home if necessary. We never left our monitors on, and I either set the monitor to turn off after an hour, or just physically turned it off before leaving.
You assertion that Mac’s are not ready for business are true. At least in my opinion. Unless that business is making movies or such. There are some decent tools out there that help it get close, but it still has a ways to go.
December 1st, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Dave M:
I love it when Mac people answer along the lines you have: “this is the Mac way, get used to it, and why are you wanting that anyway?” This simply keeps people like me with old faithful, continuing to ignore Mac as a one-size-fits all computing solution that doesn’t care about broadening its appeal. (This last part was edited because it was out of line. If you want to make the same point try rewording it. Remember I said “And be nice!”) Mike.
Perhaps you can upgrade your own RAM or HDD, but maybe not in an iMac (at least not the HDD, I believe) and you certainly can’t put a decent video card in it.
Complaining about the keyboard shortcuts IS NOT silly because there are thousands of people like me that just cannot change old habits, and since the OS has no preference pane for sanitising keyboard shortcuts, Mac OS represents an “our way or the highway” offering that just isn’t acceptable. Linux lets you configure your shortcuts ’til the cows come home.
At work I have a keyboard, two pointing devices, network, and two external monitors connected to my Dell docking station. I’m not disconnecting and reconnecting that lot twice a day, let me assure you! The lack of a docking station for Apple laptops is quite laughable, really. Your answer on this amounts to: “I’m happy, why on earth can’t you be happy the way I do things” kind of answer. Not everybody has your setup. Until Apple can figure out what a docking station is, their laptops are annoying at best.
The wake-on-lan problem I have at work is with 24 iMacs hard-wired to a gigabit network, so the problem has nothing to do with wireless. Even if I boot them up and just let them go to sleep and never bother shutting them down, I have a less-than 50% chance of being able to successfully wake them up. I’ve posted various things to Apple’s forums but there just doesn’t seem to be a fix for it, apart from acknowledgement from some users that Intel Macs are rather flakey at wake-on-lan.
December 1st, 2007 at 11:16 pm
homercycles,
I value your opinion but have a few comments regarding some of your points:
I used to work for HP and the Docking stations barely ever sold. Sure some people would walk in and buy them from time to time but they where far from a big seller, I guess part of the reason is, I can do almost the exact same thing as a docking station by plugging in a USB Hub and my video cable. All right that’s two things connect to do the same job as a single docking station but it’s probably cheaper and more compatible with a number of computers.
I used to be a big advocate of upgrading my computer back when I had a PC and even when I had my Desktop PCI based Mac. The problem with jamming a bunch of stuff in your computer PC or Mac is that eventually you just can’t do anymore to it because technology changes, PCI cards change to AGP then to PCI Express and so on and the same is true with all the other upgrades I would do. In the end I would have thousands of dollars worth of upgrades that I could not carry forward into my next computer and because it was all based on old technology it was virtually worthless.
What I do now is keep my upgrading to a minimum and only do stuff like maybe add a bit of ram or a bigger hard drive. If I find my Mac isn’t cutting it because of a week GPU or whatever then I sell it and get a new Mac that has all the stuff I need. Macs have great resale value so everyone wins, the person who buys my Mac saves a bit on a used machine and I get a spanking new Mac with all the latest and greatest technology for a fraction of the cost of going with the upgrade till extinction method.
Regarding Keyboard shortcuts, they can all be remapped in the System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse/Keyboard Shortcuts” area if you just can’t get used to the Mac way.
With your waking over the network problem I imagine you made sure to select the checkbox “Wake for Ethernet network administration access” in the “System Preferences/Energy Saver” settings?
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:18 am
homercycles: Mike is right about the keyboard shortcuts. I totally forgot about that in the preferences. In Leopard it’s even easier to change and the changes will show up in the menu items that are being changed to show the user the correct shortcuts.
However, even if this wasn’t there. I’m befuddled by your complaint about them. As I stated before, every OS has a different set of shortcuts. There is no standard at all when it comes to this. So moving to Linux, Unix, AmigaOS, etc… All will cause problems for you if you attempt to make a change. Which tells me that you really don’t want to make a change. That said, I’m wondering why you would post about changing to a different OS here in the first place.
As to my posting a response to your original post in the first place. You are here, on a Mac blog. What do you expect from it’s readers? If you want sympathy, I suggest posting on a Windows blog. You will get tons, trust me.
Then there is calling me a “Mac person”. Did you not read my first post here? I think you would have seen that for nearly 20 years, I was a Windows person.
As for your docking station. Did you really think I could read into your first post that you had two monitors, two pointing devices, etc… on your setup? Really? Everyone at the office I used to work at that used a docking station, had one monitor and a mouse connected to theirs. They used the notebook keyboard for their keyboard and used the built-in WiFi for network connectivity. To be honest, I always wondered why they needed the docking station in the first place, but then, I’m weird that way.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
This is really helpful. I’m in the market to replace my Toshiba Satellite with XP2– less than two years old. I have never owned a Mac. In less than two years, I’ve had to reload Windows three times, and it stinks. I’ve also had various corruptions that cause things not to work properly and no one can tell me why. I spent over 90 minutes with a Toshiba clod the other day and that’s when I decided to look at the Macs. I am self-employed and need something very reliable, because I use the computer for BUSINESS. I need Outlook, Excel and Word. I love the beauty of Apple products; I am devoted to my Nano, but really I don’t care about photo management or any of that. I am willing to repurchase MS Office, Quicken, etc. I need to be able to sync my Palm T/X. I am fairly savvy, because I have to be my own IT person — I replace RAM myself and have installed drives on a desktop, but I am not a geek. My husband and I work together and he’s on a PC now (but he prefers a Mac). What do you guys think? Do I need a Mac or a PC laptop?
December 6th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Oh and one more thing on the docking station war. A powered USB hub works much better, I think! I bought a docking station and ended up taking it back.
December 6th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Elaine,
Just wanted to mention that you may not have to outright repurchase the Mac versions again, you may be able to ‘Cross-Grade” them. I would talk to the software companies about this before you spend the money on new versions.
PS Thanks for backing me on the USB powered Hub thing
December 6th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
And another thing that kind of bothers me is that Apple doesn’t try to appeal to the business user. Do you all find that to be the case, too?
December 6th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I don’t think that Apple is trying “not” to appeal to business in so much they are trying to appeal to the creative and average home user. Many Business people like you say, don’t need all the creative applications and the power that is needed when all they’re doing is running word processing and spread sheets… You can buy any inexpensive PC to do that as long as you don’t mind the maintenance that goes with it.
That said, in 2006 Apple switched to Intel and shortly after created a pathway for people to run Windows on their Mac for programs that may in fact be PC only and business related, I think that is making an effort to attract business customers.
What about the fact that a Mac can connect to a an SMB Windows Network, MS did not make any effort to make Windows PC’s connect with Apple AFP networks? Macs can read and write to many PC formated drives, a PC can not even see a Mac formated drive. Apple created Bonjour for Windows so PC’s can see Mac shared printers.
Part of it is up to the PC only software companies to make Mac versions, Apple can’t do that for them.
The only thing Apple is guilty of here is setting their standards to high subsequently removing them from the business markets that purchase based on price alone.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:58 am
I’ll check the keyboard shortcuts in preferences when I go back to work next week, thanks. Regarding Bonjour allowing Windows to see Mac printers, just why is this being included when you install iTunes on Windows?
For what, exactly, does iTunes need to see a Mac printer under Windows? I certainly don’t need that rubbish running in the background all the time (unless Steve wants to help slow down Windows with more background services to drive Mac sales?)
December 7th, 2007 at 11:19 am
homercycles: What exactly are you asking here? You don’t need Bonjour installed to use iTunes and you don’t need a Mac printer to use iTunes.
Why are you so hostile about Apple and OS X?
I’ve never understood this whole PC vrs. Mac rubbish. Each computer has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Lately, PC’s seem to be losing some ground due to Vista and Microsoft’s bad decisions, but Apple and OS X are not shining either.
The computers we choose to run are our own and shouldn’t need to justify those decisions to anyone.
Sure, each side tries to “spread the word” to others, and that’s fine. However, when all is said and done, it’s the decision of the buyer that ultimately matters, since they are the ones making the final decision and purchase.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:58 pm
…I’m using both, but to be ‘more’ honest, I’m still on XP.
I find mac Tiger to still be a bit clunky for my likes. The one glaring issue is resizing a window. In Windows, you can mouse anywhere and get the double-head to resize, in mac, only in the bottom right area.
Now if there is another way, why isn’t it obvious?
2. Closing apps. When I close an app, I want it closed, not shrunk to the task bar (sorry for the windows reference) and then have to click to CLOSE it again.
3. Renaming shortcuts. When mapping to a Windows drive I have to use their folder name. Oh finally found out about ‘alias’ but wasn’t apparent to a newbie like me.
4. Recycle bin becomes the eject item. I’m wary of programs that can be closed or ejected by dragging to the recycle bin. Too easy to accidentally drag another program in by mistake and poof it’s uninstalled.
5. Background colour doesn’t go all the way down in different views.
Remember I’m a newbie, so these are my initial reactions.
Oh, my hd crashed 1 month after warranty…
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Hello there. I stumbled upon this page and fell in love with it instantly. I couldn’t help but see this article. I’m a 19 year old college student who purchased my first Mac about 6 month ago. This isn’t the first time I’ve used one though. My family has only ever owned HP and Dell computers, so I grew up in a PC environment. I never felt any hatred towards it, but I’ve always leaned more towards Mac, even when I was young. During school I got to carry around a school-owned Mac mini. It wasn’t much, but it really allowed me to get a feel for OSX. The only Mac I had ever used prior to that was the old color iMacs with OS9 on them. Not impressive.
But anywho, I’m a graphic design student. I for the most part, enjoy Macs because they come preloaded with programs that I need as a designer. My MBP runs the Adobe products a million times faster than it did on my desktop PC.
I pretty much have developed a hatred for Windows, and I’m a fanboy. I’ll admit that, but I actually don’t have much beef with Vista, which I have dual booted on my MacBook Pro. People don’t give it enough credit. Give Microsoft some time people, it’ll be a good OS. It definitely has a BEAUTIFUL interface that could be hard to adjust to, except to us OSX users. It’s very similar.
I feel bad for the thousands of PC users that have had to/will have to upgrade to handle the updates, because I’m the proud owner of PC World’s Fastest Vista Notebook — ever.
January 4th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I’m thinking of buying a Mac to replace our home desktop wich was a custom built pc that I had for 5 years and no problems. this blog has really helped shed light on the option of replacing with Mac or PC. Can some talk about the e-mail program (ie pros and cons, comparable to outlook)? And how about recieving files from freinds and family when they are all on PC? Will I be able to view them without to much hassel?
Another question I have is if I will need to buy a new printer. I have an old hp 722 printer which is a work horse, and if I would need to buy a new printer to replace it, to run with Mac, it would leave a void in my heart.
Thanks for all the advice!
-Wylie
January 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi Wylie,
As far as emil and mac PC compatibility you should have no problems sending and receiving file to PC family and friends. Outlook right now is a bit slow because it is a non-Intel version but Office Mac updates this month. Personally I really like Apple mail, it’s fast and easy to use.
About your older Hp Printer:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5226080
Mike
February 6th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
So far, after all the reading that I’ve done, I’m still torn. I am currently a very unhappy PC owner, with a PC that has been re-formatted too many times, and with a susceptibility to crashing every other day. i’ve been researching iMac for a couple months now, and the only thing holding me back is budget (regardless of the computer), and fear of compatibilty.
Unlike ‘homercycles’ i’m not an old dog, and can re-learn keyboard shortcuts (although i just learned that i don’t have to!), i don’t need to be able to up-grade, as I would rather just buy a new one than tinker with a clinker, and i know that the iLife is exactly what i’m looking for in entertainment software. out of all of my research, my biggest fear about switching to a mac is a fear of compatibility.
last night i was over at a friend’s house (she is horribly computer illiterate, and just bought a brand-new 24″ iMac), and while i was there she asked my wife and i to help her transfer her photos from her PC to her new iMac. ‘knowing’ (or rather being told by Mac enthusiasts) that Mac will read PC formats, we decided to burn the pics to a couple of CD’s as data disks, then take them up to the mac and upload them there. what happened though, was the surprising (and horribly dis-heartening) part: the new iMac wouldn’t even read the disk. it simply kept spitting it out, without any reason for it.
now, all of this said, i have read time and time again that Mac has built in compatibility to PC’s! what was going on!! i was totally sold up to this point, but now i’m not so sure. not only that, my wife (who is totally un-mac) has made a strong case of concern that our entire photo library will not be able to transfer to mac.
so now, was this a single case, and perhaps the disk was corrupt? can mac read the jump drives, hard drives, but not data cd’s (did we make the wrong choice of data transfer)? will i have to try several different ways to transfer my photo library before it will work? HELP!!
February 6th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
LT, Her iMac should have absolutely no problem reading the PC formatted disk, There are a few possible scenarios here: Bad Disk, Bad Optical Drive on the iMac, Incompatible media, not all DVD’s and CD’s are created equal, try a different brand…
February 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
i’ve been reading further, and it seems that occasionaly mac (or some mac programs) does not read jpg files. is it the fact that they’re jpg’s or do i go back to your other solutions?
February 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
The Mac can read edit and create jpg’s fine, there should be no problem with reading the files other than bad media like mike suggested. A mac can read/write anything Fat32, and can read NTFS. It has no problem with reading PC media.
February 8th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Well, let’s see if we can make this short and sweet:
My first memory of computers was on a Tandy1000 and then the smallest little Apple you’ve ever seen (can’t remember the name, but it was tiny for the mid-80s!). After that we pretty much stuck with the basic home PCs (IBM, etc). Never really had any issues with the PC because I was just doing basic tasks.
I was re-introduced to the wonderful world of Apple in design school. We didn’t get along at first, but the design lab only had Apples, so I reluctantly tollerated all the changes. It wasn’t until the first iMac that we started getting along. By that time it was second nature to “save” as often as possible so that when it crashed you wouldn’t lose EVERYthing, just some
I’m sure some of the issues had to do with the ginormous Adobe programs we used, but we always had a tech available to jimmy it back to working status. I have also used newer versions of the iMac, ending with the first flat panel iMac, and have worked on all the towers and the short-lived Cube, ending with the earlier G4s. I say ending, because I had to stop designing about 6 years ago for various reasons and my Mac experience came to a screeching halt.
So much has changed in the last few years! It’s hard to believe that Mac (and Adobe!!!)could improve on what I thought was amazing already, but they have proved me wrong. Six months ago I started designing again, this time on a PC because of availability. At first I was fumbling all over the place using all the wrong keyboard shortcuts and mouse functions. It was a really steep learning curve but after a while we reconciled our differences and learned to work together.
This brings me to the reason I am here in the first place:
I am now getting ready to purchase the new design suite from Adobe, thus requiring a new machine (our old machine won’t support it). I am having a really hard time deciding which computer to go with, let along which company. In school, the MacWay was the only way, and for good reason. The PCs available at the time weren’t even close to comparable so it was an easy choice. Today, however, the gap seems to be narrowing all the time. PCs are still a bit behind, but not by much anymore. Today, you can get a whole lot more computer for your buck with a PC. I’m already dishing out a boatload for the programs, so it’s hard to not think about the pricetag. BUT I don’t know if I can actually pull the trigger on a PC, on principle if nothing else. Mac has proven to me that it is the best out there. But Mac has also proven that it may be just out of my reach in terms of price.
Well, so much for short and sweet… I would appreciate any input you have on this dillemma.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I have always used PCs but am considering macs for my small business.
Do I need a server? How do you back up? Do I have to rebuy programs such as InDesign?
July 14th, 2008 at 2:23 am
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