I had a very heated argument about this today...

And I have given up trying to convince anyone trying to decide between a Mac and a PC, since it seems to be mostly personal preference.

I prefer Mac when working with Graphics.
I prefer a high strung PC when gaming.

And when it comes to every day stuff, like the internet and Word and junk...

I could care less.

i have used a pc my whole life and never thought much of a mac but when i started going to school for graphic design, i bought a powerbook and from that day fourth my days of not thinking to much of a mac was out the window. i love my mac, i think its pretty simple to use and can handle a lot more than a pc can when it comes to handling graphics programs. i've never really had any mojor problems with my mac and i've had about 3 pc's and have cursed them all many of times haha. i think tho its a personal preference because i've had many debates on mac vs pc. its kinda like people swear by ford's or chevy's, and no matter what you say they'll still like thier ford or chevy. i use both pc at work and mac at home(pc at home is rarely used) pc's to me tend to have a little more problems than macs do. yes, macs might seem like there alot of money but what you get in a stock mac and what you get in a stock pc is totaly different macs dont come with games loaded, where as pc's you got your solitare, minesweeper etc., macs come with ilife pc's dont come with any kind of programs that let you create music, movies, edit photos. i could go on for days about this topic, i will take a mac anyday and when i finally upgrade to a macbook pro i'm sure i'll be more of a mac fanatic.

Mac! In my personal opinion and experience, Mac is better than PC. A Mac is a more user friendly computer and in the Graphic Design world it has proven to be better for me. In my eyes, the Mac is the ultimate computer.

jhaber31 said:

I'm lost without the right mouse button.

I've worked with both, but I own a Mac. It depends on your area of study Graphic Design, Visual Communication..etc, it does help in a lot of areas. I wouldn't say it was a waste of money, but like anything you cherish you should take good care of it and it will do the same for you!!!

MattRichardsonDesign said:

MAC, NO QUESTION... Have you ever tried booting up a PC. Good lord. you can make a sandwich and watch an epsiode of Seinfield. Macs are far superior in every way. Anyone who got stuck with a PC is still in denial.

Mac is the standard in the design world with the exception of architecture and interior/exterior design.  Mac rules in graphic design, illustration, digital photography.  PCs don't even come close in terms of robustness, ease of use, reliability, speed, print quality, and perty much any other factor that is relevant to the issue.

 Mac,  Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac....  if you're in the art biz, it's a  Mac.  Fast, easy, they don't crash and aren't susceptible to every virus on the planet.  

I used to be a PC person, but then I saw the light and now I'm hardcore Mac. A good friend of mine is a grapher designer as well and he has a PC laptop, though this was mainly from a lack of money for a Mac laptop and being in great enough need of a laptop that he couldn't wait until he could get a Mac. Sure the PC's can run your CS programs and such, but every time I'm on a PC I just get this "uh, a PC, ick" feeling. Macs are totally worth the money, so if you can reasonably afford one (and the programs you need for it), go for it. Definitely can't say I agree with your classmates when they say it isn't worth it. Perhaps in time they'll change their tune?

JasonD says ...

Unfortunately, I have to use PCs at work, but at home I have a Mac. I have far less problems running the Adobe software at home than I do at work.

I am in absolutely the same situation!

I will never bye PC for myself.

 I'm on my 6th Mac and that's only because they keep coming out with better ones so I just upgrade to the new model and hand the old ones down the line to members of my family. All but one of them are still running. Actually that processor on the ibook g3 is still running but the screen died about a year ago. We use it as an external hard drive.

I could spout many reasons for choosing the Mac over PC. Price is not one of them but when it comes to graphic intensive programs, I can have every app in the Adobe Design Suite running at once without my processor complaining or any of them crashing. What I have found is that with the intel processors, you really have to upgrade to CS3 because CS2 wasn't using the universal binary. 

Once you go Mac, you never go back. :)

Macs are WONDERFUL for graphic design. Almost everybody in the business uses a Mac. I couldn't tell you how many times while filling out an application the question came up, "Do you have any Mac experience?"

Also, It's worth every penny in my opinion.

nathangriffith says ...

with regard to the right click issue.  while it is true that the mouse enclosed with your computer does not have a right click button you can but any number of other brand mice or trackballs that have a right click function and work perfectly well on a mac.  Problem solved.  I actually have a microsoft (how ironic) trackball that I use and which cost me like $25.00.

 

All I had to do was program my mouse so the right click works. Very easy to do

valerie says ...

I use both and think that they are so similar now that there is not much left to compare.

I agree Valerie, but I have to admit I am more used to the shortcuts for PC than I am on Mac. LOL

I have a Mac desktop and a PC laptop and I like them both very much. My secret - I run Ubuntu Linux on the laptop.

A modern Mac IS a pc, you can run windows on it if for some reason there's a .exe you simply must install. You can get a PC cheaper than you can a Mac generally, but you get what you pay for with a Mac - Apple computers are expensive because they use top of the line hardware.

OSX works better than Windows largely because Apple makes its own hardware so they can optimize the OS around a narrow rage of hardware, so it's reliable like a Sony PlayStation rather than an off the rack PC. The OS is virus resistant because, yes, small market share - but importantly the OSX kernal is open source, meaning the programming enthusiasts can code patches to theoretical virii without Apple having to lift a finger.

Almost all of the best open source softwar will install on OSX too - its is a Unix after all.