Mac vs PC

Are you a Mac lover or PC lover? Here is some comparison between Mac and PC.

Mac vs PC - Piece by Piece

While Vista is more robust than previous versions of Windows, it still gives you somewhat less than OS X. For example, it doesn't offer an equivalent to the Mac's GarageBand* (which lets amateur musicians record and edit tunes), or to iWeb* (which makes it easy to build Web sites). And what's there may seem a little less complete. For example, iPhoto lets you create and order books, calendars, and brochures graced with your own pictures, but in Vista you'd have to export your Windows Photo Gallery pictures to another program to do so. And you can set up custom search parameters for the Mac's e-mail client and use them anytime thereafter, but you can't do that with Windows Mail.

Variety of Third-Party Applications

If you don't like what you see in your bundled applications, you can find replacements in third-party programs. The variety of third-party applications that run under Windows is exponentially larger than that for Macs—especially for games. For every Windows application, there's usually a Mac version as well, whether it's an e-mail program, word processor, spreadsheet package, photo editor, or inventory software. In addition, the Mac has long run Microsoft's ubiquitous Office applications, including Word and Excel.

On top of that, the long-term trend in computing is toward "cloud computing," where you access applications over the Internet rather than on your computer. In other words, both the software and your own information reside at the hosting company's Web site. A big advantage of cloud computing is that you can access your information and do your work from any computer—Mac or PC.

In fact, you've probably seen this in action with e-mail programs without even knowing it. When you use a Gmail or Yahoo! Mail account, you're computing in the cloud.

This remote-application trend will grow. Google, for example, now offers Google Apps, a suite of programs with Web-based word processing, spreadsheet analysis, calendaring, photo-organizing, and e-mail capability.

The Purchase

Price: There used to be just one school of thought on the price of PCs versus Macs—Macs cost more. But that's no longer the case.

When you take two machines identically equipped, be they desktop or notebook, PCs and Macs cost about the same, sometimes a bit in the PC's and sometimes a bit in the Mac's.

Mac vs PC -User by User:

In addition to the base price of a system, you need to consider ongoing costs, like the following:

• a. Every Windows-based PC needs antivirus software, and that requires an annual subscription.
• b. Both companies release an OS upgrade about once a year. The Windows update is free; the Mac's is not (the most recent one cost $129).
• c. Windows' frequent bug and security fixes take time to download and install, a blow to your productivity (and, in all likelihood, your patience).
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