Should I buy a Mac or a PC?

[system]

I use my Mac for everything.

Web browsing? Let’s see a windows machine beat three browsers open on three different spaces hopping between them with Spaces hotkeys, all while chatting on an IM window that follows me across the spaces, accessed via Expose. Once Windows reaches that usability level, I will return to them.

Word processing? Microsoft Office has yet to beat the UI and usability of Pages or Open Office. No contest there.

Reliability? Don’t even need to go into this one…

Battery Life? I get four hours of heavy use with WiFi on, and music playing with the screen on bright. And my computer is over a year old!

System Stability? I haven’t even turned off my laptop for 26 days. No crashes, no failures, no problems. Bring it on, Windows. My record on my prior Windows Desktop? 9 days.

Usability? Can’t beat Spaces, Expose, Quicksilver and Spotlight. Windows offers no native alternatives to features that I can no longer function without. Without a comparison to this, I won’t change back. After becoming hooked on these (and multi touch), I can’t even describe Windows as usable anymore.

Multi-Touch? Yeah. Can’t live without this, too.

Nice quality screen? Yes please.

Power user tools? I have 96 distinct shell scripts that do different jobs for me. Windows is not Unix based. I use AppleScript on almost a daily basis for automated and bulk tasks. Windows has no alternative. I run Solidworks inside of a Virtual Machine for work, and all is lightning fast.

Windows cannot offer solutions for usability problems that I require. Until it can, I will not use Windows. That’s all there is to it.

[ebarker]

Apple is mostly a hardware company, and Microsoft is mostly a software company.

I’ll politely disagree. Apple is really (or is becoming) a ‘media’ company.

The O/S and hardware becomes a second tier product. It’s there to support the media.

There is a revolution in the distribution and management of media content. Audio and video in your pocket. The media giants tremble.

Which BTW has implications for how we at FIRST get our message out.

[MrForbes]

I’ll politely disagree. Apple is really (or is becoming) a ‘media’ company.

I think you’re right. Things are changing.

But in the context of the attributes of the computer operating systems, Apple has traditionally been all about making their own hardware work well, and they have not had any interest in selling operating systems for off-brand computers.

Microsoft is the opposite.

[system]

I feel that a lot of people have been brainwashed by apple. Mac does have a lot of advantages, like they can’t get viruses and the user interface is pretty nice. But I feel that they are very overpriced, especially laptops. And yes, Windows Vista is terrible, but the new Windows 7 is fantastic, speaking on behalf of 4 of my friends who have expressed similar opinions of it.

If you want a nice, inexpensive laptop that is powerful, you should go with a Asus.

I’ll second the motion on Asus! I work in news and lately we got into live high end video streaming and encoding and when I looked around for something powerful I looked at what the gamers use and Asus came onto the radar and now my “desktop” is my older Asus G50v and my laptop is my new Asus G51 quad core.

Ok, maybe not as tough as a Thinkpad or Toughbook so you have to handle them with care but for what you get in terms of resources for the money Asus is awesome.

Only negative is the battery life but I really shouldn’t even say that since I have only tested in performance power mode and 60 min is about what I get.

I looked at MAC but there were some things that may still not work like USB to serial programming cables for programming some radios that I use to monitor emergency services and scanners and that one thing is critical for me, even running windows on the mac there was some doubt this USB to serial interface would work.

I looked at the specs on the Asus and was blown away and when it came time for the new machine it was Asus all the way.

A lot of future proofing in these machines, I run windows 7 on them and as long as I don’t drop one hard I probably will get 5-7 years out of them if I want to.

mark

[system]

Macs have always seemed anemic to me, and I’m not even that terribly computer savvy.

I have cousins in the Film and Photo editing industry, and they swear by Mac, but I find that to be the biggest niche for Mac.

My one problem with the mac is parts and service if you need it, with a PC I can buy parts anywhere but not the same with apple.

Macs sure have their advantages in certain things like video and photo editing and I know of news papers and graphics departments who use Mac while the rest of the newsroom is on PC.

Also I am not such a computer expert myself and am trying to learn as much as I can and having to get in behind the scenes and under the hood on a PC helps me learn and keep my skills up, with the mac you can’t really do much of that stuff, so having to do a bit extra maintenance on the PC I think is actually a good thing.

mark

[system]

Most viruses aren’t targeted at CEOs, or anyone in particular.

There are elements of truth to both sides’ explanations of why Macs basically don’t get viruses.

I use Avira premium on both my PC’s as recommended by someone here on CD and I’ve never once had any kind of virus or security problem. Once installed and configured Avira works in the background, auto-updates and keeps things safe. Perhaps the people who get all these viruses on PC’s and via email don’t have basic protection turned on? Ever since I owned my first computer which I think was a 486? I have never got a virus, not once.

[system]

My one problem with the mac is parts and service if you need it, with a PC I can buy parts anywhere but not the same with apple.

Macs sure have their advantages in certain things like video and photo editing and I know of news papers and graphics departments who use Mac while the rest of the newsroom is on PC.

Also I am not such a computer expert myself and am trying to learn as much as I can and having to get in behind the scenes and under the hood on a PC helps me learn and keep my skills up, with the mac you can’t really do much of that stuff, so having to do a bit extra maintenance on the PC I think is actually a good thing.

mark

OSX is a UNIX based operating system. This allows far more customization and “under the hood” work to be done by the average user. Windows is not.

Plus, why would you need to have parts for a mac? Mine’s never broken… Heck, even if you do, just drop by an Apple store and they’ll swap out the part in a day or three.

[MrForbes]

Heck, even if you do, just drop by an Apple store and they’ll swap out the part in a day or three.

I guess you don’t get the whole “playing with your computer hardware” thing.

[system]

I guess you don’t get the whole “playing with your computer hardware” thing.

I completely understand the joys of playing around with it, but here’s my point: Take a car metaphor. Do you really want to spend time rooting under the hood of your daily driver? What if you break something? Why not have a nice reliable car, and spend time under the hood of the weekend mobile?

Computers are like cars for me. The mac is some shiny european car: Harder to work on the hardware, don’t break down too often, and a bit more expensive as a result. But boy oh boy do they drive nicely.

[MrForbes]

I guess you don’t get the whole “build your car thing” either

[system]

I guess you don’t get the whole “build your car thing” either

Oh, I’ve built three autocross cars and one drag car. Nothing as fast as that though!

[MrForbes]

I drove it up to Phx a couple months ago (500 mile round trip) and ran 11.25 at 122. Then drove it home.

I get to work on all the late model junk that my wife owns…two of them are over 10 years old now, and yeah, they’re kind of a pain. The old stuff is fun though.

and my desktop computer is pretty modern (core 2 duo) stuff in a 1998 vintage IBM case.

[system]

I drove it up to Phx a couple months ago (500 mile round trip) and ran 11.25 at 122. Then drove it home.

I get to work on all the late model junk that my wife owns…two of them are over 10 years old now, and yeah, they’re kind of a pain. The old stuff is fun though.

and my desktop computer is pretty modern (core 2 duo) stuff in a 1998 vintage IBM case.

Man, fastest older model car I’ve ridden in was a blown 69 Charger than ran the standing quarter in 12.5, and that was fun times. Then I rode a Koenigsegg CCXR in a standing 9, and all concepts of speed were shattered. That car wasn’t even any fun.

But anyway, back to the topic. PC v Mac all comes down to one thing: Are the usability features in a mac worth the extra cost to you? If so, go for Mac. If not, go for PC.

[MrForbes]

I seem to be able to do all I need with a PC, there is some video stuff I could use a mac for, but my brother says that there’s video stuff he can’t do on his mac that he needs a PC for! so it’s probably a matter of whether you want to pay for the perceived value. I don’t, about 10% of computer users do. I admit that I’m a cheapskate.

[system]

I completely understand the joys of playing around with it, but here’s my point: Take a car metaphor. Do you really want to spend time rooting under the hood of your daily driver? What if you break something? Why not have a nice reliable car, and spend time under the hood of the weekend mobile?

Computers are like cars for me. The mac is some shiny european car: Harder to work on the hardware, don’t break down too often, and a bit more expensive as a result. But boy oh boy do they drive nicely.

I sort of agree with this point to some extent, especially when things get super busy and I’m doing the 15-18 hour days, you just want the truck and then computer to just work.

I guess the thing with me is I want “one laptop” to do everything for me, so while a Mac would do everything I need from live video to everything else there was one problem even in running windows on a Mac and that was my radio systems programming software, this would mean two computers with one just for the radio stuff. with PC I have everything on one machine.

I was an a scene today and one of the camera guys from another station had an ipod touch, it blew me away! and it scared the heck out of my blackberry. No doubt Apple makes some nice stuff and I’m sure the ipad will be good as well.

A bit expensive though when compared to an Asus and Mac’s are not as durable as a Thinkpad or toughbook as well.

I still for some reason and maybe it’s just the nerd in me but I am hooked on PC.

mark

[system]

IA bit expensive though when compared to an Asus and Mac’s are not as durable as a Thinkpad or toughbook as well.

The new Unibody Macbooks are milled out of a single block of 6061-T6. They’re far stronger than any windows running computer on the market (except for the mil-spec ones).

[_TBT_Phoenix]

BUY MAC NOW!!!

[Chris_is_me]

The new Unibody Macbooks are milled out of a single block of 6061-T6. They’re far stronger than any windows running computer on the market (except for the mil-spec ones).

Having owned many Macs and PCs, including the Macbooks machined from solid, the AL cases are generally stronger than plastic ones, but the case is rarely the part that fails when I break my computers. Normally the hard drive goes first, or LCD screen.

I’m seriously considering buying a Toughbook or other milspec computer next time I purchase one. I am rough on my electronics.

[system]

Having owned many Macs and PCs, including the Macbooks machined from solid, the AL cases are generally stronger than plastic ones, but the case is rarely the part that fails when I break my computers. Normally the hard drive goes first, or LCD screen.

I’m seriously considering buying a Toughbook or other milspec computer next time I purchase one. I am rough on my electronics.

Are there any Toughbook’s or other milspec pc laptops that have the high end resources like let’s say my Asus G51, I do video rendering which is CPU/GPU intensive and last time I checked the Toughbook didn’t even come close and was very expensive.

I am very happy with the Asus but the toughbook toughness would be nice to have as working in news the equipment can get bumped around a bit at times.

Any thoughts?

[MrForbes]

You need this pc!

http://www.selectric.org/zenith/z300.jpg

Unfortunately it’s a 80386 processor hiding in there…