I’m a PC person. I used to be a Mac fanboi back when I was a kid, but when I became an adult, I put away childish things. And I have quite a few reasons for that as well. You may want to grab a beverage (and possibly a snack) because this will be a while.
Comfy? Good! Let us start with Mac’s claim to be virus-free. They ignore three major facts when making that assertion;
1) Not all PCs run Windows; many are Linux boxes.
2) The Mac’s resistance to viruses is due to it’s roots in BSD, which itself is a UNIX derivative. UNIX is inherently robust and infection-resistant, and so are most of it’s derivatives. Another UNIX derivative that is still around got it’s start as a reverse-engineered copy capable of running on x86 CPUs but lacked the licensing encumberments of UNIX made by a guy named Linus Torvalds.
In short, everything that makes OS X virus-resistant also makes Linux just as strong.
3) Linux has more people looking for and patching security holes than even Apple could ever hope to afford. Sure, they may be able to push an urgent security patch in a day or two, but in the Linux world that’s pretty slow. And that’s just run-of-the-mill Linux, not the high-security version used by the DoD.
For security, I’ll take the word of financial institutions, security firms, crypto-spooks and the DoD over any marketing hype.
As for user-friendliness, take a look at this. Seems so pretty that it could ONLY be done by apple, right? Wrong! That’s Linux! The part of OS X that makes people think it’s so pretty and friendly is the Aqua interface; people are falling in love with the makeup without even looking at the face underneath it. Well, there are plenty of different interface options with Linux, some of which are even better than OS X. Many Linux distros automatically come with something like Unity, Trinity, Cinnamon or something similar, none of which are particularly ugly or difficult to use. Like OS X, they are designed for ease of use. But they are also designed for ease of migration and to sooth the fears of those who tend to have panic attacks whenever they aren’t using Windows/OS X. (An IT buddy of mine used to set up customer’s computers with Linux that was skinned such that they never knew they weren’t running Windows!) Oh, and if you don’t like the UI, you can just change it; you have options
Simplicity? Well, I suppose the average computer user may be incapable of installing Linux. I mean, you have to know your name, time zone, and native language to get Mint or Ubuntu up and running, which is much more than anyone with a Mac or most people with Windows has to know. Funny anecdote; my wife used to love Macs too, and she isn’t all that computer-savvy (especially not compared to a geek who has done it as a hobby since they were 5) so we had to have a system we could share. WinXP was easy for her to figure out, as was Win7, but the OS she had the easiest time with was Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Similarly, she had issues with my old iPod Touch, but figured out her Android smartphone without any help.
Performance? There are reasons that supercomputers run Linux. Same with mission-critical stuff like servers. Speed and uptime.. I like it! Oh, and most Macs have fairly underpowered GPUs (usually laptop chips), making them unsuitable for serious gamers.
Upgrades? Macs are intentionally hard to work on, and Apple loves proprietary hardware. Also, form trumps function. But if you manage to get dual GTX Titans into an iMac, let me know! In fact, that lack of upgradability is why many graphics designers I know use PC instead of Mac; then need more than Apple offers, at least at consumer-grade. Also, I can replace my desktop system’s screen a lot cheaper and easier than any iMac owner, but there are enough all-in-one PCs that I won’t ding Apple for that… though I will ding them for not allowing many options.
Price? Well, Apple fanatics may claim to pay for quality or design, but they are not the most reliable (last I checked, Apple ranked 4th) and some of their design features are what people like me call “bugs”, like the inability for the new Macbooks to charge and use USB peripherals at he same time. There are two areas where Apple does blow PCs away. One is customer service; they lead the industry there. As one that never uses that though, I personally would pay $0.00 for support. The other is profit margin. Most PC makers have a margin of 2–5% while Apple is consistently above 30%. While I realize that business isn’t charity, a margin like that is ridiculous! I’m not paying $1200 for something I can get for $800! In fairness, the old (pre-trashcan) Mac Pro actually was very cost-competitive compared to it’s PC peers, but even I don’t need full-on workstation-level power, and the Mac Pro was never designed for “normal” people anyways.
Culture? Apple isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy.
And now that I’ve given most of my reasons for being a PC guy, it’s times for a word from Neal Stephenson; In the beginning was the Command Line. (Okay, it’s many words, Neal Stephenson’s writing makes this post seem concise.) That link is a wall-o-text that was a 151-page paperback when it first came out, so you may want to download it (for free) from the author’s site and peruse it offline later instead. But even if you don’t want to read the whole thing, opening the first link and searching for the chapter “MGBs, TANKS, AND BATMOBILES” will give a great analogy of the competing platforms. It’s a short chapter, but quite accurate.
@SavoirFaire I myself have had enough issues with Dell and HP that even I don’t like them. I’m not surprised your family has had issues with them too.
