gnawbone Loc: Southern Indiana

I use both, Windows 7 at work (2 to 8 hours a day) and Mac at home.

This "mine is bigger than yours" stuff is pointless. Some people like Macs better - I do .... I quit using Windows computers about 6 or 7 years ago - got tired of all of the BS with them - viruses, blue screens, etc. Have they gotten better? Don't know/don't care. I know you said that there are now viruses on both platforms but you aren't really trying to say that the risk of getting a virus on your computer is equal no matter the platform - are you?

I have Lightroom 5 on both computers (Win & Mac) and I can't tell the difference is the speed between my brand new Win computer and my 2.5 year old MacBook Pro (13"). I know the specs of the machines will matter and I can't tell you until Tuesday what the HP at work is running, I know they both have 5400 RPM /500g hard drives, and both have 8 gb of RAM - processor - MacBook Pro 2.3 i5 - don't know about the HP other than it is an i5. Long and short of it is that if the hardware is the same the software will probably run so close to the same that it will be imperceptible.

Apple makes a very narrow line of laptops compared to the ones you spec'd in a previous post - I went to the website and there are a lot of choices. I could buy one of them BUT, I like my Mac better than my HP (Win 7), I simply don't care for Windows (in comparison).

Where it seems to matter most is that I have all Apple hardware (iPhone, iPad, Airport express (3), Airport extreme) and everything works together seamlessly. About 3 or 4 years ago I set up my network in about a half hour and haven't touched it since. Maybe all Windows users can do the same - don't know / don't care - my system works for me and I'm happy with it. Which is my suggestion for anyone - get what you like and enjoy it - the crusade some are on to change others minds is simply a waste of time.

Basil Loc: New Mexico

What he said.

RKraatz Loc: New Castle, DE

I've got a Lenova and am very pleased with it. I went with it primarily cause I could still get Windows 7 vs 8 which I do not want. Lenova, by the way, is the old IBM.

WereWolf1967 Loc: Knoxville, TN

My Lenovo W530 optioned out laptop came with Windows 8 and now 8.1.1 was a bit odd until I got used to it. After a short learning curve I like it. Windows 8+ has enhanced security measures. I recently got a malicious "file ransom" e-mail. I was able to defeat it, track down the origin and send them back an e-mail basically telling the sender to put his head up his posterior and keep going until he disappeared.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Two things:

First, a laptop is not optimum for photo editing. You will be in different kinds of light, different amounts of light, sitting at desks with chairs that are a variety of heights thus your view angle is continually different which also varies your visual concept of saturation, contrast, and brightness, etc. With your desktop at home, in the same room every time, with your desktop monitor pointed at you the same way every time, and the light in the room never changing unless you want to change it, you can calibrate your system to your singular location and your results will not vary much from session to session unless your sessions are too long and you get eye fatigue.

Second, as a 30+ year PC user I have to begrudgingly say that an Apple laptop with Retina display is going to give you breathtaking IQ and be the best mobile solution. Buy the biggest, fastest, and load it up with RAM. Samsung claims to have monitors now that out-perform Retina but I haven't seen that in person. You might look though if you already have PC software and don't care to make the changeover.

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

If you intend to use a lap top to edit photos, you can go with a Mac Book Pro, or invest in the "alsorans" in the Windows category, and have to say every time you use an HP, ASUS, or Lenova, wow I wished I had taken the advice I asked for and got, and cut to the chase and bought a Apple Mac Book Pro. It's not the eternal question Mac vs PC etc.
I still have the first Mac Book 17" G4 edition and use it on a regular basis,
I have a 15" Mac Book Pro.
During the same period I have had several Windows based laptop, and no I don't ride the gotta have the latest Windows laptop treadmill, I was trying to find a Windows OS machine that would compete with a Mac Book not only in the speed category, but the display.
My question also is during your commute are you driving yourself or riding ?
Why invest in a laptop to download the images and then return home to a tower to edit your images, memory cards and a card readers are very inexpensive compared to buy a laptop to store or "download" your images and transport.
You might also include tablets in your process, to store you images,
http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/learn/start/tutorials/lightroom-mobile.html

xzoup Loc: Arkansas

Thanks twillsol will do.

xzoup Loc: Arkansas

A strong mac pro appears to be the consensus, I will definitely give the Mac Pro a closer look.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

While I agree with you about this user's needs and about an Apple being best for this application (mostly because of the Retina display), after 30 years of back and forth bickering I still don't understand why every Apple users has to act like they're on the pinnacle of the technology world mountain and all us other poor peons are cheapskate trolls who aren't yet enlightened to the glory and wonderment of God Steve Jobs' creations.

For example, there is no need to call a Windows laptop an "also ran" because Windows laptops have been around as long as Apple laptops - if not longer. I remember Compaq making a large heavy mobile computer that I wouldn't want sitting on my lap for very long before there was an Apple mobile computer. I think even Commodore had mobile computers before Apple.

There is also no need to name HP, ASUS, or Lenova like you're talking down about those brands. The motherboards, other hardware, and Microsoft OS on all of them are virtually identical with very minor differences other than external and company preferred features. I have an HP laptop that is 6 years old and runs like new with 64-bit Vista on it. All I have to do is clean it once in a while with AVG tuneup and defrag it and it has never failed me. I'm sure an Apple laptop should be cleaned up once in a while too. ASUS uses very fast motherboards from what I've seen in the past. Lenova has anti-shock methods to help save the hard drive if you drop it. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of those, nor with Dell, Acer, Gateway, and the others.

Apple uses the same Intel CPU, the same memory, and all the same hardware throughout, but simply has a single OS they've purified for years instead of changing the GUI numerous times like Windows has. That is Microsoft's major mistake. Microsoft doesn't sell hardware so they make more profit by coming out with various OS versions. Apple makes hardware so they stay consistent with one major OS. I DO like Apple's approach better on that.

But no matter how you want to shake it, Apple still only has a fraction of the personal computer market while Windows-based units dominate the market overwhelmingly. PCs outsell Macs 19 to 1 today. Apple turned to being an "entertainment device company" to save themselves from extinction - and lucky for them it worked. Magazine editors are now claiming that "Apple" will match PCs in sales in 2014 but then admit that their prediction includes iPods, iPads, iPhones, and all the other Apple devices. In reality, when you clear away all the other crap, PC computers still outsell Mac computers 19 to 1.

Is it because we all need to be enlightened to what we're missing by those who have crossed over into the heavenly place where system crashes supposedly don't exist but they actually do, the OS supposedly runs Intel CPUs faster than other OSs can but it actually doesn't, and everything is painted white?

No. The rest of us know what we're missing. Bloated pricing, software we need and want that isn't available for Apple or the Apple version comes out much later, over priced peripherals because of Apple's closed architecture and them only allowing technical info out to whom they choose, internal pod and pad circuitry encased in epoxy so it can't be repaired making the unit an expensive throwaway commodity, batteries that are permanently installed in mobile devices so the device has to be pitched when the battery fails to hold a charge, and more. Apple creates planned obsolescence for their devices, far worse than Microsoft does with their software. But devoted Jobs worshippers don't talk about it as they have their pockets emptied by a company floating in an ocean of cash from selling Chinese products with absurd markups - while Microsoft is crucified for selling U.S. made software upgrades that cost a fraction as much.

I personally haven't had a Windows crash in over a decade. I've also never had a mechanical failure except an internal Western Digital hard drive in an HP desktop (which wasn't HP's or Microsoft's fault) around 2003 and a Western Digital hard drive failure in an HP laptop in 2009 (not the same one discussed above). My Epson scanner, Epson photo printer, and laser printers have all moved from Windows XP, Vista, and now Win7 without a hitch. I rarely have a software installation problem nor Windows-version-compatibility problem. I simply disable all background activities and apps that don't pertain to me and my PCs all scream along quite nicely thank you.

So why can't we just all co-exist without this undeserved Apple arrogance thing that always filters into every computer conversation? I have nothing against Apple products, love the Retina displays, and have a couple iPods around here. I liked Wozniak but never liked Jobs and watching the movie made me like him even less. And I used Apple exclusively back in the days of Apple II, Apple IIc (almost a laptop but not quite), and Apple IIgs until they screwed me for $1800 two months after I bought the IIgs because they dropped it unceremoniously in favor of the first Mac box. Not even an offer of a loyalty trade-in for 50% of the amount paid toward a Mac or anything, just a complete screwing. I ended up selling it to a school for $700 minus shipping just to get rid of the boat anchor that had no technical support and no software other than the old stuff.

The used PC I bought for $300 soon afterward was twice as fast as the first Mac, cost a fraction as much, had more software available for less, had tons of plug-in boards available at considerably lower prices, and I was impressed so I've stuck with the PC world through thick and thin as critics, snobby editors, artists, newspaper layout people, teachers, etc. tried every way possible to criticize and talk down about PCs. Meanwhile the PC market kept growing and the Apple market kept shrinking.

Even in mobile devices, Apple's market share is shrinking while Samsung's market share is growing in leaps and bounds. Maybe five years from now Samsung will also outsell Apple 19 to 1 in mobile devices.

Go into a doctor's office or hospital and see how many Apples are built into test equipment and lab equipment. None. It's usually IBM or Dell. But the blindly faithful have their Apple laptops sitting on desks for doing patient paperwork and keeping notes. Yet billing department and the reception desks typically have Dell desktops networked to the company's mainframe.

I may buy a Retina display one day if the Samsung claim of their monitors being even higher resolution and clearer isn't true. I haven't looked yet to find out. But otherwise, the PC world is just fine for my needs.

GeorgeH Loc: Jonesboro, GA

I've tried photo editing "in the field" with our HP laptop using Lightroom. No problem with speed, but ... the display I find inadequate since it is, I suppose, a TN as the color and or brightness varies dramatically depending on the angle from which I view it.

So all I do is to cull crap shots, auto develop, assign key words, etc, and leave color editing to my desktop with a decent monitor, the ASUS PA 248.

Are there any laptops using IPS monitor technology? And I can only imagine the price!

blackest Loc: Ireland

Trouble with PC's they are built down to a price and it shows, the humble office PC in commercial use tends to be onboard everything with minimal ram, cheap and nasty psu's that die on a fairly regular basis, (about £50 a throw) and you get stuck with procedures that take forever and a day to get something simple like a ram upgrade (which now has to invoiced as a repair because there isn't an approved supplier to just supply the ram).

They are cheap and nasty systems but all that matters is they can be connected to the domain and group policy applied. Most of the systems have enough ram to perform adequately 2GB usually newer PC's tend to have 4 GB the worst have 1GB which is terrible for windows 7 (i mean ages to boot up and 2 minutes waiting for the task bar to appear once the desktop appears).

In the kind of environment where its so red taped that ordering a $20 stick of ram takes 2 months you expect to see apple in this environment. :) Active directory and group policy is the lifeline of most IT departments because you can sling a pc into an office and the staff can log on and get on with their job while you get on with the next foul up.

I'm currently undergoing physiotherapy at one of the regions major hospitals I pretty much see 5 year old Dell optiplex systems, you can pick one up for $30 - $50.

The retail market isn't much better people want a computer most are sold on price and nobody wants windows 8 ... corners are cut onboard graphics a baseline hdd 500GB for a desktop system who cares its a computer right.

Macs have a higher base line specification nobody is competing against Apple. You can't buy an Acer with OSX. When does a Mac come with Trial ware (Pc Manufacturers get paid to put it on it means you get a lower price to pay for your PC).

You talk about Operating systems being more or less efficient, boot a PC to the Desktop start task manager how much of your cpu is being used, how much ram, how much swop/paging is going on. It should be minimal but on most PC's it isn't, especially if it decides to do house keeping and checks your hard drive for new virus and malware infections.

In OSX or Linux you can use top to do a similar thing. You will find they both use less ram to get to the desktop. If one system is using 30% CPU and the other 10% then that means generally there is that the one with 10% in use has more cycles free to do what you want it to do. (of course it can be the case the 10% cpu usage is down to having to page out ram to the hard drive and if thats whats happening it will run like a dog).

The other problem is windows update i'm currently deploying disk images and my image file is 2 weeks old at most with windows updated with everything I could find, even the language packs yet each time they are booted up for the first time they have 50 updates to download and install.

The one positive about being admin is that the most important tool is rdp to connect to the servers and it really doesn't matter which operating system you run locally it could be windows linux osx even android.

I think if i had to say what i most like about osx is it lets me do what I want it to do, if i want to use photoshop thats what i do, i don't get messages about "urgent matters requiring my attention" or something has a new update do i want to download and install it. Linux is kind of similar i have a little shield on my taskbar with an i on it which means there are updates available if i want to click on it i can it'll tell me whats new and i can set it running and i generally need do nothing more (and no need to reboot).

So for a non technical user, osx is a great choice, even with the price difference. Windows can soon make up the difference if you end up paying someone like me to fix the problems...

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I'm not sure what's wrong with the PC market in your country that your RAM and drive capacities are so low and video is always on-board but you can't even get a PC here with 4GB of RAM and I don't think 500MB internal drives are even available. You get 6MB or more and a 1TB drive or you just don't buy a consumer PC. My Dell tower came with 8GB, a 1.5T drive, DVD player/recorder, 1.5GB third party video card with two outputs so I can run two high res monitors, 7.1 surround audio card with digital light pipe input, Intel i7, and much more. It was $800US at the time. One can get a gamer super high performance PC laptop here for $1000US. Both of those are less expensive than a similar Mac but equipped as well or better.

Have fun with your Mac! I don't argue that it's not a nice platform just that I'm tired of hearing how it's the infallible King of the Hill to be worshiped as such while virtually nobody buys them. Remember... outsold 19 to 1, and not because every PC is rock bottom cheap.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

One thing to consider regarding Apple. Without a doubt, Apple has the best tech support in the world. I suggest, if you buy a Mac consider buying Apple care. I have never had to wait more than 5 minuets to get an Apple representative on line. Usually, I seem to get a rep from Austin or California. If you're on the road this could be vital.

jaysnave Loc: Central Ohio

Hey folks, I bought a MacBook Pro based on comments from this forum and others and it is a dream editing photos and videos. Nuf said. I use windows machines all day for spreadsheets and presentations, but when it comes to photo editing count me on the Mac side!

Dun1 Loc: Atlanta, GA

Great Jay I know you will enjoy your MacBook Pro,