Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Why Mac?

I'd be lying if I said aesthetics weren't part of it. I'm sure some will call me shallow, but I'm a designer; I appreciate aesthetically-pleasing and well-made things. I haven't seen a Windows laptop that compares in those respects to my rMBP, and I certainly haven't seen one with a comparable display.

I haven't finished my morning coffee yet so I can't think of specifics, but in general, I feel like I work much more quickly in OS X than in Windows. I designed on Windows for a few years, so I definitely do have a frame of reference. For example, Alfred has shaved a considerable amount of time off my workflow by automating mundane and time-consuming tasks. As far as I'm aware, nothing like it exists for Windows.
 
There are (obviously) many answers to this question. My personal input is because you can run so many programs at once. I KNOW that you can do it on PC too, but you usually have to do surgery on the pc to make it do all the extra stuff that the mac comes ready to do. I learned how to edit video and pictures on a mac, and to me, the computer seems prepared to do stuff like that. You always have to work against the constraints of Mac, because it is difficult to learn about their systems etc, but Mac just comes ready for you to create. That is my final answer.
 
I use a Mac laptop (11" MBA) and a PC desktop (of my own making).

Why do I use a Mac? It comes down to a few things. One of them is the quality of the touchpad; PC touchpads almost invariably suck. Even Microsoft can't get it right on their own devices (the Surface line).

The other thing is Mission Control; being able to switch between large numbers of windows quickly with limited screen space is amazing. There's nothing comparable on the Windows side; I know there's third party clones, but none work nearly as well. Having every open window a three finger swipe away is spectacular. It blows my mind that Microsoft hasn't come up with anything half as good for that purpose.

I actually like Windows 8(.1) quite a bit, but there aren't many mobile Windows devices worth using. The MacBook Air is just a wonderfully elegant and efficient machine. I enjoy using it every single time I pick it up.
 
fierywater said:
I use a Mac laptop (11" MBA) and a PC desktop (of my own making).

Why do I use a Mac? It comes down to a few things. One of them is the quality of the touchpad; PC touchpads almost invariably suck. Even Microsoft can't get it right on their own devices (the Surface line).

The other thing is Mission Control; being able to switch between large numbers of windows quickly with limited screen space is amazing. There's nothing comparable on the Windows side; I know there's third party clones, but none work nearly as well. Having every open window a three finger swipe away is spectacular. It blows my mind that Microsoft hasn't come up with anything half as good for that purpose.

I actually like Windows 8(.1) quite a bit, but there aren't many mobile Windows devices worth using. The MacBook Air is just a wonderfully elegant and efficient machine. I enjoy using it every single time I pick it up.
Click to expand...

I agree. Im a recent switcher and I need to master Finder, I still find that elegant but restrictive compared to Windows Explorer. All else is great in OSX, add to that no need for third party AV, security, updates.
 
tdale said:
I agree. Im a recent switcher and I need to master Finder, I still find that elegant but restrictive compared to Windows Explorer. All else is great in OSX, add to that no need for third party AV, security, updates.
Click to expand...

It took me a while to grow accustomed to finder. But you will "find" it to be a lot simpler after a little while. It's a great system. I like not having to worry about viruses.
 
tdale said:
I agree. Im a recent switcher and I need to master Finder, I still find that elegant but restrictive compared to Windows Explorer. All else is great in OSX, add to that no need for third party AV, security, updates.
Click to expand...

I felt this way when I first switched. I use a Windows box at work and now I hate Hate HATE Windows' laggy Explorer compared to Finder.

briannaharbor said:
It took me a while to grow accustomed to finder. But you will "find" it to be a lot simpler after a little while. It's a great system. I like not having to worry about viruses.
Click to expand...

When I first switched, I found Finder to be somewhat limiting. I went out and bought "Totalfinder" mainly to get tabs in Finder. Now in Mavericks I have no use for Totalfinder as Finder natively has tabs.

One thing that for me crushes Windows Explorer is Quick View. Hitting that little eyeball and seeing my document in a little popup window is alone almost worth switching to Mac. It works for jpg files, png files, gif files, pdf files, MS Office documents, iWork documents and SO MANY file formats I commonly use I simply can't do without it.

Another must have feature is cmd-shift-4 for taking screen shots which are saved as png files.

Meanwhile on Windows Explorer, enabling the preview window offers mixed results. Sometimes it displays something useful but more often than not it displays a big useless icon. And it does this for commonly used files like png files. Can you imagine an OS that cannot natively display a preview of png files in the file browser? That OS would be Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1. We have a screen capture application that natively saves in png files but the stoopid OS cannot preview them. The lack of quick view coupled with the inability to preview png files gives me a strong impression that Windows is junk held together by tar, chewing gum and rusty dlls. Win 7 is clearly better than Vista, XP or 8.1 but that's not saying much.

Viruses. Oh let me count the number of intrusive "YOU MUST REBOOT NOW" security updates we get in a week around here. On my Mac at home? Not so much. I picked up OS 10.9.3 the other day. Two clicks and a few password keystrokes and I was back up and running. On this sorry piece of Windoze I was faced with consecutive mandatory reboots that chewed through over an hour of my workday just to catch up to April Adobe security updates. Yes that's right, our IT guys are a bit behind. Just a bit. :eek:
 
r0k said:
I felt this way when I first switched. I use a Windows box at work and now I hate Hate HATE Windows' laggy Explorer compared to Finder.



When I first switched, I found Finder to be somewhat limiting. I went out and bought "Totalfinder" mainly to get tabs in Finder. Now in Mavericks I have no use for Totalfinder as Finder natively has tabs.

One thing that for me crushes Windows Explorer is Quick View. Hitting that little eyeball and seeing my document in a little popup window is alone almost worth switching to Mac. It works for jpg files, png files, gif files, pdf files, MS Office documents, iWork documents and SO MANY file formats I commonly use I simply can't do without it.

Another must have feature is cmd-shift-4 for taking screen shots which are saved as png files.

Meanwhile on Windows Explorer, enabling the preview window offers mixed results. Sometimes it displays something useful but more often than not it displays a big useless icon. And it does this for commonly used files like png files. Can you imagine an OS that cannot natively display a preview of png files in the file browser? That OS would be Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1. We have a screen capture application that natively saves in png files but the stoopid OS cannot preview them. The lack of quick view coupled with the inability to preview png files gives me a strong impression that Windows is junk held together by tar, chewing gum and rusty dlls. Win 7 is clearly better than Vista, XP or 8.1 but that's not saying much.

Viruses. Oh let me count the number of intrusive "YOU MUST REBOOT NOW" security updates we get in a week around here. On my Mac at home? Not so much. I picked up OS 10.9.3 the other day. Two clicks and a few password keystrokes and I was back up and running. On this sorry piece of Windoze I was faced with consecutive mandatory reboots that chewed through over an hour of my workday just to catch up to April Adobe security updates. Yes that's right, our IT guys are a bit behind. Just a bit. :eek:
Click to expand...

There really is something to be said about macs, and user interface. The virus thing is a whole other ballpark. The reason pcs get viruses is that most people use pc. This makes them a good target for people who make viruses. They are more likely to get people. Making viruses for mac is a waste of time...because you have pc.

But the user interface thing is remarkable. The finder (while appearing to be iffy) is a great tool.
 
I would work backwards -

Start with the application list. From this you can see reviews on the apps, experience of users and what hardware they are using. You sometimes can find OSX vs Windows tests with specific apps. Consider OpenGL vs OpenCL.

I, like some others, have dealt with Windows, Linux and Mac in the business world. When Vista came, I jumped ship to Apple computers for personal use. What I found was some things that were very impressive about Apple computers and later, proved to be (for me) the situation of feeling extremely boxed in by Apple's market model for computer hardware.

For now, I use a quad core Mac Mini loaded (16gigs RAM, SSD internal) and a good graphics monitor for still image work. I don't like iMac monitors for colour accuracy even when calibrated. This is just my take. What is left for me is to get a Mac Mini (I did), or an iMac and add a 2nd monitor or the new Mac Pro which is not in my budget .... or... consider a used Mac Pro (I have owned Mac Pros before and there is plenty to like about them).

Just a few peanuts tossed into the gallery.
 
briannaharbor said:
There really is something to be said about macs, and user interface. The virus thing is a whole other ballpark. The reason pcs get viruses is that most people use pc. This makes them a good target for people who make viruses. They are more likely to get people. Making viruses for mac is a waste of time...because you have pc.

But the user interface thing is remarkable. The finder (while appearing to be iffy) is a great tool.
Click to expand...

There is some truth to this, that the reason more viruses are out for PC is that they represent more market share. However there are some fundamental differences between the way MS views security and the way Unix security is implemented in OSX and other Unix based OSes.

For many years, MS had the attitude that security was the user's problem and there were gaping holes such as the ease of launching tasks with escalated privileges and a browser that was not only treated as trusted but was difficult or impossible to disable. So what I'm saying is not only is the PC platform a richer target because there are more of them, it is historically an easier target because of the way the Windows OS handles (or lets the user handle) security.

One way to infect a computer is to convince the user to allow executable content in an email or web page. The IE and Outlook approach to blocking executable content is an absolute mess. Ever try to navigate IE security settings? It will make your head spin. The OSX approach is much cleaner and for that reason inherently more robust because by default the user must be prompted for executable content in email or web page rather than the Windows approach where for many years anything that came in through IE must be trustworthy because after all MS wrote the browser and the OS. I'm oversimplifying this but I suggest you mroogle for osx viruses to get a better feel for the virus situation in OSX. If market share were to swing to 80% OSX tomorrow, there would likely be a LOT more phishing and other social engineering based attacks aimed at OSX users but the number of OSX viruses in the wild would not likely increase all that much.
 
r0k said:
There is some truth to this, that the reason more viruses are out for PC is that they represent more market share. However there are some fundamental differences between the way MS views security and the way Unix security is implemented in OSX and other Unix based OSes.

For many years, MS had the attitude that security was the user's problem and there were gaping holes such as the ease of launching tasks with escalated privileges and a browser that was not only treated as trusted but was difficult or impossible to disable. So what I'm saying is not only is the PC platform a richer target because there are more of them, it is historically an easier target because of the way the Windows OS handles (or lets the user handle) security.

One way to infect a computer is to convince the user to allow executable content in an email or web page. The IE and Outlook approach to blocking executable content is an absolute mess. Ever try to navigate IE security settings? It will make your head spin. The OSX approach is much cleaner and for that reason inherently more robust because by default the user must be prompted for executable content in email or web page rather than the Windows approach where for many years anything that came in through IE must be trustworthy because after all MS wrote the browser and the OS. I'm oversimplifying this but I suggest you mroogle for osx viruses to get a better feel for the virus situation in OSX. If market share were to swing to 80% OSX tomorrow, there would likely be a LOT more phishing and other social engineering based attacks aimed at OSX users but the number of OSX viruses in the wild would not likely increase all that much.
Click to expand...

That was very thorough. But yes, basically, macs are a bit safer than pcs in terms of antivirus.
 
lucidmedia said:
The reasons many creatives use macs is mostly historical.

Apple released the first laser printer and, in so doing, started a desktop publishing revolution that empowered designers and other creatives to do their own typesetting and layout -- skills that were once specialized.

Lots of tools quickly followed, tools that were for a long time Mac only. This meant that agencies, newspapers and design shops invested heavily in a mac infrastructure.

For many years after Apple invested heavily in the creative market. We felt supported by the company and were, for a time, its primary market.

Today, many such differences are gone. Designers can choose which platform they want to work on. In my studio all of the designers use PCs except me. Adobe sells far more software for PC than Mac. Apple has made it very clear that it no longer values creatives as a market. We are too small and too high maintenance.

Admittedly, for production work I would argue that the PC requires a bit more knowledge upfront to do things correctly. I think that color calibration and font handling on the mac are a bit more elegant than on the PC, but again, my opinions are personal taste. Apples integration with postscript is also a benefit behind the scenes, but one that many designers would not notice on a day to day basis.

(To give some context, my first mac for design was a $10,000 IIfx. I moved to PCs when OS 9 got really bad, and then worked for a few years on SGI workstations. I came back to macs with OsX.)
Click to expand...

+1 - as this poster understands why, the rest of this post really isn't addressed to him/her...

That's the primary reason - historical. That Laserwriter was a thing of beauty... especially when other printers of the dot matrix variety were touting their "NLQ". If you know instantly what that is without me telling you, then you MAY be qualified to really give some insight into this debate of why Macs are more prevalent in the design industry (rather than the general which is better: Mac or PC or OSX or Windows which is BS anyways). For of of you wondering, NLQ stood for Near Letter Quality... close but still not enough. In a world where Epson and 9-pin/24-pin dot matrix printers rule, the Apple Laserwriter was truly disruptive. Those were the good old days of QuarkXPress (still in production amazingly) and Pagemaker (first by Aldus then by Adobe and now gone).

I've used computers for a long time, starting with the Altair 8800 to my current mix of an HP Wintel desktop and an Apple MBA. My real first personal computer was a Kaypro running CP/M with 8" floppy disks. In between I spent almost 5 years selling Quadras, Performas, and various other Mac computers. So I know both platforms extremely well. And I appreciate both without having the baggage of bias.

The bottom line is historical in terms of why creative types gravitate towards Mac. But don't let anyone tell you that Windows is unstable; when it is, it's usually something the user did, whether they knew it or not. I for one very rarely experience those "instabilities" others refer to but it does take a certain amount of knowledge and effort to get there with Windows. It's a bit easier with Macs mainly because Apple did most of the hard work for you. You can still screw it up on a Mac though; don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Just use whatever appeals to you: amazing works of creativity have been created on both Macs and Windows - despite what you may hear from one camp or the other!
 
Last edited:
phuocsandiego said:
That's the primary reason - historical. That Laserwriter was a thing of beauty... especially when other printers of the dot matrix variety were touting their "NLQ". If you know instantly what that is without me telling you, then you MAY be qualified to really give some insight into this debate of why Macs are more prevalent in the design industry (rather than the general which is better: Mac or PC or OSX or Windows which is BS anyways).
Click to expand...

I was around in those days too, though not doing DTP. I had dot-matrix and NLQ and borrowed a Diablo daisy-wheel printer when I needed true letter-quality (which meant "same as what you get from a typewriter").

What I wanted more than anything was speed, which brings me back to the statement about the Laserwriter and how it was first. It certainly was not. Yes, I know that's a minor point but it's inaccurate. Xerox and IBM had some stuff for the big iron, but HP's Laserjet was the first desktop laser printer. I bought one as soon as I could, because 8 PPM was way faster than my DEC LA-100 could go, and that was crucial.
 
Mal67 said:
I used to rely just on Preview but now find myself using Acrobat more and more.
Click to expand...

I was never a big fan of it (and that goes way back to the Windows 3.1 days and now the one that ships with Creative Cloud). I'm glad we don't have to install it separately anymore. I'm also glad that we have better document formats today. It has a great toolset though, just not for me.
 
Jessica Lares said:
I was never a big fan of it (and that goes way back to the Windows 3.1 days and now the one that ships with Creative Cloud). I'm glad we don't have to install it separately anymore. I'm also glad that we have better document formats today. It has a great toolset though, just not for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I mean, document formats are a very very basic part of a computer. There are tons of things about it from technical aspects that completely out-weigh document readability.
 
It's ironic to find a defense of the Mac Finder in a design forum. Talk about dated; sheesh. And it's rotten at finding. I actually prefer Windows Explorer. It can show me bigger previews of files without having to hit a button or use a keystroke, shows tags more efficiently, has more choices of views (hidden items, etc more easily accessible), and is an all around better application.

And unlike Finder it even shows some useful photo info right in a pane, like rating, title and camera.

I've been using Finder replacements for years, like Path Finder or Leap (and even Conjure and Raskin), and although those are excellent there's no excuse for neglecting the Finder. Even the metaphors are dated; why are we still obsessed with desktops and manila folders?

Another irony is that either iTunes or Aperture/iPhoto are better "finders." Although limited to certain media files that sort of interface might actually be preferable for all files with some changes in names. I mean it's 2014, why can't we make collections of any file type rather than just photos?

And it's not like MS has this sorted either. A marginally better file organizer doesn't make up for it's other faults.
 
robgendreau said:
It's ironic to find a defense of the Mac Finder in a design forum. Talk about dated; sheesh. And it's rotten at finding. I actually prefer Windows Explorer. It can show me bigger previews of files without having to hit a button or use a keystroke, shows tags more efficiently, has more choices of views (hidden items, etc more easily accessible), and is an all around better application.
Click to expand...

same here - if you use finder to search for a hidden file, you're pretty much gefickt (that's german for ****ed - as this ****ing forum won't take my **** in it's native language). having to use a terminal command to even show them is also not very elegant.
 
I find mac to be much better at running PS and AI than a windows machine equally the design is just beautiful.
 
kest2703 said:
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 :)
Click to expand...

One point overlooked is printing! Being a graphic designer for over 35v years. Most printers I have done work with use Macs for color correcting and output for plating before going to press.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back