Mac vs. PC: The Real Story! August 23, 2007
Posted by robzel in Apple, Apple Computer, PC, Personal Computer.trackback
There are few things that drive people’s passions as much as the discussions involving Macs vs. PCs. In reviewing discussion forums, you can see the venom in some of the discussions. Each camp vehemently defends its camp touting the virtues of their favorite platform. Where is the truth? Perhaps it is the eye of the beholder. However, this author has a definite opinion. Read on if you care to know.
I am one of the few folks out there that actually owns both a Mac and PC. I have been using a PC for years and I continue to use a PC for business. When my home PC was getting long in the tooth, I did some research comparing the virtues and pitfalls of each platform. Based upon my research I decided the Mac was a better platform for my home needs. Here was my thinking:
Look and Feel: Have you seen the new iMac? Need I say more? The PC is a box and a monitor, plus a keyboard and a mouse. In all these years the basic PC box looks like… a box. The Mac keyboard looks cool and is comfortable to use, although I must admit the mouse is a bit clunky. Mac wins this comparison.
Hardware: Mac and PCs both use similar hardware. However, if you buy and iMac there is almost nothing you can upgrade save the memory. With the available upgradeability the PC has more choices and therefore configurations available. PC wins this comparison.
Software: Where the Mac really excels is in the integration of hardware and software; it seems that Apple has created an almost organic combination. While Vista is nice, it is still a generation behind the current Mac operating system. It will be two generations behind once Leopard (the new OS) is released. While there are fewer choices for software compared to the PC, Mac software if more stable and seems to be more intuitive. Also, the preloaded iLife software is great right out of the box. The same software is not available on the PC. Advantage Mac.
Performance: Admittedly, I have not been able to perform scientific tests comparing PCs and Macs. However, the two machines I own are both recent purchases with dual core chips, 1Gig of ram and large hard drives. The PC is in an office environment and the Mac is used at home. Turning on the PC is a long process, waiting for Vista to initialize, and then boot up. I have time in the morning to get my cup of coffee before the PC is fully up and running. In contrast, the Mac takes less than a minute to boot up. The Mac advantage continues in running applications. Office 2007 runs much slower than Mac Office 2004. Then of course there are the bugs in Vista and seemingly constant Vista updates. With similar hardware configurations, Mac is just faster.
As you can probably tell, I really think the Mac is a better product. If I could I would use a Mac for my business needs as well. Unfortunately, the PC seems to have the advantage in the business environment, with more choices for hardware, software, integration, and support. I do think if Apple wanted to, they could make great inroads into the business market especially for small businesses.
If you are in the market for a PC, I would strongly advise you to check out the new iMac http://www.apple.com/mac/ before buying a PC.
Daily Business Life 
Really nice site you have here. I’ve been reading for a while but this post made me want to say 2 thumbs up. Keep up the great work
i am really now a fan of this imac ,
i hope i will get it soon for myself
More recent experience pushes me further into the Mac camp. My computer at work running Windows Vista is now having issues with Outlook 2007 insisting that I have not shut down correctly and checking my files every time I boot up. This slows my computer to a crawl. Very annoying. Also, since installing Skype Explorer shuts down unexpectedly.
If you own a PC, DO NOT upgrade to Vista! If you are buying a computer, get a Mac!
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Mac will always be ahead of MS in terms of useability
My pc boots in 17 seconds. I’m not sure what you have going on on yours.
Well some of what you say is true and the rest is result of a lack of knowledge or you are being intentionally misleading as I notice your advertisement plug for iMac at the bottom of this post. From what I have seen this post reads an awful lot like a paid post and that link sort of confirms my suspicions. Not that this is surprising or a problem but I just wanted to touch on a few things.
You claim Vista takes forever to load as apposed to the 1 or 2 minutes your Mac takes. Set aside the fact that Vista is one of MS’s worst OS’s. Try cleaning up all the crap you have allowed into your startup process. I run XP and 7 with hundreds of programs installed and neither takes much over 1 or 2 minutes to boot but I am mindful of what I allow to run at startup.
I also notice a few comments about unstable applications and Vista. Well, stop browsing pron sites and you may see a serious change in your PC’s behavior. You may also try to stay away from things like my freeze, webfetti and smiley central.
iLife is not offered for Windows? Well obviously not, it is an Apple application and they do not want to build interoperable applications. There are however thousands of applications for windows that do everything iLife does and more not to mention a large portion of them work on Linux based systems.
Speaking of Linux, all this Mac vs. PC nonsense is hype anyway. They lead you to believe that Windows and PC are one in the same but that is so far from the truth. A PC is a computer. Windows is an operating system. You do not have to use Windows on your PC. You may use any of the Linux distros as well as countless others.