I was thinking about the difference in the 2 for my next computer. Heres what I know.
1.Mac is less popular than PC, so it is hacked less.
2.Mac you "drag and drop" an apps icon to delete it. Windows you click "Uninstall" to delete it.
3.Macs have a 1 button mouse. My PC mouse has 3 buttons and a scroll wheel. (i guess thats too complex for some)
4.Macs are cute like bratz dolls. My PC is open and full of crud because im always swapping hardware for fun.
5.Macs logo is a apple. PC logo is a flag.
6.Macs "task bar" or whatever it is is slightly more customizable than a PC task bar. So you can see more of that cool wallpaper.
7.Macs commercials taught me that Mac users are tiny people with tight pants and mini sweat coats who like to stand on thei rtoes wit htheir hands in pocket. And PC users are the more corperate, nerdy type.
8.Allthough my Windows recognises my camera and mp3 player without need to install anything, Macs must do it in a cooler way.
So my questions are...
1.WHats the general size of the Macs OS in MB
2.re there free programming languages on mac to allow easy creation of applications?
3.Are macs REALLY more or less effecient? Working on a massive image in photoshop CS for example.
4.If Macs were as popular and widespread as Windows, wouldnt the problems of viruses and spyware be the other way around?
5.Is there as much variety of hardware the the mac as there is for my PC? Im talinkg all that newegg.com gear...
6.Why do you choose a mac?
2006-09-23 05:35:47 · 14 answers · asked by kool_rock_ski_stickem 4 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
Question 1. I'm not at my Mac right now, so I can't answer this one.
2. Every Mac comes with XCode development tools. There are many languages that are used for programming Macs.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xcode/
3. Macs are more efficient in many ways. Everything from installing software and hardware to finding what you're looking for is easier on a Mac. This is very difficult to show or describe. You really need to spend some time using a Mac (days, or even weeks) before you can clearly see how much time and effort a Mac can save you versus a PC.
4. No!
4a) The "computer security" companies have a vested interest in showing that Macs are vulnerable too. Towards that end, they have devoted considerable time and money trying to come up with proof of concept viruses. They don't intend to release them, they only want to show that Macs need antivirus software too. They haven't been able to in the nearly 6 years that Mac OS X has been around.
4b) Previous versions of the Mac OS have had viruses, but OS X has none, even though there are more OS X users and more of them are in critical areas where a successful attack could create big problems.
5. Newegg sells cameras, routers, displays, hard drives, etc. and all of that will work with a Mac, and probably install easier and work on the first try. Sure, you can take a PC with a celleron and swap in a Pentium, but so what? Macs come with Duo Cores, so there's no need to upgrade from a crappy processor. Macs are upgradeable in the important ways: OS versions, Video cards, Displays, keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, RAM and hard drives. You can even add network cards if for some reason you need more than the built-in 10/100/1000 ethernet! NONE of these things need to come from Apple. Even the OS doesn't have to come from Apple since you can run Linux or Windows on a Mac!
6. Basically it comes down to quality. My Mac doesn't get in my way the way PCs do. There are no popups telling me that it blocked popups, no popups repeatedly telling me that the network connection is now available, and no real worries about security. I know that whatever I decide to try on my Mac, be it a new printer/scanner, camera, hard drive, pda, bluetooth connection to my cell phone, or just a new piece of software, it will usually work on the first try.
conradj213, you say there are Mac viruses. Can you name one? There were two or three unsuccessful trojans earlier this year, but none could manage to get off of a local area network, so they never made it into the wild. You can't seriously be counting them can you? After all, a trojan is just an application disguised as something the user might want to open. It's social engineering, not a virus, and even allowing that, shouldn't the thing be able to spread before you call it a virus?
Also, preference files are very small. Usually around 10KB, or less than 0.01 MB, and hard drives today have over 50 GB, using an uninstaller to chase down miniscule files that won't affect anything is hardly necessary. Trash any app you don't want and forget about the crumbs.
2006-09-23 05:55:43 · answer #1 · answered by nospamcwt 5 · 21⤊ 4⤋
My answer is a question - what do you need your computer to do for you? That should really answer your own questions for you!
Next, a statement. Computers built 5 years ago are obsolete by todays standards - todays will likely be obsolete in another 5 years from now. Funny though, like an old dusty 486 PC my mid 90s Power Mac can still run Microsoft Word, Excel etc. - but my new iMac G5 does it WAY faster with a huge eye candy display!
In this day and age any box will do everything you need, so go with what you like the best. The Mac interface is still superior to the PC tho IMHO...
If you're really worried about your new computer not being good enough you could always get one of these -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Gene
2006-09-25 12:49:52 · answer #2 · answered by Golfgirl 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Wow what a big list of questions! Generally Macs are considered better for things such as video editing, graphic design, etc. They are used by professionals for those things.
If you are going to buy a computer and never upgrade it a Mac is great because the stuff works continually and they tend to make programs so that they'll work on everything for years and years so you don't have as much of the whole incompatibility stuff. Such as my old PC games won't work on my new PC.
If you are going to upgrade your computer regularly don't get a MAC! They really discourage other companies from making compatible software and hardware and if you put that stuff in there they have this nasty tendency to void your whole warranty! They also don't make it very easy for you to do it yourself. One of my professors told the story of buying a little stick of RAM to go in his MAC and getting on the phone with customer service to put it in. They told him that they weren't allowed to tell him to put it in--he had to go to a licensed repair shop to have it put in. Finally the guy on the phone did agree to "coach" my prof through it. He would say--I'm going to do **** now. and the service rep would say okay or NO! Don't touch that!
I love Mac's but my husband puts together all of our computers so we only run PC's.
2006-09-23 05:51:31 · answer #3 · answered by psycho-cook 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
MAC has its advantages in the world of Art. Graphic designers use it almost exclusively.
But sharing data, documents in the business world means PC (IBM). With the PC, you get people that are trained on standardized tools. You reach 90 percent of the computer literacy and functionality.
From a security point of view, the MAC wins. Many people that use MACs on-line simply don't have anti-virus programs. MAC users don't even know what SpyWare is.
So it all depends on what you intend to do with it.
YES, if MACs enjoyed a huge share, there would be more threats. If I owned a new INTEL based MAC, I would NEVER use the Windows feature.
From a hardware and software point of view, MACs favor proprietary structure and HIDE the inner workings whenever possible. For that, I hate the iPOD. I prefer using an open format, such as an MP3 player.
The commercials are funny. If PC people pay any attention, then they will KNOW that they must learn about proper computer maintenance and security. The MAC commercials tell a Mac User that they do not need to care. BUT, this also means that they won't do the proper maintenance and backup. Mac users will be DOOMED if they do not pay close attention to the changes, security threats and perform the most basic functions, such as BACKUP.
2006-09-23 05:44:33 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 7⤋
All good points. I too am considering a Mac, you can read all about that over on my website, http://xgatech.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2381 that being said, I am simply fed up with Windows, what's the point if I can only install SOME but not all applications and I'm sick of reinstalling.
To answer your questions, OSX takes about 4GB when it's installed. I don't know about free programming tools on the Mac but check out this Mac Freeware page, http://xfreeware.com/ and maybe you will get the answer to that. I don't know about anything in PhotoShop because I don't use it. I do know that PhotoShop has not yet been ported to run natively under the Intel version of OSX so it will be slower until the Intel port is ready (probably in the form of a universal binary). PhotoShop will be slightly slower since it has to run via emulation (included in Tiger in the form of Rosetta which is transparent, it will just work). If OSX were as popular as Windows I have no doubt that there would be more viruses and spyware for it but they would be much harder to spread because of the robust security of OSX which never operates at Root level as Windows does and OSX does not have ActiveX controls so there would be no equivalent of IE spyware or security risks.
There are viruses for OSX, there aren't many of them but ClamXav, http://www.markallan.co.uk/clamXav/ should catch them should you happen to get one and OSX can still harbor Windows viruses, mostly through Office Macros.
No, you do not really have as much choice with hardware, you're pretty much stuck with what you get in the Mac, if you are talking about a desktop then even though the graphics is dedicated, I know of no way that you can upgrade it yourself though you can physically remove and replace the card, I have no idea where you would get the drivers for it. And you have to be particular about the brand of memory you use in it, I know that Kingston works well and there are others but DO NOT EVER use off-brand memory in a Mac, you will have problems, believe me, I know friends who have done this and they came to me.
Oh, one more thing. About dragging the application to the trash to uninstall it, while that does remove the main program it does not remove support files or any preferences it may have left behind so a third party uninstaller is almost a necessity, I remember seeing a free one once but most of them you will have to buy.
Even if there were more Viruses on OSX they would be harder to spread and there is free anti-virus (above) available for OSX so the only thing I would worry about is Spyware but there really isn't a lot of that, if any for OSX. And yes, in general the Macs are faster than PCs, in fact, when using BootCamp Macs showed slightly faster speeds in Windows when running various benchmarks.
nospamcwt,
No, I can't really name one that made it into the wild. But it is entirely possible for OSX to spread Windows Viruses through the use of Macros in Office, of course, most people would turn those off, right? No, I can't name one because I don't go around memorizing the names of Viruses :) but there are at least one or two. It's better to be safe than sorry if you ask me. Any computer can be comprized, OSX, Windows, Linux but yes, they are mostly harmless on OSX and Linux for now... now being the key word. Of course, I'm VERY paranoid coming from the Windows world. Wait... is that... is someone watching me...
2006-09-23 05:55:09 · answer #5 · answered by conradj213 7 · 7⤊ 4⤋
I'd say Mac. Because now, Macs can run on Windows XP. And is easier to use...could be a little expensive, but people say it's worth a shot.
2006-09-24 01:05:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 1⤋
Macs all the way! I switched over a year ago and will never look back! Plus Steve Jobs is a rock star!
2006-09-23 16:08:05 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 9⤊ 1⤋
At least with the Mac I dont have the constant error.WIndows has detected a problem.WIndows has to restart,opps...what just happened.windows just rebooted itself again 4 no apparent reason.And whats that.Another virus,why is that not surprising to me...Not Once has Anything like that happened with my Mac Osx.I use Mac and Linux Only.never again will windows be allowed here.To unstable..
2006-09-26 00:00:18 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 8⤊ 2⤋
Check out http://www.xvsxp.com/ for a detailed comparison between the two operating systems.
2006-09-24 12:39:55 · answer #9 · answered by mattswain124 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Mac vs PC?
I'd say it's a tie. PC's are good because you can do WHATEVER you want with it, hardware-wise or software-wise. Mac's are good because they're reliable, and cannot be messed up with all those viruses, etc.
The only thing, though, is that to upgrade a mac requires dealing with Apple and BUYING stuff (most likely) from them. (Yes they're nice people) If you like to upgrade hardware, I'd personally recommend a PC. All you have to do is yank ur hard drives/CD drives out, and upgrade everything else. A Mac would require buying a new computer, or paying a lot of money in order to get that done.
If, however, you like guaranteed GUARANTEED stability over usual stability, Mac is the way to go. Mac can also handle audio and video better than PC (generally).
Check out www.pcmag.com. I found a really great article that explained it further.
2006-09-23 05:46:44 · answer #10 · answered by c90 4 · 4⤊ 8⤋