I am thinking of changing my old PC and need advice as to the pros and cons of Mac v Windows. Do I buy a Windows 64 bit computer of a Mac.

Most of my work is on Adobe CS3 and my main worry is that I will have to buy and relearn a new graphic programme if I go down the Mac road.

Advice please guys.

Thanks

Jon Flood

JonFlood , Photographer  posted on 02/02/2010 13:21:26   Posted 5 times

Located:Paignton,Devon, UK
Member Since: 04/01/2010

I nearly fell for the hype that surrounds Mac computers.  My main concern is their price and the fact that I wouldn't be able to do my own repairs.  I've built all my own PC's from 1998 and I can fix them if they go wrong.  People will tell you that Macs are so reliable they never need repairing, but everything electronic goes wrong at some stage.  I don't know enough about Windows 7 to be able to comment on it but I think you would need to upgrade a lot of programs to run on a 64 bit machine.  I still use XP 32 bit but I'm aware there is a 64 bit XP version.  Stick with a PC is my advice.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

My wife is using Windows 7 64bit laptop and it a lot better than vista or XP what you need to find out is, As you will now know there are 2 W7 32bit and 64bit you need to find out if you say "buy an Adobe program" for the PC will it work on both format? and is there a price difference between the 2? I know as most will do as well, 64bit will not work on 32bit I'm not sure if 32bit works on 64bit but I can't see why not.

Just my 2p's worth .......JJ

Quoting post from arriflex
I nearly fell for the hype that surrounds Mac computers.  My main concern is their price and the fact that I wouldn't be able to do my own repairs.  I've built all my own PC's from 1998 and I can fix them if they go wrong.  People will tell you that Macs are so reliable they never need repairing, but everything electronic goes wrong at some stage.  I don't know enough about Windows 7 to be able to comment on it but I think you would need to upgrade a lot of programs to run on a 64 bit machine.  I still use XP 32 bit but I'm aware there is a 64 bit XP version.  Stick with a PC is my advice.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

I too have always built my own pcs and servers etc.  I still provide technical support to my kids Windows laptops.  Thank God me and my wife have Macs so that I don't have to spend all my free time mucking about with bad drivers, things just going missing and all the other crap.  I was converted 2 years ago and have never looked back.
Sure you lose some software but most of it is available on a Mac too.  My only gripe is that when running CS3, there is no permanent background.

I've never experienced any problems with drivers.. ever.  My main problems have been 3 hard drive failures.  Where the disks won't even spin up and am left with a machine that will not boot.  I've overcome any future problems by making a clone of a hard drive with all my progs on and in the event of another failure all I need to do is buy another hard drive and copy the data from my source drive.  Takes about an hour as opposed to 5 hours installing everything from scratch.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

Its very simple........you buy a mac like the rest of the industry, the reason are too numerous to count.  build quality, screens are awesome out the box, no crashing, no viruses, all Adobe products and files work (mac versions only).....after all Adobe was on a mac long before a windoz-based brick.

yes they are more expensive and theres a reason for that.......they pay for themselves in just the first year when compared to rebooting microsoft nonsense.

Quoting post from arriflex
I nearly fell for the hype that surrounds Mac computers.  My main concern is their price and the fact that I wouldn't be able to do my own repairs.  I've built all my own PC's from 1998 and I can fix them if they go wrong.  People will tell you that Macs are so reliable they never need repairing, but everything electronic goes wrong at some stage.  I don't know enough about Windows 7 to be able to comment on it but I think you would need to upgrade a lot of programs to run on a 64 bit machine.  I still use XP 32 bit but I'm aware there is a 64 bit XP version.  Stick with a PC is my advice.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

God bless PC owners. I am typing this on a G4 iMac that is over 6 years old and only has 1Gb of RAM - yet even though I had it running 24/7 for years in my office - it has never crashed once and even now I am able to run Photoshop CS4, Microsoft Office and various video packages. Only in high def video does it suffer - but then it would. Please show me a PC that could manage as well.

All cars go from A to B - if you're happy with a banger/jalopy then crack on, I'm sticking with my Merc. 



To the OP - if you can afford a Mac, get one and lead a stress free happy life. "Windows 7 was my dog's idea"

It could of course be as simple as the difference between one format or another
 
As far as I'm aware you can't run Adobe software PC Version on a Mac and vise versa so not only would you have the cost of a new machine, you'd also have the cost of changing your software too.

It comes down to economics and lets be honest here most things do these days, you'd need to check your budget and go for there..

probably no help at all - but hey...

Kindest reagrds

Thomas

Quoting post from gdsandy

I too have always built my own pcs and servers etc.  I still provide technical support to my kids Windows laptops.  Thank God me and my wife have Macs so that I don't have to spend all my free time mucking about with bad drivers, things just going missing and all the other crap.  I was converted 2 years ago and have never looked back.
Sure you lose some software but most of it is available on a Mac too.  My only gripe is that when running CS3, there is no permanent background.

to the OP... buy the best of whatever computer your budget suits... they do exactly the same thing.

Despite the waffle being talked about Macs, they do crash, and PS CS4 crashes on a fairly regular basis when you are working with large files... before anyone asks... this is from my experience with both iMac and PowerMac (G5 in case anyone wants to know).

I use both, and don't really have a preference except when it comes to some of the smaller less known programs what make my job easier... mostly on PC's.

Oh... and GDS... are you sure you can't set the window background to be permanently expanded? Not sure if this is exclusively CS4, but its a setting in one of the top menus.

Window | Application Frame (turn on).
Window | Workspace | Consolidate all to tabs
Photoshop | Preferences | Open Documents as tabs

Switch Photography Studio
http://www.switchphotographystudio.co.uk

@Switchphotography
Thanks for trying to help.  CS3 doesn't have "application" under the window tab.  I have searched help but alas in vain.

Quoting post from Willowstone
It could of course be as simple as the difference between one format or another
 
As far as I'm aware you can't run Adobe software PC Version on a Mac and vise versa so not only would you have the cost of a new machine, you'd also have the cost of changing your software too.

It comes down to economics and lets be honest here most things do these days, you'd need to check your budget and go for there..

probably no help at all - but hey...

Kindest reagrds

Thomas

On a more serious note, you can run Windows on an Intel based Mac and therefore most PC software. I can't guarantee that is the case for Photoshop as I use the Mac version, however as long as you have the power and memory I don't see why not with a small reduction in processing on CPU heavy actions.

Yes of course all computers crash, it's just that Mac's generally work at a high spec straight out of the box and faults are either immediate and catastrophic when new, or fairly minor. As people have already mentioned, you can of course get great PCs, but often you have to really spend time building or customising your own with a fair degree of specialist knowledge. Typically they will end up costing just as much.

Most people in the creative industries have traditionally used Macs although high end PCs are increasingly common. Quite honestly I have used both and find Macs significantly easier and pain free. I do find a lot of PC users refuse to believe otherwise and many Mac users are waaay to evangelical.

I run Capture One Pro on my Mac Book Pro for tethered shooting, RAW conversion and editing, then CS4 on my iMac for processing. Never had to upgrade, tweak or mess around with either. For those reasons my preference would be to recommend a Mac if you can afford it.

My experience of using both platforms is that Macs get things done more quickly for lots of little reasons that have nothing to do with technical spec and everything to do with interface usability.  

Although W7 is a noticeable step up from Vista and XP, it still annoys the hell out of me and if I have to spend hours in front of a computer I want something that doesn't make me want to scratch my eyes out.  Despite improvements made to the Windows interface in Vista, to me fonts still look fuzzy and unclear (yes Windows users I do know how to optimise them)  and many of the pastel shades used for fonts in CPanel and system messages are a strain when you compare them with the clarity of the Mac system notifications. 

As for Macs crashing, yes; don't believe the hype that they don't but I can't remember the last time a Mac crashed on me. XP used to give up the ghost if I tried to run more than a couple of apps. God help me if AVG or Arovax decided to run a spyware or virus scan especially if Windows took it upon itself to run a sneaky set of updates n the background. The advantage in productivity of not having to wait for your antivirus app to churn through it's start up routine before you get to do any work is worth the extra cost alone.

Maintenance and repair is a serious consideration. The Mac users response to a break down usually seems to be to panic, then get the wallet out for a new shiny. Not much help to you. My white Intel 2.0 Ghz iMac developed a serious display fault just out of warranty. Apple's response? Should've bought Apple Care mate, tough luck...

Having said that, I have an eight year old Anglepoise G3 that still runs Illustrator 10 and Photoshop 7 with a whiz. Admittedly you can't run much else simultaneously...

If I was going to advise you I'd say that if you already have money invested in pricey software for Windows like CS4 I'd stick with Windows.

If, however, you are planning to upgrade from an earlier version of CS then go for a Mac. 

If you are interested in a machine that has as much built in flexibility, get a Mac as they will run OSX, Windows, Linux or all three; OSX and Windows in dual boot config and linux in virtualisation.

One of the things that continues to appeal to me about Macs is the quantity of free and cheap software there is available. Almost everything I routinely use is either freeware, donationware or shareware. Because the operating system is UNIX based with open source  components there are a large number of ports of open source software available, like Neo Office (Open Office), Gimp, Clam AV, and PDF's can be created directly from within the Image management app, Preview. 

There are things you can do with a Mac that you can't easily do with Windows. Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper will both clone your system to an external HD. This isn't a simple backup, but a bootable copy. In the event of a catastrophic drive failure you simply hit the option key at startup and select the external copy as the boot volume, then carry on working.  Can anyone tell me how to do that with Windows without farting about in the BIOS?

Macs aren't without issues, but it's a no-brainer for me. I couldn't live long with Windows; I live on my Macs; it's six and counting now...

Eltham , Digital Retoucher  posted on 02/02/2010 22:56:48   Posted 97 times

Located:Hengoed,Mid Glamorgan, UK
Member Since: 08/04/2009

Quoting post from Willowstone
It could of course be as simple as the difference between one format or another
 
As far as I'm aware you can't run Adobe software PC Version on a Mac and vise versa so not only would you have the cost of a new machine, you'd also have the cost of changing your software too.

It comes down to economics and lets be honest here most things do these days, you'd need to check your budget and go for there..

probably no help at all - but hey...

Kindest reagrds

Thomas

You can run Windows software on a Mac because you can run Windows.
It also appears to run faster and with more stability than on most PCs; no driver conflicts you see, Apple kindly provide you with optimised driver software for all their hardware.

Eltham , Digital Retoucher  posted on 02/02/2010 23:01:47   Posted 97 times

Located:Hengoed,Mid Glamorgan, UK
Member Since: 08/04/2009

Owning two software companies and a studio we have always used windows ... untill last month when I invested in a macbpook pro and installed Parallells so I could run both the mac OX and windows 7. Everthing runs faster, smoother and without problems.

Quoting post from Penfold
Owning two software companies and a studio we have always used windows ... untill last month when I invested in a macbpook pro and installed Parallells so I could run both the mac OX and windows 7. Everthing runs faster, smoother and without problems.

That's really what it's all about; I've been involved in the Mac/Windows debate for many, many years. I was a complete blank page when I started using computers and I had no idea that there was any difference between Windows and Macs and, like most people, my first experience of a modern desktop environment was Windows. Even without prior knowledge of Windows' quirks I found it frustrating to use then one day i was offered the use of a PowerMac. I just got everything done in a fraction of the time that i would have done on a Windows machine, and this was in the days of System 7!

I generally find that most of the people who dis macs are tinkerers, who actually enjoy the process of fiddling about and customising their hardware configurations. THe hardcore ones obviously favour Linux but in between the real geeks and the rest of us who just want to get the job done are the ones who are intimately familiar with Windows and therefore don't feel the need for anything else and whose only knowledge of Mac OS comes from the rumour mill. Only last week someone said to me "oh but i couldn't get on with a single button mouse".


It always amazes me how little some people bother to find out about their operating system's configuration. As an IT support volunteer with Samaritans I'm often called upon to sit at someone else's computer to sort out a problem and invariably the first thing I do is reset the screen res to the correct value for the monitor and (if it's XP) turn on ClearType...

"Wow" they go, "that's amazing! you are a wizard..."

My point being that criticisms of all operating systems tend to stem from unfamiliarity rather than experience.

Eltham , Digital Retoucher  posted on 03/02/2010 09:47:33   Posted 97 times

Located:Hengoed,Mid Glamorgan, UK
Member Since: 08/04/2009

Skoda or VW. Both have the same part as do Mac's and PC's.
Only difference is the o/s.

Quoting post from craigsalisbury
Its very simple........you buy a mac like the rest of the industry, the reason are too numerous to count.  build quality, screens are awesome out the box, no crashing, no viruses, all Adobe products and files work (mac versions only).....after all Adobe was on a mac long before a windoz-based brick.

yes they are more expensive and theres a reason for that.......they pay for themselves in just the first year when compared to rebooting microsoft nonsense.

The main reason they are more expensive is because they are all made by Apple. IBM PCs started being "cloned" in the late 80's and because of this you can buy, or build, complete systems from a few quid or buy one made to the highest spec with the highest quality componants and end up spending many times what the priciest Apple costs. You can now even run Apple OSX on it. So I don't think that point really carries much weight.

As for the old Windows or Mac debate. You may as well ask who are better? Men or Women.

It is a question that there does not seem to be a deffinitive answer to. And when you think about it, does there need to be?

Interesting the points I've read where people find Mac's so much easier to use. I'm not saying this is not true. But in my limited experience of Mac (so thats one early machine I used to support when I worked in IT, iMacs in Internet cafés and in the Apple store) I struggle to get them to do anything.

Everytime I think of upgrading my machine I search to find an excuse to justify buying an Apple. Simply because theyre sooooooo damn sexy. But I can't justify paying an extra 50-100% just to have something prettier on my desk when I can do, and run, everything I want on Windows XP.

Linux is getting more and more consumer friendly. And with oodles of software available for like £0 is deffinately worth a look. Whatever you buy if your old machine is still functioning try popping a flavour of Linux on it. Due to the Linux OS being so much smaller while maintaining usibility and robustness you might just find that your old machine is given a new lease of life. And you may be able to run everythin faster on that then the new Win or OSX machine you choose to buy.

My main point is not about which is better, it's about whether I can repair the thing myself or do I have to take it somewhere and get ripped off.  Because let's be honset folks.  We are being ripped off when we take our cars to be serviced by a main dealer.  Hence why I've always done my own car repairs but that looks like coming to an end soon as I can't repair software problems in cars.  I know for a fact how much electronic parts actually cost and that is from a retail point so trade prices must be a lot cheaper.  My brother has a Mac and it's the only computer he's owned but that's been back to the repair shop twice since he had it.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

Quoting post from arriflex
My main point is not about which is better, it's about whether I can repair the thing myself or do I have to take it somewhere and get ripped off.  Because let's be honset folks.  We are being ripped off when we take our cars to be serviced by a main dealer.  Hence why I've always done my own car repairs but that looks like coming to an end soon as I can't repair software problems in cars.  I know for a fact how much electronic parts actually cost and that is from a retail point so trade prices must be a lot cheaper.  My brother has a Mac and it's the only computer he's owned but that's been back to the repair shop twice since he had it.


Why seek the Star, when you are The Star?

That, perhaps, answers your hardware question then. Non-Apple if you want a choice of cheap components and know where things are when you want to fix or change them. As for choice of operating system Windows would be the obvious one.

As Mac OSX is now designed around the Intel architecture you could, I presume or in theory, run Mac operating system on it if you wished. But I'm unsure as to what practical issues you may encounter such as component/driver compatibility.