Are macs more stable than PCs?

[BlakeBrattina]

To begin: This is my first Mac and I surely went for the good buy with my MBP i5. I used to be somewhat of a gamer playing on fairly mediocre machines like Toshiba laptops, low grade HP PC's, etc.

I used to enjoy the compatibility and ease of use with Windows machines, especially more convenient in terms of software and programs. However, over the years I developed the Mac trend and have been drawn in now completely.

I can say that I have had ZERO problems with my MBP, even when considering simple things like connectivity, firewalls, re-boots, etc etc. My machine runs as consistent as ever since day one (I have now had it for.... 9 months). The only problem that I had experience was at about week 1 when I accidentally deleted a packet that needless to say, should not be deleted.

This all may or may not be relevant, but considering the old haggle problems that I used to have, I am more than happy that I don't even remember what they were and how I had to fix them... That is, until I go into the office tomorrow morning....

 

[malman89]

I think the scientific term for it is "I only spent 300 and change on this cheap-ass Acer notebook with ****** specs so I don't care what happens to it"-itis. I guess when one forks out thousands of dollars on a computer, one tends to be more careful with it.

Of course there are always exceptions to that rule.

Like all the fools on this forum that daily post that they/their wife/child spilling water/tea/pop/coffee/etc on their MacBook/MacBook Pro? Seems mighty careless. I still don't know how. 99% of the time I have a drink within inches of my computers and I've never spilled on them.

Safari on Windows is less stable than Safari on the Mac.

Who in their right mind would use Safari on Windows instead of Firefox/Chrome/Opera/pick your poison?

 

[talmy]

Who in their right mind would use Safari on Windows instead of Firefox/Chrome/Opera/pick your poison?

Someone developing or maintaining a website on a PC who wants to check operation under Safari? I can't imagine any other reason why Apple would have ported it since it doesn't bring in any income other than helping to insure people get a good web experience on their Apple systems with Safari and continue to buy new Apple hardware.

 

[dusk007]

I've noticed acute CADA (click anything, download anything) in a lot of Windows users, too.

CADA sounds not so bad. Surprisingly not very widely according to google.

Worst case I ever had was for friends of the family who bought 2 notebooks for the kids through me. I just bought the same one as for my sister. The girl had some USB driver issues and the sons notebook was just slow apperantly.
That boy had like 40+ things in autostart. I didn't think that possible until this day. It was amazing and no wonder that thing was crawling it was fairly cheap lowend dual core from 4 years ago.
But if you clean that list let the hdd defrag it is back to first days performance in no time. At least I set up the notebooks initially and AV software was running so he didn't seem to have any virus problems. Just a slow piece of notebook.
I gave him a short brain 2.0 instruction and showed him how to manage an autostart list and why his notebook is so slow. Never heard from him since, though I guess he has a new notebook by now.

 

[HippieMagic]

I bounce between Windows 7 and OS X Lion a lot and honestly there is very little difference between their stability. The reason Windows is "less stable" is because there are more people using it who don't deserve to own a PC. You have to be MUCH more aware of the threats you face on the internet in order to keep your PC stable and there also has to be a ton of maintenance done to keep it from slowing down or crashing. Properly removing and installing drivers is very important as well.

You need anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, a firewall, and common sense to use a PC.

You need fingers and a brain to use a mac.

If you take care of both of them properly they will both function just fine.

 

[Dweez]

In my experience as an integrator in the past, windows can be as stable as any other OS if it's set up well and then left to do it's job. This was in the server world, and we found that the windows systems were as stable as the solaris and redhat systems which made up the deployment.

The choice of hardware plays a role in stability.

Desktops, on the other hand, are way too prone to user error and/or malware, viruses, trojans, etc.

$0.02 worth.

 

[adnbek]

You need anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, a firewall, or common sense to use a PC.

Fixed.

 

[harcosparky]

Like all the fools on this forum that daily post that they/their wife/child spilling water/tea/pop/coffee/etc on their MacBook/MacBook Pro? Seems mighty careless. I still don't know how. 99% of the time I have a drink within inches of my computers and I've never spilled on them.

Anyone can have a drink within inches of a computer and not suffer spill damage, at least anyone except a careless person.

For the careless person there are these cups that help to minimize damage from spills .....

<SARCASM = ON>

<SARCASM = OFF>




Seriously though, use of these ( grown up version of above ) in one company has reduced spill damage in
work areas to zero .....

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

^ lol! You've got a point. My daily routine involves a cup of coffee (usually several) on my patio with my MacBook Pro to wake up before I leave for work. I've rarely splashed coffee on the MBP, and if I do that's why the keyboard sleeve is there. Not gonna lie--I am not gentle with my laptops. And accidents happen. But I seriously wonder if most people realize just how hard they are on their machines. Dump a cup of coffee in a powered toaster, and see how it reacts!*



*Don't do this

 

[takeshi74]

However, a quick glance at forums like macrumors show several people complaining about serious problems with their macs.

Of course. That's the nature of any discussion forum site. People post when they have questions and/or problems. People never post "All is well". See also: always consider the source.

 

[malman89]

Seriously though, use of these ( grown up version of above ) in one company has reduced spill damage in
work areas to zero .....

I just have glasses (or cans) of pop, water or whiskey around my laptop 24/7 and they work just fine. Nice images

 

[Angelo95210]

You cannot compare Mac and PCs. You have to compare Mac vs Win XP, Win Vista, Win Seven, Ubuntu etc...

I find my Mac pretty stable but it freezes from time to time... Like a PC does.

 

[harcosparky]

You cannot compare Mac and PCs. You have to compare Mac vs Win XP, Win Vista, Win Seven, Ubuntu etc...

I find my Mac pretty stable but it freezes from time to time... Like a PC does.

it would be great if people who experience freezes with Macs or even PC's for that matter would keep a log of problems, more to the point logs of what they were doing when they had a problem.

I do that out of habit from past work habits.

For me it helped immensely when I took my one iMac in for repair.

I was able to tell them exactly what occurred and what I was doing when it occurred and just on that the tech predicted correctly what the fault was.

I too had some slow downs and freezes ... turns out that even though the HDD passed all tests given to it, it was the culprit. They swapped out the HDD and my problems never recurred.

 

[David N]

Of course you see a lot of people complaining. Why would anybody come online and say "My Mac is working exactly as expected. That is all."


It's human nature to seek our information or raise a stink about it when there's a problem, it's not as common as one would hope for people to publicly post that they're happy with something.



I find macs considerably more stable (which is largely due to the OS, however strict quality control also helps.

 

[that1guyy]

Thanks for all the replies and experiences.

Just wondering - do macs ever get some message like "display drivers have failed?"

Though I'm very satisfied with Windows 7, it does freeze up on occasion and sometimes completely crashes because of the display drivers failing. I have to restart Windows after that happens and it slows down my computer.

Is that a known issue on Macs/OSX?

 

[kockgunner]

I think Windows has gotten a lot better in terms of stability. I've had a surprising number of problems with my Macbook Pros, mostly graphics problems.

Also, I find OS X has weird bugs especially during new OS releases like Wifi bugs and UI glitches. I only use Windows during work and work with a few database programs so I don't have as much in depth knowledge about PC problems anymore.

 

[dusk007]

Thanks for all the replies and experiences.

Just wondering - do macs ever get some message like "display drivers have failed?"

Though I'm very satisfied with Windows 7, it does freeze up on occasion and sometimes completely crashes because of the display drivers failing. I have to restart Windows after that happens and it slows down my computer.

Is that a known issue on Macs/OSX?

Play a bit of Civ V on Mac and you learn them. OSX has no such message it just crashes or freezes. Win7 can recover from just about any bad application I ever run on it. Games with errors just quit with error messages. Playing Civ on OSX showed me that OSX is much less stable in that regard. OSX freezes when you throw stuff at it that wouldn't cause Windows to crash.
That is basically why I'd say that from an OS point of view Windows 7 is definitely more stable. Naturally the one with the most stable drivers will usually win a direct stability comparison between two Notebooks (Hardware+Software). But Windows needs to handle more problems and thus requires more effort in that field. They have more failsafes and driver signature programs and so on. OSX in most use cases has less troubles with Apple always testing drivers and writing their own and that is probably why it is a bit behind Win 7 here.

I use modified graphic drivers in Windows (for overclocking) but you shouldn't use just the newest you can find. Some just don't work properly on the Apple hardware. I usually had to try 2-3 until I found one that is stable (they never froze the system but usually cause errors in games). Now I stick to it and it never ever crashes on me. If your Windows crashes because of bad graphic drivers -> change them.

 

[GGJstudios]

Desktops, on the other hand, are way too prone to user error and/or malware, viruses, trojans, etc.

Vulnerability to malware has nothing to do with desktops vs notebooks. It has everything to do with software and user choices, not hardware.

 

[Angelo95210]

Thanks for all the replies and experiences.

Just wondering - do macs ever get some message like "display drivers have failed?"

Though I'm very satisfied with Windows 7, it does freeze up on occasion and sometimes completely crashes because of the display drivers failing. I have to restart Windows after that happens and it slows down my computer.

Is that a known issue on Macs/OSX?

No. Never got this kind of issue. Got some freezes on my MBP and it seems fixed now that I put an SSD in it.

 

[Freyqq]

In my experience, if you buy a cheap PC, it runs poorly and is a headache. If you buy a nice PC, it runs just as well as a comparable mac.

 

[Nielsenius]

In my experience, if you buy a cheap PC, it runs poorly and is a headache. If you buy a nice PC, it runs just as well as a comparable mac.

I agree. PCs (and Windows) get a bad reputation because many of them cost about $500 and have crappy hardware. A PC with a comparable price to a Mac will run comparably well. I run Windows 7 on my Mac and I've had no issues whatsoever.

 

[Dweez]

Vulnerability to malware has nothing to do with desktops vs notebooks. It has everything to do with software and user choices, not hardware.

My comment wasn't directed at the hardware, but the O/S and end user mentality.

 

[philipma1957]

I've used macs for years, but haven't actually owned one. As far as I could tell, their OS and hardware seemed to be less prone to freezing and crashing relative to their PC + Windows counterparts.

However, a quick glance at forums like macrumors show several people complaining about serious problems with their macs.

So my question is, are problems with macs common? How about compared to HP and Windows machines? Approximately what percentage is prone to failure? I understand this is a forum so the people who are having problems are bound to congregate here, but as an onlooker, it seems that macs are likely to break down on you often. Tell me this isn't true.

depends on the machine. I buy and upgrade mac minis. more then 200 since 2006. they work better then 98% don't fail. other macs not as good

 

[chrismacguy]

My Mac Pro is very stable. I can tilt it to 35 degrees and it still returns to the upright position. Same goes for my PowerMac G4.

In all seriousness, I find all my Macs to be wonderfully stable, although with Windows 7 I see PCs are slowly catching up in terms of stability. (My DELL Latitude (work) and my MacBook Air (school) both have similar uptime's and neither of them have crashed since I got them). Maybe Im just lucky, but in what, like 100 Macs, I haven't had a bad experience with one yet.

 

[Fabricman112]

Being a constant user of both Windows and Mac, both are just as stable as each other. I'm constantly switching around from Mac OS X and Windows not just in school, but also at home. Both are advanced OSes. Mac OS X does have a little fore fluidness, but that's PURELY in the eye-candy. Windows is much more of a powerhouse OS. You can get more technical things done. Since I'm a creative artist, I prefer Mac OS X since you have more robust creativity apps like Pixelmator, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, etc. Windows works much better for education and business. When it comes to viruses, if you know what you're doing, you can get no viruses ever on a Windows PC. I've used Windows for ages and not ONCE have I gotten a virus that has taken over my system, and when I have gotten viruses, Windows Security Essentials (one of the best Free virus software programs) instantly eliminated them. Windows is also prone to crash just as much as Macs are. Again, you need to know what you are doing. Windows has a much less complex file system (Mac OS X may look like a basic file system, but turn off hidden files and you're in a whole different world with com.files.plists and the hell, where as Windows it's simpler.).

Overall, they both have their pros and cons, but they're both equal to each other.

pro posting sir agree with most of what you´re saying
if I may have an opinion the only "Mac" is the MacBook Pro.. a superior laptop well.. mostly it´s the screen, keyboard, design & the trackpad
any other Mac you could get a way better/faster win-PC

also if you want something done.. a win-PC is the way to go, if you´re a poweruser you know what I mean