PC or Mac??

[UNIQETA]

I am debating on buying a mac or pc for school. I am not much of a computer person just yet, but what I know I can handle. I need a new laptop for school and I wanted some opinions on what you guys think is better. I know that there are a lot of people that are computer wizards here. I would like to know the pros and cons of both.

[george graves]

[ezrez]

MAC...end of discussion!

[e30e]

I would find out what your college recommends, for instance the business school at my college does not use any programs a mac can use. Personally I have never had any real problems with pc because I don't download anything besides music. I use vista now for 8 months and no glitches. There has been many computer threads in off topic, go ahead and search those too. Oh I'm anti-mac fan boi too but would own a mac if it were so damn trendy and expensive.

[Mike325]

I am not a computer pro but....


Pro for PC is price.

Con for Mac is way over priced.

But if you can afford it, I would go Mac.

[lotar_6]

I have a MacBook Pro and love it. It never crashes, no drivers to install, file organization is simple, MS Office for Mac works well, and did I mention that it NEVAR crashes? I also run VirtualBox so I can boot up XP or Window 7 if I need IE or other proprietary software that doesn't work on Mac. And I'll also mention that running Windows on the Mac is ssssooooooooo much better. It's faster and it's never crashed on me.

But yes, if you have an intended purpose (such as school) check to see what requirements the program has... and yes, Mac's are expensive... but to me, the lack of lost productivity is WELL worth it!!

[gazellebeigem3]

[DR.ZED]

I am debating on buying a mac or pc for school. I am not much of a computer person just yet, but what I know I can handle. I need a new laptop for school and I wanted some opinions on what you guys think is better. I know that there are a lot of people that are computer wizards here. I would like to know the pros and cons of both.

BEFORE:
I'll give you my experience. My background has been in IT for 20 years. I started with a Commodore Pet, Vic 20, Windows 1, 95 and XP. I always had Windows 2000 for the longest time, and XP for a bit. I always, always got used to fdisking (low level format) every year and having a CD (or many diskettes lol) with about 75 programs to reload.

No matter what safe websites, or emails I opened carefully I always had to run Spyware Doctor, virus scan etc... I found TrendMicro and Spyware Dr to be my best defence. However, I could never find a simple way for a large music collection, some videos etc. 4 years ago my daughter was born and there was no real program available to look at pictures quickly and organize properly for PC, aside from trying out 15 programs to find one that worked okay. Programs installed on PC will never fully unload and after 12 months (I'm a medium user) the PC would totally dog down. This is common even for a light user.

AFTER:
I used to always call Macs "idiot" proof because idiots used them. My buddy at work told me one day his 5 year old PowerPC Mac is as fast and reliable today as it was 5 years ago. My wife was in the midst of her XP laptop crawling after a refresh.

I am doing okay financially so I decided to take the risk, realizing I could sell it at a 20% loss on craigslist anyway and buy a MAC.

I turned it on and in 45 minutes I know what I know today (a year later).

What do I know? I still have full control of the OS, and its not babied and locked down like I thought.

I can made PDFs, read nearly any PC file without having any extra software installed. I never get a slowdown. I never get a virus. I can run any PC program through a $100 package called Parallels which is easy as hell to use. The web is so friggin fast and reliable its not funny.

I manage my 75GB photo library with iPhoto. The 2009 ilife suite (photo, music, etc...) comes with the wickedest face recognition. Click on a keyword, face, location and it will find all your pictures associated with it.

Click once and you have a PDF made.

All printers, scanners, camaras, everything "mac compatible" runs like a dream. Spend 10% more to get 10x the functionality and 0 I mean 0 problems. The integration will blow you mind.

Setup a network with another Mac in 2 seconds. Setup a network share with a Windows computer in 10 seconds (after you spend a friggin hour on the windows box).

Open the cover of the computer and it starts in 4 seconds. Reboot in 35 seconds. BUY 4 GB of RAM on any mac you buy!!!!!!!!!!

What other Operating system when updated drops 10GB of space? Snow Leopard (only stable above 2GB of ram).

Built in Time Machine backups. You're not going to believe how friggin sick and comprehensive this is. One click and the entire Apple operating system will let you get inside and look for any revision to any file. Click on iphoto and then time machine and you will enter the internals to find lost or deleted photos.

If you EVER, EVER need to kill your Mac OS (extremely rare), do it and hit time machine. Back to new, like a restore disk. EVERY option is restored and saved like nothing happened. In 30 minutes including the time to low level format.

No slow down. Ever.

Run the craziest sh!t you can imagine all at once, and you'll notice maybe a 10% decline in performance.

90% of the above I just mentioned is on a 5 year old Mac.

Can you imagine a new one?

Have problems? Buy the apple care which is parts and labour warranty. Call them anytime of the day and they call you back, automatically setup appointments at the store for you and their genius bar fixes stuff nearly instantly.

You will never have service and support like you know today.

Do it, and give it an open mind (I didn't for 20 years) and in an hour you will experience computing you never thought possible. You will say:

"THIS IS HOW COMPUTERS SHOULD RUN!!!".

[drumad]

I'll be honest.

I <3 my mac. I've converted my family into a mac family. All my friends are mac people. The best part, none of them are the douchy mac people you hear about.

The worst part of my day job, I have to use this PC.


BTW

you said youre going to school right? what major are you taking? that's the important question. AND if you game? but then again, valve is releasing steam for mac some time in the future. AND starcraft 2 is coming on mac too. Life is complete.

I did mech engineering and I HAD to have a graphic intensive computer for cad progs. I used cad "heavily" for two years then my junior year I went ahead and got a mac. I fell for the hype and so far, I fell the right way.

BTW I got a MB Pro, old 15" one. Will be getting a newer 13" Pro soon enough. 8 hour battery life? YES!

[TheEtaUnderdog]

BEFORE:
I'll give you my experience. My background has been in IT for 20 years. I started with a Commodore Pet, Vic 20, Windows 1, 95 and XP. I always had Windows 2000 for the longest time, and XP for a bit. I always, always got used to fdisking (low level format) every year and having a CD (or many diskettes lol) with about 75 programs to reload.

No matter what safe websites, or emails I opened carefully I always had to run Spyware Doctor, virus scan etc... I found TrendMicro and Spyware Dr to be my best defence. However, I could never find a simple way for a large music collection, some videos etc. 4 years ago my daughter was born and there was no real program available to look at pictures quickly and organize properly for PC, aside from trying out 15 programs to find one that worked okay. Programs installed on PC will never fully unload and after 12 months (I'm a medium user) the PC would totally dog down. This is common even for a light user.

AFTER:
I used to always call Macs "idiot" proof because idiots used them. My buddy at work told me one day his 5 year old PowerPC Mac is as fast and reliable today as it was 5 years ago. My wife was in the midst of her XP laptop crawling after a refresh.

I am doing okay financially so I decided to take the risk, realizing I could sell it at a 20% loss on craigslist anyway and buy a MAC.

I turned it on and in 45 minutes I know what I know today (a year later).

What do I know? I still have full control of the OS, and its not babied and locked down like I thought.

I can made PDFs, read nearly any PC file without having any extra software installed. I never get a slowdown. I never get a virus. I can run any PC program through a $100 package called Parallels which is easy as hell to use. The web is so friggin fast and reliable its not funny.

I manage my 75GB photo library with iPhoto. The 2009 ilife suite (photo, music, etc...) comes with the wickedest face recognition. Click on a keyword, face, location and it will find all your pictures associated with it.

Click once and you have a PDF made.

All printers, scanners, camaras, everything "mac compatible" runs like a dream. Spend 10% more to get 10x the functionality and 0 I mean 0 problems. The integration will blow you mind.

Setup a network with another Mac in 2 seconds. Setup a network share with a Windows computer in 10 seconds (after you spend a friggin hour on the windows box).

Open the cover of the computer and it starts in 4 seconds. Reboot in 35 seconds. BUY 4 GB of RAM on any mac you buy!!!!!!!!!!

What other Operating system when updated drops 10GB of space? Snow Leopard (only stable above 2GB of ram).

Built in Time Machine backups. You're not going to believe how friggin sick and comprehensive this is. One click and the entire Apple operating system will let you get inside and look for any revision to any file. Click on iphoto and then time machine and you will enter the internals to find lost or deleted photos.

If you EVER, EVER need to kill your Mac OS (extremely rare), do it and hit time machine. Back to new, like a restore disk. EVERY option is restored and saved like nothing happened. In 30 minutes including the time to low level format.

No slow down. Ever.

Run the craziest sh!t you can imagine all at once, and you'll notice maybe a 10% decline in performance.

90% of the above I just mentioned is on a 5 year old Mac.

Can you imagine a new one?

Have problems? Buy the apple care which is parts and labour warranty. Call them anytime of the day and they call you back, automatically setup appointments at the store for you and their genius bar fixes stuff nearly instantly.

You will never have service and support like you know today.

Do it, and give it an open mind (I didn't for 20 years) and in an hour you will experience computing you never thought possible. You will say:

"THIS IS HOW COMPUTERS SHOULD RUN!!!".

You're an IT guy that runs windows? Do you know any linux administration?

Get a PC, its cheaper, it can run linux, windows, freebsd, osx, everything. All the same things mac can run. They all use the same intel hardware architecture, no more powerpc.

Do what you want, but its all the SAME shit underneath, just the pretty shell is what you are paying for.

[drumad]

^and customer service. No don't pull the DIY line. Yes, some apple geniuses are in fact idiots, but for the most part, apple service is very very very good.

Some people would much rather hand it to someone else.

[e30rapidic]

we have recently switched from PC to MacBook Pro. I love it. My wife does too but she won't admit it. We have 2 Dell laptops and a Toshiba here as well but she is always nicking my Mac.

[TheEtaUnderdog]

we have recently switched from PC to MacBook Pro. I love it. My wife does too but she won't admit it. We have 2 Dell laptops and a Toshiba here as well but she is always nicking my Mac.

install osx on your dells and the toshiba and she wont anymore

[TheEtaUnderdog]

^and customer service. No don't pull the DIY line. Yes, some apple geniuses are in fact idiots, but for the most part, apple service is very very very good.

Some people would much rather hand it to someone else.

indeed you are paying extra for the customer service, but you can get that with dell or any other big outlet. Genius bar is a cool service but is $$$

[freeski27]

If you have the little extra bit of money buy the mac. Don't get caught up in the "ahhh, but your programs won't run on a mac!!" I have the new macbook pro and I love it. I'm also an engineering student who has to run all sorts of different programs and I have no problems.

Most popular programs out there now have an OSX version or are coming out with one very soon, there is a demand for it.

For all others, I run a program on my mac that is called "crossover", it allows me to run any windows based programs on OSX. For any serious compatability issues I have 40GB of my hard drive partitioned for Windows (which I can boot in by holding the option key durring startup). Partitioning and installing a copy of windows was very easy, the computer comes with a program called "boot camp" that is a simple step-by-step program for installing a copy of windows.

BTW, the new intel MACs run windows better than the PC's imo, but you will rarley ever be using it.