What are the major reasons for selecting a mac over a pc?
Laptops & Notebooks February 6th, 2010
Recent hs graduate is looking at mac laptop computers. What are the major reasons for selecting a mac over a pc? Is there a particular model of mac that is better for college work? How much ram and hd are suggested for long term use? Any other assistance / information would be appreciated as we have NO mac experience. Thanks!Submited by:Terry A
February 10th, 2010 at 12:26 am
I think There are none however there are a ton of reasons not to. It doesnt get any more honest and truthful than below.
WHAT PEOPLE DONT REALIZE ABOUT APPLE
Back in the day (the early 70s), the first home computers became available to the public. There were Ataris, Apples, Commodores, Radio Shack Tandys, etc. No ones software would run on any of them as the architecture was different on every one of them. You had to buy software for your PC from the company that manufactured it. This quickly became a problem for the upcoming software market. A consortium was held and everyone decided to make their systems compatible so the software market could blossom. Everyone EXCEPT Apple. Apple went on their own way with their proprietary system that would run nothing anyone else programmed. You had to buy most of your software from Apple. Apple applied this philosophy for 35 years. In that 35 years, they only cornered never more than 5 percent of the computer buying market. In the last year, Apple has introduced a new system that uses intel chipsets. The reason plain and simple? Apple was going down the tubes. Their fix? Make their computers more compatible with the burgeoning computer market. Unfortunately, you buy their already overrated, overpriced, incompatible Mac and then spend money to convert it to run windows. What they DONT tell you? That a good lot of software STILL wont run on it simply because you cant upgrade it to run the latest software. You want to upgrade a Mac? You buy a new Mac! EVERY other PC manufacturer is compatible with the 3rd party hardware manufacturers, Mac, no way! The PC hardware market itself makes for competitive prices. This in turn creates lower prices for the computer buying market. Apple? They STILL dont come close. I’ve been in the business since it started, I spent my life programming machines with windows software. I could write a bible on what doesnt run on a mac that runs on windows! The measure of a computers power is what it CAN run and Apple doesnt come close to hi end, engineering software. The myth that Apple is better in the creativity field is a joke too. For every Mac application, I can show you a half dozen for PCs that are the same or better.
February 10th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I think Mac outperforms Pcs speedwise when it comes to using CAD programs.
Great for engineers and those in the music and imaging professions.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:59 am
1. You have thousands of dollars just laying around.
2. You will buy anything shiny and made by apple.
3. You want to be cool like all the other kids. Baaa.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Allow me to present a countervailing viewpoint. As one who has owned and worked on Macs, PCs, mainframes, and just about every kind of computer out there (including pre-Mac Apples), these would be my compelling reasons to consider a Mac TODAY:
1) Macs can run both Mac OS X and Windows. It isn’t the other way around. Not easily, and certainly not legally.
2) Apple manufactures both the hardware and the OS. That means every component is made to work. Microsoft only develops the OS; it has to be “shoe-horned” into every PC that third-party vendors build. That means potential driver conflicts, multi-party upgrades, and compatibility problems.
3) Viruses. Need I say more?
4) Cost. Many people argue that Macs cost more. I say this is false economy; you just pay more up front for a Mac. But since Macs include just about everything you need for computing, you don’t need to pay to add Office software, more memory, and so on.
5) The Mac OS is built on UNIX. If you want to, you can install Apple’s free X Windows (an alternate graphical user interface, common to the UNIX world), download and run thousands of UNIX programs in addition to the thousands of Mac-native programs.
6) iTunes and iPod compatibility. Need I say more?
7) Web browsing and email. Macs ship with Safari and Mail, two very robust and capable programs. You can also download and use Firefox, Opera, Camino, and very soon Chrome, if you wish.
Secure and friendly. Setting preferences is done in an easy-to-understand manner (how easy do you find it to set up networking in Windows or Linux?). The old Apple ads weren’t lying: It just works!
9) Stability. Upgrading Macs is easy and painless. I have upgraded my current Mac from 10.2 (Jaguar) to 10.3 (Panther) to 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.5 (Leopard), including minor upgrades, without any problems.
10) Durability. My current Mac is five years old and runs the latest Mac OS well and efficiently. I’ve never had to re-install or “clean out the junk.” I have a nine year-old Mac laptop that I just ‘retired,’ since it’s now out of Apple support matrix. How old (and well) is that two year-old PC you’re running?
February 14th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Short Answer: They are more reliable, easier to run and offer better tech support.
The O/S is far superior to that of most PCs, and does not come preloaded with monopolized programs like I/E (horrible browser) that is very difficult to remove.
For work, I code on a PC (b/c they are cheaper) and design on mac systems. Working on macs is always more enjoyable.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
you have outstanding performance… nothing you could ever achieve with a pc..
it’s fast, easy, and yes it does cost a little bit more, but you gotta pay if you want the best… if you are the kinda person that wants something to be long-term then you are meant to have a mac
it’s a good balance between functionality(software speaking) and design.
it doesn’t come loaded with lots of stuff you’ll never use or drivers that will just slow your OS down… like a PC does … ’cause everything you need is inside.. nothing less nothing more
all drivers come bundled up inside and are all developed by apple itself no third party company involved to make sure everything just works
so even when you’ll need to clean install it (formatting) you’ll have everything working just right after less than an hour
last but not least… it’s got bootcamp to make sure you have the chance to run natively windows on your mac… or if you fancy something a little bit more sophisticated you can always run it on VM so you’ll have all the win-only programs with you at all times