Sell me on a Mac (laptop or pc)

So as I am taking my media production courses, I am slowly realizing that eventually I will need to cave in and get a mac as a lot (if not all) of the scriptwriting and editing programs are for macs.  As I am not the biggest mac fan, I ws wondering if anyone had any good selling points for the mac.

I've all ready considered the discount the school can get on macs, which does help.

Where shall I start, Joe.  My wife was a Mac person when I met her and I was fairly computer illiterate, so I joined her.  A friend of mine (who I met in the same LARP that Schaller, White and I and later Paul Shaffer played in more than 10 yrs back) is a MAC tech, so the stars were aligned.

1 - hardly any viruses

2 - much better with graphics

3 - OS X has the advantage that if an application freezes, it can be restarted without having to restart the computer.

4 - ease of use

5 - not Windows based.

6 - Faster

Art, music, heck... when it comes to media work... Mac is the way to go.  Very intuitive, easy to use, and there are tons of applications you can use.  The only drawback is that Macs are only used by people who are Mac lovers.  Like Saturn people, it's almost cult-ish, the insular group that are Mac user... but they are growing.

I work with PC's all the time at home and at the office.  I'm comfy with my PC, but even I have to say that Mac's look to be great when it comes to media work.

Also, since Mac users aren't as populous as PC users, less chance of malicious virus hitting you.  The old hacker saying goes... why make a virus, if it only affects a few thousand when millions can be screwed.  Charles all ready pointed out some great things about Macs.  If you can get a great discount on Macs, then I say go for it.

Screw Macs. They are expensive. If you really need the script writing and editing software from OS X you can setup a dual boot on your existing PC without having to buy a new machine.
duggmirror.com/apple/Dual_boot_OSX_10_4_...ur_Windows_computer/

I support both PCs and Macs here at Upenn, and it seems clear to me that the folks who use Macs have a much better computing experience.  With all the viruses and worms and botnets out there gunning for less-than-completely-updated-PCs, people who use Macs are mostly free from such worries.

All the best creative people use Macs.  The only downside seems to be the price, which is admittedly about 20-30% more than the PC.  But, in return for the extra $$$ you get a computer that just works.  Here at uni we're always called to repair / update / disinfect PCs, but almost never a problem with Macs.  Sure, they have problems from time to time, but only about 1/10th the scale of the PC computers.

And now, the South Park Mac-PC commercial parody:

Happy Computing!

--Paul

Joe, our company is swapping out all our PCs for Macs because of the benefits they offer.

In addition to the stuff mentioned above, Apple's customer care is excellent.  While every company has a handful of horror stories buried somewhere, Apple still supports stuff made 5+ years ago, and can fix it if need be (As opposed to Alienware, which told me my PC that was still under warranty was obsolete and could not be repaired).

No company or brand is ever perfect.  Macs do have shortcomings, usually in the area of support from 3rd Parties like NexFlix, etc.  But for everyday use (Web, Word, Email, etc.) and specific use you know you need (Multimedia), they rock the house.

Nice link, Paul.  It underscores my point.  I tend to buy Macs that are last generation, which makes them on a par with current PCs at the same price.  At my age, a large screen is more important than a touch of speed.

This Friday I am going to FL to help my dad readjust (change apartments from independent living to assisted) after a few medical problems.  He asked me, from the ICU no less, to "Dump that piece of <<offal) and mr a Mac with a big screen" (at 83+ he has macular degeneration and a large screen is tres important to him).

Now that Macs have Intel processors, it is possible to partition our hard drive and play PC games on "one side" while keeping the faster and maclike functions on "the other side.?

you can partition your hard drive to run both operating systems. I had to do it to use auto cad but then i found a patch to make auto cad run on mac. I dont know about doing it for gaming purposes b.c the only game i play online is wow and wow runs on mac.

The factor you should look it is how will buying a mac benefit me?  If all the software you need and use runs on mac buying one is going to be a good idea. Because when you graduate and go to find a job you will already have the skills and experience where someone else may not. Therefore giving you an edge over someone else. In the end it's all about developing skills and marketing yourself so you can get a job.  Personally  I've owned 2 mac laptops and they're very nice. I hoped what i said helped.

I use Wintel machines at school and Macs at home, and given the choice I'll take a Mac any day.  As Paul said, they just work and beautifully at that.  Newer Macs now [finally] have left and right click buttons on their mice, although in keeping with Apple's design excellence, you'd never know it to look at one.  I have a colleague who has partitioned his Mac laptop and can even run citrix on the Windows partition to access our school's network servers.  And I've seen him just log onto the server from the Mac environment also (although perhaps the laptop did switch environments but it was totally seamless).  Even when Microsoft engineers their Mac version of Office, it is much more elegant and intelligent than what they force us to use on a Wintel machine.

As for laptop or pc, my son astutely observed that you can get a whole lot more machine in a desktop than a laptop for the same money.  If you know you won't need to tote it around, that can be a real selling point for a desktop; along with the fact that you can get a much bigger monitor with the money you save. 

I guess in the long run though, you need to assess what programs you need to run and choose the machine that you feel will do that best for you and that you can afford.  For me, that can always be a Mac; I don't envy you the decision.

Dear JoeDios,

I will sell you a macbook pro for 1000 InGame goldz

please see me at marketfaire.

-Lyleandy

I can help you with the gold if you are interested, Joe.  Also the shipping.