Apple v PC

[John Self]

OK so. I am thinking of getting a new computer at home because my current one (a go-slower-striped fully-bog-standard Acer laptop) is already struggling to cope with everyday life at the tender age of two and a half. Mainly - and I speak as a borderline technophobe here - this seems to come down to two things.

1. It has only 256MB RAM, which I am given to understand renders it practically useless when trying to run multiple applications speedily.

2. I have almost no room on the hard drive even though there's practically nothing extraneous on there. The hard drive is 20GB but my iTunes music library takes up about 10GB and presumably Windows, Office, and all the other crap that I have on it takes up the rest. I have a few photos and Word documents but really practically no personal stuff on there. Every time I start the damn thing it gives me this warning about running out of disk space (I have about 200MB left) and magnanimously clears out about 30MB of stuff from my cache, just in time for me to fill it up again before the next time I start up. So if I want to download the new Firefox browser (or, God forbid, Internet Explorer 7), I'll be down to the wire. I know I could get an external hard drive but it rather diminishes the point of having a space-saving laptop.

And so I am wondering, if I decide to splash out on a new machine, whether I should stick with what I know or make the break for Apple.

My main problem is I have absolutely no frame of reference for comparison of the different machines. For example CPU speeds. My current laptop has a 2.6GHz processor. Presumably new ones are about twice that speed. But I see that new Apple Macbooks (or whatever they're called) are about 1.6GHz. Does this mean they're much slower than a PC/laptop of the same processor speed? Or do Apples run more efficiently to make a 1.6GHz Apple faster than a 2.6GHz PC?

Also if I did change over, would my Microsoft Word documents etc be readable on an Apple machine? And do Apple machines come with word processor etc inbuilt (I could only see reference to something called iLife on their site), or do I have to shell out £400 for the equivalent of Office the way I did when I bought my current machine?

Questions, questions... Any advice?

[Stewart]

No real opinions, since I just don't like Apple. But I've always been sort of under the impression that a PC is always good for the business side of things, while a Mac is preferred for more creative careers, such as artwork, animation, and music production.

[gil]

I think Apples are really cool machines. I love the look of them, they are getting better for software availability, they can run like a PC if they choose, they are very clever about figuring what you want and getting to it. If you are a serious technophobe, they are more approachable than a PC. In principle, they can read your .doc files.

But... If you are used to a PC, and have a lot of PC-based data, stick with the PC.

And... If you ever expect to want a computer brand other than Apple, don't buy one. Apple users find they are forever locked into Apple, whether emotionally or practically.

[John Self]

(EDIT: Responding to Stewart) Well that's certainly something Apple play on in their adverts on their website (and presumably elsewhere): a pot-bellied balding bespectacled man in a double-breasted suit has under him the words "I'm a PC," and beside him there's a young early-20s dude with T-shirt and jeans with "I'm a Mac" below him. Pshaw to that. Certainly this tendency of Apple's to advertise on the basis that "we're the underdog, therefore we're better" is irritating. But are they better? Admittedly their machines look cool and screenshots make applications look effortless and, well, nice. But are they better?

And why do you hate Apple, Stewart?

EDIT: Thanks gil.

[Digger]

The Daveybot will know, I'd say buy a Mac!

[John Self]

Oh and another thing. If I do stick with a PC, should I eschew all things Microsoft? Even Windows operating system? Or is that for "advanced users only"? Certainly I can imagine them refusing to let me install my current Office suite on a new machine because it's already registered with the old one... What's that one Wavid goes on about? OpenOffice or something? Is it any good, and once again, is it compatible with existing Word docs etc?

[amner]

We tend to have a very warrior-like faction split here at the University about Macs and PCs, with little common ground.

The bottom line, as far as I can see, is that Macs are for girls.

[amarie]

I hate, hate, hate Macs and all that goes with them. They are the devil's machine and if I could torch every single one in this lab, I'd be a happy little camper.

[amner]

Out with the Hate, amarie, and in with the Love...

[John Self]

OK, so I know why some people hate PCs (or Microsoft/Windows/IE at least) but I haven't heard such vituperative anti-Mackery before! Explain, amarie?