Apple vs. PC poll

[Tom Dalton]

I use both extensively. We also sell a PC programmable electronic window LED message board and I do technical support (with PC users) for customers that purchase that item. We have 5 macs and 3 PCs at our shop. I own the shop and do all computer repairs. I spend 100 times more time babysitting the three PCs than I do all 5 macs combined. I've come to hate PCs.

We purchased a new CAT UV flatbed three weeks ago. We wasted our entire training day with the installer because the PCs ethernet port was apparently bad ...actually windows was blocking something. This is a 9 month old PC running windows 7. I ran to the store and got an ethernet card, but the problem persisted. I called HP tech support. They couldn't figure it out short of us starting over with a clean install of the OS. 10 hours later, I went back to the store and got a USB to ethernet adapter and it worked.

I just kept thinking, "an ethernet port that is blocked (or has drivers blocked) by the OS or a blocking bug ...this just doesn't happen on a mac".

The problem (for me) is more of PCs misbehaving than macs doing something spectacular. Macs just do their job and do it reliably (especially since the intel & OSX changeover).

T

T

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I use both extensively. We also sell a PC programmable electronic window LED message board and I do technical support (with PC users) for customers that purchase that item. We have 5 macs and 3 PCs at our shop. I own the shop and do all computer repairs. I spend 100 times more time babysitting the three PCs than I do all 5 macs combined. I've come to hate PCs.

I'm not doubting that that is your experience, but I'm just amazed at how astronomically lucky I have been. I have yet to have a crash on my PCs and yet I have had numerous "freezes" on that iMAC. I don't know if that would constitute as a crash, but I have had freezes on there and I have had freezes on my iPad, which I think was a known issue when they first came out. Maybe that latest "OS" that I downloaded to the iPad fixed that I don't know yet. Only had it on there a couple of days.

I just don't (knock on wood) have the same issues that everybody claims that they have had with their PCs. I must just be really lucky when it comes to that.

 

[MichaelL]

I think if this was more of a prepress crowd Macs would score higher. But, most (if not all now) RIPs are PC so if you own a small biz or just print it probably makes sense to use just a PC. I've done prepress professionally since 1987 and until the late 90s if you didn't do your desktop publishing work on a Mac you were an amateur. Win 95 started changing all that. As the saying went at the time, "Windows 95, the features of Macintosh since 1984." I know I'll never get back the hours of frustration lost on PCs running Windows 3.1 and DOS. At home I have never bought anything but Macs. From my first SE to my current Intel MacBook Pro. I even worked for Apple from 2001 -2002 just for the love of it. Currently I think both are fine and it just comes down to what works for you. Of course I still would never do anything like on line banking using a Windows machine.

 

[signmeup]

I've been trying to get my email to work on my Windows7 PC all day. It worked fine yesterday when I shut the @#^% thing down. I'm getting a little peeved.
So Macs don't do this sort of thing eh.....

 

[dj_elite]

I think it all depends. I am biased to PC as I have used them since I was 12 and know them very well. I have tried Macs and just dont like them personally. I have witnessed Macs crash also. I think it all comes down to personal preference and hardware. If you have a comparable PC and MAC, performance is going to be about the same. I feel most people that choose MAC over PC choose MAC because they are comparing it to an incomparable PC. I'll put a $3000 PC up against a $3000 MAC any day. The problem is most people who choose a MAC over PC compare their $3000 MAC to a $800 PC. Total apples and oranges. Just my 2 cents...

 

[jobshop03]

I use both

I like PC's for work and other important needs and iphone/mac for entertainment, music, etc.

 

[Freese]

I use a PC strictly for work for Onyx and the enterprise software my company uses;

My personal computer is a 27" iMac. I dual boot Windows 7 and MacOS and have no reason to compare. Both OS's have different uses for me, which both excel at.

Windows 7 - the sports video games I play (nba2k11, NHL, MVP baseball 05)
Mac OS - Adobe Suite, Designing, Video/Audio encoding

I am in love with the idea of using both. No need to argue, both are unreal pieces of software.

 

[Mike F]

I use both, but I prefer to work on a PC.

On a side note, surprised no one has mentioned Linux. (At least I don't think anyone did, only skimmed through). I've only really used ubuntu and a few of it's derivatives like xubuntu and ubuntu studio, but I'd really like to install AVLinux when I get some free time, looks pretty sweet. Prolly come in handy for all the recordings/photographs/videos I do for my sister's band.

 

[iSign]

when you guys figure this one out, we're trying to get to the bottom of this 'God' thing over in NHB...

 

[WildWestDesigns]

What I do find strange is the amount of people that went MAC and then went back to PC is greater then the other way around. I find that odd considering. I use both but still prefer the PC, although ironically I'm typing on the one MAC that we have right now since I've been embroidering all day today and that's what we have out here with the embroidery machine.

 

[andy]

I have a Vic20 with a tape drive for storage. Looking at upgrading to the Commodore 64.

If you get a Commodore 64 PLUS a copy of Fifa World Cup 86 I might have to kill you.... a schoolboys dream in all it's digital glory. I never owned a Commodore, my mate did, it was 1986, he had FIFA... I didn't... it's still raw.

 

[webcashflow]

I own a lot of websites and do a ton of online marketing. In 2007 a lot of friends had jumped on the Apple bandwagon and talked me in to getting a new macbook. I had a trip to Vancouver a few days later. The whole trip drove me crazy trying to do anything on the mac, no right clicking, everything was on the left of the windows instead of the right. I gave it to my daughter as soon as I got back.

She loves it, but she also has her own PC which she loves, and the computer labs at all the schools are stocked with Mac's.

I build my own machines and I haven't had any virus's etc as some claim that are so rampant. I don't knock any mac user as it is all preference. I can make a comparable pc for less than a mac that is preconfigured to what apple thinks the specs could be. You can up the ram and hd size but thats about it. But in my pc with a 64 bit OS I can have 24 gigs ram, 6 monitors etc running multiple programs all at once with no issues no lag.

So if mac is what you like, I say use it. But Adobe Suite runs as well on a PC as it does a Mac, the thing is on a PC i can ramp up whichever I wish. If I want to slave 2 additional solid state drives , it takes a couple of minutes and it is done, a better video card .. 5 mins done.

The networking I would a yr or two ago gave the edge to the macs but with windows vista it improved and with windows 7 it is all seamless. So no real advantage at that point anymore. I will say though that the macs are really light in the laptop department. I have a 17" Toshiba laptop and I paid about 2700 for it, and I bet it weighs twice as much and twice as bulky as the new 17" macbook.

 

[MichaelL]

I own a lot of websites and do a ton of online marketing. In 2007 a lot of friends had jumped on the Apple bandwagon and talked me in to getting a new macbook. I had a trip to Vancouver a few days later. The whole trip drove me crazy trying to do anything on the mac, no right clicking, everything was on the left of the windows instead of the right. I gave it to my daughter as soon as I got back.

There's an Apple bandwagon?

:Big Laugh

It's always frustrating to move away from what you know. M$ purposely made everything it "borrowed: from Macs different so it would "appear" to be different. As a result moving from one platform to another is like moving from the US to the UK and you have to drive on the other side of the road.

FYI Macs do have a right click. Steve Jobs isn't often wrong but IMO he has been wrong in insisting on a 1 button mouse. I stopped using Apple mice when they started using USB in the lat 90s. So if you use a 2 button mouse you will have right click and even a middle button click if you have a clickable scroll wheel. You can also hold the control button and click for right click with a 1 button mouse.

 

[bayviewsignworks]

All Macs. I use Windows XP for the RIP but it also runs on my Mac (Parallels). It is worth the money if you don't want to worry about viruses and ease of use; which you migh think is subjective but I use both and still think PC is clunky and not intuitive as far as the file system works. Did I mention viruses? The one drawback might be software availablity as most software is written for PC.

 

[mdm]

Only Mac's, I scorn those pesky ugly PC's!

 

[signmeup]

All Macs. I use Windows XP for the RIP but it also runs on my Mac (Parallels). It is worth the money if you don't want to worry about viruses and ease of use; which you migh think is subjective but I use both and still think PC is clunky and not intuitive as far as the file system works. Did I mention viruses? The one drawback might be software availablity as most software is written for PC.

Stay off those mixed species porn sites with your PC and you should be fine.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

still think PC is clunky and not intuitive as far as the file system works.

I think that really depends on the person. I know my 96 yr old grandma and my dad (her son) have found PCs to be a lot easier for them to use. Only reason that I have the one MAC that I do is because dad was going to throw it out. He really did hate that MAC.

Did I mention viruses?

I don't know what y'all are doing that causes a lot of people say viruses. I don't have that issue and it's not like I'm running 80 million anti virus programs to make sure I don't get one.

 

[David Wright]

The one drawback might be software availablity as most software is written for PC.

One drawback? I know it's such a minor thing.

 

[cardsin2005]

You can't really compare Apple to Microsoft. Microsoft is a software company and Apple is a hardware/software company. When I was in collage for graphic design, we had to use Macs. They would crash almost everyday. They were also brand new! I would put my $1000 Pc against any Mac any day. It also kills me how people say to me that they are just better for design work. Ok..... tell me how. Photoshop and Illustrator work exactly the same on a Mac as they do on a Pc.

 

[signmeup]

You can't really compare Apple to Microsoft. Microsoft is a software company and Apple is a hardware/software company. When I was in collage for graphic design, we had to use Macs. They would crash almost everyday. They were also brand new! I would put my $1000 Pc against any Mac any day. It also kills me how people say to me that they are just better for design work. Ok..... tell me how. Photoshop and Illustrator work exactly the same on a Mac as they do on a Pc.

They can't tell you how. It's a certain je ne se quoi that only true believers can detect. (It's also known as "bull")