PC vs Mac

[Xalibar]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?

[Momiji]

Nothing, hardware and software aside. They're both computers, they both serve pretty much the same purpose. There are arrogant elitists on both sides who throw around petty, pointless arguments, and aren't worth listening to and need a punch in the teeth. :p

I personally use a PC, running Windows Vista. It isn't bad at all, despite what other people say.

EDIT: Added a :p to the end to show everyone Tavrobel I wasn't being serious. xD

[Rostum]

The price, boy those Mac's are over-priced!

[Tavrobel]

Your [Momiji's] post made of ignorance makes me sad on several levels.

EDIT: Thanks for split-second pre-empting me, Omecle.

[DMKA]

Fun fact: Macs ARE PCs.

I prefer Windows-based PCs personally, because I'm poor and like versatility. And like being able to pirate software effortlessly.

[Yar]

Macs are hip, compared to their John Hodgman PC counterparts. :p

[Momiji]

Your [Momiji's] post made of ignorance makes me sad on several levels.


That's the point of trolling. :p

In all honesty, I don't care. The constant fighting between the two is annoying, though.

[Roto13]

Macs are for dirty hippies.

[o_O]

Macs crash a whole lot less than Windows. :p

[Boney King]

Macs crash a whole lot less than Windows. :p
I don't understand this argument because my PC has Windows and it doesn't crash at all.

[Yar]

Macs crash a whole lot less than Windows. :p

I disagree. The very few times I used the Macs at school, they almost always crashed. My computer at home rarely ever crashes.

[rubah]

*macs rarely crash all the way 8)

[o_O]

Macs really do crash less than PCs. They are better at recovering from a conflict of resources (often transparently, meaning the user has no idea a problem has occurred), due to better and more efficient management of said resources. MacOSX onwards was always a true multi-user operating system (it is a flavour of Unix/BSD after all) and for that reason it multitasks better than Windows and is more capable of sharing out memory is such a way that deadlock is avoided.

There's a reason that "Windows" has become synonymous with "bluescreen", whilst the Mac "bombs" are something that very few people would immediately associate with MacOS. :p

[Miriel]

I used PC for 10 years and I've been using a mac for 2 years. I really like my Mac. Don't let people fool you thinking that Macs are problem free. I've had my share of issues with my mac. But the usefulness of some of the features that comes with a Mac are enough to keep me from going back to PC.

I honestly don't know a lot about hardware specifics for computers. All I know is that my mac is more user friendly and intuitive than my PCs have been. I love the clean, slick and efficient Mac OS and it's the best I've ever used (although I haven't used Vista yet).

The best thing about my Macbook is that I can to enjoy the best of both worlds by running Windows via bootcamp so that I can get my gaming groove on. As far as I know, you can't run Mac OS on a PC machine (although I admit that I don't really know much about computer mechanics).

So if you can get all the benefits of the Mac OS as well as the ability to run windows via bootcamp or parallels, why not go with the mac?

[rubah]

There's a reason that "Windows" has become synonymous with "bluescreen", whilst the Mac "bombs" are something that very few people would immediately associate with MacOS. :p

The only time I've had that sleek grey translucent panel slide down over my screen asking me in four languages to please restart my computer was when I was trying to find the lowest voltage my mbp could operate at.

(That one was too low apparently ;))

[Fire_Emblem776]

And like being able to pirate software effortlessly.

^_^

But arnt macs less prone to viruses?

[ReloadPsi]

Nothing, hardware and software aside. They're both computers, they both serve pretty much the same purpose. There are arrogant elitists on both sides who throw around petty, pointless arguments, and aren't worth listening to and need a punch in the teeth. :p

I personally use a PC, running Windows Vista. It isn't bad at all, despite what other people say.

EDIT: Added a :p to the end to show everyone Tavrobel I wasn't being serious. xD

As if you weren't being serious, that point was perfectly accurate.

I was in middle school during an age when very few people had no computers in their houses, so if you went to school and were likely to need to use a computer, you'd have to learn there. This is where the complications set in: In the mid 90s, Macs were not compatible with anything. They were close to being nothing like PCs and after we'd spent three years with a Welsh IT teacher going ga-ga for Macs (I find it so unprofessional when teachers bring their own personal convictions into their freakin' jobs!) we all went to high school and had to completely re-learn how to use a computer.

Now that I'm in college doing a course mainly relating to filmmaking, Macs have the best video editing software (Final Cut ftw) but my time in middle school so many years ago left a mark. The main thing I noticed about the ones we have: no simple, rudimentary image editing software akin to MSPaint. That really pissed me off and threw so many limitations at me when trying to do some of my work that it was unreal. They also crash a great deal more than people claim they would... they're very unstable in fact; sometimes when exporting a video I've edited, it'll just freeze. Also, the Game Development course have to use Macs. Anybody notice the obvious flaw there? Once again this is all because the person in charge of this is Mac obsessed, not because he believes they'd be more useful. Oh, someone earlier said they were for dirty hippies. Well guess what, this guy who decided everyone in K Block must use Macs seems to be a dirty hippy. Result!

All these problems I've had with the supposedly flawless Mac have only led me to believe that the elitists on the Mac side are very easily swayed people. So I'm not anti-Mac by any means, I've just got my eyes open to the fact they're not as perfect as anyone would have you believe.

[Balzac]

TBH, Final Cut isn't the best. There are far better out there. Final Cut is the omly decent one for the Mac :P

Anyway, given the chance, now I've basically moved over to Maya. I'd take a mac. Far more reliable for 3d and video editing. Unless of course you're trying to do video edding on an iMac, then you get a whole heap of the problems. Powermacs are great. I have an old G4 Powermac sitting in my study, sadly it isn't powerful enough for my needs, so it goes unused.

Saying that, the priest in this vid sums it up nicely.

YouTube - Snuff Box - Macs Vs PCs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PADkpyVWAwQ)

Some strong langauge.

[DMKA]

This sums up my feelings pretty nicely. (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant)



But arnt macs less prone to viruses?

Not exactly. There's just less viruses out there targeted at Macs than Windows, for the simple fact that Macs are the minority next to Windows. Personally, I don't see how people even get viruses for Windows XP and Vista without trying.

[Momiji]

And yes, I know that with bootcamp you can play it, but this video still makes me laugh every time. :p (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLiyglcRcCA)

[Madame Adequate]

I hear that for the very few things Macs are good at, they are very good. If you want to do what a Mac is designed to do (which I understand to be graphic design for the most part), do it on a Mac instead of a Windows.

But if you want a computer which does anything else, offers any degree of flexibility, basically if you want a PC for any reason other than what Macs are very good at, don't get a Mac. I mean... eesh, I use my computer for playing games, among other things. I don't even want to think about that with a Mac.

And yeah the reason Macs don't get viruses isn't because Apple has some awesome virus aegis, it's because Mac users are using Macs, and if you're using a Mac you've already got it bad enough without viruses. :p

[Roto13]

Mac fanboys are f-ing annoying. (I'm not referring to anyone in this thread. :P)

[Magixion]

As everyone has already stated, Macs are great for user friendliness and video and editing software, but beyond that, they really are not that great. Personally, I am a PC man, I have about 4 PC's.. now that I think about it... I am not sure how I keep getting new ones! xD

If you are into nothing more than making movies and sharing photos and what not, go for a Mac, if you want to do anything beyond that, definitely go PC.

Just for fun, here is my quote regarding Macs:

"Hurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I clickzzzz my wun buttin mowse!"

Also, a great YTMND that summarizes up what I just said:

YTMND - Mac vs. PC (http://mvpc.ytmnd.com/)

[Raebus]

PC all the way.

[Rantz]

The differences, although very simplified, can—from my experience—be summed up as such: Macs are stabler, PCs are more versatile.

[Mirage]

Hardware-wise, nothing. They're both made from the same cheap chinese/taiwanese components. Except Apple charges morefor those components than everyone else. The only real difference is in software, but that's not a PC vs Mac issue, it's a MacOS vs Windows issue. No one is forcing you to use Windows on your PC, after all.

If you want to compare MacOS version whatever and Windows NT, the following applies:

First, Windows has got, by far, the largest software library. Including a lot of applications many users think of as impossible to live without :p. Of course, you can say that it's possible to emulate Windows programs in MacOS, but that's a pretty pointless discussion. Then you can argue for there being tons of games on the PSP, because it can emulate SNES, NES, GBA, et cetera. Also, emulation is usually less efficient and not always as stable as running the application on its intended system.

Second, Windows's "lol crash" reputation is a bit unfair, I think. Considering the majority of BSOD problems were found in Windows versions that weren't NT based, such as Win95, 98 and ME. I'd argue that the vast majority of BSODs in windows NT 5.x/6.x are caused by hardware problems, and if it is caused by software, it is almost always a kernel driver problem. And Microsoft aren't the ones writing drivers for all the hardware out there. Now, this leads to another interesting point, which is sort of double-edged.

You see, Macs, while using basically the same hardware as PCs, are more closed off. Apple doesn't need to support as many hardware devices as Windows does, because Macs are built with a few but (probably better) tested components, and their users rarely, if ever, replace any of the hardware inside it. Because of the lower amount of hardware devices, a lot fewer drivers need to be made too, and that frees up time to test each driver much more thoroughly. And all this leads to more stability.

A PC with Windows however, especially if you're an above-average computer user, needs to support an incredibly much larger number of different components, and to ensure that they all work nicely together. Some of these devices don't even have drivers that have been checked by MS to be "good enough", and some of these might not like some other component in the PC at all. This leads to instabilities, and for the average user, it looks like it is the OS which is the problem.

MacOS could easily run on any ordinary PC nowadays, because they use the same processor architecture. The only thing that stops you from doing this is that Apple puts a small chip on their Mac motherboards, where it is written "This is a Mac" or something. If MacOS doesn't find a chip with this text in it, it refuses to work.

However, people are working to find a workaround for this problem. I expect MacOS running on a PC to "magically" start encountering more strange problems than when run by a computer built by Apple, because of what I said earlier about MacOS not normally having to troible itself with a lot of different components.

A nice analogy could be:
Windows-PC = Driving your own car.
MacOS on Macintosh = Taking a cab, or hiring a private driver.
Linux on anything = Building your car from scratch, and driving it yourself
MacOS on PC = Hiring a car driver to fly your F-22 Raptor figher jet.

[Dreddz]

Well I've used Mac's all my life and prefer them over PC's. The Mac's firewall is a fortress and I've never had any Viruses ever. The in-built software is probably the best you are going to find. They are incredibly fast and designed much better than PC's. Windows Vista actually copied Mac to a certain extent which I think says a lot.

I think PC's do have some advantages though. For one there is more software available, I generally have an easier time finding useful freeware programs for my PC than my Mac. Because most things on the internet are built with Windows in mind first, I tend to find myself doing a lot of things on my Windows Laptop. There are workarounds for Mac but its always hassle which I'm not prepared for.

Bottom line though, Mac's are more efficient computers. I have a G5 in my house and its probably the best computer I've ever had.

[Mirage]

Firewalls don't stop viruses, and virtually no one is on the internet today without a hardware firewall in the form of a router. You only get viruses on the PC if you're stupid, and that is the truth :p. I guess Macs are more idiot-proof then :p.

Also, what are the specs on your G5 mac and your PC?

[bipper]

I guess Macs are more idiot-proof then :p.

Also, what are the specs on your G5 mac and your PC?

That about sums it up.

Apple has always been a group of nerd that evolved from the PC type of nerd that could build their own machine. This is hardly as plausible on the Mac platform. Strategy-wise apple has a safe and solid setup, in that they own both pc and hadware. Though, we all know how well that worked out for them.


I also cannot stand people who whine about Microsoft evil empire and throw apple out there as being amazing. They are, in truth, even worse.

[Miriel]

I don't see how Mac fanboys are any worse than Anti-mac people who just whine about how elitist Apple products and consumers are. Pfft.

How many of you guys have actually used a Mac as your main machine for any length of time? As far as I' concerned, only people who have used both Macs and PCs are eligible to make any real judgment on which is better, or at the very least, which they prefer.

[Madame Adequate]

Miriel, what you're saying makes sense for the real world, but this is the internet, where all that matters is presenting one's opinions as factual truth.

[Momiji]

I guess Macs are more idiot-proof then :p.

I said the exact same thing to Tavrobel last night. :p

[Roto13]

I don't see how Mac fanboys are any worse than Anti-mac people who just whine about how elitist Apple products and consumers are. Pfft.

Because I've never once seen a Windows user talk about how happy they are to be part of the Windows "community". I used to work with a guy who had a tattoo of the Apple logo on the back of his neck. When someone does that with Microsoft, it's this really weird and crazy thing (http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=Zune+Guy&searchsubmit=). xP

[Moon Rabbits]

I don't see how Mac fanboys are any worse than Anti-mac people who just whine about how elitist Apple products and consumers are. Pfft.

Because I've never once seen a Windows user talk about how happy they are to be part of the Windows "community". I used to work with a guy who had a tattoo of the Apple logo on the back of his neck. When someone does that with Microsoft, it's this really weird and crazy thing (http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=Zune+Guy&searchsubmit=). xP

I've seen those tattoos before on some people. It's kind of intense that they like their computers that much o_o;

I like my PC. I can dual boot into either Windows XP SP2 or Ubuntu (although I'm thinking of removing Ubuntu because I don't have any real use for it), and I am thinking of installing OSX onto this PC too.

EDIT: wtf@Zune guy.
edit edit: HE CHANGED HIS NAME TO MICROSOFT ZUNE :|

[black orb]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?
>>> Macs are better, thats the difference..

[rubah]

I don't see how Mac fanboys are any worse than Anti-mac people who just whine about how elitist Apple products and consumers are. Pfft.

Because I've never once seen a Windows user talk about how happy they are to be part of the Windows "community". I used to work with a guy who had a tattoo of the Apple logo on the back of his neck. When someone does that with Microsoft, it's this really weird and crazy thing (http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=Zune+Guy&searchsubmit=). xP
well, let's just think about the maddox link posted. truly it must be false because PC users can't shut up about macs either :D riterite?

[Boosk]

Macs look cooler...

[Mirage]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?
>>> Macs are better, thats the difference..

Which component inside a Mac makes it better than a PC?

[bipper]

I don't see how Mac fanboys are any worse than Anti-mac people who just whine about how elitist Apple products and consumers are. Pfft.

How many of you guys have actually used a Mac as your main machine for any length of time? As far as I' concerned, only people who have used both Macs and PCs are eligible to make any real judgment on which is better, or at the very least, which they prefer.

I have used, abused, loved, and hated the mac. I grew up on macs. I grew up on apple, and before that, I grew up with a lazer 128. I am no elitist, I am just an old school badass.

Also, I have written my own drivers and hacked apart fourth just to get gentoo (Ricer for linux) working on an old school g3 mac. I know them in and out, and personally, I think they are cute. I am fairly neutral, as I think they have their place, but I still think the PC/Windows set up is superior.

[sdm42393]

I can easily say RPG Maker is the only reason I don't save up for a Mac. I have no problem with Windows (with the exception of Vista) I just prefer using Macs.

[Yew-Yevon]

I can't play Halo, Doom 3, Half life2, Unreal Tournament 3, Quake Wars, Farcry or Crysis on a mac. Nuff said.

[Ouch!]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?
>>> Macs are better, thats the difference..

Which component inside a Mac makes it better than a PC?
You're arguing from a hardware standpoint when the only real differentiation between the two is software. Windows has a better software library while Macs are generally more user friendly. As someone who uses both, this is the only real difference.

I bought a MacBook Pro a year ago. It's the first Mac I've ever owned (although the first computer I ever used was a Mac back in grade school). I love it to death, but that doesn't stop me from dual booting with Windows XP because I recognize OSX's shortcomings. I used to dual boot with Vista, but I downgraded back to XP because Vista's compatibility issues with older games sincerely pissed me off. I'm not computer savvy enough to do all the work-arounds required to get things to work properly on Vista.

[DMKA]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?
>>> Macs are better, thats the difference..

Well, I'm convinced. :love:

[Mirage]

Whats the difference between a pc and a mac?
>>> Macs are better, thats the difference..

Which component inside a Mac makes it better than a PC?
You're arguing from a hardware standpoint when the only real differentiation between the two is software. Windows has a better software library while Macs are generally more user friendly. As someone who uses both, this is the only real difference.

I bought a MacBook Pro a year ago. It's the first Mac I've ever owned (although the first computer I ever used was a Mac back in grade school). I love it to death, but that doesn't stop me from dual booting with Windows XP because I recognize OSX's shortcomings. I used to dual boot with Vista, but I downgraded back to XP because Vista's compatibility issues with older games sincerely pissed me off. I'm not computer savvy enough to do all the work-arounds required to get things to work properly on Vista.

Well, my earlier post pointed out exactly this, and why this should be a Windows vs MacOS discussion, not PC vs Mac. :(.

[Flying Mullet]

I used Macs for several years in high school and college when working for school newspapers and found the Mac OS to be an enjoyable operating system to work on. They each have their pros and cons and I comes down to picking what works best for you. I don't think there is a clear-cut winner as they each cater to different users.

[Miriel]

On the issue of software, I'd just like to say that strangely enough I LOVE Microsoft Office and Word for Mac like a million times better than Microsoft Office/Word for PC. :p

Weird that Microsoft would include such a great feature like Notebook layout in their Word program but make it exclusive to Macs along with other Mac exclusive features.

I'm so in love with the Notebook layout it's not even funny. It might sound totally dumb, but it really helped me keep organized throughout College. I used it for every single class.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/hannahgoesrawr/notebooklayout.png

There's only one program that I couldn't shift over to Mac, but in the end I found a program superior to the PC one anyway, so it's all good for me.

And it might be elitist or shallow or whatever, but I love how PRETTY the mac is and how pretty the interface for most of the applications are. I have to be staring at this thing for hours and hours a day, I like the fact that something pretty and clean and elegant is staring right back.

[Mirage]

You're elitist and shallow :p.

[Tavrobel]

Yeah, that's pretty much the truth.

Anyways, we can't turn this into a Windows v. MacOS discussion. The winner would be clear by virtue of one of their editions failing so bad that it caused some of us to kill ourselves.

[Mirage]

What, ME? Todays Windows versions aren't even remotely based on that pile of crap.

[Tavrobel]

The fact that it exists causes an indelible taint on the universe for which no amount of Calculus or awesome can fix.

[Vyk]

ME was a different tier of Windows version. It was made by Windows people and deisigned to look like Windows. Designed to be a successor to Windows. Thank God it had competition though. NT took the stage and took over. And from what I gather, no Windows version since has taken anything from ME, they've all built off of NT

So though some people had to suffer with ME, we can pretty much pretend it didn't exist

[Rantz]

So much for repressing my ME days, thanks guys >:(

[sdm42393]

Before I bought a new computer about a week ago, the comp in my room ran Windows ME.... I'm still traumatized.

[ReloadPsi]

Also, a great YTMND that summarizes up what I just said:

YTMND - Mac vs. PC (http://mvpc.ytmnd.com/)

This absolutely kills me every time I watch it. Games!

[escobert]

The only thing I like about my macs are that I can play my old mac games on them :p Oh and I've NEVER had to reformat. My old imac still runs 8.6, not wonderfully might I say but it does it after a decade and still the first formatting. I do however prefer windows since my main use of a PC is gaming.

[Shoeberto]

Some of you people take this discussion far too seriously.

Macs are fun but the hipster crowd have kinda associated it with a pretentious image. But it's a very powerful and intuitive operating system.

Windows is... Windows. I use it for games and very little else. But it works for most people so why not.

Operating systems aren't really something to get your panties in a twist about though. Just use what you like.

[Kes]

I'm a bit of a Mac whore, myself.

Viruses
Now, I am not 100% clear on this, but the "Macs, no one gives a <img src="http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif" alt="skull" /><img src="http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif" alt="skull" /><img src="http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif" alt="skull" /><img src="http://forums.eyesonff.com/images/smilies/rpg_009.gif" alt="skull" />" is not actually true. From what I understand, OS X cannot get viruses that corrupt data, only ones that mess with the GUI. Now, I have no source for this, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, that would be awesome.

Also, one does not have to be an "idiot" to get viruses on a PC*. Plus it's just really nice going wherever one wants on the net without having to worry about if it's safe or not. Nor do I have to bother with cumbersome virus protection software.

Compatibility
Dual booting and/or running VM software is a great work around for this, and really, when it comes to anything I've ever needed/wanted to use, I rarely have compatibility issues. Unless it's a game or highly specialised, random software (like something that came with my French book) there's usually an equivalent for OS X somewhere.

When it comes to features for the OS, OS X came out before Vista, and it seems to (as far as I can tell) work better than Vista. Leopard also has features like Spaces and um, other stuff that I can't think of right now that Vista doesn't.

Basically, Microsoft takes what Apple did, and tries to make it work on their OS. I'm not saying they do it poorly, I don't know the stats etc., but I like how Apple does it better. And, yeah, I know Apple doesn't deserve the credit for creating it and Linux has all that stuff first, but xkcd (http://xkcd.com/456/).

Uh, so yeah, just saying what everyone else said, it seems. Also, Macs are more expensive (usually?) but they are pretty, and I think they're well worth it.


Oh, and Apple is supposed to have great customer service though I've never really had to use it much.

*Yes, I understand it should be Windows vs. Mac OS but I'm using common parlance, darn it.

[Miriel]

Leopard is so god damn sexy. Time Machine ftw.

[Roto13]

Oh, I don't think anyone here is taking anything too seriously. :P (I know I'M joking, anyway. xP)

[Kes]

Oh, I don't think anyone here is taking anything too seriously. :P (I know I'M joking, anyway. xP)


See that? See that? xP? I know what you're doing! You're subtly pointing us to the OS you want us to use, I'm not stupid! @.@


Also, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm ttly srs about all this XP "emoticon" propaganda.

[Roto13]

I'm on Vista, crazy lady.

[Yar]

I'm on Vista, crazy lady.

Vista makes for a terrible emoticon. :(

[Vyk]

Yeah I remember when XP first came out and everyone was like OH NO NOW I'LL BE SHAMED USING X AND P AS AN EMOTICON

[Mirage]

Vista is ok as long as you just strip it down. Prefetch is nice, and so is the new audio mixer. Other than that, I don't really care :p.