Hi mac people. My friend swears by macs. Can anybody explain the differences between them for me? Why are macs faster(are they?) Why do imaging pros prefer macs? My friends nearly converted me,will you make the difference?

Hey, I have owned many macs, and swear by them, but I would only recommend them for specific use, ie If you do a lot of home video editing, photography, etc then a mac's for you. If you want general use and not looking to do anything in particular, i'd go for a PC. I use mine for web design because macromedia studio works better on mac than PCs (partly because of the linux core in macos X). One thing, in places like PC World etc, they will try and get you to buy a PC (because they make more money from them) and dont be fooled with "This Pentium 4 PC has a faster processor than this mac" because clock speed (your GHz's and MHz's) mean nothing. Imagine a convayor belt at a super market, they are like processors. PC's have a narrow convayor belt, and imagine a row of eggs as data, but it spins fast. Macs have a wide convayor belt, and can have more eggs in a row, and only spin a little bit slower, but mor eggs are transported through. hope this helps!!!!

Well, my perspective's a bit different... though my first box was a mac (classic 2!) i really started with pc's, and it's only when i could get a good mac that i really started to appreciate them.... Admittedly, this is dealing with older computers, and if your question is regarding new pc's or new macs i cant be of much help.. having said that... both my pentium and my powermac are 90ish MH processors, and running nt4, my pc is much, (on the order of three times), faster than the powermac running system 7.5.3..or OS 8.1...to be fair, its an mmx, which is a much better pentium than a standard one (it's actually faster than my celeron 300)... in my experience, its also much more reliable...ive not ever once had any kind of problem booting, error messages , rare as they are , don't shut down my whole os, and harddrives dont disappear :) but.... given the quirks that macs can have (frankly, these prioblems still affect g3's, just look at the posts) I use the mac 90 percent of the time, and the pc is 'old reliable' only.. Macs are gorgeous.. i have yet to see anything approaching the apple monitor/computer/mac-os combination for sheer breathtaking visual beauty, and furthermore when they're working well they're really fun, which isn't really something ive ever been able to say about a PC... I have the same verions of most of the graphics programs on my pc and the mac, and i installed photoshop 55 on the pc three years ago and havent used it once until last month..... All the time on the mac though... And theyre stupidly easy to set up for the net too ..... incidentally, stevo's absolutely right about clock speed meaning little in a comparitive basis...i've a 68k lc580 with a '33' mh chip, but it's as fast as the powermac (almost)...some of the best 68k (non-powermacs) are real speed demons too... and theyre all gorgeous....

Yep...don't get sucked into the "mine is faster than yours" debate with your buddy. It all comes down how you plan to use your machines. I have a mix of PCs and MACs in the house. When it comes to audio editors, digital photo and movies, MACs are king! but I will say I'm finding that my G3s are having a little trouble keeping up with the heavy demand of these OS X applications. Hmmm...Sounds like it's time for a new PowerBook.

Hi all, I've not spent that much time with windows pc's but the time i have spent with them i've pulled all my hair out, No only joking but i think that mac's are easier to use and if you have a problem with them i think it's easier to fix, it might only be me that thinks that but hey thats me

Aloha, I have used both and still do... I love mac. it is more stable and if you have to reintall your os over (0s9) that is all you have to do. Windows you have to reinstall your apps too. and yes the new os is for the new Macs... G5 rullessss... Hope this helps. Just think about when windows goes down and you have to reinstall it all... just OS for Mac.