Why is a PC better than a Mac?

Question

Please can someone list and give some reason to why a PC is better than a Mac. This is actaully for a speech for school. Most articles I have found on the internet are outdated by 3-5 years.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The biggest thing is that you can get a PC with the same hardware specs as a MAC for about half the price. PC's are also more compatible with most software and hardware. Where on a MAC you would need special software to run a lot of stuff (say windows or anything windows related). That's really the only thing PC has on MAC.

Answer 2

I wasnt going to comment until techmonkey had to make a bunch of fallacies.



The "weights" of each OS is misleading. OSX takes 7gb because of how they "display" it in the properties. They switched all the space calculating math from base 10 to base 2, making it appear smaller in "weight" when its actually around the same size of Windows 7. And 20gb for Windows 7? What are you smoking? Fully patched Windows 7 Enterprise (which is the same as Ultimate) is only 12gb.



The iMovie/iPhoto/iWeb/Garage Band argument. OSX does not come with these softwares either. You only get these softwares for free IF you buy a brand new machine from Apple. If you buy JUST OSX, you will not get these, because OSX does not preinstall iLife suite. You can however, get a movie editor software for free, you can get free photo management software, you can get a free HTML editor that supports WYSIWYG, and a free audio app on Windows (everything might not be Microsoft brand, but these softwares are better than the $79 iLife suite.



Office suites. iWork is just Word, Excel and Powerpoint. You can get the same options with OpenOffice. You dont HAVE to use MS Office.



Driver argument. You do not need to install the software that comes with printers. With Mac working out of the box, it doesnt. Someone I know has a Macbook Pro, latest OSX version. The "universal" drivers in OSX do not function properly.



Networking, I do not know how you are doing it, but its completely wrong or you are just making it too difficult.



MIT using Macs? I dunno about that. Why would MIT be using a system that has an insecure OS? Secunia.com has reported since OSX 10.6 was released, 100 additional vulnerabilities, while Windows 7 lists 17. Also what about the Pwn2Own and Charlie Miller? OSX hacked two years in a row, one time in 5 minutes, even the iPhone hacked in 20 seconds.



Resale value? If you were to compare 4 year old computers, a Mac at $2500 and a PC at $1500, and you goto the resale them, say you get back $1000 for the Mac, and $500 for the PC, you just lost more money with the Mac than with the PC. Again this comment is misleading. Resale is really not how much you get back, but really how much you lost in that "investment".



Microsoft does one thing well and that IS the OS. If Microsoft WASNT good at making a decent OS, how come OSX still has less than 9% market share AND had to allow the ability to run Windows on its machines?

Answer 3

They're better in different ways...



Macs have excelled at multimedia for years. Graphics, sound people, the serious ones, tend to use Macs, Actually about a week ago a performer friend of mine bought a hard drive with her tracks on it, in separate parts (vocals, guitar, drums, etc), and she had difficulty using it because the place had just naturally formatted the drive for Macs. Also Windows - 25 years ago - started as an attempt to mimic the Mac's operating system. Mac got it right back then and have just been improving it. :)



However, PCs have always been WAY cheaper for something comparable, because they're more mass produced (being more in demand).



Also more people use PCs, so getting support is FAR easier, and sharing things works much better.



And the result of this higher demand means that progress in the field of PCs has gone in leaps and bounds compared to Macs. The quality difference used to be huge, now it's much smaller. Also you can upgrade, change and replace PC parts. You can't touch a Mac.



This also results in software being released first (and sometimes only) for PCs, including both Applications and Games.



Mainly for price and compatibility, I would never consider a Mac. :) I also note that whenever I plug a USB device into a Mac, it adds a LOT of hidden files and folders that PCs just don't need. :)

Answer 4

PCs are a lot less expensive. With the same ammount of money, you can get something way better. Macs also have severe compatability issues. Most problems that come with a PC can be fixed without too much hassle. Problems with Macs make no sense and are hard to fix.

Answer 5

I think a PC is better than Mac because a Mac is more for artsy users.



A Mac has more programs used in designing rather than a PC where it has everything in one. A PC has a variety of programs that come installed in it also. It's also easier to navigate without much knowledge. Kind of like... "common sense".



I think the Mac is nicer though, in terms of quality but it costs a lot more also. You would have to purchase MicrosoftSuite and install it on your Mac and software programs are very expensive. So basically, a Mac is a shell and you get to do whatever you want with it in terms of programs and softwares you want to install.



A PC comes with it all already with little room for you to customize it and such.

Answer 6

In my past experiences which using PC and Mac, PC is cheaper than Mac and most of the software and applications we are using was in PC version. For Mac wise, it run on it's own operation system.



As a PC user, in hardware wise, if you can simply change certain inner parts as long as it compatible with your PC's motherboard, besides that, there are so many gadgets in the market that allow you to play around with your PC.

Answer 7

Not much has changed in 3-5 years.

Answer 8

They are just different.



Macs are for multimedia



PC are for gaming or the average user

Answer 9

they are cheaper, more software is compatible with windows.



the thing is, mac is more for studio-sort of things like hard-core movie editing, music editing, and pc is more for everyday computing....of course you could make pc to handle hard core stuff, but mac is kinda built for that sort of stuff....linux is the way to go

Answer 10

A PC is cheaper ... (but other than that, I can't help you since I don't believe a PC is better than a MAC)

Answer 11

Dude, the question should be; since when are PCs better than Macs. Macs are way better than PCs.

Answer 12

The short answer from an IT pro who's worked with both systems for years is simply that the Mac IS better than a Windows Machine.



Here are some curious things to take into consideration:



The 64bit version of Windows 7 weighs in at 20gigs

The 64bit version of Mac OS X 10.6 weighs in at 7gigs

-As the core operating system goes, they have the same basic functionality so why is Windows so much bigger than Mac?



Windows doesn't come with any software like iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb or Garage Band. And Garage band is freaking amazing. To get that same functionality, you have to spend a lot more money or download buggy freeware - not ideal for the average consumer.



Do you use Google Calendar or a CalDAV account?



iCal instantly connects with ALL your Google Calendars or CalDAV accounts as well as all Delegate Calendars.



Windows doesn't. Even Office doesn't give you that ability. To allow Outlook to sync to your Google Calendar or CalDAV calendar you need a plugin that only allows you to sync ONLY your main calendar. So then you download Thunderbird from Mozilla, then you download the Lightning addition for calendaring and THEN you download a plugin that allows you to sync ALL your Google Calendars. This process can take up to an hour or more.



Or you just use iCal on your Mac.



If you look at equivalent systems with the same basic hardware as the Mac, you're really not paying much more for Apple products and you're getting iLife (which includes iMove, iPhoto, Garage Band and iWeb) without any additional cost. To get the same quality and functionality out of a cheap Windows machine, you end up paying for additional software making the cost difference between the "cheap PC" and the "Expensive Mac" negligible, and sometimes it costs you more.



Need an Office suite? iWork for $80 or the Home and Student edition of Office for $150. Really need Office? It's on the Mac. For the same Price.



Microsoft wants you to feel proud of yourself for being able to install that new printer driver while a Mac will just print to the new printer without the need for installing software. Same goes for Digital Cameras - you don't need any drivers or additional software - iPhoto opens up and you can import directly into it.



Ever try high end networking on a PC? It's a nightmare that the Mac makes easy to understand and implement. Networking wizards and constant questions confuse the average user, while on the Mac, it's just easy.



I have a Windows 7 partition on my Mac and I'm impressed with it for the most part, but I've had to jump through a whole lot of hoops to get even close to the same ability that came standard on my MacBook Pro with 10.6 installed.



Really need Windows? Buy a Mac and then install Windows in a Bootcamp partition OR get Parallels or VMWare or CrossOver and run the software you need while still in the Mac OS.



You want to know what computer science majors at MIT are using? Macs. In fact, Macs are at the top of the list (if not the number one computer) for computer use on MIT's campus. They have far more computing power and flexibility than Windows user give them credit for. Full Command Line Interface ability to control the entire OS as if it were a Unix Box, X11 and so forth.



Lastly, Macs retain the value a lot more than a Windows machine does. Sell it in four years you're still going to get a fairly sizable chunk of money for it.



Microsoft makes good software and a decent OS, the problem is that they don't do it as well as Apple.

Answer 13

Macs cost way more....you cant customize them....if they break you have to pay a lot to get them fixed you cant do it yourself....macs cant play games....pc is easier to use.....I could go on.

Answer 14

it just is.

Answer 15

it just is.