i like the mac better. i’ve always been a mac person ever since i purchased my first mac which was a nice SE/30. as small as that monitor was, i still thought it was the coolest.

of course, i’ve always liked doing the media work on the mac too. i have both windows and mac at home and i tend to gravitate toward the mac when updating anything on the web.

of course, my dell computer is much faster, but that’s because it’s newer. my old powerpc is 5 years old but i just like the feel and look of the mac better than the windows PC.

just yesterday at school the topic once again was brought up regarding which is better, mac or pc.

this guy was really ‘ragging’ on the mac and i thought that was unfair. plus, they always say the mac is built better, it’s classier and of course it’s more expensive…

it’s like what happened to the beta format. i always thought beta was the better format and look what happened? vhs won out. beta lost…

it’s that way with the mac it seems… yeah, it may be the nicer, more cutting edge computer, but it sure gets ‘ragged’ on because it’s not popular…

nowadays, i’m content with both platforms… it’s like driving a ferrari or a lamborghini. both will get you from point a to point b in a flash. but which is better? and which is the lamborghini? the mac or the pc… does it really matter?

Eric: Well, you won’t be able to do much of your uber-web development with MacOS X since IE 5.1 isn’t up to snuff with what you’re used to. Then again, you can use VirtualPC, but you know… very slow emulation of your wicked fast PC.

I personally would wait, esp. if you were looking at the dual-processor Macs because the underlying hardware is still back in the stone age. No DDR RAM being used (still SDRAM). The main bus is still slow. PCI still slow. Hard Drives still slow. Case and styling a little outdated.

I have a feeling that the models that they silently released today are stopgaps for the next generation. Those are the models that I think you should wait for.

Shortcomings in OS X? Hmmm… it still does crash from time to time, but way more less than OS 9 ever did. I think Classic (OS 9 emulation engine) is the main culprit. Photoshop still runs only in Classic, and many plug-ins don’t work.

In the end, you’re a power user, and you may find a lot of things just aren’t there for you that you’re used to. For a normal user like Dardy, who doesn’t do all that much, I think it will be great. If all you did was media processing, maybe, but because you do a whole lot more, probably not.

Just my opinion, Eric. Of course, I’d love to see you on the light side once again :)

I had the MAC vs. PC debate with someone a few weeks ago. For a long while (until I got a PC) I was a MAC fan because – I would tell people- it felt better to be on one. I felt cool for being a MAC person. And I’ve heard that MAC’s are better for graphical applications, etc. etc.

But now that I use a PC (laptop) I really can’t tell much of a difference other than the fact that it’s more convenient to be on a PC b/c so many other people use it, easier to get stuff for it, etc.

Then it occurred to me that the image Macs have is the result of a brilliant publicity/advertising campaign. Ever see that ad where a runner comes into a room full of people who look like automatons with a big-brother like figure looking down at them from a huge screen. The runner then throws something like a sledge hammer at the screen. Anyway, Mac fans like to think of themselves as an iconoclastic, independent-minded bunch (and maybe they are), but that’s the image nurtured by Mac marketers.

I’m not really a "techie" by any stretch of the word. This thinking about Mac vs. PC was started by this someone telling me that they could put together a custom PC from components, a very FAST computer for under $500, that a computer that was put together for you e.g. Macs and PC’s was WAY over-priced, etc. etc. And then this someone showed me a site where an eighth grade class had put together a "super-computer" by linking lots of processors together or something like that….I’m digressing.

I thought this discussion died a hundred years ago! I have both a G4 and a P4 and hate them both. take me back to OS2! haha.

But really, if all you do is surf the web and write word docu’s every now and then it doesnt matter which one. so go for the prettier mac.

How can I resist an intro like that…

My current thinking on the matter has mellowed considerably in the past few years. I went through a tough time worrying about "justifying" owning a mac. That type of thinking takes you down a bad path, in my opinion, where you either have to slam on the "opposing" platform, or overly hype your own.

Instead, I have recently taken a different approach. I’ve come to the simple realization that I like Macs. I like Apple products, and I like using them. And given my lowered personal needs (I no longer develop for a living, and like Eric use primarily Photoshop, Office, Email, Web, and Quicken) there is no reason I "need" a Windows-based PC.

So what am I left with? Afraid of compatibility? No. Everything I need for the next 2 years is out today. Files are universally compatible, so I am not worried about "orphaned content" created over the next few years. Regardless of which platform I choose today, I’ll probably replace almost everything in the next 3 years anyway. As a result, the long term viability of Apple is no longer a sticking point. Fact is, despite the 400 discussions on the matter at business school, everyone seems to ignore the fact that Apple continues to persist even after a decade of "inevitable doom".

Price always comes up, and I won’t go into it here. At any pricepoint these days, I do not think any system will let you down, or feel slow. I got my grandmother a $690 iMac, and you know what, it was pretty zippy. Price/performance is subjective anyway, because after all, isn’t enjoyment a factor in the "performance" of a system, at least when humans are involved?

Mac OS X is pretty good, despite the UI foibles of Aqua. I actually haven’t crashed it yet, and that’s more than I can say for my Win2K machine at work.

So my net-net: buy what you want. Don’t worry so much about theoretical needs or strategic issues. Get something you like. Use it. Abuse it. Make sure it does what you need and more importantly what you like. You can always switch down the road.

Funny thing about this logic is that I settled into it about 3 years ago, thinking that by now I would have made the inevitable transition away from the Mac. But somehow that transition always seems over the horizon. I’m pretty sure I’ll be upgrading my machine this year (2+ years old), but I’m 95% sure it will turn out to be a mac. Turns out that I still don’t need a PC at home…

what about UNIX/Linux??

I am a server type of guy. I like scripts and shell prompts. window interfaces are overrated.

mac – designed for computer inept graphical designers and/or children

pc – not as computer inepted as mac users but in many cases inept also. designed for teenagers and for the general public.

unix – geeks only keep out

The Cinema Display makes it all worthwhile… Final Cut Pro on the Cinema is fun.

OS X is a heckuva lot better than OS 9. Since I can use MySQL and PHP on OS X, I no longer have any temptation to get a Windows box. Course, I haven’t tried any XSLT on the Mac so I don’t know what the support is like there if you plan on using that for any upcoming projects.