why buy an apple mac?

hello everyone.

I have never owned an apple mac, and have joined you forums just to simply get an idea of why you people own one.

Please post why you like your mac.
i'm not saying i would buy one, or that i wouldnt, just curious.
maybe if you give me enough reasons as to why its better than a PC i may give one a try!!

try to give sensible answers though please, i.e. dont just type "because i can surf the internet"
as i can do that on my mobile phone

many thanks

I believe only you yourself can give YOU a reason to buy a Mac. People here can give you many reasons why they like their Macs but not necessarily why you should buy one. If your Windows box does everything you want and need, I see no reason for you to buy a Mac.

Mattlike said:

I believe only you yourself can give YOU a reason to buy a Mac. People here can give you many reasons why they like their Macs but not necessarily why you should buy one. If your Windows box does everything you want and need, I see no reason for you to buy a Mac.

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I could not have said it any clearer.
No system is better than the other.
Anyone who tells you different is seriously misinformed and confused.
It is merely a matter of personal preference and needs.
When you by a computer, go with what you know, what works best for you and the task at hand, and what system you feel most comfortable with.
You will need to make that call on your own. Go to an Apple Store, see a friend/co-worker who might have one, or some way get your hands on one and try it out for yourself.

I own and use a Mac because I find them better suited to what I want to do and all around easier to use and maintain. I, like most on these forums, use a PC on a daily basis at work, so I have have the added bonus of seeing both sides of the computing experience and being able to compare the two systems for everyday tasks.

I love my iMac because the Superdrive is also a toaster. If you put bread in the side it will come out golden brown and delicious in just a few minutes.

Seriously, I bought a Mac because I really like using OS X. I didn't switch because I thought that I could do video better or use Photoshop better. I just liked OS X better than Windows. Like Devilboy said, try a Mac for yourself and see if you like it.

I love my iMac because the Superdrive is also a toaster. If you put bread in the side it will come out golden brown and delicious in just a few minutes.

You are kidding, and I am still using the toaster in the kitchen:yinyang:

On a serious note though, as the others have said stick with what you know/need or like, if you by a Mac cause someone tells you its better you will be disappointed.

I purchased mine because I wanted something different, I am incredibly happy I did.

Mattlike said:

I believe only you yourself can give YOU a reason to buy a Mac. People here can give you many reasons why they like their Macs but not necessarily why you should buy one. If your Windows box does everything you want and need, I see no reason for you to buy a Mac.

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fair point.
and a most welcome one too. in all honesty, i was expecting answers like "windows sucks" or "macs are better than pc, end of story"
but getting the views of people who use them and obviously have reasons why they buy them would help me decide if i would want one.
i wasnt asking people why i should buy one, but why they bought one

i was after an opinion really.
but some good answers.
so, without going into the depths of things, what are the main differences between mac and pc?
i.e. do macs have similiar processing power, available memory etc for about the same price?

i see that sofware is less readily available for macs than pcs.

as i said, just some insight as to why people choose macs rather than pcs?

Since the switch to the intel chips, Macs and PCs have been on very common ground. The latest Macs use Core2Duo chips the same ones found in Compaqs, HPs and Dells.

Software is less available en-mass than for Windows, but how many DVD burning programs do you really need? The Windows world IS flooded with some fairly crappy software to be honest. There is little to nothing I can not do on my Mac that I can do on a PC, and with the ability to dual boot the latest Intel Macs and run Windows, the hardware ends up being a "one size fits all" sort of thing. Games are the big difference as most games are NEVER released for the Mac, but again the ability to run Windows mitigates that issue, although not all games play perfectly on Macs running Windows for various reasons.

I bought a Mac because OS 10 in general is faster, and cleaner, and viruse free, and Windows does none of that.

baggss said:

Since the switch to the intel chips, Macs and PCs have been on very common ground. The latest Macs use Core2Duo chips the same ones found in Compaqs, HPs and Dells.

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from what i have seen browsing the internet, macs are considerably more expensive though.
which is why i asked for confirmation of this.
i mean for a mac at around $1999, you get the same setup in a pc for about $900.
which is why i was asking why you buy a mac, if they are so much dearer

baggss said:

Software is less available en-mass than for Windows, but how many DVD burning programs do you really need? The Windows world IS flooded with some fairly crappy software to be honest. There is little to nothing I can not do on my Mac that I can do on a PC, and with the ability to dual boot the latest Intel Macs and run Windows, the hardware ends up being a "one size fits all" sort of thing. Games are the big difference as most games are NEVER released for the Mac, but again the ability to run Windows mitigates that issue, although not all games play perfectly on Macs running Windows for various reasons.

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cant argue there, windows world is full of rubbish software and usually there are 300 different manufacturers making that software that all do the same thing
i didnt know windows would run on a mac, thought that was just a no go!
the reason i started this post is because i have no idea why anyone would choose a mac, when pcs are much more established for software, are cheaper, more people own them therefore more technical support, and pcs are more functional


EDIT: how virus free are macs?

I bought a Mac after 10+ years of building/tweaking PC's, and I did so for a few good reasons.

I wanted something different. I bought an iPod in Feb. 06 and I loved it, the simplicity, the integration into iTunes, etc. I wanted a computer that worked as well as the iPod. For me the Mac is almost a minimalist machine, although it is very robust. OSX isn't nearly the resource hog that Windows is. 500mHz G3's are running OSX 10.4.x without much issue. Try running Vista on a PIII 500mHz.

I didn't want to have to upgrade so frequently to do the latest thing. My PC is nearing the end of its useful life-cycle at the 2.5 year mark, and the only reason I would upgrade is to play newer games. Honestly, with the advances in consoles (read: PS3) gaming on a PC is not a necessity for me anymore. There are a few titles that I play on PC, and all of those run great on my current machine, leaving no reason to upgrade in that regard.

Windows Vista. After using release candidates of Vista and reading about all the "big brother" features, I decided I didn't want anything to do with it. Not that I have anything to hide, I just don't want my every move tracked by Microsoft.

OSX. Beautiful, simple, clean, fast, very few bugs. Although I haven't had many issues with my XP box, I wanted to be rid of the 10x per week Windows updates, virus updates, etc. that plague the Windows platform. I've had my Mac Mini for a month now, and I've had one update since the initial update from 10.4.6 to 10.4.8. No viruses, no spyware, no malware, no disk defragmenting, none of that.

Everything that I use a computer for says use a Mac. I do a lot of work in Photoshop, probably 3+ hours per day. I also do a lot of digital photography, so much so that I invested in a 10.2mpx DSLR (Sony Alpha-100) camera. I do a bit of audio recording as well, and have a reasonable music library in iTunes. I know the PC does all of this, but the Mac versions of most of these programs are better, mainly because that is their native version.

Anyway, after 10+ years of being a power user on the PC, I'm finding myself rolling in simplicity in the new Mac, absolutely loving (almost) every minute of it. I do use my XP box still, but mainly it sits as a file server and I use it to rip DVDs, because nothing on the Mac rips anywhere near as fast as a PC.

applemak said:

EDIT: how virus free are macs?

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There are no known viruses for the Mac platform at this time. There have been two "proof of concept" viruses built, but Apple has patched the vulnerabilities both targeted.

As for price I can simply say, you get what you pay for. Go configure a MacBook or MacBook Pro as closely as you can to a Dell Laptop with the same specs and you will be surprised. Do the same for a MacPro against the same spec'd Dell desktop, you'll still be surprised. A $900 computer is a $900 computer, processing speed is not everything despite what Intel & AMD want you to believe. Macs are not overpriced when compared directly to their PC counterparts.