Mac vs. Pc

[batchmister1]

Greetings

Do Macs really crash less often than Pcs? If so Why?

[Anomaly Design]

There is no difference, only preference.

[Cyanide-Depende]

no they dont "crash" they "bomb"

Saying that macs dont "Crash" is basicly just marketing, want to see a mac OSX version of hte blue screen of death? check this out http://ill-conceived.com/pics4u/mac_crash.jpg propellorheads crashed a mac while writing reason 3.0 the computer had to be reimaged....

what it comes down to is, what OS are you used to? but its getting to the point where the only difference is that macs are more overpriced than pc's

-C$

[Creamyapples1]

Honestly, I prefer apples over oranges...

[studiomaster]

Use what you want to use;not what others use.

[random.hero]

ahhh i hate macs...
pc is the way to go
thats just my opinion

[studiomaster]

Originally Posted by random.hero

ahhh i hate macs...
pc is the way to go
thats just my opinion

why do you 'hate' macs? thats a pretty vague word you used.

[Cyanide-Depende]

Originally Posted by studiomaster

why do you 'hate' macs? thats a pretty vague word you used.

I "hate macs" too but its just my experience, macs have locked up and unexpectedlt quit programs more times than my pc has. WHen I was still in coillege we used macs, and you probably had a 50-50 chance that when you click save the app would quit without saving and it would say "Bomb!" and would give you a buttonm to "recover" from the bomb, click the button, and it locked completley, the mouse even stopped moving. People said it was because it was a school mac, but i still avoided it for a few years, then they put me on a mac here and... it didnt say bomb anymore, yay.... well, ok not yay, because it just skipped that step and froze completly, or quit the program and refreshed the background. so now im back on a pc here and im actually happy. not that pcs dont crash, I just seem to have better luck with them.

OH YEA! another mac thing i hate, the keyboard "shortcuts"
that involve 15 keys... "to move this here press and hold ctrl apple shift alt enter return 1 a r F8 capslock tab h t space then click and drag....."


-C$

[OhSh1rt]

No. While apple did try and do things right with a BSD core (freebsd based wasnt it?), They changed it too much (IMHO). I'd love to have a MAC, but ive been using PC for all of my (short) life.

They are a bit pricey and they also like to change their minds, first claming that the PowerPC was an huge upgrade over x86, then switching to an intel platform and saying its better (Remeber marketing. They use'd diffrent compilers on the benchmarks)


It all boils down to what you like. Though thoes apple displays look pretty fucking awesome.


-jeffrey

[zekthedeadcow]

If Macs ran a proper X server I probably would buy one... I might buy an old one or a mini and put linux on it... I just prefer linux. Macs Aqua GUI just sucks...

Getting proper tech suppoer is a pain too... $50 for phone support or ask a Mac Genius who doesn't know squat...

eMacs are the worst though...

[bubbagump]

As the flick says... Macs just crash different. I work on both and have found both to be about the same. The less crap installed and the more care you take the better it is no matter the computer. At then end of the day it is usually flakey drivers and plugins that cause problems... not the OS.

[giraffe]

if you're music computer is on the internet, than yes.... a Mac will crash way less often.

[giraffe]

Originally Posted by Cyanide-Depende

WHen I was still in coillege we used macs, and you probably had a 50-50 chance that when you click save the app would quit without saving and it would say "Bomb!"

public computers are impossible to maintain, regardles of platform.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by Cyanide-Depende

I "hate macs" too but its just my experience, macs have locked up and unexpectedlt quit programs more times than my pc has. WHen I was still in coillege we used macs, and you probably had a 50-50 chance that when you click save the app would quit without saving and it would say "Bomb!" and would give you a buttonm to "recover" from the bomb, click the button, and it locked completley, the mouse even stopped moving.

That dialog hasn't been around since Mac OS 9 and earlier. Comparing a modern PC to a Mac that had the dialog box in question is like comparing XP to Windows 3.1. Mac OS X is a ground up rewrite of the entire OS.

I occasionally see applications crash these days, but the last time my Mac itself crashed was... at least a couple of years ago (and at least one major OS version ago).

Originally Posted by zekthedeadcow

If Macs ran a proper X server I probably would buy one... I might buy an old one or a mini and put linux on it... I just prefer linux. Macs Aqua GUI just sucks...

You do know that Apple has an X11 implementation that you can install as an option when you install the OS, right? And that you can either run it in full screen mode (with your own window manager) or (by default) mixed with the native windows?

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by OhSh1rt

They are a bit pricey and they also like to change their minds, first claming that the PowerPC was an huge upgrade over x86, then switching to an intel platform and saying its better (Remeber marketing. They use'd diffrent compilers on the benchmarks)

To be fair, Intel's CPU technology changed pretty dramatically between those two periods.

• The Core Duo (Pentium M-based) has fewer pipeline stages than the G5, and has fairly good computing power per watt.
• The Pentium IV (state of the art only a year ago) is an absolute dog, coming in at almost TWICE as many pipeline stages as the G5, lousy compute power per watt, and no SMP capability (HT doesn't count) until you move up to the Xeon.

The G5 ate P4 for breakfast. Core Duo is a much more even match, and does so on a much reduced power budget. It's not a case of Apple changing their minds about the architecture. It's a case of Intel getting some real competition from AMD and dramatically improving their CPUs.

[tbone36109]

Originally Posted by giraffe

if you're music computer is on the internet, than yes.... a Mac will crash way less often.

as long as you pay attention to what your doing on a pc it shouldnt (99% of spyware and other crap is the users fault)

[MessianicDreams]

well PCs are more vulnerable to virusesfor the simple reason that most of the viruses out there are aimed at PCs rather than macs.

macs tend to be a LOT more expensive than PCs if you compare specs and prices. they are also a pain in the ass to replace bits for when things fuck up, whereas it's very easy (and a hell of a lot cheaper) to get bits of PCs.

to say macs are more stable is an overstatement i think, i've had loads of macs crash on me for unknown reasons..

however, many audio programs (Logic, Pro Tools etc) seem better suited for macs. Logic doesn't even exist for PC anymore, and its a piece of piss to get PT to work with Macs whereas its a bit more of a pain to get it to work with a PC (loads of compatability issues with chipsets etc)..

[DaveM]

I have a 17" IMac and I love this damn computer. The iLife suite works great. I can transfer my video from my digital8 camcorder without any problems. It comes with the crazy little camera built in. The iLife software is great for me needs at the moment, with the exception of Logic Express.

Anyway, I like the mac better. I seem to screw around with it less than a PC. But that was a while ago. I guess I'm just more tuned into the mac way. It really does just work. Just my opinion.

As far as cost. I found them to be comparable when you put them side by side. With the Core Duo, the RAM, hard drive, software, I think the PC was a hundred or two less.

[lucky13]

I've been doing audio on Macs for about 3 years now. Mostly G4's running OSX and I've had one crash exactly once. I recently bought a Mac Mini, with the 1.42 GHz G$ processor, and I have had no problems whatsoever. It has been a perfect computer. The PC I use in my home office on the other hand has had to be formatted twice, and still doesn't run correctly, and it crashes about once every week or two, and I've never visited a porn site, or a file sharing site on it. I have never gone to any site that I thought would have spyware or other such problems. I prefer the mac, and the mini isn't all that expensive at all.

[sile2001]

It all comes down to how the OS is taken care of. My PC desktop is a machine that I built myself. It constantly runs at a temperature that is higher than is good for it, it only gets restarted maybe twice a month, WinXP was installed on a PATA drive, which was later cloned over to a SATA drive (without reinstalling), I have no anti-virus and only my router's firewall. It runs everything from Office to Quake 4 to Sonar 5/Ableton/Reason. The thing is stable as a rock and has crashed only once in the past year, and that was due to a bug in an ATI video driver.

Macs are not inherently more stable than PC's...it's just harder for viruses and spyware and incompetent users to screw them up. If you actually pay attention to what you install on it and are not incompetent in how to maintain an OS, then Windows XP is a great platform!

[littledog]

I'll admit right up front that I don't have a lot of PC experience, but I still think "plug in and play" is more of a reality on the Mac than the PC. When I buy virtually any USB or Firewire device (hard drive, CD burner, etc.), on a Mac you just plug it in and it's ready to use. PC's usually require installation of some sort of driver and maybe some other configuration techniques.

Maybe not a such a big deal...

[bubbagump]

Originally Posted by sile2001

If you actually pay attention to what you install on it and are not incompetent in how to maintain an OS, then Windows XP is a great platform!

Sweet... free desktop wall paper with a funny quote of the day.... Gotta click.

Gah! This pop up message says I might be infected!!!! Better trust it and click.

But I don't know anyone from Romania.... well, let me at least see what these pictures are they attached.

users.....I run Linux, the BSD flavors, Windows, and Macs and honsestly the line is very blurry any more. In a well maintained (aka no porn dialers or stupid cartoon pointers are installed) PC that is devoted to DAW use... I find it just peachy. I can crash the Mac BSD flavor and all the others routinely by doing dopey stuff or getting carried away with crap software from SourceForge. (Don't try to parse GB XML files using PHP) Most folks just don't know how to get to the guts of a Mac to really screw it up (and no Active X! See above....) However, Windows will have really made it when they can get a packaging system like RPM, DMG, or Debian's. Sigh... as we spin off into geekery.

[VonRocK]

I have a new AMD 64 3700 with 2 gigs of ram, and a 7800 GT vid card running Win XP 64 bit. It's a good combination of hardware, and the games scream on it.

I also bought an 17 inch intel iMac a couple of months ago. I punched up the Ram to 1.5 gigs.

I've been a Windows guy since windows began.

I now do everything on my mac. I like the OS better. It feels right to me, and I don't have to worry about hardware and driver support. It was the right choice for me and my DAW needs.

Make sure that you take peoples opinions as opinions. Make sure you that the opinions that you put some value to, are based on facts and experience, not speculation and heresay.

Since I've gotten into the mac world, I've heard an awfull large amount of negative comments about Macitosh computers, often based on an experience with an AppleIIe from 1989.

So, to summarize. I HAVE both OS's running on new machines, and I prefer the Mac. By a long shot. I think that it is a way better Operating system. Dollar for dollar, mac is a smarter buy.

My mac has never crashed. I don't think this PC has, but I maintain it, and am a very educated end user (and only use it for games nowdays). I also have a ghosted image of the PC hard drive, just in case. I do expect it to crash eventually. I don't expect my iMac to crash.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by sile2001

It all comes down to how the OS is taken care of. My PC desktop is a machine that I built myself. It constantly runs at a temperature that is higher than is good for it, it only gets restarted maybe twice a month, WinXP was installed on a PATA drive, which was later cloned over to a SATA drive (without reinstalling), I have no anti-virus and only my router's firewall. It runs everything from Office to Quake 4 to Sonar 5/Ableton/Reason. The thing is stable as a rock and has crashed only once in the past year, and that was due to a bug in an ATI video driver.

Of course, you know how to build machines reasonably. You chose decent parts and put them together right. One of the big reasons that Macs get a better rep than PCs is that there are so many of what we refer to as "SBBs" (s**tty beige boxes) that were build by joe schmoe after drinking one too many six packs, with hopeless compatibility problems, poor choices of which cards to put in which slots, bottom grade RAM (read "defective"), underpowered power supplies, woefully inadequate cooling, and the most cheap-@$$ motherboard you can get (complete with fundamentally broken IRQ steering from the factory).

A well-built PC and a Mac should be similarly stable, viruses/spyware/malware notwithstanding. Just be sure that if you buy a PC, you buy a well-built PC and not an SBB.

[OhSh1rt]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

The G5 ate P4 for breakfast. Core Duo is a much more even match, and does so on a much reduced power budget. It's not a case of Apple changing their minds about the architecture. It's a case of Intel getting some real competition from AMD and dramatically improving their CPUs.

G5's where nice, although the benchmarks are optimized based on what apple wants show. I'd have to say the main reason why Apple switched to Intel is not only the "new core duo's" but that IBM no longer planed on spening more on R&D for the 970's and shifted the resources to developing PPC for Microsoft, therefor Apple realized it's time to move on and go to the standard in the PC market.

Originally Posted by giraffe

public computers are impossible to maintain, regardles of platform.

A good 'ol Windows Active Directory domain can keep any public computer in line with locked-down-to-hell policies.


-jeffrey