POLL: PC or Mac

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>Mac here.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p><em>A Mac IS a PC.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>If PC stands for personal computer, they always have been PCs, with OS X they just have a really fine Operating system in OS X.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p><em>However, Macs aren't made for the commercial environment.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>I'll pass that along to the several businesses I know ( not graphic designers or photographers) that are Mac OS X based and have been for years - -an Aluminum mill, soem archiotecture firms, some architecture firms. . I am sure they'll be interested to hear that and will immediately dump their stable , smoth running Macs for PCs for which they will have to hire multiple system administrators.</p>

<p> </p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>2 quick story for fun;</p>

<p>1_years ago when little floppy exist i was working in a service bureau full of mac, only 1 pc in case. A guy came, and try to put is floppy plastic first in the mac..after several attemp, a lot of cursing, and of course saying how appl is so dumb, bad machine etc.. i simply took is floppy out of is hand gently, turn it and put it metal first in the reader..on my surprise, the guy didtn say thanks, but he ask why on a Mac thing have to be so different!?</p>

<p>2_a graphic designer that was on a PC and use Corel sat down on a mac station and open is document in Illustrator, send it to print and i gave him is print that was cut from at least 1-2inch..the guy ask why and i answer that probably is document was too long? He told me that he have a 18inh document, and he was use to print on a 11x17 sheet and had never had any problem printing that from is PC..i told him that this was not a mac / pc problem, but a physic one as 18inh couldtn fit at 100% in a 17inch sheet..after several minute of fighting i gave up, he send 5 more print, all cut, i bill them, and ask the guy to put 90% instead when he hit the OK button. All is images where on the paper, and he realize that maybe is Corel was set to auto fit...</p>

<p>2 story (and i can go a long way with those) that just show you that when people are use to a certain type of hardwadre they make stupid mistake and bring stupid argument that doestn hold. They can come from mac or pc, its not important.</p>

<p>Im really happy this morning that after years of PC vs Mac, people are now down to right / left click mouse as a new reason for going with a PC! Maybe before 2010 whe will stop having those idiot debate..after comparing wired size, bouncy keyboard, desk space, monitor height of course : ) LOL.</p>

<p>_______________</p>

<p>On a side note, serious gamer dont normally use regular mouse (if i take my gamer friend as example) they have all a huge device with 18 programmable button and a huge red wheel and keep saying that this is the ferrari of all mouse!..and serious photographer or amateur i know that do photo editing dont use a mouse either..whe (i put myself in there) have wacom tablet and exclusively use the pen to work..in fact i didtn use a mouse for the past 8-9 years anywhere; word, firefox, photoshot and other. It is so much more efficient, and the good thing is it work on PC and Mac ; )</p>

<p>_______________</p>

<p>by simply going in your preference panel you coul see if the mouse speed is set to the rigth place, and as all optical mouse being on a white . shinny, glass surface will affect is speed..make sure you are using it on a regular surface..and when you move a inch the arrow on screen should move as fast on the monitor as well.</p>

<p> </p>

[tveck]

<p>PC, 4x2.1Mh AMD Phenom,250 Gb drive, ATI Sapphire 256Mb with Windows XP.<br>

All for 800 euro. And some older PC's.</p>

[charles_wood]

<p>I use both, a 'vintage' (four years old) dual processor AMD-based PC and a MAC PRO, fairly well loaded with memory and HDs. The Mac crashes as often as the PC, perhaps more. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. I'm not a 'fanboy' of either. There are some programs that I use that won't work with a MAC and forget the argument of using VM Fusion or Parallels and running XP on your MAC...if you're thinking of using some of the Windows-based video editing programs such as Vegas or Pinnacle. They won't recognize the firewire output from your digital video source running on a MAC! So much for that. And if you want to burn a BlueRay disc directly from a video editing program, it's a lot easier with PC based software.<br /> All that said, the MAC is a definite go-to when I need to stitch multiple 140 meg RAW files from a SONY a900 in CS4. My PC would croak in the attempt. It takes about five minutes on the MAC but it gets the job done. <br /> I can use either to spool to my printers while I'm doing other tasks on the others. When I hear the statement by some MAC owners "I never looked back", I have to chuckle. Perhaps they were never really looking forward.</p>

[BelaMolnar]

<p>You want a headache, get a PC. You want to work effortlessly, with out headache, . . . Mac. I started digital darkroom with PC, driven me crazy, and the guy who helped me, we constantly had an argument. Switched to MAC, my friend departed me for two years, then one day he come back. "Hi, I bought a mac -mini!" . . . . good for you. . . . . . Then, . . . . " I bought a G5 used", . . . . Two mounts later, he said; "I hate PCs but I have to do, because I making a living, repairing massaging peoples PCs. Since I have a MAC, years, I just using them. Never any issues. Own a G4, a Mac Pro, and an old iBook G4, 12", I am writing this letter. Witch has been badly abused by my grand daughter. No problemo, comrades. Still running after 5 or 6 years.</p>

<p>Have a nice day; Bela</p>

<p>Cheers; Bela</p>

[ken_thalheimer]

<p>PC. Both Dell. Desktop & 17" laptop</p>

[joshua_croft]

<p>The mac vs. pc debate is as bad as the Canon/Nikon debate. Its useless. Its brand loyalty to the extreme. Ive used pcs my whole life and never had the problems that people blame pcs for. Ive used macs and they are good too. My opinion is that i can get better performance at a MUCH cheaper price in a pc, and I have. 1.5 TB hard drive, 8 GB ram, Phenom Quad core processor, ATI dedicated graphics. 22 inch hi def screen, and if thats not big enough I plug my HDMI into the 42 inch LCD tv. under 1300. mac cant touch that ( with anything as of my purchase date ). If you like macs, cool, if you like pcs, then use them. Whatever gets the job done for you.</p>

[manosgr]

<p>Ubuntu<br>

Although it works perfect, somtimes I feel like going back to Fedora.<br>

From my point of view, WinXP is full with flaws and Mac platform is too restricted.</p>

[mt4x4]

<p>This is actually a pretty easy question.</p>

<p><strong>What you need to ask yourself is:</strong></p>

<p><em>How much do I want to pay for a computer and</em></p>

<p>How much time to I want to spend playing video games<br>

verses<br>

How much time to I want to spend being productive?</p>

<p>If you want to play video games (like me!) and are on a tight budget, get a PC. If you want to be productive and use software like Photoshop, etc and want a really nice machine, get a Mac. BTW, the Macintosh monitors are EXCELLENT, even if you have a PC.</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p><em>If you want to be productive and use software like Photoshop, etc and want a<br /> really nice machine, get a Mac</em></p>

<p>How am I supposed to be more productive on a slower machine?<br>

<em><br /> </em></p>

[paolo carpi]

<p>Macbookpro!</p>

[jstarks]

<p>Nothing at all against Macs, but I use a PC and see no need to swicth.</p>

[sasvata__shash__chatterjee]

<p>Couple Windows PCs and several laptops, all served via a central Linux (Fedora Core) server with RAID drives. On my primary PC I have 4GB of memory, but running 32-bit Windows XP currently so it actually uses up to 3GB. Linux hosts a SAMBA & Windows domain server, so no matter which Windows machine you log on to you see the same files.</p>

<p>If you want to do photo editing, particularly with PS, then the applications work essentially the same on PC versus Mac, except some keyboard changes and some differences in how the panels look. The kicker for me is that equivalently performant hardware is always way more expensive for Macs, even though I have always admired Macs for their OS, and even more since they went Unix-based. I agree with everybody that says Macs are more controllable (Unix), but if you are having to control anything on either PC or Mac just because you want to use it for normal usage for editing graphics or documents or browsing, something is seriously wrong.</p>

<p>Nobody in my family plays video games on computers or watches videos on them, including my school-age kids (there are video consoles and DVD/audio/video systems dedicated for that). We use computers only for image work, documents (MS Office) and browsing the internet. We use a firewall only on our internet router, and use Firefox (not IE) as a browser. We are careful about what applications we install on our machines. We have never had virus issues, nor do any of our Windows XP machines ever crash.</p>

<p>Summary: PCs and Macs, either will do the job just fine, get the one that you like better and fits your budget. <strong>For me</strong> , the extra cost of Mac HW isn't worth the slightly better UI.</p>

[stp]

<p>Mac Pro at home and Mac Book Pro for on the road. Two internal Raid 1 drives and two external Raid 1 drives (plus one internal and one external non-Raid drives). I've used PC and Mac platforms, and the Mac is so very much easier and "user-friendly."</p>

[CharlesBecker-Toronto]

<p>"The mac vs. pc debate is as bad as the Canon/Nikon debate. Its useless. Its brand loyalty to the extreme." Joshua-you are so right. I have watched the Canon/Nikon 'debate' unfold since I got into 35mm photography in 1970 and it really is pathetic-they are both good brands and each has its own characteristics including positives and negatives. Now, this has, as you said, extended into the PC/Mac 'debate' and again, each has its own characteristics including positives and negatives; with cameras and computers, check out which one meets your requirements the most and feels, looks, handles, etc. better and go with it. To do otherwise is to fall victim to marketing. Look at this poll-all Natalie said was "I'm curious what everyone uses at home, PC or Mac." and a number of people went on the attack; that's just pathetic. cb :-)</p>

[tallnbig68]

<p>Ouch, a loaded question..<br>

IN a perfect world (which it isn't) any computer system would be reliable<br>

for any project and there would be no such thing as a virus and all<br>

computer operating systems would be perfect from the get-go.<br>

I currently have two Macs, a G5 iMac purchased used and rebuilt<br>

from the local Apple reseller, and an older however still utterly<br>

reliable G4 iBook.<br>

Also have an 8088 running Linux for ham radio applications.<br>

And a very old Compag Presario laptop for those applications that<br>

will only operate on a Prehistoric Computer under the<br>

Microsoft banner.</p>

<p>Reason for my Macs? Quark! My background is journalism,<br>

and writing regular monthly columns on a number of subjects.<br>

My editor(s) prefer copy ready to paste.</p>

<p>I have in the last few years sold all my digital photo gear, much<br>

prefer colour slides (usually K64 if it can be sent across<br>

the border for processing without customs problems)<br>

or Fuji Sensia films.<br>

My Macs serve me well, all were purchased<br>

with extended warranties and unlike previous<br>

Mac purchases only see the inside of a shop<br>

when I want them upgraded or given a tidy.</p>

<p>Now as to monetary cost, the Apple product<br>

with extended warranty is more expensive!</p>

<p>However if the operating system you are currently using<br>

is good for you, stay there.<br>

If you want to change operating systems, borrow a friend's<br>

Mac for a day or so. Similar; yet different, oh,<br>

and no viruses from the internet usually.</p>

<p>And although the speed demons keep changing preferences<br>

what you purchase often comes down to how comfortable you<br>

are with the software programs you use.</p>

<p>Me? I like Macs, and can use other platforms with ease.</p>

<p> </p>

[pmj]

<p>Power Mac G5 2GHz dual-core, 4.5 GB memory, 160 + 200 GB disk (+500 GB Lacie Firewire 800 for backups), Apple 23" display, Eye-One Display 2. Epson R2880 printer. Adobe Photoshop CS2, Apple Aperture 2.</p>

<p>Note: I use a PC at work all day to write software in Delphi, Oracle and PHP. Runs Windows XP, but I haven't a clue about the specs of the machine. It works just fine and I'm happy with it, but I'm at least as happy to use my Mac when I'm at home.</p>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Used a PC in the corporate world, but when I retired I switched to an <b>IMAC with a 20-inch screen</b>. IMHO this is so much better than a PC. </p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>Our retoucher who owns/loves a G3 and G4 and a mac laptop; and tolerates a XP box at home said the Imac's 20" Mouse is wonky; weird; hard to controll compared to a G4. He is a almost pure Mac person; Mac decals on the car; ipods; hates PC's; worships Macs and preaches how they can bake buiscuits and boil water too.</p>

<p>Thus we bought a brand new mouse and it still acts bizzare; gain varies like driver is hosed or wonky. One can find a great surface for a PC's optical mouse and our Mac mouse still has "issues".<br /> The retoucher talked to Apple a year ago; they mentioned to get a new mouse; this didnt fix the issue. Since the old retoucher we had has drank enough Apple Koolaid and wore Apple logos; owns 3 Apple computers I would suspect they sor to now something about the Apple type mouse movements.</p>

<p>My recourse is to ship the entire Imac 20" unit to a repair depot; or live with the poor human interface issue. Our Imac 20" unit does have issues. It is not used much anymore; our mac retoucher moved away; the box is way too unproductive for me to use. We basically bought the cute Imac for the retoucher who worked for 6 months than moved across country; now it is just a cute dodo on a desk.</p>

<p>If one by mistake places a customers CD thats written by Vista in the non compatable mode ; the CD doesnt come out for many minutes; and one cannot eject either; thus one wastes time and has to eat crow. It is an embarrisment; one has to wait 3 tp 10 minutes before one gets the customers CD back; then one tries a VISTA or XP box to read the images to be printed.</p>

<p>Thus one learns to NOT try reading a customers unknown CD with the 20" Imac; because if its a Vista disc; it just doesnt work; it is headache. Thus the 20" imac is never now used to peak at an unknown customers Cd's/DVD's; often if a VISTA disc one has to explain how one screwed up; assuming that the Imac could read the disc; while the imac studies the CD and spits it out 3 to 10 minutes later. It a lame amatuer toy; it wastes CUSTOMERS time.<br>

rOne of our ancient rip boxes requires an eps file on a CD for its input; the imacs settings only allow one session of burning; Nero on our PC's has multisession. When I mentioned this on another thread a mac user mentioned to fork out cash to buy toast; or another mac burner program that has multisession. I can drag or copy the files to a PC and burn them too; a couple of times it just made a link and the PC burner was trying to burn files over the LAN. In yet another thread somebody mentioned that a multisession burn is in OSX 10.4; but it is turned off by default.</p>

<p>In Floppies the original tombstome MAC/Mac had a variable speed floppy I worked on; its a different type of format than a PC; the drives RPM varies with radii it is a constant RPM on a PC.</p>

<p>Receiving CD's DVD's and thumb drives on a PC always not a pure beautiful thing either. Some thumb drive brands want to alway inject the dumb U3 program into your computer and ask your to reboot; in more dasdardly cases it auto reboots if one doesnt intercept the prompt. The dumb U3 crap is doesnt require a reboot; but it injects BS into the temp area; even if the same person brings in teh same thumb drive 1 hour later. It is like the U3 manure doesnt stick. Our imac 20" unit will read some of theses; and not others. In some dumb CD's they cannot be read unless the CD injects monkey poop; ie a Roxio driver; then one can read the damn CD. It was unreadable on the Imac; the Apples prevents the injection of horse manure.</p>

<p>In olden times it was consider very rude to create auto run programs that inject BS/crap one to ones computer; today I guess some folks think it is cute.</p>

<p>Thus to deal *with the public* one gets a mess of goofy stuff; sometimes a virus or trojan two. In the Imac case it just will not read some inputs. The PC/mac thats on the dirty side of the moat; the customers side has a Mac that reads a subset of inputs; or a PC that reads about all but is living more dangerously. For a pure mac koolaid drinker; one might just tell the Vista customers or weird thumb drive varaints to shove off; go vist another person. Or one can use a PC to read these peskier inputs; and not loose customers.</p>

[AndyMiller]

<p>Power PC G5 2Ghz dual core Mac, 12Gb RAM, 1.75TB onboard and external storage. 24" Mac Cinema Display.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>The 20" imac here is a great unit accept for OUR mouse issue; plus how it holds a VISTA CD hostage for 3 to 10 minutes before spitting it back out; so we can read it on a Vista or XP box as a print input with a deadline.<br>

In amateur work this delay is probably ok; folks have no deadlines; no customers. You can tell your friend you cannot read the CD; or lie and say it was never burned. There is NO loss of income if the friend has to wait 10 minutes; NO loss of income if you cannot process your buddies Ebay; cat or sunset images.<br>

Dealing with the publics image inputs for printing; shooting; retouching is NOT so Mr Clean; customers get ticked off if their grubby; dirty; scratched mystery CD is not read instantly. The LAY public does all sorts of goofy things. Some shoot with a 3 megapixel camera; print a 8x10 on a dumb cheap inkjet; then flatbed scan at a zillion dpi. The resultant TIFF file is bigger than a CD; its sometimes a gigabyte; then they burn it with Vista in a mode that cannot be read with the 20" imac; win2000; but by some XP boxes; and all Vista boxes. Thus one gets a jackass giant bloaded useless file; readable on a subset of Macs and PC's; plus to view with ease requires a 64Bit os and CS4 to peak and several 1 gig files or crop them quickly.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>The 20" imac here is a great unit accept for OUR mouse issue; plus how it holds a VISTA CD hostage for 3 to 10 minutes before spitting it back out; so we can read it on a Vista or XP box as a print input with a deadline.<br>

In amateur work this delay is probably ok; folks have no deadlines; no customers. You can tell your friend you cannot read the CD; or lie and say it was never burned. There is NO loss of income if the friend has to wait 10 minutes; NO loss of income if you cannot process your buddies Ebay; cat or sunset images.<br>

Dealing with the publics image inputs for printing; shooting; retouching is NOT so Mr Clean; customers get ticked off if their grubby; dirty; scratched mystery CD is not read instantly. The LAY public does all sorts of goofy things. Some shoot with a 3 megapixel camera; print a 8x10 on a dumb cheap inkjet; then flatbed scan at a zillion dpi. The resultant TIFF file is bigger than a CD; its sometimes a gigabyte; then they burn it with Vista in a mode that cannot be read with the 20" imac; win2000; but by some XP boxes; and all Vista boxes. Thus one gets a jackass giant bloaded useless file; readable on a subset of Macs and PC's; plus to view with ease requires a 64Bit os and CS4 to peak and several 1 gig files or crop them quickly.</p>

[garrison_k.]

<p><em>The 20" imac here is a great unit accept for OUR mouse issue; plus how it holds<br /> a VISTA CD hostage for 3 to 10 minutes before spitting it back out...</em></p>

<p>Kelly, is this a CD burned with Vista's in house CD burner, or with Nero? I pop my Vista burned CD/DVD's into many Mac's a month and have never had a problem with Mac's reading Vista/Nero disc's.</p>

[KenPapai]

<p>Dell PC at home, 2GB RAM, 200 GB internal drive and several high capacity external drives. Dec. 2004 brand new. It's getting old.</p>

<p>I doubt I will EVER want a Mac.</p>

<p>I am going to get a new PC this year.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>Kelly, please make your retoucher happy and get him a wacom tablet : )</p>