apple vs mac

'Mac games' is an oxymoron. The PC is your only option if you want to do some computer gaming besides solitaire.

Powerbooks are very solid systems. OS X is the best OS out there right now, and if I wasn't a gamer and the program at my future college didn't require Windows (Virtual PC is too slow, even on new Macs), I'd probably get one.

All the major productivity applications and suites (MS Office, Adobe, Macromedia, etc.) are available and, IMO, sometimes better implemented. I have four Macs, but they're all old (the newest being a 400MHz G3 iMac). As stated before, there are next to no games availble, and the ones that do make it to the Mac are sometimes years behind the PC versions.

Macs in a nutshell: Awesome, but games are scarce.

Battery life is fairly good on Powerbooks. You can usually expect around four hours.

The powerbooks are fantastic. More and more games are being released at the same time as their pc counterparts and in the case of Office, its even better than the windows version. That, combined with Apple's iApps, and you got a winner.


"Free" software means two things to me but I would check out http://www.mac-p2p.com/ for your file sharing needs and www.versiontracker.com for everything else.

It's been said before, the gaming landscape in Mac is just sad. They do get some new-ish games but they miss a LOT of games that never make it, and those that do are generally at least 8 to 12 months late. By the time it comes on the Mac it's an old game on PC, and almost always runs slower, even if you have the very top of the line Mac dual G5.
That said, OS X is indeed years ahead from Windows at nearly everything. Beautiful, super-stable, solid, great support, smart, and there's a ton of brilliant software. But it's also a very limiting environment. You either do it the Mac way or you're stuck. You better like iTunes and iPod and iPhoto because if you don't, you're basically screwed, doomed to living in the fringes of a fringe community. On PC you have an overwhelming amount of choice.

For me personally, the biggest problem is speed. Even the "World's fastest supercomputer" (haha), the dual 2Ghz G5 is not exactly a speed demon compared with an Intel or AMD-based workstation for less then half the price. It's MUCH worse with the notebooks. Compare the processing speed of any Sager or fast Centrino against the fastest Powerbook you can find and your image of these beatiful notebooks will change... I know because I own one myself, in addition to a couple of Macs, plus in my work environment about 50% of people use Macs. Don't trust anytning Apple says or benchmarks, they lie as much as any other company would dare to. Just try it yourself. If it's as fast as you need it, then buy it, you will like it.

My other personal problem with the Mac is Mac users themselves. They are very often egocentric, elitist zealots with a superiority complex, and proud of it. Too close to a cult for my taste. And that's always bad, even if they don't realize it. Everytime I follow a "Mac vs PC" conversation and the Mac zealots come in with their usual ignorant rants about how Apple invented everything, Microsoft is an evil thief, anybody who doesn't use a Mac is a masochist retard, etc., it makes me think twice before powering up my G5 and having to share something with them.

Today, I use my PCs all day, every day, and my Macs every once in a while to check out a new program or when I want a break from Windows.

Microsoft, please hurry up with Longhorn, I don't want to be assimilated by the iBorg.

I do graphic work and video editing, so working on the mac is a charm, especially with their new operating system.

Games run much slower than the pc platform, so if you want a mac just for games, then forget it... you'll get better bang for the buck with a pc. Productivity though, i find macs better... since i don't have games installed on them

HEY i happen to be one of those "egocentric, elitist zealots, with a superiority complex!" but i am able to admite the shortcomings of my mac and now i am going to buy a PC, so next time u go to bash a MAC user just remember that iv got ur hide

Lousy Mac-heads. I always find it refreshing to point out that the whole concept of GUI that Steve Jobs and Co. were the "first" to put forth was actually itself an idea stolen from Xerox.


I say that all in jest. Some of my better friends are Mac users - even if they are poor misguided souls.

while were talking about stolen....

now how many things did Gates steal to make windows

and i say all that as a joke. Some of my better friends are PC users- even if they are poor misguided souls.

I love the stability of OS X but ugh, the bus speed on those powerbooks is like 167mhz I think... They can't really keep up with pentium-m's speed wise.

Please, I beg of you all, let's not start a pointless "who invented what first" war, it's a complete waste of time

Hey, I don't defend Bill Gates because, as we all know, his heart, much like that of the Grinch who Stole Christmas, is three sizes too small.

hmm.. well i see some ignorant comments being posted on the board.. so i'll just say one thing owning both an m6805 and a 12" powerbook 1.33

don't even think about gaming on a mac portable.. desktop g5 is a minimum for anything good.

as far as macs being slower on other things.. i totally disagree.. also take into consideration that the amount of time you don't spend troubleshooting and rebooting more then makes up for a minor speed discrepancy.

I also don't find my 12" powerbook to be any slower then my r40 at work, which is a pentium m with a few more mhz.

it all depends what you need. I have the powerbook cuz there is nothing out there in pc land that appeals to me as much as this in the weight and size.

I like my 8605 for my other stuff, like running linux win2k3 server, playing with new technolgies... but it gets rebuilt regularly.

Another large advantage of mac is not worrying about virii.

there's just a few points from a multi platform user named me.

This is true NSi, I will save my energy from this pointless conflict and put it into another, like why I ate all of my roomie's freshly baked brownies.

or instead of a computer-related debate you guys could try something totally off the wall... like "who really invented sandals?!"


....or jazzercise

Hooligan: yeah, you're right about the speed thing.. if you don't really do anything very processor intensive, you would probably never see the difference between a new Mac and new PC, in fact it might seem that the Mac is faster because of Quartz/Quartz Extreme.

But... start doing anything that really needs processing speed and you will see the Mac fall behind a fast PC worth half the price of the Mac. Try uncompressing a 1GB file on the Mac, rendering out a week-long radiostiy project, manipulating lots of 3D geometry, that kind of thing. Those are examples of things that the Mac will simply not be able to catch up to a decent PC at, and things I do every day. So, ultimately, your mileage may vary and it could be the best computer you ever owned just as easily as it could be a very expensive but beatiful underperformer.
I agree about XP and its complete inferiority to OS X when it comes to sophistication, but I don't really have to rebuild my XP regularly. Then again, I am a very educated and cautious user. A regular person will regularly destroy their Windows while the Mac is pretty much impervious to self-degradation.