MAC vs PC vs Linux

[Alpha_One]

The topic title is wrong. Platform vs. Platform vs. OS?! Should be OSX vs. Windows vs. Linux.

Macs are PCs now too, though.

My OS of choice? Windows. No matter what the Linux preachers say, Windows is still the most versatile OS, when I'm trying to work on a normal PC (as opposed to a cellphone or a router). Macs are just too expensive.

Ironically, I find that I'd be more suited to Linux for everyday use if I used my computer like my grandma.

That may be the case in forums and BBSes back then. But out in the real world, I've never seen Windows users evangelize their platform to non-pc users. Mac zealots on the other hand almost always try to get a word in ad nauseum. Amiga zealots were far more obnoxious than Mac zealots. Unfortunately, the Amiga was my platform of choice back then. It pained me to have to share my platform with those clowns. I tried to stick to my principle of not letting zealots get in the way of my platform preference. But, those Amiga zealots were something else. They really drove me to almost abandon the platform.

Mac zealots are just bloody annoying. It's as if they're trying to convert you to their religion...

Windows user: *pops out his Taiwanese laptop with Windows XP on it*
Mac zealot: Hey, have you tried Mac OSX yet?
Windows user: No.
Zealot: You should, it has blah blah blah...
Windows user: No, I don't have the...
Zealot: ...blah blah blah Windows blah viruses blah Mac blah Steve Jobs is God blah blah...
Windows user: *walks away*
Zealot: ...blah blah...

The Linux zealots are just as annoying and a lot more incomprehensible. I especially hate the way they preach about how good their distro is (damn distro wars) or how "intuitive" the CLUI is (not for people who aren't used to it!). They're just as elitist as the Mac zealots, but in a really weird and geeky manner:

Windows user: I'm having problems with Internet Explorer, can anyo...
Linux zealot#1: Switch to Linux, it's a lot more secure. Here, have a copy of GeekWare 3.6...
...two hours later...
Windows user-turned Linux newbie: Hey, I'm having trouble getting my sound card to work in GeekW...
Zealot#1: WTFLOL STFU RTFM n00b!!!1111one!
Linux newbie: ...
Zealot#2: You should really be using NerdAss 4.1, it's a lot more compatible with existing hardware and has a nice GUI wit...
Zealot#1: What do you know! Have you ever used GeekWare?!
Zealot#2: Yes, and it sucks, ***********!
*Zealot#1 and Zealot#2 goes on having a fight*

Windows zealots on the other hand, can be hardly described as "zealots". They're often haters of MacOS or Linux (the latter more rarely, because the Windows zealots tend to be PC zealots too). They're bitterly hateful of Mac (or Linux, or any other OS), for whatever reason:

Mac user: *types*
Windows zealot/Mac hater: *punches Mac user in the face*
Mac user: Wha...?
Zealot/Hater: That's for contributing to Stevie Jobs' world domination fund.
Mac user: What about Bill Gates then?
Zealot/Hater: *punches Mac user in the balls*

[Jun aka Pekto]

Mac user: *types*
Windows zealot/Mac hater: *punches Mac user in the face*
Mac user: Wha...?
Zealot/Hater: That's for contributing to Stevie Jobs' world domination fund.
Mac user: What about Bill Gates then?
Zealot/Hater: *punches Mac user in the balls*

Seems like a Larry, Moe, and Curly routine.

[oldblue]

I got 2 old Imac G5's * home. one for me and for the wifey.

it does everything what a regular highend pentium can do, except games. DL DVD-RW, WiFi G, Photoshop, MS Office, Internet Surfing, Yahoo IM, *******s, DiVX/MP4, MP3 entertainment.

hanggang ngaun nga wala pa ako ka-idea idea sa mga core duo core2 duo na yan eh hehehe. and even those new threats like virus, malwares and trojans na published almost every month sa net.

and I'm a Com Sci Grad. been living in a different tech world since we switched to Mac OS X. last time I spent money on computer hardware, mid last year pa. yun na nga when I bought the 2nd hand Imac G5 for the wife.

[A121]

* alpha_one

yes. a friend of mine always brags about how good his mac and linux powered pc over windows. sinasakyan ko na lang. hehehe

[ess]

My sister is a die hard Mac zealot. (zealotress?)
I sent her a DVD home video complete with all the whizbang doodads chockfull-o-eyecandy menu. She was impressed and immediately asked if I bought a Mac. I told her that I made that on my PC running XP. She didn't believe me and I even had to show her how I made it. After showing her the proof, may huling banat pa siya... at least wala kaming danger of viruses. What the hell!???

I also have openSUSE with compiz installed on my PC.
I booted up openSUSE... my sister immediately blurts out --> waw! Parang Mac.

I just kept my mouth shut. Then...she says... ba't tahimik ka na? Are you admitting that both Windows and Linux are inferior?

Naknangtinapay!

[BlueBimmer]

no virus nga but i'd be bored to death with the kind of games in the MAC, pang matanda yan IMO :bwahaha:

[Jun aka Pekto]

no virus nga but i'd be bored to death with the kind of games in the MAC, pang matanda yan IMO :bwahaha:

That line of thinking is probably the flipside of the coin. The Mac has some and I mean some good games like those in the pc and even some original Mac-only games. They may be a little late compared to the pc, but not terribly so. Mac gaming is far from being desolate.

The people who buy Macs aren't hardcore gamers to begin with. If they are, they tend to game on consoles and simply work/surf on the Mac like my daughter for instance.

Add: I know of many Mac users who work with a Mac and game on an XBox 360. I'm sure the irony is not lost on some of the more hardcore zealots.

[BlueBimmer]

That line of thinking is probably the flipside of the coin. The Mac has some and I mean some good games like those in the pc and even some original Mac-only games. They may be a little late compared to the pc, but not terribly so. Mac gaming is far from being desolate.

The people who buy Macs aren't hardcore gamers to begin with. If they are, they tend to game on consoles and simply work/surf on the Mac like my daughter for instance.

Add: I know of many Mac users who work with a Mac and game on an XBox 360. I'm sure the irony is not lost on some of the more hardcore zealots.

yeah you're right but i wouldn't wanna play late games released on MAC, with so many great games released on the PC every week its pointless to compare them in regards to games support.

besides its pointless to get the xbox360 if you're a hardcore PC gamer, the PC is waaaaay more versatile both hardware and software wise IMO.

[oldblue]

me too I'd rather buy an Xbox 360 if i'm going to continue computer gaming. the numerous terms I have to take into consideration just to get a game running on a PC is simply a turn-off and time-consuming.

imagine the good 'ol days, that I need to know if the game has AGP, AGP4x, or AGP8x support, SDR, DDR, DDR2, now PCI-E, SLi. haay kakasakit ng ulo.

I just read the Vista thread. can't imagine myself going thru that process again. trial and error hardware to see what component supports Vista. it's like Win98SE to WinXP all over ...

Computers were invented specifically as tools to make our lives easier. to make us more productive and creative. not to become as slaves and guinea pigs to temporary technological breakthrus and terms, i mean from 16kbps to 100mbps, naging 200mbps, 1 gpbs speed shucks! if I'm 40 right now, and I will be recalling what I learned. yan na lang ba ang natutunan ko hehehe memorizing those terms

sir jun, sa US diba a lot of American schools are switching on the Mac Platform? my relatives there always brag about my pamangkins on how creative and productive their sons/daughters are. as early as 7 yrs. old, ang gagaling nasa multimedia creativity primarily bec. both sa school and at home - puro Macs ang training computers nila.

[Jun aka Pekto]

yeah you're right but i wouldn't wanna play late games released on MAC, with so many great games released on the PC every week its pointless to compare them in regards to games support.

besides its pointless to get the xbox360 if you're a hardcore PC gamer, the PC is waaaaay more versatile both hardware and software wise IMO.

I definitely still prefer pc gaming over any other. But, pickings are getting slimmer compared to the heydays of early 2000-2001. If any of these new consoles come out with a mouse and keyboard, I'd probably defect in a heartbeat. That's the only thing that's really stopping me right now.

[Jun aka Pekto]

sir jun, sa US diba a lot of American schools are switching on the Mac Platform? my relatives there always brag about my pamangkins on how creative and productive their sons/daughters are. as early as 7 yrs. old, ang gagaling nasa multimedia creativity primarily bec. both sa school and at home - puro Macs ang training computers nila.

I wouldn't say a lot if compared to the overall number of schools using Windows-based pc's. But, compared to those using Macs in the past, then yes, there certainly was a big increase. My daughter's school district just happens to be one of the Mac-using ones. High school kids here are issued MacBooks. Going to Javalina's (our local version of Starbucks), Macbooks are all over the place.

[BlueBimmer]

I definitely still prefer pc gaming over any other. But, pickings are getting slimmer compared to the heydays of early 2000-2001. If any of these new consoles come out with a mouse and keyboard, I'd probably defect in a heartbeat. That's the only thing that's really stopping me right now.

yeah but i like my gaming/work/entertainment in one machine, a fast one. thats why i'm still a hardcore PC gamer for more than 10yrs since my HS days.

upgrading and spending for faster cpus, vidcards is not a factor for me, in fact i feel a great deal of satisfaction when i'm upgrading a major component of my PC.

only other consoles im looking at are the PS3 or the Wii, the xbox360 is too similar to the PC (games wise) for me to consider it.

anyway OT na :hihihi:

[Jun aka Pekto]

yeah but i like my gaming/work/entertainment in one machine, a fast one. thats why i'm still a hardcore PC gamer for more than 10yrs since my HS days.

upgrading and spending for faster cpus, vidcards is not a factor for me, in fact i feel a great deal of satisfaction when i'm upgrading a major component of my PC.

only other consoles im looking at are the PS3 or the Wii, the xbox360 is too similar to the PC (games wise) for me to consider it.

anyway OT na :hihihi:

If I was still single, upgrading wouldn't be a factor either. In fact, I remember when a store clerk's jaw dropped when I paid $600 cash for 2 STB BlackMagic 3Dfx Voodoo 2's back in March 1998. Those days are long gone. But, I'll still game on the pc so long as there are good games for it.

[Bogeyman]

During my early days as a working guy, I was amazed at how easy it was to find my way around a Mac OS, compared to Windows. Our group was probably the only one in the whole department to have Mac workstations, from word processing to video post-production. Dalawang beses na nga akong nakamana ng iMac sa office.

Now, the iMac I'm using tends to hang on me (kernel panic) at certain hours of the day. Hindi pa rin maayos kahit nagtanggal na kami ng RAM chip; gusto lang yatang bumalik sa dati niyang amo eh. Luma na rin naman kasi, so now I just use the PC laptop sa office; naka-standby na lang yung iMac.

[Alpha_One]

^^*Bogeyman: Could be a case of bad capacitors.

yeah but i like my gaming/work/entertainment in one machine, a fast one. thats why i'm still a hardcore PC gamer for more than 10yrs since my HS days.

upgrading and spending for faster cpus, vidcards is not a factor for me, in fact i feel a great deal of satisfaction when i'm upgrading a major component of my PC.

only other consoles im looking at are the PS3 or the Wii, the xbox360 is too similar to the PC (games wise) for me to consider it.

anyway OT na :hihihi:

As much as I'm an avid PC gamer, I have to admit that it's expensive and a console works better as a dedicated games machine.

But only the PC has Freespace 2.

[///MPower]

- Macs aren't expensive. Compare them to Dells with similar specs, and you might be surprised by which one comes out cheaper.

- It's spelt Mac. PC guys get annoyed at this too, because they understand that a Machine Access Control is different from an Apple Macintosh.

- Macs are not better at graphics. People assume this, but the fact is that professionals use both platforms, and more often than not, they use custom made software that runs on Linux. iLife, however, does make it easy to polish amateur crap so as to give the impression that it is better for video stuff.

- Gaming on a Mac is a non-issue. Dual boot Windows on an Intel Mac. Problem solved.

- Microsoft is not successful because of good software. It's a bit of a combination of luck and Bill Gates' amazing business strategies. The main (I wouldn't say only) reason people use Windows is because everyone else does. Holding market share is powerful; just look at the iPod.

[Alpha_One]

- Macs aren't expensive. Compare them to Dells with similar specs, and you might be surprised by which one comes out cheaper.

Yes, but Macs aren't cheap either. I've never seen a Php15k cheapass desktop or a 40k laptop from Apple. (all right, 25k and 50k for the legit stuff ) The PC market isn't just the Dell mid-end stuff.

- It's spelt Mac. PC guys get annoyed at this too, because they understand that a Machine Access Control is different from an Apple Macintosh.

Uhhh, I don't get it. And isn't that Media Access Control?

- Macs are not better at graphics. People assume this, but the fact is that professionals use both platforms, and more often than not, they use custom made software that runs on Linux. iLife, however, does make it easy to polish amateur crap so as to give the impression that it is better for video stuff.

True. Pros use stuff that any average Windows/Mac/Linux nerd wouldn't believe.

- Gaming on a Mac is a non-issue. Dual boot Windows on an Intel Mac. Problem solved.

It is. Windows costs $$$$. A Mac system costs $$$$. (Piracy stuff aside, obviously!) If you can live with just one, why do you have to have the other!

Not as much of an issue now that the Mac is a PC too though. I wonder what happened to all the Mac zealots who claimed the PC hardware sucks though...

- Microsoft is not successful because of good software. It's a bit of a combination of luck and Bill Gates' amazing business strategies. The main (I wouldn't say only) reason people use Windows is because everyone else does. Holding market share is powerful; just look at the iPod.

Windows. From Windows 2000. Decent. But not amazing.
iPod. All versions. Decent. But not amazing.

Romanian President Thanks Bill Gates for Easily Pirated Software...

[roninblade]

doesn't suprise me that the die-hard windows users here have one thing in common - gaming. meron sariling nerd/geek level kasi ang gamers kaya almost zealot-like ang kapit sa windows. heheheh.

but then again, if i didn't give up on gaming a few months ago i probably would've have purchased a pc notebook and vmwared windows through linux.

pero kahit na mac gamit ko now pwede pa din naman virtualization ng windows and linux/bsd.

[CoDer]

If I will be setting up a server then linux is the way to go. Linux for desktop use? Well it haven't got there yet.

However all of my thick client software projects runs on windows so its windows platform for me on that aspect. Soon I will also be developing e-commerce projects and I want to cut down cost on it then Linux is the way to go for that primary reason.

I'm not into multimedia so MAC/OS X is out for me. However, if I'm seriously considering "porma" points and I have money to burn then throw me a MacBook anytime.

[roninblade]

I'm not into multimedia so MAC/OS X is out for me.

mac is not really for multimedia only. i'm a pure coder din. pero depende pa din what type of programming you do, kung nasa .net ka, no choice but to go with windows. pero kung multiplatform yung language/s na ginagamit mo mas maganda kasi mas madami options.

Linux for desktop use? Well it haven't got there yet.

people who say that dont really give linux a chance. especially these days na malaki na improvement ng linux sa desktop. i admit medyo malabo pa ng konti given the lack of standards, or should i say people following their own standards, pero once you look at it from a different frame of mind pwede na sya, at least for the IT community.