Mac vs PC (yes, really) [Switched!]

[ralph.garmin]

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[XDRoX]

Wow, surprised to see so many happy Apple users on this site.
Glad to see I'm not alone.

[raws]

I just bought a MacBook Pro with retina display a couple weeks ago. I effin love it!!! I'm decent with computers and there was a couple minor differences that I needed to adjust to but overall I am extremely happy.

Something to consider too is the apple care. I'll call them for the stupidest small things and get right through to a polite, knowledgable, and AMERICAN rep that walks me through whatever I need. That alone takes care of all the stress adjusting to a new OS can bring.

What really swayed me to the Mac was the fact that unlike a PC, it actually has some resale value. In a couple years I'll be able to get 500-600 for this if I want to sell it where a PC will be useless.

[the86d]

What I find pretty-funny is that most Mac users say "PC", when they mean "Windows" OS on a PC, and these same Mac-USERS have never even given ANY open source OS a real try as the Native OS (even on a Mac?), when PC's running Linux distros are clearly less susceptible to malware than even a Mac...

Way to push an agenda, 2-party-system-Democrats.

"Most Mac users" barely even know how to accomplish basic tasks on Macs, other than the 3-5 things they do on them, let alone Windows they hate so much, nor have ever really given Linux a chance (non*Buntu). Just an observation...

[chiefcrash]

Keep in mind: these days, all a "Mac" really is is a PC with a locked-down and gussied-up version of FreeBSD on it...

[the86d]

Keep in mind: these days, all a "Mac" really is is a PC with a locked-down and gussied-up version of FreeBSD on it...

"...but w/proprietary-overpriced-hardware-checks..."(?)

[ocabj]

"Most Mac users" barely even know how to accomplish basic tasks on Macs, other than the 3-5 things they do on them, let alone Windows they hate so much, nor have ever really given Linux a chance (non*Buntu). Just an observation...

That may be so, but why would recommend Linux for that type of user? Wouldn't it make sense for them to stick to Macs where they can get real support for mundane day-to-day tasks at an Apple Retail store? If you walk into an Apple Store (facetious comments about stepping into an Apple Store, aside) on a weekend, you're going to see a lot of customers in the store with their laptops getting free training for little things like how to setup email to slightly more advanced things like using iPhoto or Aperture.

If you want to believe the majority of Mac users are incompetent, then you have to believe that Linux isn't a logical choice for them, either.

[mavericksun]

I recently upgraded the hardware for my about 1.5 year old Acer V571P laptop. The specs said only max 8GB of RAM, I upgraded it to 16GB and the computer reads and uses 16GB. I made sure to match the memory to balance the chip sizes and also to get the same latency and speed. I removed the old hard drive and replaced it with a Crucial M500 240GB SSD. I also removed the DVDROM drive and replaced with a HDD caddy. Installed a 1TB HHD for data storage. It's running a restored version of Windows 8 64bit. Boot up takes less than the time for me to reach the power button on my monitor since I hook my laptop to a larger monitor.

Pick the one that serves your purpose. If you are dealing with media, Macs are your machines. If you are more office oriented, PCs are easier to deal with. Linux machines will run fine without constant updates. Yum and apt-get pretty much deals with the software comparability issues. I avoid all Red Hat distros including Fedora and centos because rpms are annoying.

[the86d]

... Yum and apt-get pretty much deals with the software comparability issues. I avoid all Red Hat distros including Fedora and centos because rpms are annoying.

I hate software comparability issues...

[Cowboy T]

What I find pretty-funny is that most Mac users say "PC", when they mean "Windows" OS on a PC, and these same Mac-USERS have never even given ANY open source OS a real try as the Native OS (even on a Mac?), when PC's running Linux distros are clearly less susceptible to malware than even a Mac...

Yeah, I know what you mean. It is kinda funny. :-)

Actually, I have run Yellow Dog Linux on a Mac G3 and a G4. Heck, a while back I even ran Ubuntu 6.06 LTS "Dapper Drake" on a PowerBook G3. In all cases, the GNU/Linux distro worked very well. I was especially impressed with the performance of the Ubuntu-running PowerBook G3 in "road warrior" mode. Not bad for a 400 MHz CPU and 256MB DRAM. Hey, Apple did make some very good and efficient hardware back in the day.

Fast forward to today. For the last few years, my multimedia station has run Ubuntu, starting with v10.04 LTS "Hardy Heron" and currently running the beta of v14.04 "Trusty Tahr", just 'cause I wanted to try it. I have used this workstation for both podcast audio production (Audacity) and reloading video production (Kdenlive) and continue to do so today. All of this is on the x86-64 architecture (a "PC"). It's been great. I hadn't expected the beta to be this good. Matter of fact, I'm using it right now to make this post.

I'm not a gamer. I use my computers for multimedia production, doing Internet research, and office productivity, with occasional forays into Virtual Machine computing. For all that, GNU/Linux "just works".

[Iknownot]

I have used both and have been solo one way or the other. Frankly, since win7, the difference between Mac OS and Win isnt that great. As long as you start with a PC with decent parts and hardware that is.

There are way more variables on the PC side of things compared to Mac in hardware. A lot of problems people have on the PC side are actually due to hardware incompatibilities, not from the Win Os.

I haven't had any issues with win 7. It's stable, everything works on it, etc.

Win 8, in terms of UI ergonomics is a step back, but it is as stable as well.

In terms of cost, I think windows is a better deal. Yes, you get great hardware with a Mac, and a better OS, but you are paying a premium for it. You can get equally great hardware for less $, have a slightly less great OS, but have all the same functionality and money in your pocket.

That's really the difference at this point. Mac has a cult of marketing around it to justify the price difference but if you really compare apples to apples on the hardware side of things, there's not much of a difference anymore on the OS side of things.

[advan031]

I've been using MBP the past couple of years but still run Windows via VMWare so I have the best of both worlds.

[vikingm03]

Yeah, I know what you mean. It is kinda funny. :-)

Actually, I have run Yellow Dog Linux on a Mac G3 and a G4. Heck, a while back I even ran Ubuntu 6.06 LTS "Dapper Drake" on a PowerBook G3. In all cases, the GNU/Linux distro worked very well. I was especially impressed with the performance of the Ubuntu-running PowerBook G3 in "road warrior" mode. Not bad for a 400 MHz CPU and 256MB DRAM. Hey, Apple did make some very good and efficient hardware back in the day.

Fast forward to today. For the last few years, my multimedia station has run Ubuntu, starting with v10.04 LTS "Hardy Heron" and currently running the beta of v14.04 "Trusty Tahr", just 'cause I wanted to try it. I have used this workstation for both podcast audio production (Audacity) and reloading video production (Kdenlive) and continue to do so today. All of this is on the x86-64 architecture (a "PC"). It's been great. I hadn't expected the beta to be this good. Matter of fact, I'm using it right now to make this post.

I'm not a gamer. I use my computers for multimedia production, doing Internet research, and office productivity, with occasional forays into Virtual Machine computing. For all that, GNU/Linux "just works".

Not to derail this thread too much, but do you find 14.04 Ubuntu to be a big enough improvement to be worth upgrading from 12.04?

[gawker]

Using a new macbook pro @ work. We run soo many legacy PC apps, I had to install VMWARE fusion running Win7 to run these apps. So kinda sucks that I still have to use a virtual PC.

Boot times are awesome with the macbook pro though. 16 gigs of ram and 512 gig SSD.

[Cowboy T]

Not to derail this thread too much, but do you find 14.04 Ubuntu to be a big enough improvement to be worth upgrading from 12.04?

Over 12.04, no, not really. I've got a 12.04 box right next to the 14.04 box, and both versions seem equally good to me. I'm running 14.04 with GNOME Shell, and the 12.04 box is running Unity. Unity's OK once you get used to it. I still tend to prefer KDE generally, but GNOME 3 really ain't too bad, especially for newbies. But I do consider the GNOME Tweak Tool a must for "power users".

What intrigues me is that 14.04 was actually pretty solid even in its "alpha" version (it's now in beta). Gotta hand it to Canonical on that. The 14.04 box is running an AMD octa-core CPU, and the 12.04 box is running an Intel Core 2 Duo. Both versions have shown to make efficient use of the hardware that they're on, and neither feels slow.

For this reason, I generally tend to prefer IBM PC-compatible hardware. Either way, I'm going to run a GNU/Linux OS on it, and IBM PC-compat hardware is less expensive than equivalent Apple hardware. So, for these reasons, the "Mac or PC" question gets the "PC" vote from me.