Infographics! I love them for their sheer sassy silliness. Here’s an entertainment I ran across on Mashable: Mac vs. PC People. Herein we learn that Macinoids are likely to be older than PC lovers; PC enthusiasts are more likely to live in the suburbs than Mac cultists, Mac fans like modern art while PCites prefer impressionism, and on and amusingly on.
What’s your preference? And how do your other preferences, lifestyle attributes, and personal quirks align with the alleged characteristics described at Mashable?
Pour moi, I prefer the Mac for some of its traits and the PC for others. Wish we could have a computer called, say, the Wallaby, that would blend them both.
What’s so great about the Mac?
• Customer service. The world’s most awesome customer service!
• Fewer virus issues. Daring Mac aviators sometimes even fly naked: no virus software at-tall.
• Fewer crashes. Many fewer crashes.
• Fewer update hassles. It just does its thing. And when Apple publishes an update, it rarely requires a vast learning curve.
• Classy style. Oh, I love the look of the beautiful minimalist iMac!
And what do I love about the PC?
• Speed. I think the PC runs faster than the Mac, especially for multitasking. A Mac really, truly does not like you to run more than two or three programs at a time.
• Keyboard commands. Garrrrrhhhhh! Word for Mac is still relatively user-friendly compared to the PC versions with the accursed “ribbon.” BUT…all your beloved keyboard commands? The damn things are Mac system commands. Write macros at your peril. Basically, this means point-click-point-click-point-click-point-click ad infinitium nauseum. If you’re used to speeding things along with keyboard commands, making the switch to Word for Mac means a real cut in productivity.
• Cheaper. But…uhm…you get what you pay for.
• Compatibility. Most people have PCs. Some programs for the Mac, such as Quicken, don’t translate to the PC platform.
• Availability: Lines of buyers never stream out the purveyor’s door, wind around the building, and extend out into the parking lot.
Quirks? I live in the city (but wish I was back on the ranch), like impressionism and some modern art, can’t afford to throw parties, prefer real news (the Times) to play-nooz (USA Today), love Rachel Maddow, love Jon Stewart, and wouldn’t be caught dead on a Vespa.
Images:
Apple iMac. © Matthieu Riegler, CC-BY, Wikimedia Commons.
IBM PC 5150 with keyboard and green monochrome monitor (5151), running MS-DOS 5.0. Boffy b. GNU Free Documentation License.
I work on a Windows laptop for my job and a Mac laptop for my home use. I’m used to using Windows since I’m a relatively recent Mac user, BUT I *love* my Macbook for all the reasons you note above. But I have to say I am so enthusiastic about my Mac because it just works so much better from a hardware perspective. The multi-touch trackpad is brilliant. I wish I could use my Windows laptop the same way.
Two years ago I found myself needing a new personal computer and ordered a Windows laptop because I just didn’t want to spend the extra $300 to get a Macbook. After slogging through problems with that Windows Vista machine for nearly a year, I gave up and bought a Macbook. So I essentially threw away $1,000 as a result and didn’t save myself any money. I also frittered away a lot of personal time finding fixes, etc.
Several years ago Neil Stephenson wrote a short piece called “In the beginning was the command line.” In it he notes that while Microsoft is a software company, Apple is primarily a hardware company. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it’s very true.
I do agree with your assessments of Mac vs. PC overall. But I did have an unfortunate experience last month with my Mac crashing and then receiving bad customer service. A first after over eight happy years with Macs. So I will give them a second chance.
And I live in the country, love impressionism, have a definite sweet tooth, and hate parties…but I *am* older so there’s that. (I could not believe the scope of the questions asked-but it was fun to check out!)
I started with a Mac when the mighty Power PC came out but transitioned to PC’s in 2000. A couple years ago a customer (I work for an ISP) lent me one of his G3’s so I could get used to the new OS. What struck me was how slow it performed compared to an AMD 1.8 Ghz Sempron running XP Pro.
The draw back for macs in our area is service. No local PC shop has been knighted by Apple to service them so it’s a trip to Vegas.
I gave the mighty Power PC (80 Mhz) to a friend when it was 12 years old and the only problem I had with it was replacing the CMOS battery. It worked great for the time we had it and we used it for graphics using Photoshop 3 and Adobe Illustrator on it.
As this point with our home networked PC’s approaching 5 years old we’re going to get new ones soon and have our PC person load them up with XP Pro one more time. After that it’s going to be Linux as that’s what the 3rd pc is running.