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Apple Mac v. Windows PC Ping!
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Posted on 12/08/2010 3:12:39 AM PST by Swordmaker
The versatility of Windows 7 is unmatched - but so are its vulnerabilities. Apple's OS X 10.6 takes the crown for stability and interface (though Win7 is close on interface) - but gamers and some specific applications' users will find themselves running virtual Windows or emulators to be able to use some of the biggest titles.
Personally, I'm sticking with Win7 for the cost but if Apple would cut their laptop prices by $500, I'd probably be running Win7 on a VM on OS X right now.
Of course there's always Mint, openSUSE or Ubuntu Studio ...
“When the office goes down, it’s going to require another visit from one of the outside “techies” we use and write another check.”
As one of those techies I much prefer a windows system. I like learning about my computer and learning how to fix anything that comes along. It’s like driving a standard vs driving an automatics.
Macs cost more, are heavier, but they are ‘easier to use’.
macMini - simplier :)
You can get that on a Mac without having to be forced due to something breaking. Just open Terminal and have a blast in UNIX. My first foray was shortly after getting my Mac. I wanted to fine-tune my power settings more than the Preferences UI allowed. I fired up Terminal, learned the "pmset" command, and I had what I wanted.
You can also do some amazing things with the "defaults" command. It's like playing around in the Windows registry to tweak things, but without the headache and danger.
Mac means less business for the repair techs.
After worry and research, five notebooks and two desktops in 9 years I went Mac and will not look back. I don’t even run Windows in parallel even though I constantly exchange files with clients who are PC based. I suppose I will soon install Parallels and Windows 7 just for a project I’m working on.
The software developer we use is migrating his whole shop to Apple with Windows running on virtual machines for software development. They got tired of the maintenance on the PCs. Me too, I do work with a computer not to work on a computer.
Thus far, a year later, the Mac is stable and runs without maintenance. The only problems I have had with stability are in the Microsoft Office suite... strange changes to menus, unstable drawing app in Word, quirks in Excel and so forth.
I should have paid attention to my son back in 2003 and got a Mac I would have been a lot less frustrated for at least 5 or 6 years. He has had his used iBook laptop since 2003 and it just works.
Sounds like nerf guns vs real guns. No thanks.
If you mean the PC as nerf and the Mac as real, I agree. Don't forget, under that pretty Mac UI is real hard-core certified UNIX™ with all the usual bells and whistles, and more. All the popular shells are available, from Bourne to Z shell (bash is default).
Then you would have had to go through the Intel transition. I bought my iMac with the first Intel Core 2 version (never buy first-gen). I've been very happy and the transition was easy due to the Intel processor.
When was the last time you purchased an Apple computer? The quality is dramatically better, even better than Sony.
I’m sure it has all the bells and whistles, but they wrap you carefully in a bubble. Yes, it’s difficult to edit a registry, but if you learn how to do it properly, the hard way, you have the same ability to edit registries of other systems.
That’s the point of my earlier reference. People who learn on a stick know automatics by default, but the inverse is not true. I have to be prepared for all situations in what I do, and it’s not very useful to me to stick to a system that keeps you out of trouble. I want something that teaches me what to do when the absolute worst happens, so that I can restore the system in a timely fashion.
Macs are not built for this purpose, period. They are built so that you can go into the ‘expert’, and have them fix it for you. I don’t want that, and I’m not sure what’s so difficult to understand.
For people who want a sandbox to play in, to surf the net, to do the general things that need to be done, macs are perfect.
For the folks who have to help other people, this is for the most part useless.
You're not getting it. That bubble is the UI. Terminal is a path outside of that bubble. You have a choice, ultra-easy and simple UI or difficult and complex Terminal. The UI will protect you, but in terminal you have "sudo" and can wreak some major havoc. You can enable root and do more. You can boot into UNIX in command-prompt single user mode and have absolute control over the system. None of the higher OS with its protections is running, networking services have yet to be started, the boot disk isn't even mounted for writing yet. That's how low-level you are.
In short, you get the best of both worlds, ultra-easy UI or extreme down and dirty under the hood.
Or are you talking about reliability? You want a system that constantly breaks down so you can learn how to help other people who have that system that constantly breaks down? To use your car analogy, am I going to buy a car notorious for breaking down just so I can keep fixing it, thereby learning how to fix it for other people who were dumb enough to buy that car?
I'd prefer to get down and dirty when I want to, not because I was forced to by a broken OS.
I prefer non-proprietary computers, stability and security. Thus, I use Linux for web activities and everything else I can, and Windows (grudgingly) for the remainder.
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Good one!
I’m eclectic. My most recent computer purchase is a low-end Windows 7 box for the kids to use for educational games. My main computer is an iMac. I’m posting this from a Fedora box (formerly a Windows XP machine).
Get the right machine for the job. Do your homework so you know what you need and what your true options are. Different situations — even for the same person — may call for different solutions.
Breaking down the above:
* The kids’ computer needs web access and the ability to run a variety of Windows 95/98/XP titles I inherited from my sister and/or picked up for the kids myself. A cheap Windows box (got a refurbished all-in-one) will do the trick.
* For my own computer, I wanted something with good power and low hassle, that I could use for semi-serious desktop publishing (writing rope-playing games and supplements) in addition to normal web stuff and photo/video work. An iMac worked out to be the best option.
* My “other” computer is just for web, mail, and light document editing. Here, I was able to salvage an older PC and install Linux on it to take better advantage of the older hardware.
To make my life easier, there are some applications I use on all platforms, namely Firefox and OpenOffice, to make moving from one to another as seamless as possible. I also use Dropbox to keep a collection of documents synchronized on all of my personal machines.
I got an email from the president of my company the other day that ended with “Sent from my iPad”. Next thing I know the company has bought iPads for all the marketing people.
When my own department head’s phone finally exasperated him, I recommended an iPhone. To my surprise he got one and absolutely loves it. He’s thinking of switching from his PC as well.
I have all Macs and love’em.
For the first ten years of my use of personal computers (in a corporate environment) I used Macs, from the first SE up through each progressive step via the IIci, Classic, Quadra, LC, and Power Mac series. Then was forced over to PCs (for a decade of defragging, costly software, and endless virus protection updates). I was fortunate even with the PC hassles to miss a few of the down years for Apple during that period.
Was then fortunate three years ago to go back to Apple with a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch, and will soon be getting a Verizon iPhone when it becomes available. For me, Macs could not be better. Their OS is the best, their software and all of my computer needs are met 10X over. I hope to get an iPad for a family member soon.
I own both and am quite happy. For some tasks I prefer the PC but for others I like the iMac. I don’t get the controversy frankly.
Christmas before last. The Macbook with the bad battery, two broken power cords and the broken DVD drive is two years old. Was there some big quality drive in the last year that I missed?
I’m not surprised or even particularly disappointed, computers are machines with lots of parts and just because of the entropy that our universe is based on, things are going to break. The Apple logo does not give special protection. Don’t get me started on Sony however, now there is a brand that I truly believe is inferior. I’ll never understand how they got a reputation for quality.
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