PC or Mac?

[oudavid1]

Its the offseason and I'm bored like the rest of you, so I thought I'd ask "the computer question" to you guys. PC or Mac?

[Sooner70]

I'm not very computer literate, but my daughter who is off at college (not Univ. of Texas I'll guarantee) and my wife both have Macs and I have Sony Vaio PC and work PC. I prefer latter, but they prefer former. I can work with the Mac (on it right now).

Mac has Windows now, so it's a lot easier to work with if one is used to that, but I still have trouble with attachments...etc...probably what's loaded/not on Mac machines we have or my ignorance.

There's something about Macs that make them less susceptible to virus intrusions, etc, but I'm not sure what it is. One thing about Macs, if you buy their maintenance, warranty program, it's pretty good. My daughter had a hard drive fail and they replaced it , no questions asked. Also, seems at those Mac stores, they employ pretty knowledgeable people. People who have Macs love them & say they're more user friendly. Most all my daughters classmates have/prefer Macs. They're really portable also.

[StoopTroup]

The more I use Apple Products the more I understand why they continue to not go the way of the Betamax. They are very easy to use but if you are a PC person...it takes a bit of getting used to. I can see the workplace become more Apple related than PC. Most of what I do anymore really requires me to access information than generate documents. I could see our Corporation dumping the PC if they don't figure out a way to get rid of the dinosaur that is the laptop. My IPhone is very cool and It has already changed the way I handle things on a daily basis. Ipads could very easily replace the PC IMO.

[sooner518]

love the iPhone. Not a huge fan of Mac computers. I dont like the way they organize themselves and the files. I dont like not having a taskbar either where I can see what programs I have open. I do like the quickview features they have where you can slide your mouse to a certain corner and see everything you have open quickly.

That said, Id probably get used to one, but I dont see the benefit. I use my laptop (Win 7) for school, general web-surfing, MS Office stuff. I dont do any design or graphics or audio/video editing. Compatibility is sometimes a problem for programs we have to use for school and paying twice as much didnt seem like a good option for me at the time. still doesnt.

plus, Apple fans are really freakin annoying

[Boomer38Sooner]

I love my Mac. I just think that technologically they are more advanced and they just have that "feel" to them. Occasionally I'll be at a friend's house or something and I'll be on their PC and I just have gotten so used to and attached to my Mac that I doubt I will ever go back.

[oudavid1]

I love my Mac. I just think that technologically they are more advanced and they just have that "feel" to them. Occasionally I'll be at a friend's house or something and I'll be on their PC and I just have gotten so used to and attached to my Mac that I doubt I will ever go back.

I've been around and sold enough computers to be able to break it down for most people who ask and I almost always pick PC. We have a saying in the store..."Macs are for people who don't know how to use computers."

[freshchris05]

I own both. But I wouldn't trade my Mac for another PC. Both serve their own purpose.

[yermom]

i worked phone support during the bad old days of Macs. we all hated getting calls about them. there would be one or two people that liked them for whatever reason. we generally gave them a lot of grief

it all changed when OS X came out. damn near all the Unix geeks i knew converted to Mac people within a couple of years. so now you had the artist/media people AND the hardcore geeks

that's probably why people don't like Mac people :D

but you really can't compare the components and build quality of Mac and PCs most of the time. especially in the Laptops. sure you can find a cheaper laptop, but you get what you pay for

[soonerboomer93]

You can get plenty of high build quality PC laptops, you just have to know what you're looking at.

The PC's also tend to bring out the newer processors and video cards much sooner then the macs.

[yermom]

they sure are lagging on the i7... i'm kinda thinking WWDC this Summer

[sooner59]

I love my Macbook. Mostly because it is user friendly. Before I had a Sony Vaio and I was always having to get new software for adware/spyware/viruses. And it always locked up and the battery sucked. I just had to replace my Mac battery after 2 1/2 years and I have never had to constantly buy new software. I have gotten so used to my Mac that I despise having to use my mom's or g/f's PC. They are really slow and frustrating with tons of pop-ups that I don't normally get.

[Soonerman08]

I love my Macbook. Mostly because it is user friendly. Before I had a Sony Vaio and I was always having to get new software for adware/spyware/viruses. And it always locked up and the battery sucked. I just had to replace my Mac battery after 2 1/2 years and I have never had to constantly buy new software. I have gotten so used to my Mac that I despise having to use my mom's or g/f's PC. They are really slow and frustrating with tons of pop-ups that I don't normally get.

I agree. I used to not be high on Macs, but now I will never go back. It is nice not having to run Spyware/Adware/Virus Scan software that just bogs your computer down.

Macs do have their limitations i.e. not being 100% compatible with everything, but companies have seen the expansion of the Apple computer finally started developing stuff for not only PC but also Mac!

[yermom]

just because you are on a Mac doesn't mean you are immune. it's still not a bad idea.

[Dan Thompson]

The big difference I've seen, when you look at both with the same specs and capacities, Mac is more expensive. It's not the computers that is driving Apple anymore, but the iPhone, iPod, and soon the iPad.

[silverwheels]

Either one is fine with me, but I prefer PC because it's generally cheaper and I don't want to be counted in the same group as all of those annoying Apple fanboys. I can't grow a goatee, anyway.

[sooner59]

I used to look like a monkey doing math problems when I tried to use my cousin's Mac, but now that I am used to it, really the biggest difference I have noticed it that I don't normally have problems at all, compared to constant problems that I used to get with PCs. Yeah it is more expensive, but it was worth it to me to just not have to deal with frustrations. And rarely now do I come across software that I am wanting that is not compatible. It is getting better.

[SoonerBorn]

We have 1 PC (Vista) which has basically become a server. We use it primarily for a couple of applications that we haven't got around to moving yet. I probably work with it once a week or so.

My wife uses a Mac laptop, and I use a netbook running Ubuntu. Both work well for us. It's very possible we may never buy a MS operating system again.

My main complaint about Mac is that it's usually overpriced for what you get, at least in terms of computers.

[oudavid1]

We have 1 PC (Vista) which has basically become a server. We use it primarily for a couple of applications that we haven't got around to moving yet. I probably work with it once a week or so.

My wife uses a Mac laptop, and I use a netbook running Ubuntu. Both work well for us. It's very possible we may never buy a MS operating system again.

My main complaint about Mac is that it's usually overpriced for what you get, at least in terms of computers.

Vista was a huge (rushed) mistake by Microsoft and it really showed. I had to tweak it so much before it ran smoothly and still had an occasional error. But my God, when I went to Windows 7 it super charged my computer right up to where I wanted it and it runs amazingly efficient and I have 0 complaints.

[yermom]

We have 1 PC (Vista) which has basically become a server. We use it primarily for a couple of applications that we haven't got around to moving yet. I probably work with it once a week or so.

My wife uses a Mac laptop, and I use a netbook running Ubuntu. Both work well for us. It's very possible we may never buy a MS operating system again.

My main complaint about Mac is that it's usually overpriced for what you get, at least in terms of computers.



for desktops, i think that's true

the other thing i forgot about was drivers. devices just kinda work on Macs for the most part. you certainly have to mess with stuff less than you do on Windows

[oudavid1]

for desktops, i think that's true

the other thing i forgot about was drivers. devices just kinda work on Macs for the most part. you certainly have to mess with stuff less than you do on Windows

Yeah I have no argument for that, drivers can be a problem on Windows at times but the extra 1,000 I saved really compensate

[yermom]

but how much is your time worth? :)

for the first time in a long time i don't have a Mac laptop from work. i'm really thinking about buying one though...

most of the time lately i'm using a netbook i bought for $100 and using Ubuntu

[oudavid1]

I always see it as the money I save for buying a PC over a mac makes up for it.

[Stitch Face]

I bought a Macbook a couple of years ago as the mainstream Apply hype was exponentially building thinking I would fall in love with it. It's definitely more intuitive in some ways but feels more restrictive, like it works great if you use it exactly as it was designed/intended. You can't always modify and customize stuff like you can on a PC, so if something annoys you might be stuck with it. The increased security of the Mac is nice, though. I bought it before traveling to the Middle East where I was worried about wi-fi shenanigans surfing the web on a PC.

Using Windows you can basically do anything you want if you can figure it out, but it might be buggy or wonky somehow. Using the Mac you get a cleaner experience but only the way Apple designed it. That's an oversimplification but it's how I feel using the different OSs.

Also, updating programs on the Mac is often more annoying, requiring convoluted steps and mandatory reboots compared to Windows. That really surprised me.

BTW, why is this in the football thread?

[StoopTroup]

Ever since I got my portabook...My life has improved so much that I can use a mac and a PC at the same time.

http://www.bestofasseenontv.com/porta-book/393965.jpg

[GimmeRed]

Osx on a Dell.

[King Crimson]

i have a mac in my office. use a Dell at home. i'm not a "warrior" either way...but i've got way more value out of Dell and Asus than the two powerbooks i've owned.

[PLaw]

After having four PC's crap out with viruses, I finally broke down and got a Mac. So far, so good. Mac has some really cool features.

[westcoast_sooner]

One of the reasons Macs are more expensive is Apple doesn't open allow 3rd party builders. Compaq, Dell, HP, Sony and all the others basically took advantage of the original IBM PC from the early 80s, which had a more open architecture. These other guys started building "clones" that were as good, and cheaper than the IBM.

For desktop machines, you can roll your own pretty easy, and build a completely custom box for a lot less than if you ordered the same thing from one of the big houses.

Laptops are getting to that point, somewhat, but still not there really.

For the guy who is running OS X on a Dell - that is so WAY cool. I'd really love to hear about that, since iMac is running on an Intel CPU, I'm thinking OS X has to have significantly changed from when Apple was running on other processors.

[yermom]

i installed OS X on my Asus and it worked okay, but it was slow and lots of the hardware requires separate drivers. the MSIs and old Dells are supposed to have been closer to what Apple uses

the biggest annoyance was the wireless drivers

i think that Apple disabled the new OS X on Atom processors now though

[SoonerBorn]

I've heard that called a "hackintosh." A lot of people with netbooks do that, too.

[bluedogok]

I've heard that called a "hackintosh." A lot of people with netbooks do that, too.
I know a few here running OSX on a Dell Mini9, the touchpad drivers seem to be the biggest issue with most of them. It seems to work at times and the scrollbar function doesn't work at all. One person has it working on an Asus EeePC.

I built a much hotter machine than a MacPro for a fraction of the price that it was a year ago. Since my software is Windows only it doesn't make sense to me to buy a Mac even though it can run Windows. I would like a Mac at some point, mainly for audio/video editing.

As far as viruses, in 20+ years of using PC's I think that I have one, that is 5 active PC's (2-XP Pro32, 1-Vista32, 2-Vista64) the house at this time. I have more that are in various states of disarray, I will eventually build the other 5 back to a working configuration for a renderfarm when I need one.

[Collier11]

take this sh*t to the SO


















:D

[KantoSooner]

T here's effectively no reason to not own a mac. Even up to date MSDos machines crash with tedious regularity and are comically vulnerable to every virus invented.
I've had a macbook that has not been rebooted for five years (it's never been turned off in that time). Crashes? Zero. Hangs? Zero.
It has a beta version of microsoft office for mac that runs perfectly.
I can't get a number of games. boo hoo.

My office PC (purchased last year - I couldn't get a mac then because our tech felt the server (run on MS software) would not like it) crashes three to four times daily.

PC's are good computers, it's just microsoft Dos software that is abject junk.

[bluedogok]

I see plenty of people bringing in Macs everyday to the Apple Store across the street from my office and the Mac Geeks (I mean "Geniuses") seem awfully busy every time that I have been in there. So pretty much Mac people can have the similar issues as well, after all, they are still computers and can suffer from ID10T erorrs.

I still don't understand why so many people have issues with Windows machine. Too many things are caused by user issues downloading crap or by poorly written software. My wife's computer has been up for 8 months with no reboots (XP Pro32), I should reboot daily because Revit is a huge memory hog (working with 80mb model files with multiple linked files) with known memory leaks (a software issue) so I shut it down at the end of the day, I can't remember a complete BSoD crash during the day, Revit itself has crashed but it hasn't taken don the whole system. It also runs like crap through the Mac/Windows emulation software, the Mac-geek in our office has tried that in vain. The only time that I have had frequent BSoD crashes is when I am using Revit or 3DSMax beta versions, which is to be somewhat expected of a beta. If you are having that many crashes it is probably due more to poorly written software than anything else. Many of the things that MS gets blamed for is due to others poorly written software, I can attest to some of the Autodesk versions of that.

[oudavid1]

I rock a Dell XPS 410, 4gbs Of Ram (Modified), 2HDD (a 250gb and a 1TB (Modified)) with a dual core 2.13 and two 19 LCD monitors (with LJ12 as my background) all on Windows 7. You name it, i do it on this computer....Im connected to the internet 24/7 and have never gotten 1 virus (unintentionally) and with all the modifications i have made to this machine it still cost less than any comparable MAC and out preforms my brothers 2,235$ "powerbook" all day. Im a huge nerd and IM a PC.

[KantoSooner]

I'm happy for you.

Since I'm not particularly interested in spending time customizing my machine and coddling it, I'll stick to the robust, well written, unix based system that is Mac OS.

[Fraggle145]

for desktops, i think that's true

the other thing i forgot about was drivers. devices just kinda work on Macs for the most part. you certainly have to mess with stuff less than you do on Windows

Ya but when then dont work, it is a ****ing pain in the *** to get it fixed. But the good part is you can always fix it, which isnt always the case with PC. At least in my experience.

I love my Mac. And people who say that Mac's are for people who dont know how to use computer dont know wtf they are talking about, imho.

[bmjlr]

PC for me

[47straight]

i installed OS X on my Asus and it worked okay, but it was slow and lots of the hardware requires separate drivers. the MSIs and old Dells are supposed to have been closer to what Apple uses

the biggest annoyance was the wireless drivers

i think that Apple disabled the new OS X on Atom processors now though

I don't get paying out the butt for a machine/OS combo because is so much easier to use, blah blah blah, and then spending all that time hacking it to get to the unix guts.

I answer your question with your question, how much is your time worth?

:)

[yermom]

those are two different things. i was putting a square peg in a round hole to test out the process for my boss

a real Mac running OS X doesn't take any hacking to get to the Unix guts

and as far as Unix guts go, OS X is the best GUI for *nix i've ever seen, and it's not close (IMO, especially when you consider the work it takes to keep it going)

Linux has gotten a lot better in the last few years though

[Jello Biafra]

i thought we were picking a pc over mac brown......




;)

[SoonerBorn]

del brown.mac /noclap

[47straight]

and as far as Unix guts go, OS X is the best GUI for *nix i've ever seen, and it's not close (IMO, especially when you consider the work it takes to keep it going)

That's like being the best football team in Mongolia.

[yermom]

talk to me when you are used to a laptop with Espose and Workspaces and then move back to Windows ;)

[47straight]

talk to me when you are used to a laptop with Espose and Workspaces and then move back to Windows ;)

I don't even know what that is, my cred must be slipping.

Do I have to use gcc to compile stuff and vi to write programs and emacs to write documents?

[gaylordfan1]

exactly.... your cred isn't slipping!

[bluedogok]

I don't even know what that is, my cred must be slipping.

Do I have to use gcc to compile stuff and vi to write programs and emacs to write documents?
That was about where I left Unix, this was my Unix book.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31YoLMHNobL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

I was working on SparcStation-1's and the first incarnations of Solaris. I always did want a Sparc, SGI Iris Indigo or a Next when they came out...of course since I moved off Computervision CADDS and Autodesk abandoned Autocad for Mac after R12 (1992) and Unix/DOS after R13 (1994) I lost a reason to stay on Unix hardware.

[gaylordfan1]

damn bluedog.... I don't think I follow...

[yermom]

I don't even know what that is, my cred must be slipping.

Do I have to use gcc to compile stuff and vi to write programs and emacs to write documents?

yes it is ;)

and only if you want to...

[Landthief 1972]

I've built PCs and worked with macs my entire career, and I prefer the mac, especially since the consoles have made the gaming argument fairly moot. I'm typing this on a Dell Mini hacked to run Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

[47straight]

damn bluedog.... I don't think I follow...

Apparently bluedog does Computer Aided Design as part of his career. The most popular software package for Computer Aided Design isn't available for unix boxes anymore, which used to be the big, sexy hardware beasts for doing that sort of stuff. I think.

[SoonerKnight]

I use a pc running ubuntu. I will not use windows again. My wife has a laptop with Vista for a company to sell pure crap like Vista and expect me to pay to "fix it" is stupid. I deleted Vista on my laptop and Ubuntu runs great. My next computer is going to be a mac. Yes, they are expensive however macs work with the software that Apple writes and you do not have to worry about paying for a more expensive machine to get a program to run slowly like it does on a PC. The reality is if you buy a budget machine that is what you get. Many programs and games that run on a pc will require a more expensive graphics card etc in order to work. So once you spend money on "upgrading" your budget PC you have spent the same as a mac.

[Collier11]

and when the MAC breaks down you get to spend more to fix it, therefore spending even more money

Ive had 2 PCs and both have been great

[oudavid1]

As a full time nerd, i can honestly tell you i will never buy anything but Dell right now. Dell.com is where you should start

[bluedogok]

As a full time nerd, i can honestly tell you i will never buy anything but Dell right now. Dell.com is where you should start
At the high end Dells are passable, I know, that is what we have been using at work.

For what I do (architecture/rendering/animations) BOXX Technologies (http://www.boxxtech.com/) boxes are the way to go, a friend has an office with them and he thinks they are great. There is a new company here that is building similar equipment for our market segment called RenderStream (http://www.renderstream.com/) that I have heard some good things about.

When it comes time for the next upgrade, we are going to BOXX Technologies, you get more performance for your money. Plus the BOXX offices (HQ) are about a mile from our offices, RenderStream is 5 miles away and Dell is about 8 miles away, so we are in the middle of all three of them. It is hard to beat Dell for price/performance for typical workstations or servers.

[Fraggle145]

and when the MAC breaks down you get to spend more to fix it, therefore spending even more money

Ive had 2 PCs and both have been great

Actually that is paid for when you buy it. Sort of like a luxury car... You have a certain amount of service built in.

[oudavid1]

Actually that is paid for when you buy it. Sort of like a luxury car... You have a certain amount of service built in.

My brother had to buy a 300 dollar service policy to replace his 150$ hard drive. Yay Apple!

[yermom]

At the high end Dells are passable, I know, that is what we have been using at work.

For what I do (architecture/rendering/animations) BOXX Technologies (http://www.boxxtech.com/) boxes are the way to go, a friend has an office with them and he thinks they are great. There is a new company here that is building similar equipment for our market segment called RenderStream (http://www.renderstream.com/) that I have heard some good things about.

When it comes time for the next upgrade, we are going to BOXX Technologies, you get more performance for your money. Plus the BOXX offices (HQ) are about a mile from our offices, RenderStream is 5 miles away and Dell is about 8 miles away, so we are in the middle of all three of them. It is hard to beat Dell for price/performance for typical workstations or servers.

it's always scary when they won't tell you how much they are...

i'm kinda through with Dell, especially with the laptops

i've been leaning more toward HP lately. but i love Dell's driver support

[bluedogok]

it's always scary when they won't tell you how much they are...

i'm kinda through with Dell, especially with the laptops

i've been leaning more toward HP lately. but i love Dell's driver support
The BOXX desktops start around $2,000 and go up to however much you want to spend, the laptops start around $3,500. The RenderStream workstations start around $1,600 for the Entry Box and goes up to $10,956 for the Godbox. The 3D Servers start at $995 for the Sub-Light Speed model and go up to $45,554 for the Ludicrous Speed model.