PC vs Mac?

[Phoenix44]

My PC is on its last legs, and I can't decide whether to go with another PC or switch to a Mac. I've always had PCs, and they've always done exactly what I've wanted them to do, but everyone who has a Mac seems to love it.

I find the price differential daunting. A Mac with the features and software I want is going to run me $2,000 easily, while a PC with the same features and software is closer to $1,000.

I also don't understand the numbers they throw around with Macs, like "2.66 GHz processor," "4 MB memory"... I mean, I'm reasonably computer savvy, but those numbers don't sound a whole lot different than the numbers on my old PC--is there something I'm failing to understand here? Am I comparing apples and oranges?

I've been to the Mac stores and played with the computers, but it doesn't reassure me that when I throw in some spreadsheets, music, videos, documents, games, etc that it'll be as zippy as the nearly empty models at the store.

Suggestions?

 

[Carol]

Bob has one, and he likes it a lot. They are less susceptible to viruses because fewer people write baddies for the MacOS. Macs are very popular with people that do creative work.

One of the things you're paying for is Apple's $500,000,000 ad budget to make the Macs seem all trendy and cool. *shrug*

http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/28/apples-2009-ad-budget-half-a-billion/

I looked at them too last year when I was looking at replacing my personal systems. I decided on an HP netbook (less than 2 pounds) and an eMachines desktop I bought on closeout. Not very sexy names but it cost me less than $1000 for both and offered me pretty close to the best of both worlds.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

See here for m path PC to Mac?


My experience with the Mac so far has been positive. Yes, it's more money, but I'm finding a much more stable system for what I do every day, better security, less headaches about viruses and alot of the "extras" on Windows already built in.

Image management system? iPhoto
Media Playing (including flash)? iTunes / Quicktime (note you will need a few easily found plug ins to watch .avi and .wmv files)
Comprehensive backup system? Time Machine

When we got the iMac, the first thing I threw at it was Unreal Tournament 2004. 32 bots, hi res, every aspect maxed out. Thing handled it no problem.

Need MS Office? Get Open Office, it'll do 99% of things for free.
Email? iMail is good. Thunderbird is also available and free.
Scheduling? iCal rocks.

I'm currently watching youtube, rendering some complex edits in Photoshop, surfing the web, checking my email and also have Dreamweaver open. Rock solid, smooth as glass. Mac's just seem to handle this better, but it's guts are Unix so it should.

Cost is a big issue, and to be honest it seems like mostly greed on Apples part. But they appear to have great support so far, so it might be worth the extra cash. We're considering picking up another iMac after New Years.

 

[Steve]

My experience has been mixed. I've found that, as ling as you drink the koolaid and use products that are made by adobe or apple, you're fine. The more you stray from there, the more problems you will encounter. My mac is a lot more stable now that I run xp on bootcamp. It's faster and a lot more responsive.

iMovie is ok. iPhoto is bad. GarageBand is very cool as is the frontrow software. It's just hit and miss. Overall, I'm going back to pc when we upgrade. It's okay but having use my mac now for about 2 years I can't think of any feature that justifies the pricetag.

 

[Phoenix44]

Good point about OpenOffice--I've used it a lot, and it would save the cost of a Works type program.

Is there something that comes with the Mac that integrates e-mail, address book, and appointments, or would I need Outlook?

And one last question, and this may be a little more arcane, but maybe you know: I currently use a HP iPAQ Pocket PC (a glorified PDA), which is inexpensive, and syncs up with Outlook on my desktop, so I always have my appointments, phone numbers, etc. Is there something like that for a Mac, or do I have to go the iPhone route? Because I have an idea, which may be wrong, that the iPhone may not cost a fortune, but I suspect that the service does.

Thanks again.

 

[Xue Sheng]

 

[Andrew Green]

Good point about OpenOffice--I've used it a lot, and it would save the cost of a Works type program.

Is there something that comes with the Mac that integrates e-mail, address book, and appointments, or would I need Outlook?

gmail works on any system, and IMO blows Outlook and others out of the water. It can handle other email addresses as well, you can link 5 standard POP addresses into your gmail account.

 

[Carol]

Something I forgot to add...

The reason why Macs tend to be popular with people in the creative field, aside from the branding, is that in the earlier days Macs were more efficient with system resources and memory allocation. This was a huge deal in the late 80s/early 90s when processing power was expensive. The Macs became a favorite with artists and musicians because it could handle the heavy graphics and overall processing load that imaging or audio software required.

Fast forward to today...processing power is cheaper. The system efficiency of a Mac doesn't give it as much of an edge, but it is still there. So...don't be too concerned about the 2.4Mhz chip in the Mac, its not equivalent to a 2.4Mhz chip in a PC.

On a side note, I had a very bad experience with gmail. I set up an account for a project I was doing with my mom a year or two ago and my account got locked out for 24 hours on Christmas Day. No reason, no explanation, no apology. That pretty much soured me on gmail, although I know many other people that swear by it.

 

[Cryozombie]

Mac: Running 1/3 of the software availible to PC users at 3x the cost!

I love the new commercial where the chick is trying to decide between PC and mac, and the Mac is like you can bring all your stuff over here...

If they were REALLY following truth in advertising laws, they would look at her stuff and go "Oh, except for that... that we wont run. And this one here... not compatable. And these. These need to stay behind. This one might be ok. Its hit or miss. Oh, this one is ok, as long as you re-purchase the Mac specific version, as it won't run under our emulator..."

Nothing pisses me off more on a weekly basis than when I get a call from some Pissed off Doctor because he cant use the medical software we run here on his new Mac, because its not compatable with the Windows Emulator, and it's somehow MY fault, because "Mac Said it would run all my windows stuff."

The constant... I wont call their advertisments "lies" but lets call them deceptive tweaks of the truth... by Apple is one of my big pet peeves with them. From there "You'll never see the Blue screen of death on a mac" claim (which is true, since BSOD was a Windows thing) that leads people to believe they are stable and never crash... to the fallacy that they arent suceptable to Viruses (if you really believe that, I have about a dozen on a disk I'd be happy to infect you with to prove you wrong) just annoys the crap out of me. And its mainly because, being in IT, when this **** happens, people just flat out refuse to believe anything you tell them, because "Apple said differently".

 

[Xue Sheng]

IMO, from my IT perspective, if all things were equal I'd have a mac....

However all things are not equal, as already said, not all needed software runs on a Mac and Macs tend to be more expensive.

 

[crushing]

A Mac may be cool and all for home, but I just don't see paying the high "Mac tax" without getting much benefit for it. Ubuntu on an old Thinkpad T41 works fine, and it pretty fast too.

 

[Steve]

I will say that my iMac runs windows xp like lightning. I am looking forward to running windows 7 on it. I like xp way better than snow leopard.

 

[Cryozombie]

Not to say the people at Apple are less than intelligent, but Apple is refusing to honor the warranty on Macs that come from the homes of smokers on the basis that they might get poisoned from second hand smoke inhalation from smoke that would get trapped inside Mac's cases.

:lfao: