Mac Beats Windows Beats Mac
September 28th, 2007 · by David Bradley
Or does it? I’m dithering. I’ve been through years of MS Windows woes, hacking, whacking and rebooting from Windows 3.1, through 3.11, to Workgroups, then Windows 95, 98, Me (very, very briefly), XP, XP SP2…SP3 etc. Along the way, I’ve seen more than my fair share of Blue Screen of Death pages. While on 98, I meddled with dual booting my desktop machine and messing with a simple Linux installation. I’m afraid I didn’t persevere, but now that I’ve got a fairly powerful laptop, I’m once again toying with Linux, but is it worth it? Even this laptop is getting old (18 months old in fact), so maybe it’s time for yet another upgrade…to an Apple Mac.
But is that an upgrade or a retrograde step? Should I buy another PC clone, strip away any remnants of pre-installed Windows Vista that it will almost inevitably carry, and go the full way to Linux on a PC…or should I jump ship entirely and do what so many of my more tech savvy friends seem to have done and gone the way of the Apple, taking a big bite, right to the core?
I should make a “for and against” list. That’s the usual way to go. So here are my initial thoughts on the pros and cons of a PC to Mac transition:
Con - Macs are more expensive than PCs, I could replace my current laptop with one of double the power for the same price I paid 18 months ago, the equivalent Mac is at least 50% again on that price.
Pro - Macs run an allegedly more stable operating system and because it’s Unix based, security issues that affect PCs at the root, cannot dig into Macs so easily
Con - I have lots of proprietary software bought and paid for that runs on a PC only, some of it I rarely use, but there is no Mac version for when I need it.
Pro - There are open source, platform-independent, or Mac-based versions of most of the programs I use on a more regular basis, so I’m covered for most everyday applications.
Con - There is only a limited range of Macs available
Pro - They all look slick and sensual
Well, that’s it a really, very short Pros and Cons list. I’d love to hear your views…what do you think? Should I go Mac, stick with a Windows PC, or opt for a half-way solution by switching to Linux on a PC with the option of dual booting to Windows for those rare moments I need to use a PC-only program?
Science News
Join me on StumbleUpon
My Facebook Page
Flickr Photos
My Twitter microblog
Network with me on LinkedIn
My reading list
Sig Figs Calc
Tech Jobs
10 responses so far ↓
Go with the Mac, spend another $80 or so on VMWare Fusion, and then you can easily switch between OS X, Windows and Linux.
By the time your new laptop is ready to be replaced you’ll have as much experience with all 3 platforms as you need to make an informed decision for your next upgrade.
That’s my advice. VMWare Fusion works great, in my experience.
Thanks for the tip Pete…any particular model recommended, or just go for the most powerful?
db
I’d choose a screen size and work backwards from there. Myself, I find the 17″ are too big to actually use as a laptop (they’re nice for a desktop replacement). I haven’t used the 13″ Macbooks, but I have a 12″ iBook and that screen is a bit too small.
So for me, the 15″ MacBook Pro is the sweet spot.
I’m not sure 40 gigs of hard drive space and 0.2 ghz more speed is worth $500, so I’d probably go for the low end one. I have a 2.16 ghz MacBook Pro and it still feels plenty fast to me.
But I’m no Mac Genius or anything.
This is all just what works for me. Hope it helps!
Well, my current PC laptop is 17 inch widescreen and with Google Desktop running as one sidebar with my regular RSS feeds on the right, and the favorites in my browser on the left, I guess the middle chunk amounts to the equivalent of a 15-incher.
db
Fred Doe // May 6, 2008 at 12:09 am
Windows is much better. Vista rules. Macs are horrible. It’s the truth. Deal with it.
What an informed response Fred!
I have XP on my main work machine an HP laptop that has never once crashed and a new Vista machine that hangs at least once a day, and I know Mac users who have never ever seen a crash or a hang and certainly never a BSoD! On what basis are you suggesting that Vista rules? Have you ever tried Linux?
db
Jack // May 10, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I always used windows computers but when my Sony vaio 2 year old laptop’s cooler stopped working and the secondary tower we had in the house got fried (second one, even with the power adapter protection), I got a new mac mini for my mom and an used iBook G4 for myself. What can I say, as a student going away to Europe for the following months I needed a tiny machine able to flawlessly access the internet, edit documents, etc. The 12″ laptop is awesome, and it looks so good. For you, I’d recommend a macbook pro, I have friends who use them for graphic design, sound edit, you name it. If you want a powerful desktop try the Mac Pro, it’s very powerful and actually cheaper than PC’s with the same characteristics. I know a professional photographer who uses one and he told me that all of his professional friends use macs. Hope this helps.
Having spent all of Friday resurrecting an XP laptop cos of various pain in the ass problems, I’m rather inclined to ditch all computers and switch to landscape gardening…
db
brianhoorn // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:32 am
I would definately go with a Mac. The OS in itself beats the hell out of Windows, but also, Macs are built specificly so everything works together. The hardware supports the software perfectly; and all the programs work together like a little family. The whole thing is integrated. You can also use Windows on a Mac if you need to, just so you know. But if you need to stick to a budget and stick with a PC, definately go with Linux. I, myself, will never even consider using Windows EVER again. It’s not worth having to get a new computer every year or so, and constantly work out bugs and recover from viruses along the way. A Mac will pay for itself over time, you’ll see.
Brian, good advice. I had to rebuild (in terms of OS) a laptop and because it has no floppy I cannot reinstall SATA drivers for the hard disk, which means XP is now running slower than it was before the reinstall. Not good. It was upgrading to XP SP3 that caused the initial crash and burn, so after summer when I’ve done my half year accounts, I’m going to look at either upgrading to a Mac or simply starting from scratch on this machine with Linux.
Leave a Comment