Mac or PC (Page 6): If you are lucky enough to live near an Apple store you will be amazed at how helpful they are especially as you are learning how to transition to the Mac. I've...

Gerylee Loc: Ontario, Canada

If you are lucky enough to live near an Apple store you will be amazed at how helpful they are especially as you are learning how to transition to the Mac. I've have walked in a number of times, frustrated about something and no appointment. Often it's taken me longer to describe the problem than it does for them to show me what to do about it. Every time I've been the problem, not the Mac. Also, they have a one to one sessions that you can buy for a year to focus on specific areas if you wanted it.

Elliern Loc: Myrtle Beach, SC

Gerylee wrote:

If you are lucky enough to live near an Apple stor... (show quote)

I do agree with that. I have walked in with questions about my ipad and iphone. Quick answers, lots of support. Unfortunately, we don't have one anywhere close here in SC.

RDH

Many years ago when the Apple vs IBM/Clone debate started, it was generally held that Apples were slightly better for graphics work, primarily because they had better source software for things like image manipulation and video editing, and IBM/Clones were better for 'business' because they had word processing, spreadsheets and database software out the wazoo. You may not believe this, but before Windows became the dominant platform for Intel-based PCs, there were at least half a dozen viable, popular, useable word processing programs available to use.

In the intervening decades, though, that differentiation has largely evaporated. The Apple platform now has business-oriented software available for it, and the IBM/Clone platform has quite useable graphics software of every stripe.OnDSnap wrote:

IMO, Nikon, Film, Ford and Craig Ferguson.

The PC still has an advantage in office software, WordPerfect Office 16 runs only on PCs and is well ahead of MS Office.

jeryh Loc: Oxfordshire UK

Wrong- I am still using a Mac Pro after 12 years, and it is stiill perfectly OK. You take your money and you make your choice- no stinkin PC for me !

jim quist Loc: Missouri

There isn't an apple store near me, so if I have a problem i get on their live chat and they have always resolved the problem. When I had pc's I would call the helpline and wait and wait and wait, not so with Apple. :)

My macbook has been dropped from waist level, immersed in water for half an hour, tightly packed in a back pack between books a lot of the time, I put in a 1TB hard drive that is too big so the bottom wont screw on, so I duct taped it on. No crashes, viruses, and cant justify getting a new macbook because this one is still going strong after 5 years.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Knight's Canon wrote:

I am a PC user. I am looking to buy a new computer. My computer is now and will be used mostly for my Photography. What do other Photographers use? Does it really matter. Photo shop is the same on both. Please help me make my descision.

I process and edit over 1,000 photos a week on my 2-year-old i7 Dell PC and it never fails me. I haven't had Windows freeze up on me even once on any PC since back in Windows 98 and ME, and I've also been through Vista, XP, and now Win7. The only PC items that have failed are one Seagate internal hard drive and several keyboards and mice - but that can happen to any computer so it's not the fault of them being PCs.

I went to a famous audio recording studio in Indiana once to have a CD of original material mastered for reproduction and they used all Mac computers with Avid Pro Tools. The engineer guy was bragging about Mac all over the place as he loaded up our files - until the Mac rig he was assigned to crashed and/or locked up on him 10 times in 13 hours while doing our project that wasn't even that awfully power intensive. He had planned on being done in 4 to 5 hours and it took 13 although they had priced the work at a fixed rate and he couldn't charge more. That was the last time I believed the old adage that Mac is foolproof and fail safe compared to a PC.

Abuse either a PC or a Mac by exceeding it's RAM regularly which can foul up the OS or the software you're using, clutter and overfill the hard drives and not defrag, and don't maintain the underlying operating system to keep it tuned up and in shape, and they both have the potential to go down the toilet.

The components are largely the same in a Mac or PC now, the components are made by the same manufacturers and come from the same China, which wasn't true originally - so that's not the main difference between them anymore. The main difference is the OS.

Mac has been on a steady course of improving and refining their OS in higher and higher numbered versions and adding features as they go. That's the right way to go about it and I will praise them for that without hesitation.

Microsoft has a tendency to put out a train wreck of an OS that isn't debugged enough before throwing it on the market, fixing it over a number of years until it's up to par, then suddenly replacing it with another buggy new OS that also needs several years to get back to acceptable again. I never buy a new Microsoft OS until it's been out at least two years, then it's actually to a point that I don't have problems. The WinXP to Win7 transition was apparently one of the few that didn't go afoul as badly. Vista never gave me any problems either but again it was already out for a long while before I got my laptop with it. It's still on there and working fine. Now Win8 is another thing. I got it a couple weeks ago on a laptop and hate it. Others do as well. It seems to work without failing but I just don't like the look or feel of it.

Microsoft, like Google with their Chrome, has made serious errors in their assumptions about how "all of us lowly peasants" in the PC world want to work and they're wrong. I've bypassed the initial "buttons" page and the sign in with password screen, now have a normal start button menu in the bottom left corner of the desktop, and cleared off a ton of crap that wasn't at all required or desirable. Now it finally works pretty much like Win7 except when the weird side menu and unique Win8 pages jump in at various places where I don't want them. They don't hurt anything but just challenge me to kill them off and I will eventually.

I just don't feel like paying 35 - 50% more for an Apple anything just because it is Apple. I don't want to buy all new software or go without software that is only available for PC. I don't want to pay more for Apple versions of software either and that's still the case on some. I don't want to somehow use a converter to run my PC software on an Apple. I want to be able to buy third party hardware available from several manufacturers to enhance my PC not be tied to proprietary tricks Apple uses so you can only buy what they sell or approve of. I don't want an iPod with epoxy sealed guts or a battery that can't be replaced.

I was a faithful Apple believer back in the Apple II, IIc laptop, and IIgs era until they screwed me by lying about how Mac software would work on my $2100 IIgs if I bought one. Then instead of bringing out the adapter board they promised so I could have the best of both worlds they dropped the IIgs instead so that my $2100 investment was worth only $500 two months later.

No, I'll stick with a PC despite all the angelic choir singing of praises from the other side of the fence. Samsung now has monitors as good as Retina (of course for a lower price too) so I'll be headed in that direction soon too.

banjonut Loc: Southern Michigan

marcomarks wrote:

I process and edit over 1,000 photos a week on my 2-year-old i7 Dell PC and it never fails me. I haven't had Windows freeze up on me even once on any PC since back in Windows 98 and ME, and I've also been through Vista, XP, and now Win7. The only PC items that have failed are one Seagate internal hard drive and several keyboards and mice - but that can happen to any computer so it's not the fault of them being PCs.

I went to a famous audio recording studio in Indiana once to have a CD of original material mastered for reproduction and they used all Mac computers with Avid Pro Tools. The engineer guy was bragging about Mac all over the place as he loaded up our files - until the Mac rig he was assigned to crashed and/or locked up on him 10 times in 13 hours while doing our project that wasn't even that awfully power intensive. He had planned on being done in 4 to 5 hours and it took 13 although they had priced the work at a fixed rate and he couldn't charge more. That was the last time I believed the old adage that Mac is foolproof and fail safe compared to a PC.

Abuse either a PC or a Mac by exceeding it's RAM regularly which can foul up the OS or the software you're using, clutter and overfill the hard drives and not defrag, and don't maintain the underlying operating system to keep it tuned up and in shape, and they both have the potential to go down the toilet.

The components are largely the same in a Mac or PC now, the components are made by the same manufacturers and come from the same China, which wasn't true originally - so that's not the main difference between them anymore. The main difference is the OS.

Mac has been on a steady course of improving and refining their OS in higher and higher numbered versions and adding features as they go. That's the right way to go about it and I will praise them for that without hesitation.

Microsoft has a tendency to put out a train wreck of an OS that isn't debugged enough before throwing it on the market, fixing it over a number of years until it's up to par, then suddenly replacing it with another buggy new OS that also needs several years to get back to acceptable again. I never buy a new Microsoft OS until it's been out at least two years, then it's actually to a point that I don't have problems. The WinXP to Win7 transition was apparently one of the few that didn't go afoul as badly. Vista never gave me any problems either but again it was already out for a long while before I got my laptop with it. It's still on there and working fine. Now Win8 is another thing. I got it a couple weeks ago on a laptop and hate it. Others do as well. It seems to work without failing but I just don't like the look or feel of it.

Microsoft, like Google with their Chrome, has made serious errors in their assumptions about how "all of us lowly peasants" in the PC world want to work and they're wrong. I've bypassed the initial "buttons" page and the sign in with password screen, now have a normal start button menu in the bottom left corner of the desktop, and cleared off a ton of crap that wasn't at all required or desirable. Now it finally works pretty much like Win7 except when the weird side menu and unique Win8 pages jump in at various places where I don't want them. They don't hurt anything but just challenge me to kill them off and I will eventually.

I just don't feel like paying 35 - 50% more for an Apple anything just because it is Apple. I don't want to buy all new software or go without software that is only available for PC. I don't want to pay more for Apple versions of software either and that's still the case on some. I don't want to somehow use a converter to run my PC software on an Apple. I want to be able to buy third party hardware available from several manufacturers to enhance my PC not be tied to proprietary tricks Apple uses so you can only buy what they sell or approve of. I don't want an iPod with epoxy sealed guts or a battery that can't be replaced.

I was a faithful Apple believer back in the Apple II, IIc laptop, and IIgs era until they screwed me by lying about how Mac software would work on my $2100 IIgs if I bought one. Then instead of bringing out the adapter board they promised so I could have the best of both worlds they dropped the IIgs instead so that my $2100 investment was worth only $500 two months later.

No, I'll stick with a PC despite all the angelic choir singing of praises from the other side of the fence. Samsung now has monitors as good as Retina (of course for a lower price too) so I'll be headed in that direction soon too.

I process and edit over 1,000 photos a week on my ... (show quote)

Well said.

RDH

marcomarks wrote:

No, I'll stick with a PC despite all the angelic choir singing of praises from the other side of the fence. Samsung now has monitors as good as Retina (of course for a lower price too) so I'll be headed in that direction soon too.

The "Retina" finished in C-Net's top five, but not first or second. Of course there was little difference in the ratings accept for price.

LoisCroft Loc: Jonesborough, Tennessee

I was in my Apple store today. I needed a DVD burner for my mac mini. I got there just before it opened with about 40 people ahead of me. Within 5 minutes, I had what I needed, paid for it and the receipt was on its way to my email and I was on my way. I have never had such good service from any store but Apple! Every time I go in there I am amazed at how knowledgeable the staff are and how quickly I get what I need. I dont stand in line to pay for something, never have to search around for someone who can (or cant) help, and whatever I get works the first time!