PC or Mac?

[Kzach]

Well, I understand what you're saying about not being able to freely/easily upgrade, and some of the stuff doesn't have a feature that I prefer, but the quality of the hardware definitely isn't crap.

Although I certainly wouldn't say it's crap, much of it is still the same as PC components you'll find in any other system. All of Apple's components are manufactured in China, just like every other PC is, and most of them are from the SAME manufacturers.

Of course, Apple's end product goes through more rigourous testing before sale, and most of the manufacturers are the better ones of the bunch but there's still very little that's different between a PC and a Mac when it comes to the internal components.

Now, design and form factor, that's another thing altogether. But at the end of the day, you pay for the OS, not the hardware.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Although I certainly wouldn't say it's crap, much of it is still the same as PC components you'll find in any other system. All of Apple's components are manufactured in China, just like every other PC is, and most of them are from the SAME manufacturers.

Of course, Apple's end product goes through more rigourous testing before sale, and most of the manufacturers are the better ones of the bunch but there's still very little that's different between a PC and a Mac when it comes to the internal components.

Now, design and form factor, that's another thing altogether. But at the end of the day, you pay for the OS, not the hardware.

And the name.

 

[fanboy2000]

Mac.

True story. One day back in late 2001 I was in a brand new Mac store. I was just looking, not intending to buy at all. (And I didn't buy anything that day.) A sales guy came up to me, a teenager or, at most, someone in his very early twenties. He started talking to me and I told him that Macs really weren't for me, I typically run FreeBSD on an ADM processor. (That's how you know you're really alternative, you use the alternatives to the alternatives!) Anyways, he said he wanted to show me something and took me over to one of the display models. Then he logged out, and turned off the GUI! Wow. I knew that Mac OS X's underpinnings were FreeBSD based, but I didn't know the full extent of it until then.

After that, I did some research and went in whole hog with an iBook. Ironically, my terminal has dropped dramatically since then and I don't use the command line nearly as much as I use to. Though I did break out sed for a project my senior year of college.

 

[Coplen]

Linux.

 

[kenmarable]

Prefer Mac, but am stuck using PC most of the time. 90% of my computer time is at work writing ASP.Net code. At home, I did have a Macbook Pro, but my wife loves it so much that she makes me use our old desktop PC instead.

 

[Qualidar]

Interesting: at this time nearly 24% either use a Mac, or use both and prefer the Mac. That's the sort of market share that DDI should pay attention to when deciding what to support.*

*assuming that ration holds up.

 

[Mercutio01]

When I used Macs at all (the grad school I went to had them in their labs), I hated them. I always heard about ease of use and clean navigation, but I didn't find that to be the case. Software wise, I am beginning to lean towards OpenSource, so my next computer will probably have a dual boot with Linux. But on the hardware side of things I vastly prefer the upgradability/modularity of PC.

 

[guivre]

Mac.

True story. One day back in late 2001 I was in a brand new Mac store. I was just looking, not intending to buy at all. (And I didn't buy anything that day.) A sales guy came up to me, a teenager or, at most, someone in his very early twenties. He started talking to me and I told him that Macs really weren't for me, I typically run FreeBSD on an ADM processor. (That's how you know you're really alternative, you use the alternatives to the alternatives!) Anyways, he said he wanted to show me something and took me over to one of the display models. Then he logged out, and turned off the GUI! Wow. I knew that Mac OS X's underpinnings were FreeBSD based, but I didn't know the full extent of it until then.

After that, I did some research and went in whole hog with an iBook. Ironically, my terminal has dropped dramatically since then and I don't use the command line nearly as much as I use to. Though I did break out sed for a project my senior year of college.

That's why I switched. It's a *nix box that I don't have to spend as much time on to keep running, with a great UI.

People complaining about software on OS X make me chuckle.

 

[Dykstrav]

Definitely PC.

Since the original poster doesn't want this to be a platform war thread, I'll avoid stating my specific reasons why. Suffice to say, my experience is that PCs are intuitive, easier to use, and more functional.

Mustrum_Ridcully is on to something. The strength of brand names carries a lot of weight among consumers.

 

[(un)reason]

Mac. I'm a musician, and making music on a PC has involved several orders of magnitude more irritations, delays and inconveniences whenever I do it.