Mac or PC - advice please!!

[tedandted]

I would buy both; iust love the mac.

[nakavelli]

I know its kind of late but...
macs= reek of awesomeness
PC= you dont want to know =P

Mac all the way especially with the dual processor at 800MHZ G4.....I am drooling=)

[Eyenovation]

So the consensus seems to be Macs are cooler, and possibly better - but not at running flash?

[BrainTea]

I've seen several posts that indicate the Flash player for Macintosh needs some help. Apparently Macromedia needs to make some improvements, that it's not the Mac's fault. Cool factors aside, ease of use seems to be the deciding factor for Mac aficionados. We're not computer illiterate, we're just not much into a keystroke and mouseclick ratio of roughly three to one......
but I digress.
By the way, is one particular Windows OS better than the others?

[KitsuneStudios]

My personal preference is with the Mac, though I use the PC with Flash 5 at work. I personally have not noticed a huge frame drop in the Mac. My 450-G4, 368MB RAM is outpacing my Dual 300-P2, 512MB RAM at work by a fair margin, although that may not be a fair comparison. Still, if you get a good framerate from the 'slower' Mac, the result should work much better on the fast pc's, correct?

One of the big advantages of the Mac now is Virtual PC. For less than the cost of a second computer, you can cross-platform test your work, and have full access to Standalone Mac and Windows compatable systems. In addition, the Mac plays well with windows (it has to) whereas Windows isn't as gracious about Mac systems. That will make it easier to pick up extra work from Mac-based customers without losing any Windows clients.

For the future, MacOS X, while not ready for primetime just yet, shows great promise. In addition to supporting virtually all fonts available right now, the display system for 2d is based on the Adobe PDF standard. Once new video cards can support the advanced math for controlling Alpha channels and bezier curves to help accelerate Mac graphics, The SWF and SVG formats can take advantage of that processing power when dealing with vector graphics, alpha channels, etc.

[KitsuneStudios]

BrainTea: Yes, Windows 2000. It is the easiest and most stable version of Windows I've ever used. Of course, that's compared to Windows. ;D It and my home Mac are about par for program and system crashes (Microsoft IE is the prime offender on both), but the Win2K machine has many more minor 'glitches' that reduce productivity. (Graphic card glitches, wacom drivers swapping my pointer symbols, and a permanently glitchy standalone/browser plug in Flash player)

[BrainTea]

Originally posted by KitsuneStudios


One of the big advantages of the Mac now is Virtual PC. For less than the cost of a second computer, you can cross-platform test your work, and have full access to Standalone Mac and Windows compatable systems. In addition, the Mac plays well with windows (it has to) whereas Windows isn't as gracious about Mac systems. That will make it easier to pick up extra work from Mac-based customers without losing any Windows clients.

Hey, I like the sound of that! That changes my thinking on acquiring a PC to check my work.
Nice take, cause I DEFINITELY prefer the Mac. I work with a PC fanatic, and recently had a "lively debate" with him...he was relaying yet another horror story of his home setup to me-it seems his son and a friend were visiting some porn site and the multi-popup barrage began...they panicked and pulled the power cord. Well, Mr. PC did not like this AT ALL...my colleague is a master of digressive rambling so I tend to tune him out pretty quickly, but I remember something about his version of Norton Utilities suddenly thinking that the browser was not the version it was expecting, or something...anyway, he had to reinstall both the browser and the part of Norton that regularly checks the disk; I don't know what the hell happened. I could no longer contain myself and blurted out, "But I NEVER have problems with my Macintosh!" This led to him trying to tell me that it's all a matter of what you're used to, and because I'm familiar with the Mac platform I'm able to deal with normal problems, and I kept trying to tell him that I NEVER, EVER HAVE PROBLEMS, but he could not grasp this as fact, only as my individual perception...
Sorry to go off on a rant here, but the truth is I've never known any Mac owner who experiences the bewildering array of hassles and headaches that some (not all-some) PC users do. Life just seems to be easier with a Macintosh. Like I tried to tell the imbecile I work with...NO PROBLEMS, EVER.


P.S. Just saw your post, kitsuneStudios--Thank You. Mmm...I don't know, I guess I really should have one of the damn things...hard to get pumped about it...but, then I can get all the cool games they don't make for Mac.

[Edited by BrainTea on 08-20-2001 at 09:01 PM]

[meat99]

It hurts me to say it...(quite the Mac fan u know)...but the PC just runs circles around the Mac when it comes to flash. Your timelines can be longer, you can have larger libraries, you can play back your FLA in realtime and it wont slug. The mac just wont run the FLA development environment or swfs at the speed (framerate) you want it to. EVER. (sniff...sniff)

I heard from a colleague of mine that there are certain framerates that both the mac and the pc can share...giving a perfect cross-platform presentation. I think they are weird #s like 17, 21, 31 etc. Has anyone else heard of this? I have tried these numbers and it the swf still seems sluggish on the Mac.. Maybe I got the numbers wrong. Maybe Im an idiot. I have to pee.

I just peed. Neato.

/ meat

[BrainTea]

All right then folks, I'd say it's affirmative. We need to start poking at Macromedia since this is apparently more than a perceived problem. There is no excuse for poor performance on this platform; Mac users are not going away.

[Peteeni]

I've been running a mac forever now... originally on some old mac (pre G3), and it worked fine. Now I'm on my G4 and I'm pushing Flash even more, I'm having no problems.

What should be consdered is how easy it is to do the job at hand! If it's easier on a mac... then get a mac. If it's easier on a PC (HA)... then get a PC!

I love Mac's, and hopefully soon I'll be working away on my G4 Powerbook! In the end it's each to their own!!

Go with your heart buddy.... get a Mac

[thelorax]

I usually don't get into these kinds of debates because most people that work on PC's have never touched a mac or started on one back when system 7 was around and they believe macs still run on that OS. I got a few words for you PC people, Macs aren't going anywhere. There is a four letter word I'd like to introduce you "UNIX", MacOSX will not crash. Upgrade your pc to XP, sure it'll make your system more stable,, that is what Windows ME did.

If you are a digital artist and run Flash only, a PC will be faster. Macintosh Flash was ported strait from the PC version. Remember how slow DreamWeaver was in its early versions,, same thing. Now why, Macromedia has not fixed the Mac issue I am clueless there. I work with flash everyday, but I also use programs like Photoshop, FinalCut Pro, Illustrator, Cleaner....

When I calculate my projects as a whole and the efficiency of a MAC the decision is a no brainer.

[BrainTea]

OOOOHHH......I love it when you talk like that......

Hmm, this thread's kinda ancient...I bet eyenovation bailed on us a long time ago....

Wonder what he/she bought???????
[Edited by BrainTea on 09-27-2001 at 08:27 PM]

[mabbacuda]

Yeah, Macs rule...

[jonstrong]

WHY WOULD WINDOWS MAKE A GOOD PRISON GAURD???

CUZ IT ALWAYS LOCKS UP!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
GET IT?

[BrainTea]

OOWWWWW YER KILLIN ME

[Effenberg0x0]

What about a version for linux? Would be possible?

Originally posted by David Michie
This is the dilemma faced by small software developers like ourselves...

Why have we not developed a Mac version of SWiSH:

- Because less than 3% of people visiting our site use a Mac.
- Because it would cost us half-a-million dollars to port to Mac.
- Because it would delay the next Windows version by six months or more.

In short, developing a Mac version would put us out of business.

Cheers, David.

[FFF]

Having a site geared to both MAC and PC, we gathered some interesting facts about this.

The relation of MACs VS PCs is 1:3 This means that PC is three times more popular than MACs. The amount of people checked in this survey we made is 10,000 with roughly 7,000 for PC and 3,000 for MAC.

I think that now you can draw your own conclusions and decide which way to go.

[serpamac]

I am the only Mac computer on a network of more than 200 PCs. I do graphic design for the press, for the web, for CDs, for.. name it.

I take personally care of my Mac, defreeze and debug it when needed and never call the 5-person IT department we house to solve a problem on my Mac (they are already too busy with all the PCs having problems anyway).

I do web pages on the Mac, double-check fonts and photos appearance..and install the pages on our Not-Mac server. And it works!

I translate Words documents in PDF because the 300 PC users don't know how to, or don't care__extract photos from PDF and put them in Powerpoint to be run on PC laptops.

Enough to say that I can do anything I want and I don't miss PC. I have one at home which I always end up rebooting or searching for the missing .dll and I leave it to my son for chatting and playing games (PC are unbeatable on that level).

I remember when Adobe was making software almost for Mac only, and other companies too. But the big chunck of the desktop market (offices) went to the awkward Windows 3.1 and then it is history...The market is PC and so the software companies are siding with it.

The "3 000 PC for 1 000 Mac" is probably true, but contrary to what PC users who never touch a Mac think, it never had anything to do with the core value of any machine, but exists today as a result of many many historical factors, including stealing, copying, imitating, and gross opportunism.

As long as Mac exists, I will stick with it for many reasons, not the least being that IT IS MUCH MORE FUN...

sp

[Effenberg0x0]

This is the kind of discussion that will lead nowhere.
IMHO most of the productivity/stability issues are about users, not processors or OS´s.

I mean, it´s ridiculous to say things like this:

-"Pc´s are evil because they crash hundreds of times a day"
-"All pc people are retarded, they can´t convert a PDF doc"
-"You can do things on a mac that you can´t do on a pc"

Come on, it all depends on the user... I don´t see my Win PC crash for a year or so (and i was testing some ASM serial port i/o things, the error was totally mine).
Not to mention my Linux PC. I think i have never crashed it. Same thing with the mac with MacOS X.

I ask you guys: Have you ever seen any Flash, Graphics, Programming or anything else made on a mac that, in your opinion, would not be possible to do on a pc? What about the opposite? I´ve not seen that yet. In my opinion there´s no such thing. And i don´t think i´ll ever see that. Someone will always find a way to it. Once again, it all depends on the user.

All this "Windows sux" talk is just lame. Stop complaining and start coding! Make something better than Win32 so. Or stop using it and try any of the other options! For example, why do you think there are so many people involved on gnu´s Gnome? To give "common people" an easy and free option!

Should we really demand that all people have to know a lot about computers in order to use one? Old people should learn everything about processors, os´s, programming, etc just to write an e-mail or do their taxes? A doctor should waste time learning how to use a Sparc just to write an article for a magazine? Kids should learn ASM and C++ in order to play games and have fun? Not to mention that there are people that just don´t like computers (they have the right to) but they HAVE to use it at work or college for example. Should my mother know how to compile a kernel or spend a lot of cash on a Mac just to e-mail me once a week or buy anything online? Wouldn´t any cheap and old PC with win95 be enough? What should this people use? AIX? The goal of windows is that it makes possible for this people, for any people to interact with today´s online world with almost no effort. It´s quite a piece of software despite of it´s bugs (show me any OS with no bugs).

People are free to buy and use anything they want. This is real nowadays. By now, i think we have to agree that people that want (or have to) use a computer but don´t wanna learn all about it choose pc´s with windows because it is made to be easier. And it is! And if it crashes...What the hell, they are willing to pay 50 bucks for a guy to come to their house, format c: and install everything again. Which generates profit and job for a lot of other people. Would the internet exist and be the way it is today, if all computer users were to busy trying to install the drivers for their onboard Modem/Lan Cards on a RedHat box?

It´s fair to give the "common people" an "easier although less powerful" or cheaper option. If they ever feel like they need more power, and they´re willing to try to learn more and to became "THE mighty power user", they have options, they can do it. With PC´s, Mac´s, Win´s or anything else. That is freedom. And beeing against that is just sad.

[FFF]

I think that the main difference between MAC and PC is that with Windows you get a bunch of viruses! Yet, I'm a PC user...