Apple or Microsoft?
 

OK, poll time. How many people are using a PC right now and how many are using an apple computer?

PC since 1988.

Ian

My PC at home is also my work machine.
Runs pretty well flawless. The occasional hiccup, but not enough to comment on.

No plans to 'convert'.


KT

Mac at home, I run two businesses from my mac

1979 - Commodore PET
1982 - VAX
1984 - Mac
1985 - 2005: 100's of PC's (sold, built, fixed, ran, used, flogged, thrashed)
2006 - Slowly been switching over to Mac. Run my two last PC-only aps under VMWare

Best Single Feature of a Mac: Open the lid on the laptop, and it is instantly on and working.
Worst Feature of a Mac (actually a Microsoft problem): Minor annoyances with Office

On a PC at work running Linux.

And here I thought you were just a wine grower. :D

I've only had one laptop along the way but a whole multitude of PC clones. I like desktops. Laptops just seem like toys & too many of my colleagues have killed their laptops on the road. My Blackberry is my mobile appliance.

Ian

PCs at both. It does the same thing as the Apple, for 1/3 of the price. That's all I need.

Work: Win XP and Sun Solaris.
Home: Win XP (me), Ubuntu Linux (me), and Mac OS-X 10.5 (family).

I will be dumping the Mac and moving the family to Ubuntu sometime this year.

Poll is flawed.

Apples at home and work.

2 17 Intel laptops for me and the woman at home as personal machines.

1 17 in PPC laptop hooked into 62 in projection as part of multimedia solution.

2 other laptops 15 in PPC laptops "just because"

At work, my daily machines

17 inch Intel laptop

27 inch Imac

Quad Core Tower

Other stuff in my group

4 Quad Core Towers

1 15 in Intel laptop

1 17 in Intel Laptop

1 MacBook

2 MacBook airs for travel.

Ughh!

I really hate that argument

Spec for spec PC's are no cheaper and sometimes are actually more expensive than the Macs and the build quality on PC's is for ****, go to an apple store and ask them to open a tower.

If you cant see the difference then....

At home:

Me: macbook + old dell tower in reserve + 2 laptops in the closet
Wife: macbook
Daughter: macbook
Son: macbook + 3 dell laptops + 1 gaming PC tower + 1 server (he's getting his CCNA)

I'm running Vista on my Mac Book Pro right now...
Windows developer by day, iPhone game developer by night.
-Chris

Six networked Mac Mini's at work.

At home a Mac Mini, two iMac G4's, an iMac G5 a Mac Powerbook and a MacBook Pro.

PC always. Tinker with Linux occasionally. Would be willing to tinker with a MAC, but don't think it's the computer messiah.

Then what? I'm not a computer geek? If that's your case, then I concede wholeheartedly!:D

You see, some of us don't really care what's inside of a computer. We care that it works when it should, and works well. For my criteria, a PC works fine. My 5-year old Dell desktop still does the trick for basic home use, and has never crashed. My 3 year old Gateway laptop has a short battery life and several semi-broken keys due to my 1 year old, but otherwise works well. I've ordered a number of Dell laptops for my family members over the last two years, do you realize that you can get a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 15.4" laptop for under $500? Several of them have been using them for 2-3 years with zero issues.

So, here's your chance to sell me. For the average user like me, why would a $1500 Apple better suit my needs?

That's the point.

Apple does not make a machine for the $500 user. It's not their business.

Cut n paste from previous thread,

Go to Apple and Dell.com

Configure some machines.

Apple 17 Inch Powerbook. Base Price. $2,799 upgrade HD to match Dell configurable option, $2,849

Dell Precision M6300. (Closest base config to MacBook but still lower spec) Base Price. $2,314 with $915 Instant Savings = $1,399.
Configure spec to match Apple, memory, processor, video card, etc.. base price goes up to $3,643 - instant savings of $915, total for Dell is $2,728

For a nearly $3,000 box I don't see a delta of $120 as a premium. And what about that instant savings from Dell? Without it they are $800 more. Is their box really that much or is it the old shell game, inflate the price and then give a deep discount so it looks like you are getting a deal when you really are not?

Let's look at work stations.

Apple Macpro base box Dual QuadCore 2.8 Xenon = $2,799

Dell Precision T5400, configured to match the MacPro, $3,923-$150 instant savings = $3,773.

So the base Dell that matches the base Macpro is $1,000 more.

Bottom line, yes you can get hardware cheaper, much cheaper than Apple, BUT you are buying cheaper hardware. That's why it's cheaper.

Not everyone needs a $3,000 computer. If you only need a $500 computer then buy what fits your budget. If you are in the market for a high end machine, then that's a different story.

PC/Windows at work. Macs at home.

Voted apple at home cause I'm sitting right now using a Mac Pro at home... but it is my work laptop for developing Iphone applications.
But I'm a Unix sys admin, I use a Windows (Dell) desktop to connect to the Unix servers, and a Windows PC at home for my racing sims.

So technically I should have voted "all of the above".

Jay

PC

Bill's my hero ;)

Mac: all they do is bash PC, give it up already?

6 PCs @ home
1 Vista Premium
3 XP Pro
1 XP Home
1 Ubuntu

I work @ home, on one of the XP Pro machines, and surf PPOT on the Vista box.

Poll needs check boxes, not radio buttons.
Windows all the way baby!!! BillG is an OG

Guess I need to post this oldie again :D

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I switched to Mac and couldn't be happier. I find it much more intuitive and efficient to work on my Macbook Pro than the Lenovo machines I have had. Better folder/file arrangement and many useful and user-friendly tricks and features. Programs work together, never any errors ("report/don't report this problem" sound familiar anyone?), no viruses, no problems at all from day one. I am sold. The styling thing is nice but not a selling point for me. These machines work! I am willing to bet that as long as someone is willing to take the time (few days max) to become familiar with Mac OSX, they would never go back to a Windows based machine unless there are certain programs that need Windows. However, I have solved that problem too. Partitioned the hard drive and installed Windows. Mac even designed the computer to be able to do this by pre-installing the program (Boot Camp) that makes it child's play to do. Just press a button on startup and select which OS you want.


Had a conversation about this today, actually, with a buddy. I told him when I get back on a Windows OS, I feel like I have stepped 10 years into the past.

Oh and if you need proof... :)
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Not to mention, my power adapter broke yesterday morning. I called apple and asked them to send me another one around 4pm. I received it today at 1pm. Hows that for service? Not even enough time to kill my battery! No charge of course, still under warranty .

At my parents business there are:
2 dells with xp
and one old emachine with xp
At home.
1 dell with xp
1 dell laptop with xp
and the POS emachine with vista. I like emachines. Hate vista.


Oh I also have an iPhone but dont forsee a switch to mac in the future.

Call me

PM sent

Care to tell us who you work for:)

Nevermind, don't answer that.

Speak to Noah H lately?

I just installed OS X on my PC [Hackintosh ;)] to try out some iPhone development. Its my first experience with it after years of Windows and I have to say I can't really see what the big deal is about. People talk about it being the second coming in terms of usability and the only thing I could say is noticeably better is the indexed file system which gives very fast searching.

As for the reliability, just try installing it on non-standard hardware and you see why Apple can make a trouble free user experience - by standardizing the hardware. You can install Windows on billions of combinations of hardware setups and nearly all of the time it'll still work. Running OS X on my PC I get about 2 hours before it will definitely lock up, playing a video in iTunes is instant lockup etc. I mean this comes with the territory when doing this sort of thing but makes you appreciate Windows.

I've just tried Windows 7 Beta on my laptop and that is flat out awesome. Huge improvment over Vista, which I never switched to on my home machine as I didn't feel that it offered anything worthwhile.

Fair enough, I can't argue that. But you have to understand the people like me represent probably 90% of computer users. People that run relatively simple programs and tasks, and just want something that works and works quickly. So for the average user, there's no real advantage to a $1500 Mac over a $500 Dell.

What kind of crazy stuff do you people do anyway? Even my old crappy Gateway laptop will easily run AutoCAD, and slowly run CATIA v5 (high demand 3D CAD software).

Sorry to burst your bubble guys:

THE MAC IS A PC?!


Geez

I still have a working Apple from 1984 that runs the software on it and has never failed, I have been working in and on them since then, I was an Apple and Compaq Tech and I still prefer the Mac.

To me it's simple use what you need, and what works best. I have many many machines running ever version of Linux, Windows and Mac OS. I put up with Windows, I enjoy Linux and Mac OS.

MS wouldn't have such a bad name if they A. Produced good software that's secure and bug free. B. Didn't force hardware makers to use their software, and C. Quit buying GOOD software makers and turning their software into MS crap.

If you haven't tried it yet I would suggest using an old PC, put Ubuntu with the KDE desktop and OpenOffice - Even better than Windows, but costs $ 0.00

FinalCutStudio

Aperture

Keynote

Omni Graffle

to name a few.

For work I have a Dell running Linux, and a laptop running XP. For home my wife has a mac, and I use Linux. The best thing I like about my wife's Mac is it always works. When she used to have a Windows PC something was going wrong all the time, and I always had to fix it for her. I was always complaining about cr@p Windows. Then we bought her a mac three years ago, and nothing has gone wrong with it the whole time she has had it.

I make my living with my computers.

My SW investment is 3-4x's the cost of my computers.

I will buy a new laptop every 18 months.

Desktop maybe every 24.

The total worth of the laptop I'm using right now, hardware and software combined, is more than I paid for my 911.

We have different needs is all.

I use both.

Mac upstairs, PC in the basement, iPhone everywhere