Which is Better? Mac or PC?

Depends on your needs. The hardware should be selected on the basis of the software you need to use. If the software you need to use requires a PC, then buy a PC. If the software requires a Mac, then buy a Mac. Choose the hardware that's appropriate for the software you will use.

If it makes no difference then choose the computer you'd prefer.

Yes. It's true, all based on your need. Dont trust "the mac is beautiful, mac is better, more stable, no virus", if you dont need a mac, then just buy a PC. if you need image processing, video editing, either buy a mac, or waiting for the vista.

My iMac just crashed again. After I bought this last Christmas, it's been crashed couple of times. Just like a PC. When I bought it, I just conisdered mac os is the advanced os than windows, it's the same. (Probably I'm still mad at my iMac, but dont get me wrong, it's a good OS, but you know, nothing's perfect.)

You might visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on troubleshooting Mac problems. Rather than complain about it post your problem in a separate topic. You may find your problems have an easy solution. But complaining about them and providing no information on the problem will not help you in the least.

i have been a windows user all my life and i decided to switch to mac. honestly mac's are the nicest looking computers and the software is great however they have major compatibility issues. for example many websites do not support mac's Ex. www.aircanada.com ( if you are looking to use your computer for multimedia definately get a mac. but if you are using your computer for more business things depending on what business your in deffinately get a PC

Hello,

I'm not going to argue that a Mac is better, but I do have a response to:

looking computers and the software is great however
they have major compatibility issues. for example
many websites do not support mac's Ex.
www.aircanada.com

I have never had any problem exchanging documents or viewing web pages with the Mac.

All my document exchanges have worked flawlessly, and work going both to and from Windows PC's.

But, you need to make sure you are using the right program on the Mac if you want to share files with PC users.

As for the website compatibility, the site you provided as an example will work just fine. They just don't want you to know it.

What that website is doing, is running a check to see what web-browser you are using. Beyond that, they are also running a check to see which computer you are using.

So, what you need to do is make sure that your browser tells their website what it wants to hear.

So, in Safari, you can use the "Debug" menu to have Safari report itself as the Windows version of Internet Explorer.

Go to the Debug menu, then pick "User Agent", then choose: "Windows MSIE 6.0".

If the site still won't load, then go to the site first, and perform the selection again from the Debug menu.

Basically, what you are doing is changing what Safari identifies itself as.

Additionally, the website that you listed does list that it is compatible with Mac OS 9.0 or later. So, it should work provided you pass it's checks.

If for some reason it still won't work, contact them since they say that it is compatible with the Mac.

The only sites that absolutely will not work with a Mac are sites that use "Active X" to take over control of your computer or communicate directly with the operating system. Fortunately, those sites are getting rarer and rarer.

The only site I've run across in recent times that uses Active X is Microsoft's Windows Update site (which you wouldn't need with a Mac anyway).

As for enabling the "Debug" menu in Safari, if it is not already there, you can do that by:

Closing Safari

Open "Terminal" which is located at:

Hard Drive --> Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal

Then type the following at the command line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

If you would prefer an automated method of enabling the Debug menu, you can always download the free Safari Enhancer program which includes a setting for this feature:

http://www.lordofthecows.com/softwarelist.php

About three months ago, I would have said that macs were better without a doubt. The major fault with that statement is that I never used xp. The intel machines forced me to switch over for the first time to use photoshop. And I found out that xp is great. All of the software that I need is available and cheap and the os works very well. And getting good tech help is easier on a pc because companies are more experienced with helping pc people. Also finding drivers for hardware is WAY easier.And I love many of the features of xp.
First the uninstall software control panel rocks. Also the start menu and taskbar are very useful for finding and operating your apps in a quick and civil manner. They now seem essential to me. Also xp has awesome file management options like right click cut and paste and "send to" of files that let you move stuff around in your "finder" much easier than in osx. The result for me is a cleaner and more organized desktop and HD.
Also take macromedia products - they all still work on pc very well though you will have to use emulation forever to run macromedia apps in osx on intel.
The only thing that I miss about osx is front row and killer itunes performance. And that is not enough to make me switch back. It is like running osx is swimming upstream.

www.aircanada.com seems to works right for me, using Safari as-is (without the User Agent option in the Debug Menu). I just went all the way through booking a flight, stopping short of the payment...

I have not been unable to negotiate a site with Safari in at least the past couple of years. I can honestly say that I have more problems with IE and Firefox on our PCs at work.

Gary

ps: For whatever it might be worth, there are five "switchers" in my extended family who were all long-time PC users and who are very happy with the choice they've made.

I have to agree with some here. I am a long long time user of PC's and just recently, for vanity, purchased the latest rev iMac G5 20" iSight 512m ram... it is a beautiful machine but 'out of the box' will not out perform any of my current laptops. (I no longer own a desktop PC)

I've had some minor to medium 'glitches' which I've not had in the last 6 years with PC's. I am starting to strongly believe some of these 'glitches' are due to the fact the iMac only ships with 512megs of memory, which by today's standards is woefully low. If you figure in the additional cost of memory, the iMac will easily exceed $2000 USD. With that in mind, you should ask yourself, what kind of PC can you buy with $2000 USD? Additionally, you must remember, conservatively speaking, 95% of all computer users on this small blue planet are working with a windows based PC.

But my iMac is an awefully stylish machine, ships with lots of fun goodies and the graphics are second to none... Good luck, Rick

iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD in Slimming Black - HP Pav and Toshiba Sat Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Picking the Mac over the PC is a matter of picking what platform you are going to use and support. I don't think philosophical discussions are of much value. Read these quick personal stories and judge for yourself.

I've used WinXP (on a toshiba laptop) for two years, and it is a huge improvement over Win98. However, it still crashes and doesn't handle sleep mode very well; I don't like unexplained processes that seem to run whenever they want in the background on that machine.

I've also had a very bad experience with WinXP on a desktop unit I purchased for my daughter in 1994. That machine became so badly infested by viruses and malware that it was unusable. Despite purchasing the machine new from Gateway, I was unable to satisfy Microsoft's incredibly intricate copy protection that refused to let me reinstall my perfectly legal copy of WinXP. Frustrated, I finally put Linux on that machine.

It is that sort of negative experience (along with the many bad experiences I've had with Microsoft over the fifteen years that I used PCs) that makes me look to the Mac.

I bought 2 eMacs for my kids a year ago; those machines NEVER crash. Sleep mode is so reliable that I only reboot them when asked during software updates. My 12 year-old daughter effortlessly connects multiple brands of still cameras, camcorders, iPods and more to that machine; she never even has to ask for help.

I bought a 20" iMac w/2GB memory and it's a beauty; despite a major switchover to a new processor, it's more reliable than a WinXP machine. I've been very impressed by Apple's dedication to producing regular updates that install perfectly every time.

If you are not required by work to use softare or hardware that runs ONLY on a PC, why do you have one?

iMac Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Why choose?

The great thing about the new Apple intel machines is you can have the best of both worlds. I have recently purchased a 20" iNtel iMac, my 5th Mac in 18 months, the others are now with my son, sold to friends or running as my PVR!

I wouldn't switch now, boot camp means even if I do need something on Windows XP I can do it. Besides, I am an ICT manager at work stuck with Windows all day, home on Macosx makes life more interesting.

John

Since the introduction of Boot Camp, this question is somewhat obsolete... Macs now allow you to use Mac OS X for serious things, and Windows for games (and other stuff not available on the Mac).

I've been using OS X as my primary OS for 2 years now, after being a Windows (and occasionally Linux and OS/2) user for about 8 years before that. In my experience, the Mac is a much more stable, nicer-to-work-with environment. I have XP installed on both my iMac and my MacBook Pro, just out of curiosity, but I've never really had to use it yet... I may just uninstall it if I need more hard drive space.

While the core of Windows XP itself is quite stable, its architecture (with fundamental design mistakes like the Registry and DLLs), along with the mediocre quality of many Windows apps, make it hard to use and maintain.

Of course this is all my personal opinion... YMMV.

Since the introduction of Boot Camp, this question is
somewhat obsolete... Macs now allow you to use Mac OS
X for serious things, and Windows for games (and
other stuff not available on the Mac).

I've been using OS X as my primary OS for 2 years
now, after being a Windows (and occasionally Linux
and OS/2) user for about 8 years before that. In my
experience, the Mac is a much more stable,
nicer-to-work-with environment. I have XP installed
on both my iMac and my MacBook Pro, just out of
curiosity, but I've never really had to use it yet...
I may just uninstall it if I need more hard drive
space.

While the core of Windows XP itself is quite stable,
its architecture (with fundamental design mistakes
like the Registry and DLLs), along with the mediocre
quality of many Windows apps, make it hard to use and
maintain.

Of course this is all my personal opinion... YMMV.

I 'think' this may be the info i've been browsing the forum's for today.

I am slowly saving to build a new PC but after having just bought a iPod video and seeing how good it is I began to wonder if a Mac might be a better idea.

The only thing holding back a decision was whether or not I could also use it for gaming.

I use my PC for online games and i've never seen it advertised for the Mac.

The above though 'seems' to indicate though that with the new OS it can also use XP so i'm hoping it can then run a MMO as well?

see okay there is boot camp however you have to then buy a copy of windows xp which increases the cost even more. macs are good for some and bad for some it all depends on what you use it for