Apple Mac vs. PC

I'm not a graphics person, so I've never been interested in a Mac. Now, I would like to get one, because I have a little more money to spend, and I like to learn about computers, and Mac is the one I know nothing about.

Could I get some feedback on why Mac. What, if any, would be good things about a Mac for someone that doesn't do graphics?

 

erm, style, thats about it. Other than the graphicy stuff they are just the same as PC's


HAAAAAAVING said that, the laptops are deffintly capable well built machines, so if you are looking for a laptop, I would go check out some powerbooks.

 

Well, it looks nice, and it's really stable...and the newer ones are fast. OS X is a great operating system.

If you want to learn a little about Macs, pick up a Mac Mini. It'll let you get your feet wet for a low cost. If you don't have that kind of money right now, just remember...

IF SOMEONE OFFERS YOU A FREE (OR INSANELY CHEAP) MAC, TAKE IT!!!!

That's how I got mine; it was a gift.

 

basically the difference between mac and pc is the feeling. They can both basically preform the same tasks, but they may do so differently. Personally, I cant stand the feeling of mac, although it does look nice (nothing that a little modding and theming cant fix on XP). You will, however, find that many more programs run on windows than mac. Windows and mac are basically the same except for subtile differences.

 

Use OS X for a day and you will be amazed its 10years ahead of windows xp. Thats the main reason for buying a mac.

 

Yup Gordy's right. No viruses, better OS, far better reliability & stability. Macs are better than PCs at anything other than gaming. And if games are your thing you could always get a PS3 due spring 2006

You won't be dissapointed. If you want a good value mac but want a good a powerful system take a look at the iMac G5, you won't need a monitor either then.

 

OSX is really nice, the only thing is that there is a learning curve that you need to get over.

For example, i had to do VPN with OSX one time, took me 10 mins to figure out the easiest way to do it, but thats just because the way OSX is laid out. Its "different" then XP, not necessarily better/worse, its just that somethings arn't where you would expect them to be.

Spotlight handles this nicely though. Just type vpn in the bar and you can go right to Internet Connect

If you dont game, i would recomend going to the dark (and white ) side

 

Mac + x86 = games

 

Mac + x86 = too long to wait

but it hopefully will mean games

 

too long to wait exactly

i need a new laptop, but i really dont want to fork over $2500 for a new powerbook, only to be horrificly outdated in a few months

 

When it comes down to it, pcs are faster than macs. However, mac users have the convience of having no spyware, viruses, adware and other crap that pc users often have to deal with. For multimedia creation, macs are definitely the way to go since it is made much simpler and less confusing than the same thing on the pc side.

With that being said, the advantage of pcs are the games. Virtually every game is made for the pc nowadays, and only a fraction of these games are compatable with macs. There is also a much more variety of programs to choose from if you are on a pc. Developers tend to make programs for pc only since they can make the most profit this way.

 

Surely one of the reasons why macs dont get riddled with virus's and spyware because no one really makes them 'for' Mac's?, correct me if im wrong as its probably a stupid comment.
If the os's work in different ways surely if somone wanted to attack Macs then they could, if you have enough people doing it you will eventually get somone who finds a weakness.

Ive used Macs when I was at Uni doing graphic design, we had brand spanking new top o' the range ones as the others got stolen in the holidays. I wasnt too impressed tbh as they were really unstable and kept crashing (had to save work every 2 mins like at school), also they were slower at running photoshop and Illustrator than my pc which cost about half as much. I thought there supposed to be ready to go out the box?

Im sure I would own a mac if I had loads of money but I wouldnt want to touch one unless it was the mac daddy model (pun *sigh*), just havent been impressed with the speed of any ive used so far. Ive found pc's to be fine if you choose the right parts and build them yourself, theyre also perfectly stable if you treat em well.

The one thing that puts me off Macs is the people ive met that use them, im sure theres a lotta nice and inteligent people that do (all the Mac users on here seem to be) so dont shout at me. The people that ive met in person are mainly ponces who thoguht by buying one it will make them better at graphic designer because every "creative" person has one, also looks come above function with them. I would describe most of them as 'trendys' or 'try hards', you know the ones with mullets or even 3 haircuts in one, bleached pre worn jeans, a t-shirt with crappy type face plastered all over it all crammed in the upper half of the t-shirt and maybe a nasty tatoo of whatever is fashionable at that point in time. Basically they are trying to look different from everyone else but the just end up looking the same as eacother.

Damn, im a whiney bitch

Sorry for the ranting

Oh for the record, Mac's do look nice, especially the insides (time for a style change tho)

 

Let me guess: you were running a classic (ie. pre OS X) version of Mac OS...or had Classic mode on (not necessarily running anything) in OS X.

Mine's never crashed, and it's not unstable. Pre-OS X, it's another story.

 

http://www.penny-arcade.com/search.php?keywords=charles&jointype=1&searchtype=1

 

While that is partly true its hard to infect multiple macs due to the way the permissions are setup. To get infected you would have to type in your password for one

 

Exactly.
Whenever you install something on your mac (or even an update) you have to enter your password. This brings on a higher difficult for viruses to get into your system. Then another reason is that mac os x is a unix-bases operating system, wich makes it very hard to make viruses for it.

But the main reason is that virus-makes, want there program to have a great effect. And the biggest bunch of computer users, use Windows. Everybody who use's something else, is most likely to know more about computers aswell.

Mac is the way to go!
L

 

A looked after one is probably really nice, I suppose any publicly used computer is gonna get messed up. Was at uni about 3 years ago if that helps, I dunno when OS X come into afect tbh.

I'l have to have a dabble with a G5 at some point

 

mac seti unit > 30hrs
my pc (not overclocked) seti unit < 4hours.

 

To be honest, the operating system is the only thing that really appeals to me. Even then, I see the whole "we bring out a new OS every year and charge you for it" mantra a bit of offputting. Sure, Microsoft take a hell of a long time to get from each OS release to the next, but it's so customisable there are enough possible additions and addons to keep you occupied for a decent length of time. Saying that though, I think a new OS should be released every 2 to 3 years, not 1 or 5. Apple computers do for the most part look lovely, the Power Mac especially (althought i find the G5 iMac a bit nasty myself), but there's nothing they offer that you can't replicate or better too difficultly with a PC. The cost of buying a Mac and then the probability of not being able to upgrade it at all really is quite a big mark against them. I personally find the felxibility of them a bit limiting, and as much as I wouldn't mind having a Mac at all, I see little advantage in having one over my PC in that I've always avoided viruses etc easily because I know what I'm doing. What really gets to me though, is the damn fanboys...

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OSX is far more customisable than windows as its unix based and open source. You can just as easily customise the looks and having unix underneath gives you far more options than windows does.

I object to being charged for a new os every year but at least its cheap. Not to mention that they have a family pack option instead of having to buy 4 or 5 of the same os at full price. The changes from panter to tiger were worth the £40-50 its not the same as a service pack, apple have released two of those for tiger already. Windows XP is what 4-5years old and has only had 2!

The next osx version won't be out till longhorn so thats quite a gap two years.

I agree about the upgradabilty I wish it was like pc's on that front, though on the other hand the advantage is that they don't have to support an inifinite number of possible configurations which is often a problem in the windows world. Another advantage is that they retain their value my sisters 5-6year old g4 is still worth £300. A similar aged pc would be in the tip. Not to mention it still being able to run the latest osx without having to do more than sling some more ram in there. Again not something a windows machine could do.