Mac Vs. Pc Commercials

[TogaMario]

The commercials are getting ridiculous. I don't hate Macs, but I'm certainly not inclined to purchase one over a PC. "My Mac produces a Bimbo, while your PC produces a man in a dress." Like a Mac is going to make the person shooting the film a better cinematographer, editor, or make their job a whole lot easier either way. It's time someone brought the truth forward.

Yes, I own a Mac. I've worked with them for over three years. No, I'm not impressed. Paid double for it than my newest PC of 6 months. The PC has never crashed any programs (except for when I made a bad programming error a while back) The Mac, however, is going on it's 50th+ crash, it's nearly brand new, and the instability lies mostly in ... get this ... graphic-oriented programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. It can't handle simple (100kb) files and simple taks like unoutlined text movement without crashing completely (and randomly, without saves in this process) and presenting a very canned error.

Naturally, this can't be everyone's experience with a Mac, after all, I'm sure it works well enough for little projects that make the individuals happy. Unless all I wanted to be able to do is surf the net, e-mail, and make some home movies, I'd build my own PC, and recommend anyone else do the same (or have someone you know and trust do it for you.) I just don't think it's better for anything, and by the time you get done paying for a Mac that can do basic film editing without slow down, you could've bought a PC with an excellent pci-express graphics card (or two), 2 gigs of ram, a 200 GB harddrive and a license for Adobe Premiere.

 

[Marchen]

They call it advertising. Macs appeal to a younger college-aged audience who loves them for iPod compatibility and their hipster image. I don't use a Mac simply because I really don't see any great need. I will say that they do look nice; their style is very clean and modern.

But no Mac for me, but a new iPod is tempting.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

I'm biased towards PCs, partially because they're easy and my brother builds them. Since I don't know much about computers other than how to operate my own (when it's functional), I trust his opinion on things, and this is what he said once about Macs.

Macs are very good at what they're good at, which is generally the art and video stuff. However, their compatability with things can be a pain, and they aren't as good as PCs for the things that they aren't specifically good at. Also, a PC built for the purpose of the artsy stuff is going to be just about as good at it.

My friend used a Mac at art school and really liked it. In general, I'll stick with the PC.


That being said, I really like those commercials. I think they're funny, and I like the Mac guy. (He was fabulous in Waiting and in Accepted.)

 

[Aaron L]

I like PCs. I build my own, I know how they wok, and I can modify them at my leisure. From what I knwo of Macs upgrading isnt an option. I still have a few components from my very first computer of 8 years ago in my current one (just the floppy drive and sound card, but its the principle of the thing )

 

[babomb]

Macs appeal to a younger college-aged audience who loves them for iPod compatibility and their hipster image.

I am a college student, and the commercial actually makes me less inclined to get a Mac. I identify more with the PC John Hodgman than that kid who plays the Mac, although I dislike hipsterism and am a couple of standard deviations more computer savvy than my average peer. The PC is geeky and funny where the Mac is kind of snooty, carrying around reviews of himself and whatnot. That Japanese camera will work just as well with a PC.

Also, now that Macs use the same x86 architecture as PCs, one could buy a PC and install OS X on it if so inclined (or for that matter, any other BSD or Linux distro), and it's more fun and cheaper to build the computer myself.

 

[TogaMario]

Indeed, it's great to know that the Mac commercials aren't fooling anyone, and although the iPod is a spectacular little product, the Macintosh itself isn't at all a wonderful thing. There advertising just seems to get more rediculous every time I change the channel.

Edit: And maybe what annoys me most is that the hipster advertising is horribly obvious, and ... well ... I'm hip! (I'm with it ... tuka tuka tuka tuka ... AAAH) and I wouldn't touch the thing if I didn't require it for a small bit of my work (and ONLY because of font file compatibility issues).

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I soured on Macs in the early days, when forced to take a programming class exclusively on Macs. When you have a computer where you eject your disk by dragging the disk icon to a trash can -- the same process by which you delete files -- because they forgot to install a BLOODY DISK EJECT BUTTON, you know you have problems.

While my mother & brother-in-law love their Macs, nothing at this point would persuade me to use one, even though I own and love an iPod.

 

[reanjr]

Well, the Mac trashcan was actually used more as a place to place things you were done with. The concept of deleting something wasn't intended for the common user to understand. That's why trash contents were recoverable. Microsoft did much better with this paradigm by making it a recycling bin rather than a trash can.

I'm not saying it was great interface design, but placed within context, I can understand why they did it that way.

 

[reanjr]

That Japanese camera will work just as well with a PC.

If there is anywhere the Mac bitchslaps PC, it is on interoperability out of the box. To PC users who have muddled through wireless technology over the last few years or so, Apple's AirPort is so technologically advanced it would appear to be magic.

Plug and play means different things to PC and Mac communities.

In the PC community, it means the computer will recognize the device in a generic sense, spend a bit of time installing generic drivers and then allow you to use the device. You may be missing some advanced features that require the manufacturer drivers, but for the most part the device works as it should.

In the Mac community, it means the device gets plugged in and works with full functionality.

That's a significant difference to common users.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I soured on Macs in the early days, when forced to take a programming class exclusively on Macs. When you have a computer where you eject your disk by dragging the disk icon to a trash can -- the same process by which you delete files -- because they forgot to install a BLOODY DISK EJECT BUTTON, you know you have problems.

We had PowerMacs in high school. Now, they didn't have a disk eject button... but they did have a button right next to the floppy drive!

On a couple of occasions, I was working on a document, and thought "Need to change disks before I save this."

... and switched off the computer.

-Hyp.