Mac or PC? the age old question

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Im sure this topic has been debated many many times on this forum or in life in general, but I’m going to reopen the case.

This fall, I’m going away to college. I’ve been using a middle-of-the-line pc for about 2 years now, and I’m going to buy a new computer. Do I buy a mac or a pc?? I like the quality and look of apple products, but I fear I’m going to be limited in the software I can run on a mac. If I go the pc route, I guess I would get the Sony vaio, with 4gb ram and 500gb drive. As far as mac, I’m undecided. Will Windows 7 be a nightmare?

2

Why bother?
PC, MAC, Linux or other? They all basically do the same thing when you get down to it so what’s the big deal what you use?

3

I think it matters because I’m probably going to be doing of a lot of that “thing” so why not buy the machine that makes it easier/more enjoyable/more efficient?

4

It doesnt matter at all because with a MacBook or MacBookPro you can also install and run Windows natively on it.

I will buy myself again a mac simply because of the fact that I can run both systems in a dual way.
Win software might be one part, but if it does not require a lot of computation power or 3D you can
either virtualize that with using a virtual mashine (not an emulator) like VM Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or the free Virtualbox. My students do that a lot when they only need to run a cad software and do not want
to bother with Windows.

Plus from my experience observing it is a lot easier to crash you win side including all the jazz with viruses and maleware.

You might want to wait till the back to school program is back and then get the Mac for an extra price.

Another point is that if you keep you mac in good condition you can sell it for a respectable amount
later compared to a windows laptop which would have no worth anymore.

If you talk about more efficient I would really go rather with the mac since you get the best of both worlds in one computer - and you like the higher quality of those machines anyway.

5

I once thought of only buying a mac, but to be honest i have never been able to justify the price (over 3 times the price for same specs in my country when i was a student). I still always keep an eye out to see if they have become closer to top end PC prices.

I just picked up a Sony i7, 6GB ram, 1GB nvidia 330m, BluRay writing beast of a laptop with an Adobe certified fullHD monitor for about 60% of the price of a macbook pro that had similar but lower specs.

The only other thing that held me back was the fact that the 17" macbooks don’t have a full sized keyboard with a numberpad, my current laptop does!

Perhaps it’s just high prices in my country, so make your own judgement based on your needs, price point, and what works with you. They are certainly becomnig closer in price than they once were, and the differences in software are minimal, I use both regularly and am happy with the experiences of both.

Good Luck.

6

I am surrounded by Mac fans daily. They have given me no logical reason for buying a Mac. As Richard says, they all do more or less the same, except Windows has more gaming options. Win7 is said to be fairly acceptable, too, unlike my %#¤"#% Vista (rot in Hell, Microsoft). In essence, I see no need to invest in a Mac since the 20-50% price hike seems to have no real upside. I would also suggest ignoring Win7, unless you need a lot of those afforementioned games, or a lot of other programs (which puts you in risk of needing Windows for SOMETHING).

Id say Linux. Ubuntu is looking better and better to me, these days… But then again, I am being kicked in the nuts daily by Vista while M$ laughs at me as it pawns my soul (and that of countless puppies and children) for booze :frowning:

On a barely relevant note: Apple and On The Windows Store.

7

Alltaken,

where are you from n- is the price difference there so hight??? Laptop PCs with the same quality and specs are equal if you want even more also more expensive. The MacPro is truly a bit expensive, but actually quite many PC mags noted that high
quality laptops are pricewise not better, which is why Apple was actually awarded the best in
category.

Pipeline, you like shelling out money for hardware you can later only throw away?
I always sold my old equipment. I actually do not know anybody of my friends who was able to
do the same with their rigs.

The University Wisconsin Stout was employing PC and Mac laptops, and I never saw so many
PC laptops fail and break-down.
Saying they are the same is more than away from the truth because you really need to watch
for life time and quality of the product. And those which are good are not being sold for 600 bucks.

8

BTW I am not a Mac addict since I work with both sides but I saw enough PCs just
fall apart in the low and mid price segment.

9

It really comes down to hardware as the OSX and Windows 7 experience will be pretty much the same. Neither win in terms of stability or features, they both do what they do, which is to run programs and while Windows has a larger catalogue, it really only matters if your core programs run on the chosen OS.

As Alltaken says Apple do charge more for less, justify that or not, it’s your call.

What will you be doing on this machine, Art, music, gaming, general typing and research work?

10

True point but besides just can you justify that one should also ask that a correct assessment?

If you pay more, over time have a better hardware stability, and afterwards can sell it I think
that logically that is better then saving money in the beginning, and not being able to sell
stuff later.

How well the PC runs than comes down to personal treatment. A return of investment like in
a company environment you cannot apply to personal use of course.

11

macs are good for getting on the net and watching movies

PC’s are good for everything else like making the movies and being compatible with programs
i myself have a dell xps but don’t let it on the net. I get on my mom’s mac for that and just transfer any downloads i want to my pc via usb stick.

12

thanks for the advice
@Daniel8488 I’m most likely going to be doing music, research, typing, blender of course, and maybe some gaming, but gaming isn’t really a concern of mine (however, I would still like a respectable graphics card). Also, I’m going to be an engineering student, so maybe a design program of some sort.

@cekuhnen I do like the whole idea of macs having more staying power and retention of value too

13

No. I tend to have my computers for about 5 years, until they are basically run into the ground (I should take more care of my hardware, but hey, Darwin is my copilot). I don’t feel that is throwing them away. And I doubt I would be able to sell a Mac after five years and get back what I paid over the specs for a comparable PC. I don’t know how Apple prizes things in the US, but here, 50% over spec is the norm for anything new, dropping a bit for anything 1-2 years old. So I feel your argument, while clearly well-intended, is invalid. Apple is a brand, jus tlike Levi’s. Yes, Levi’s has some quality perks over store bought jeans, but I don’t feel the (in the Levi’s case, much, much) higher price is worth it, either. It’s getting better, but Apple is still very much brand merchandise, and the brand itself always hikes the price. It’s the only sane way to run a business.

Of course, I write most my stuff on two old Psions (I have a Series 5 and a Series 7 that I jump between), and I just had a retro-gaming night in which my old Amiga 500 kicked ass, bigtime. I am not in PCs by choice alone. I just looked at the data and realized Macs are needlessly expensive (here, in Denmark…). So I chose the lesser evil. Trust me, if anyone pointed a gun at PCs, I would not throw myself in front of that :no:

And Vista is the Devil’s turd. It must burn. Ubuntu, you are my only hope!

14
  1. Macs cost more for the same hardware.
  2. My macbook pro and my gateway laptop PC both crash sometimes and both have about the same amount of annoyances.
  3. Ubuntu is ok but some hardware is not supported. For me, that means my sound card and my video camera. I use panasonic’s p2 cards but there is no way to import p2 data into Linux so I must use either Final Cut on a Mac or Edius on a PC.
  4. There is a lot more software for the PC and a lot of the times it’s freeware.
  5. There are a ton more video games for PC
  6. If you are unhappy with a particular brand of PC because of customer service issues, you can just buy a different brand next time. But if you are ever unhappy with Mac’s customer service, there is no alternative so you would have to learn a new operating system to switch to another brand.
  7. On a Mac, you can also load Windows and Linux on it. But you will still have to pay for Windows.

I find that paying the extra money for a Mac is not worth it.

Ultimately, if you know what you are going to do with the laptop, then you can choose the right one for your situation. The biggest reason to have a Mac is if someone sends you a project in a format that only a Mac can read. For example, a Final Cut Pro project.

Another downside about Mac’s is that you can’t get a PCMCIA slot for them without using the card reader slot and even then, we’ve had trouble with our Macbooks working with those cards.

A nice feature on Macbook is that they can also be used as a stand-alone hard drive. Just boot them up while holding down a key.

You’ll want to buy a mouse with at least two buttons and a scrollwheel, IMHO.

There is one nice program for the Mac that I haven’t found an alternative for on PC, and that’s DVD studio pro. It’s awesome for fully customizing your own DVDs.

On a Mac or a PC, you can do just about everything. With Linux, you can’t really do everything but it’s great for some tasks. Either way, you should at least be able to boot into Linux. I like Ubuntu.

15

Amiga 500 good times, good times.

It is odd that the hardware is more expensive over there. I am not sure why.
That throws a different light on it. Every time I walk by the best buy PC rack,
and we test and take a lot of parts apart, my eyes mainly see glossy cheap
plastic material.

Maybe my view goes a bit beyond what most people would really care about
since I am involved in this industry.

I was actually also looking into a PC with a boot devise for OS X since I simply cannot help myself
and not think that Win7 looks god ugly and that the app to app communication inside os x is just
better thought out and integrated with all other applications which follow apples interface design
quide lines (such as adobe).

I found it quite interesting that Virtualbox can now virtualize OS X inside a windows host.

16

The op´s question itself got something religious imo.

Once upon a time a mac had a PPC heart, not an X86 compatible heart. Thats why it did not qualify as Personal Computer, as the term itself was invented by big blue and was branded by the x86 architecture.
Nowadays a mac is powered with x86 architecture, and therefor it is a PC.
So basically you ask if you should get a PC or a PC.

And there´s nothing arousing the blood as much as Apple. You love it, or you hate it.
There are virtually no people that just tolerate it, or they never speak up.

And it is where, as Claas said, professions clash.
Designers, engineers, gadgeteers, pragmatists, webdesigner, composers, information scientists, hackers…

While one holds the design of apple dear, the other condones apples company policy, where one sees a rock solid working environment the other sees a proprietary jail, where one sees a piece of art, the other sees a waste of money.

My personal opinion is, back in the days when macs had PPC they got punch, many peeps hold their old powermacs dear and they preach of it. Nowadays too many don´t even know the difference between RISC and CISC and just parrot after the old gurus following a dead religion. The generation iPod.
Boiled down to the plain facts, apple ripped the RISC out, got cheap CISC processors and according hardware in, never lowered the price and now they sell too expensive machines, with a heavily modified darwin kernel and a fancy UI on top.
Bringig up the iPod, Apple is the best company selling techtoys and gadgets. iPod, iPhone, iPad… nice gadgets, easy to use, consistant, simple yet aesthetic design… but in the sector of computers as “working tools” they got no right to be.

Try to show your grandparents to check their email on the iPad, and then try to show them how to check their mails on a windows machine when they got no understanding of an computer.

And then tell a rocket scientist that has to calculate trajectories and fuel usage and godknowswhat-calculations on a normal x86 box, or ask him to spend a pile of money more on a machine with the same power but more aesthetic appeal.

And one justification for the price is often MacOS. I barely know any people not having bootcamp or having some virtualization software and running windows too, because there are things you can´t do then with your mac. So whats the point spending extra money on MacOS when you got to buy windows then anyways… its just wrong that you can´t do all in macos, or that macos is better than windows… circus viciosus

So the OP question is nothing you can ever get answered. You will just get a truckload of opinions, most likely end in a flamewar on every board, but in the end you got to decide on your own where you stand in life and if a mac is your style and your attitude, because with pure technical and logical aspects you can´t justify a mac.

17

  1. only reason I can see for calling MAC MAC is that it used to run on a PowerPC (Irony) processor now they BOTH use Intel/AMD so they are both “PC”

  2. PC = Personal Computer = means MAC isn’t personal = LOL

18

to say you can do everything in windows is as flawed as saying you cannot do everything with os x.
there is - in terms of functions and usability a lot you could not get the same experience with xp.

in todays sales and marketing experience is a very important argument, and in particular stressful
times with over stimulation a key to success.

true a lot is similar but I feel your opinion is quite biased.

maybe os x is a modified linux - so what?
it works well and based on my experience works way better than windows xp.
at least apple innovates the system and makes it ready for main stream compared to
windows who simply fails again and again with their attempt to imitate.
I would say Vista is just the high point of their stupidity.
That a company so rich and powerful than MS is so incompetent is a mystery to me.

I never crashed file formats with usb disks as with XP.
blue screens and windows crashes don’t happen so often with os x
for those who can make good use out of them, the apps apple supplies offer a much more
consistent and working experience.
virus, and maleware is not an issue on os x
there is no registry pain with os x
the mac hardware doesn’t lose that much money.
My macbook fall down two times without out damage to the display or cracks.
just the casing is damaged now with some dents. I saw plastic casings scatter.

even when you need win you can have a hardware platform which supports both worlds.

some differences are marginal - but some are not at all.

so simple as you state you cannot see it.

what car do you drive? most people here say dont get a kia because it will have no value later.
honda and toyota cars keep their value better.

now is that a logical argument or not?

I understand your point but it is not that simple either.
Only because maybe PC x has a bigger display etc doesn’t mean that the quality of the display
is as good, or the hardware platform works as well and time.

otherwise it is rather a apples vs bananas comparision

19

I don’t think anyone has said this before, but there is also the fact that you will need to do some maintenance/repair to your computer, either be it mac or pc, depending on your country the quality of the places that repair your notebook.

If you buy a mac where there is no place to send it to fix it, it will be nightmare (there even are some countries where they send your mac to another country to fix it! Obviously here in the third world countries only :D), also true for several other fancy notebook companies, but the companies that use more generic parts can be fixed almost everywhere, even by yourself.

20

If your careful, malware and viruses don’t have to be a big problem on Windows. Been using Windows 7 and Vista here for ~3 years with no big problems. If you’re going for a laptop, I don’t think this matters too much but in my experience it’s much easier to customize/upgrade a middle-of-the-pack PC than it is a Mac. I could be wrong, but most programs run on Windows, not ALL of them do on Mac. Personal preference really.