“Shopping for a computer would be easy, if it weren’t for that whole Windows-versus-Mac thing,” Rob Pegoraro writes for The Washington Post. “Fortunately, that may be a simpler choice than you think — and making that call first can greatly simplify the rest of your home-computer shopping. Apple is making a strong pitch these days. The price to switch can be little more than $500, the cost of the Mac mini. That and other Macs ship with an outstanding set of multimedia programs — iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD — and continue to be free of viruses, spyware, browser hijackings and many other Windows diseases.”
Pegoraro writes, “Meanwhile, Windows XP, despite a stream of patches from Microsoft, remains a shaky structure that many users struggle to maintain. When even playing a CD can get a computer infected (as buyers of Sony’s ‘copy-protected’ CDs have found), things need to change. But XP’s replacement, Windows Vista, won’t arrive until the fall of next year and possibly later. The choice between these systems is often phrased as ‘why get a Mac instead of a PC?’ But given Windows’ painful history of insecurity and dysfunctionality, it’s worth flipping that around: Why not use the safer, more reliable system?”
“‘Because everybody uses Windows’ is neither relevant nor true. There are other possible reasons, but you need to decide if they matter,” Pegoraro writes. “One is software: While you can find at least one Mac application in pretty much any category of software, the selection of Windows programs is dramatically superior in a few categories (most obviously, games). The Windows market also offers a far wider variety of computers. Apple makes some fantastic machines, but its lineup skips categories that you might like. For example, it doesn’t offer ultralight or big-but-cheap ‘desktop replacement’ laptops, and its cheapest desktop runs about $100 to $200 more than the starter PCs of other firms.”
Full article here.
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A few caveats those considering switching or adding a Mac: Pegoraro writes that the selection, meaning the quantity of software, for Windows is dramatically superior, not the quality. The best-in-class applications are all there on the Mac side from Adobe and other well-known software makers. Microsoft Office for Mac is also available and generally considered ahead of the Windows version; its files are also compatible with Windows. If you create a Word document on a Mac and give it to someone on a Windows box, they’ll be able to open and use it just as if you’d created it on a Windows machine. Same goes for Excel and PowerPoint. Also, most of the basic tools are already included on the Mac: a better browser, better photo management, better movie-making, better email client, better calendaring, better music-making, better DVD creation, etc.; plus a dramatically superior quality operating system: Mac OS X with Spotlight searching, system-wide dictionary, Dashboard Widgets, rock-solid stability, zero viruses, etc.
There are currently over 20,000 software titles for Apple’s Mac OS X and more are added each day. If you spent just a day to learn each one (obviously not enough time for most), you’d be done in about 55 years (not counting all of the new applications introduced over the five and a half decades you’ve spent learning). Explore your Mac OS X software options here: http://guide.apple.com/
The other main thing to remember is that you get what you pay for: Macs actually cost less than most Windows PCs, by the time you add all of the extras to make it approach what the Mac already includes. Try it for yourself by matching features and pricing out Macs vs. Windows PCs online and you’ll see what we mean – just remember that with the Windows PC, you won’t be able to have Mac OS X, iLife and many other Mac-only applications. Lastly, how much is your time worth? There are no viruses, spyware, adware, or other malware on Macs. Macs just work.
Get a Mac today. You’ll thank us tomorrow.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple Macs are less expensive than Dell PCs – April 24, 2005
Apple Macs are far easier, cost less to manage than Windows boxes – March 02, 2005
Want to switch to Mac? Mossberg answers common questions – November 10, 2005
Windows PC retailers face tough holiday season, meanwhile Apple stores are packed as Mac sales surge – November 09, 2005
Analyst estimates over a million Windows to Mac switchers during 2005’s first three quarters – November 07, 2005
Windows sufferers: It’s not your fault, but it is your problem – switch to Mac – November 07, 2005
Tech writer: Windows PCs highly vulnerable to zombie hijacking; get an Apple Mac instead – November 06, 2005
Windows switchers, now’s your chance: Apple Mac mini with Mac OS X Tiger for $379 – November 03, 2005
Computer columnist: anti-virus software purely optional for Apple Macs, not so for Windows – November 01, 2005
Microsoft apologists and why Apple’s Mac OS X has zero viruses – October 24, 2005
Mossberg: Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider Apple Mac – October 13, 2005
Mossberg: Switching from Windows to Mac – software not an expensive proposition – September 30, 2005
$500 bounty offered for proof of first Apple Mac OS X virus – September 27, 2005
Symantec: 10,866 new Microsoft Windows virus and worm variants in first half 2005 – September 19, 2005
Hackers already targeting viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – August 04, 2005
16-percent of computer users are unaffected by viruses, malware because they use Apple Macs – June 15, 2005
Mossberg offers resources for Windows users interested in switching to Apple Mac – August 18, 2005
ZDNet: How many Mac OS X users affected by the last 100 viruses? None, zero, not one, not ever – August 18, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
97,467 Microsoft Windows viruses vs. zero for Apple Mac’s OS X – April 05, 2005
anon wrote, “Can a genius tell me why Apple includes the wireless options in a sub-2K iMac, yet PowerMac G5 wannabe’s have to pay *extra* for these?”
Sure. Power Macs are professional-level machines and pros want to be able to configure the machine for their needs.
>>I think that you forget something about the fact that Macs are cheaper than windows! Usually, Macs lives longer than PC’s; our regular computers are 10, 8 and 6 years old and all do their job perfectly. None have ever broken, so we never had to put more cash on it or lose time for failure…
This is a total myth. Mac’s use pretty much standard PC components these days (same disks, same DVD-RW, same graphics, same memory, same output standards – and soon the same processor too). The fact that Mac owners hang on to them longer (is there a reference for this “fact” by the way?) tends to say more about the typical Mac owner than the hardware itself. For what it’s worth, my iMac G5 had 4 major repairs in 6 months, and had to be replaced. I’ve also had two major “crashes” with MacOS that resulted in me having to boot into single-user mode and delete corrupted preferences files from the UNIX command line. Good job I know UNIX…
JackA – your son’s experiences about hardware/Windows reliability and lack of bundled software on a PC are more to do with the fact he built it himself. Clearly he didn’t have any bundled applications (duh!). Contrary to the common myth, building a reliable PC takes more than just throwing together a set of components – the mix of manufacturers and drivers can inevitably result in issues. That said, if your son did sufficient research on the Internet then these are usually all solvable. However, building your own *reliable* PC is more than just lego. That’s why companies like Dell take time testing to ensure component and driver compatibility. At the end of the day though, it’s nice that you can even do this with PC’s. I wish I could upgrade my Mac like that.
Compatibility between the MacOS and Windows versions of Microsoft Office is again something of a myth. Sure, both versions will read each other’s files, but there usually are problems. Powerpoint on the Mac takes an age to load Windows Powerpoint files, converting each frame one at a time. Usually some aspects of the pictures are slightly different. I also noticed recently that some embedded images I had in a Windows Word document became unreadable under Windows after having been through the Mac version of Word – the Windows version started asking for a Quicktime TIFF converter to display the images … Compatibility is good – but if you’re going to do “real” work, then it’s not perfect.
Having said all that, I do *love* Office on the Mac. It blows away the Windows version and is in a totally different class to Apple’s iWork efforts.
Thanks Mac Genius. I think you’re correct. However, I was actually being facetious with regards to professional customers getting gouged.
I mean, you spend $3.3K on a machine and you still have to spend another $99 or so on adding wireless…. something which is included in their 2nd cheapest Mac model…. the $599 Mac mini includes them (and they can’t be “worth” $99…)
I think it’s a rip-off personally.
The pro machines are expensive because they are the worlds fastest, most powerful personal computer.
@ Anon >
Whilst I do agree with you a little bit – especially when I want to demonstrate the wireless capabilities of some of the stuff I sell – you have to remember that the professional desktop Macintosh range is designed for professional requirements in industries where file sizes can be measured in the hundreds of megabytes.
Given that 802.11g will probably only sustain approximately 14 mbits in a noisy or compromised environment, moving the kind of files seen in a pro environment over wireless (as it currently stands) is actually a false economy.
Apple have recognised this in the most recent iteration of the Power Macintosh family, equipping them with [B]dual[/B] Gigabit Ethernet interfaces that are capable of being bound together (link aggregation) to create a link capable of sustaining speeds north of 50MB/second assuming that all devices in the network are appropriately specified and configured.
Moving a 250MB file over wireless would probably take over 4 minutes; moving it over an aggregated 1000-base T “fat pipe” would probably take under 10 seconds.
I don’t notice anybody saying that Apple is guilty of a “rip-off” or any other kind of sleight of hand for including dual [B]wired[/B]network interfaces for a community that can use the functionality for genuine return on investment – whereas wireless that meets the needs of creative professionals dealing in video, audio, or high-resolution images is still a way off, and may not even be desirable for security reasons, or practical for environmental (especially building construction) reasons.
Quad Power Mac is not a personal computer it is a workstation and Yes professionals want customize their machines.
The discussions above are inmy opinion a bit pedantic and a bit like asking how long is a bit of string..you’ll never have scientific answer…
From the article thought, the line that will make people switch to Mac is:
“Macs.. continue to be free of viruses, spyware, browser hijackings and many other Windows diseases.”
That, along with Vista not going to be around til end 2006 – or later…
…means game set and match. For 95% of the population Macs are MUCH better for you – and your bank balance (no id theft if not maintenance time).
Also loved this: “..Windows’ painful history of insecurity and dysfunctionality”. That and the fact that that dysfunctionality will continue long into the future with Vista’s 60m lines of spaghetti code says it all.
Until Macs can run the latest, newest games as soon as they come out for PCs, Macs will never be welcome in a huge, huge, huge number of homes.
I don´t care how great the Mac becomes. Doesn´t play the newest games? No gamer wants that computer.
And Gamers don´t care about any of the programs Apple bundles with it (nor do they care about any Windows software -except anti-virus software).
Have you ever seen a LAN party with Macs? My son and his friends regularly get together for a LAN game party – 10-15 of them crowded in one persons house playing games. Never a Mac there. And on lot of online gaming with 100s of thousand of participants daily that are PC only.
Plus the fact that there are lots of people that really enjoy building there own computer – something you can´t do with a present Mac – there are lots of sales lost there. Next time you are in Fry´s check out the crowds around the section where people buy lots of parts and build their own computers.
Macaday – Guess I have to say it again – My PCs have never had a virus or any of the other scary things you bring up.
(I own Macs, too.)
And your use of the word “pedantic”? Pedantic- Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.
Guess I missed why you used that word other than it is multi-syllable and sounds quasi-intelligent.
And measuring a “bit of string” is hard for you? Ahhh….now I understand. Tip: stretch length of string along a ruler.
I am looking forward to the new Mactels and hope they are faster and better priced than the current Macs and PCs.
Love the games bundled with the Mac:
• Nanosaur 2
• Marble Blast Gold
Gag. Barf. Puke.
Hell, a PC comes with at least 6 sucky games:
Hearts, Solitare, Minewsweeper,Pinball…
So looking at it from a Mac point of view – PCs give you more sucky games than come with a Mac, so that is a positive for Macs!
http://lavacat.com/
Miles better than the PC version
>> The pro machines are expensive because they are the worlds fastest, most powerful personal computer.
Only Apple’s Marketing Department actually have the bare-faced cheek to make this claim. They also used to claim it was the first 64-bit PC until the advertising authorities told them to stop lying. I’ve yet to see any independent benchmark comparing equivalently priced Apple and PC machines in which the PowerMac can consistently live up to this claim. Indeed, it’s usually fairly mediocre in performance, with one or two isolated successes. Suggest you take a read of http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2436 and http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2520. The PowerMac is a great all-round machine, and is fast on a few highly optimised applications. However, there are many areas of its performance where it – or more correctly, MacOS – lag far behind the Intel + Windows or Linux competition.
I bought a PC for gaming about 5 years ago and I left it at home going away with my iBook G4. Every time I went on a holiday I came back and my family had either managed to get loads of viruses (even though there is a firewall and AV software installed and runing) or to get some other failure that required me to reinstall the whole machine. Internet Explorer is not compatible with the wlan card for unkown reasons and trying to install my bluetooth stick to sync with my mobile results in windows crashing.
When I came home with my iBook recently, I left it on the desk and when I came back was horrified to see they had all used it. But this time the only problem was them not figuring out how to close Firefox because there were no buttons on the right corner. Now my little sister got an iBook herself and she called me once to ask if it was safe to let the softeware update connect to the internet… I even mangaged to guide her through the installation of skype over the phone. When someone called me to help him with Windows I used to say that I was coming over because I needed to see what was going on.
Well the games. I for my part got tired of all the time the same plots. my favourite company has always been Blizzard so i can still play Diablo 1 and 2, Starcraft, Warcraft and World of Warcraft on my Mac. I just installed the last of them on a notebook comparable to mine and was so happy to have a Mac because the graphic just sucked. To get it runing we had to scale down the details and all that and it looked so plain. My friend really decided to come over to use my mac for WoW instad!
Are there any programs that even take advantage of Apple´s “64-bit” processing?
Nanosaur 2 or Marble Blast Gold???
@ Reality Check >
You really ought to read a little more widely.
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http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisemac/
Seriously, the quad-core Mac is reckoned to be anywhere between 60% and 100% faster than the previous top-of-the-line dual 2.7GHz depending on the task.
Interesting articles from Anandtech, but sadly based on ancient history – we’ve now moved on to a dual core, dual-processor flagship and, given Mr. Yager’s comments in the article to which I’ve linked above, I find it difficult to see how your gripe holds much water.
Maybe you should do the benchmarking if it’s a subject that causes you so much angst.
SoE – It is basically one click to install Skype on a Windows XP PC.
Sounds like you did not have antivirus software on your PC. And you don´t let people on a computer that don´t know how to operate and maintain it. Give your car keys to a 12 year old and he will surely crash your car. But it is not the car´s fault.
And Firefox works on Windows. Try it. Don´t use IE – it sucks.
Regarding your game choices—-whew— those were about 10 years right? And your Ignorance of graphics cards needed to run a game is not the fault of Windows.
David Reeves:
My experiences with PCs are similar to yours. A maintained XP box runs fine.
Even though I prefer working on Macs – I spend most of the day on my PM G5 edit bay – there are some aspects of XP I prefer.
Windows-side hardware generally runs faster than Macs, but OSX can make up for that in certains scenarios (multi-tasking for one). Factor in hardware price and Macs seem like an awful choice at first glance. I’m glad Apple has made major improvements since the G5s came out.
—
Things that make switching from XP to Macs costly:
– Software migration and all the time and money involved with that
– OS switch and all the time and money involved with that
– Opportunity Costs… Switching involves spending time and energy to do things on a new platform that you can do very quickly on you existing platform.
There are many costs that people on this board don’t like to mention. The gains need to be weighed by the individual.
For me, I owe no allegiance to Apple or Microsoft. Both work for me! In fact, both work for me in tandem as opposed to sticking to one.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
For work: 70% MacOSX + 30% Win XP
For play: 70% Win XP + 30% MacOSX
David Reeves:
My experiences with PCs are similar to yours. A maintained XP box runs fine.
Even though I prefer working on Macs – I spend most of the day on my PM G5 edit bay – there are some aspects of XP I prefer.
Windows-side hardware generally runs faster than Macs, but OSX can make up for that in certains scenarios (multi-tasking for one). Factor in hardware price and Macs seem like an awful choice at first glance. I’m glad Apple has made major improvements since the G5s came out.
—
Things that make switching from XP to Macs costly:
– Software migration and all the time and money involved with that
– OS switch and all the time and money involved with that
– Opportunity Costs… Switching involves spending time and energy to do things on a new platform that you can do very quickly on you existing platform.
There are many costs that people on this board don’t like to mention. The gains need to be weighed by the individual.
For me, I owe no allegiance to Apple or Microsoft. Both work for me! In fact, both work for me in tandem as opposed to sticking to one.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
For work: 70% MacOSX + 30% Win XP
For play: 70% Win XP + 30% MacOSX
David Reeves:
My experiences with PCs are similar to yours. A maintained XP box runs fine.
Even though I prefer working on Macs – I spend most of the day on my PM G5 edit bay – there are some aspects of XP I prefer.
Windows-side hardware generally runs faster than Macs, but OSX can make up for that in certains scenarios (multi-tasking for one). Factor in hardware price and Macs seem like an awful choice at first glance. I’m glad Apple has made major improvements since the G5s came out.
—
Things that make switching from XP to Macs costly:
– Software migration and all the time and money involved with that
– OS switch and all the time and money involved with that
– Opportunity Costs… Switching involves spending time and energy to do things on a new platform that you can do very quickly on you existing platform.
There are many costs that people on this board don’t like to mention. The gains need to be weighed by the individual.
For me, I owe no allegiance to Apple or Microsoft. Both work for me! In fact, both work for me in tandem as opposed to sticking to one.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
For work: 70% MacOSX + 30% Win XP
For play: 70% Win XP + 30% MacOSX
David Reeves:
My experiences with PCs are similar to yours. A maintained XP box runs fine.
Even though I prefer working on Macs – I spend most of the day on my PM G5 edit bay – there are some aspects of XP I prefer.
Windows-side hardware generally runs faster than Macs, but OSX can make up for that in certains scenarios (multi-tasking for one). Factor in hardware price and Macs seem like an awful choice at first glance. I’m glad Apple has made major improvements since the G5s came out.
—
Things that make switching from XP to Macs costly:
– Software migration and all the time and money involved with that
– OS switch and all the time and money involved with that
– Opportunity Costs… Switching involves spending time and energy to do things on a new platform that you can do very quickly on you existing platform.
There are many costs that people on this board don’t like to mention. The gains need to be weighed by the individual.
For me, I owe no allegiance to Apple or Microsoft. Both work for me! In fact, both work for me in tandem as opposed to sticking to one.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
For work: 70% MacOSX + 30% Win XP
For play: 70% Win XP + 30% MacOSX
HK:
Your car analogy is flawed – to drive a car, you need to pass a government mandated test, register it, and in most cases get it inspected on a regular basis.
To use a computer, all you need to do is go to your local Flea Market, spend $100 to $150, and hook it up to the internet. No tests, no registrations, no inspections.
Computers are everywhere in schools now – most 12 year olds know how to use a computer far better than their parents do.
I just love it how PC apologists think they are so cool because they know how to “operate and maintain” a computer, and that people who don’t are to blame for the problems that they suffer using PC’s.
And most people don’t know what Firefox is – they think the only thing available is IE because it came with their computer.
As an aside, I just watched a documentary on the making of Star Wars III – one of the sound effects guys was making effects at home on his iBook. That was pretty cool.
>Qman: I just love it how PC apologists think they are so cool because they know how to “operate and maintain” a computer…
Macs need TLC too. Damaged file systems, corrupt prefs, disk errors, etc…
Yeah… Firefox is a great app. I use it on both Macs & PCs. I can’t stand IE/Safari.
—
>watched a documentary on the making of Star Wars III – one of the sound effects guys was making effects at home on his iBook
Just rented it… will check that out. Thanks for that tidbit!
>Qman: I just love it how PC apologists think they are so cool because they know how to “operate and maintain” a computer…
Macs need TLC too. Damaged file systems, corrupt prefs, disk errors, etc…
Yeah… Firefox is a great app. I use it on both Macs & PCs. I can’t stand IE/Safari.
—
>watched a documentary on the making of Star Wars III – one of the sound effects guys was making effects at home on his iBook
Just rented it… will check that out. Thanks for that tidbit!