dufference between mac and microsoft.

raven83

Hi just a quick question for all you technology savvy peope out there, what is the difference between a microsoft lappy and a macbook, apart from the price :eek: Just i am really curious to know what a mac does better than microsoft i.e better graphics etc? I know some people say that once you go over to mac you never want to use microsoft again oh and apperently mac don't do them annoying updates when you turn your pc off but what else makes them so special compeared to a normal lappy?:beer:

Lucero_2

This isn't the case at all and is a common misconception. Macs are essentially glorified PCs that use different software. In fact, it is entirely easy to install Mac on a PC and Windows on a Mac, although against EULA.

Hardware wise, it's possible to build a laptop or PC that has far better spec than a Mac for far less money. Thing is, Macs look great, and aesthetically, this is perhaps what people prefer. I own a macbook air for example, because there is nothing to market that comes close to the performance offered in such a small well built package.

There is virtually nothing software wise that a Mac can do that a PC can't

Humphrey10

You can't compare Macs to PCs in terms of specification, as you can buy such a range of computers - from cheap netbooks to high end gaming computers costing thousands.

For any given price range, you will get a higher spec PC than you will a Mac. I'm sure you will get a far more fashionable machine if you go for a Mac, but it's up to you if that's worth paying extra for.

in_the_Cotswolds

I have a Macbook Pro moved from a PC. TBH sometimes I wish I hadn't changed. OS updates are a lot cheaper though. I updated to Lion and it cost £21 where as with Microsoft I had Vista (and contrary to the XP purists I didn't have any problems at all) to upgrade to Windows 7 it would have cost me circa £100+.

Depends what you want to use it for. You can get Photoshop, Office for Mac. You can always run Windows on the Mac by using Parallels or another equivalent software if you find you need Windows. The other thing is viruses are minimal I have virus software but haven't had any problem.

The other thing I like about the Mac is if you give Powerpiont presentations and have either an iPod Touch or iPhone you can use them as a controller. The presentation appears on the iPod/phone and you can use it to read your notes and change slides.

Would I go back to Windows? Probably, although I'm not an Apple fanboy. I have an iPod touch but the iPhone does nothing for me. Prefer my Blackberry.

texranger

Macs (or apple macs) were primarily designed to be used in the design industry (graphic design, web design etc.)

Bodymass

Lucero wrote: »

This isn't the case at all and is a common misconception. Macs are essentially glorified PCs that use different software.

Yep totally agree. Mac's are safer as well but that's generally down to the fact they are much less popular and so there's less likelihood of getting hacked and glitches exploited.

Historically speaking I remember when Mac processors were a lot more efficient than PC equivalents, but I don't like Apple anyway and never have. Don't own a single Apple product (not even Quicktime) and never will.

Yolina

texranger wrote: »

Macs (or apple macs) were primarily designed to be used in the design industry (graphic design, web design etc.)

Yeah, but I'm a photographer and I use a PC by choice there's several reasons for that: 1) I get a better specs PC for the price of a Mac 2) I can upgrade bits and pieces easily when required 3) since Adobe and Apple fell out, Photoshop updates are available for PCs before they are available for Macs 4) I just don't get on with a Mac - the single button mouse drives me up the wall and 5) I don't give two bits about what the stuff looks like, it's a work tool

gonzo127

the main difference between Apple and Microsoft is intergration, this is because Microsoft is designed to run on so many different combinations of hardware it has been more difficult to get the intergration in the software and hardware, whereas Apple have such a limited choice of hardware they have been able to design their software around the small amount of hardware they autherise it to run on, which means it runs better.

If that is a good thing or bad thing is up to personal choice, as if you wish to be limited to a small choice of hardware, with limited (and expensive) upgrade routes yet have any software designed to run more effciently then Apple is the best route, if you wish for choice then it goes to Microsoft

the other thing Apple do well is the ecosystem, very closely linked to the above as it allows for a very high level of intergration between your systems and software but brings a few more issues into the fray, for example the amount of times i have heard someone (not a Apple worshipper just a normal person who uses Apple products) say oh i would like to change however i have spent so much money on my software i dont want to buy it all again, the Iphone being a prime example, oh i dont need a £35 month contract as i never use all my mins texts and internet, however i have spent so much money on my apps that i dont want to have to buy them all again

wba31

Yolina wrote: »

Yeah, but I'm a photographer and I use a PC by choice there's several reasons for that: 1) I get a better specs PC for the price of a Mac 2) I can upgrade bits and pieces easily when required 3) since Adobe and Apple fell out, Photoshop updates are available for PCs before they are available for Macs 4) I just don't get on with a Mac - the single button mouse drives me up the wall and 5) I don't give two bits about what the stuff looks like, it's a work tool

I am a mac user at home, PC at work. I used to own a PC at home until it died after 18 months of mother board failure, and had random fault messages popping up on start up after 1 year. between times the firewall would randomly change it settings and not allow me access to the internet, but ive never known that fault on other PC's with the same virus checker.
My first mac still works, 4 years on, and my wife uses it. My latest is 2 1/2 years old now, and is a great machine.
I bought Apple because i love the software you get with it. iLife contains iPhoto and iMovie that I use a lot, I dont think professional photographers or film-makers would use them, but for me, a complete amateur, they are great programs. I know there are free equivalents on PC, Picasa for example, im sure there are better alternatives to that.
The post i quoted mentions a 1 touch mouse. I have the Magic mouse, which is magical, and have set it up to a right click and left click, very easy to do.
I love how Apple hardware works seamlessly with one another.

Do I think that they are worth the money paid for them? not really, you can get a great PC for half the price of a mac, however i have seen more PC's break earlier than Macs, and i like Macs, so to buy them i have to meet the asking price. or get student discount which is what i have done every time ive bought one!

boxst

MacBook looks cool

From a functionality point of view they do more or less the same thing. The gestures on the MacBook make life much easier and I get some sort of perverted pleasure out of discarding safari pages with a swipe of the fingers on the trackpad.

I personally find OS X more irritating to use than windows 7 having to jump off into terminal way too often for my liking. I have both installed on the same MacBook as I use W7 for work (both as a seperate boot and with VMWare Fusion) and OS X because it is loaded and native for when I just want to play.

Dave_C_2

This is a bit of a false dichotomy, the third choice is a non-mac machine running one of the flavours of Linux.

Some advantages:
Fast
Free
Small updates
Virus free
Works well on old machines
Did I mention it was free and no viruses?

Some disadvantages
Steep learning curve at the start
Command line interface for expert user stuff

Dave