Mac advantages over PC?

[Andy]

I'm assuming there are still some when it comes to digital photography.
I remember always hearing that Macs are better with graphics. I do know
that Macs still cost more than PCs. Is it worth it?

I've always been a PC guy and know virtually nothing about Macs.
However, now that I'm really diving head first into digital
photography, I'd like to think twice about it. My PC is certainly not
old, but not top-of-the-line. I think it's about a 2.3 gig P4 processor
with 1GB of RAM. But I'm really noticing the strain photo editing is
putting on it. (Especially when my wife does her digital scrapbooking!)

I'm not yet in a position to buy a new system, but when I do (maybe 1
or 2 years down the road), I'd like to do the right thing.

Who here uses Macs? Anyone well versed at both? Brian said he's a Mac
technician. What can you tell me?

[isitt...@juno.com]

I'm a Mac guy. I'm a graphic designer working strictly on Mac. I have a
Dual G5 Processor with 1 Gig of ram. Here's a question for the Mac
people, how many viruses have you received? I don't know of anybody
getting a virus on a Mac but know a LOT of people who contact me cause
they have a virus on their PC. The Mac to me is a lot more user
friendly and not overloaded with junk that you don't know what it is
and to me seems easier to use. For about 1.5 years I had both Mac & PC
at my desk at work and had Photoshop & Illustrator loaded. I used the
Mac for all our ads cause it worked pretty smooth.

I know my answers wern't the greatest but I would recommend a Mac cuse
they're a lot more user friendly and not overloaded with junk. They do
work a little smoother than PC's and I would recommend getting a Cinema
Display! I have the 20" and love it! White is white and red is red not
to mention how easy it is on your eyes! I would never go back but it's
pretty expensive.

Chad

[Justin Holmes]

I got turned off to macs by one that I had in college (powermac 7100)
that was a complete lemon. I liked aspects of the system, and I don't
think it generalizes to the rest of apples prdoucts, but I never looked
back once I bought a PC.

Have you considered upgrading the ram in your current machine? From
most of what I have seen, the limiting factor in photo editing is
amount of RAM rather than processor speed. I think Windows is capped at
2 gigs, but it might be a cheap way to free up some oomph in your
machine.

[Andy]

I was thinking about that too. I need to find out how much my PC can
hold. I'll probably have to buy all new sticks, since I think my memory
slots are all full now. But if it will help, it might be a relatively
cheap solution.

[Justin Holmes]

My problem is that I have a laptop, so not only are my slots full, but
the memory seems to be about 2x what it would be for a desktop. I've
been pondering an upgrade, but to go to a gig would be something like
130 bucks. I'm thinking i'll probably get a new machine when I
graduate in a year or so, which makes me hesitant to drop anything else
on this old beast. PS ELements runs, Nikon Capture runs (but slowly),
so it is workable for the time being.

[Aaron.*]

I'm not going to get in a pissing match about what is better, but for
the sake of disclosure, I think PC/Intel/Windows is better. Mac is
great if you never want to have a problem, but expect to pay anywhere
from 2 to 5 times as much for anything comparable on the PC. As far as
performance goes, for what software is available on both platforms, the
performance is identical. 20 years ago? Sure, Macs kicked PCs ass
when it comes to graphic design, but that just simply isn't the case
nowadays. Heck, you could probably even go as far as installing a *nix
system on a PC box, and avoid viruses and OS cost.

I'd say the most common rebuttal of why macs are better (aside from the
alleged ease of use) is the lack of viruses. While true, it's not hard
to figure out why. Mac owns approximately 3% of the market share, *nix
3% and Windows, the rest. So if you're going to cause trouble for
people, A) you're 31 times more likely to be using a PC in the first
place and B) your intended target is 31 times more likely to be using a
PC. The reason there are more viruses is simply because more of the
market uses Wintel.

I'd better stop now... :)

A.*

[Greg Z]

I just love these PC vs. Mac threads. I've noticed for quite a while
that for any given post on the subject there seems to be an inverse
relationship between vitriol and actual knowledge. You'll see people
spew "facts" that just have no basis in reality. Of course this is a
general problem on internet boards, not just those that involve this
particular subject.

Now I'll stack my geek credentials up against anyone's. I was writing
assermbly language code before some of you were born, and at various
points in my career I've worked as a high priest of geekdom: A Unix
system administrator. My first personal computer was an Apple II,
puchased in 1980. I used a Xerox Star in 1982 and a Lisa in 1983. In th
late 80's I managed desktop computing for a mid-sized company, which
included about 150 Macs. I currently own a Dual G5, a G4 Powerbook and
a Mac mini. I've also owned (and assembled) more PCs than I could
possibly remember running everything from MS-DOS 1.0 to XP to Linux.

You'll find that people like myself with genuine experience and
knowledge will rarely, if every, phrase the PC vs. Mac argument in
absolutes. Instead we'll respond to "what's better" question with the
correct answer: "it depends". It depends on how you use computers, what
you currently own, how large your budget is, how important the esthetic
issues are.

I switched back to Macs for my personal stuff (again) about 18 months
ago. It was an expensive conversion to be sure. From a raw performance
standpoint I could have gotten a slightly faster machine for slightly
less money. But the performance difference would be slight, possibly
not even noticeable on day-to-day tasks, and the difference in $$$
isn't nearly as much as the some PC fanboys would have you believe.

The lack of viruses and spyware is significant to me, and it is not
just market share that has protected the Mac community (another
misleading and incorrect argument of the PC bigots) - it is the OS
architecture itself. It has been a blessing to not have to deal with
the issue for the last 18 months.

For me, though, the biggest advantage is esthetic. Using the Mac just
feels better, kind of like driving a fine German car. The Chevy Caprice
will get you to the mall just as quickly and nearly as safely as an
Audi A6, sure, but without the panache. Everything on the Mac just
seems to be in the right place. Everything looks great. There is great
attention to detail - inside and out. Using the Mac gives me a feeling
of flow that I just don't have on a PC. This is in spite of the fact
that I'm using the same software (Photoshop, mostly) to do the same
things (photo post-processing) for most of the time I'm on the machine.

[Andy Cosgrove]

Greg, you've summed up pretty much the same thing I hear from any Mac
user. They say they like them because "they just work." It's not a bad
answer, really, because it's an important quality to have in a system!
The question then becomes how much are those esthetics worth to you?
And that's the question I'm eventually going to have to answer for
myself.

Having a Mac was always out of the question for me because I played
games and used software that was not available on Macs. MS Flight
Simulator, mainly. (My last three computers had been purchased only
because a new version of FS came out and my computer couldn't run it
fast enough!) Well, my use has changed and now I primarly use my home
computer to edit photos (besides Internet-related activities and
finance tracking). So, now I have a choice when buying a new system.
That's when hearing others' opinions helps me to think of the pros and
cons.

[Matthew Kieren]

I personally agree with everything Aaron said.

I'd also like to add that recently Apple has switched from using
PowerPC processors to Intel processors. In fact, someone not long ago
hacked the new Mac OS that will run on the Intel processors to actually
work with any regular PC.

But in the end, the primary reason I use Windows XP is simply because
of all the Windows-specific software and hardware. For example; I'd
love to use Linux more often, but there's just too much Windows
platform specific software and hardware that I use for me to go with
anything else. Back in the Windows 95/98 days (or, *gasp*, the 3.x
days) stability was always an issue, but with the introduction of
Windows 2000/XP that is no longer the case.

[Matthew Kieren]

There's one more quick thing I'd like to add that I just thought of.
As I said earlier, Apple decided to go with Intel processors for their
future machines, not AMD. Take a quick peek at this link to see which
is better:

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6389077-1.html?tag=lnav