Well, I'm a Mac...Well, I'm a PC

Yes, yet another hub dealing with the Mac v PC debate. But wait, perhaps it's NOT really just another rehash. Why? Well, if you check out my profile, you'll see that I'm a geek, and proud of it, and I will bring some level of expertise to the subject. So, it's not just another opinion piece. My goal is to educate the reader on the positives of both and their faults. I do have the distinction of coming from the PC/Microsoft (MS) world and now living in the Mac/Apple world.

Contrary to what many people believe, the computer did NOT start with a PC and with Windows. Yes, Virginia, there was a time before MS. That time was populated by a variety of computer systems, all proprietary, shooting for their place in the sun. There was the TRS-80 from Tandy/Radio Shack. There were systems from Sinclair, Atari, Commodore, and many others. My personal experience starts out with the Commodore VIC-20. Then I moved to a number of the Atari systems and to an IBM-XT clone from Epson and on and on mostly in the IBM compatible world.

Apple was also making computers at this time and I did have some experience with the Apple IIe. But today's computing powerhouse of the IBM-compatible PC and Microsoft took off in the early '80s with the original IBM PC (no clones) and DOS as the operating system.

Jump forward a number of years and we find that the IBM clones from a variety of manufacturers and MS Windows are pretty much running the show. Apple is the lone company still standing from the early days and with the introduction of the Macintosh computer started it's own climb to fame.

The Mac is a fine computer; even in its early iterations. So why did the IBM-PC take off... well I just gave you the answer... IBM. Companies like Apple, Commodore and Atari concentrated on the consumer market (and somewhat in education), while IBM was in the business of taking care of businesses. Businesses saw the usefulness of the computer and with an early killer app like Lotus 1-2-3 they were hooked. So while other companies floundered or barely kept their heads above water, IBM, the PC, and, by default, MS took off.

And other companies saw the success of this. So started the clone wars with Compaq taking some of the earliest hits on IBM. So now the PC is getting cheaper and well, if I use one at work for all of this neat stuff perhaps I could find a use for it at home as well. And if I'm going to do that, I would probably want one that is similar to what I have at work...would just make it easier.

So, fast forward to today. MS and the PC (from a number of manufacturers) sits at the top of the heap in terms of market share. And though Apple runs a distant second, it has been concentrating on making the Mac and it's OS X operating system state of the art and a worthy competitor to Windows. As a side note, Apple has also expanded it's technology into other areas such as MP3 players and smart phones and has arguably two of the finest pieces of technology in the marketplace today; their line of iPods and the iPhone.

But we're not here to discuss these devices, we want to talk about the PC and Windows versus the Apple Macintosh computers.

1. It's everywhere and everyone uses one. OK... probably not totally true, my mother, for example doesn't use a computer of any kind. However, it's hard to go through life at any age over 3 and not have some interaction with a Windows-based computer. They're in daycares and schools and churches and some cars and some phones and well, the PC in some form and Windows is just everywhere. It's familiar and comfortable.

2. It's inexpensive. I can buy a netbook for just a few hundred dollars. And if I want a more full-featured PC I can still get something fairly nice for well under $1000.

3. Windows makes using the PC easier. Everything is fairly easy to find, although some applications suffer from feature bloat. There is a commonality that is brought to bear by having a "standard" and having software vendors write to that standard.

4. Standard Parts. With the exception of laptops most computers use standardized parts from hard drives, to keyboards, to displays, to just about anything. This means that if a part fails or you want to upgrade it's "easy" and inexpensive.

5. Thousands of applications. Fairly self-explanatory. If you want to do it on a PC, there's probably an application that can help you out.

1. Windows. Yeah, Windows is a great operating system. But sometimes it's its own worst enemy. Years ago MS went with a system of shared DLL files and the Registry. Probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but every user since then has suffered at some point in time because of those decisions.

2. Microsoft. We can argue all day about whether MS is an innovator or not, but one thing is for sure, it's a great marketing company. And sometimes that can get in the way of the technology. MS just HAD to come out with another version of Windows after Windows 98 so here comes Windows Me... what a useless operating system. They did something similar with Vista. Now, I am sure that there are those who loved both of them, but I've not met anyone who ever raved about Me or Vista. Windows 7 is going to be a different story. And what's with the constant redesign. Just because it's two years old doesn't mean that it no longer works. If there's a good solid reason to redesign the Windows look and feel, go for it. But too many times it seems that MS just redesigns for the heck of it. The problem with that is that we, the users, spend inordinate amounts of time relearning where everything is.

3. Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer (IE) is a fine web browser. But there are a couple of serious problems. First, is that (MS) decided to integrate it into Windows. Now this is a good thing from one standpoint in that it makes the whole look and feel more Internet-like. The bad thing is that IE is just an application like any other and is subject to failure. If some other application fails, I just uninstall it and reinstall it and I am usually OK. With IE that is nearly impossible without using some hacker tools. And since so many things today are browser-based if IE fails you are toast and most likely will have to reinstall Windows. The other thing about IE that I hate is how MS has taken it in its own direction away from web standards. Again, in one way this is good because it has created new ways to display web content and to interact with the web. But since only IE can use many of these "innovations" and since many developers code to make use of these "innovations" we are stuck having to use IE... so go back to my first gripe about IE and see why this is a negative.

4. Security Issues. MS has been behind the curve for years when it comes to security; although some of this is not its fault. It is the biggest target so it has the most people trying to hit that target with malware infections. You would be a fool to run a Windows-based PC and connect to the Internet without having an antivirus program, an antispyware program, and a good firewall. MS has never done antivirus or antispyware well and it wasn't until Windows XP SP2 that it even made any attempt to have a firewall in place. So now you have to buy at least some suite of products to protect your PC which adds to the expense and to the resource usage on your PC. And then there are the constant updates. Windows is updated so much that it seems like it's a beta product instead of something being sold for money. Finally in Vista and the 2003 Server version, MS made some attempts to secure IE and to keep malware programs from over running the PC. However, what it ended up doing was to put a wall in place that users hated and just turned off and it made IE almost unusable out of the box in some corporate environments without some tweaking first. Shows the problems with trying to be everything to everyone and then having to create blocks to protect us. Windows 7 is better at this.

5. Tech Support. So who are you gonna call? Well, who knows. You're having a problem. Is it Windows or something to do with the hardware? Many hardware vendors will talk to you about potential issues with Windows, but their level of knowledge may be limited and MS wouldn't begin to talk to you about anything to do with your PC.

1. Solid hardware. Apple makes extremely solid hardware. This is not to 'dis anyone else's hardware, but there is real innovation and thought that goes into Apple's Mac hardware.

2. Single Vendor for hardware and Operating System. Apple makes and controls the hardware and the operating system (OS X). This means that the operating system integrates well with the hardware. This all but eliminates compatibility issues that might arise with the operating system trying to do it's thing on a particular hardware platform.

3. More Secure. Period. Now, some of this is based on the fact that the Mac isn't as big a target as Windows. But it also comes from the fact that the underlying structure of OS X is just more secure. This plus may be changing, but as of right now it's a true statement.

4. Can run Windows. With the movement to an Intel-based platform, if one really needs to run Windows applications, it's now possible to to that on the Mac. You can run Windows in one of three ways. You can run Windows in a virtual machine on the Mac desktop using programs like Parallels or VMware Fusion. You can run Windows in a dual-boot environment where you can choose on the fly to boot the Mac into OS X or Windows. You can strip off OS X and load Windows bare-metal onto the Mac hardware so that it's the only operating system available. These methods do require a real licensed unregistered copy of Windows.

5. Applications. While there are not as many applications for OS X, you can still do most things that you would want to do on a Mac.

6. Tech Support. Apple consistently gets rated very high on tech support. And one call will get you a person, most likely in the US and a native English speaker, who can intelligently talk to you about both the hardware and the operating system.

7. Operating System cost. Compared to almost any version of Windows, OS X is a bargain. OS X comes in one flavor for typical users with all features available for usually under $150. Upgrades are sometimes even cheaper and you don't have to register the operating system with Apple. And Apple usually has family packs at a great price if you have more than one Mac in your home.

8. Operating System features. In one sense only the technical folks will appreciate this, but it's still valid. There's no shared DLL "hell" and no registry to corrupt. If you need to uninstall an application, you just drag it's icon to the trash can.

1. Cost. Macs are not cheap. You can always buy an equivalently powered Windows PC for less money than a Mac. An argument can be made that you may make up for some of this cost in other ways like "better" hardware, tech support and the like, but the bottom line is that they cost more.

2. Applications. Yeah, you can do almost anything you need to do on a Mac, but there just aren't as many choices as there are with Windows. And some really fine Windows applications just don't have a Mac equivalent. This is especially true in the corporate world.

3. IE. As much as I dislike IE, there are times when you have to have it in order to get some application to run. IE does not run natively on OS X.

4. Apple controls hardware. Although this makes for a very stable platform, it does limit what your options are for upgrades and expansion. Most of the time, Apple uses standard parts and ports, but many times getting to them in certain models is near impossible if you aren't incredibly technically savvy. You have to wait for Apple to come out with compatible systems for many new cool technologies.

I have been a PC person since the first IBM PC. I have used DOS and just about every version of Windows ever made. It's not only my passion, but my hobby and my job. There are many things about Windows that I like and many that I hate. Most of the things that I hate are the things that get in the way of doing my job.

I have always wanted to play with the Mac, but could never afford one just to play with. A friend gave me an old iMac from the 1999-2000 era a few years ago. I took it home and turned it on and started to explore. I quickly adapted to the different interface that the Macs have; it's very intuitive. After playing with it for a couple of weeks, I announced to my wife that I simply loved just about everything about the Mac and if I never had to use a Windows-based PC again it would be too soon. Since then I have moved to a Mac at my work and I have two at home. My oldest son has a MacBook Pro laptop for college. They're just machines, but from so many different perspectives they just make so much more sense than Windows-based PCs. Now I use Windows for only two things; games that have no Mac version and a handful of applications that I have to run that have no Mac version.