Can somebody tell me what makes macs better than PCs

I'm a communications major with a concentration in film. Last semester we used an avid xpress editing system (a mac system) for my applied techniques class (film 4). Now from what i've been told the thing that makes macs so great is that their more stable/user friendly, but I experienced just as many (if not more) crashes and glitches as I would with my pc. This mac used OS 9 which i'm told might explain some the frustration.

This semester i'm taking a T.V. news class where we're using final cut pro to edit our projects. The first day that we were supposed to learn the program, the group that i was working in had to break up because the workstation wasn't recognizing the dvcpro tapedeck and the external harddrive. We also couldn't get it logged onto the network.

I asked a graduate student that was trying to help us fix things up whether macs were really all that more reliable than PCs and he said that for the most part, no.

I'm confused, can somebody plz explain the differences in detail on or point me in the direction of an article or website that can???

 

Well, I have never personally owned a mac or mac laptop, but in my experience with apple, their customer support and tech support is fantastic.

I'd like to see what somebody who has had technical problems with really specific and probably more advanced stuff such as their coveted pro software has to say , because I pretty much and worshipping the macbook at the moment and wonder if it isn't quite so green in apple-land

 

Macs arent better. They arent worse either. Its all what you need. Hardware wise there is more you can buy for Reg pc. looks mac wins although there are very nice pcs these days. If you play games PC is the winner. Stability well XP is pretty stable but has more issues than OSX but you can also use linux on a pc so it really doesnt matter. Video editing and graphics are supposed to be better on mac although i dont think there is a big difference anymore between pc and mac in the past there was but PC caught up for that. so really it all comes down to what software you have to use.

 

I agree with SRD that Macs probably aren't better than PC's unless you happen to prefer OSX. For some, OSX is easier than Windows to use. Also, all of my experience with customer service, which has been at the local Apple store, has been excellent.

 

I find my ibook to be way more stable then my windows machines. And i would also agree that part of the problems that you said would be b/c of OS 9, OS X has made some huge leaps since 9 and has become much better.

Also in general, i find that public, especially school, computers seem to have more quirks then other computers b/c they get used by so many people and by people that can have no idea what they are doing.

 

See the problem with windows stabilty is pretty simple. No XP and microsoft are not crap. The reason is there is so much more hardware that is available for pcs. So MS had to make sure that windows will work with every brand from great brand name to cheap asian parts. Alot of times the cheaper brand names will have crappy drivers that can crash or effect stability. Now is it microsofts fault no. they made it to work with as much hardware as they possibly could. also windows has much more software available and some doesnt agree with it as much. But i find as long as you have a good anti spyware and virus protection. and use firefox browser you will have few issues ever with XP. if microsoft locked its system down and said only this software will work this hardware then there would be few issues if any. MAC OSX is more stable in a way but not for the reasons people think.

 

My best friend's fiancee is a fashion designer, and she swore by Macs, ditto with a lot of music production artists. True, a lot of the semi-pro to pro software are available on both platforms, such as Cubase and Photoshop, but some softwares are Mac Only -- like Final Cut, arguably the best "prosumer" level video editor.

Stability-wise, I doubt you'd really see a difference. Macs crash, PCs crash. OSX *is* more secure, that is without a doubt. One thing thou -- a lot of sound production ppl swore by Macs because they feel that Macs are just more responsive, with lower latency when handling multiple feeds. I toyed with garageband on the Mac and Cubase on the pc before, personally I couldn't really tell a difference, but this coming from ppl who own complete production studios, I tend to give their words more weight.

Then there was this time when I was at a SOAD concert, I noticed that their entire show was driven by Mac lappies. Great show, flawless execution. A few months later I was at a NIN concert -- I noticed that DELL lappies were used as controllers -- halfway through the show, the entire stage went BLACK. Apparently, they experienced a system crash. Trent Razor was not a happy camper... lol

cheers,

yass

 

Again like you said some software is available on macs that just inst on PCS and vice versa. I do think alot of people still have their mind set macs are better at this so they have no reason to give PCS a try even professionals. to me its come to the point where it just doesnt matter. its preference.

 

Macs may be better than PCs but they're not better than Thinkpads!

 

A friend of mine who happens to be a Windows fan mentioned that he liked the way OSX handles installs.

What I think makes it better: Personal preference. My preference happens to be Windows.

Howie

 

Macs are attractive because of the hardware-software integration by Apple. When you buy a Mac, you get a full-suite of software that comes with the computer. However, the number of software compatible with/available for OSX is somewhat limited when compared to Windows. If you prefer

stability - get a Mac
flexibility - get a PC

 

A big plus is no viruses/spyware, but it's mainly preference.

 

I prefer Macs for its design and that's it, but OSX has it's own flaws

http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/01/25/security.flaws.in.os.x/

 

OSX may be better than windows but it is not better than linux! As linus torvalds will tell you OSX is crap! It looks pretty and is easy to use but that doesn't mean its the best. Apple is expensive-pcs aren't. Linux is free and open source niether windows nor osx are. And OSX isn't really more secure than xp either it just doesn't get attacked as much its running on a very old setup of unix.

The only apple I've ever cared for was the appleII, and I like woz and the ipod and what the company has done for computing-definetly a big contributor. I haven't owned a mac in awhile.

 

You can't really bash any OS - each has its perks and bad points - it's all preference. Some people swear by Windows for its compatablilty, while others swear by OS X and Linux.

 

It works both ways, each guy (gates, jobs, torvalds) will say that the other oses suck compared to theres. They are trying to promote there own os.

 

Exactly.

@#&% Windows! $#@%& OSX and Linux.

 

Some people do that too But seriously, OS-picking comes down to what OS you feel the most comfortable with.

 

Ok, seriously: agreed.

This post is being typed on an old Dell (which has been nearly infallible for 4+ years), but I prefer OSX despite the Dell's longevity. @#&% Windows.

 

Yes but the others (osx and windows) do suck! Old dells are not only reliable but even more so with linux

 

to each there own.

 

Same experience here... I went to see Herbie Hancock a year or so ago and he was running his synths from the laptop... for a musician like him to be using a computer (any kind of computer is inherently unstable of course) he must have a great deal of confidence in it...