I’m still a graphic artist, and have used Mac’s since seemingly the beginning of time (1987).

I have a PC, but I hide it in the corner and only use it to see how badly Windows Explorer has fucked up my web layouts. Actually, it’s not Explorer, it Netscape. Netscape is evil.

Currently I have (running) an old G3, a dual G4, and a titanium laptop. I’m sure I could do just about the same with a PC at this point, but I prefer to be an elitist snob. I could build a Mac museum with what’s in my closet gathering dust. There might even be an SE30 at the bottom of the pile…

I have invested enourmous money and time in my Mac-based life, and I ain’t changing it now. How’s that for a reason? :lol

Back in the day, I could have written volumes on why Macs are better for what I do than PCs. Now, I’m not sure it matters. Except that priceless feeling I get that a Mac was built specifically for the type of work I do and those like me.

The one lone Mac shop in town feels like coming home. You know we gather and dance naked around the new hardware by firelight once a month, right?

I’m sure an econo car would get me where I’m going…but I’d rather drive something more suited to my taste. You know?

I wonder how good PC’s would be if there weren’t Macs pushing the usability/stability envelope.  Probably about as good as American cars in the ‘70’s before Japanese cars came along.  (sorry Les)

I’m sorry, you think American cars are better now? Heh…

zilch, I don’t wish viruses on anyone. I just wish Mac users would realize that their systems are just as vulnerable.

Yeah, but even our viruses are cooler. I haven’t had one in ages, but back on System 7ish, I was working way late one night in Quark Xpress. Suddenly I hear this little cartoon-type ditty, and a tiny robot-martian figure walks out of the left side of my screen, walk up to the image I have just placed, evaporates it with his ray gun, and walks out the right side of the screen.

I can’t tell you how long I sat there blinking. You’d think somebody slipped me acid. Of course no one was around to see it and I could never get it to repeat.

Found out later it was a virus ripping around the Mac/design world, travelling on removeable media. I had been infected by un-safe disk handling with our printing company. Other than that little display, it didn’t do anything.

As for current system vulnerability (and that depends on what kind of attack you mean), I believe OS X to be a damn safe environment.

Absolutely.  American cars are much better than they were even 15 years ago.  I assume that is because of competition from high-quality imports (many of which are made in the US by Honda, Toyota, etc.)

If you gave me $20K to go buy a car, though, it’d be a Toyota.  US cars still haven’t caught up.  Sorry, I guess that’s a topic distraction.  I just meant it as an example of how competition drives design and quality as well as price.

zilch, all I can say is this.

I actually prefer Macs NOT having a larger marketshare. As mentioned, I know the safety from attack is in part due to the exclusivity, and honestly, I like it that way.

I see the headaches of the mainstream PC world…no thank you.

Mac user dork. All my hard drives have people names. I agree with Brandi. Everyone please stay away from the Mac. I like the market share right where it is.

My most recent PC encounter was with my friend buying a Compaq. It came complete with everything you need straight out of the box, including a virus! Oh, and tons of pop up advertising from a system tray full of advertisers icons, including one from Symantec to get rid of that convenient virus.

When you buy a Mac and start it up, there’s a hard drive icon on the desktop. That’s it. Novel idea huh?

All my hard drives have people names.

Of course they do. Macs don’t even work until you give them a proper name, right?

I’ve had some great ones.

I swore to myself I would stay away from this, but I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.

Dave, I followed your link.  Did you read the whole thing?  A Danish security firm finds a vulnerable spot in iTunes software which could be exploited by hackers.  Apple releases update which fixes the problem.  And when was the fix released? On the same day the problem was reported.

If memory serves, there has been more than one occasion when Microsoft has not gotten around to fixing known problems on the same day.

Not that Apple is perfect by any means.  And some appleheads are pretty obnoxious.  But so are some microsofties.  All in all, it’s a pretty silly thing to get exercised about.

You know we gather and dance naked around the new hardware by firelight once a month, right?

We do too, brandi!  And burn Bill in effigy!

There is nothing that I can do on a mac that I can’t do on a pc.

Oh yeah serge? What about playing Squirrel Kombat?

I love all you apple users, really!  Can’t we all just get along?

Well, shana, since you ask so nicely…  Different chips for different trips.

There is nothing that I can do on a mac that I can’t do on a pc.

Actually, I find the networking and the safety thereof to be much easier. My husband has his PCs hooked up to my VPN router and my Mac-dominated network…and my experience thus far has been that the Mac side is easier and more reliable in that arena.

Yes Zilch and that game I use to play on our old centris 610….Spectre… yes! Do you remember that? That was the only game I played on mac.
I had 8 mb of ram, 256 colors.

The only game I’ve played on a pc is driver.

I guess I’m not much of a gamer.

Brandi, to me they’re both the same. I just don’t have $3000 for a machine that will give me the same thing as a $1500 one will.

The mac has more stability but you don’t have as much freedom with the operating system.

The pc gives you much more fun with the system but at the price of having to become a computer mechanic. Forget the viruses, most people mess up their pc’s on their own….

Yes I do find that the mac is a much easier machine to use.

You’ll notice that I am talking about me in what you’ve quoted.

For what I like to do on a computer, there are just more applications out there for the pc.

So for me….More choice….less expensive = pc.

For now.

I wonder how good PC’s would be if there weren’t Macs pushing the usability/stability envelope.  Probably about as good as American cars in the ‘70’s before Japanese cars came along.  (sorry Les)

I think there would be others out there…namely Linux.  Especially for the server versions.  Of course, I agree that if there were no competition whatsoever, it would suck rocks, as would any operating system.

My most recent PC encounter was with my friend buying a Compaq. It came complete with everything you need straight out of the box, including a virus! Oh, and tons of pop up advertising from a system tray full of advertisers icons, including one from Symantec to get rid of that convenient virus.

Yeah, well.  Not all PCs are created equal.  For Crapaq, that’s par for the course.  But that’s what happens when other people can make systems for your OS; I would imagine the same would happen to Apple if other companies could make them.  The upside is any Joe Schmoe can build a pc but would be hard pressed to build an apple.  People think that owning a PC should take the work out of computing but that just isn’t true.

My hard drive has a people name, too…

My biggest beef with MS is Internet Explorer.  It sucks so bad.  Gladly, we have Firefox to kick ass and take names. 

Forget the viruses, most people mess up their pc’s on their own….

Ain’t that the truth!  I find that a lot of the problems people complain about result from a problem between the keyboard and the chair.  There are so many techs out there who simply do half-assed jobs and blame the error on MS.  While I will be the first to admit that MS does produce some real doozies, some of the biggest and most common problems could be alleviated by a little reading of the directions and not doing stupid things like opening email attachments. I once had a user call to complain that she couldn’t use her CD ROM drive, and after a ridculous 15 minutes I finally figured out that she had her computer upside down.

I’m surprized no one’s said it yet, and I always get groans for this, but if I were to switch to anything, it would be Linux.  In fact, Apple originally tried to get Linux on the bandwagon when they were making OS X, but Linus Torvalds deemed Unix to be less stable than his open-source baby and its offshoots.  I mean, why settle for elitist snob when you can be a cynical elitist snob who never leaves the computer?

PS, re:Crapaq—those things are added by the manufacturing company, not by Microsoft, so I don’t think that’s a valid smack down of microsoft itself…

Yes I do find that the mac is a much easier machine to use.

serge, that’s what it comes down to for me.  While I’m a latent geek, I don’t have the time, necessity, or inclination to pursue it very far.  I have other tools to master, and life is short.

The two geekiest people I know personally- my brother the hardware designer, my brother-in-law the mathematics professor- both have PCs.  Running Linux.

And having people names for hard drives- how juvenile can you get, anthropomorphizing a hunk of junk like that?  My hard drives all have dragon names.

Ok, so mine’s not an actual people name, it’s an anime character name.  How geeky is THAT!

Is it a popular character?

PS, re:Crapaq—those things are added by the manufacturing company, not by Microsoft, so I don’t think that’s a valid smack down of microsoft itself…

I said PC. I don’t think I ever mentioned Microsoft.

I’m not sure why I never really listen to the “you ca build your own PC” argument. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I’ve been using computers (and cars, and televisions for that matter) for a long time and have never once considered making something to help run my business when I can buy it off the shelf already put together. Apple’s control over the box is what I like about it. You all seem to agree that the vendors can be your worst enemy.

A friend asked me how to get rid of a bunch of icons in her system tray and thinking that everything should be this easy, I told her to “just drag them off, that’s how I do it on the Mac’s dock.“ Uh, not so much. Why should something so simple be so complicated?