Mac or PC

[KidDynamite]

PCs, because they are more upgradeable

[steven]

PCs, because they are more upgradeable

pc's and mac's have the same upgradeability... they are both computers.... smh

[samsikle]

i've had my vaio desktop for about 4 years and it's probably been messed up for probably 2. i've grown up using pcs but when my vaio started to mess up real bad, i started looking around and asking friends for what kind of laptop i should get (because i'm starting college) and i hella got suckered in for the macbook with the ipod. i've never used a mac a day in my life but i'm soooo in love with them now. i absolutely suggest getting macs. give it a try

[dismalfuture]

I come from a family who has used Macintosh since 1984, beginning with my mother who started on the original Macintosh when she was working in publishing, and my father, who was once a teacher who went from Apple II's to Mac whenever everyone else in schools did. Since then he has left teaching and works for an Apple education-related division. Needless to say, I only knew computers as being Macintoshes for the longest time, and then when I finally used a PC, I was aghast at how shit they are. Since then (I guess I was in middle or high school at the time and I first experienced Windows 3 or something) I have gotten more used to PC's after having been forced to use them for several jobs, but coming home to my Mac is so soothing.

I equate it to having started driving Porsches from the beginning, being forced to drive a white Taurus for a company car, and then coming home to your Porsche again after work.

Anyone remember back in the day when a good professional Mac setup (Quadra 950+21" CRT", Laserwriter, etc) cost like $15,000? Haha. And does anyone remember the 10th Anniversary Mac that Jerry Seinfeld sported in the show? That shit was years ahead of it's time, design-wise.

[dismalfuture]

depends on if you want a swedish keyboard or not, I suspect that they have "åäö" on the macbooks that are being shipped to Sweden from apple, and probably not on the ones they send to portugal

Since every language is built into OS X, you can just buy yourself a Mac from any country in the world, and then if you really feel you need a 2nd language printed on the keys in factory form, you can add either Apple's external keyboards bought locally, or in the case of a laptop, even get a replacement keyboard with the native language and have it installed quickly and easily.

I have my PB G4 from home, and then recently I went out here and bought the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, it's the domestic model so it's bilingual in English, plus Korean. I'm sure it's this way in every country that Apple supports. In essence, language issues are easily fixed on a Mac, at the cost of $30 to maybe $100 or so if you want that built-in bilingual keyboard on a laptop.

[Morningstar]

To the guy arguing about PC in the fashion industry. As far as I know any company with the money to own U4ia (expensive pattern/print program) must use a PC as I don't believe their is a U4ia mac version. So, PC are very valid in the Fashion Industry.

I mean, if you're only designing tee shirts I guess it doesn't matter what you use since Adobe programs come for both.

[will_i_am]

I do my word documents on Illustrator or InDesign. Eventho there's MS office for mac.

i culd never live wihtout the spell check! amazinfg!!!

No seriously though, thats nuts. i hated using indesign for projects with a lot of typing for that exact reason.

[KidDynamite]

Macs can't run AutoCAD for shit.

[macuser3of5]

i culd never live wihtout the spell check! amazinfg!!!

No seriously though, thats nuts. i hated using indesign for projects with a lot of typing for that exact reason.

...InDesign has a spellchecking service, as does OS X.

[poly800rock]

anyone have an ipod break? i've bought 2 ipods, one 2nd gen and one photo color ipod and total have gone through 7 ipods, thank god for warranties, between batteries and fucked hard drives...

[HUNCHBAK]

If you're going to try to troll or flame someone, at least use your brain and think up some cogent arguments. And proper grammar helps.

The argument (well, not really an argument, just an answer to the question) is What is industry standard?? MAC. End of story. Name me a company in the fashion district that designs on PC?? -And if you can, 1...2...3... out of how many companies?? c'mon, I know salesmen that copped macs... and I'm not hatin' on the PC (well, I am..) but I own a pocket PC celly (thats about to be Ebayed)... that I use with my mac. Homeboy wants to do graphics and work in the industry, get a MAC. -Wanna play games and do spread sheets LOL, get a PC. And as for grammar, fuckit. -what?? you gonna give me a failing grade?? You dudes on blogs tryin' to correct cats on grammar and spelling make me laugh... dont tell me my grammar stinks.. put it on my report card..LOL... tell me somethin' i dont know..

[wild_whiskey]

Definitely Mac. 5th year graphic design student and I haven't made a better choice in my life than getting a PowerBook. I used Illustrator and InDesign on the PC before I had my PowerBook. It sucks. Seriously. This is unbiased personal experience telling you that Windows just doesn't operate art programs the way art programs should be operated.

As for Macs being "dumbed down," well... I'm sure not complaining that they're easy to use. I built my own PC, can fix most problems with hardware and Windows (when they're fixable), but more often than not some shit goes wrong that it will take me weeks to find a cure for, and more often than not it's something really drastic. OS X has never crashed for me on my PowerBook. Ever.

I still keep my PC around for Exact Audio Copy and DC++, and a few hard drives devoted solely to MP3s. I don't use Foobar2000 though (couldn't get it to work). Minya you on Ubernet?

[HUNCHBAK]

To the guy arguing about PC in the fashion industry. As far as I know any company with the money to own U4ia (expensive pattern/print program) must use a PC as I don't believe their is a U4ia mac version. So, PC are very valid in the Fashion Industry.

I mean, if you're only designing tee shirts I guess it doesn't matter what you use since Adobe programs come for both.

One word: BOOTCAMP. Even though its beta, it will be included (fine tuned of course) in the next OS. And dont get me wrong.. PC are very valid in the Fashion Industry... To imput in orders, print out spec pages, crash so the boss can say: were getting a mac to replace that!! And drape my wet towel on when I come from the gym..LOL...

Nah, again its about the graphics, and what we use.. thats all..

[HUNCHBAK]

anyone have an ipod break? i've bought 2 ipods, one 2nd gen and one photo color ipod and total have gone through 7 ipods, thank god for warranties, between batteries and fucked hard drives...

LOL.. buddy, if I had to go thru 7 iPods like you did, I would just fuhghedabout an iPod and get a Iriver or whatever the next best thing there is..

You must be a Sony fanboy.. only a fool (or a sony fanboy) would go thru 7 iPods, or in a sony fanboy's case, 7 PS2's.. LOL!!

[6MT]

As i am going away to study graphic design

this fall, i've been thinking about buying a laptop.

Almost every graphic designer uses Mac, but the

price of a Mac is almost double the price of a PC.

So, is it really worth spending the extra money

to but a Mac?

p.s. I dont really have THAT much money to spend.

buy a mac, its worh it, and plus you could make payment on any mac product.

[minya]

I don't use Foobar2000 though (couldn't get it to work). Minya you on Ubernet?

ha, nope, although I am an MP3 and lossless whore.

[poly800rock]

LOL.. buddy, if I had to go thru 7 iPods like you did, I would just fuhghedabout an iPod and get a Iriver or whatever the next best thing there is..

You must be a Sony fanboy.. only a fool (or a sony fanboy) would go thru 7 iPods, or in a sony fanboy's case, 7 PS2's.. LOL!!

no dude, first one broken headphone jack, 2nd one the hard drive screwed, 3nd one and 4th one the batteries didnt hold a charge, 5th one is still around somewhere...

onto photoipod...6th one hard drive died, and on to my 7th...

the broken headphone jack was my fault, but warranty covered it, when they shipped the next few back with batteries that wouldn't hold a charge, that's hardly my fault and when the hard drive is faulty, its not my fault as well. i used to be in the computer business and know my fair share of software hardware problems/solutions, and i assure you macs and pc's are equally sucky, plus, i mean, i do NOT support someone paying $2000+ for a regular notebook. but to each their own, i hate sony computers as well, don't try to think you know more about the computer industry just because you use a mac, i mean you're not the guy from the movie "waiting" are you?

what the fuck is a sony fanboy?

[onemancult]

I've had my Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 60GB since 2001/2002... never had a problem with it, not once... and, I've not once ever carried it in its case. The bitch is sturdy and kicks out the jams like you wouldn't believe. Now that I've run out of space, someone needs to bust out with an 80 or 100GB mp3 player.... I don't understand people with Nanos and Minis. Do you people even like music?

[kakaro]

I've had my Creative Nomad Zen Xtra 60GB since 2001/2002... never had a problem with it, not once... and, I've not once ever carried it in its case. The bitch is sturdy and kicks out the jams like you wouldn't believe. Now that I've run out of space, someone needs to bust out with an 80 or 100GB mp3 player.... I don't understand people with Nanos and Minis. Do you people even like music?

Don't tell me that you listen to 60GB music,

it'd take a damn lifetime.

also, you can change music on your player once in a while.

so about 2GB to 6GB is enough.

[kakaro]

For playback, the Rio is the best. Sonys pretty good, can't comment on Creative.

yeah, i guess i underestimated rio.

They're quite cheap too!

think i'll get one.

[onemancult]

Don't tell me that you listen to 60GB music,

it'd take a damn lifetime.

also, you can change music on your player once in a while.

so about 2GB to 6GB is enough.

A lifetime? A couple of weeks, at most. And, I'm constantly adding stuff on there.

I just couldn't imagine not having a big bulk of music with me at all times, at this point- what if I should want to listen to some random track I haven't listened to in awhile all of a sudden?

People with smaller players tend not to be fans of music, they're fans of songs... one or two from here and there. I think that's really cheap- if an artist is only putting out one or two good songs, are they really worth listening to?

Man, it killed me to have to delete stuff off of my Nomad recently to make room for some new albums I'd downloaded. Until I can land myself a terabye mp3 player, I'm not really happy.

[derdankhund]

Anyone have an idea if Apple is going to be unveiling an improvement to dual intel processors in their Macbook Pro's at the developers conference coming up in a few weeks? I heard a rumor about this but haven't found anything remotely reliable to substantiate it. I'm going to buy a MBP for sure, but want to know if I should wait on pulling the trigger until after the conference...

[derdankhund]

Don't tell me that you listen to 60GB music,

it'd take a damn lifetime.

also, you can change music on your player once in a while.

so about 2GB to 6GB is enough.

just saw this...I have 240 gb and counting, and have listened to roughly 150 gb of it. About 60-70 gb are in semi-regular rotation, with 30 gb in pretty steady rotation. I think it also depends on how much time you spend listening to music (I average 6-10hrs a day)...

[onemancult]

just saw this...I have 240 gb and counting, and have listened to roughly 150 gb of it. About 60-70 gb are in semi-regular rotation, with 30 gb in pretty steady rotation. I think it also depends on how much time you spend listening to music (I average 6-10hrs a day)...

See? Music junkies, back me up!

[polishmike]

See? Music junkies, back me up!

i have about 120gb on the computer and 20gb on the ipod. i change 10gb on the ipod every week. i listen to my ipod every day for about 6hrs. it helps if you don't have to talk to people too much while working

[ryju]

I don't know why we're talking about iPods and music now, I thought this was about a laptop for graphic design...

I suggest you get a Macbook. Since you already have a desktop PC you'll have the best of both worlds, and with Bootcamp you can install Windows on your Macbook anyway if need be.

I use my PowerBook G4 for graphic design and video editing and it has been a wonderful experience. Sure I could do it all on a PC as well but Mac OS X in general feels a lot more responsive to me. As long as you get a decent amount of ram you'll be more than set for school.

As for viruses on OS X, there are currently none, there was one exploit a long time ago which let you disguise a filetype as another filetype however Apple has quickly fixed that problem. Obviously the reason OS X doesn't get as many viruses is because it's not anywhere near as mainstream as Windows. Why bother making a virus that'll affect 5% of computers? Furthermore, being built over a UNIX subsystem, any system level access requires a root password, which Windows doesn't seem to require.

A Macbook will be perfect for what you need, there are tons of places to get software, including open-source software. However since you're in graphic design Adobe CS might be a bit slow since Adobe won't be bringing out their Universal version until sometime 2007. With 1GB or more of ram I imagine you'd be fine though.

Furthermore the "Macs are sooo expensive" argument is bullshit now as prices are extremely close and what you're getting with a Mac in terms of software is an amazing value. You get the built-in iSight camera/microphone, iLife software for photos, music, video, DVD, making music, websites, and Front Row + remote for a home media player, you're getting a lot of amazing stuff for the price you pay. If you compare the Macs do a similar spec'd machine from another company you'll find it's fairly close.

Also the form factor and design quality of Macs have always been superb, I'm not saying they are better or worse than any other company, but they shouldn't break down quickly. My old iMac has been in perfect shape for over 5 years and this PowerBook has been perfect for nearly 3. The one thing I'd suggest you get is Applecare, which is Apple's warranty service, it's more than worth it in case anything does go wrong.

One more thing, go to an Apple store or reseller and just try them out if you haven't before.

[dismalfuture]

Anyone have an idea if Apple is going to be unveiling an improvement to dual intel processors in their Macbook Pro's at the developers conference coming up in a few weeks? I heard a rumor about this but haven't found anything remotely reliable to substantiate it. I'm going to buy a MBP for sure, but want to know if I should wait on pulling the trigger until after the conference...

Dual processors, as in twin, in a laptop? Unlikely. Do you mean dual-core? That might happen but probably not now, maybe not even in the current form factors, which still have a ways to go (though I'm excited to see what Apple will come out with design-wise for the MBP replacements.) Maybe a bump in speed on MBP's, but none of the new chips for portables. The pro line needs revamping before any portables this year, that G5 cheese grater is getting long in the tooth. Other than the small speed increases on MBP's, X.5 will probably be the only other change.