Windows vs Mac

TECHwizard

Posts: 8   +0
hi,
it's coming up to christmas and i was thinking about what to get, mostly all of my mates have windows, but a few have the mac OS and they say it's the shiz! however, i have used windows since my first computer, (9 years ago), and i don't know what to do.
without a biased comment, please may someone state the pro's and con's of each OS :)
ty
 
This site has relatively few Macophile's and many who only know PCs - - so don't expect too much objectivity.

IMO, the best response to your question is - - they're just different due to the expectations of their users.

PC users love to replace parts (including motherboards et al) and fiddle with the OS, desktop settings, graphic cards ... and on it goes.

Mac users are niche players, don't futz with the hardware and expect to use the system for a specific purpose (and that's not gaming); Desktop Publishing, Sound and Video editing are the big arenas.

IF you're considering changing platforms, then
  1. evaluate your preferences per the above
  2. ask how much relearning you are willing to tolerate

[edit]ps: everyone I know that has made the switch quips, "Should have done this long ago" [/edit]
 
And in addition to jobeard above;

3. How much are you willing to spend on replacing your Windows based software, as very little is available for both.
4. Are you really happy ultimately paying more for the privilege of owning a mac? It costs more than a windows counterpart, and parts generally are more expensive as well.

I definitely love my macs, and I've been considering a Mac Pro for ages now, but its unlikely (unless on impulse) I'll purchase one now I'm getting back into gaming.

That said, they are awesome, and I wouldn't be without my intel iMac. :)
 
I grew up on Macs and then when I went to college in 1998 I got my first PC. Ran exclusively PCs until I had a job after college, since then I've been running both. Primarily using a Powerbook and now MacBook Pro for my everyday tasks, and then custom built Windows machines for heavier stuff and games.

I agree with what Leeky and jobeard said. And if we are talking desktops, I think, unless you are rich your only option is to stick with a Windows box, the Mac Pros are just far too expensive for most people. And unless its RAM or a HD that fails, replacing parts for a Windows box is far cheaper.

On laptops, you end up paying for a lot of little extras that make things nice if you get a Mac, but a lot of people see those as frivolous and unnecessary (glass trackpads, backlit and dimmable keyboards, ambient light sensors, magsafe power connector, glass screen, battery power indicator to show battery power when off, ect).

For the OS, like jobeard said, they are just different. I find everyday tasks like installing software, browsing the web, chatting, Office to be a nicer expierence in OS X, but thats a pretty subjective argument.
 
A Mac and an absolutely free Linux distro are not much different. As posters above have pointed out, you don't game on a Mac, you mostly use it for publishing, office work, internet creations, browsing and graphics. You can do all that just as well using free software on a Linux distro, plus a real gain - you can use bog-standard PC hardware. So for my 2 cents if you would be happy using a Mac, you would do equally well with Linux at vastly lower cost.

Just answer the simple question for yourself - what do you want a PC for?
 
SNGX1275 said:
in 1998 I got my first PC
In '87, we got our first system for the wife and desktop publishing - - A Mac IIci which was a 25mhz, 1mb ram with 80mb caching scsi hd.
Cheez, she even did Photoshop rendering on that thing :)giggle: OVERNIGHT! )

I didn't bring a system into the house for myself until '93 - - a different kind of boat anchor (Gateway 733 box with win/98se) - - amazing how quickly things change (aka Moore's Law)
 
The first one I used was one my dad got. It was a SE/30, 16Mhz, I think it had a 20MB hd, which we supplemented with a 60MB external later (but maybe it was a 40MB to begin with), and 1MB of RAM - later upgraded to 5MB. Then we got a Performa 550, and later a UMAX SuperMac.

My first PC was a Pentium II 300, with 48MB of RAM.
 
thx all,
i think i'll stick with windows for now, i only use my laptop for school assignments and minor gaming, so i only spend a small amount of time on it, so a mac would be pointless and not worth the amount it costs. :)
 
Im surprised no one has mentioned this yet:

You can install Windows on your Mac computer as well.

If you get a new Mac, it will come with an out of the box option (Bootcamp) to install Windows.

EDIT (by Leeky): discussion regarding the use of Mac OS' on other platforms is prohibited on this forum. This is why the discussion regarding it hadn't happened. Please do not mention it again.
 
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