PC vs Mac Laptop, which would you recommend & why?

This thread might turn into a horrible flame war, but for now I’ll just reassure you that Mac and PC play along nicely with Office documents.

Personally, I’ll buy a Mac as soon as I have the money. I’m tired of all the bull Windows spits at me.

Yes, Macs can use MS Office. I use it all the time (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and it’s fully compatible with the Windows version. Personally, I would recommend a Mac because they have a lot less problems and that’s simply easier to deal with and they can pretty much do everything a Windows computer. I know most people don’t give a crap, but if you want to take advantage of the full range of European characters, a Mac will not have it and won’t let you use keyboard shortcuts for it on MS Word. For those of us creating our own language, it sucks :(

No, I’m not a Mac crusader. I would like to get a new Windows laptop along with my Mac.

Well, for instance, I’ve had my MacBookPro for three years with minimal issues. (Battery problems, but that was common with my model.)

I have also used a Toshiba laptop, and it died on me after about a year (I think).

It depends on what you want to do on your laptop—I can run Photoshop and watch movies on my laptop just fine, but if you just want to do office work, a Windows laptop might be better (price-wise).

Get iWork, if you do get a Mac, as it plays very nicely with .docx and .doc formats, as well as converting documents into .pdf easily. (It also taxes the system a lot less than Word.)

If you do get a Mac, get AppleCare. They replace parts and do labor for free!

I use both but prefer the Mac (I am an artist and think the Mac geared more toward images and such) I also like not getting all the little panic messages “Are you SURE you want to delete this?” “You cannot re-do this!”

I think it depends a lot on what you are planning to do with it.

I would get a Mac.

You will be able to open Microsoft Office files with iWork, which you can buy with a Mac for about $50. Or you can get OpenOffice.org at no cost; or you can buy Microsoft Office for Mac, for about $150.

Apple laptops have a big muti-touch touchpad, and Mac OS is more secure than Windows.

Mac.

Since laptops in general are one of the more problem prone items, I would definitely recommend a Mac since Consumer Reports has consistently rated them as first in customer support satisfaction and at the bottom of the “Frequency of Repair” list.

They generally don’t recommend the extended warranties which most stores try to pressure consumers to buy. However, the notable exception to this is laptop computers. As mentioned, Apple Care is very highly rated and well worth it.

With the Intel chips now, you can run both Windows OS as well as Mac OS X, so you shouldn’t have any problems in that regard.

I doubt you will have any regrets in getting a Mac.

The only possible problem may be if you don’t like the glossy screens as they phased put the matte finish ones. Personally speaking, I don’t like the glossy at all and that’s why I will be getting a Mac Mini. But that’s just my personal preference.

Get a Mac.

Mac, more secure and user-friendly.

Have you tried a Mac? Could you test it at the store for a bit to see if you like it maybe? I am an old PC user, but would love to have a Mac as well.

If you can afford the premium, Macs are much more elegantly designed, and the OS is far more intuitive.

On the other side of the balance, since Microsoft dominates the platform market, there is much better software choice for the PC, and you can get an equally powerful hardware ensemble for much less money.

The newest thing to add to the mix is that people seem happy with Windows 7, and while it is not as lovely as a Mac OS, it is stable, fast and easy to use.

@pdworkin there is not a premium for Macs. overall, cost of ownership is lower. And, software-wise, there is not a greater selection for Windows machines.

Furthermore, because of how Windows attempts to use RAM, for example, 4GB of RAM on a Windows machine is not equal to 4GB on a Mac. Windows takes up almost half for the OS footprint; OS X uses ~256mb.

Dons flame-retardant suit and holds spray bottle

It really depends on what you want to do (besides share docs). We have both and it works for us. I use the pc mostly and Hubbs uses the mac. It’s nice to know that whether we’re working on graphic heavy apps or running ten programs at once, we have a computer that can deal well with that.

I will say I’ve started using the pc more and more for photography. Leaving the mac for more graphic design. This is more likely just because the pc is a lot newer and plays nicer with my external hd.

(I still don’t get why people talk about pc’s like they wake up with a virus every five minutes. I’ve used pc’s for 12 years and have only had one virus succesfully install.)

@eponymoushipster That all sounds rather anecdotal to me. Do you have some citations? I’m particularly interested to discover how it is that an OS with 5% market penetration can match the software choices of an OS with 92% market penetration.

Not that I disagree that the Mac is a superior combination of hardware and OS. It is. It’s just that it cannot be all heavenly perfection, unless your computer is Jesus.

I use them both. Not just for office use but high end Video Post production.

6 of one half a dozen of the other.

Neither one has ever proved to me to be better then the other.

@pdworkin what applications are you talking about specifically that the Mac doesn’t have?

MS Office – check
Adobe Suite – check
Quickbooks – check
... those are the core things a lot of people use, and there are many others.

and then add apps like Final Cut and Logic which are industry leaders for video and audio editing. what does Windows have that comes close to those?

@eponymoushipster AutoCAD.

@gggritso that is true. AutoCAD currently is not supported on the Mac. However, they are developing a Mac version.

“then add apps like Final Cut and Logic which are industry leaders for video and audio editing. what does Windows have that comes close to those?”

I will run Avid on Windows any time. Will blow the doors off of Final Cut. And, you will not need After Effects.
But then again. I have crashed both Mac and Windows.

And Final Cut is not an industry leader. It is just cheaper then the big boy toys.

Mac, does work very well with Office. Even though I use iWork for all my School work Macs are great.

Macs and PCs are both good choices. It’s really just a matter of preference. I like both. Don’t let anyone tell you that Macs are somehow superior to PCs because they “have less problems” are “more secure” or anything like that. If you are going to get a PC, obviously get one on the higher end if you want it to compare to a Mac.

@eponymoushipster I don’t think it would be fruitful for us to continue this discussion. Let’s just agree to disagree about this one.

@eponymoushipster There are some other things too. Microsoft OneNote, for example. When you start working with highly specialized engineering software Mac versions are often not available. This is also not taking games into consideration. For the purposes of the asker neither should be a problem though.

Both platforms have software that’s exclusive, but if you look at all the shoddy little apps that people code up in their garage, the Windows camp will be several times larger. It would be unreasonable to deny this.

@gggritso i dont count games as “applications”.

Under it’s pretty face, OS X is Unix. There is a huge collection of compatible free software.

Thanks to all who replied!!!

Let me clarify that I don’t do any heavy-duty programming (only a bit of light HTML occasionally) or gaming or video editing or anything like that. In addition to being a Flutherite, I just do the more mundane things like email (Gmail, Yahoo, & Hotmail), Facebook, posting pictures, watching U-Tube videos, listening to Pandora, online shopping, online banking, music downloads, MS Word docs, MS Excel spreadsheets, MS PowerPoint docs, & Adobe Acrobat PDF files mostly.

My PC has several anti-virus, anti-spyware, registry cleaner, disk defrag programs which seem to take up too much time & memory.

I would like something dependable (freezes/crashes least), least amount of hardware failure, least vulnerable to viruses, decent amount of battery capacity.

I need to be able to create MS docs/spreadsheets, email to hubby & have him open & edit, and be able for him to email back to me to open & further edit, which sounds like no prob in above posts.

Again, I appreciate all of the responses!

Would you like it to brew coffee too?

@BraveWarrior A Mac is still a good choice and can do all the things you need. If you still need more help, an Apple Store employee would be more than happy to answer all your questions.

@BraveWarrior Based on that, and though I’m a PC elitist, I think your best bet is a Mac. Go Mac, honestly.

@ChazMaz Nah, I’m a tea drinker only ;)
Yeah, I know, “I want the world, I want the whole world”

Here’s my advice, don’t listen to anyone on this thread. Do the research and find one that you like.

@J0E Zomg paradox.

@BraveWarrior If you have several anti-virus, anti-spyware, registry cleaner and disk defrag programs on your PC, you have several too many. The only thing that should be running and hogging memory is one anti-virus resident shield. And maybe a firewall. Mac users should have anti-virus programs, too, honestly. Macs are not impenetrable. Hence why Snow Leopard has an “anti-virus” included.

@DominicX lol

Snow Leopard doesn’t have anti-virus included, it only blocks a couple of trojan malware apps. Source: http://lifehacker.com/5347925/snow-leopard-malware-blocker-only-protects-against-two-trojans

A lot of the anti-virus apps on the Mac currently cause more problems than the viruses they guard against. I saw a lot of people come in with weird software problems and even corrupted hard drives from Norton and other anti-virus apps when I worked in an Apple store. Not to say it won’t be a problem in the future but right now I would not recommend installing an anti-virus app to anyone on a Mac. Just be smart about what you download and install and you’ll be fine.

In my experience, Windows definitely has more quantity of software, but frequently there will be a dozen crappy applications that were coded in visual basic that aren’t really a competitor at all. On the Mac in any given category there is usually one to three really good apps available. In Windows you may have three dozen apps available for a category, but there is still only one to three that are really any good and that you would consider using. I’ve found a lot more software that is only available on the Mac than the other way around, for my personal interests. Games are of course a huge exception on the Mac, but you can use Boot Camp to play any game in Windows anyway.

And besides, with Parallels or Boot Camp it doesn’t matter because you can run every Windows app anyway. Best of both worlds.

@StellarAirman Norton is crap and causes problems on ANY computer. And there’s a reason I put anti-virus in quotations, when referring to Snow Leopard. ;)

I think it would be cool to be able to afford a really high quality fast Mac, but since I can’t, I will have to stay with Windows 7. I have it running on 3 of my four computers (all but my Asus netbook) and I can’t really think of a complaint. User Account Control is no more intrusive than, say Comodo or Zone Alarm, the dock is finally really useful, and besides Office, every other app I use is open source.

If price isn’t an issue…

I would recommend getting a macbook and vmware fusion. You could set up a windows virtual machine and run windows-native applications on it.

Based BraveWarrior’s need, he wouldn’t need VMWare at all, as all of the apps are available on the Mac. VMWare is a good option for people that have a specific app that only works on Windows, but there is plenty of software on the Mac for average use.

I think BraveWarrior is a she.

She already has (and uses) the office suite for windows. So if it is a choice of getting the office suite for mac or using what she is already using, why not continue to use what she is already using? No conversion, known compatibility.

I’ve been through several iterations of both micro$soft and OS X on several platforms and hav ehad no problems with them working an playing well with each other. Even though I use OpenOffice on my Macs. have had no problems with the work I have needed to do. YMMV.
We are on vacation and I am using my sons laptop that has Win7 on it and have no problems save, knowing where keys are and basic platform stuff. They both perform similarly, but I think I prefer the keyboard of my Mac a little better because it is backlit and I do a great deal of work in bed after everyone is asleep.
Quality of build is similar between these machines (although I did not bring mine this weekend) Toshiba has always been good to me for laptops.
My main issue with the Mac and a distinct advantage with the Toshiba, is Heat! My MBP duo-core 2.4 is a real loin burner without external help. but I consider that kind of minor but a definite consideration when you go looking for laptops.
I’m starting to kind of like Win7, not that I am about to go out picking out kitchen curtains or anything, but it and OS x seem to compliment each other on certain issues.
I suck at video games, so that doesn’t matter. My writing matters, so the keyboard and pointing devices make the decision for me.
I do like the motion detection protection on my macbook pro. Do other laptop brands offer this protection? It would cut my costs down for back-up laptops or toy laptops that I keep around. It has saved me several times when I went to sleep with the laptop on my belly (usual computing position)

You can always run VMWare Fusion or Parallels on Mac

I notice a lot of people mentioning software, which shouldn’t even be a counterpoint when debating the two platforms. Nearly all the software programs mentioned in this thread are all multi-platform; what matters the most in a computer is hardware.

If the Mac and the PC are running on equivalent hardware, then the only thing distinguishing the two is the operating system – and that simply boils down to preference.

Then of course there is difference in price. :]

@Gokey Good point. Do you think the Mac & Pac are running on equivalent hardware in regard to reliability/failure rates?

There isn’t a difference in software between big multi-platform releases like Photoshop and Office, but there definitely is in many other areas. I’ve never seen anything like Socialite for Windows, and if there was it isn’t going to be nearly as polished or well-designed. Most Mac software developers appreciate attention to detail and spend a lot of time on interface design and making their software easy to use and attractive. I just can’t say the same for a lot of Windows software I’ve used. To me that attention to detail starts with Apple for everything from the packaging to the hardware to the OS, and it encourages other developers that make software and accessories to do the same.

@StellarAirman Well that sounds like a big ole generalization.

@BraveWarrior Don’t Macs and PCs run off of the same third-party hardware? E.g. Intel, Nvidia, etc.

@five99one I don’t know the answer to your request. I need to appeal to those who know better than I do.