Mac V. PC

There are two types of people in this world; those who prefer the computer brand Macintosh, and those who prefer Windows computers. Most people are one or the other, and if you put a group of each in a room together, then sparks will fly. It is currently one of the most debated things on the internet, and probably will be for a long time to come. I have looked deeper into this, found some statistics, and will help fuel this debate with my findings.

But first, some general information. Even though a mac can be considered a “PC”, which stands for personal computer, I will be using the term PC for windows computers because that has become the name that most people associate with them, and for the sake of simplicity. I have found some of the least biased info for this debate, so most of the facts have come places which do not care about this debate at all, and are just putting out some information for the public.

Lets start where anybody would start when looking into getting a computer. Which one is right for you. When a person looks for a computer that they would like to own, they usually need  to find something specific for them. This is one of PCs’ biggest strengths overall. While mac has just eight lines of computers they make currently, PC has about eight brands, each with its own set of lines. These lines range from cheep ones which would mainly be used for surfing the web and typing papers, to the more expensive ones used for high-end gaming and multi-media. The sheer diversity of PCs computers make it easy for someone who is looking for a new computer to find the one that fits them perfectly. The mac, on the other hand, does not have much variety and finding a new computer by them for under $1000 dollars is near impossible. These computers, even though they are expensive, use top of the line parts to make the inside as strong as possible, so the price is well worth it if one fits what you are looking for. Just as a little aside that fits into this category, while PCs are sold virtually everywhere, while mac has contracts with very few stores, so the ease of buying a a PC in general is higher also. In this category, PC is the winner.

Even if you find the perfect computer for you, chances are you would not buy it if it had no look appeal to it. So next, I will talk about the design and look of the brands. This is actually kind of a hard one to do because of PCs many companies and styles, but they all seem to have a pattern to them. When looking at the lower cost PCs, generally the ones just used for googling things and typing papers, they are generally small. Too small. I’ve seen some of them that look like I could out them in my pocket if I wanted to, and that just seems to be a bit overboard. I know they do that because they want to save money, and it looks good on paper for the company, but the sales of these did not come close to the projected sales, and it is easy to see why. As they go up in price, they also generally go up in size. they have gotten a lot better with this over the past few years, making a lot of the expensive ones a bit thinner and lighter, but it still does not meet with the mac standards. Mac has become leader in compacting their products into the lightest and most compact computers possible, making some thin enough to fit into a manila envelope. This is also a bit much, but it is still better then being able to fit it into your pocket. Mac has also developed a sleek, modern look to all of their laptops, which makes all of their lines visually appealing to most people. They also tend to weigh a few pounds less then their competitor, which can make a huge difference for people, such as college kids, who have to lug the things around all of the time. The only thing that PC has over mac is durability, for macs tend to have many more structural issues, such as a cracked screen or shell, and even inside parts coming loose in some cases. All this means is that mac users have to be a bit more careful about their computer. Mac is definitely the winner of this category.

The last thing is the operating system. This can not just be looked over in one big clump, though, because there is so much that goes into each. There are ways to hack the opposite OS onto the competitors computers, but for the purpose of this paper, I’m just going to pretend that those don’t exist. The standard OS on PCs is windows 8 and windows 7, and for mac it is OS X (10.8) Mountain Lion. I will be comparing comparing windows 7 to OS X ML because I personally do not like windows 8, and 7 can compare to OS X much easier.

First, programs for each. PC has a much bigger variety of programs which can be used. A good example of this is the game engine called Steam, which lets you buy and download games. Last time I checked, there were only about half as many titles that were compatible with OS X then there were with windows. This is generally how it is with every type of program, which makes Windows the winner of this sub-category.

This leads right into the next one, which is safety. Windows might have twice as many programs, but this, unfortunately for them, goes for viruses also. It is, however, a bit worse then that. Windows has about five times as many viruses which could corrupt files, or steal personal information than OS X. This is because of two things, it is more complex to hack OS X, and there are many more PCs at this point in time, so it is more worth a hackers time. The number of viruses for OS X have been increasing at a very fast rate, though, so this may change within the next few years. At this point in time, OS X wins this.

Each computer company has it’s own completely different style of computer, so really, it is impossible to decide which is the best company. Personally, I like PCs more then make, but that is for my own personal reasons. I prefer the operating system of windows over mac it is much easier to program things on it. I am also a big gamer, and macs, despite their cost and expensive parts have a very hard time running some of the amazing graphics games are getting now a days. But the mac is still an amazing piece of machinery, and I honestly still like them a lot also. When it comes down to it, it really is just a matter of personal preference. The brands are made for different kinds of people, so there is really no way of saying which computer is better.