New computer: Mac or PC?

[jjrodger]

I broke the LCD screen on my Sony Vaio laptop yesterday. The insurance company will pay for the repair, but I can't be without a computer for 2 weeks. I've been thinking about buying a new machine anyway.

So: Mac or PC?

I am a lawyer. I use my computer predominantly for writing documents in Microsoft Word (which I also send by e-mail), writing and reading e-mails, surfing the internet, and using my digital camera. I also have a set of law reports on CD-Rom which are accessed by very simple database written for Windows only.

I have an iMac at home. It is great for internet, e-mail and I really like Word on the Mac. I've found Word files e-mail seamlessly to my PC, although JPEGs are more difficult. I would plan on running Virtual PC to run my law reports.

I'm not really interested in tinkering with downloads and stuff like that.

I far prefer my iMac for photo work.

I would buy a 17" iMac and a 12" Powerbook G4.

I would really appreciate any comments, positive or adverse. If this is a stupid idea, please tell me.

[Botnst]

I use PC's at work and have been Windowing since 1993. I have never found these systems as easy to use or as reliable as my Mac that I use at home. As an example, I have a couple of ollllld Macs (68K and a 603e) that still work just fine for most uses and work (slooooowly) on the internet. The OS (8.2 and 9.2) are nearly bullet-proof. My PC at work (MicronPC with gigaherz and megabytes beyond measure) running XP crashes once or twice a week.

I just bought a Mac with a DVD burner off Ebay (a G-3; OS-X) for $300. It is already out of date but will last anotehr five years. It is Unix somewhere down deep, which I haven't used in decades! There is 40 years of Unix programs out there that lots of folks are busily porting to the Mac environment.

I should get it Friday. Anybody know if I have access to root? Can log-on as SU? This should be fun.

[PC Dave]

My office is completely Windows-based, as is my office computer. I needed a new laptop for travel a few months ago, and I bought an iBook when I looked at the windows offerings and was unimpressed. I use it for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and general e-mail/websurfing, and I've never run into an incompatibility. If you prefer the Mac and don't depend on any specialist windows-only applications, I see no reason not to get one.

I would go with a Mac, for what you're going to use it for, it will more than suit you... And them some! I think the Mac is a premium brand, with good quality and a loyalty that is like none other. They last longer in the real world, meaning they don't change every three weeks like PCs. They change in speed and power, but as any Mac guy will tell you, an old Mac is still a viable machine in today's real world.

I think they are simpler to use, nicer to hold and overall a pleasure to own. I have a 6 year old Powerbook that is used for hours on end and does everything well, even after all these years. I also have a few newer machines and am very satisfied.

I also work on PCs, but they are just machines for just that... Work!

Look at it this way, if you drove a cab in NYC, you'd drive a Ford Crown Vic (in its own right, a great car) but what would you drive on the weekend on you own free time? The PC is a good work machine, the Mac can do PC work (by itself or with emulators) but it plays a whole lot better.

[RG5384]

i was able to get a toshiba notebook for around 700. celeron 2.0, cd-r/dvd , 256mb ram, 15" screen. Its a pretty nice lil computer, but i am extremely disspapointed in battery life. So much in fact that in a week or so i will be taking it back to get another battery to see if that fixes the problem. For 200 bucks more i also got the best buy service plan. I'm happy with what i got for 900 bucks, i doubt you'd be able to find a newer mac laptop for that kind of money, they seem to be really pricey
Ryan

[Zeus]

Do you like to spend time tweaking your computer constantly, having it crash, loading drivers, dealing with driver conflicts, re-loading OS systems, multiple re-boots and more hardware upgrades, changes and conflicts than you can shake a stick at? Then go for a a PC.

If, however, you want a stable platform, almost no hassle and smoooth operation, go for a MAC. Plus, they look better.

P.S. I don't own a MAC either, I have three PCs at home, I only work with both a PC and a MAC. I do, however, plan to upgrade to MACs at home when I can justify it.

[Kuan]

I have a Mac LC475 which still runs great for most text based internet applications. I telnet to a UNIX shell and do most things from there. It's awesome, not a single virus since... come to think of it, it's never been sick.

I like Macs.

[kennysin]

I used to own an Apple LC series when I started and it was so user friendly. However, I switched to PC last couple of years and took quite some time to adapt to the less intuitive interface, as well as getting used to frequent seizures as well as worry about viruses.

I just bought an eMac with superdrive........excellent graphics, sensuous keyboard with soft touch, and a MB-like build quality and running. Seamless MSOffice, unparalled imovie and photoshop capability (what a struggle to edit movies on PC!!), and capability to simulate Windows if you need it..........its a no-brainer.

Only downside is that software is comparatively lacking and lagging.

My $0.02.

[jjrodger]

I think I'm going to go for Mac. They are slightly more expensive, buit not enough to sway me. I'm not really a computer-guy: I use the internet a lot (but Macs are great for that) and I word process, but I don't tinker with the machine. I have been very impressed with Microsoft Office X for Mac; it is much easier than Office XP (paragraph handling in Word was better in particular).

I really appreciate your input. I suspect the debate might rage on...

Out of interest, when I was in college (1994-1997) I used a Macintosh SE for everything and it served me well. It still works and works well. Only this year my French assistant used it to produce her thesis. My father bought the thing in 1988!!!

[RG5384]

i think i must just have bad luck with mac's. I used to have a macintosh IILC and it was in the shop every frickin week. Also, everytime i use one of the macs in the computer lab on campus(when all the pc's are taken), i always get some sort of error. Everyone else seems to think they are trouble free though, so maybe i just have bad luck.
Ryan

[JHZR2]

I hvent bought a mac in years (my las one was a 75mhz powerpc bought in 94 running os7.5). 3 PC desktops, 2 laptops and a tablet pc later, my next purchase will be a mac. In school I used a lot of complex programs that worked on PCs. I ran an NT based OS and went along without a hitch. Now I have some good enough PCs, and so for the bulk of what I do, a computer than will runmy word documents, adobe files, etc., and go nicely on the internet and do email is all I need at home. I may even get an Imac (although I havenever liked those all inones).

Ill ay this, I bought a lot of pcs for personal use since 98 (my first pc purchase, I was using said mac before that). The one thing I learned is, go with a PROFESSIONAL computer if you want a PC. I got a refurbished dell precision workstation with 1ghz xeon and its great, and wasnt too costly. If you dont want that, build your own, with top rated components, this makes the machines much more livable for more than 6months.

Macs dont havethat issue, and the good old 75 mhz still runs and the os looks great.

Thus why Id go with a mac, my good pc now will keep running strong for a long time, but macs always do that...

JMH

[psfred]

Get a Mac -- nearly virus free (no way to hack the basic I/O system, it's in ROM), very stable, all the normal business software, and so very much less hassle.

I use W2000 at work, not too bad, but SLOW compared to OS 9.1 on a much slower 300 MHz PowerTower, and it does stupid things like opening several copies of Outlook if you click funny.

If you can't live without playing around with the hardware, a PC is the choice, but that has become a chore for me rather than fun -- I have too much to get done to have to horse around with incompatible hardware.

The only PC program I actually liked was WordPerfect in the pre-C days -- lightening fast, completely predictable, and stable, unlike Word, which was a kludge. I still dislike it intensely.

All Windows OS's run the Mach kernel (Unix) -- the original is still the best! So does OS X, Solaris, Novel's OS, and a couple others. The difference between Mac OS X and the Windows OS's is the processor and the windowing system -- and MS windowing system stinks in comparison.

Both systems will run Linux if you are brave....

Peter

[MTI]

I bought a used iMac DV so that I could have a "life support" system for my iPod using iTunes instead of Xplay for Windows.

[psfred]

Ryan:

If I remember correctly, the IILC suffered seriously from overheating problems (Steve Jobs was anal about not having fans running in computers or some such silly stuff).

Modern Macs eat PCs alive performance wise, but you have to have a clean system -- any common use machine with old system software on it will be in pretty bad shape -- only needs a PRAM reset and a desktop rebuild, but the Macs at colleges these days are orphan stepchildren and seriously abused.

Try a new one sometime, or use one that someone has kept operating properly, and you may be surprised!

Peter

[Botnst]

Sales pitch.

http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/1984_480.html