Why PCs are sadly better than Macs

Whilst I generally feel that PCs and Macs both suck and fail to live up to the needs of the general public, I felt compelled to give a list of reasons why Macs are not as good as PCs. For the record though, as with most pointless and meaningless comparisons (i.e. is the US better than the UK), comparing PCs to Macs is like trying to find out who is the most handsome man... in the burns unit.

Factor One: Design/Ergonomics
All Macs look cool. This is not to be doubted, especially the new gen iMacs. Mac Pros look fairly swish too. With PCs, it really depends on what company made your PC, my PC looks fairly slick, and it is a factory built Packard Bell I got from PC world of all places (lolol!). However, since you can actually build your PC, the problem of poor design vanishes. You can tailor your PC to your needs. Back to Macs, they are un-ergonomic. iMacs are big and bulky and it is a pain reaching round to the USB ports and even to find the on/off button. The Mac Pro, however, solves this, but is basically a PC with an Apple logo on the side. The problems have gone away, but all Apple have done is make a Mac look like a PC. With iMacs, it may be convenient having a monitor and webcam in one with everything packed inside it, yet if the screen or camera breaks, you have to cart the whole thing off rather than just disconnect it and use another monitor or webcam until the old one is fixed. You also cannot build your own Mac. Sure, you can ‘customise’ one on the webpage, but Apple do it for you and you cannot make changes later. The main offender for Macs though, is the keyboards. Apple keyboards are probably the worst I have used in my life. They have no # key for a start, the keys regularly stick and you have to hammer and pound the keys for them to register you are typing. The keyboards that come with PCs tend to be dead cheap, yet are inexplicably better and more ergonomic than Apple keyboards.

Factor Two: Hardware Compatibility
Now some have objected to this, but the fact remains is that Macs have problems with hardware. For instance, my music college has a bunch of new gen iMacs, yet they cannot run my USB stick or MP3 player. Other people have the same problems. “This device is not recognised”, “This device contains volumes that Mac OS does not recognise”, “Insufficient Power” and, my favourite, it fails to register the device at all. Now, correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t USB supposed to be a universal standard? Universal Serial Bus, right? That is why they drafted up all the internetworking standards etc. back in the day, so that different technologies would work with each other. This is the case with a plethora of otherwise fully functional USB devices. With a PC, if a USB device is unrecognised, it searches for the drivers online etc. Sadly, I have yet to use an iMac that does this. Now, according to the evil lies of Steve Jobs’ интеллигенция, this is because Microsoft’s monopoly over the computing world has forced companies to bend to Microsoft’s standards rather than industry standards. Yes, that is the best excuse Mac fanbois and fangrls have to say. The obvious and easy rebuttal is, my USB stick was made last year (I know this, because I know the people who made it), long since Microsoft’s stranglehold began to dwindle and my Seagate External HDD that I have had for 5 years works just fine on iMacs (not the old ones though). Never mind, I will concede this point for the purpose of debate. The obvious and easy rebuttal is now: even if this were true, there is no point in making a machine that is not compatible with your customer’s hardware, they could at least have something that searches for drivers online like PCs. The last issue is: there is a really low amount of choices to make in customising a Mac and once you get your Mac, you are stuck with it. I am not sure if you are able to send it back off to Apple to get them to upgrade it for you, but even if this is the case, it is still too much hassle. As aforementioned, you can build your own PC really easily and for really cheap. My friend’s PC is a beast and it cost him £600 to build. He has been upgrading it for years and it still cost him less than the price of an iMac. His PC is many many times better than an iMac. I am seriously looking into building a new PC in the near future because of this, but for now, I will stick with my factory machine (plus I can keep it for future LAN parties).

Factor Three: Software/File Compatibility
Office for Macs is awful. I could spend a good few pages outlining the flaws in Office for Macs, so I will just point out the main offenders. One, you have to save files as 97-2003 compatibility versions on your PC if you want to transfer and use/work on them on a Mac. Office for Macs 2008 partially solves this, although occasionally I still have problems. Office for Macs 2008 is a lot easier to use than older version, although still needs a bit of work, imo. Two, it lacks loads of features that is in the PC version. Mac Office 2008 has a lot more features (notably superscript and subscript being accessible in the formatting palette) although, again, is still lacking. Not that I am complaining though, it sure is a hell of an improvment from Mac Office 2004. Open Office is an okay substitute and is free, but not when you have to hammer out 20 essays in less than 30 weeks for college (thus you have formatting to think of). Simply put, if you have lots of work to do in a short amount of time, Office 2007 is the way to go, as it has all the features you need and really easy to use meaning you don’t have to play about with it for ages just to find out how to get it to do want you want. iTunes is the worst music player ever. Whilst I hated Windows Media Player 11, iTunes managed to topple it as my most hated media player software of all time. WMP11 may be hideous and you are unable to view all of your songs altogether, at least importing music is a straightforward and easy task compared to iTunes. Also, WMP11 does not make a copy of your media in a separate folder (which is what iTunes did when I tried it) it just memorises the file directory. Supposedly the solution is to copy and paste all your media files into the iTunes directory, yet, eith the amount of music etc. I have, this would take far longer than simply adding them (which takes far too long in iTunes as it is). I could probably spend a while ranting about how crap iTunes is. WMP10 is the best I have used so far (which is why I am incredibly annoyed that my PC will not let me install it over 11). WMP12 looks really good so far, it seems to combine the features of WMP10 with the slick graphics of WMP11 as well as decent codec support. As far things go, Macs are the way to go if you do a lot of sound recording/mixing, video editing or photo editing (or maybe more than one of these, or even all of them). If all you need is a machine that runs the latest games and runs the best office software, then, for now, PCs are your friend. Of course, Macs do not get viruses... because nobody writes viruses for Macs because hardly anybody uses them. This is like a toothless man saying: "at least I don't get toothache". Actually, there was a pretty gnarly virus going round Macs about 3 years ago, worse than PC Trojan viruses, but Mac users don't want you know that. In fact there is another one that went around last year. No wait, I remember now, there are over 60 viruses for Macs... and Macs have no AV software.

Factor Four: Price/Cost Effectivity
Macs cost the earth for fairly mediocre specs. PCs cost roughly two-thirds of the price for only slightly less. To be honest, this was what really killed by desire to get a Mac. For those prices, I expected Macs to blow PCs out of the water. I was wrong. Even the top of the range Mac Pros do not have the best graphics card(s) and they cost the same as a brand new family car. With the same money, I could probably buy two homes in Romania. To put this into perspective let us have a look at prices and specs shall we?
Here are the specs for my PC: -
Packard Bell IMEDIA X2416
Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q8200 2.34 GHz
4.00GB DDR2 RAM
640GB 7200 rpm SATA HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 7100/NVIDIA nForce630i 256MB to 1529MB
N20WB 20" Widescreen LCD
It also has a DVD/CD+ RW R9, my speakers are Creative Speakers and has 4 USB ports (2 in front and 2 at the back).
(Note: The PC by itself cost £425, the monitor and speakers boosted the price. I also mistakenly stated that my HDD was better than a Mac Pro's, when it is actually equal, although I do have a 320GB external HDD I use to back up my important files.)

iMac?
21.5 inch iMac
3.06 GHz Intel Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
£969.00

You can also get the 21.5inch iMac with a 1TB HDD and an ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB instead for £1,225. The 27" version with these same specs is £1,378.

Last but not least 27" iMac:
2.66GHz Intel Core i5
4GB RAM
1TB HDD
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
£1,634

Mac Pros?
Quad core version:
2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Zeon "Nehalem" Processor
3GB RAM
640GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB
£1,940

8-core version:
Two 2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Zeon "Nehalem" Processors
6GB RAM
640GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB
£2,553

Of course, fanatics make the excuse that what you are paying for is the OS, and it is apparently worth the money. Yeah, and I suppose spending £10,000 on a really good hammer and £15,000 on a really good toilet is worth it too. I have yet to use Windows 7, so I cannot compare it with Mac OS X yet. Although, all I have heard from trusted sources are good things. Supposedly, it is more cost effective to get a Mac because, apparently, PCs are unreliable and you have to fork out money for costly AV subscription and repairs etc. I am sorry, but my PC runs just fine and my annual AV subscription fee is still peanuts in the long run. Then again, I know what I am doing. People also complain that PCs are slower, have a shorter 'life span' and require better hardware to run correctly. Once again, only if you don't know what you are doing. The last one cracks me up, becuase, even if true (which it probably is) it does not matter because PCs are infinitely cheaper than Macs and are better value for your money). The simple fact is, if Macs work better for you than PCs, then it simply because Macs are computers for dummies, and you know very little about computers. I don't know that much about computers, yet, I have managed to get the best out of my PCs. Even my really old second hand Windows '98 Sony VAIO laptop that had tons of bugs and hardware problems (thanks to the previous owner). I managed to get 5 years out of it (until it eventually broke and I couldn;t be bothered to fork out £200 for it to be repaired). Since Apple serve a niche market, they encounter less problems due to the vastly smaller customer base who tend to use Macs for the same things. If Macs were as widely used as PCs, they would start getting the same problems... fast.


Mac OS X killed my inner child... and Windows Vista buried it.
To be honest, I could not care less if Windows or Apple goes under tomorrow, just as long as I can get my computing needs catered for and for a reasonable price. From what I gather, Japanese companies are giving ‘ol Bill and Steve a run for their money anyway (or at least will be in the near future). We shall see. The real war should be on people who bum Linux. Either way, whilst PCs do have their flaws, they are generally better than Macs in terms of general use... provided you at least have some clue of what it is you are doing. I went on a National BTEC Diploma for IT, so I know how to optimise my PC, etc. The only real purpose the Mac has is in specialist professional roles like sound recording studios, film studios and similar multimedia purpose... or for spoiled Middle Class people who have more money than sense. Of course, if your hobbies include any of the previous then a Mac may be for you, although, if it is only a hobby, a PC can suit you just fine. PCs fulfil a larger role of purposes, both personal and professional. PCs are used as government computers, with NASA and can pretty much do anything an average Joe needs. That said, Macs are generally easier to use if you know practically nothing about computers (no AV setup and subscription). What fonbois and fangrls don't seem to realise is that Macs aren't for everyone... which is why there are PCs. Also, PCs aren't for everyone, which is why there are Macs.