Mac vs PC

Ok, enough already!

People, there are no differences in what they can do! Don’t believe the hype! There are essentially the same.

The facts:

1. The hardware is the same (Intel processors, video cards from the same manufactures, SATA drives, etc.)
2. You can blow away the Apple OS and install Visa or XP on the Mac hardware and vice versa. Just lookup Psystar or look at these links:
   http://www.wikihow.com/Install-Mac-OS-X-10-3-(Panther)-on-Your-Windows-PC
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxwuYTnfL-I
   http://lifehacker.com/software/mac-os-x/how-to-install-os-x-on-a-pc-117211.php
   http://www.parallels.com

   Apple is more restrictive as to their OS, but it can be done.

3. There is nothing and I mean nothing you can do on a Mac that you can’t do on a PC and vice versa. Neither is better, take it from me, I use them both
4. Windows is a bigger target, hence the number of attacks, both from viruses, hackers and vocal Apples users, but Apple is not safer, in fact I would argue that it may be less safe as the people who believe they are safer take less precautions and there is less scrutiny so discoveries of issues are less known. For example, there is a way to hack into OS X, change the administrative password in under 3 min. I won’t post how to do this, but I have done it. You can’t do the same with this method on a PC running Vista.
5. Apple is smaller and quicker to change. Baloney! What Apple has is better advertising (well used to have better advertising, the “I’m and PC add from Microsoft are very good and the tag line life without walls is catching on”). We all bought the hype about the iPhone, hook line and sinker, the truth is, from its launch to now, every few months there is a major update to correct flaws, flaws they don’t speak of in their white papers, instead we have to wait for hackers to decipher. If they were quicker we would have copy and paste on that device now and oh yeh, working Bluetooth. If Microsoft had as many firmware updates to fix flaws on a device we would all switch to Apple.
6. Mac’s are more expensive. True! You can purchase the same level of hardware for less. Take this one up with Steve, I can’t explain why.
7. Microsoft stole from Apple. Baloney! It’s a Graphical interface, and both companies do rigorous user acceptance testing. What works best usually wins, these guys are about selling products and gaining market share, not who is unique.
8. Microsoft owns part of Apple. True, but not enough to make it Mac-rosoft.
9. Apple machines don’t crash or freeze as much as PC’s. False. With a smaller footprint, you have fewer complaints because you have fewer people producing hardware and software, hence less chances for things to go wrong. The way Apple addresses system failure is different as well, on the Windows platform you get a very detailed error message (the blue screen of death) on the Mac you get a bomb or a sad face. When an application crashes on the Mac or iPhone it just shuts down (quits), sometime you get a message, sometimes you don’t, and on the PC you get a delay then an error message that you have to click ok to get past.
10. The Apple OS has a Linux base, true and Vista still has a DOS interface for legacy applications
11. Vista is slow. False, the issue here is that you can install it on almost any XP class machine. With the Mac OS there are far more restrictions for base hardware level for the new OS, so you can’t just upgrade to the latest OS. Microsoft’s openness in this regard is their downfall as people with old hardware install a new OS that demands more horse power will experience poor performance.
12. Windows has more applications and is better for business. True for the moment. Because Microsoft is more open with its OS, developers have an easier time creating, and yes, there are more business applications available, this is one area that Apple is far behind on. In fact they did not have an Enterprise division until recently.
13. The iTouch is better than the Zune. It depends on what you consider better. The Zune has more features (radio and wireless sync) and is more stable, but the iTouch is cooler with its touch screen. They both do a great job of playing music, but with the Zune’s software it’s easier to manage a music library, iTunes is slow and a bit rigid to work with on the PC. The Zune is not Apple compatible, but the iTouch can be used on either OS. Both of these devices fall short when it comes to external add-ons, such as battery changing, memory card slots, and with the iPhone 2G, head phone selection, but the Zune software, which is based on Windows media player, can be used with non Zune hardware and recognizes music you add to your folders without you having to drop them into the applications. I will go into this in greater detail in another post.
14. AppleTV vs Xbox 360 or Tivo . . . . that will be in my next post