PC vs Mac - The Great Debate

The funny thing about the Mac vs PC conversation is that those that are engaged in it rarely have used the other product extensively. While I haven't used Leopard (OS X 10.5), I have used Tiger (OS X 10.4) extensively and I'm quite confident that the overall picture is the same. I am very familiar with Windows XP (and previous versions). My experience with Vista (which I am using now and also had the beta version) is still rudimentary. Overall Vista has some kinks to be worked out but my guess is that in two years most of the country will be using it.

The advantages of a Mac are as follows: it comes ready to go and is simple to use for the computer illiterate. It comes preloaded with basic software to manipulate and organize your files. Under normal conditions it will not crash (and by normal I mean using a few, simple programs). Some argue that a Mac's multimedia software is superior, but after using top of the line Mac equipment and top of the line PC equipment, I'd take the PC (this is just my opinion and is really an issue for another blog). The Mac is also prettier – simple, sleek designs and pretty user interfaces.

Disadvantages of the Mac. It's much more expensive than a PC. It is much harder and more expensive to upgrade (which is why it can be more stable because there is a finite number of hardware setups available). There is not nearly as much software available nor is there a large online community that supports Mac products and development. Sure, you can boot your Mac to run Windows, but then you're just running an overpriced Windows machine. And, for those that still believe that Macs never crash, try running Final Cut Pro, Adobe Photoshop and DVD Studio Pro together for a few hours and see how many issues you have - if you stress a Mac, it will not play any nicer than a PC.

Advantages for a PC. It costs much less - you can get a basic PC with a monitor from Dell for less than $500 and I've seen brand new computers for sale for less than $300 with an LCD monitor included. Macs don't have competition so there never are any true sales. Windows computers have access to much more free software. As nice as Apple's included software is, I'd take Picasa over iPhoto any day. There are free versions of software that are comparable or better than all the included Mac software, you just have to search for it (start by searching for “46 freeware” to get a good starting list). PCs also have the corner on the gaming market.

Disadvantages of the PC. While the PC is more customizable, it is also not for the beginner to customize because if you don't know what you're looking for, you're not going to find it (or if you do find it, you'll probably mess it up). PCs also can crash more often than Macs if you don't know what you're doing when you install your own hardware and drivers, but if you buy a pre-built PC, you shouldn't have any problems, either. My wife has a Dell she uses for email, pictures, music, word processing and the like and she hasn't crashed it in the 18 months she's had it. Security can also be an issue if you don't take care of things, but if you use a basic firewall and anti-virus (which can both be found free), you really shouldn't have any problems. Windows also isn't as visually pleasing nor are the cases particularly amazing to look at, but, you can get all sorts of skins to spice up your user interface and there are some very cool cases available if you know where to buy them (not from Best Buy or Circuit City).

I sum up the advantages between PCs and Macs as follows. If you want easy, pretty and reliable and you don't care about cost, by all means get a Mac. If you want easy, cheap and almost as reliable, get a pre-built PC. If you want to maximize you're dollar and get a machine you can customize and truly make your own, get a PC with XP (in another year I'd say go for Vista) and possibly make it dual bootable with Linux. If you care about newer games, you'll have to get some kind of Windows Machine.

A PC will take a little bit of work to get it just like you want it, but a Mac will come ready to use and tell you that it works just like you should want it to. I, personally, prefer to make my computers work like I want them to. My brother just wants something that's simple and pretty from the get go. You can guess which of us would choose a PC and who would choose the Mac.

As a side note, if you're convinced that you want to do some in depth movie editing (and I've done it professionally with PCs and Macs), I'd highly recommend using the Adobe Suite (Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, Encore, etc.) on a PC or a Mac. I'd personally recommend using it on a PC. If you check the benchmarks, a quad-core will outperform a dual-core hands down and a PC with a quad-core will cost less than half as much as a Mac. Plus, it's upgradeable for much, much less than a Mac.