Why Mac?

[shaunp]

If you take it on face value the PC would be the obvious choice as it is cheaper to buy a fast PC and a lot of apps are available on both Mac and Windows.

The thing people often overlook however is what the computer would be used for when not running professional applications - i.e. your daily 'stuff'. Yes you need to know which apps you will be using but you need to pay attention to the way you work. OS X will suit some people, Windows and Linux would be better for others. Personally I prefer OS X, it has become second nature and I now feel Microsoft have lost their way - I've used every flavour of Windows since version 1.0 and the latest release is a mess. I like Linux as a server platform but I'm not a big fan of any of the current window managers - Unity and Gnome 3 feel very counter intuitive and I've never liked KDE.

I feel for those buying a new computer choosing the right platform is just as important as choosing the right applications. You can't hide from the OS even if you are running on a tablet so it had better be good.

 

[Renzatic]

Gnome 3 feel very counter intuitive...

I think Gnome 3 is the best Linux has to offer outside of the very OSX-like Pantheon Desktop. It's admittedly weird as hell when you first use it. Anything that gets rid of the old standard minimize/maximize buttons will freak just about anyone out at first glance. But when you realize you no longer have to minimize thanks to the very elegant way they've implemented virtual desktops, and maximizing is just double-clicking on the header or dragging the window to the top of the screen, it starts making a little more sense. Once you play around with it a week and get used to the flow, it makes perfect sense.

YMMV, of course, but I think it's my favorite desktop outside of OSX.

 

[chabig]

I'm less convinced, TBH. Here's a list…

None of those were viruses. They were all trojan horses.

 

[Jim Campbell]

None of those were viruses. They were all trojan horses.

I know. I can't remember any proper viruses from the pre-OSX era and googling only turned up intermittent occurrences of trojans, per the list previously linked.

I am absolutely prepared to be corrected on this, but my recollection and some (admittedly fairly cursory) research on the internet doesn't bear out the original assertion: "3. That Macs don't get viruses these days (they did prior to Unix based OS of circa 2000)".

Cheers

Jim

 

[tdale]

I'm less convinced, TBH. Here's a list…

Cheers

Jim

Personally I don't disagree. I read this online, but at Apple centric forums, is often "thats not a virus" . So, a virus is bad and a trojan not so bad?

 

[Jim Campbell]

So, a virus is bad and a trojan not so bad?

To my (very limited) understanding, a virus has self-replicating code and so can install itself on an unprotected system without the user ever knowing; a trojan requires some sort of user interaction and can't infect a system without the user either actively installing it or authorising installation (usually in the mistaken belief that it's something else).

Cheers

Jim

 

[winston1236]

I use it because of Finder. Thats really about it.

 

[shaunp]

I think Gnome 3 is the best Linux has to offer outside of the very OSX-like Pantheon Desktop. It's admittedly weird as hell when you first use it. Anything that gets rid of the old standard minimize/maximize buttons will freak just about anyone out at first glance. But when you realize you no longer have to minimize thanks to the very elegant way they've implemented virtual desktops, and maximizing is just double-clicking on the header or dragging the window to the top of the screen, it starts making a little more sense. Once you play around with it a week and get used to the flow, it makes perfect sense.

YMMV, of course, but I think it's my favorite desktop outside of OSX.

It's a personal preference thing. I find Linux as a whole fascinating and normally download updates to each of the major distro's just to see how things are moving along. I ran Fedora 19 for around a month as my main desktop at work and while it had some interesting features I just couldn't gel with it. I find if I read the online docs then I can figure out how to use Gnome 3, but it shouldn't be that way - that's what I meant by counter intuitive. I've never had to do this for OS X or Windows 7 and get along with both of those fine. Windows 8 and 2012 left most people searching Google when they first tried to log out or shut down. A great bit of design there. Not!

 

[Cubytus]

I ran Fedora 19 for around a month as my main desktop at work and while it had some interesting features I just couldn't gel with it. I find if I read the online docs then I can figure out how to use Gnome 3, but it shouldn't be that way - that's what I meant by counter intuitive. I've never had to do this for OS X or Windows 7 and get along with both of those fine. Windows 8 and 2012 left most people searching Google when they first tried to log out or shut down. A great bit of design there. Not!

Same here. I found previous versions of Gnome easier to tame without having to look at the documentation, except for specific pieces of software. Minimalist design can be counterproductive, and not having a replacement for a proper Applications menu is really annoying.

 

[monokakata]

Apple released the first laser printer

I don't think so. Xerox had one in 1981. The first HP LaserJet went on the market in '84 and I bought one in '85. Apple's version was from 1985.

It's only if you're talking laser printer with built-in Postscript that I think Apple would have priority. The HP I had used PCL (?). I did get a Postscript cartridge for it, but I can't remember when.

 

[mr.bee]

why a mac > pc for design?

history wise a mac was ideal for dtp work. Also sending fonts from a mac to a pc was just a mess, so the entire design world went mac.


now, alot of the functionality in adobe is the same, so the underlying os is not that much of importance.

however there are still the small things.
font rendering/smoothing is different. Mac counts in more the purity of the font.(is that still the case? i'm not sure)
font book, is simple, easy to use and out of the box software

 

[chabig]

Mac has superior window management, consistent user interface, better multi-tasking (Windows 7 still becomes unresponsive for me when an app gets busy), better drag and drop support, and a less 'in your face' design.

 

[richwoodrocket]

I know people who still can't figure out their Mac... Tell them to go to font book or color sync or color picker... heck some don't even know about grab.







Was one of my arguments. Never had issues with apps in my Mac crashing without there being a good reason (missing update, or Logic Board gave out).







Didn't know about the bug, but I know Macs are easier to adjust to stuff. Person who said "ew" to mac wants to go into print journalism/fashion. Hence I figured she might want to go with Mac...





Heck, at the office it got to the point for me that I had my HP hooked to the same hard drive as my Mac, and I had everything on there. If someone sent me a document to proof, I saved it on there and accessed it with my Mac. In Word. My HP also took solid 20 seconds to start word, my mac 5 seconds....







Mentioned this.







In high school movie maker was the ****.







It also hooks nicely with my iphone. Preview is pretty darn powerful, and fast(er). I feel like a lot of functions the mac has most people don't even know exist, until they are looking for it at some point and, hey surprise! they're there.







For me this was a "whelp you won the argument, so I am going to pretend that I know I am better than you and this isn't worth my time".







Preview can't really directly edit, but still a really powerful tool (cause it's fast). Also hitting space on a file gives you a preview. Don't know if Windows can do that... wouldn't want to load a few gig big file every time just to take a glance at it.



Great feedback, thanks guys. If anybody has anything to add, feel free

Some people don't even know about Cmd click...

 

[Meister]

I will just throw my opinion in here:

I have been using computers extensively since the mid 80s and I have used the OS C64s used to run on (can't remember the name), Windows 1 - 8, different versions of DOS and Linux and different Versions of MAC OS and other OSs I can't even remember the names.

My favorite OS was DOS 6.22 until I reluctantly had to change to windows.
While I take other peoples words for it, I have myself never used any machine that Win worked on properly.
It was just always a nightmare.

I love Mac OS. In fact I just love all apple products. They brought back my joy for computers.
They just work and I actually like giving apple money because of it.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

For me it's a cost thing. I get 4 years from a Macbook Pro, I'm lucky to hit over 2 years of usage with a Dell or HP because they tend to fall apart.

If I can spend $AUD3200 on a top of the line Macbook Pro that last for 4 years it much better value than a Dell XPS for $AUD2500 that will last for 2 years(ish), in essence for total cost of ownership I'm $AUD2000 over the 4 year timeline.

Plus I prefer OSX over Windows XP at the time, but W8 is actually pretty compelling all fanboy jokes aside.

 

[Evil Spoonman]

The value of an operating system is the applications it can run.

The line between Mac and PC has become very blurry indeed of late. Macs use commodity hardware, many important applications which were previously Windows-only are now made for the Mac.

I dearly love Apple hardware and OS X. However, there are tradeoffs made therein which are simply not acceptable in many cases.

- Macs ship with mediocre video cards.
- Macs have horrible thermal performance.
- OS X video driver support is awful.
- You cannot really configure what you want, all systems are general purpose.
- OS X is generally not improving in important ways.
- Even today a lot of important software is Windows-only, or only performant/reliable on Windows.


Windows also has some compromises.

- Windows' user interface is simply garbage.
- Windows is significantly more unstable and unpredictable.
- Windows is not performant in key ways.
- Modular construction PCs are harder to support and troubleshoot by their nature.


The key is to have an open mind and access to both markets. This way you can use the strengths of both to accomplish things that are a struggle with only one. I own and prefer a Mac, but I also own a PC and spend probably nearly equal time on it simply because it is better at many things that are important to me.

To answer the original question, why a Mac. I say… why only a Mac? You can have both!

 

[960design]

Reason my company uses Mac ( we also use Ubuntu ):
1) Productivity
2) Price*

I have a small shop and if one of my computers goes down for the day or needs to upload 2 hours worth of updates or slows / stalls / crashes due to virus scans or even worse gets compromised it costs me money.

I have two legacy Windows computers so that I can test software across operating systems: Win7 and Win8.

* I bet the price part caught you off guard. How much is a top end ( you pick the brand ) Windows7 desktop or laptop worth after two years? Exactly, less than the shipping or time it takes to put it in the mail. The Macs hold their price much better. We keep a high refresh cycle thanks to the many wonderful people out there that don't mind picking up a very lightly used Mac that had the specs maxed out during initial purchase.

----------

Reason my company uses Mac ( we also use Ubuntu ):
1) Productivity
2) Price*

I have a small shop and if one of my computers goes down for the day or needs to upload 2 hours worth of updates or slows / stalls / crashes due to virus scans or even worse gets compromised it costs me money.

I have two legacy Windows computers so that I can test software across operating systems: Win7 and Win8.

* I bet the price part caught you off guard. How much is a top end ( you pick the brand ) Windows7 desktop or laptop worth after two years? Exactly, less than the shipping or time it takes to put it in the mail. The Macs hold their price much better. We keep a high refresh cycle thanks to the many wonderful people out there that don't mind picking up a very lightly used Mac that had the specs maxed out during initial purchase.

 

[blanka]

Don't compare Apple's and Pears:
You talk about the computer OR you talk about the OS.
OK, Apple ties things pretty closely, but you don't need to follow that.

I totally love OSX, I have serious thoughts about some lines of the Apple hardware though. Legal or not, a PC can be a real good OSX machine too, and it will be just as stable as a Mac.
And most people who praise Mac, in fact praise OSX, not the pretty generic Intel box it runs on.

And your webdeveloper friend can run Ubuntu perfectly on a Mac if he likes the hardware!

 

[Acorn]

I use mac osx for great features like time machine. OSX is just more pleasurable to use.

 

[nitromac]

To put it short:

If you want to use any apps exclusive for Mac OSX, get a Mac. If you want to use anything exclusive for Windows, get a PC. Otherwise it just comes down to which OS you like better/feel more comfortable with.

I use both EXTENSIVELY for creative work and programming. I prefer my Mac for programming since the terminal is BSD and it's just less hassle than on a PC. However for creative work I enjoy using both and just use the one that's on hand at the time because there simply isn't a difference. Adobe Premiere on Mac and PC run the same (although it crashes more on my MBP since Mavericks...)

I also do music production and use my PC mostly for that because most of my audio plugins are Windows-only.

It really doesn't matter in this day and age -- there are PCs that are equally good compared to an MBP -- screen, performance, everything. It just depends which OS you/the buyer would prefer in the long run.

 

[WinstonRumfoord]

Why would you use a computer that cant right click

But seriously, Mac or PC just use whatever you can use most efficiently and most enjoyably.

 

[tosh.macin]

Did they? I've been using Macs since System 7.1 and the only significant threat I can recall was the CD-ROM Autostart Worm, which wasn't even a virus.

Cheers

Jim

You haven't worked security, then. Mac's have issues. For example, we had a rather nasty SSL vulnerability not long ago in 10.9, and there was the Apache issue that needed resolved (Apple wasn't getting updates out quick enough, so the build in web server was vulnerability to attack). Yes, Mac's DO have security issues, just different kinds. You probably won't get a virus the way people think of viruses, but that doesn't mean you are immune, either. No system is, and thinking Macs don't have security issues is simple going to cause you trouble at some point.

 

[Jim Campbell]

You haven't worked security, then. Mac's have issues. For example, we had a rather nasty SSL vulnerability not long ago in 10.9

And you didn't read the discussion properly. The original assertion was that Macs were more virus-prone pre-OSX, a claim I disputed because there is no evidence that this was the case.

I was not claiming that there are no security issues with the platform, so please take your strawman and argue it with someone actually making that argument.

 

[ohbrilliance]

Not sure if OT, but here goes:

Windows users often mock Mac users as simpletons who need a simple operating system*. I look at it another way. Windows is difficult to use, but you get nothing for it. The issues one faces are frustrating. Being 'good' at Windows may be a steeper learning curve, but you're not actually gaining anything. You're just fighting battles that a user doesn't have to fight in order to reach the same experience you get with a Mac out of the box.

(*and that's not mentioning that IMO Macs are more powerful for those who want to delve into the nuts-and-bolts of the Unix underpinnings and what it brings to the developer).

 

[MCAsan]

Why are you a Macintosh user?

I got my first Mac in 1984. I kept wondering why others tolerated seeing a text screen with a "C:" prompt. Then I too was dragged into the corporate office and got to deal with DOS and later Windows (starting with Win 3.10).

Now as a retiree I have the freedom to choose. I no longer have DOS/Windows pushed down my throat. Trying the Win 8 beta me every so glad of that.

Now the wife and I have Apple ecosystem where the rMBPS, airports, iPhones, iPads, printers, and other devices work well together. All the apps we need for photography, web design and other projects are available. Like with a Mac is good.