PC vs Mac

[Deleted account 210609001]

In response to some shameless baiting D ):

Is there any real diference between a Mac and a "normal" PC? Is there any real advantage in one over the other? Or are the differences becoming smaller as time goes by?

Do they have differnet strengths and weaknesses. Does one work better than the other for, say, video editing or graphics programmes?

Any answers or views in layman's terms, please...

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

NOOooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!!!!



not again......

 

[ROLLINSDAN]

I switched to a Mac March last year, no freezing, crashing or any trouble at all................

I use a PC at work and formerly at home too, I now use my Mac at work when I can, I'll never use Windows at home again.

 

[Fanum]

 

[Bigtwin]

Simple.

Mac = hassle and virus free grown-up computing for men.

Doze shite = virus ridden unreliable crap requiring constant fiddling from the Terry Pratchet fan-club brigade that does, however, play games.

 

[Jon]

play games.

so that's the only important bit really

 

[ROLLINSDAN]

Who Bill? Me?!

 

[Gas'd Off]

Guidenet.net Mac V's PC mythbuster

Extract:
Raw Speed - Windows PCs have a serious edge here. Where time is money, processor speed can be very important. Regardless of how hard Mac advertising attempts to claim that the slower clock speed Macs are really just as fast as a PC, it just ain't so and proven so by every bench test out there. If you have the "need for speed" in gaming, software development, 3D rendering and other applications, Windows is the clear winner here.

Ease of Use - I give Mac the edge here, though the difference is pretty small with the release of Windows XP. Windows binary Plug-in-Play is no longer "Plug-n-Pray" and though technologically superior to Mac doesn't get the job done as nicely. By using nearly draconian measures and monopolistic threats, Apple has been able to maintain tight control over makers of third party hardware. What this means to you is an easier to use system, but with much less choice in add-ons.

Macs = Media luvvies

Hardware comparison site

OS comparison site

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

Clearly, this has been done before and is an emotive issue for some of you.

I apologise for re-opening any old wounds. I'll delete this thread in a little bit.

Robin.

 

[samwise]

Guidenet.net Mac V's PC mythbuster

Could do with updating that guide, as Macs have been on the same processors as a lot of Windows boxes for just over a year now (last to go was the MacPro in August 06 - if you don't include the XServe which, as a server, doens't affect most people ).

 

[Gas'd Off]

Clearly, this has been done before and is an emotive issue for some of you.

I apologise for re-opening any old wounds. I'll delete this thread in a little bit.

Robin.

No no no, it's great fun piff paff piff paff - thwack - ouch - next round
Seriously though, I'm a heavy PC user but if someone could truly convince me that a Mac could do the job better I would happily go to the dark side

 

[Toad]

I now run a Mac with XP on a Parallels session.

best of both worlds

 

[walti]

No no no, it's great fun piff paff piff paff - thwack - ouch - next round
Seriously though, I'm a heavy PC user but if someone could truly convince me that a Mac could do the job better I would happily go to the dark side

I use both the Mac will not run a lot of the Windows engineering stuff I have to use for my job. Though I am yet to try Win 98 on an Intel based machine...

The Mac is better at sorting, storing and viewing my photos, I like iTunes (a LOT of PC people don't because it's done differently to older PC programs) and where I've done video editing for work I use the Mac as I get on better with it.

The PC is better for games - I'd buy a console if I wanted to play games though.

I use the Mac for Word and Excel as it operates both faster than my XP machine does!

Interestingly out of the box the Mac takes up to 15 mins to be up and running all the XP machines I've started off have taken a couple of hours!

Downsides of both:

The XP laptop spends so much time checking all it's bits and pieces are in order after booting that I tend to set it off and then check my emails and browse the forums while the PC boots. (It takes a good 10 mins longer than the Mac to get ready to work!)

The PC misbehaves more than the Mac. Freezes crashes and the occasional BSOD.
The Mac is less flexible when it comes to buying devices to work with it.

The behind the scenes stuff is interesting as most PC users seem to see the Mac as a Fisher Price "My First Computer" but when you get into the Unix system that underpins the O/S then it's actually more powerful than a PC!

TBH I hate both of them! computers drive me mad... but it's down to application then preference as to which is better!

 

[Gas'd Off]

I now run a Mac with XP on a Parallels session.

best of both worlds

Does that setup then bypass the issue of only being able to use Mac hardware on the device?

Re your comments Walti, what do you use at home? My works machine is a knobs and whistles PC as it has to maintain stability with huge vector files but at home I don't need much, I currently have a +5yr laptop (Toshiba I think, can't remember! ) that is OK but does crash periodically if I ask too much of it. When I replace it I may consider a Mac bookey thing but I would rather run XP than OSX. Is there any real benefit to having a Mac laptop and running Xp on it?

 

[walti]

Does that setup then bypass the issue of only being able to use Mac hardware on the device?

Re your comments Walti, what do you use at home?

I use an IBM Lappy for work with XP on it and the Mac at home + admin for my business.

My works machine is a knobs and whistles PC as it has to maintain stability with huge vector files but at home I don't need much, I currently have a +5yr laptop (Toshiba I think, can't remember! ) that is OK but does crash periodically if I ask too much of it. When I replace it I may consider a Mac bookey thing but I would rather run XP than OSX.

To be honest I don't find switching from XP to OSX an issue, I would say I marginally prefer OSX, but it's close.

Is there any real benefit to having a Mac laptop and running Xp on it?

To be honest my understanding is that it is the OS that is instable not necessarilly the hardware, so I can't see any benefit in running Apple hardware exclusively on XP. My mate has just lashed out a small fortune on a Toshiba Qosmos (or something similar!) and that was about the same price as the equivelent MacBook Pro but has a lot more goodies with it.

 

[samwise]

Does that setup then bypass the issue of only being able to use Mac hardware on the device?

What Mac hardware?

 

[Gas'd Off]

What Mac hardware?

Mouse or webcam?

 

[gasman]

the most important part of my computer is the mouse wheel !! Do macs have these ?

 

[mystic]

In response to some shameless baiting D ):
Is there any real diference between a Mac and a "normal" PC?
Any answers or views in layman's terms, please...

Yes.
MACS=Outstanding visual design and totally intuitive inferface.
PCs =So blo*dy boring and plain dull!

 

[samwise]

Mouse or webcam?

Mouse = Logitech

Webcams are more of an issue (apart from an iSight, naturally, and that MSN Messenger for Mac doesn't have A/V capability), but apparently a driver from the macam site will allow a number of webcams to work on OS X.