PC vs. Mac

-or- the suit vs. the slacker

Published on May 23, 2006 By BlueDev In OS Wars

By now, I am sure most of us have seen the new round of Mac vs. PC commercials. You know, the one with the middle age, sort of uptight looking, fuddy-duddy dude in a suit representing a PC, and the young, hip, cool, laid-back dude in old jeans and a T-shirt representing a Mac.

I have seen a couple of variations, but they all focus on the same thing. They all are trying to convey the same message: Macs are just cool and "work", whereas PCs are out of touch, laborious and problematic. Of course, I find it odd that so much of the advertising lately is on the hardware (considering I am typing this entry on my Windows laptop with Intel Core Duo processors, an pretty nice ATI graphics card, more RAM than a Mac Book and a larger HD than a Mac Book, at easily a few hundred dollars lower cost).

Nevertheless, I am not a Mac hater. In fact, I fully anticipate owning a Mac someday, when I can afford to have one IN ADDITION to my Windows computers. But I have to admit, I really don't care for these new ads. They just seem like such a faulty use of details, that honestly, I think they are embarrassing. In that spirit I share the following (sorry, can't paste the image myself as it is not mine and I don't have permission to be pasting it):

An alternative comparison between PC dude and Mac dude.

I found this quite entertaining.

Comments (Page 4)

lolapoa

on May 31, 2006

UPS JUST GOT A VIRUS IN MY MAC, ITS SOMETHING CALLED WINDOWS XP LOL

ONLY BETTER APP IN WINDOWS MSN MESSENGER
CUS OF THE NEW EMOTICONS.

lolapoa

on May 31, 2006

C's in my life. My brother, a journalist/writer/academic has Macs. We have these pissing contests (jokingly, of course) about which is better. He keeps telling me that Macs are the industry standard in publishing houses and good recording studios around the world but everytime I talk to anyone else about my requirements, virtually none of the software I'm using in my home studio will run on a Mac. So I'm sticking with PC's

Sure, the Macs look cool and funky but that doesn't make up for the impracticality.

What apps do u use in windows?

Jafo

on May 31, 2006

tell me a good thing bout windows i cant do on a mac, can windows dualboot? can windows do heavy graphics? can windows NOT get virus, can windows DONT crash, can windows have a IDVD IMOVIE OR IWEB,

Yes.

One thing?....there are millions....millions more applications have been written for the Windows platform than the Mac...

....and, along with clone PC manufacture and DIY....it is ALL ABOUT FREEDOM OF CHOICE.

Something a Mac does NOT have....and it does NOT have it in droves.....

Island Dog

on May 31, 2006

You are right Jafo, but that's a good thing. For every 100 programs for the PC maybe one is good and actually works. Macs might have two or three, but they all work very well.

Jafo

on Jun 01, 2006

For every 100 programs for the PC maybe one is good and actually works. Macs might have two or three, but they all work very well.

Yes....but do the math....there'll still be more 'good' ones working well with Windows than all those select Mac ones....

eShinn

on Jun 01, 2006

I've got a few people I'd like ot address here:

Uninstall an App cleanly!...That all depends on the app and you know it. Both on windows and Macs.

;.) How true that is. To be honest, some applications (quite a few actually) create stuff in the Library folders on body System level and User level (...talking about OS X here...) and it's kind of a pain to literally get EVERYTHING off from an app including the fonts. Macromedia and Microsoft are notorious for this. However, on the Windows side, I do sometimes get a pop-up saying that some resources are shared with other apps - not saying which apps and if it was originally placed there by the app I'm deleting. I'm suppose to know which files go where as if I wrote the thing?

The disadvantages though of a Mac is that nothing designed for PCs works on it. For example Hotmail is changing its service to some LiveMail deal - Safari can't handle it. Safari can't deal with GoogleTalk without an external program. And then there's a ton of other websites that don't render properly in Safari, so I have to have three internet programs on the one computer just to deal with the lack of Internet Explorer, which is a bit excessive I reckon.

Careful about how you use the word 'nothing' as if it were an absolute. You're giving examples of web-sites and other web-related technologies. First off, your argument is nullified in the fact that this is an OS comparison, not a web-browser comparison but I'll continue on anyhow. Its up to the developers to engineer their services to work across multiple browsers. The code is not compiled for installation. Each system has to read and understand the same code. Leaving the web-related section; I'd like to talk a smudge on an operating system's single most important task - getting things to operate while interacting with the user. From my experience, hardware components such as cameras and the like - even with stuff labeled 'For Windows Only' (Microsoft's Bluetooth optical mouse for instance) actually works better on my Mac than it does on my PC. To get the mouse to work on the PC, I had to install a driver from the CD-ROM it came with, download the updated driver, use the proprietary Bluetooth USB connector, restart, push and hold buttons down exactly as described in the manual, enter paring code and again to make sure I wanted to actually use it (as if I'd change my mind after all I'd already done) to set up the connection - and again when batteries go dead. To plug in the Mac-unfriendly mouse, I had to pop-in battiers, tell the Bluetooth setup assistant to look for a bluetooth mouse, punch in the paring key and that was it. I could use the built-in bluetooth adapter - which makes sense (The point is to be wireless. Why have an adapter with a long USB cable?). I didn't have to reboot. I didn't have to install anything, and I certainly didn't have to update anything. When the batteries go dead, I put new ones in, and hit the reset button on the mouse. That's it. ... don't EVEN get me started on printers.

Lastly. What brings you to GoogleTalk? You don't like full-screen video conferencing in iChat? MSN has the two preset video sizes and AOL gives you this stamp-sized joke.

it's easy to use, you're right. but you also don't do what others do with their computers, so that's where it lies.
easy for basic users,
retarded for experienced users.

Not exactly true. It does keep all the underpinnings pretty well hidden so that an in experienced or 'casual' user doesn't mess things up, but it does it in the right places. For instance: It doesn't tell me I shouldn't be in the applications folder or the System folder and to "click here" if I know what I'm doing. But it certainly doesn't give you easy access to the under-the-hood stuff. Install X-Code and then hack away at ANY application you want. Right-click (or Ctrl+Click) on an application and then click "Show Package Contents". You're in. Do whatever you like, way beyond the limits in Windows. The ability to hack the UI in Mac is there as well although its not as mainstream as windows users need it to be. I mean c'mon, be honest, we're here downloading software to let us change the fug-ugly UI of windows. More often then not though, it results in an elevation in difficulty to operate the computer.

This goes perfectly in-line with other arguments about how there's not a single thing that I can do on my Mac/PC that I can't do on my PC/Mac. There's loads of software out there that I can buy or download for free and try out for Windows. MUCH more than on a Mac. That's true. Very true. MAN, am I glad it's true. There are thousands of sites out there that let you download free stuff, install it, try it out, let it bug you for 20 to 30 about the great reasons you should up-grade to PRO until you realize the software is utter trash, 'uninstal it', clean out any remains of it manually, go back to square one looking for the next monstrosity. So many people claim that they can get software that rivals that of the iLife suite. Sure you could. Not saying you couldn't. But while you're profusely running around in the cycle mentioned above nobody ever gets the chance to stop and think. How much work are you doing just to get to ground-zero of a Mac? How much do you make an hour? ...and so how much did you save by buying the cheaper PC? The reason the Mac guy is in lounge clothes is because he got off work, the PC guy is pulling an all-nighter.

It is about preference but not entirely. Macs are ready to go. They were planned, architected, engineered, and set up that way. Windows you have to fiddle around with just to get off the floor.

On my Mac I have ONE list of contacts which are automatically synced every hour to the other Macs I own over the internet .Mac and both cell phones via bluetooth. For the PC, I have an address list copied to every damned application that thinks it owns my contact info. If I want it on my cell phone, I have to manually start up a 3rd party app like a mediator between the two.

Bottom like is this. You ever come home from working on the computer all day and juts feel brain-dead? Me too, before I started bringing my own Mac to work.

Oh yeah... How much of that 95% market share is via dictation? How many of us bring our own computers to work on rather than the one the office gives us? What percentage of THOSE computers are Apple?

Maybe its just me. Maybe I demand more. Maybe that's why I buy Hugo BOSS rather than settling for GAP or Old Navy. Hey, that's a good comparison.

Mac / HugoBOSS
Sure the price tag is much higher, but take into consideration that it will last you a lot longer (4 yr old Clothes that still look great, No stray threads/flaws of any kind, iMac DV Graphite still runs smooth under current OS - sold the same time as Pentiun II PCs...how would THEY handle XP?). Pride in ownership, you take more interest in taking care of your things which helps them to last that much longer, and... Seriously. There's NO way to compare the quality of the two comparisons without just a moderate smirk/chuckle.

Lastly, the superiority isn't something you 'see'. It's out of the experience of actually using them.

eShinn

on Jun 01, 2006

Yes....but do the math....there'll still be more 'good' ones working well with Windows than all those select Mac ones....

Do the Math? What for? How many e-mail applications and MP3 players do you need?!? And..oh Jesus... Don't tell me you actually use multiple, completing apps at the same time...

Just give me one f'ing great app that I'll actually 'enjoy' using and let others compare features of half-azzed apps built for a quick buck or by look-what-I-made kiddies.

foreverserenity

on Jun 01, 2006

I've seen the commercials and find them amusing. I have used both a Mac and a PC, still using a PC infact, but I do personally prefer the Mac. To me it's just so much better, but that's just me. It just depends on the individual I guess, what each prefers. As for getting into an argument on which is better, what's the point? Taking the commercials for what they are, light entertainment is the thing, it's just marketing and getting their product to sell more. That link is funny though. Me thinks someone is taking it all too seriously - the person who wrote the ad that is.

Jafo

on Jun 01, 2006

Do the Math? What for? How many e-mail applications and MP3 players do you need?!? And..oh Jesus... Don't tell me you actually use multiple, completing apps at the same time...

There's more to an Operating System and its application than email and music.

...and the word is 'competing'.... Spell checker , and yes, why not? If you actually have the option to do so...unlike a relatively closeted and Monopolized system where 'you want Mac - you buy Mac - you get no choice'...

Fuzzy Logic

on Jun 01, 2006

I couldn't care less about what a mac can or can't do and have no feelings about them at all. It's the mac users I don't like, they all seem to have the same bad attitude.

lolapoa

on Jun 01, 2006

actually they are more programs mac based that CANT run on windows,that windows programs that CANT run on mac, and, whenever i need to use a pc program i have a native windows xp on my pc, even though i just use it once a day at most, bu hey Jafo, u haven't answered my question, can windows dual boot mac os X? and i dont mean sloooow emulation, i mean native as of my macbook pro im running right now in win xp pro with the full object desktop suite, which is faster cus of the tech on the video drivers mac and ATI made for my lap top, i dont think windows will ever dual boot native mac OS, cus of the EFI, EFI is heavier and newer than BIOS, it is posible to run bios on EFI but never seen someone run EFI over BIOS, like the mac ad says "sadly windows xp and even the upcoming vista run the 80's based BIOS,while mac uses high end EFI for hardware administration". tell me bout an aplication (dont mind games, mac has better but fewer games, for instance X flight VS. flight sim)that cant load on mac os, all the dumb talk bout compatibility has always been a microsoft publicity act, like when they said that documents made in office lookalike programs on a mac could not be written in pc...oh well at least i neve had a problem even opening them in msn office,...and it comes back its all bour freedom od choice, but i still dont get why loads of pc owners make there pc mac lookalike (god windowblinds has already the old mac visual style pre loaded!)and for all i know NO ONE that owns a mac makes it look like windows, or even change the visual style.

OH BTW I HAVE VISTA BETA LOADED IN MY SISTERS HP LAP TOP, ITS JUST WINDOWS WITH A ICON PACKAGER THEME AND WINDOWBLINDS LOL, ITS NICE, BUT STILL SLOW,AND EVEN IF THEY TRY, ITS A WELL DRESSED WIN 98 WITH FEW FIXEX AND LOTS MORE ISSUES.

lolapoa

on Jun 01, 2006

VOILA!!!!!!!! UR COMPLETELY RIGHT, U MADE UR POINT, ITS NOT THAT PC IS WORTHLESS, IT JUST MAKES THINGS LONGER, BTW, LIVE MAIL BETA WORKS ON SAFARI, DONT GET IT....AHAHAHAHA, ANYWAY WHY SETTLE WITH IE IF IT HAS TONS OF HOLES, IN MY PC I GO OPERA O FIREFOX, IN MAC I HAD OPERA, BUT SAFARI WAS JUST PLAIN SIMPLE AND FUN TO USE SO GOOODBYE TO OPERA.THE HUGO BOSS COMPARISON WOOW, THAT'S TRUE, EVEN THOUGH ITS MADE OF THE SAME COTTON, ITS NOT MADE IN THE SAME WAY, OR IN THE SAME QUALITY, SO,U CANT COMPARE IT. MAC IS NOT AS POPULAR, THAT'S TRUE, U DONT SEE THAT MUCH, BUT WHAT DO U SEE MORE IN UR STREETS, PORSCHE OR CHEVYS....THAT'S THE POINT.

lolapoa

on Jun 01, 2006

"He reminds me of Apple Store staff. I've never ever bought something from an Apple store and not had to deal with some pretentious dickwad with a superiority complex. It's probably the biggest disincentive to buying Apple around - at least at a PC store there's no instant assumption I don't know what a computer is."

I'm sure it's frustrating for you to have that assumption placed on you. But you have to get over your own superiority complex first. It's better (and more approachable) for a staff member to start with simple concepts and then he/she realize that you know much more and can freely up the vocab with each other on intricate details. The other way you risk over loading the customer and then having to "dumb-down" your vocabulary as if to inadvertantly ask, "...wow, just how much of a newbie ARE you?".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uninstall an App cleanly!...That all depends on the app and you know it. Both on windows and Macs.

;.) How true that is. To be honest, some applications (quite a few actually) create stuff in the Library folders on body System level and User level (...talking about OS X here...) and it's kind of a pain to literally get EVERYTHING off from an app including the fonts. Macromedia and Microsoft are notorious for this. However, on the Windows side, I do sometimes get a pop-up saying that some resources are shared with other apps - not saying which apps and if it was originally placed there by the app I'm deleting. I'm suppose to know which files go where as if I wrote the thing?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The disadvantages though of a Mac is that nothing designed for PCs works on it. For example Hotmail is changing its service to some LiveMail deal - Safari can't handle it. Safari can't deal with GoogleTalk without an external program. And then there's a ton of other websites that don't render properly in Safari, so I have to have three internet programs on the one computer just to deal with the lack of Internet Explorer, which is a bit excessive I reckon.

Careful about how you use the word 'nothing' as if it were an absolute. You're giving examples of web-sites and other web-related technologies. First off, your argument is nullified in the fact that this is an OS comparison, not a web-browser comparison but I'll continue on anyhow. Its up to the developers to engineer their services to work across multiple browsers. The code is not compiled for installation. Each system has to read and understand the same code. Leaving the web-related section; I'd like to talk a smudge on an operating system's single most important task - getting things to operate while interacting with the user. From my experience, hardware components such as cameras and the like - even with stuff labeled 'For Windows Only' (Microsoft's Bluetooth optical mouse for instance) actually works better on my Mac than it does on my PC. To get the mouse to work on the PC, I had to install a driver from the CD-ROM it came with, download the updated driver, use the proprietary Bluetooth USB connector, restart, push and hold buttons down exactly as described in the manual, enter paring code and again to make sure I wanted to actually use it (as if I'd change my mind after all I'd already done) to set up the connection - and again when batteries go dead. To plug in the Mac-unfriendly mouse, I had to pop-in battiers, tell the Bluetooth setup assistant to look for a bluetooth mouse, punch in the paring key and that was it. I could use the built-in bluetooth adapter - which makes sense (The point is to be wireless. Why have an adapter with a long USB cable?). I didn't have to reboot. I didn't have to install anything, and I certainly didn't have to update anything. When the batteries go dead, I put new ones in, and hit the reset button on the mouse. That's it. ... don't EVEN get me started on printers.

Lastly. What brings you to GoogleTalk? You don't like full-screen video conferencing in iChat? MSN has the two preset video sizes and AOL gives you this stamp-sized joke.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

it's easy to use, you're right. but you also don't do what others do with their computers, so that's where it lies.
easy for basic users,
retarded for experienced users.

Not exactly true. It does keep all the underpinnings pretty well hidden so that an in experienced or 'casual' user doesn't mess things up, but it does it in the right places. For instance: It doesn't tell me I shouldn't be in the applications folder or the System folder and to "click here" if I know what I'm doing. But it certainly doesn't give you easy access to the under-the-hood stuff. Install X-Code and then hack away at ANY application you want. Right-click (or Ctrl+Click) on an application and then click "Show Package Contents". You're in. Do whatever you like, way beyond the limits in Windows. The ability to hack the UI in Mac is there as well although its not as mainstream as windows users need it to be. I mean c'mon, be honest, we're here downloading software to let us change the fug-ugly UI of windows. More often then not though, it results in an elevation in difficulty to operate the computer.

This goes perfectly in-line with other arguments about how there's not a single thing that I can do on my Mac/PC that I can't do on my PC/Mac. There's loads of software out there that I can buy or download for free and try out for Windows. MUCH more than on a Mac. That's true. Very true. MAN, am I glad it's true. There are thousands of sites out there that let you download free stuff, install it, try it out, let it bug you for 20 to 30 about the great reasons you should up-grade to PRO until you realize the software is utter trash, 'uninstal it', clean out any remains of it manually, go back to square one looking for the next monstrosity. So many people claim that they can get software that rivals that of the iLife suite. Sure you could. Not saying you couldn't. But while you're profusely running around in the cycle mentioned above nobody ever gets the chance to stop and think. How much work are you doing just to get to ground-zero of a Mac? How much do you make an hour? ...and so how much did you save by buying the cheaper PC? The reason the Mac guy is in lounge clothes is because he got off work, the PC guy is pulling an all-nighter.

It is about preference but not entirely. Macs are ready to go. They were planned, architected, engineered, and set up that way. Windows you have to fiddle around with just to get off the floor.

On my Mac I have ONE list of contacts which are automatically synced every hour to the other Macs I own over the internet .Mac and both cell phones via bluetooth. For the PC, I have an address list copied to every damned application that thinks it owns my contact info. If I want it on my cell phone, I have to manually start up a 3rd party app like a mediator between the two.

Bottom like is this. You ever come home from working on the computer all day and juts feel brain-dead? Me too, before I started bringing my own Mac to work.

Oh yeah... How much of that 95% market share is via dictation? How many of us bring our own computers to work on rather than the one the office gives us? What percentage of THOSE computers are Apple?

Maybe its just me. Maybe I demand more. Maybe that's why I buy Hugo BOSS rather than settling for GAP or Old Navy. Hey, that's a good comparison.

Mac / HugoBOSS
Sure the price tag is much higher, but take into consideration that it will last you a lot longer (4 yr old Clothes that still look great, No stray threads/flaws of any kind, iMac DV Graphite still runs smooth under current OS - sold the same time as Pentiun II PCs...how would THEY handle XP?). Pride in ownership, you take more interest in taking care of your things which helps them to last that much longer, and... Seriously. There's NO way to compare the quality of the two comparisons without just a moderate smirk/chuckle.

Lastly, the superiority isn't something you 'see'. It's out of the experience of actually using them.

VOILA!!!!!!!! UR COMPLETELY RIGHT, U MADE UR POINT, ITS NOT THAT PC IS WORTHLESS, IT JUST MAKES THINGS LONGER, BTW, LIVE MAIL BETA WORKS ON SAFARI, DONT GET IT....AHAHAHAHA, ANYWAY WHY SETTLE WITH IE IF IT HAS TONS OF HOLES, IN MY PC I GO OPERA O FIREFOX, IN MAC I HAD OPERA, BUT SAFARI WAS JUST PLAIN SIMPLE AND FUN TO USE SO GOOODBYE TO OPERA.THE HUGO BOSS COMPARISON WOOW, THAT'S TRUE, EVEN THOUGH ITS MADE OF THE SAME COTTON, ITS NOT MADE IN THE SAME WAY, OR IN THE SAME QUALITY, SO,U CANT COMPARE IT. MAC IS NOT AS POPULAR, THAT'S TRUE, U DONT SEE THAT MUCH, BUT WHAT DO U SEE MORE IN UR STREETS, PORSCHE OR CHEVYS....THAT'S THE POINT.

lolapoa

on Jun 01, 2006

I couldn't care less about what a mac can or can't do and have no feelings about them at all. It's the mac users I don't like, they all seem to have the same bad attitude

WELL..........were not the ones bothering ppl telling the OS is useless, i like windows, its usefull, however, it will never match mac, that's all...and sorry if u dont like our attitude, but u would feel the same if i compared ur pc with a calculator.

lolapoa

on Jun 01, 2006

aaaa

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