Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

My husband has worked (hardware engineer) for Intel, Compaq, HP (before and after buying Compaq), a startup (I am sure you have never heard of), and now NVIDIA. He works daily with PC's but actually prefers my Apple to the PC. The platform is just more stable.

Kmgw9v Loc: Miami, Florida

I switched from a PC to Apple about a year ago. There is a learning curve, but I like the MAc better.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

IMHO, neither Toshiba or HP, have HP 17" love it except for travelling, 15" Toshiba's for wife's machine and another for travel (cheaper and lighter), Bob.

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

Had an HP and other computers and was always swearing at them. Then switched to Apple and never have any problems. Will never use anything else.If I have questions ,I call Apple or go to Genius bar.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I have an HP/Compaq Presario laptop from early 2009. I just upgraded it to Windows 7 from Vista, plus extra gb RAM and Hard Drive. I wasn't interested in Windows 10 for it, as it is only a backup laptop that I will give away when I buy a new Dell laptop. Mac is an excellent OS choice, and is great on fighting off viruses, I have been told. But I learned on Windows. First with Windows XP. And when you like something, you just like it. Kinda like your favorite foods.

Boentgru Loc: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Apple uses their own operating system, not Windows as is more universal, regardless what one thinks about the technical merits. Therefore, applications are more likely to use the Microsoft OS. Also the Apple products tend to be significantly more expensive.

Impressionist

Windows will run on a Mac. New isn't always better. Check and see if your computer can be upgraded. Maxxed ram, solid state hard drive, and clean installed OS keeps some features and ports that maybe missing from newer computers. Know why you need or want a change. Have both Mac and Windows and find the Mac OS still easier to work with.

Mundj Loc: Richmond TX

I started using PC with MS operating system at work in the early 80s and continued to until I retired last year. My original home PC was a Company with dual floppy drives bought in 1985. Over the years we upgraded to new PCs and finally switched to Apple in 2007 when they came out with the Intel based IMac. I have always been impressed with how well the Apple PC and Apple software play together. Maybe we have just been lucky. Our only problems are when we need to use something written for Windows such as Quicken. We now have four Macs having recycled the two old ones into file servers for the additional cost of an external hard drive plus $20 for the Apple Server Software. Mac OS upgrades are free and include a spread sheet, word processor, basic photo editing and presentation software. They are not quite as good similar products from MS or Adobe but they are free. If you want you can still subscribe to the Mac versions as we have done.

The Macs have a learning curve and can be frustrating in the beginning. But if you are flexible I think you will be happy with the change. I hear of more people being happy going from PCs to Macs rather than the reverse.

If you have an Apple Store nearby go visit and try one out before buying. I think you will be impressed. I know my wife and I will not go back.

Good luck on what ever you choose.

Alfresco

The devil is in the details, the little things. To begin with, with Apple, you don't have to spend money and worry about viruses, I've had iMACs for 18 years and yet to get a virus. When I call Apple support I speak with someone in the United States. If I really get bogged down, I bring my Apple product, iPhone, iPad iMac, whatever, to the Apple store 30 miles away and they work on it while I wait. Try taking your Dell to the Dell store. Everything on your Mac works seamlessly together, everything. If it comes on your Apple computer its yours to uses, not for 30 or 60 or 90 trial, forever! I can't think of any application for photography that isn't available for use on the Mac. On 10-27 Apple is making an announcement about its products so I suggest you look that up, but as mentioned earlier, if you live close to an Apple store, you owe it to yourself to check it out, you won't regret it! Good luck in your search.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It's a whole different world on a Mac. Once you go Macwards, you'll never go backwards, as the saying goes.

I've been using BOTH Macs and PCs since the mid-1980s. I had an Apple IIe, then a Mac and a PC, and from 1986 to 2008, I had a Mac AND a PC on my desk. I used the Mac as much as I could, because it was a tool that didn't get in the way of the task. I used the PC because I had to... our corporate software was all Windows software.

In 2005, I got a Dell Latitude 610, with Win XP on it. I hated that thing. It had THE WORST trackpad of all time. I was used to PowerBook trackpads, which work so well you don't even realize you're using one. So when the MacBook Pro finally got a 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo processor in early 2008, I ordered one.

Soon, I added Parallels Desktop, and migrated my Dell 610 drive image to the MacBook Pro. That gave me BOTH computers in ONE laptop. I discovered, much to our IT Manager's amazement, that it did EVERYTHING exactly like the Dell 610. Except... It ran 2.5 times FASTER. And I could finally USE the trackpad, instead of plugging in a mouse.

Since then, I haven't had any real PCs. I just run Windows in Parallels Desktop on a Mac. You can even run several different OSes, using Parallels, all at the same time, provided you have enough RAM, drive space, and video memory. These days, it's easy. But heck, it was easy in 2008... I just had to limit myself to four or five open applications, total.

Parallels lets you cut and paste between Mac and PC apps, and seamlessly switch from one OS to the other, instantly. It was a godsend to me when developing FileMaker Pro databases for use on both Macs and Windows PCs. It is GREAT for web developers who need to test their sites on multiple browsers on multiple platforms.

So, you can start using Windows on a Mac EXACTLY where you left off with your Dell. Use Parallels Transporter Agent on your PC — http://www.parallels.com/pc/ and you can have your cake and eat it, too! And your old PC drive image will probably run MUCH faster on a new Mac, especially if it's equipped with a large SSD and 16GB RAM.

GreenReaper

I switched to a MacBook and never looked back. Yep it's got a learning curve, but I'm not plagued with the "blue screen of death", don't have a lot of useless preloaded software, all my OS upgrades have been free. I'm currently running macOS Sierra. Yes, I had to get new software for photo editing. I'm using the latest version PSE, it's all I need for the time being. The Apple Mail is quite adequate and easy to setup and use, plus it has the ability handle multiple accounts. I've got several for various reasons. I do have several ham radio programs for which there are no Mac equivelents.. No problem, bought a copy of Windows 7, ran boot camp, partioned my disc and loaded up my programs and I was on my way. So, go to an a
Apple store, asks questions, folks there will answer them, play with the different machines and have fun.
In the meantime, keep smiling.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

There are many Apple zealots that make arguments like "I switched 6, 8 10 yrs ago and won't ever go back." Well, the times have changed, and to their credit, all of the manufacturers and software publishers have consolidated their efforts to make the Windows platform every bit as good as the Mac platform from a functional perspective. Given the closed architecture of Apple's offerings there is little you can do to customize and optimize a Mac to your specific needs, whereas you have numerous options with Windows. For me, the biggest problem is the lack of support for the industry-standard wide gamut color space - AdobeRGB. With Apple you have two choices - sRGB or DCI-P3 (preferable for video editing intended for cinema projection, but not appropriate for photo editing). Lastly, You will pay more for the pleasure of owning a Mac, but you won't necessarily get your money's worth in value. I support both platforms and the funniest thing is to watch my Windows platform running students speed through their editing while the Apple platform students wait for their computers to finish. And of course, the Apple crowd all have to carry around external drives, while the Windows crowd usually have all their storage internal. True, the Apple laptop batteries will outlast any Windows laptop, but you can carry a spare battery and pop it in if you anticipate needing to work for more than just a couple of hours off battery power. Apple requires proximity to a power source, since the battery is not user accessible, at least not without tools.

I'd go with a Windows machine, but would opt to get a custom built one - you will save money by not having to play for stuff you don't need, and end up getting exactly what you want. I and my students have had great results with Dell's Alienware gaming laptops and if those prove to be too costly, ASUS and Clevo offer value-priced alternatives. Five of my former students and two current ones have Clevo machines and love them for their stability and functionality. I don't think anyone has spent over $2,000 to get one, BTW. The better ones offer 2 m.2 SSD slots and two additional 2.5" drive bays, workstation graphics cards for 30 bit display, IPS matte displays in 15.6" and 17.3" sizes, rugged case,Intel Quadcore i7-6700HQ CPU, and as much as 64 gb RAM, and Thunderbolt AND USB 3/3.1 ports. You can't get anything even close to that from Apple at the moment.

Taking the emotional element out of the equation, when judged on performance, reliability, expandability and price, the Windows platform wins every time. Which is why Windows PCs and Laptops account for 89% of all personal computers in the marketplace today. It used to be 91%, but Apple does have it's loyalists, particularly among musicians, video editors and other creatives, and they seem to be pushing the numbers slightly in their direction. But Apple is primarily a phone, watch and music player company, based on their revenue streams - which may account for their underwhelming recent announcements for new computer offerings. You will have to decide what makes the best sense for you. If you are comfortable with Windows, you will likely have a very short learning curve with the Apple OS. Be aware that the latest OS- Sierra, has a lot of people complaining about incompatibility with hardware and software. Make sure that what you need to run on it works - Canon printers and certain software titles seem to be the most problematic.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Why have to reboot? Parallels Desktop is just 80 bucks... Add it, and you can run that BootCamp partition at the same time as macOS Sierra. Performance hit is barely noticeable, unless you're a gamer or edit HD video. I have yet to find anything that works on a real PC that does not work on Parallels.

Miamisburg Jim Loc: Miamisburg, Ohio, USA

It sounds like all of the people who have experience would never go back to a windows computer. Add me to that list. No virus checking and no problems. Great telephone service in English and good service. There is a learning curve but I would have the same thing going back to windows.

Miamisburg Jim Loc: Miamisburg, Ohio, USA

It sounds like all of the people who have experience would never go back to a windows computer. Add me to that list. No virus checking and no problems. Great telephone service in English and good service. There is a learning curve but I would have the same thing going back to windows.