Im a PC type of guy because I'm hands-on. PC can save you money by trouble shooting everything. for the most part PC's tell you (or show you what's wrong) it will take at least an hour if its a complicate issue. on the other side apple will trouble shoot the issue for free, but you have to pay a good amount if you want it fixed (unless you are covered).

My Mac is 9 years old and has never needed fixing. And the one before that was from 1984 until 2000. It just didn't have enough memory. I personally added more but maxed it out.

until Macs are more affordable and customizable, I'm sticking with PC.

PC! There is no single company that controls PC hardware - thats reason enough! Hardware is cheap and powerful! For the hobbiests, there are tons of OSes available, from MS's to solaris to linux variants to reactos and on and on...

Mac hands down. Never had a virus on any Mac I have owned. I have a 5yo Powerbook that still runs like a champ. Plus, their customer service is stellar if something does go wrong. They gave me the snow leopard upgrade for free ($399). So yeah, I'll stick with Mac. In the end, a Mac will save you money. You may spend more upfront, but it's worth it. AND Mac has a 24/7 store in the heart of NYC. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

I just did a quick look on the first page of this section, and I see quite a lot of complaints about windows. I don't see any about Macs...just sayin.

A Mac doesn't have nearly as many issues as the PC does when it comes to malware/virus. So it is likely a far easier machine to work on, for gaming it is PC all the way as Mac has compatibility issues with a lot of games. Depends what you want to do with your computer.

Mac.

Ease of use, Stability, no fuss, no muss - attractive design, awesome screen... "chic" factor

Example - mother had a PC, problems every month. Bought her an iMac a year and a half ago, never called again with problems...

$.02

P.S. yes, she still calls, but not with computer problems LOL!!

It's almost impossible to get a virus on a Linux, which works on most macs as all PCs.

The one thing on Mac running a Linux is kinda stupid though, unless you got no installation disks for OSX, since OSX is based on Linux. I have both by the way, i don't use the powerbook much, unless i go somewhere...I got it for free haha..i wouldn't have bought it though..these old powerbooks (Titanium edition G4) still go like 2-300 bucks on ebay.

FWIW, I used Macs when studying graphic design. The damn thing messed up one of my important project and my prof couldn't fix it! I'm not going back to Macs till they have a more open architecture and come down in price.

Of course, the question was PC vs Mac... not windows vs mac. Windows is virus prone, but I've never heard of a PC virus. Where would it live? In the BIOS ?

Windows XP.
Haven't tried 7 yet. Vista was ridiculous.

Yeah... there really aren't too many virus problems at all with Macs, but that can't make it up to me that even basic file types from Windows aren't supported. It's maddening.

A BIOS virus... that would be impressive.

i do agree with you on that.

OK guys don't get me wrong.. im an IT Technician, i work with 2 platforms.. Mac OSX (on 89 workstations) & Windows XP/ and windows 7 for our PC's (on 120 workstations). I see that people that dont know how to use a computer find it easier to use Mac. But in the other hand, I prefer PC's because they so much more customizable that we build them to target the very specific user's needs.

"The one thing on Mac running a Linux is kinda stupid though, unless you got no installation disks for OSX, since OSX is based on Linux. I have both by the way, i don't use the powerbook much, unless i go somewhere...I got it for free haha..i wouldn't have bought it though..these old powerbooks (Titanium edition G4) still go like 2-300 bucks on ebay."

Yeah, Mac OS isn't based on Linux at all. Linux is a UNIX-like operating system, designed to be as similar to UNIX as possible, Mac OS based on Darwin, which is a fork of BSD, which is an actual UNIX.

Myself, I'm a Windows developer, my laptop and desktop are both Macs and I run a linux cluster at university (Apache, MySQL, Xen) with about 100 users. Each has their own role depending on what you want.

I recommend Macs to most homeusers, if the lack of games isn't a problem, because they're far more reliable - and if something does go wrong Apple's support is second to none.

If you want lots of control over what you're doing and don't mind getting your hands dirty once in a while, go Linux. Ubuntu is a great place to start from, giving you a fantastically well designed user interface, and being build on a rock solid proven Linux distro (debian) which lets you go in and play to your hearts content.

If you want to play games, go Windows. Although you can play most games to some degree on Mac OS and Linux using software like Wine or inside a virtual machine, you wont get the kind of performance on recent titles.

I've had my PC desktop for about 8 years so far and it's still fine.

Macs don't have BIOSes. The older PPC macs had OpenFirmware, and the Intel Macs use EFI.

Easiest way to evaluate what to get:

(1) If you're doing a lot of spreadsheets (Excel), presentations (PowerPoint), or simple word processing (MS 'Word'), or, if you're seriously into gaming ('Halo', etc), get a PC.

(2) If you're doing a lot of graphic design, image manipulation, vector art, or creating movies, get a Mac. Programs like Photoshop CS4 (or any of those in Adobe's 'Creative Suite'), Final Cut Pro, etc, are gonna be real processor-intensive.

(3) If you like viruses, use a PC. Even with stuff like AdAware, CCleaner, SpyBot, McAfee, Norton, etc, it WILL get infected. The OS is full of holes and inelegantly written. Part of the reason more PCs get viruses than Mac is economic: PCs are the largest market share segment, so the virus writers target the OS that will give them the widest exposure (or instill the most fear, depending). Macs, to be sure, WILL become targets as they grow their percentage of the installed user base. Until then, tho', Macs are inherently more secure because of precautions taken when writing the original code for the OS.

(4) As for the 'cost' issue: What's your data worth? Everything? Wanna put it at risk? Get a PC. Want a good shot at keeping it secure? Get a Mac.

(5) BACK UP YOUR WORK TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES. You DO back up your files, right? Oh. You don't. You should. Or at least use a service like Carbonite. Stuff happens, y'know ...

That's funny, because Macs don't need to be trouble shooted - you turn them on, and they just work



So 500.00 is not affordable? LOL



That is very common. They're like the Energizer bunny, they just keep on tick'in... Plus, I bet you got more for it then you would have, if it would have been an old PC scrapped for parts...


Plus no defragging... spyware nonsense...




99% of the money I make from my company comes from PC's so I won't rag on PC's too much. All of my freinds have since switched to Macs and they all love it. Snow Leopard rocks!

Biggest, Bestest iMac Snow Leopard in da House ...

We are sooooo engaged, and I don't even believe in marriage ...

... I am NEVER lookin' back!


Now I wanna an Apple Laptop ...