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Hi everyone,

I am looking to update my computer. I will be wanting to run the CS4 Suite, MYOB, Microsoft Office Suite etc.

I know most people in the industry use Apple, but I think that may be from an historical viewpoint - all 'creative' industries supported the Apple ethos and if you walked into their office it was expected to see a Mac on their desk!

These days you can run the Microsoft software on Apple, so that negative for Apple has been removed.

You can seemingly get more 'Specs for your Buck' with PC though.

I must confess that the Imacs do look gorgeous - PC is like the ugly stepsister.

I am a little confused on this one, so would like to know what others are actually using and what they see as the Pros and Cons of their system.

I look forward to some help on this one!


Tags: advice, apple, computers, mac, pc, specs, technology

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Hi Linda

Asking for opinions on PC v Mac is inviting people to display their prejudices in a fairly strong way. When the Mac was first introduced I looked at it - and regarded it as inferior. I still do. BUT that is because I am an accountant. Generally the way some of our brains function is less inclined to the Mac way. Also we tend to run certain applications that just don't run on the Mac.

That may be less of an issue now that Mac's don't run the real Apple O/S - underneath apparently it's more Linux-like. I simply don't know enough about the inner workings though. The one thing the Macs do have is integration. They have always produced more tightly integrated software / harware. Even 3rd party software interfaces are more tightly specified.

It seems like in your question, an Apple will meet your requirements. Also more software these days runs off the machine, on the Internet. Google for example is an Internet-only company. I support different accounting programs - the latest for which I'm certified is Xero - also Internet based.

As a person who doesn't find the Mac suits my style, I detest all things MS. Their software is inferior, designed to the lowest common denominator. They've never produced any good software from scratch. Anything popular has been bought in - starting with MS-DOS. Until I was hit with a stroke I personally used a different OS altogther. Because of lack of support, once I had a stroke I became dependent on my wife (she even had to show me how to read the next mail message - and the next), I reluctantly switched to Windows-only. When I got my mind back last year, I stayed with Windows only. More and more of the programs I use are Windows-only, although ironically a key series of applications I use is moving to be Internet-based.

So my recommendation is - which suits you best? You can only be sure if you have a hands-on trial. And of course make sure there's no Windows-only apps you need - or that you can live with the way they run on a Mac.

The Mac is well designed - Apple's known for design. And that design affects iPods, iPacs and anything else Apple make. They have incredible success in markets with gadgets that I always read lack features - yet they become best sellers anyway.

So if you like to way the Mac works, and can afford it, I wouldn't worry about the extra cost. Generally PC's require a bit extra (e.g. extra RAM, more expensive archtitectures) to get them to work well, so the cost savings often aren't that significant, and over the life of the system, they're even less. How they work for you is more important.

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Apple 'ethos'...? - their propaganda department worked overtime on that one. Reminds me of people who wear black berets and talk about Derrida and the deconstruction of the postmodern dialectic of emptiness and form (or other such nonsense).

Now I guess I might come across as a 'hater' and I don't intend to - Apple products are fine if you are easily distracted by shiny things and don't really care about things like functionality.

Also, while Apple loudly proclaims an 'ethos' have you ever really heard of Steve Jobs as philanthropist? No? And neither has anyone else.

On a related note, here's something satirical from the Onion News Network regarding the 'MacBook Wheel':

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I switched to an Apple Mac laptop about 2.5 years ago and wouldn't go back to a PC. I have Parallels on the Mac and can run the Microsoft Suite plus other PC software, I also have the Mac MS Suite. The MAC platform is far more stable and has more grunt, the only problems I have at odd times is with MS. I share files between the two suites quite easily & that includes docs, excel & jpegs. The Mac laptop also has an advantage in that it's easy to hook into wireless Internet anywhere, the one disadvantage is it doesn't have a modem. Costs more but is worth the extra bucks.

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