We have a pretty straightforward poll question this week. For your computing needs, do you favor Mac or PC? Vote after the break.
No judgments here. I’m just curious how our readership happens to shake out.
I side with PC, personally. Mostly, that just has to do with a lack of experience with Mac hardware. However, I really do find iTunes to be the most infuriating piece of consumer software I’ve ever used, and the iPod Nano a complete piece of junk. Nice design, nice interface, terrible usability or reliability on both. I realize that I shouldn’t judge the entire company on that, but these are its signature products after all. That can’t help but sour me on Apple.
Also, John Hodgman is much cooler than Justin Long. I’m just sayin’…
Anyway, where do you fall?
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William Henley
I have both in the house, and support both in IT. The mac is more infuriating to support, largly because its error messages are not helpful, and if a part breaks, you HAVE to buy the replacement from Apple, or get a vendor that is Apple branded, which seriously jacks up the price.
My biggest issue with Apple is that they overcharge for stuff. My normal comeback when someone tells me they bought a Mac is “So you paid $1500 for $500 worth of hardware to run a Unix based OS you could have had for free on the PC?”
Also being on the Mac, you tend to be on the “paid upgrade of the year” plan, meaning roughly once a year, you forced to shell out $149 for another OS upgrade (unless you just really want to stay on the old OS. Anyone out there still running Panther? Didn’t think so).
Historically, and the reason I have Macs, is that they were better working with Media files. Its a sad irony that a PC with Windows 7 64 bit and a CS4 or CS5 version of Adobe’s Suite is better than their Mac counterparts, but for some STUPID reason, Apple and Adobe have been at it for years. So the irony is, the PC versions are better than the Mac versions of the same software, and this is really what Macs are made for.
A few years ago, I may have recommended Macs to people, depending on what they were doing. (In fact, a few of my friends have Macs based on my recommendations). Now, Macs are really just over-priced PCs. I feel that Apple has pretty much snubbed their Computer users while investing in their portable devices department.
That being said, if Apple was to get their act back together, stop fighting with their 3rd party developers, and cut the price of their products in half, I may start recommending them to people again. They are a good company.
Super-VHS
The “upgrade cycle” is actually closer to 18 months (sometimes 2 years); about the same as the gap between Vista and 7 (or ME and XP). Second, the most expensive OS X has ever been is $129, and in the case of the most recent release (Snow Leopard aka 10.6), if you previously bought Leopard aka 10.5 (or purchased a computer with 10.5 installed) the Snow Leopard ugrade was only $29.
William Henley
XP came out October 2001. Vista came out January 2007 (5 years, 2 months later). Windows 7 came out October 22, 2009 (2 years, 9 months later). Upgrade to Vista when it came out (Home Premium) was $159.99 (later reduced to $129.99). Price of upgrade to Windows 7 when it came out, $119.99. Given the frequency of Mac sold upgrades versus Microsoft’s sold upgrades, Windows is a much better value.
EM
To answer WH’s question, I’m running 10.3.9, whichever big cat that is. (Honestly, I find those animal designations completely useless.)
William Henley
10.3.9 is Panther, I believe.
Dennis Lafontaine
Regarding iTunes software – Thank the makers for having plugins for Winamp (PC) to dock with iTunes/iPod.
JoeRo
I’m a pc user, and like Josh I am not a fan of itunes software, and yeah also like Josh I’m basically just unfamiliar with the mac os in general. I also prefer Jon Hodgman to Justin Long (his BSG cameo was a minor stroke of brilliance). I also prefer the pc for price, the ability to customize your os environment, and the flexibility of being able to use any hardware that I want.
My biggest problem with the mac though – and mac users (sorry)- is that my mac friends are always trying to convert me. There is of course a very vocal cadre of pc users doing the same thing, I have to acknowledge them too. I just don’t like people telling me what I should do, or that I’m stupid for having a personal preference. It’s the same kind of attitude, a sense of superiority mixed with disdain, that I’ve encountered with certain elitist vegans who’re constantly trying to proselytise me.
BambooLounge
I’m a PC user, but not for any high minded tekkie reasons. I just grew up with PCs and have never had an excuse to stop using them. Perhaps, I’m just lazy b/c I don’t want to learn how to use a Mac, but the few tekkie friends I have made throughout my life all preach hate for Macs.
As for the shuffle…yeah, it sucks. I got one recently for jogging/working out…only no one told me that the device Apple markets as something to be used for working out would crap out if you sweat (and I sweat a lot). The headphones get destroyed pretty much by the smallest amounts of sweat dripping down the cord to the control panel thus making it impossible to control the device. So yeah, pretty big fail on their part. Although, they replaced the headphones for me quickly and for free, it still sucks that I have to jack up the volume with the appropriate headphones, then put in old gen earbuds for when I work out thus losing the ability to change songs/volume as I run.
Dick Ward
I play games, so there’s not really a choice here. :p
Michael Rogers
I play games too, but own a Mac. Thanks Steam!
Dick Ward
Now that Bungie is free from Microsoft, my greatest fear is that they’ll go back to making ‘Marathon’ and it’ll be Mac exclusive.
I know that will never happen, but I still get nervous!
BostonMA
i use a PC cuz i’ve always used one, and they’re good enough for me to not want to switch over to Macs. plus the fact that my PC laptop was $600 vs. a similar Mac which was $1500…
Jonathan Doan
I use a Mac at work, running the latest OS, and I love it. Wish I could afford one for the house, but I can’t. And I like building computers, so I have a PC at home that I built, and am running Windows XP Home edition on it. Not a fan of Windows at all. I like what they’ve done with some of the features of Vista/7, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to the latest Mac OS for me.
My two cents.
Super-VHS
Hows this: I dual boot OS X and Windows (XP) on a Macbook Pro! Prefer Mac OS, and that’s what I use most of the time. Had Vista installed but hated it so I reverted back to XP via Bootcamp.
Shane W
I’ve been computing since ’82, Commodore Vic-20, then an Apple IIe, and when the Mac was released 4 months after that big family investment, I immediately bought a mouse w/ ‘Mousepaint’ for my Apple-DOS system. GUI and gestural interface was the future–I knew it. So, for the next decade Apple was THE platform/manufacturer to push a non-command line way of computing, so I became a fan.
In the meantime, I became a computer effects/graphics professional, and spent years, ironically, working day in/out on Irix workstations. Eventually, I bought a PC laptop w/ XP pro, and then began working on PC workstations at the office running 3D/motion graphics apps. In 2008, I deliberated on what my new home desktop should be…after years of having robust/reliable Apple hardware, I went with a Mac Pro.
Today, I dual-boot that Mac Pro equally as a Snow Leopard Mac OS X machine and a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit machine. It works. It’s easy as hell to perform basic upgrades to mem/drives/cards and the thing will last a decade like my previous Apple gear has…so I call that a value proposition I haven’t encountered on the PC side.
Most of my downtime/lost weekends have been dealing with PC BIOS, virus, hardware failures…only very, very rarely have I had serious probs on the Mac. So–I work on both, play on both, but prefer what Apple offers.
Lone_gunmen
Converted to Mac for my everyday computer needs, never looked back since.OSX Snow Leopard is fantastic. Only thing I even use my PC for is for my Home Theatre.