MAC vs PC

Any of the Intel-Mac based machines is a win-win situation. I have an Intel based Power Book Pro that I use daily. At home I plug in my 30" monitor and I have dual monitors (the laptop screen and the 30").

It runs the latest Mac operating system (OS X 1.5) plus it runs Windows XP (I could get Vista, too, if I wanted). The really great thing is I can run both operating systems at the same time! The jewel to do this is an $80 program called Parallels.

I can double click on a Mac application or a .exe application and they both launch. I can bring up Windows as a separate window or run XP applications from the Mac desktop. It is the easiest way to migrate or use those programs that do not have a Mac counterpart. Cutting and pasting between the two operating systems is like any other application; seamless.

I like Mac because it is nearly bullet-proof and more intuitive in its interface. The hardware is better built, but you pay extra for it.

Most people that use a Mac become very attached to them and Apple. Apple customers tend to be a fairly loyal and tight-nit family. This is unique in the computer industry and Apple tends to think outside of the box and have a heavy emphasis toward robust and easy to use products. Their "human factors" is on par to avionics when it comes to thinking things out.

There are detractors. Many people are just as loyal to their PCs. They get a lot of bang for the buck. It may not be as well polished or in some cases not as robust as a Mac, but Windows has come a long way, too. My preferences lead me to using a Mac as much as I can and a PC only when I have to, which is becoming less and less as the Mac matures.

For the die-hard geeks the Mac is a Unix-based machine. That means you can run it like a Unix box using Apple's Terminal application that comes with the operating system.

When Apple switched to the Intel processor they really have created a stroke of good fortune. Being able to run both operating systems concurrently is the best of both worlds. All of your current applications can be run on the Mac. All you need is to buy a copy of Windows OS and I highly recommend buying Parallels so you can run both systems at the same time. As always, load up the onboard RAM as much as you can afford.

Next time you talk to your son, ask him what he wants to do with his new box. Unless he plans to run AutoCadd (very few 9 year olds do), the Mac can do most things. If the Mac saleperson pushes to hard for the Mac, go talk to the P.C. salesperson.

In the U.S., Macs are (or once were) found in grade schools. What do his peers play with?

The problem with a P.C. is that the Windows OS sucks and Vista is even worse than XP. The problem is exacerbated with old equipment. I don't consider 3 year hardware old. Try to dual boot an XP machine with Linux or use a "Live C". The parallels option seems really nice to me.

It is true that moving OSX to Intel hardware has changed the landscape significantly. Good luck!

If it were my own choice, I would go for a dual boot with Linux and Windows XP as probably the best option.

I bought a Mac, and I like it, but I was suprised how much stuff there is out there that is not apple compatable... You will end up buying Mac versions of software, and there are not Mac versions available for everything, particularly in games.....

I bought a new cell phone for my daughter that has a built in MP3, I cannot get the Mac to recognize it as a device so that she can download music to it.

Maybe I am missing something... if so some one please help me out, but someday when I buy a new computer, I will very likely buy a PC.

I found the same thing with salesmen. The last time I was in the market for a computer, my son told me to get a Mac. I have always used a PC so I was in some doubt. When I spoke to the salesperson, he said "Several of my customers who started with a PC and later changed to a Mac found it difficult to make the transition. They actually returned the Mac and went back to the PC."

On this basis, I bought another PC which operated on Windows XP. It's okay but I still wonder if I shouldn't have taken the plunge and bought a Mac. Two of my grandchildren have Macs and think they are grand. Mind you, they aren't doing Auto Cad which I am.

Viruses are not the same problem with a Mac, or so I'm told, the reason being that the morons who write viruses want to affect as many computers as possible and consequently tend to hack into computers with the largest market share, namely the PCs. This may or may not be the case, but it sounds reasonable to me.

I have no direct knowledge of the Mac, but I am inclined to think that the next time I am in the market for a computer I will have a much more thorough look at the Mac.

grade 9 student can only play game. Mac is wonderful at it. many art medium recommand it. many artists use it to creat thier works.

I hvnt used it only but applyII in the past time.

I wonder your words, old machine, only three years? old ? no!

For a students, if they hope to learn compujter, your machine is enough good. but if they hope to play game. you hv to buy the most fasion. more ram like 2G,4G..., 4 or 8 core and fastest display card in it.

In my lab, I still use P486 for my progam. haha.

Today, 486 is more expensive than Pentium, because it is considered a "Museum Piece"...

Here any computer over six months is old and already out dated.

Mac is a wonderful machine which runs smoothly, with less known bugs and and not as prone to viruses as the PC is.

But, since it's less popular than the PC (that is in terms of sheer numbers), It's software is usually not as diverse, and somewhat more expansive, as would be expected, given supply and demand.

Also, it's not as modular and expandable as the PC, for the above mentioned.

After all, we don't really "ride" the hardware, as we do the application software.

For most of us, a computer, is a virtual (hardware) machine.

What we practically face, engage, in the real world, is the user-interface of the software we are busy with...

The only reason I keep windows on my desktop at home is for games.

Personally I use Linux on my laptop...again another UNIX based operating system. Not as polished as OS-X but it has come a long way and is free to download, share, use, upgrade, etc which is a breath of fresh air compared to the proprietary-everything industry that computing is. Like mac I can run windows in parallel or fire up windows programs through emulation software but there is ALWAYS a performance penalty so this isn't really an option for serious gaming or hard-core number crunching (i.e. rendering, FEA, etc) so for these applications it's better to have a dual boot machine with windows and linux so you can swap COMPLETELY to windows when you need certain software packages. As far as I know, Mac OS-X cannot be dual booted with anything else.

After trying to appeal to Mac (company) we changed over to PC's in 1991
- after spending over £40,000 ($80,000) with mac's, (in 1989)
- because they became so arrogant; as portrayed by their dealers, etc.;
and Mr B Gates,'s (young man's) appealing stance, of helping everyone.

We saved a fortune during the ''ninties by this move (to PC's) and disposed
of the mac's. This was similarly followed by the local universities, etc. by 2000.

This is a shame because, Mac.s definitely had everything. Quality, software,
reliability, in fact everything; and far better than any pc at the time. (in my opinion)
However, they gave it all away (to B.G.) by their attitude. A lesson learnt dearly.

Mac, the company, is now winning their way back with their latest innovations,
as shown by the markets; (with IPod, etc.) but it's a mountain before them
this time; not simply a "beginner" (B.G.), someone appealing for help, to the market.
More, a killer shark, hungry to devour any and all who dare venture into its waters.

Will they win through? I think Mac. (to succeed) needs to bring a "new way"
into computers - like they did originally. Something to cast aside the pc - as we
know it today; e.g. possible to make them obsolete?

In short, I don't think you will regret buying a pc., - in the immediate future,
however, you may well struggle, after buying a Mac. (at least in the UK.)

And, I am sorry to say this! Hope this helps your decision.

jt.

I would ask your son's school what hardware and software platforms they are using. I assume that the reason for getting a computer is not just for high end games playing but that there are also some academic implications.

If the school uses a specific set of office products for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, etc, he will need to be able to run those applications on his home computer so that he can do his homework. Likewise he may also need a student version of a CAD package or maybe something like Mathematica (which might be a little advanced for grade 9).

Before making a hardware decision, findout what the applications are going to be. I have heard that MAC is the prefered platform for graphic arts but that is only a rumour as far as I know.

Buy the hardware that will fit the application. If the boy is only in Grade 9, he will certainly be in the market for an upgrade before he graduates from high school, and some post secondary institutions mandate the hardware/software platforms that their students must have and use.

I have 5 children (youngest is 25), a wife, and myself. Each of us has at least one computer one has both a desktop and a laptop. Each time a desktop gets upgraded or replaced hardware gets salvaged and passed around so that everyone has their own computer and extra parts like faster CPU's, extra RAM, and larger disk drives are passed around so that everyone shares in the upgrade. When my son replaced his machine I ended up with a memory upgrade to 2Gb, a CPU upgrade from 2.4 GHz to 3.2 GHz, an extra 60 Gb hardrive, and a DVD drive, my wife got a memory upgrade, and my married daughter got a faster CPU. This is the nice thing about the PC and the ability to move hardware around. I don't know if such things are possible in the MAC world.

I have babbled on enough, but if there is anything that I want to emphasize it is the importance of matching the hardware to the applications.

dear guest, after having spent my entire career using Pc's and being extorted by the virus andti-virus oligarchy/ecopsystem, I too, will be moving to mac. My son wants one when he graduates, and I will comply; My wifes email will be so myuch more easy.

We have extensive photoshop experience, and that will be a pleasure on the apple system.

I don't do autocad, and anything that I do on the mac I will email or save to stick or external hard rive and grab on my windows system at work.

My company can continue to pay the extortionist; I for one, am going to reward the more talented and considerate designers.

my opinion.

milo (of course, I have a hand full of video ipods and my son has a touch, so we're pretty familiar with the way of the apple...)

agreed!

milo

I have a 2.0 Ghz Mac Pro running on my desktop right now here at Oak Ridge National Lab. As far as what it can do, I did all of my dissertation statistics on a mac, including principal components analysis, canonical discriminant analysis and Mahalanobis Distance calculations. It never occurred to me that it would not be able to do what I needed. And yes, it is remarkably easy to use and robust. It has yet to crash and very rarely hangs up.

A windows type OS was first introduce by Apple in its first Mac computer. Still have the old thing is storage. Was a lot easier to use then the PC's DOS system of the time. I don't think that Apple has strayed away from a user friendly system. Sure it is different and will take time to get use to. Now with it's ability to run Windows OS it is a better functional machine. So I say go for it.

I still prefer pc because a lot of MAC problems like this one

-Login window stuck!
-lower caSe "S" key not working!!
-Menu bar keeps flashing
-I can't drag and drop!