Week 4 - Post 2 - Comment on Mohamed Bahrani's posting

This is my comment posting to Mohamed Bahrani's blog entry Week4 - Blog # 2 - PC vs Mac

I have been a PC user for the past fourteen years, and I am still using PCs in my work. However, I started using Macs after registering with Full Sail University last year. There is no win-win in this argument. It is a matter of opinion, preferences, and maybe, it is just what you have to use as part of your business environment.




I still use both Mac & PC, though here are some of the facts, Mac is safer, as fewer attacks targeting it Mac OS X comparing to Windows. Design wise, I think Macs are more appealing and have a futuristic look and feel. Operating system wise, you can install Windows on Mac, but you cannot install Mac OS X on Windows.
I also think that the default programs (iWeb, iPhoto, Garage Band, etc) that come with Macs are better and useful compared to the ones that comes on the PCs. 

My Response

I'm a hardcore Mac person myself, but I honestly believe that it's not for everyone.

There are a lot of fantastic benefits to Macs in general. First, as you noted, there's BootCamp, so you can install a partition with Windows on your hard drive and dual boot if you need to (you can do this with software like Parallels and run both concurrently as well). Second, the software that comes with the Mac is lightyears beyond what comes with Windows and encourages creativity. Third, I personally find OSX more intuitive to use than Windows. Fourth, Apple clearly cares about both form and function as their software is nice to look at but also functions beautifully. Fifth, because we have much less of the market share we're targeted by viruses much more rarely. Finally, and this is a small point but one that matters to me a lot, there's additional integration between Macs and iPods, which allows me to sync up my calendar and contacts with my iPod easily.

But, like I said, Macs don't make sense for everyone. First, many businesses don't offer tech support for non-Windows computers (alas, this means Linux as well), so using one at certain workplaces is near impossible. Also, certain genres of software have very few Mac options (e-learning is unfortunately one of these areas). If you're someone who likes changing out the components in your computer constantly, most Macs won't work either. People who like gaming on their computer are out of luck on the Mac as most games either never come to Mac or come much later than their PC counterparts (this is a great spoof Apple commercial on the topic from a few years back). Finally, Macs cost a bit more than their PC counterparts. While I do believe the additional expense is worth it for the programs that some pre-installed on a Mac, not everyone has that kind of money to spend on a computer.

It's for these reasons I'm glad there's multiple options out there for operating systems. There's a good fit for everyone, especially with all the different flavors of Linux out there these days.

On a side note, you can technically install OSX on a Windows set up and create a Hackintosh, but it's tricky. Here's one set of instructions for doing it.