I’ve been a PC user all my life, if you don’t count the Apple IIe’s we used back in high school. I then became a PC bigot and stayed that way for many years. Things stayed the same until I met my wife, who, being a graphic designer, was taught on macs, and worked on macs exclusively for her career. Before long, we had a Mac/PC household and I was now a Mac support guy. Slowly but surely I started learning the Mac way. To cut to the chase, my house now has the following hardware running on the network:
- Dell 5100C desktop
- Sony PictureBook
- Apple 15″ Powerbook
- Apple Mac Mini w/ Superdrive
I now have enough experience with the, well, experience in both camps and I want to point out a few things… When you buy a Macintosh, Apple kind of wants you to be on your feet when you start, and this is more true now then it ever was. An Apple includes most of the tools the average user is going to need to do the cool things they want to do. Things like iPhoto and iMovie HD are top of the line applications, and you’re getting them, on the drive and ready to play with. A photo package and movie editing software for the PC can be costly. iLife ‘06 also adds in the ability to create a web site, a blog, publish photos of your kids and it all WORKS, and you don’t have to shell out anything extra. So, let’s sum up, you pay more for the mac, but you get lots of the software you’d probably buy for your PC anyway, its top notch and works as soon as you press Power.
So, what happens when you buy a Dell? Well, not only do you get nothing, you’re desktop will be littered with special offers and “trial programs” that are only there because some other company paid Dell to put them there. When you finally finish setting up your PC, its like, No thanks, I don’t want to use Quicken, I don’t need an ING direct account, Oh wow Virusscan, no, wait, it expires in 30 days and threatens me to upgrade for additional costs. The list goes on and on. Apple just seems to “respect” their users a little bit more. I will never turn on a mac and have advertising and desktop spam thrown in my face. It’s just not their style. So, think about that if you’re on the fence between Mac’s and PC’s. Apple isn’t going away anytime soon, and I feel they are on the brink of their best year ever.