Mac vs Windows?

[zyzzyva980]

I see what you mean, but the help desk in Apple stores is called the "Genius Bar". How arrogant is that?

[harryk]

I see what you mean, but the help desk in Apple stores is called the "Genius Bar". How arrogant is that?

Yeah, I do agree with that, but it is perhaps the best help of any computer company

[Jocool]

So here's my two cents on why I think macs aren't better at least for the reasons you say, harryk.

-NO viruses! Not true. It isn't possible to have a software that can't have malware that replicates and duplicates. It is just that there aren't very many, which is because there are so many fewer Macs than PC's, so virus and malware makers don't see the point in writing them.

-Unification. I do see how this is an advantage for macs, but if you are smart about the parts on PC's you want, you can not only let it run to its fullest ability, but also run just how you want it. PC's are SOOOO much more customizable than Macs because they are not unified.

-Specs aren't everything. True. But the PC's can go to the exact specs you want, whether it be high or low. You get to choose. The customer gets to choose the software, allowing it to do exactly what they want. Then, I agree with who cares if a webpage opens up in .5 or .6 seconds, but that is up to the user. The reason behind your computer running faster is probably nothing to do with processor power. It is most likely that your mac has higher RAM, and therefore in some ways is faster. This is one major downfall for PC's. Although you can have much higher RAM on a PC, you can also have lower, and if you are not buying smartly, the consumer may accidentally buy a lower amount of RAM. Sometimes this is what they want, others it isn't.

-Litttle annoying details. I have one major problem with macs. They buttons for close, minimize, etc. are small and only let you click on them if it is clear that the mouse is on the button. This can be quite irritating. The annoying prblems with PC's can actually be quite useful. It lets you know when something of possible importance occurs, and so it can always be helpful. And if it really starts to bug you, you can turn it off. But it first gives the user the benefit of the doubt.

-Price. The reason that Macs are so expensive is because they can make them expensive and people will still buy it. If you know what you are doing, you can buy a PC laptop for just as high quality as a MacBook Pro for no more than 1300 dollars. This kind of thing goes for all other levels of computer. The illusion that Macs are worth the money is mostly bogus. $200 may seem somewhat trivial, but you could also buy a nice smartphone of ones choosing with that money.

-Innovation. Apple is known for it's use of new technology, other companies do this too, but Apple is known for making it stick in the market. I do have to agree with this statement. However, USB was not primarily adopted by Apple more than by PC companies. It was developed by PC companies, and was primarily used and adopted by them. FireWire was created by Apple, but look who is the one having to make adapters. Apple has had to make adapters from its FireWire to USB, not the other way around. I have nothing to say about the Intel processors because I don't know much about their history, but I think that Apple makes its own processors and doesn't use Intel, but I may be wrong. I happen to think the iPhone business is just the first come effect. All of your ideas that the iPhone was the first big touch screen, home icons and apps, i think that all of that, although it is true that they were the first, would have happend anyway because it is just a good idea. They would have been done anyway, but Apple came first, and so it got to CLAIM that the other had copied it.

-Aesthetics. This is perhaps the most obvious blunder for PC's. PC's don't look as nice in many cases, but again, it is the user's choice. If the buyer wants a nice looking PC and sturdy felling PC, or any other aesthetic combination, they can just go on the market and find one that fits their taste. In my opinion, Macs look cool, but in many ways I like many of the PC's aesthetics better, because that is just my taste. Windows too. I like that it hides the information in a way that it doesn't jump out at you or interfere, but you can make it appear when you need something. I bet you didn't know this, but for example, iPods, Apple's design and so called "hide-the-information-you-don't-need-to-see" policy lead to some pretty annoying stuff. In these iPods, when the software encounters a problem, it fixes it so that you don't notice as much, but doesn't tell you you had a problem or what it was. It just documents what happened and sits there. When you plug it into your home computer, again, without telling you, because who wants to see that their 300 dollar mp3 player had a problem, the iPod sends all the info to save on the harddrive about the logs of what might have gone wrong since you last plugged in. The computer sends it like an error report for Apple to fix. Good, right? Apple fixes these problems. But the logs still sit on your hard drive and take up space and make your computer slower. This happened to my home desktop computer because my brother didn't know this and his iPod was doing it. The computer got so slow that when we moved partitions to speed it up, his whole partition was cluttered up and when we deleted them, 2x as fast. The stickers I agree are a little annoying, you get used to them after a while and it becomes how a PC should look. They are there by law, and so I assume that Macs have them too if they really do use Intel and of course OS X.

I have heard these same arguments against PC's in different forms, and they are just bogus except for the few time that I pointed out. It really is just a matter of taste and marketing. Apple has been able to sell these bogus ideas long enough and I just want to clarify that the reason for buying a Mac does not lie within these pseudo-reasons, but is jsut from good marketing and in some ways, peer pressure.

Just my 100 cents.

[harryk]

Thanks Jocool, you have some good arguments as well, but I just wanted to give a short response

-NO viruses! Not true. It isn't possible to have a software that can't have malware that replicates and duplicates. It is just that there aren't very many, which is because there are so many fewer Macs than PC's, so virus and malware makers don't see the point in writing them.

I know that there can be malware, but not viruses specifically, a Virus is defined by Wikipedia:

A true virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium

And because of the limited permissions given to software in OSX this is not possible

The reason behind your computer running faster is probably nothing to do with processor power. It is most likely that your mac has higher RAM, and therefore in some ways is faster.

Actually is only has 512mb ram, 256 stock , my friends computer has 4gb

-Litttle annoying details. I have one major problem with macs. They buttons for close, minimize, etc. are small and only let you click on them if it is clear that the mouse is on the button.

Never really noticed this, but now that you say it they are kinda small, I guess after 10 years of using OSX I just got good at it, but most of the time I use keyboard shortcuts anyway

[TheGenius]

Thanks Jocool, you have some good arguments as well, but I just wanted to give a short response

-NO viruses! Not true. It isn't possible to have a software that can't have malware that replicates and duplicates. It is just that there aren't very many, which is because there are so many fewer Macs than PC's, so virus and malware makers don't see the point in writing them.

I know that there can be malware, but not viruses specifically, a Virus is defined by Wikipedia:

A true virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium

And because of the limited permissions given to software in OSX this is not possible

Windows does the exact same thing. However, there are vulnerabilities in all operating systems that can be exploited to get around such things.

The reason behind your computer running faster is probably nothing to do with processor power. It is most likely that your mac has higher RAM, and therefore in some ways is faster.

Actually is only has 512mb ram, 256 stock , my friends computer has 4gb

If it is new, than it probably has useless preinstalled software that can slow computers down significantly. Also, processing power would depend the processor itself. You can't compare processors solely by their clock speeds.

[quadratic]

Microsoft is powerful, not evil. Despite popular opinion, they advanced more on competitors' mistakes than questionable business practices. It would be interesting to see how the world would be different if UNIX had developed a decent GUI earlier, Apple took the Unix core 15 years ago, or BeOS had a decent marketing staff.

the omniscient creator of scioly says pc's a better

[Jocool]

Thanks Jocool, you have some good arguments as well, but I just wanted to give a short response

-NO viruses! Not true. It isn't possible to have a software that can't have malware that replicates and duplicates. It is just that there aren't very many, which is because there are so many fewer Macs than PC's, so virus and malware makers don't see the point in writing them.

I know that there can be malware, but not viruses specifically, a Virus is defined by Wikipedia:

A true virus can spread from one computer to another (in some form of executable code) when its host is taken to the target computer; for instance because a user sent it over a network or the Internet, or carried it on a removable medium

And because of the limited permissions given to software in OSX this is not possible

Windows does the exact same thing. However, there are vulnerabilities in all operating systems that can be exploited to get around such things.

I absolutely agree with you, theGenius. I was trying to say that it isn't that the Macs don't allow viruses, it is just that there aren't many that exist that do work on Macs for the reasons I explained.

The reason behind your computer running faster is probably nothing to do with processor power. It is most likely that your mac has higher RAM, and therefore in some ways is faster.

Actually is only has 512mb ram, 256 stock , my friends computer has 4gb

If it is new, than it probably has useless preinstalled software that can slow computers down significantly. Also, processing power would depend the processor itself. You can't compare processors solely by their clock speeds.

Yes processing power does depend on the processor itself, but if it really is what the company says, it shouldn't matter who makes it or on the actual processor.
Yes preinstalled software that is useless can also slow down the computer. Tell them to delete it.

[andrewwski]

How did I not see this thread before?!?
So here's my two cents on why I think macs are better

-Unification. The hardware is made by the same people who make the software, so it works in harmony and they don't undercut or overuse anything. Yes, I know there are some well made PC's out there, but you have to admit most of them aren't as half good as the best PC's

To me, that's a lack of options. I want to be able to customize my hardware.

-Specs aren't everything. Sure you could buy or build a quad core 4ghz, 64gb ram, 8tb hdd or whatever and on paper it could be the fastest computer around, but a) Can the software support/ultize any of it? And b) For a majority of computer use will it really make a difference if the webpage opens in .5 or .6 seconds. I also would like to say that most of the time my 2006 2ghz MacBook is always faster than any of my friends brand new PC's running as high as 3ghz

Depends on what they have running in the background, etc. Especially with hardware-intensive applications (CAD software, video editors, etc) or lots of applications running at once.

-Litttle annoying details. OSX doesn't have any of them. For example on windows there are little pop-up alerts to tell me that my wifi signal strength has just gone form good to great, do you really think I care?!? From my experience Windows is full of these little 'problems', while I don't find any on a Mac

Personal preference. I find Macs very annoying to used. Probably an issue of what you're used to. (Also, I've never seen a popup on any version of Windows for the changing of Wifi signal strength. Are you sure it wasn't a third party wireless manager?)

-Price. This is perhaps the biggest downfall for Macs. And I'll admit that paying $1500+ for a laptop seems like much, but is it really? If they didn't make $300-400 crap computers then Macs wouldn't seem so expensive, and to get a Good PC that will perform equally as well as a MacBook Pro you will almost certainly spend over $1000 or maybe even over $2000. So for something that you're probably going to be using for the next 5-10 years don't you think quality should be considered

There are quality computers that cost far less. A friend of mine just got a new Dell Latitude with a 2.4 ghz dual core (i5), 6 gb RAM, 750 gig hard drive, 1 gb Nvidia graphics for $700. A $1000 Macbook has a 2.4 ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 gb RAM, and 250 gb hard drive. And I've had Dell Latitudes last 9+ years (still using one from 2002...still works great).

-Innovation. Apple is known for it's use of new technology, other companies do this too, but Apple is known for making it stick in the market. Take USB for example, how many of you knew that Apple was the primary early adopter and that's largely why it is the most commonly used port today. Same as FireWire and Apple actually created it themselves. More recently with the intel i5 and i7 processors Apple was the first company to implement them. Now on a tangent when the iPhone was first released it was the very first big touchscreen style phone and the first to use the idea of a home screen with App icons. Now look at the market today, and tell me that a majority of the smart phones don't look like the iPhone in some way

Hmm, USB was created by a group of 7 companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel, and Compaq, but not Apple. Firewire was not created exclusively by Apple, although they did initiate it and play a large role. Firewire never caught on as much as USB either. The new Intel series pretty much caught on at the same time with every manufacturer, heck, there's a fair amount of Macbooks that are still being sold with Core 2 Duos. I will say Apple did make a major impact on the smartphone market though.

-Aesthetics. This is what OSX and Macs are designed for. OSX is made to be easy to use, visually pleasing, and stress free. A good motto for Mac developing, "Hide any information the user doesn't need to see". Macs physically are designed to look sleek and dare I say sexy. I admit there are some very good looking PC's put there but nothing has come close to the glass and aluminum of a Mac(except the new MacBook, it's rather ugly in my opinion. That and the build quality is unsurpassed. When you hold a MacBook Pro at a corner with one hand it feels solid, no plastic bending or creaking. Also negative on PC's is the amount of logos stuck on it(partly because it is made by so many different companies), take the stickers on them, there is usually a "built for Windows 7", and a "Intel centrino(or something)" and usually a couple others. There are other things I want to say but this post is already long enough

Yeah, the Macbook Pro is a nice feeling computer. There are others. And honestly, the Macbook itself feels cheap. And who cares about the stickers? I can peel them off.[/quote]