Is it worth it to switch from a pc to a mac?

Question

I need to buy a new computer so I was at Best Buy yesterday and checked out the imacs for the first time. In terms of ingenuity, I thought they were pretty cool. I loved the fact that there isn't a tower to clutter up your desk. I also liked the multimedia software available for the mac. I talked to my friend, who's practically sucking Apples' dizak, and he went into this big speech about how great macs are and how unreliable pc's are. He has a pc bc he couldn't afford a new mac, and he complains about windows crashing any time he opens up 2 or 3 windows. I want to get a second opinion bc I know that his statements are a bit biased. I use windows everyday for my job and I have 3 windows open all of the time with no problems whatsoever.

If I get a mac it would be because of the multimedia software (such as garage band). Is it possible for me to just get a new pc and purchase similar multimedia software for my pc without buying a mac or would it be better to just get a mac?

Answer 1

No, you definitely DO NOT want to purchase an Apple.

Why not?

1. Apples (like the iPhone) are overpriced for what you get.
2. There are numerous PC manufacturers which helps maintain their quality while driving down the price.
3. PC's you can buy upgrades for at Staples, Best Buy, online, etc. With Apples, you have to buy from Apple and your computer may not even be upgradable -- way expensive.

4. The biggest selling point of the new macs (intel based) is that they can run Windows -- why do you need a Mac to run Windows when you can buy an excellent PC that does the same at a fraction of the price?

I know what you're saying though -- Mac users seem to be very zealous -- almost like they have to defend their $2,500 purchase since everyone else is getting a great PC for $600 or less.

Why else wouldn't I buy Mac?
I hate OSX. The whole interface sucks. OSX is basically a cheap knock off of FreeBSD -- a Linux that you can download and install for *FREE* on any PC. If you don't like FreeBSD, you can install Ubuntu or any number of other Linux varieties.

There is a myth that Apple is better for multimedia -- video editing, music editing, photo editing -- this used to be true (like 10+ years ago) but today where you can buy whatever quality video card, sound card, etc. to add on to your PC, the right equipment will put you far ahead of the Mac right out of the box. The Mac has nothing on the PC (don't listen to the Mac users -- they're using Mac for a reason: they're clueless)

Finally, I'd just like to laugh about the myth they always quote about Macs never getting viruses. Well, its true they don't have the virus problem that PCs do, but its not because they are built invincible or to any superior quality, but quite simply virus designers do not waste their time trying to break systems that no one uses -- their goal is to screw with as many people as they can and that means Windows (95% of the computer market).

So my final words of wisdom: Buy PC, save money and reap the benefits.

Answer 2

I have used Windows PCs since they were first available (and DOS before that). I have also worked in IT support & management for 20 years.

I bought a MacBook in Sept 2006 and I LOVE IT. It never hangs, freezes or crashes unlike every Windows PC I ever owned. I now use my MAC as a desktop replacement at home and have it attached to a 19" DELL flat panel monitor, along with a wireless MAC mighty mouse and MAC keyboard. The MAC boots in under 12 seconds and does a full shutdown in less than 15 seconds. I do have one Windows program I must still use so I bought PARALLELS 3.0 for my MAC and I run Windows on my MAC when I need it. It is just amazing.

I have also integrated my MAC on my home network with the other Windows PCs in the house and everything is shared between MAC/Windows. The .MAC and iDisk features are alone reason to serious consider a MAC. I keep all of my 2007 documents in the iDisk documents folder and everything is automatically synchronized with the MAC servers. This allows me to access my documents from any computer in the world that has an internet connection. This is an optional feature and costs $ 99.00 year. I don't have to deal with Anti-virus software and the list go on.

I spent 1 1/2 hours in the APPLE store last Sept with a sales rep. who showed me all of the functionality that is built into the MAC and I was converted. Yes, a MAC is more expensive up front, but the amount of software tools and included hardware more than makes up for it. Also, I just bought iWork 2008 and iLife 2008 which were released 1 week ago to replace the 2006 versions. These software bundles were only $ 79.00 each, unlike Microsoft products which are over $ 250.00 for Office, etc.

I would seriously consider a MAC.

Answer 3

That's a tough call. My main desktop computer is a Dell with Xp on it, but my laptop is a Mac. I will admit the mac very rarely crashes, and the sound and video on it is just stellar compared to my dell. Macs are great multimedia machines also. The only thing would be if you have XP games or something like that that you play on a pc, you might not be able to do that on a Mac. Feel free to email me specific questions. I think I can give you a totally unbiased answer since I use both!
~onealchristopher at yahoo

*Edited to add: make sure, if at all possible, you buy your Mac and software, etc. at a University bookstore or somewhere like that, if you don't buy it directly from Apple. The education pricing is WAY cheaper than standard.

Answer 4

Everybody is gonna say get the Mac but it's all a dream...Not everything will run on a mac and upgrading is horrendous. Hence big bulky tower for pc easy upgrades. Mac's are fun and cute but even with a new OS it's still the same old stuff. You can purchase and find just about any multimedia software to run on a PC. And about all the crashing it's all a ID-10-T problem...(idiot)

Answer 5

Macs look nice. I wouldn't turn one down if it was offered to me. I might even buy one. But I will NEVER replace my PCs with Macs.

Apple, and Steve Jobs, are marketing geniuses. They could sell anything to anyone. But that means that their claims of superiority are not to be taken seriously. Macs are not better than PCs, they are not more stable, they are not more secure. It is only the popularity of PCs that give them bad press. If you have 1000 people using one system and 10,000,000 using another, which one do you think will go wrong the most? The majority will, because more people means statistically more dumbasses. The PC is way better than any Mac if you know what you are doing.

But I don't want to be unfair to Macs, they are starting to level out a bit with PCs. Make the decision yourself, but don't base it on Apple's marketing schemes.

Answer 6

Macs are great for multimedia, they have easy to use software, although the only pro packages from apple you can get are very very expensive. If you like sleek design and have the money go for the mac. Otherwise PC is a powerhouse for processing. Adobe makes some great software for video, photo and audio as well.

I personally am a PC person, just because I feel limited with software available to a mac.

Answer 7

Windows has the market share advantage and an abundant array of software but thats where the advantage ends they're a huge target for viruses and spy-ware and generally a security risk. Even Microsoft uses unix servers which shows they're lack of confidence in their own products. Plus you need an Expensive computer to run that overpriced vista comfortably.---

Macs are computers any grandma could use with no known viruses and very little security threats pointed at it. Based on a variant of unix called bsd. So essentially it is linux with a pretty interface and pampers its users. Not very customizable though and not a very good selection of games but that is changing. Plus you can multi-boot with windows and various flavors of linux on the new intel macs.---

Ubuntu is my favorite flavor of linux. For one its free. Super Customizable. Software is free. Very few security problems if any at the moment. My only beef with it is that it has the biggest learning curve of the three and you have to break the law just to play certain codecs like mp3, wmv, mov, m4a

Answer 8

Don't know whether it is worth or not. but no doubt that Mac has lovely and pretty appearance and interactive user interface. While if you use PC for a long time, you will have to take another long time to get used to Mac. Good luck! : - )

Answer 9

93% of people use Windows
6%-6.4% use a Mac
0.71% use Linux

Guess which one has the most applications, and with which one you have the best chance of finding a knowledgeable friend when you have questions or problems.

I would think for people who know very little about computers, a MAC is probably best.

Per below, "Especially good for mommies and daddies".
http://www.deadtroll.com/video/helldeskcable.html

Net Applications: Apple’s Mac ‘market share’ continues rise, hits 6.38% in February 2007
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12806/


Operating System Market Share for June, 2007

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2&qpmr=15&qpdt=1&qpct=3&qpcal=1&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=101

Operating System Total Market Share
Windows XP 81.94%
Windows Vista 4.52%
Windows 2000 4.00%
Windows 98 1.14%
Windows 95 0.02%
Windows NT 0.66%
Windows ME 0.59%
Windows CE 0.06%
--------------------------
Total Windows 92.93%

Mac OS 3.52%
MacIntel 2.48%
----------------------
Total Mac 6.00%


Linux 0.71%

Nintendo Wii 0.17%
Unknown 0.07%
Series60 0.02%
Hiptop 0.02%

Answer 10

Gah!

Mac's are for people that need to feel like there part of an oppressed minority!

Mac was built off of Unix which a a great OS ( A little too hard for most)

As so was Linux, Linux for the most part is as easy if not easer to use than windows!
Especialy Ubuntu! I would sugest Ubuntu to anyone! you can even sample it without installing it to your hard drive!
Simply DL it and bunr it to a CD-DVD as an ISO image, set your bios to boot your CD-DVD drive first, pop it in and walla! it will boot up and you can you most every feature Ubuntu has to offer except installing thing that aren't already installed.. Like Beryl.. that is kick but.