Mac or PC

T

That Guy

Guest
So I'm thinking it's getting time to retire the Athlon 500. I started looking at PC's first. But then went over to Apple's site to have a look at a Mac. I haven't used one in a very long time. But I hear from everybody that they're better at graphics. And my computer needs in the future will be digital imaging, maybe video editing, and web browsing.

So what to do? At this point, I'm thinking Mac. So, convince me why I shouldn't get a Mac...
 
I won't try to. A mac is almost never the wrong choice for a graphics person. Now that it's running a Unix based OS, the only real problems are gone. A mac, a scanner and Photoshop is everything you could ever hope for.

As a side note, I did IT for a state government agency for 10 years. When I started we were on Unix. When I left we were on Windog via a product called Citrix. Productivity had drastically suffered in between those two eras.

William
 
I'm on a Mac myself, so you won't hear me trying to talk you into a PC (for the record, I make my living in technical support for PCs). The iMac I bought almost five years ago now still handles everything I need it to do, and the only hardware upgrade I've had to make to stay current was bumping up the RAM. I've added some nice-to-have things like a scanner and CD burner, but the basic unit's still going strong.
 
Your Athlon is presumably running either Windows or Linux. You will need to get a complete set of application software if you buy a Mac. That includes your graphic software, and maybe a word processor.

The other thing to check is hardware prices - I wonder if RAM prices are more expensive on the Mac platform? You will need a lot of RAM for video editing or even handling film scans in Photoshop.
 
peter_n said:
Your Athlon is presumably running either Windows or Linux. You will need to get a complete set of application software if you buy a Mac. That includes your graphic software, and maybe a word processor.

The other thing to check is hardware prices - I wonder if RAM prices are more expensive on the Mac platform? You will need a lot of RAM for video editing or even handling film scans in Photoshop.
Click to expand...

Current Macs come with an impressive software collection, memory modules are the same as in PCs and they take most PC peripherals.

Old Windows 98 Software has to be upgraded to current versions compatible with Windows XP so new software is needed in any case.

And for some peripherals, Max OSX with Photoshop CS supports my Canon FS2710 scanner, Windows 2000 and XP don't!


So I'd go for the Mac!
 
Shows you what I know! ;) Actually I'm thinking of changing my whole office over to Linux, I've had a Red Hat 7.x server running here for a couple of years and one workstation running the software. It's solid.

I'm really sick and tired of forking over so much money to Microsoft and the Sun office suite ($70) will save and read in the MS format. Just need to look into the graphics situation. Anyone using a good graphics package on a Linux workstation?
 
peter_n said:
Shows you what I know! ;) Actually I'm thinking of changing my whole office over to Linux, I've had a Red Hat 7.x server running here for a couple of years and one workstation running the software. It's solid.

I'm really sick and tired of forking over so much money to Microsoft and the Sun office suite ($70) will save and read in the MS format. Just need to look into the graphics situation. Anyone using a good graphics package on a Linux workstation?
Click to expand...

We're getting a bit off topic, but who cares :)

I'm running mostly SuSE as Server and Workstation and I'm pretty happy with it. Instead of Sun Staroffice I run OpenOffice which is the free version of Staroffice. It lacks dictonaries and ADABAS datatabase software but I can live with the free dictionaries and Informix and Oracle :)

Graphics is a bit of a problem, I'm fine with The Gimp but never used Photoshop much. I once beta tested Corel Draw for Linux but that project died.

At the moment I have to use a Win2K Workstation as our own software runs only on Windows, Scanview 5 is in an early beta phase and hopefully I get a copy soon so I can get back to a Linux environment.

But I prefer Apple Notebooks over anything else! Light, tough, easy to use, long batterielife, and most important SEXY!

Man, that illuminated keyboard in the 17" Powerbook drives me crazy :)
 
Therein lies my problem. I'm not an expert but I've used Photoshop for a long time. I need a usable graphics package that is Photoshop-like for some of my work.

I'm on Win2K too.
 
peter_n said:
Therein lies my problem. I'm not an expert but I've used Photoshop for a long time. I need a usable graphics package that is Photoshop-like for some of my work.

I'm on Win2K too.
Click to expand...

Photoshops userinterface is protected by a lot of patents, so anything what looks like photoshop will be from Adobe and they don't support anything besides Mac and Windows.

So get a Mac :)
 
I think Macs offer better value for money, long-term, quite apart from the stability of OS X & the freedom from virus/adware/spyware infection.

My G3 is still going strong running Photoshop 7.0 although it is a bit slow at times. The G5 iMac is a real value buy except that Apple only give you 256 RAM & P'shop needs at least 512.
 
Mac.

Get a G4 >500MHz, and a gig of ram. Should cost similarly to a Pentium GHz with the same ram. Will run well.

I've both. Linux on the Mac is wonderful, YD 3.0.1 is simply the most beautiful implementation of X and a window manager I've yet seen. Stunning, and the details are *right.*

Mac OS X is similarly attractive. Very pretty. And as a bash junky, I love the Unix underpinnings, especially when I enable those -faltivec -mcpu=7450 -mtune=7450 -fast -O3 flags for compilation...
 
If you're a "built-it yourself" kind of guy, then PC's are the better deal by far. If you're a "just make it all work" kind, then Mac's are king. You'll be using Photoshop on either platform, so that won't be a problem. Just make sure that your peripherals are supported under OS X.

Video is much more demanding than ps, so make sure whatever you get, that it'll be up to the task. Some of the eMac's and iMac's aren't very expandable beyond mem and storage, think Power Mac G5 :)
 
I've been a Mac user since 1984, and was a Certified Apple Developer for a number of years, so I'm sure not one to advocate Windows! ;)

Though bulkier and more expensive, the Mac tower models offer more expansion possibilities to keep them current for longe effective usage life. OTOH, laptops are awfully handy, but it's a pain to keep synched with a desktop.
 
Photoshop+Scanner+Web browsing...

For me sounds to Mac. I could do that myself but I'd still like a PC box to play games when I have the necessary time, and having two computers is not an option (you know they are only computers, not cameras :D) so I'm staying with PC.

My 2 cents, and agree that Mac OsX (a Unix in fact) is NICE.
 
I've used 'em both. Coke or Pepsi, take your choice. The myth that Macs are better for graphics is about ten years out of date. Nothing against Macs. I like them. But they're not without problems of their own and don't let anyone kid you into thinking they're virus free. There just aren't enough of them around for most the virus chappies to take an interest in them :D

Gene
 
(That means they are virus free *ahem*)

LOL!

I had to install virus scanning software on my Mac so I could connect even through the dial-up connection, as work doesn't allow me on the wire PERIOD (banks are funny that way). Macs might not be infected by e-mail viruses, but they can certainly pass them on, and they are vulnerable to their Unix underpinnings if set up incorrectly...

What I like about the Mac is the general availability of software that makes use of both the vector processing abilities, and the availability of multithreaded software- I've a dual processor Mac, and it's pretty efficient, using both processors when possible to attack various rendering problems (Photoshop) or whilst creating DVD's...

Otherwise, XP is now pretty much as stable as the Mac.

Oh, and you CAN indeed build a Mac with off of the shelf componentry.

And my AIX disk DOES start to boot on the Mac, but there aren't drivers for it to recognize enough of the system, sadly.
 
I'd actually use BeOS if it ran well on modern hardware and had a decent graphics package other than the GIMP, but tragically this isn't the case. I never saw any other OS which could handle multimedia as well even on limited hardware, plus it ran on both Mac and PC hardware. Very sexy, very fast, very user-friendly, unfortunately very obscure and now sadly very dead for anyone but a hobbyist/geek.

And yes, I know which category it means I fall into by the very fact I used Be for years :)
 
I'm a graphic designer... I've been a Mac user for a long time, but I also use a pc sometimes at work for testing and programming which makes sense when doing websites because the web audience is mostly pc.

I guess you have to weigh your options... the main ones being cost (macs are more), design (pcs are fugly), and virus (you don't really have to worry when on a mac). I think the paying more for a mac is worth not having to pay attention to all those "Flaw in Windows" scares.

But then again, if you have a lot of pc software, it may be too expensive to make the switch. But if you're starting fresh, I say go for the mac, they do not dissapoint.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom