Window VS Mac

[win_kk63]

Hello everyone, me and my mates are debating for a long time about the computer and we could not get the decision to this Window (PC) or Mac. I wonder whether you could help our view on this topic. Obviously, we love computer and game. We are also doing computer science in universities and are learning programming languages Java, C++, VB.Net, Python etc.

I personally love Window 7 and I think it is much better and more stable than before. I have never had any problem with my computer such as virus or anything as long as you don’t install junk freeware or go to doggy websites. I had McAfee, Adobe CS4, Office 2010 Pro, Nero, Visual Studio 2008 etc. I do a lot of gaming on my computer and performance is still the same as new. I do maintain and remove junks once a month.

However, if you don’t know much about how to maintain your computer, then you are likely to have performance or virus issue in a few years’ time. It is usually cheaper than Mac to buy but if it is the same spec depending on the made, PC can be more expensive. Basically I think PC is design for everyone (low end to extreme high end). Mac I think aim at people with a bit more money (usually designer). Also I think there are 60% computers in the world are PC and only 35% are Mac, the other 5% might be other OS.

I have never owned Mac before but I have used it from time to time at school. I do admit that the design looks better and looks posh (expensive) unlike PC because you can custom build your PC from cheap case and stuff. If you buy something like Alienware or Dell XPS model, I do think that design will be awesome even cooler than Mac. However, Mac has very strong marketing in term of iPad, iPhone, iPod. It does seem to be more stable and no need to have anti-virus software. Sometime it seems to be a bit faster than PC in term of loading time and seems to be hide all the system files. I don’t know about programming in VB.NET or Java on Mac because I have never tried it before.

So we are debating which is better for programming, multimedia (video, photo, music), gaming and general purpose such as daily office work (Words, Spread sheet, Web design). Also what programming language do you recommend on Mac. I would like to see people opinion on this topic and please vote which you prefer more. Thanks you.

[Darkmere]

Well, I am going to school for Computer Forensics and Security. We have some students who asked if they could bring their macs in or use them at home and the teachers usually wrinkle their nose and recommend them to get a PC. Macs are nice imo, the one thing I do not like is that apple approves or banns software from being on their systems. They do not like to support certain things or tech as well. For example Apple refuses to support flash or memory cards. That is one reason when we bought a Tablet PC we went with android over apple, android had USB, Memory Card, and other device support and Apple had none. As for Viruses, Macs get Viruses too, it is just the Virus Market for mac is extremely low due to the fact that most people that build viruses do not want to make them to target Macs but you will see as Macs get more popular they will start getting attacked by more and more viruses.

[essellar]

Macs are marvelous machines, but you've already ruled them out in your first paragraph. If games and Visual Studio/.NET development are part of the plan, you'll want to be running Windows, and not just in a virtual machine.

[callumacrae]

For development, you can't beat a Mac, but most games aren't available for Mac and .NET is Windows only (and a horrible language).

If you can do without some of your games (a lot are available for Mac these days), and can learn a language other than .NET, a Mac is definitely for you.

So we are debating which is better for programming,

Mac, by quite a long way.

multimedia (video, photo, music),

Mac, by a hell of a long way.

gaming

Windows.

and general purpose such as daily office work

Either. I prefer Mac for stuff like this, but they're both extremely good these days.

Also what programming language do you recommend on Mac.

Objective-C is the first language that comes to mind, but that is Mac only. Other languages commonly used with Macs are Java, C++ and Python (although Python is very basic).

[essellar]

And, going with that theme, most of the hotshot programmers I know using the "cool kids" languages (Lisp dialects, Haskell, Ruby, Erlang, Scala, OCaml, Clojure) are using emacs (or sometimes vim) on a MacBook Pro (just not through the OS X GUI), while others are using some form of Eclipse for JVM-based languages (Java -- ewww -- or Scala, Clojure, Rhino, and so forth). Again, Macs are wonderful machines, but if you want to do .NET (because you want a programming job, not because programming is something that turns your personal crank*), then the Mac is not an answer. Or maybe it is -- a cheap Windows box can be very cheap indeed, and can also be used as an external hard drive for your Mac.

*If you do want to use .NET because it turns your personal crank, I hope you are talking about F# (which really ain't half bad). Otherwise I'd suggest counselling.

[callumacrae]

Vim++

Although I'm using Komodo IDE atm

[Jessica.C]

I've always used Windows. my whole family does. My dad, who works with computers, uses Windows. I believe I'm the only person that actually used a Mac (three times). I would like to have one though

[charlie91]

I use neither (Windows on occasion especially for gaming); I use Linux (Ubuntu/Debian GNU/Linux). Programming languages? Python is a good scripting language, Common Lisp is good but has an 'old' syntax; C++ is the one. ;)

[ChatIndia]

Windows.

It sounds hilarious but I have never seen any "Mac" in my whole life.

[sgupta.vedanta56]

I am basically a designer, keep trying my hands on software development CMS-VisualBasic-PHP-MySql etc.
Have been using Windows from 95. Have also tried using Mac on our office machines. But will vote for Windows.
Specially with Windows 7, and the next version Windows 8, in the pipe-line supporting touch-screen interface and same OS on Phone-Tablet-Laptop am looking forward to it.
Pros for windows:
1. Compatibility with almost all devices. Printer-scanner-camera-phone, specially old versions which do not have drivers for mac.
2. Supports Visual basic and loads of software's for Developing.
3. Can use an external drive as NTFS or FAT32, still get recognized. Beleive me at times it does matter a lot. NTFS drives can do lot more.
4. Compatible with all software's. At times it is complicated to look for ideal software for Mac, and it is quiet expensive.
5. Interface is quiet user friendly. Although being a computer savvy, found it quiet complicated to go to my files, just do simple things like making a folder favorite, arranging my EBooks, Organizing folders. Need to have some knowledge of coding to work with, specially something like "Automater". Cannot immagine my granny to work on mac :D
6. Getting update is not so difficult and expensive and can always work fine without the updates too. Not so in Mac.

Cons with Windows:
1. Not so Zazzy in looks. But can always work around with cool themes, and icons etc.
2. Logging takes time. Windows 7 is better, but still Mac scores there, due to the structure of there OS. Quiet light weight, can see it also in designing softwares like photoshop etc.
3. Programs do run faster on Mac than on Windows, and the system requirement is also lower than Windows. But end of the day, if you spend 14hrs on your machine, might be spending 15-20mins more, since am using windows. But thats not so bad.
Basically, wanna cool looks-fast system, go for Mac.
Wanna Machine, really powerful, that can actually work as a mini server and a developer machine. Go for WINDOWS.
:D