I’ve been using my Macbook Pro now for a month and Im quite happy with it. However there appears to be a great divide when it comes to Mac and PC users. Its kind of a love hate relationship. I wasn’t aware of it much until I started reading Mac magazines. These often have articles or printed letter praising the virtue of Macs and users who have “come from the dark side” (ie switched over).
I use both a Mac and a PC so I figured Im in a good position to feedback on a comparison of both.
Macs : Macs are purpose built hardware, made by Apple to run Apple software. This gives them a great advantage over PCs in that (in theory) software can be guaranteed to work on a machine and Apple will know exactly how it will run on any users machine. This is might sound ideal but has several disadvantages. Firstly there is a finite limit to how much you can upgrade your Mac after you’ve bought it. With a PC you can keep upgrading until you run out of money but there are only so many things you can replace with a Mac. Secondly on a hardware to hardware basis, Apple charges a lot more for components compared to a PC (assuming you buy branded items). Thirdly with the introduction of Apples use of Intel processors there has suddenly appeared a rift in the software compatibility area, namely software that is “Universal” and stuff that isn’t. In theory this shouldnt matter as Apples Rossetta software is supposed to translate anything not Universal, however the resources this takes up means that it can often be so slow its not worth it.
Mac processors seem to have been underpowered by raw comparison to PC chips, however this has not mattered as the operating system has been specifically designed to work with Apples chips. I feel this has fallen apart with the introduction of Intel chips. As an example video encoding on my 2ghz Dual Core Mac is rediculously long compared to my 2.2 GHz PC (single core) with less RAM! Another example was a copy of Ableton Lite 5 which came with my keyboard. The Mac version ground to a halt when I gotten it to play 4 software created notes at the same time. By comparison the same PC didnt even break into a sweat after 10 such notes. I find this very odd.
So you may ask what is the use of a Mac if its worse? Well the answer is that the Mac is a better machine should you want to just use it to do things (ie Arrange your life, Music, play DVDs, write the odd document, email etc). It starts up FAR faster than a PC but is almost twice the price. The interface is very pretty and all the nitty gritty tech stuff is hidden so that you dont even need to think about it. However this is also the problem. Should you want to (or are used to) tweak settings (for example, drop the anti-aliasing settings from the output of your graphics card) you would probably find it impossible as there is no way to control the hardware other than the Unix style terminal prompt. For power users (like me) its infintely frustrating. Once you get past this its fine but it seems like such a waste.
So Mac users thinking PCs interface looks crap? They’re right. PC users thinking Macs are toy like? They are right too. They are distinct enough to be different entities. I would however point out that the bitching and whining that goes on in Mac magazines (ie Nearly ALWAYS comparing Mac features to PC ones and pointing out how better they are) belittles them. Its extremely rare to see such things in PC mags so I wonder if its a feeling of slight insecurity. Just say they’re different and stick with that. If you love Macs - Good for you. If you love PCs - Good for you too. If you want the best of both worlds… buy both 
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