Mac vs. PC

[JMDigital]

MAC to use INTEL chips...

Just read about MAC signing a deal to use INTEL chips now in the next version of mac. I guess they want the speed boost.. this means we will soon see a computer that will be able to run both MAC OS-X and WINDOWS XP... A dual booting pc. It reminds me of dual booting Windows and OS2 Warp

 

[txsurfer]

In my shop I have 5 Macs, and 2 PC's, I run both every day, I only use the PC's to open a file or converting a file to a pdf, or with my accounting. You can't even come close to a MAC when it comes to design, I am talking about real high end design, not fonts and reverses!

 

[Bobby H]

Specifically, what "high end" design tasks can a Mac do that a PC cannot?

I only ask that because I think such statements like "you can't come close to a Mac when it comes to design" is platform religion baloney.

 

[jayhawksigns]

Specifically, what "high end" design tasks can a Mac do that a PC cannot?

I only ask that because I think such statements like "you can't come close to a Mac when it comes to design" is platform religion baloney.

I wonder the same thing. A while back I compared my less than stellar design station against some Photoshop benchmark figures from Macs I found online. And those dual G5'a really were not any faster, especially when you figure in the price. And I don't see where Macs have a software advantage anymore.

 

[Bobby H]

I'm not really concerned with computer hardware speed comparisons between Mac and Windows-based machines. Expensive high end hardware will allow you to perform tasks faster. In terms of actual design work, most tasks are possible with many kinds of computer hardware and in many price ranges.

The question I pose to txsurfer is specifically which sorts of design tasks are impossible to do on a PC. What "high end" design task absolutely requires a Mac?

One can make a case for Apple's Final Cut Studio suite of audio-video authoring applications. That's really the only thing that has me interested in buying an Apple-based system. Apple Shake and Logic Pro are impresive high end compositing and audio editing applications.

However, for every Mac-only "killer application" there's impressive Windows based alternatives. Consider the recent movie "Sin City." This show was shot in HD video and produced on regular WindowsXP workstations. Among applications used: Lightwave3D and Eyeon software's PC-only applications DFX+ and Fusion for effects work and compositing. Most 3D animation work is now created on Windows PCs. Most film effects houses do their final renders to AMD or Intel-based render farms running either Linux or Windows. Even Steve Jobs' company, Pixar, did their final render of "The Incredibles" on Intel hardware (all their previous movies were rendered on Sun-based render farms).

 

[Mardi]

First computer (besides zx-81) I ever used was a Mac.... I loved it! Being in graphics industry it was a natural choice.

Than I was introduced to DOS.....Wow...it blew me away with its possibilities. I was suddenly able to create my own batch files, snoop around the system itself, diagnose and fix problems etc.
Needles to say, I switched. At the begining it was a struggle because most of good graphics stuff was coming out for Macs first, but that has changed now.
Until recently I had a Mac to keep me fully compatible with any files I would get, but now, there is no more reason for it and I am 100% PC.

Macs still have a place, mostly in movie industry, but otherwise became overpriced and over rated. Besides, Sign industry is geared towards PC users and supports PC-s much better than Mac-s

Unless one has "emotional" attachment to Mac computers, I suggest to stay away from them.

my 2c

 

[sullosau]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vci_9yaOZe4&mode=related&search=

enough said, PC all the way here

Steve

 

[Fred Weiss]

 

[maxxgraphix]

Dual CPU MAC's are wickly fast. But, OSX is slow and has compatibility limitations. OSX is based on FreeBSD (a unix platform) with a Apple GUI. You can compile opensource linux apps to run on OSX. If you wish to run OS9 apps you'll have to launch the oS in a shell same as running Wine in a shell.
Until Adobe or Flexi or Onyx writes a true posix application the PC is best for speed and compatibility. Granted that Winders sucks and has security flaws as bad as our US airports, but that's wht we have to deal with. Anything that is a server should be linux / unix. Linux is making ground with design apps. GIMP is getting close to Photoshop and can support multi cpu.

I had a Sinclair ZX-81, back when a casette tape backup was awsome.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

i am a pc guy however i really wish that mac had compatability with a broader range of output devices. if they did i think we would see them with a much larger market share than they have now in our industry. the only reason that i feel this way is that the majority of the design firms and companies that employ a college educated designer that we work with create almost every project on a Mac we have one but we really have no output options here...

 

[Techman]

The only thing that makes a MAC a "MAC" is the user and his attitude.

Essentially, MACS and PC's became incestous in around 1992 when they both went common source and dropped the proprietory hardware. MAC's and PC's use all the same hardware, networking cards, USB systems, Firewire, hard drives, video cards, memory chips every thing the same.
The only dif is the OS and that is quickly changing too. So now MAC's and PC's are all about the same. So if they both use the same hard drives and other goodies how can one be better than the other.

Truth is. Neither one is better than the other. They both have their uses and the limiting factor is software for the job.

MAC's have a limited amount where as PC's have thousands of different titles. For example. There are at least 300 different DVD burning utils.
Speed? with late model PC's are just as fast if not faster as a MAC. Processing time for the average user here is as fast as you can hit the enter key with barely a noticable delay between enter and done.

 

[Geary]

Mac Addict here. Got into them as a graphics guy when Illustrator88 came out. However, learned IBM machines since that was all the sign shops were using primarily.

These days, it's both. I've been in shops that have just all Apple based designers and then I've seen both Mac and Windows designers. Both scenarios all outputting mostly to IBM based plotters, cutters, printers, and routers.

I've used both platforms for years, as I've stated, and Macs aren't as "crashy" as PCs and of course there's the whole virus issues for any computers that are online. I know that viruses can be "caught" by Macs....however, I've never seen it nor have I ever met anyone personally that has had a complete failure due to bugs. On the other hand, I've been in three shops where multiple tens of thousands of dollars worth of time and jobs files were lost due to infections in the old easily tweaked DOS-based machines.

As far as designing for todays sign industry needs.....I don't see any remarkable differences between Macs and Windows design stations.

As far as the new Macs running Windows. It's already here...and I'm talking "boot camp" not Virtual PC. Read about it here.... http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

~Gear

 

[toddmn]

I call this my "winPOD". I love showing it to all my iPOD friends. Its an iPOD docking station which I dremeled out the holder to fit my windows pda phone. Running windows mobile 5. Plays tunes on my desk all day. I think the hardest part of the whole project was weeding those dang letters which are only .2 inch high. And yes I can stream internet radio and XM over it too along with playing full lenght movies.

 

[Geary]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vci_9yaOZe4&mode=related&search=

enough said, PC all the way here

Steve

Steve,

That is a hilarious parody skit. Especially to those few who did actually have a few of those unlikely problems he mentions many years ago when we were using OS7 or so.

Hey I got a funny story too! Ya wanna talk Win95 or how 'bout NT? LOL Now that's some funny crap Microsoft tried out on us, wasn't it? Four hours of production.....four hours of rebooting. 8 hours up.....ching! Go home....do same thing the next day, the next, the next. Then BANG!!! Virus shuts the whole shop down. Buy new computers and start all over. Wow....now those were some fun days. Thanks for the memories!

Like what's been said already, today's a different day. Everything is good and getting even better.

~Gear

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

This is a debate that will never end. We all have our preferences. I prefer Macs. Macs in my shop are numbered 5 to 1 over PC's. I feel the Mac OS is 10 years ahead of MS. If Macs are more expensive, I've never felt the pinch. Maybe it's because my Macs rarely crash and I have NEVER wasted hours expunging viruses or spent extra dough on virus fighting utilities that have to be renewed every year to the tune of $40 per PC! Macs are more expensive? That's hogwash and MS propaganda. It's all a matter of preference, I'm not going to change any minds to sway to my preferred Mac OS, and no Mac bashing is going to cause me to change my opinion. It will only reinforce it.

And Toddmn, what's with this iPod bashing? Nice work and no offense but with all the time you spent creating this iPod knock off, you could have spent a few bucks and got the real thing. I was walking through my plant recently and I noticed everyone in the room had little white earbuds. Man, give it up, iPods are the ultimate widget with a PRIZE inside!

 

[toddmn]

This is a debate that will never end. We all have our preferences. I prefer Macs. Macs in my shop are numbered 5 to 1 over PC's. I feel the Mac OS is 10 years ahead of MS. If Macs are more expensive, I've never felt the pinch. Maybe it's because my Macs rarely crash and I have NEVER wasted hours expunging viruses or spent extra dough on virus fighting utilities that have to be renewed every year to the tune of $40 per PC! Macs are more expensive? That's hogwash and MS propaganda. It's all a matter of preference, I'm not going to change any minds to sway to my preferred Mac OS, and no Mac bashing is going to cause me to change my opinion. It will only reinforce it.

And Toddmn, what's with this iPod bashing? Nice work and no offense but with all the time you spent creating this iPod knock off, you could have spent a few bucks and got the real thing. I was walking through my plant recently and I noticed everyone in the room had little white earbuds. Man, give it up, iPods are the ultimate widget with a PRIZE inside!

Other then the fact that its was more of a joke I played on my 28 year old son whos incested with ipods and macs thats it. I really have nothing against them, they may work for people that want to spend the money on them. Myself, I wont when theres a cheaper, better option in my opinon in music players. Alot of people are amazed when they see what a modern pda phone can do over an ipod. I have unlimited high speed internet on my cell plan. I can stream live television to my handset, watch full lenght movies, listen to internet radio and listen any music and I am not limited to who I have to buy it from or what format its in. Did I forget that it has bluetooth and works as a voice navigaton system with my bluetooth wireless gps too in my truck. Sorry if you took it as bashing, It more on the line of parody for me I also own an ipod, its sat in my desk drawer ever since I got this MDA months ago.

 

[Pro Signs & Graphix]

toddmn - Just curious, who is your service provider, and what do you think of their internet service?

 

[toddmn]

toddmn - Just curious, who is your service provider, and what do you think of their internet service?

I think I've been with t-mobile for over 5 years now. Ive been though them all like everyone else has. I like gsm providers so I had a choice of tmobile or cingular/att in my area. tmobile is still edge only on there internet but is going 3g sometime next year. I still get around 200k off the edge service which suits my cell internet needs fine. tmobile was considerably cheaper then cingular on the same package I have. I get the unlimited internet on the phone for 19 bucks a month under a blackberry plan. It still gives me internet access from any other phones I use the sim card in (I have 4 different phones I swap the sim between). I run a tv tuner card in my home pc and then stream that over ORB so I can watch it anywhere on my phone( cant miss the Twins playing). Yeah I admit it, I'm a 50 year old technology geek

 

[Mardi]

This is a debate that will never end. We all have our preferences. I prefer Macs. Macs in my shop are numbered 5 to 1 over PC's. I feel the Mac OS is 10 years ahead of MS. If Macs are more expensive, I've never felt the pinch. Maybe it's because my Macs rarely crash and I have NEVER wasted hours expunging viruses or spent extra dough on virus fighting utilities that have to be renewed every year to the tune of $40 per PC! Macs are more expensive? That's hogwash and MS propaganda. It's all a matter of preference, I'm not going to change any minds to sway to my preferred Mac OS, and no Mac bashing is going to cause me to change my opinion. It will only reinforce it.

And Toddmn, what's with this iPod bashing? Nice work and no offense but with all the time you spent creating this iPod knock off, you could have spent a few bucks and got the real thing. I was walking through my plant recently and I noticed everyone in the room had little white earbuds. Man, give it up, iPods are the ultimate widget with a PRIZE inside!

I am not trying to "bash" Macs, I would rather "bash" Bill Gates but....

Fact is that Mac machines are way overpriced. Anything that has Mac logo on it bears a hefty price just for the sake of the brand name.

There is a reason for that too. You can not possibly have per sign cost for
order of one sign versus order of a hundred signs. That is the main reason for their higher price...number of Mac users in the world is minute compared to PC users.

As far as operating system goes, I would like it a lot better if I could get "behind the scenes" to tweak it, and ultimatly screw it up (like I did numerous pc-s)
Biggest problems aroused when I had a crush (not only once) on the Macs and tech support would ultimetly be able to help me only with reformating the HD. That can be extremely irritating. I was NEVER (yet) forced to reformat my PC drive.

No doubt that they are more secure. The reason is again the popularity. If the numer of Macs and PCs in the world would be switched, PCs would be a more secure too. Who would bother to make viruses that would afect only a minute portion of computers in the cyber world. The notion that operating system is safer roots in this very fact.

Bottom line is that if you take care of your machines (please people, clean your computers at least once a year from the inside) you will get to use them till they become absolete no matter what platform they are.

There are shorcomings and advantages to any system and as long as we are aware of them and learn to deal with them it is ok.

Machines do not create our products, its us who run them that do!

As far as the I-pod.... my daughter wanted me to buy her one. We stood in the Mac showroom looking at these neat litlle gadgets, I talked to a sales person who answered each of the questions I had ... then I turned to my daughter to tell her that she can do a lot better with different brand of MP3 player for the money and explained why, but left the ultimate decision to her.

We walked out with the brand new I-pod!

Eh....the power of marketing

 

[FrankenSigns.biz]

Eh....the power of marketing

Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in the history of mankind, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer electronics giant. It has completely remolded the music business, altering not only the distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its vastness and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation." The iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. I admit millions like me obsess about this gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers, we bask in the social cachet it lends us, even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences sometimes. In the future when people look back at this part of our young century, historians will still have plenty to say about this wonderful device. This is not a product of good marketing. This thing is a fluke. Apple didn't intend this to happen. It just happened and I don't think we'll see anything quite like it again in our lifetime.