Why Mac?

[squidlips]

Personaly I love the persona or Mac's and would love to buy one but my father, who is fairly computer savy dosn't want be to have one. I am getting a new computer soon and would like it too be a Mac so what are the arguments?

[SJT]

First off, Mac OS X is extremely stable, to the extent that I really can't remember the last time it crashed on me. None of the PC viruses affect Macs, and as yet I believe there are no reported viruses for Mac OS X (there were maybe 25 in total for Mac OS 9 and previous, pretty damn good for 15 years or so)

Second, the hardware is reliable and made to very high standard. Obviously, as with any manufactured goods, you get the odd faulty build, but they generally seem to last very well. The Mac I'm using is from 2000, I've upped the RAM and put a new graphics card in (though the current models come with good cards in them; it's just mine didn't).
So it's 3 years old and I expect it to go at least another 2 years before I need to upgrade.
I know a lot of businesses that are still using models from 5 years ago now. Basically, they seem to stand the test of time quite well.

Third, Mac OS X is a combination of both Unix and the background of the classic Mac OS. This means not only do you get thousands of open source Unix apps that work, but you can still use the old favourites such as Photoshop and Flash, which the equivalents on Linux are a bit flakey.

[Yuusen]

The operating system is becoming more standards comliant to the point that I believe it has overtaken Windows.

The OS is majorly updated every year which means the development cycle is quicker and less intrusive (in the form of new things to learn, yes you have to download more but you dont have to wait aroud for a huge burst of better features).

The last time Windows updated was over 2 years ago (2000 -> XP).

The latest desktops are just as fast as a almost identically priced PC — don't let anyone catch you out with the now ancient 'macs are pricey' line. They aren't.

I myself am using the Rev A iMac from last century and it still runs nice and smooth god knows how long down the line. NO reinstalls, NO hardware failures, YES some crashes but thats cos 'm on an old system, NO viruses, NO lost data.

They network well with PC's too, my brother works full time on web, graphics, video and 3D and uses both as if they were the same system.

If you want a Mac, get one.

[<subQuestion>]

I'd say it depends on what you're going to be using it for? and what you're options are money wise?

I use macs as much as poss but have pc's also. I'm a dvd author but I'm sure that for web work you'd have to have access to both a mac and a pc with all the browsers you can or a pc atleast for testing.... I've found I can use macs for pretty much everything, design, video and dvd authoring but I do find Director better to work with on pc's.

I was in a mac hater environment for many years but started to use macs at OS 9 launch time. The mac world is a great place to be right now for sure and OS X is awsome. Only had one of my 4 macs freeze in 3 years and it was my fault....

-jAY-R

[Yuusen]

Thanks for the hint on Director, sub.

About the web page testing: If you run Virtual PC you can use any web browser you like as it allows you to efficiently emulate Windows (any flavour) within the OSX environment and it is very possible to simulate PC gamma on a Mac monitor (any brand, Apple or 3rd party). For those that dont know, PC gamma makes the black on screens a little lighter than under Mac gamma.

My bias towards Mac in my previous post was based on the fact that we are in a designers forum and therefore I assumed (yes, I assumed) that the original question was from a designer.

Hint to those that are thinking of buying a G5:

WAIT UNTIL VIRTUAL PC HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH SUPPORT FOR THEAT PARTICULAR HARDWARE IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO DEPEND ON IT A LOT. IT DOESNT CURRENTLY RUN ON THE G5's.

If you really must get a new Mac NOW, get a refurbed G4 and sell it to finance a G5 when the VPC update is released.

Check the Microsoft website for details on VPC.