PC vs Mac, Mac vs PC

We have all seen the commercials of the old pc guy and the young mac kid. And all of the Mac users that just say mac's are so much better than the normal windows based PC. And the power window users that have windows PC's that argue back as to why a Windows based system is better than Mac.
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The question though or more importantly your opinions, which system do you think is better?

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Personal thought, Mac users are lucky their market share is only 5 to 8% and malware coders don't waste their time/money on writing bad code to harm the Mac OS's. Therefore a false sense of security is created. (Just one of many thoughts)

Your opinions?
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(PS: Thanks Dynamic for sparking the creative juices for this topic with your earlier thread!!)

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Comments

Darthn3ss

I don't have much experience with mac, specially recently, but i do think that one of the biggest arguments is that macs are so secure, 100% unhackable, no virus has ever been released for unix-based OS's or mac, etc,etc,etc... I hear fanboys spouting that crap all the time and its sickening. Not only is it false, its ignorant and yes, mac has less, but there aren't as many macs out there either. I wouldn't write a virus thats only going to affect a very small portion of users...

dynamik

iowatech wrote:

(PS: Thanks Dynamic for sparking the creative juices for this topic with your earlier thread!!)

I personally don't like the OS. It's too cutesy (my wife thinks so too), and it just feels kind of clunky and "dumbed-down" overall. They are an absolute pain to integrate into an AD domain, and you need something like ADmit Mac to get any reasonable level of functionality (we have a design department, so we have a few Macs here). The above posts are dead-on in regards to a false sense of security. The only secure system is one that's unplugged. It's an inherently secure OS, but that doesn't mean it's invulnerable. As soon as they achieve significant market-share and some virus or worm is unleashed upon them, there's going to be a virtual epidemic.

I don't hate Macs, and they eo many things quite well (e.g. their implementation of UAC isn't annoying as all sin). I actually recommend them to many novice users. They're just not for me. I like OSes that let me rm -rf * my root without complaint, not that hold my hand to the point of condescension.

Darthn3ss

I'm actually thinking about getting a macbook next... its a hard choice, thinkpad or macbook :P

but i have to find out if i can dual boot (not emulate) with XP first.

dynamik

Darthn3ss wrote:

but i have to find out if i can dual boot (not emulate) with XP first.

You can do this on any Mac with Bootcamp as long as it has an Intel chipset.

snadam

dynamik wrote:

iowatech wrote:

(PS: Thanks Dynamic for sparking the creative juices for this topic with your earlier thread!!)

NP

I personally don't like the OS. It's too cutesy (my wife thinks so too), and it just feels kind of clunky and "dumbed-down" overall. They are an absolute pain to integrate into an AD domain, and you need something like ADmit Mac to get any reasonable level of functionality (we have a design department, so we have a few Macs here). The above posts are dead-on in regards to a false sense of security. The only secure system is one that's unplugged. It's an inherently secure OS, but that doesn't mean it's invulnerable. As soon as they achieve significant market-share and some virus or worm is unleashed upon them, there's going to be a virtual epidemic.

I don't hate Macs, and they eo many things quite well (e.g. their implementation of UAC isn't annoying as all sin). I actually recommend them to many novice users. They're just not for me. I like OSes that let me rm -rf * my root without complaint, not that hold my hand to the point of condescension.

+1 sums it up for me! Don't hate the actual machine rather than an annoying mac user (not ALL are annoying) boasting about how awesome their system is, but cant give me a legitimate answer . I ask them why are Mac's so much better than PC's, and 9/10 times the response is "because PC's are stupid"

I usually reply 'have fun replacing your superdrive'

jkstech

from a creative standpoint, I like the mac better, in the workplace, I haven't tried running them in a domain, I have a mac at home for audio production, and it's way ahead of windows os in terms of that type of stuff, as far as everyday work, I'd imagine it's pretty much the same, as a home pc yeah it'd be fine, i've never had to implement one in a windows domain so I can't comment on that....

I do like the os and how it handles resources.....I was never a fanboy of macs, I received one as a gift and now I see why so many use them, they work, and for audio/video production, there's pretty much no contest, for me, because the way mac osx handles resources and devices is leaps and bounds above windows.....

but like I said, i'm speaking from an audio production/home user standpoint.......

hypnotoad

Personally, I can't stand Macs because of the interface and the documentation.

I can't stand the interface because of...
- The way the pinwheel pops up
- How it feels like i'm only running 1 application at a time because the apps always take over the whole screen (including menu bar) by default
- How the maximize and minimize buttons are 'reversed'
- How the stupid apple updater makes me downloads hundreds of megs of updates for iTunes, etc
- How I can't throw the mouse to the upper-right corner to close something or lower-left corner for my menu (I have to zero-in on it).
- How slow the mouse/scrolling feels unless you turn the speed way up
- I have to type my password in to change anything!!!!

Has anyone ever tried to read Mac documentation? You usually find less than 1 page in the manual about a topic, and if it doesn't work, you're out of luck. Example...mirroring a hard drive or setting up a RAID array on 10.4 server. BIOS right? Wrong.

The instructions say "Using the Disk Utility, Drag one hard drive on to the other". What they fail to mention is that if it's a mounted hard drive, it won't error out -- it just simply won't let you drag it. So you google it, and you find messages saying 'oh yeah, you have to sudo /etc/fstab blah blah ps | kill | img | untar /Volume'. No. What you do is boot up off your OS X CD and run the disk util from there. An easy task has become a total pain unless you know what you're looking for.

If they just would have said, in the documentation, or provided an actual error message of "You can't set up mirroring on this drive because it's already mounted." It would have been a lot easier.

Mac might be fine for creative work, but running it in a domain is a nightmare. Our Mac systems' OpenDirectory decides to unbind from the domain once a month. File sharing still sucks in a Mac (I can't just right-click and share it? I have to open the WorkGroup Manager and create a share? Psh...) Don't even get me started on DHCPD in Mac 10.4 Server

Ever tried to install MAMP (Mac Apache MySQL PHP)? I hope you're good at typing your password in. Mac makes you type your password to mount the installer, to install it, to change the ports, to change the permissions, to change the home directory, to change the startup method. Good god. At least in Vista I can turn off UAC.

Darthn3ss

so its vista meets linux kinda?

Daniel333

Heh, I loved my performa and then G3. The Mac Mini is awesome. Never was a fan of PCs until Windows XP and Vista is kinda pushing me back the other direction now.

Plantwiz

dynamik wrote:

iowatech wrote:

(PS: Thanks Dynamic for sparking the creative juices for this topic with your earlier thread!!)

NP

I personally don't like the OS. It's too cutesy (my wife thinks so too), and it just feels kind of clunky and "dumbed-down" overall..

Well, that's what I thought about Vista and why I bothered to get a MacBook.

I'm using Parallels, but recently thought about changing from Parallels (and XP) to VMWare and XP.

While MaxOSX is cutesy too, it does work with very little headache. Since I only use the native programs, Internet, E-mail, Gimp and Parallels, it's not likely a fair test, but I really just don't see much problem with all that I've used.

dynamik

Aww... c'mon now. No selective quoting

I completely agree with you. Maybe I should have said I recommend Macs to people looking for an easy solution to general computing needs. I guess "novice users" sounds derogatory; it wasn't intended to be. It's a good product that does some things better than XP and/or Vista. I've spend a decent amount of time with it, and it's just not my thing.

Plantwiz

Wasn't trying to selective quote you.... just caught my eye on the 'cutesy' making me think of the reason why I even entertained the idea of a Mac. I was disappointed MS was even trying to copy Mac (which this battle has gone on for a while), but the eye candy of Vista was a huge turnoff for me. Yes, it can be turned off....I shouldn't have to disable most features on a brand-new OS so that it's not distracting to use.

I just liked your comment.

Tyrant1919

The fact I can't build my own Mac surely doesn't help. I'm not paying some company to put together a desktop that I can just as easily build myself selecting my own components to customize it to my needs. The majority of games do not support Mac.

Their new thin latop I just saw on the News, the Macbook Air I believe, $1800... yeah. I'll stick with my $650 dell e1505 thank you very much.

I'm a fan of the Ipod. I hate ITunes. Macs do have their place, not in my house though.

taktsoi

Isn't it strange that a Mac user who uses MAC likes to have a VMware install with windows xp? Why is this?

Isn't it strange that people wanna dual boot with xp and mac? what, i hear windows again???

Isn't it strange that Apple drops its own chipsets and uses Intel processors for a BETTER performance that makes you capable of using WINDOWS?

Isn't it strange that people say PC sucks yet Apple uses PC components??? Can we call MAC a PC? No, you have to call it MAC, not PC. It is not interchangeable. PC just sucks, not MAC sucks.

Isn't it strange that apple advertisement always shows WINDOWS as a bloated software but people still put a bloated software in their MAC. Isn't this making it so bloated???

I have no clues people

Daniel333

Hey man, it's a Windows world. No one is denying that. It's a good thing that Apple has done all those things. With the OpenSource and Linux community growing, I would expect that Microsoft will have to do the same things as their market share continues to drop.

Plantwiz

taktsoi wrote:

Isn't it strange that a Mac user who uses MAC likes to have a VMware install with windows xp? Why is this?

Because I need to support users in both worlds and if I don't know my way around both....they won't pay me

Tyrant1919

"If they have a Mac floppy, tell them you only have PCs. If they have a PC floppy, tell them you only have Macs. If they have both, tell them your system is down."

GT-Rob

^ chappelle ftw :P

You can always tell a crappy product by the number of commercials they play, and you can't watch 30mins of TV without seeing 10 ipod/mac ads. If they truly had a good product, they wouldn't need catchy theme songs to move it.

Then again, it is kind of in our nature to dislike it. If you don't like windows, use linux. Mac doesn't really fit in anywhere IMO.

On a side note, I installed OS 10.5 on an HP machine today. I can't give it a fair judgment as I hate macs and always will (especially ipods)

Schluep

I've honestly never had the desire to experiment with a Mac. I work with Linux, Unix, and Windows and use primarily Windows for my personal e-mail, web browsing, and similar functions at home.

A lot of my software did not work on a Mac and there wasn't anything specifically to be gained by switching (I entirely lack the artistic capability to make use of any of the big name design programs that a lot of people historically have liked them for).

At some point I might give them a try, but for the time being I have more important things to spend my time and money on.

I must admit however that the commercials referenced as a starting point for this thread were a great marketing move. I can't tell you how many people who have heard bad things about Vista (but have never used it) and see that new PCs come with Vista are getting Macbook Pros because of it. I can name 3 that I know personally (usually people that come to me for computer help and are well aware they will be out of luck on that one).

The only time I ventured down that path was an Apple IIe. It had lower case letters!

Lee H

Hi

Never say never, i would not buy a mac but if someone was to give me one i would not say no

The G5's look sweet

Lee H

Tyrant1919

I think I would take a new mac for free too. Or maybe if it was $100 I might breakdown and buy it.

hypnotoad

Expanding on why I hate macs. Here is what I've learned about Macs (specifically an iMac with a corrupt OS) in the last 24 hours:

1. Booting up from the DVD requires you to have an exact version-mac match up. If it shipped with 10.4.8, don't try 10.4.9 it won't work.

2. Pressing C to boot from the CD (technically DVD) doesn't work. You have to press Option. What they don't tell you is that you have to hit the RIGHT option key, not the left one.

3. The Disk Repair feature in Disk Utility (once you do get it to boot from the CD) doesn't do anything of any value. Neither does the permissions repair feature.

4. If you take an iMac apart (which requiers a special screwdriver and a phillips) you won't be able to replace any components except the CMOS battery and RAM unless you remove the ENTIRE LCD.

5. Once you get to the terminal to save your data and you plug in your external drive, you'll have a HELL of a time getting it to mount NTFS in read-write. You're better off creating a FAT32 partition on it. However, you're going to be limited to 32 gigs in FAT32, so you better create like 10 32 gig partitions.

6. mount_ftp simply doesn't work when booted off the DVD and on the terminal.

7. mount_smb doesn't work because it can't load the Kerberos libraries from the DVD. You have to be able to boot up to the full version, thus rendering it useless for backing up data.

ALL OF THIS STUPID CRAP IS A TOTAL PAIN IN THE ASS AND I HATE MACS.

JDMurray

nlabelle wrote:

Expanding on why I hate macs. Here is what I've learned about Macs (specifically an iMac with a corrupt OS) in the last 24 hours:

You need to add that it takes five minutes to discover that Steve Jobs had the power switch put on the back of the monitor, which still boggles my mind to this day.

dtlokee

JDMurray wrote:

You need to add that it takes five minutes to discover that Steve Jobs had the power switch put on the back of the monitor, which still boggles my mind to this day.

Why would you want to turn off such a marvel of engineering?

JDMurray

dtlokee wrote:

JDMurray wrote:

You need to add that it takes five minutes to discover that Steve Jobs had the power switch put on the back of the monitor, which still boggles my mind to this day.

Why would you want to turn off such a marvel of engineering?

Why would you want to turn it on? Save yourself a lot of money and just get a free Linux distro with a very pretty shell.

famosbrown

Haven't used a MAC recently, but does uninstalling still consist of dragging files to the Recycling Bin? I remember helping a co-worker out with a printer a couple of years ago. I thought...no problem, setting up a printer for a home computer will be a breeze. Get to her house and saw the MAC. I then thought...no wonder she is having so many problems installing something so simple, lol. It took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to install the HP software so I can attempt to reinstall it according to the MAC instructions. I found out that I had to drag the files to the Recycling Bin to uninstall it. I was searching for any uninstall executables, trying to use the install disk to uninstall, etc...nothing worked.

I'll pass on a MAC...

Goldmember

I'm using my Grandfather's new IMAC with Leopard 10.5.1 OS and a 20" screen.

This computer is amazing!!!

I never liked MAC's at all, and this comes from 10-15 years back...but this computer is changing my opinion of Macintosh.

The GUI on Leopard makes Windows look lame. The internals run on Darwin which will help anyone that uses Unix/Linux.

This is what I always wanted, a computer that looks good and has solid foundation.

I was hoping Linux would develop into an amazing desktop OS, but so far I have been dissapointed.

I am the first one to mention my dislike of Windows.

The new IMAC is amazing.

dynamik

Goldmember wrote:

I was hoping Linux would develop into an amazing desktop OS, but so far I have been dissapointed.

What's so disappointing about Linux? Besides not being able to run some games and big-name apps (at least without something like WINE), I don't see anything wrong with it. If you're just talking about visuals, check out Compiz Fusion:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bvnQE1EAEZY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mpGYybWOiCc

Tyrant1919

I like cake. Does anybody else like cake? Creamcheese frosting too. yum... Those linux videos just need some frosting on the edges, then it would be sweat.

But seriously, I didn't know linux had those fancy gfx.

Goldmember

I like the fact that Macintosh has built a system on top of its own variant of Unix.

I also like the fact that Leopard OS is better then the previous version I used.

I thought the Compiz Fusion looked really cool. I might have to try that out.

I have been running and playing with Linux for years and have been waiting for the breakthrough desktop OS that really sold me on them. Maybe now is the time.

I had Red Hat Linux on a machine 10+ years ago...