scpatterson
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Why are Macs better for Graphic Design than WinPC's?
War is on between IT department and the Designers. I'm stuck in the middle and I'm more of a PC person than Mac.
I need ten good reasons why this statement is correct from a designer's POV so I can think a little like then without them getting to explain it to me and alerting them lol. I'll split points around for the best responses.
I need ten good reasons why this statement is correct from a designer's POV so I can think a little like then without them getting to explain it to me and alerting them lol. I'll split points around for the best responses.
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I have been a designer for over a decade and have used both platforms. When Macs ran mac OS 9.0 it was awful. They would crash, they didn't use file extensions, there was extentions that patched the operating system they you had to constantly cause conflicts. I started using Mac OS X while it was in beta. Right away you could see that small issues that still plauge mac os x as well as Windows just don't exist. Mac OS X and the newer hardware is so tightly integrated nothing else compares. They will take a bit of time to get used to if you have never used a Mac before. But the curve is very short. They are very "What you see is what you get." I have switched about 15 people, they all couldn't belive how much better macs were. These were normal people, where a computer was just to access information communcate or design. They didn't understand how a computers, software, or networking works. They just need to use them not understand how they work.We all understand how a car works. But do we really need to understand like a mechanic does to drive one? That's how I feel about Windows and PCs in general. It seems you stuck having to learn about viruses, and patches, and bugs, etc. When you only really need to know is how to drive your software. Macs are really easy and make you forget that your even using a computer, they don't pop-up little chat clouds telling you to update your system software every day. Get one, if you don't like it you have 30 days to return it no questions asked. Trust me, you won't return it.
My thoughts......I've had my MAC for about 2 years now, rarely have I had to do any maintenance / fixes / updates. In reality, rarely have I used it. Very limited available applications that are IT specific, E.G., sniffers, load testers, etc, etc. Also, lack of serial port pretty much prevents network engineers from connecting to routers, switches, etc. If you are in the IT field, stay away from it as it is not streamlined for what IT personnel do, want, and are interested in.
Specific to design, fonts, images, and the usage of palletes, it does lend to a more efficient and pleasant design experience. In terms of CPU, rendering, and cost....basically the $$$ per CPU cycle, with out a doubt a XEON box will out perform anything the MAC can roll out, the bench marks have been out for a while now. I would advise doing the research on the benchmarks. There are many aspects to this debate, understanding that PC versus MAC can take on different form factors, correct? Trully, the debate can be WinXP on AMD64 versus G5? or Win2K3 server on dual XEONs versus MAC dual G5. or even SUSE 9 on dual AMD64 versus MAC dual G5. If you haven't caught it --- there is no flexibilty with the MAC, or specifically, the IBM PowerPC chip that is the G5.
Key words in many of the comments are "normal people", "ease of use", etc,etc. Though true, those are not the attibutes a geek junkie is in search of. MACs are for users that are in search of the "Easy Button"
Specific to design, fonts, images, and the usage of palletes, it does lend to a more efficient and pleasant design experience. In terms of CPU, rendering, and cost....basically the $$$ per CPU cycle, with out a doubt a XEON box will out perform anything the MAC can roll out, the bench marks have been out for a while now. I would advise doing the research on the benchmarks. There are many aspects to this debate, understanding that PC versus MAC can take on different form factors, correct? Trully, the debate can be WinXP on AMD64 versus G5? or Win2K3 server on dual XEONs versus MAC dual G5. or even SUSE 9 on dual AMD64 versus MAC dual G5. If you haven't caught it --- there is no flexibilty with the MAC, or specifically, the IBM PowerPC chip that is the G5.
Key words in many of the comments are "normal people", "ease of use", etc,etc. Though true, those are not the attibutes a geek junkie is in search of. MACs are for users that are in search of the "Easy Button"
Hi,
I have a powerbook, an eMac and two Win XP PCs at home. I do video editing as a hobby and software development in the Macs and my wife works with the PCs.
I was PC user until two years ago. With Windows 2000 I spent 60% of the time administering the computer, other 15% rebooting and 25% working. With Windows XP the booting is much faster and it is a little bit more stable, so I used to spent 50% administering the system, 5% rebooting and 45% working.
I have my powerbook on my desk. I close it every night and I open it every morning without booting it. I don't remember when it was the last time that I restarted it. I have a couple of maintenance applications that I run once a month and that's all. My wife has to restart her thinkpad once a day at least.
How much is the value of your designer's time? I cannot evaluate if the edition software packages are better in Mac or PC, my development tool is the same "Eclipse", but I do know how much is the value of my time. The Total Cost of Ownership using Mac is much, much lower than using PC.
Cheers,
Guillermo
I have a powerbook, an eMac and two Win XP PCs at home. I do video editing as a hobby and software development in the Macs and my wife works with the PCs.
I was PC user until two years ago. With Windows 2000 I spent 60% of the time administering the computer, other 15% rebooting and 25% working. With Windows XP the booting is much faster and it is a little bit more stable, so I used to spent 50% administering the system, 5% rebooting and 45% working.
I have my powerbook on my desk. I close it every night and I open it every morning without booting it. I don't remember when it was the last time that I restarted it. I have a couple of maintenance applications that I run once a month and that's all. My wife has to restart her thinkpad once a day at least.
How much is the value of your designer's time? I cannot evaluate if the edition software packages are better in Mac or PC, my development tool is the same "Eclipse", but I do know how much is the value of my time. The Total Cost of Ownership using Mac is much, much lower than using PC.
Cheers,
Guillermo
HMMMM, I am a PC guy and have been for a long time. I glove up when I have to touch a MAC.
With that said, MAC'S ARE BETTER AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.
Back in the beginning when most of you guys were just a gleam in your Daddy's eye, there was a maketing war. Billy was a better marketer than Steve. Steve had a better machine, but Billy's was less expensive. The business world looking for the biggest bang for the buck went with the less expensinve machine. Back when PC's were $1500 for a basic 286 / 8 box, MAc's were running over $ 2500. Steve gave a lot of machines to schools in hopes that if all of the kids learned on MAC's then Apple would win in the long run. That is the only thing that kept Apple alive. Of course this was when your choices for network operating environments were, windows peer to peer, Lantastic, and the venrable Novell.
It is rumored that there once was a conversation between Billy Gates, and Steve Jobs. Steve was complaining that Billy was undercutting him on price. Billy's response "so what". Steve stated his machine was better, Billy's response "so what".
If you have the money and the juice to convert your company to MAC's, then do it. But since I do not work with MAC's at all, I don't know if they ever got the networking worked out.
Here's a thought for you guys: If somebody started writing virus's and other vandalistic software for MAC's who would notice?
With that said, MAC'S ARE BETTER AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.
Back in the beginning when most of you guys were just a gleam in your Daddy's eye, there was a maketing war. Billy was a better marketer than Steve. Steve had a better machine, but Billy's was less expensive. The business world looking for the biggest bang for the buck went with the less expensinve machine. Back when PC's were $1500 for a basic 286 / 8 box, MAc's were running over $ 2500. Steve gave a lot of machines to schools in hopes that if all of the kids learned on MAC's then Apple would win in the long run. That is the only thing that kept Apple alive. Of course this was when your choices for network operating environments were, windows peer to peer, Lantastic, and the venrable Novell.
It is rumored that there once was a conversation between Billy Gates, and Steve Jobs. Steve was complaining that Billy was undercutting him on price. Billy's response "so what". Steve stated his machine was better, Billy's response "so what".
If you have the money and the juice to convert your company to MAC's, then do it. But since I do not work with MAC's at all, I don't know if they ever got the networking worked out.
Here's a thought for you guys: If somebody started writing virus's and other vandalistic software for MAC's who would notice?
Total Cost of Ownership? For who? Business drives total cost of ownership, and it couldn't be any clearer that the best bang for the buck, is with Wintel based systems (PCs here guys, I can already hear the server folks screaming).
Companies speak with their purchases, and MACs do not come close in the "TCO and ROI" categories. I'll use any platform out there (and do), but any platform I spend my time on is going to have to integrate and play well in the enterprise. MACs don't fit this bill. Don't get me wrong, it's a great machine....for the consumer, but not for the enterprise.
Companies speak with their purchases, and MACs do not come close in the "TCO and ROI" categories. I'll use any platform out there (and do), but any platform I spend my time on is going to have to integrate and play well in the enterprise. MACs don't fit this bill. Don't get me wrong, it's a great machine....for the consumer, but not for the enterprise.
I understand what you say. Most of the applications are developed only for windows, because unfortunatelly many developers think that the world finishes in Microsoft (I can show you many web sites that doesn't work with Firefox) and others simply go for the 95% of the market.
If we talk about an enterprise that alredy has a big Windows based IT depermant, my last suggestion will be Mac. But for new enterprises, who has the possibility to choose the applications for scratch. Believe me, mac is much more productive and productivity is the most important part in the TCO of a company. It just works all the time, windows doesn't. But may be I am a very bad windows administrator.
On the other hand, and I know this is another discussion, why Linux fits in an Enterprise and Mac OS X doesn't?
If we talk about an enterprise that alredy has a big Windows based IT depermant, my last suggestion will be Mac. But for new enterprises, who has the possibility to choose the applications for scratch. Believe me, mac is much more productive and productivity is the most important part in the TCO of a company. It just works all the time, windows doesn't. But may be I am a very bad windows administrator.
On the other hand, and I know this is another discussion, why Linux fits in an Enterprise and Mac OS X doesn't?
I have never seen any compelling evidence to show that Wintel machines have a lower TCO than Macs. <a href="http://138.202.192.14/~trembath/smon/tco.html">Here</A> is a great article that goes into detail and provides many links to information on TCO for Macs vs PC. In short macs requre less maintenance than their PC counterparts. While you may spend $300 to $700 more per unit that is made up in a few hours of down time on the pc end.
I administer a network with 45 Macs and 15 PC's. 80% of my time is spent administering and repairing the 15 PC's. We run spyware and virus protection on those machines which only serves to slow them down.
We have artists and admin that run 10 to 12 Large applications on their macs with hardly any slowdown. In fact the president of the companies executive assistant called me in because she was having trouble sending email (she had put in a comma instead of a dot in the address). When I looked at her machine - a Dual Processor 450 Mhz G4 running 10.3.9 - she was running Filemaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Word, Excel, Entourage, PowerPoint, iTunes, Safari, Preview, TextEdit, Fetch and Acrobat Reader. I actually took a screenshot of the expose screen it was quite impressive.
I administer a network with 45 Macs and 15 PC's. 80% of my time is spent administering and repairing the 15 PC's. We run spyware and virus protection on those machines which only serves to slow them down.
We have artists and admin that run 10 to 12 Large applications on their macs with hardly any slowdown. In fact the president of the companies executive assistant called me in because she was having trouble sending email (she had put in a comma instead of a dot in the address). When I looked at her machine - a Dual Processor 450 Mhz G4 running 10.3.9 - she was running Filemaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Word, Excel, Entourage, PowerPoint, iTunes, Safari, Preview, TextEdit, Fetch and Acrobat Reader. I actually took a screenshot of the expose screen it was quite impressive.
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