in laymans terms, why PC or why mac?

[Hoticehunter]

You touched on PCs having to deal with viruses etc, is there a reason macs never seem to be at risk for that and viruses are a pc exclusive? lol

Macs are most certainly at risk. My younger brother had to get a mac for college and ended up getting a keylogger or something because he sent out spam email to everyone on his contact list.

[BicycleMafioso]

Can we please stop discussing that particular off-topic venue, please? I don't see it leading to anything good.

[rboa]

Viruses aren't Windows exclusive. It's just that Windows have historically always had a bigger market share, while Mac OS and Mac OS X were abyssmal until the early-to-mid 00's.
So of course most viruses and malware targetted the bigger platform.

OSX is inherently not a lot stronger than Windows in this regard; just not as targetted. I do believe that it is stronger, but not by enough for making them a non-issue.

My take on the security problem is this: In the last 7 years I have never seen a windows box without an antivirus and I have never seen a mac with an antivirus.

The biggest drawback to the mac is the price premium (and possibly some games). The biggest benefits are the OS, system integration and support. Most people go with windows and a some go with macs, so there is not a wrong answer. It is just what works better for you.

If you go with windows, be sure to get the 64 bit version of the OS.

Have fun with your new computer.

[Twoddle]

Here's a good video comparing the two:

You can't really compare the speeds of 2 OSs like that and say WOW! Windows 8 is 20% faster!

You can quite easily make Windows 7 appear faster and use less memory by manually tweaking many of the default settings and service startups yourself. Less is indeed more.

In fact it's bit odd that progress is seen by many as adding skin after skin on top of the old OS and keeping it going by throwing more fuel on the fire with more cores and more memory and then in the video he calls the changes "improvements", dunno whether to laugh or not.

[schwarzkopf]

PC - Is like your mates, go out have fun get drunk - but suffer the consequences
MAC - Is like your parents, get lots of help nothing stressful - but no alcohol, sex or drugs and be home at 11pm.

[vindicatorx]

It's a lot of personal preference to be honest. I don't like gaming on a laptop in general but as most have said Windows is generally better for it. I have both a Windows desktop that I made and a Mac Book Pro. I do all my school and work stuff on my Mac and play games on my bad ass PC. I honestly feel my Mac Book was worth the $2000 price tag cause it honestly beats the shit out of every Windows based laptop I have ever used. I do agree they are overly expensive but so is half the shit people on these servers who are pointing fingers at mac users for buying a "Name Brand".

[vindicatorx]

Macs are most certainly at risk. My younger brother had to get a mac for college and ended up getting a keylogger or something because he sent out spam email to everyone on his contact list.

that's not a keylogger he opened a bad e-mail that auto forwards your contact list.

---------- Post added 2012-08-07 at 05:53 AM ----------

Flaming is allowed all the time when mods decide to not care.

Retards. Do your job.

This other topic I was active in you could ban me for multiple reasons.

you kinda need to be reported in order to get brought to a mods attention like I am sure you will for this as you aren't allowed to post on forum moderation

[BicycleMafioso]

If you have problems with moderator actions, or a specific Moderator, I advice you to instead take that up with Sunshine or Boubouille.
Either way, this is not the thread for it.

Brandbashing, or generalising users of a specific platform in a derogatory manner is not to be held here.

[vesseblah]

In laymans terms, can you guys explain the KEY differences. Preferably from people who know the innerworkings of computers.

Hardware on Apple computers is limited to a very short list, which means software stability and performance of those few components can be tweaked to a higher level by Apple themselves. Because you're limited with what hardware Apple allows, you are often behind in latest real performance upgrades (generation or two behind in graphics cards for example) but on the flipside get latest exclusive fads like Thunderbolt (Firewire few years ago) first but no real third party support in form of devices to plug into the new and shiny ports for several years. Because hardware is closed, you're forced to buy stuff from Apple exclusively and they can dictate whatever prices they like. Often people claim OSX is cheap, but it's really not because you pay three times higher cost for RAM for example which subvents the cheap OS.

On Windows side all hardware is embraced, but the drivers come mostly from the hardware manufacturers and not Microsoft, and aren't even close to the same quality of code than the rest of the OS. Many studies have shown that over 80% of Windows crashes comes from buggy hardware drivers, not the OS itself. Latest technology is supported on first day, but you might have some first adopter issues. Because hardware selection is totally open you're free to go through all bargain bins and firesales to get the computer really cheap, in some cases totally free if lucky with dumpster diving. Windows itself is relatively expensive because Microsoft does not get a single penny for the computer parts bought from Newegg for example.

For basic computer tasks like family financial planning on a spreadsheet, uploading holiday pictures to flickr or surfing porn on the internet there's no difference between the two systems, except that Microsoft can't ship even basic applications without getting their arses chewed by antitrust lawyers while Apple can, and you're forced to download those from the internet yourself. Funny how it goes, considering Apple has shitloads more money.

[Deleted]

One possible way of thinking about it:

Consider getting an Apple if:
- You're prepared to pay the price
- You don't play games
- You're not particularly 'tech savvy' or not interested in the tech details
- You want an overall product that works out of the box containing all of the basic programs you're likely to use
- You're not too bothered about tip top performance or being able to upgrade hardware
- You just want it to work reliably and be easy to use
- You accept that you may get tied down to a particular company and way of doing things and potentially more limited in your software choices.

Consider getting a PC if:
- You're limited on how much to spend and want a basic inexpensive system for day to day tasks, or
- You have a lot of money to spend and you're enthusiastic about computers and/or want to build your own custom computer to your spec
- You're into gaming
- You want to be able to customize the system in many ways from multi-monitors to water cooling to a huge range of 3rd party products
- You want a greater choice of hardware and software and greater overall ability to customise it
- You acknowledge you're using a more open marketplace with many uncontrolled 3rd party products available granting you more flexibility but potentially exposing your system and security to a greater extent
- You know that you'll possibly have to 'tidy' your system up every now and again and 3rd party products like anti-virus may be required to keep things in order.

[Deleted]

You pay for the design of the product, the imo better support and the OS.

To me, OS X is a much better OS, because it's so simple, beautiful and stable. Windows feels heavy and clunky. Bonus is that I haven't gotten any virus/malware etc so far and in the 4 years I've had my macbook pro, I've been quite around the internet. The only thing I don't like about OS X is the support for games. The few games that work on macs are either shitty ports where 50% of the framerate is killed compared on same hardware on windows or good native programs (WoW and SCII for example).

- You're not particularly 'tech savvy' or not interested in the tech details

Wait... What? Would you mind elaborating on that statement?

[Deleted]

People get on Microsoft for their business practices and monopolising tendencies (rightly so) but apple are kinda a lot worse and apple gets a much easier time.

[Deleted]

Wait... What? Would you mind elaborating on that statement?

What I meant was that some people may consider buying a mac if they're not interested in delving into the details of hardware/software, they're not interested in how the system works or upgrading anything. They don't want to have to install or configure software, they just want to turn the box on and it works. Of course that same person may just go down the PC store and buy a Windows PC out of the box too. These points weren't inclusive, just examples of possible people and how they may be suited to a particular platform.

[nocturnus]

If you want to understand Apple products it's best you read Steve Jobs' book. Mac products are basicaly the incarnation of Steve's obsession with perfection, or rather his interpretation of what perfection is.

You can compare Apple products to Louis Vuitton, Versace, Hermes, etc... products. You pay for the brand and nothing else. In fact, a macpro is nothing but an extremely overpriced pc (same components, same-old ''made in China'' stuff) with internal modifications to not allow any upgrades without Apple's service.

Photographers, video-editors, graphical-editors, used to prefer macs long ago. This is thing of the past, especially since €1500 euro will get you a better, faster, upgrade-friendlier rig, than the €4000 mac pro.

So, why do people buy macs?

Mostly, because they look good. This is something you shouldn't trivialize. People care for aesthetics and a pc very often ruins your living room, a mac looks trendy, stylish and decorates your rooms, rather than soiling them. The reason macs are frequently used in fashion boutiques.

[Agent Mercury]

Gaming and wide support, Windows is generally better.
OSX is very user friendly and isn't heavy on resources, and Apple machines are decent, not to mention the few amounts of hardware they have comparably, it's very easy to optimise.

Without knowing what one has for intended areas of use, recommending either is rather pointless.
I've never touched OSX as I've never had a need to. I want to have a machine that can run as many games as possible, I want a machine I can tinker with myself, with good support for drivers et c, so Windows is for me.

However. Broad statements like "Windows for gaming and OSX for everything else" for instance wouldn't ever work.

It does annoy me that Apple doesn't have any real desktops, however. And haven't had for years.

Hit the nail on the head. Also I fondly remember the Apple Desktops in 2nd grade. White with bright neon colors. That was like 98 I think.

[Fierae]

The main qualm I have with Apple devices is that they tend to lock you in quite well.

The hardware on the 'newer' Macs are generally much more outdated than that on the newer PC's. Especially graphics power, the Apple devices fall majorly behind on that.

If you have the knowledge to build you own PC, that would be the best choice every time, run a Linux variant or Windows if you're into gaming.

There are many things that you can't do on a Mac, which you can on Windows, but not many things you can't do on Windows, that you can on Mac.

[mafao]

The main qualm I have with Apple devices is that they tend to lock you in quite well.

What do you mean by this? OS X is build on open-source technology and Apple is a major opponent of DRM.

The hardware on the 'newer' Macs are generally much more outdated than that on the newer PC's. Especially graphics power, the Apple devices fall majorly behind on that.

This used to be the case, but not anymore. Todays MacBooks Pros have latest Ivy Bridge CPUs and decent Nvidia graphics (650m ) and are comparable performance-wise to some windows gaming laptops, but with business-grade qualities (long battery times and small weight).

If you have the knowledge to build you own PC, that would be the best choice every time, run a Linux variant or Windows if you're into gaming.

This is 100% true. For gaming, nothing beats a custom PC. For work, I'd prefer an iMac, as its the same price as an comparable PC (including a 1440p IPS screen and high-quality aluminium case) while taking significantly less space. Its a shame that there is no 2012 iMac yet, the current version is still Sandy bridge based.

There are many things that you can't do on a Mac, which you can on Windows, but not many things you can't do on Windows, that you can on Mac.

Not if you rely on Unix tools in your work. I can't imagine working on Windows again, the lack of power-user features would drive me crazy. Linux would be a viable alternative, but its still a bit immature IMHO.

In a nutshell: I have looked for a decent working laptop which would also support some casual gaming (combination of mobility, power, battery and ergonomy) and all windows machines of that caliber are priced in the same range as MacBook Pro, for instance, the nice 17" HP Envy series, which has somehow better specs than the 15" MBP but is also much heavier and bigger. Rather, I decided to invest few hundred more to get a gaming-grade laptop with 9 hours battery and 2 kg weight + the best display in industry (the retina MacBook Pro).

[Fierae]

What do you mean by this? OS X is build on open-source technology and Apple is a major opponent of DRM.

I was perhaps using Apple in the wider sense of the word. The company as a whole, for instance, like you to buy their phones, which will work with their computers, which will work with their AppleTV etc, but no support for anything outside that. iTunes being a perfect example, you cannot sync iPhones without it.

Whereas, take an Android phone, it's made by any old manufacturer, the OS is built by Google, it will work with pretty much any machine you plug it into etc.

Slightly leaning towards off topic here, but it's more about the marketing process they put forwards. You have an iDevice, so why no buy this other iDevice as it will 'just work' (but only with other iDevices).

[mafao]

I was perhaps using Apple in the wider sense of the word. The company as a whole, for instance, like you to buy their phones, which will work with their computers, which will work with their AppleTV etc, but no support for anything outside that. iTunes being a perfect example, you cannot sync iPhones without it.

Ah, I see what you mean. Yes, the core of Apple's current success is its ecosystem. I agree that is rather limiting and I can see how many people can be annoyed by it.

[Milkshake86]

The debate is as old as time itself, PC vs Mac. Both sides have extremely devout followers who would rather die before switching over to the other side. Common arguments I see are...one is paying for a brand, one is more personalized, one is easier to use (better UI), one is more expensive etc etc.

In laymans terms, can you guys explain the KEY differences. Preferably from people who know the innerworkings of computers.

This is purely meant to explain the advantages of one over the other based on its components, nothing more. Thanks!

I read enough here is the truth, sometime ago apple and PC were 100% different, proprietary parts etc. Today the difference is windows or osx, any PC will run OSX and any Apple will run windows 7.

Beyond that apple is more expensive and more a brand than anything else now, given the huge resolution laptop screens they got a few months b4 everyone else thats all they got in the actual computer market.[COLOR="red"]