Windows vs Macs

[bank5]

I know most graphic designers prefer Macs. What do photographers prefer?

[440roadrunner]

Neither. I use Linux

[lettershop]

I am neither a professional or an amature, I am an amateur that uses Windows Vista.....

[airfrogusmc]

Its the same with most professional photographers. Years ago there were some compatibility issues and most photographers had to communicate with designers and professional printers and most were Mac. Most still are. I have found Macs to be more stable with graphic programs. Just far less hassles with Macs with the virus thing leading the list.

[bomberman]

Neither. I use Linux

+1

I dislike Microsoft slightly less than Apple.

[vibin247]

I was a Mac user until a year ago, when I had to go back to Windows because of economic reasons. I still have my G4, which sadly is collecting dust. I'm using Windows 7, which is a decent OS, though I do miss the simplicity of Mac OS X. Perhaps a new Mac will be in the future.

[VincentPeete]

Mac all the way!!

[nphsbuckeye]

Back in the day Macs had better hardware, now it's only OS preference (assuming you can afford either). Pick your poison.

[Jon Foster]

We use Linux on just about every computer. But we have Windoze partitions setup on a few of them for the programs that will only run on Windoze.

Jon.

[gjl711]

I have both, a Mac at work and Win7 at home. I prefer the Win7 machine. It's faster.

[b.han]

I'm an avid Windows user.Tried OSX on multiple occasions (I own a Macbook Pro) and I really don't see what all the hype is about.

[bsaber]

Windows and Linux for me.

[themadman]

Neither. I use Linux

Meh, Mac is based off of Unix, Linus is based off of Unix, same difference. =P

I've got 2 Macs and several Windows machines, I prefer Windows.

[ssim]

This subject has been beat to death on here previously and there is never a winner. The MAC guys in one corner saying nothing but theirs and vice versa for the Windows guys.

I think at one point in time the Mac had a definite advantage over the rest of the field but not anymore. To a large degree it is what you get used to using.

I had the opportunitiy to spend some time with one of the instructors from NAPP on a cruise we all took. According to him we are dealing in sixes and one is no better than the other. He says that they use the MAC but that they see just as many system error on it as they do on windows.

[xMClass]

Mac forever. After using the Mac OS for quite some time now, I don't think I can ever use a Windows computer again without frustration. Fast, clean, user friendly and simple unlike Windows. Vista failed hard. Windows 7 almost looks like it was Mac OS based, and Microsoft recently opened a store very similar to the Apple store. By that alone you can tell who's ahead of the game. Yes, their products ARE over-priced, but it's worth the money in my opinion. I bet some Microsoft user is gonna comment on this post with nothing nice to say, happens all the time. In the end it's a matter of personal preference and what you want out of your computer. Coke vs. Pepsi, Ferrari vs. Lambo, Ford vs Chevy, Apple vs Windows blah blah, it'll go on forever.

[themadman]

Coke vs. Pepsi, Ferrari vs. Lambo, Ford vs Chevy, Apple vs Windows blah blah, it'll go on forever.

Pepsi (coke failed to recognize the youth age group that pepsi now dominates), Ferrari (Lambos are nice, but Ferrari's are real race cars), Ford (wait... this is a real discussion? The only thing Chevy makes thats worth driving is the Vette) all those are all easy except for mac vs windows =) Both Mac and Windows have their place. My only gripe with Mac is not their computers, it is their customers. They tend to be (on average) more stuck up, pompus, arrogant, feel like they should be waited on, everything served on a silver plater, ahhhh!!!

/falls over having traumatic moment

Anyways, if Mac guys learn some facts and some humility, they would be cool guys too =)

[neil_r]

Is Poll a derivative of the word Polarize, as every time this comes up (and that is with boring regularity) all I does is polarize the fanboys into their respective camps until a mod steps in to point out the futility of the exercise and closes the thread.

[DeVVitt]

Woops... Might read the entire poll the next time before pressing vote... Missed the 'prefer'. Pressed Windows instead of Mac (amateur), but if I had the choice right now to pick an OS, it would be Mac.

[mattyb240]

Is Poll a derivative of the word Polarize, as every time this comes up (and that is with boring regularity) all I does is polarize the fanboys into their respective camps until a mod steps in to point out the futility of the exercise and closes the thread.

Here here. Well said that man.

[DStanic]

Windows 7 is the best Windows OS to date, I think it's quite good. I do like Mac OS as well (although I don`t know how to use it very well). I build my own computers so getting the most performance for the price with hardware = PC. If money was not an issue I would consider a power Mac or something.

[philwillmedia]

Blah blah blah...It's another pointless argument.
I really don't care either way.
Everyone is going to have their opinion - none wrong, none right.
When was the last time you looked at a printed shot and were able to tell if it was pp'd on a Mac or PC?
When I can look at an image and say "Yep, that was pp'd on Mac" or "Yep, that was pp'd on a PC" then I'll care. There's no noticable difference in the final image.
Essentially it's a moot point, a bit like the Canon/Nikon thing or jpeg Vs RAW or blah blah blah...
Who cares?

Just get out and take photos with the gear you have and pp on the 'puter you've got.

For the record, I use a Mac, simply because I prefer the OS but I have used a PC for a fair chunk of time too.

[llareggub]

I think mac has a far superior product and if money was not an issue then I would prefer to work with Mac OS rather than windows... I do not believe that mac is worth the additional money and could not justify paying 4-5 times the price for an equivalent Mac system

[airfrogusmc]

It's another pointless argument.
I really don't care either way.
Everyone is going to have their opinion - none wrong, none right.
When I can look at an image and say "Yep, that was pp'd on Mac" or "Yep, that was pp'd on a PC" then I'll care. There's no noticable difference in the final image.
Essentially it's a moot point, a bit like the Canon/Nikon thing or jpeg Vs RAW or blah blah blah...
Who cares?

Just get out and take photos with the gear you have and pp on the 'puter you've got.

For the record, I use a Mac, simply because I prefer the OS but I have used a PC for a fair chunk of time too.
Well Said!!!

In the old days Macs were the standard for using programs like photoshop and quark so both designers and photographers used Macs a lot more. Plus all the people they had to communicate with and share files with were Mac. There were a good deal of files that couldn't be used cross platform in those days which is clearly not the case today.

A lot of them stayed with Mac because thats what they were used to. I've used both EXTENSIVELY and I prefer Mac but its more about personal preference than anything else. Find a system that works for you and learn to use it.

The virus issue alone was a good reason for me to consider Mac.

[dan220]

Is Poll a derivative of the word Polarize, as every time this comes up (and that is with boring regularity) all I does is polarize the fanboys into their respective camps until a mod steps in to point out the futility of the exercise and closes the thread.

bw!
I use a PC Win 7 and I think the no virus on a mac is BS. Just not as much......yet.

[saturnin]

windows xp pro :) here, it shouldn't matter what you are using as long as you get results, clients for photography and or graphics desing don't go saying "oh i need you to work on this photo on a mac".

Now with video editing is a little different story, because you can deal with pc and or mac only files, so sometimes you get screwed......

[breal101]

While I agree that arguing over your preference is somewhat pointless, no one will ever change my mind. I do find it interesting that the percentage of people on this forum using Mac far exceeds that of the general population. Every similar poll done here seems to have it about 50/50. I'll leave it to someone else to interpret the reasons why.

[airfrogusmc]

While I agree that arguing over your preference is somewhat pointless, no one will ever change my mind. I do find it interesting that the percentage of people on this forum using Mac far exceeds that of the general population. Every similar poll done here seems to have it about 50/50. I'll leave it to someone else to interpret the reasons why.

Me too. I prefer Mac and not by just a little. ;) And the #s are surprising What is mac outside the creative fields maybe 10%:confused: of all computer sales but inside creative fields (professionally) I honestly don't know but a handful of Windows; art directors, graphic designers, professional printers or photographers. They are out there but the large majority are Mac.

[breal101]

Me too. I prefer Mac and not by just a little. ;) And the #s are surprising What is mac outside the creative fields maybe 10%:confused: of all computer sales but inside creative fields (professionally) I honestly don't know but a handful of Windows; art directors, graphic designers, professional printers or photographers. They are out there but the large majority are Mac.

That's exactly my experience as well, nearly everyone on a photoshoot these days has a laptop. One way to tell the creatives from the clients is to look at what laptop they have.

[nphsbuckeye]

The arrogance of professions and their "creative" Apples never ceases to amaze me. I suppose those of us building Windows for less than half the price of a comparable Mac Pro do not know anything about creativeness, but rather economics.

[Gatorboy]

bw!
I use a PC Win 7 and I think the no virus on a mac is BS. Just not as much......yet.

True. Plus, if you write viruses/malware, are you going to try and target 95% of the market, or 5%?

[gjl711]

And so we circle the drain.

[neil_r]

Is Poll a derivative of the word Polarize, as every time this comes up (and that is with boring regularity) all I does is polarize the fanboys into their respective camps until a mod steps in to point out the futility of the exercise and closes the thread.

Yeh, we must be getting close to this point now ..........

[nphsbuckeye]

True. Plus, if you write viruses/malware, are you going to try and target 95% of the market, or 5%?
Again, the economics card.

[elfy]

I prefer Macs, someone else will prefer PCs. But in the end, who really gives a s**t?

[airfrogusmc]

The arrogance of professions and their "creative" Apples never ceases to amaze me. I suppose those of us building Windows for less than half the price of a comparable Mac Pro do not know anything about creativeness, but rather economics.

But there is a difference. I have extensively used both. Is it worth the money? To me it was. I've been working in this field for over 20 years full time and believe me its not ignorance that drives the market. In fact, just the opposite. ;)

[airfrogusmc]

I prefer Macs, someone else will prefer PCs. But in the end, who really gives a s**t?

Exactly find something that works for you. I clearly stated one reason why the creative fields are so inundated with macs. You tend to stay with what you know but I've used both and I prefer Mac. Its the little things for me mostly. The way the commands work and some other basic reasons. Oh and did I mention the virus thing? :lol::lol::lol:

[nphsbuckeye]

But there is a difference. I have extensively used both. Is it worth the money? To me it was. I've been working in this field for over 20 years full time and believe me its not ignorance that drives the market. In fact, just the opposite. ;)
I have extensively used both, also, and I don't have an extra $3,000 lying around for the Mac. I found the difference between both OSes trivial; I liked the Mac at somethings, the Windows at others.

[nphsbuckeye]

Exactly find something that works for you. I clearly stated one reason why the creative fields are so inundated with macs. You tend to stay with what you know but I've used both and I prefer Mac. Its the little things for me mostly. The way the commands work and some other basic reasons. Oh and did I mention the virus thing? :lol::lol::lol:
Have you ever had a virus on a Windows? You mention that as absolute Gospel, so I'm wondering if it's anything more than paranoia.

[airfrogusmc]

Have you ever had a virus on a Windows? You mention that as absolute Gospel, so I'm wondering if it's anything more than paranoia.

Yes I have and I had two computers that were cashed because of it.

And I have yet to get one hung app error message;)

[airfrogusmc]

I have extensively used both, also, and I don't have an extra $3,000 lying around for the Mac. I found the difference between both OSes trivial; I liked the Mac at somethings, the Windows at others.

Like I said find what works for you and use it but don't get the panties all in a bunch when someone prefers something that you don't prefer. Its more than ignorance that drives the mac users.

[nphsbuckeye]

Like I said find what works for you and use it but don't get the panties all in a bunch when someone prefers something that you don't prefer. Its more than ignorance that drives the mac users.
It's the why.

[basroil]

Have you ever had a virus on a Windows? You mention that as absolute Gospel, so I'm wondering if it's anything more than paranoia.

I know I've never had an infection on any of my six machine (xp to w7, and one had 98 (not se) until I installed XP). And in fact, the only times my AV pops up with something is when I insert my USB key after it was in a mac.


Yes I have and I had two computers that were cashed because of it.

And I have yet to get one hung app error message;)

Odd, three machines I personally use have never had issues with anything other than hardware failure (broken fans mainly, one overheated GPU as well, but MBP used the same chip and had the same issues), or iTunes (bane of my existence... moved to zune 4.0 and never looked back).

Oddly enough, while I had a brief stint at a local paper, I had to use mac pros (two g5 and an early xeon one). I actually got bluescreens... not black kernel panics, but blue ones. Go figure.

Both systems are only as stable as the person setting them up and the end user. Poorly setup machines crash, installing random programs leads to crashes, thinking your system is invincible leads to major issues when something does go wrong. Doesn't matter what OS it uses, computers always fail the same ways.

[airfrogusmc]

I totally agree. I had a worm once that completely ate the hard drive and the other time some kind of back door Trojan that placed itself everywhere inside legit files throughout the system.

I happen to be like millions of other creatives that prefer Mac, thats all, no more no less. I also like Deardorffs, Leica and Hasselblad, Harleys, old Levis, watches that wind and telephones that really ring. Its all about preference. What I will take exception to is someone saying its because of ignorance that I and millions of others have chosen Mac.

Its a tool. Learn to use that tool whatever that tool may be to it fullest and don't worry what others have. ;)

[mattyb240]

C'mon mods this has got to be locked by now? Its just silly.

Now the real question? Who prefers pie over cake?

[neil_r]

C'mon mods this has got to be locked by now? Its just silly.

Now the real question? Who prefers pie over cake?

I used to eat pie, but then I got a virus. I now stick to cake, I know its a bit more expensive and some people think that it is a bit of a luxury, but hey it's my money ;-)

[airfrogusmc]

I used to eat pie, but then I got a virus. I now stick to cake, I know its a bit more expensive and some people think that it is a bit of a luxury, but hey it's my money ;-)

You can believe what you want but it is way more than that. The virus issue is just the bonus oh and I could have more than paid for the mac with the two computers that were lost because of viruses. ;)

[neil_r]

LOL did you actually read what you quoted :rolleyes:

[nphsbuckeye]

You can believe what you want but it is way more than that. The virus issue is just the bonus oh and I could have more than paid for the mac with the two computers that were lost because of viruses. ;)
I told you not to view naughty sites.

[airfrogusmc]

I told you not to view naughty sites.
Actually the worm came in on an e-mail.

[nphsbuckeye]

Actually the worm came in on an e-mail.
From whom or what?

[airfrogusmc]

LOL did you actually read what you quoted :rolleyes:

Sorry, read it wrong the first time;)

[neil_r]

Actually the worm came in on an e-mail.

I had worms once, mine came from the dog :-(

[airfrogusmc]

From whom or what?

I'm not sure. I have a very good friend thats the head of computer security for a very large corporation. He used to build our computers and he said it was an e-mail.

He also said that the have a fraction of the problems with the macs they have in there system (the creative departments in his corp are all mac). I was mac years ago went windows for 8 years maybe a bit more and because of his advice when it was time to for a new computer went back mac. Absolutely no regrets.

[airfrogusmc]

I had worms once, mine came from the dog :-(

What were you licking? I'm sure some pills fixed ya right up though.

[nphsbuckeye]

I'm not sure. I have a very good friend thats the head of computer security for a very large corporation. He used to build our computers and he said it was an e-mail.

He also said that the have a fraction of the problems with the macs they have in there system (the creative departments in his corp are all mac). I was mac years ago went windows for 8 years maybe a bit more and because of his advice when it was time to for a new computer went back mac. Absolutely no regrets.
So, you could be basing your assumptions on a company when it might have been your fault for opening an e-mail?

[airfrogusmc]

So, you could be basing your assumptions on a company when it might have been your fault for opening an e-mail?

The bottom line is I don't have those problems now. But again the virus thing is only the bonus. I prefer mac bottom line as do many others that are not ignorant. Some have used both platforms extensively and prefer macs. Why should that bother you?

[Depth]

Windows.

I prefer building a computer for a way lower cost that's more powerful. Even with all the upgrades I've done since 2007, it still has cost a lot less than buying something like a Mac Pro and keeping it up-to-date.

[philwillmedia]

Ahhhh...yes.
Dinner and a show.
Just as I thought this would turn into.

Just love value for money.

So...has anything been resolved?

[themadman]

Well the windows kids still love windows and the mac kids still love their macs... any understanding reach? not really. humorous? yes. worms? probably.

[Cashoo]

I'm an amateur photographer I use both. I mostly use my MacBook since it's more portable than my Windows Desktop. They're equally good.

[EmmaRose]

Photography student, just switched to a 27" imac a couple days ago.
You should add 'both' to the poll, last week i had a macbook and a windows desktop.

[airfrogusmc]

The funny part is anytime anyone says anything good about mac the windows faithful come outta of the woodwork to try and tell the mac lovers how ignorant and uninformed they are. :lol::lol:

I wrote why the professional creative world was and is still is dominated by mac in a previous post. I've been doing this for a very long time and its not the same issue it was 15 years ago but all of those folks that learned on mac and are used to macs commands and the way it operates, I would say, stayed mac.

[Tallking]

The funny part is anytime anyone says anything good about mac the windows faithful come outta of the woodwork to try and tell the mac lovers how ignorant and uninformed they are. :lol::lol:

I wrote why the professional creative world was and is still is dominated by mac in a previous post. I've been doing this for a very long time and its not the same issue it was 15 years ago but all of those folks that learned on mac and are used to macs commands and the way it operates, I would say, stayed mac.

Hey Marine, no argument from me. I'm saddled with a constantly-malfunctioning, Windows XP workstation. Before I retired from the Marine Corps last October (as an O-6 after 29 years), I had to deal with my accursed NMCI Dell, with Win-2kp (and "upgraded" to XP shortly before I retired). I'm sorry, but I'm astonished that Windows is the "dominant" O/S out there. I've NEVER in 20 years seen it perform consistently properly or as advertised. I've been through every iteration of Windows since 3.1. Put simply, Windows in any form SUX. I find Windows to be the biggest hoax/ripoff perpetrated upon the American public in the last century or so. My next machine WILL be either a Mac or a PC with Linux.

Bill Gates, pray you never meet me in a dark alley one night. . .

[cccc]

I am only familiar with windows, it is frustrating trying to learn the mac OS.
If it weren't for internet explorer, i think many pc users would have a much better computer experience.

I like my high end i7 PC system. It runs flawlessly on vista 64. If mac made lower end computers, i think people would be less split about this.

All in all, it is like anything. After getting used to any one system, you are likely to stick with it (ie Nikon vs Canon..i don't touch nikons because i can't figure out how to use them...)

[Scout7id]

These threads are always like a trainwreck. You know it's going to be bad, yet, you can't look away...

Mac since 1984 with some Windows and Linux sprinkled in lightly for work.

[airfrogusmc]

Hey Marine, no argument from me. I'm saddled with a constantly-malfunctioning, Windows XP workstation. Before I retired from the Marine Corps last October (as an O-6 after 29 years), I had to deal with my accursed NMCI Dell, with Win-2kp (and "upgraded" to XP shortly before I retired). I'm sorry, but I'm astonished that Windows is the "dominant" O/S out there. I've NEVER in 20 years seen it perform consistently properly or as advertised. I've been through every iteration of Windows since 3.1. Put simply, Windows in any form SUX. I find Windows to be the biggest hoax/ripoff perpetrated upon the American public in the last century or so. My next machine WILL be either a Mac or a PC with Linux.

Bill Gates, pray you never meet me in a dark alley one night. . .

:lol::lol:Thanks for all the years of service bro.
S/F

[monk3y]

i am a windows xp / vista user and i would also love to use mac for photos and personal uses, but yes its too darn expensive.. :)

[Tareq]

I was PC user, then i converted to Mac, but i updated my old PC so i installed Windows 7 on it, my wife i bought for a PC windows laptop [HP version] with Win7 Home version on it, but really i am happy with Mac and not sure how long i will be satisfy with Windows 7.

[zincozinco]

when I went 100% digital we had macs at work and I had mac at home. It was just natural to start using aperture. But honestly I feel that hardware wise they are really behind and expensive. what makes them a winner is the fast and stable OS for me.