

Mac vs PC: Does it matter anymore? - bdfh42
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2008/08/mac-vs-pc-does-it-matter-anymo.html

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bbgm
I think it still does. I use both a mac and a pc. I tend to spend a chunk of
time inside a browser. Desktop work on the PC is Outlook and Excel. Desktop
work on a mac is mostly spent inside Textmate and a shell. All computing/web
hosting is done virtually. I can't wait to get a mac from work so that I don't
have to use the PC. Now that is personal preference, but IMO the experience on
your host machine does make a difference, regardless of your preference.

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raganwald
_Is Mac vs. PC becoming irrelevant because of the maturing of the internet as
a platform and cloud computing?_

What I find very interesting about this is the possibility that it cuts both
ways for Apple. If the two are interchangeable, you can buy based on price and
features, which can be an advantage for Windows, since there are many
manufacturers who can offer a larger variety of form factors and feature
combinations.

But the flip side of that proposition is that if there is no Windows lock-in
forcing consumers to buy Windows, so they can also choose Apple based on good
design, Apple branding, the iPod halo effect, and perceived security.

Personally, I think that there is a big difference between saying that there
are no factors forcing consumers to purchase one or the others and saying that
the differences between them don't matter any more.

~~~
Hexstream
_Perceived_ security? How many hundred thousand new pieces of malware for the
mac this year again?

~~~
raganwald
An astronomer, a physicist and a mathematician are on a train in Scotland. The
astronomer looks out of the window, sees a black sheep standing in a field,
and remarks, "How odd. Scottish sheep are black." "No, no, no!" says the
physicist. "Only some Scottish sheep are black." The mathematician rolls his
eyes at his companions' muddled thinking and says, "In Scotland, there is at
least one field, containing at least one sheep, at least one side of which
appears black from here."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_joke>

~~~
Hexstream
I was referencing effective security (what your chances are of contracting
something _bad_ ), not theoretical security (how inherently secure the system
is or isn't). You're effectively safer on a mac than Windows regardless of the
design and architecture. It's just a fact that you have orders of magnitude
less malware on the mac.

So saying macs have "perceivably" better (effective) security than Windows is
a bit like saying white is perceivably brighter than black. Technically true,
but it sounds a tad dishonest to me (or maybe he was just talking about
theoretical security).

~~~
ensignavenger
Yes, but you should still take the SAME basic security precautions on both
platforms. And if you do so, you are probably just as safe on Vista, and maybe
safer. The biggest security risk on the MAC is a false sense of security. I
don't know how many people have told me, "I have a Mac, I can't possibly get
anything bad!"

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richtaur
It totally matters. Just ask any Mac or Linux diehard. Personally, I use _all
three_ of the primary operating systems: Windows XP, Mac OSX and Linux (Ubuntu
in this case). I have separate uses for each and can't imagine getting rid of
any of them.

~~~
cstejerean
I'm curious what you use Windows for. The only things I can imagine myself
using Windows for are gaming or testing in IE.

~~~
Retric
Windows seems to work better as a media center PC. Streaming video to an 360
or a PS3 is really easy to setup with Windows and getting the hardware /
codec's to work is simple.

Note: I have heard that Linux is getting better for this stuff but windows is
cheep enough that I don't really care.

~~~
rickd
I use Connect360 (<http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360>) for OSX->360
and I couldn't be happier. The only annoyance is that it won't stream drm'd
content from the itunes store. I think that SUCKS. Otherwise, it couldn't be
easier to use and it's quick and clean.

No connection to them other than I'm a happy customer ;)

~~~
Retric
Yep, it almost works but that just means it's only slightly broken.

~~~
rickd
My response has simply been: don't buy DRM'd content. Works 100% of the time
;)

~~~
Retric
Are there any legal options to buy non DRM'd Blu-ray content? I mean new 1080p
movies?

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makecheck
Even if the Internet is the "killer app", it still matters how you get there.
Is your preferred client available on the platform? Does it work well on that
platform?

My web browser, E-mail client and terminal of choice, for instance, are not
available on Windows; and no, I'm not using Apple's Safari or Terminal. So
when I pull up these applications, I'm seeing what is (to me) a superior
Internet experience. Even Firefox on Windows, or PuTTY, just don't quite
deliver what I like most.

And cross-platform applications are still platform-dependent. For instance, I
love Thunderbird on Linux...it works well. On the Mac, however, despite using
Thunderbird for months, it always felt a little clunky (e.g. emulated UI
appearance, doing everything itself instead of integrating with OS services
such as Keychain). In the end, the combination of platform and application
made Apple's Mail more useful to me.

~~~
netcan
That is by definition a very niche problem.

Apart from running each other's proprietary browsers, there is no reason not
to make any browser with enough of a following to determine machine choice,
available on any platform.

Normally, the reason an 'app of choice' wouldn't be available is obscurity.
The point here is that the only app that matters now is the browser & maybe
another handful.

Fewer chances for an obscure killer app to kill the sale because all your
obscure apps are online. If all you need to do is make sure that all important
browsers are available on your platform, it's doable even if it's chasing down
browsers with less then .01% of users.

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vesan
Mac vs PC, not really. OS X vs Windows, totally.

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jemmons
Only in so much as Macs are popular enough now that I'm almost never forced to
use a PC. On the (thankfully) rare occasions when I am, then yes. It matters a
great deal.

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ensignavenger
I cant help but to wonder if this author knows what he is talking about. "Mac
Vs. PC??? Does he not realize that Mac (Apple Macintosh) is a brand of PC
(Personal Computer)?

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timc
rather than get my pc with xp out of my briefcase, i picked up my wifes mac
air and with outlook web access i can grab email and with mionews.com i can
read friendfeed and news. biggest difference left is instant on...and of
course IM which requires a thick client to be good.

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weegee
Sure it does. I prefer the Mac over a PC. Windows generally treat the user
like an idiot (you have unused icons on your desktop!!) while the Mac tends to
be a little more user friendly. Sure I have a PC as well, I don't know of a
good alternative to EAC for ripping a perfect copy of a CD. And playing games
on the PC is great too, not to mention the hardware is more often than not a
lot cheaper. But I've been a Mac User since 1984 and haven't felt any need to
stop using one. I like the Mac philosophy, and Windows generally erks me to no
end. My newest Mac (a MacBook) runs Windows XP on a partition, which is pretty
nice, so I get both OS's on one machine. No more Dells from Hell for me.
Knowing the average reader on this site, this comment will probably get voted
down to about a -15, because I don't trumpet the superiority of Linux.

~~~
astine
There are easily as many Mac users on HN as there are Linux users. If you're
getting voted down it's because you say things like this: _Windows generally
treat the user like an idiot (you have unused icons on your desktop!!)_ Never
mind the poor grammar and complete non-sequitur, it takes all of two seconds
to remove those icons. Just delete them and find something more substantial to
complain about.

