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

tony3dd

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 14, 2013
57
1
Ok guys, I need your best arguments why Macs are better than PC's. Going over to my wife's bosses house tonight, and her kid is a PC NUT! Already was warned that he will rip me apart the moment I walk in the door. I need really good ammo! Not the normal stuff. This kid is an avid gamer, and he probably has me there. OMG MY GOD I'm dreading this! LOK!
 
Since 2006, Macs are PCs too.
Better looking, expensive parts, better support, long life and resale price.
Sometimes have also future proof connections with devices that PCs see some year(s) after.

This is to me the post-PowerPC era of Macs, PCs with style and Apple logo. :)
 
Gosh, what a banality. Windows-run machines aren't better than Macs. Linux-run machines aren't better than Macs. Macs aren't better than either Windows- or Linux-run machines. It comes down to personal preference and your use of a computer. Games run best on Windows. A gamer will rightfully prefer Windows. I don't even understand why anyone would want to argue such trivialities over entirely subjective matters. It's not about what is better. It's about what works better for you.
 
Last edited:
One choice: ignore the kid - people are entitled to their own opinions, but it takes two parties to have an argument. Just don't respond to the kid's obvious baiting. Surprise him by telling him that he did a good job when he built his PC (which is probably a good guess.) If you have very little interest in gaming, why would you need to respond from your own little world?
I should point out that Macs ARE PCs! Apple just chooses to go a different path with OS X, compared to Windows.
But you are unlikely to convince a "PC nut, and an avid gamer" that Macs are better than Windows PCs. Not gonna happen. It's like trying to mix oil and water.
But, if you are "required" to keep the kid company, and it affects your wife's job if you do not, then you will need to figure something out, eh?...
 
Ok guys, I need your best arguments why Macs are better than PC's. Going over to my wife's bosses house tonight, and her kid is a PC NUT! Already was warned that he will rip me apart the moment I walk in the door. I need really good ammo! Not the normal stuff. This kid is an avid gamer, and he probably has me there. OMG MY GOD I'm dreading this! LOK!

The interface... Windows never dedicated proper time creating an interface that actually worked. They still having no clue. The windows are bulky, the navigation is clumsy. That is the real problem with PCs. Because of that and the way Windows is designed, you need an IT around, basically a geek who sort of knows his way around. Once you master the O.S. you get a great platform, but it will cost you. Usually people who gets a Mac never go back just because the navigation works.
 
One choice: ignore the kid - people are entitled to their own opinions, but it takes two parties to have an argument. Just don't respond to the kid's obvious baiting. Surprise him by telling him that he did a good job when he built his PC (which is probably a good guess.) If you have very little interest in gaming, why would you need to respond from your own little world?
I should point out that Macs ARE PCs! Apple just chooses to go a different path with OS X, compared to Windows.
But you are unlikely to convince a "PC nut, and an avid gamer" that Macs are better than Windows PCs. Not gonna happen. It's like trying to mix oil and water.
But, if you are "required" to keep the kid company, and it affects your wife's job if you do not, then you will need to figure something out, eh?...

Yup! I think this is a good approach. I use my 12 core Mac Pro for professional 3d Modeling, and animation using Lightwave 3D, and for that it's excellent! I must admit I have a full install of Windows 7 on drive bay 4 used just for gaming. I have the last 2012 tower maxed out from apple well with 32 gigs of ram. Just need to get an Nvidia 980 for it.
 
Ok guys, I need your best arguments why Macs are better than PC's. Going over to my wife's bosses house tonight, and her kid is a PC NUT! Already was warned that he will rip me apart the moment I walk in the door. I need really good ammo! Not the normal stuff. This kid is an avid gamer, and he probably has me there. OMG MY GOD I'm dreading this! LOK!

Just slap him and move on!

Tbh these days I don't have the energy to justify mac's to non mac users, and you get the usual arguments about cost etc where I just smile to myself. I guess thats why a lot of non mac users see mac users as smug, the reality is we spend less time fixing and more time using our computers, and we appreciate quality, in OS & hardware, which is more than you can say for the average bloatware filled dell pc which has a resale value of $10..........tell him you don't argue with idiots.
 
I only care about apps and drivers. The platform is just the crap in the middle. But I have the latest public builds of El Capitan and Windows 10 and I think they are equally good. They have fixed some mistakes of the past, kept the good things, and brought back some of the stuff we wanted back.
 
Last edited:
The interface... Windows never dedicated proper time creating an interface that actually worked. They still having no clue. The windows are bulky, the navigation is clumsy. That is the real problem with PCs. Because of that and the way Windows is designed, you need an IT around, basically a geek who sort of knows his way around. Once you master the O.S. you get a great platform, but it will cost you. Usually people who gets a Mac never go back just because the navigation works.

Interestingly, your points/arguments can be said from either side. As a professional "geek" IT person, I've spent the last 20 years supporting Windows and, on and off, Mac's, and from MY point of view, everything you stated can be said about the Mac OS. IMHO, it's not intuitive, window navigation doesn't do what you think it should do. How many years did the green window "maximize" button do nothing but make the window somewhat larger instead of filling the whole screen?

Here is something I found about Mac OSX from a Windows' users standpoint. It's a bit aged, and some of the points no longer are meaningful (since Apple finally got around to making it work right), but it's still humorous and worth a read if you need a chuckle:


“I just bought a new Mac mini this weekend, three things I love about OS X

1. The green plus button, the most broken implantation of maximize on any operating system. It’s so broken, you'd think it was designed to do something different if it wasn't for the fact it actually works correctly in Firefox, but that's the only program. In most other programs it feels as though the green plus button is more of a wild card feature where some completely random function will be performed on the targeted window. It’s different every time. The sense of thrill you get every time you click it, not knowing if the windows will maximize, minimize, close, delete itself, or brick the system is really quite exhilarating.

2. I love how you can only re-size a window from the bottom right corner. Other operating systems make it too easy to resize windows, it almost feels like your cheating. In OS X resizing a windows takes skill and cunning, it’s no simple task, especially after recovering from the chaos of pressing the green plus button a couple times. It almost makes a game out of what would be a trivial task on another operating system. For hard mode I like to press the green plus button until the windows is actually larger than the screen, which makes it almost impossible to try and resize the window back to a manageable size.

3. I love the font rendering in OS X. Specifically the level of blur factor that no other operating system can imitate. In OS X I don't feel like I'm reading text, but trying to interpret a hidden message from a blur of text. As a person of higher intelligence I enjoy the good mind game from time to time, especially when trying to interpret OS X's blur text while reading the news or email online, normally quite a boring and easy task. I also love how my vision seems relatively sharper after a good 5 minutes squinting at my mac reading text, as if you have been staring through a magnifying glass or wearing somebody else's glasses.

I initially bought a Mac mini as a simple machine to write iOS apps, where I'd use my PC for everything else. Well now it seems I spend more time fixing and tweaking things on the Mac to get xCode to actually install than I ever did on a PC. I think I'm becoming addicted to it. Why, just today, I've spend 3 hours in a row downloading updates just to have the mac reboot without installing them, prompting me to download them again before I can install xCode, which should total 6 hours. Time flies when you’re having fun.”


(a follow-up post)


“The features I like the best have to be in the way the Dock works.

I love playing the little game where you have to guess which of your applications are actually running since there's no notification for it.

I also love that the applications are completely separate from their open files, so when I click on Photoshop the 'window' opens but all of my documents are hidden. Then I get to poke around on the right side of the dock trying to find whatever I was working on. This isn't much of an issue since when I'm using applications like Photoshop I'm not usually working on documents, but rather enjoying the stylized gray OS menus.

Finder works amazing as well. It's a breeze to navigate to InDesign's preference folder three times a day to delete them since InDesign won't launch again. I prefer the 3-pane list system, because it's always helpful to see the folders I'm not currently interested in take up 66% of my working space. It's also great that I can highlight certain documents and folders, it makes it a lot easier to navigate around the hidden index files it creates for every file.

But for me, nothing is better than the gray bar at the top of the screen. It's always there, and always the same color, no matter what my wallpaper is. It reminds me that regardless of how unique I try to be, I'm always just "one of them". It's great to just stare at while I'm waiting 1-2 minutes for my Flash drive actually eject (another amazing feature) or massaging my wrist due to the carpal tunnel syndrome brought on by the ergonomics of the mighty mouse.”
 
Last edited:
Interestingly, your points/arguments can be said from either side. As a professional "geek" IT person, I've spent the last 20 years supporting Windows and, on and off, Mac's, and from MY point of view, everything you stated can be said about the Mac OS. IMHO, it's not intuitive, window navigation doesn't do what you think it should do. How many years did the green window "maximize" button do nothing but make the window somewhat larger instead of filling the whole screen?

Here is something I found about Mac OSX from a Windows' users standpoint. It's a bit aged, and some of the points no longer are meaningful (since Apple finally got around to making it work right), but it's still humorous and worth a read if you need a chuckle:


“I just bought a new Mac mini this weekend, three things I love about OS X

1. The green plus button, the most broken implantation of maximize on any operating system. It’s so broken, you'd think it was designed to do something different if it wasn't for the fact it actually works correctly in Firefox, but that's the only program. In most other programs it feels as though the green plus button is more of a wild card feature where some completely random function will be performed on the targeted window. It’s different every time. The sense of thrill you get every time you click it, not knowing if the windows will maximize, minimize, close, delete itself, or brick the system is really quite exhilarating.

2. I love how you can only re-size a window from the bottom right corner. Other operating systems make it too easy to resize windows, it almost feels like your cheating. In OS X resizing a windows takes skill and cunning, it’s no simple task, especially after recovering from the chaos of pressing the green plus button a couple times. It almost makes a game out of what would be a trivial task on another operating system. For hard mode I like to press the green plus button until the windows is actually larger than the screen, which makes it almost impossible to try and resize the window back to a manageable size.

3. I love the font rendering in OS X. Specifically the level of blur factor that no other operating system can imitate. In OS X I don't feel like I'm reading text, but trying to interpret a hidden message from a blur of text. As a person of higher intelligence I enjoy the good mind game from time to time, especially when trying to interpret OS X's blur text while reading the news or email online, normally quite a boring and easy task. I also love how my vision seems relatively sharper after a good 5 minutes squinting at my mac reading text, as if you have been staring through a magnifying glass or wearing somebody else's glasses.

I initially bought a Mac mini as a simple machine to write iOS apps, where I'd use my PC for everything else. Well now it seems I spend more time fixing and tweaking things on the Mac to get xCode to actually install than I ever did on a PC. I think I'm becoming addicted to it. Why, just today, I've spend 3 hours in a row downloading updates just to have the mac reboot without installing them, prompting me to download them again before I can install xCode, which should total 6 hours. Time flies when you’re having fun.”


(a follow-up post)


“The features I like the best have to be in the way the Dock works.

I love playing the little game where you have to guess which of your applications are actually running since there's no notification for it.

I also love that the applications are completely separate from their open files, so when I click on Photoshop the 'window' opens but all of my documents are hidden. Then I get to poke around on the right side of the dock trying to find whatever I was working on. This isn't much of an issue since when I'm using applications like Photoshop I'm not usually working on documents, but rather enjoying the stylized gray OS menus.

Finder works amazing as well. It's a breeze to navigate to InDesign's preference folder three times a day to delete them since InDesign won't launch again. I prefer the 3-pane list system, because it's always helpful to see the folders I'm not currently interested in take up 66% of my working space. It's also great that I can highlight certain documents and folders, it makes it a lot easier to navigate around the hidden index files it creates for every file.

But for me, nothing is better than the gray bar at the top of the screen. It's always there, and always the same color, no matter what my wallpaper is. It reminds me that regardless of how unique I try to be, I'm always just "one of them". It's great to just stare at while I'm waiting 1-2 minutes for my Flash drive actually eject (another amazing feature) or massaging my wrist due to the carpal tunnel syndrome brought on by the ergonomics of the mighty mouse.”


I can't help but wonder about these so call "IT" guys now a days. Please pardon me as I'm only of average intelligence. First when I click the so called green button all my apps go full screen not sure what your talking about. Second I can resize a window by grabbing on any side just like your beloved windows. My fonts look fine not blurry at all. And last apps that are running have a little dot under them. Maybe you should step back and rethink your actual "IT" level, stick with windows.
 
Last edited:
he's alright, pc is better, only reason why i put my family on macs is cause they are computer illiterate and will literally click on anything on the internet. one thing mac have pc beat is safety and security.

mac is a pc in a bubble boy costume with training wheel,

Explain, because that's just insane! I use my Mac Pro 12 core 3.06 gig machine to do professional 3d Modeling for corporations, including high profile clients such as NASA. I run Lightwave 3D. Running under Windows, I have a crashes 2-3 times a day. Running under OS X maybe once a month! I don't spend half my time updating for viruses, and the other half messing with Config files. I use to program CNC 4 axis milling machines using a Mac, and always enjoyed the experience, because production was key, and the Macs delivered in spades. So whats your point here exactly. Other than possibly playing games, the Mac can interface with nearly every type of CNC controller, or any type of manufacturing process. Explain the bubble boy concept to me!
 
The interface... Windows never dedicated proper time creating an interface that actually worked. They still having no clue. The windows are bulky, the navigation is clumsy. That is the real problem with PCs. Because of that and the way Windows is designed, you need an IT around, basically a geek who sort of knows his way around. Once you master the O.S. you get a great platform, but it will cost you. Usually people who gets a Mac never go back just because the navigation works.
there is no fact to this, there is no bulk when comes to windows 7, the next lightest OS is linux, if anything osx has gotten quite complicated over the years, it does not take an IT to get wrap your head around how to use windows. if anything my 14 years old brother going to 9th grade prefer to use my 6 years old gaming pc than the mac pro 4.1 i got him. and i don't blame him, everything feels faster despite the gaming pc having slower hardware.

the learning curve now on Yosemite is more steep than any windows i have used.
 
he's right, pc is better, only reason why i put my family on macs is cause they are computer illiterate [...]

[...] the learning curve now on Yosemite is more steep than any windows i have used.

In other words... you recommend the more complicated operating system to computer illiterate users? What a strange proposition... ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tubamajuba and JCrz
Explain, because that's just insane! I use my Mac Pro 12 core 3.06 gig machine to do professional 3d Modeling for corporations, including high profile clients such as NASA. I run Lightwave 3D. Running under Windows, I have a crashes 2-3 times a day. Running under OS X maybe once a month! I don't spend half my time updating for viruses, and the other half messing with Config files. I use to program CNC 4 axis milling machines using a Mac, and always enjoyed the experience, because production was key, and the Macs delivered in spades. So whats your point here exactly. Other than possibly playing games, the Mac can interface with nearly every type of CNC controller, or any type of manufacturing process. Explain the bubble boy concept to me!

i don't do CNC or any of the apps you mentioned, so i deem myself not knowledgeable enough to have this argument, your mac pro(and mine) are the only exception in terms of cost/performance as far as that figures go. since its still hard to beat dual socket x58 in multicore processing.

it's really difficult to prove my point cause mac has caught up alot in terms of hardware, but they still place limitation in both hardware and software, for example, it take them this long to release trim support for 3rd party ssd? and still lack of dedicated gpu driver for new gpus, the last dedicated driver from nvidia is for GTX 680, which is 3 generations old.

as far as your crashes in windows, i'm pretty sure thats a case by case scenario. i say that cause i help my friend service the pc in our school's engineering department for 3d modeling and not once has it crashed, and thats with 4 classes a day 3 times a week for 4 months of students making mistakes and fiddling with the wrong instructions.

and why would you be worried about virus on your work computer, are you going on fb and inappropriate sites at work?
 
In other words... you recommend the more complicated operating system to computer illiterate users? What a strange proposition... ;)
lol Yosemite does take a bit more to learn with its new gestures and what not, maybe thats just me cause i'm jumping up from snow leopard. but yes Yosemite still offers more safety and security than windows.
 
Macs do have their faults though, and he WILL point out these factors (all valid):

  1. Worse performance; slow CPUs, slow GPUs, lower clocked RAM
  2. Terrible price to performance ratio
  3. Soldered parts (CPUs and GPUs)
  4. Lack of control/customization in OS X
  5. Only one computer that supports any real expansion and its more than 3 years old
#2 is really important though because at the end of the day, as a consumer whos dropping thousands of dollars on a machine deserves to get what you pay for. And this is where even I have BIG problems with Apple;

I built a Hackintosh rig for roughly $1,300 USD and it performs better than an entry level new Mac Pro that costs $3,000 and comes with one giant limitation; No standard PCIe slots for GPU expansion. The nMP scores roughly 14,300 in Geekbench where as mine gets 18,000 (i7 4790k). Not only that, I've got 32gb of RAM as opposed to just 12gb and my GPU is a GTX 960 which beats even the dual D700 available for 'only' an additional $1,000 in the Mac Pro.

I can only think of three reasons why I'd want a Mac Pro if money wasn't an issue (apples to apples comparison);

  1. Native support for OS X without Unibeast/Multibeast workarounds
  2. Small form factor
  3. Aesthetics
Paying $1,700 extra for a worse performing Apple Mac computer just isn't rational.

Even if you want to make the claim that the top end Mac Pro with 12 cores is the 'ultimate' computer... well, no. The Intel i7 5960X gets the same performance with just 8 cores, the processor itself costs $1,300 vs. $2,700 E5-2697 (12 core Mac Pro processor) however Apple charges an additional $3,500. The upgrade should NOT cost that much. Also, the 5960X can be overclocked, which would basically run circles around whatever Apple offered and the price to performance ratio would be laughable at this point.

Now, as for subjective things in OS X, there are some BONEHEADED things that Apple does itself too;

  1. Green button should have the option maximize instead of fullscreen and hiding the menu bar and dock!
  2. Mouse Acceleration in Yosemite!? WTF?!
  3. Launchpad rather useless, same stupid crap as Windows tiled menu (though neither forced)
  4. Highlighting of files in Finder only adds a dot. VERY difficult to tell when compared to OS X 10.8 and older.
  5. NO NATIVE TRIM SUPPORT?! (though finally fixed in El Capitan, but inexcusable to take this long)
  6. Making apps go full screen takes WAY too long
  7. Rootless in El Capitan is going to wreak havoc on control/customization in OS X. TotalFinder is already having complications
So yeah, it's not like Apple computers are without fault.
 
Last edited:
How many years did the green window "maximize" button do nothing but make the window somewhat larger instead of filling the whole screen?
Because that is what maximize is: make the window big enough to fit all content. Otherwise it should read 'fill screen'.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mrxak
I can't help but wonder about these so call "IT" guys now a days. Please pardon me as I'm only of average intelligence. First when I click the so called green button all my apps go full screen not sure what your talking about. Second I can resize a window by grabbing on any side just like your beloved windows. My fonts look fine not blurry at all. And last apps that are running have a little dot under them. Maybe you should step back and rethink your actual "IT" level, stick with windows.
No they don’t, and historically the OP is dead right. Only apps that use a particular framework do it, but most do these days.
I’ve been using OSX since 10.1 and can assure you the italicised parts above are recent developments in the Mac world.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rezar
Explain, because that's just insane! I use my Mac Pro 12 core 3.06 gig machine to do professional 3d Modeling for corporations, including high profile clients such as NASA. I run Lightwave 3D. Running under Windows, I have a crashes 2-3 times a day. Running under OS X maybe once a month! I don't spend half my time updating for viruses, and the other half messing with Config files. I use to program CNC 4 axis milling machines using a Mac, and always enjoyed the experience, because production was key, and the Macs delivered in spades. So whats your point here exactly. Other than possibly playing games, the Mac can interface with nearly every type of CNC controller, or any type of manufacturing process. Explain the bubble boy concept to me!
Interface with those while running OSX or booted into Windows? Macs interface with nowhere near as much industrial process as PCs do. The difference in this field is staggering. This is todays equiopment too, if you’re talking legacy process control and business software the disparity is even worse.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ilikewhey
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.