Mac vs. PC

[hogan873]

My computer at home is slowly dying, and it's about time to get a new one. We've always had PCs, but I've started looking at Macs, most likely an iMac. We use the computer mainly for internet and iTunes. Only occasionaly do we use Word or Excel.

 

I've done some research, and it seems like the extra money for a Mac is worth it, but I was wondering if anyone here has any input. Has anyone had both PCs and Macs? Which is better? What do you recommend?

[SouthSideTeacher]

I've always been a PC girl until this past year when I needed a notebook for work and grad school. I did a ton of research before I decided to purchase my MacBook Pro. I am so glad I went with the Mac over the PC!

At first I thought it would cost a ton more than a PC, but for all that I got--software package, extended warranty, a year's worth of support, free color printer and a neoprene case that the sales guy threw in for me--the overall cost was comparable to the PC I was considering from Best Buy.

Now, I'm a Mac girl for life. I can't even tell you how many research papers, photos, songs, FLIP videos, and everything else I've got stored on this thing and it still moves lightning fast. I'm ALWAYS on the go and this thing takes a beating like you wouldn't believe. No virus worries or anything like that, either.

Go for the Mac--you'll be glad you did.

 

PS: You might want to wait for the 'Back to School' specials starting next month. If I'd have bought when my colleagues did last August, I would have gotten a free iPod along with all the other stuff I got.

Edited July 14, 2011 by SouthSideTeacher

[Y2HH]

Ever since I started using a Mac, I've never looked back to a the world of PC's.

 

You will pay a premium unless you buy the largest iMac (it's the only iMac competitively priced), but that said, you are paying for the ease of returns, tech support and the engineering that went into what you buy. When/if you do call Apple tech support, you will talk to an American that understands English and isn't reading off of a novice script asking you to reboot your PC 50 times but not doing much of anything else to help.

 

Oh, all that and OSX is about 500x more powerful of an OS than Windows is...considering OSX is BSD UNIX on the back end and you can use all that UNIX awesomeness when/if you choose to learn.

 

At this point, the only decision to make is 1) do you want to save money? and 2) do you want to play games?

 

I ask this because although more and more games are available on the Mac, there are many that are not...yet. And you can save a bunch of money by building your own, or even going with some crappy prefab like a Dell (which I'd never recommend). Then again, those all look like garbage in comparison, too.

 

I've converted my parents and my wives parents to using a Mac, too, which cut my tech support time with them down from about ALL THE TIME to almost never.

 

This decision really comes down to preference and money. I still use a Windows workstation for work, because I have too, but I'm so sick of the Windows world it's a joy to use OSX when I get back home.

 

Oh, and if you order your Mac online, even if you don't go to school, you can buy it out of their education store and save yourself 10-15% just by saying you go to school. If you try this at an Apple store, they will request to see a school ID to verify, but online they never verify.

 

I use the newest 2011 27" iMac and my wife has the 2008 model 24" iMac. When/if I want, I can dualboot it over to Windows 7, too...since I have that installed on a little piece of the drives partition...as does she.

Edited July 14, 2011 by Y2HH

[hogan873]

Wow, great feedback so far. Thanks! I figured most folks who have used both would recommend the Mac. I suppose my biggest concern is money. But everything I've heard about the Macs is that they are worth every extra penny. I'm just so sick of having a slow computer. All I want to do is surf the web quickly and download music quickly.

[Y2HH]

Wow, great feedback so far. Thanks! I figured most folks who have used both would recommend the Mac. I suppose my biggest concern is money. But everything I've heard about the Macs is that they are worth every extra penny. I'm just so sick of having a slow computer. All I want to do is surf the web quickly and download music quickly.

 

Well, I dislike Apple fanboys as much as I dislike PC/Windows fanboys.

 

If all you are going to do is browse the web and download music via iTunes, you could do this on a cheap Windows PC, too...with moderately new specs in comparison to your old PC, it *would* be fast.

 

I lean toward the Mac right now, because their overall customer experience is just flat out better, in every regard. I've not only used both Windows PC's and Macs, but I currently use both...and if your interest isn't in playing games, get a Mac if you have the money.

[Balta1701]

I'll also toss in...the biggest impediment to effectively running a Windows based system is knowing how to run it effectively. If you already know how to operate Windows, Windows 7 is a pretty good OS (esp. compared with the debacle that was Vista), so some of the downside is removed.

 

That said, I'm a Windows user and I F***ing hate Microsoft. Yet I keep coming back because I know how to run all of the programs I need in Windows and have other coding languages I need to learn first.

[Y2HH]

I'll also toss in...the biggest impediment to effectively running a Windows based system is knowing how to run it effectively. If you already know how to operate Windows, Windows 7 is a pretty good OS (esp. compared with the debacle that was Vista), so some of the downside is removed.

 

That said, I'm a Windows user and I F***ing hate Microsoft. Yet I keep coming back because I know how to run all of the programs I need in Windows and have other coding languages I need to learn first.

 

That's seriously how I feel about Microsoft. They represent everything that's wrong with companies when they get too big. That's not to say Microsoft hasn't done great stuff...they do. But what they do is go all out, become #1 in a given arena, and then sit back and do nothing for YEARS after they're #1. Look at IE. I remember when they jumped into the browser wars and truly cared...there came a point that IE was better than anything else out there.

 

Then they sat on IE and did nothing with it for years, which is a LONG time in the computer/tech arena...and they did nothing to change that until they started losing noticeable market share. They do this with all of their products, and it's annoying. So when/if I find alternatives to stuff Microsoft has, I tend to go with it because I know that the odds are far better that the other company WILL stay on top of things for years to come...

Edited July 14, 2011 by Y2HH

[StrangeSox]

They were several years behind Firefox (and other I'm sure) with tabbed browsing.

[Y2HH]

They were several years behind Firefox (and other I'm sure) with tabbed browsing.

 

Firefox didn't even come out until late 2004, but that's my point. Up until then, Microsoft sat on their browser for the first half of the decade, adding little and innovating nothing. This is what they always do. It wasn't until after FF came around and started changing things that they suddenly decided to care again.

[Steve9347]

Wow, great feedback so far. Thanks! I figured most folks who have used both would recommend the Mac. I suppose my biggest concern is money. But everything I've heard about the Macs is that they are worth every extra penny. I'm just so sick of having a slow computer. All I want to do is surf the web quickly and download music quickly.

I've used both extensively both for work and play. Personally, I'd go with a Windows 7 PC, as you can get great power and features for a fraction of a Mac price. I really like Windows 7.

[Steve9347]

That's seriously how I feel about Microsoft. They represent everything that's wrong with companies when they get too big. That's not to say Microsoft hasn't done great stuff...they do. But what they do is go all out, become #1 in a given arena, and then sit back and do nothing for YEARS after they're #1. Look at IE. I remember when they jumped into the browser wars and truly cared...there came a point that IE was better than anything else out there.

 

Then they sat on IE and did nothing with it for years, which is a LONG time in the computer/tech arena...and they did nothing to change that until they started losing noticeable market share. They do this with all of their products, and it's annoying. So when/if I find alternatives to stuff Microsoft has, I tend to go with it because I know that the odds are far better that the other company WILL stay on top of things for years to come...

Well, anyone using IE beyond 2005 was/is an idiot anyway.

 

I became a Firefox user when I started web development. I then made the switch to Chrome due to it's lesser memory usage.

[Y2HH]

Well, anyone using IE beyond 2005 was/is an idiot anyway.

 

I became a Firefox user when I started web development. I then made the switch to Chrome due to it's lesser memory usage.

 

Problem is, many don't have a choice...it's what's deployed across their organizations.

[Y2HH]

I've used both extensively both for work and play. Personally, I'd go with a Windows 7 PC, as you can get great power and features for a fraction of a Mac price. I really like Windows 7.

 

Windows 7 IS a good OS, it's Microsoft's best OS since XP SP2. And it depends on which Mac you buy. Mac Pros, for example, are clearly overpriced. But if you take the top line iMac, and compare it to similarly specced all-in-ones, it's pretty hard to top in price. I say all in ones, because of course you could piece together an ugly box of components for cheaper, but that's not a valid comparison.

Edited July 14, 2011 by Y2HH

[chw42]

They were several years behind Firefox (and other I'm sure) with tabbed browsing.

I'm on a temp computer at work and I'm stuck with IE. My god do I hate this piece of s*** browser. It "recovers" my tabs every hour from something crashing. That never happens in any other browsers. It's also slow as hell and it's just a mess.

[chw42]

I don't think I'll ever get a Mac as my main computer. I do too much gaming on my PC.

[RockRaines]

get an iMac. Ridiculously stable, fast, reliable. Unless you are a super gamer, the Mac can do that for you as well. I have several PC's and an iMac and its my workhorse that never gets s***ty glitches, viruses etc. Just plugs along just like new.

[RockRaines]

Well, anyone using IE beyond 2005 was/is an idiot anyway.

 

I became a Firefox user when I started web development. I then made the switch to Chrome due to it's lesser memory usage.

I've found Chrome uses just as much memory as FF, it just splits it up into threads per tab. Overall I am getting almost the exact same total useage.

[Y2HH]

I've found Chrome uses just as much memory as FF, it just splits it up into threads per tab. Overall I am getting almost the exact same total useage.

 

Since FF5, this is about right. Before FF5, however, FF was a memory leaking b****.

[RockRaines]

Since FF5, this is about right. Before FF5, however, FF was a memory leaking b****.

I'm finding Chrome uses about 100-200 MB of memory per tab.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Being at Ball State, a campus that is like 90% MAC in our libraries and studios, I am basically forced to use MACs outside of personal computer use, and I don't like them. I 100% know how to use a PC, and there are a lot of things on the Mac that I just can't figure out how to do, or seem backwards for the sake of being different from PC.

 

I'll never get a Mac.

[RockRaines]

Being at Ball State, a campus that is like 90% MAC in our libraries and studios, I am basically forced to use MACs outside of personal computer use, and I don't like them. I 100% know how to use a PC, and there are a lot of things on the Mac that I just can't figure out how to do, or seem backwards for the sake of being different from PC.

 

I'll never get a Mac.

Like what is confusing to you, maybe we can help?

[BigSqwert]

I can't think of a single person that purchased a Mac and hated it. I've never used one myself.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Like what is confusing to you, maybe we can help?

 

I don't know, like figuring out how the hell to open a new tab in a browser, how to "right-click", how to scroll, how to use the servers we had, how to log and capture video on to the computer via MovieMaker or whatever the hell Apple's video software was called. Disliked how the windows never opened up to a full screen. Like there was no "maximize" button, and how the buttons for programs were on the top left instead of the top right.

 

I did, however, really like how there were a bunch if quick-launch icons on the bottom bar. That part was nice.

[RockRaines]

I don't know, like figuring out how the hell to open a new tab in a browser, how to "right-click", how to scroll, how to use the servers we had, how to log and capture video on to the computer via MovieMaker or whatever the hell Apple's video software was called. Disliked how the windows never opened up to a full screen. Like there was no "maximize" button, and how the buttons for programs were on the top left instead of the top right.

 

I did, however, really like how there were a bunch if quick-launch icons on the bottom bar. That part was nice.

Some of your problems apparently are mouse-driven. I right click using my right click on the mouse, the scroll is my scroll wheel. New tab is Alt T or the plus sign on the Chrome tab bar. The maximize button on my browser is the far right button on the upper left corner. You can also customize your browser with where you want the button etc. The bottom menu acts as a quick launch bar and also a "force close" application so you never have to ctl-alt-delete to get to where you need to go. Alot of the shortcuts are the exact same as a PC.

 

I personally use a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard for my imac, so it operates just like a pc in my interaction with it. Where it performs easier is in things like storing files and having them be indexable and accessible without me having to point the damn system at the location of the file, it does it automatically. the iMovie questions are something that should be easy to figure out since the Mac is the premiere system to do video and graphic editing on. It sounds like they just have their Macs set up in a very basic way or just a strange set up.

[bmags]

For a new tab, just hold the command button and left click. Delete the tab with command+w. Control click right clicks. On most macbooks, two fingers on your mousepad scrolls up and down.