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Help me understand why Mac rules :)

D

dnsphotography

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 30, 2006
1
0
Hi Everybody,

My girlfriend and I are opening a photography studio and obviously need a computer for the space. I've been a Windows user since 3.1, and have been working in the IT field for almost 10 years. The only exposure I've had with Mac is doing some tech support with clients using OS 9, which I really didn't care for.

Since OS X I've become really interested in getting a Mac. Not only do I like the sleek design of the OS but I also want to start doing web design and wanted the benefits of testing my sites on Safari and IE for Mac.

Anyway back to my actual question. I am looking practical reasons on why a Mac is superior to Windows when manipulating photos in Photoshop, when designing webpages or Flash animations. Also I am curious on how the new IMac compare to Windows based machines in terms of processing speeds.

Any advice would be super appreciated.

TIA

Damien
 
I'm fairly sure that setting up a colour-calibrated workflow in OSX is far easier and more reliable than it is in XP. Have no idea about Vista... although Internet Explorer for Macs is dead. I would still test web work on a PC or use Parallels/Boot Camp as well.

Macs just work.
 
I crash a lot less on my MB and I also find it more intuitive when I wanna customize anything (applications, settings) on OSX
 
1. my mac has never crashed in almost 2 years of heavy usage.

2. I usually have about 9 applications open at once.

3. my iMac is much faster than any PC i've ever owned, and it's a G5. the intel machines will blow you away.

4. expose and spotlight :D
 
Blue Velvet said:
I'm fairly sure that setting up a colour-calibrated workflow in OSX is far easier and more reliable than it is in XP.
Click to expand...

I think that's probably the biggest tangible thing. The process from your screen to a reliable, high quality product on someone else's screen or on any kind of printed copy has been better thought out on MacOS than on Windows.

The aspiration of zero-configuration support for the kinds of peripherals used in creative areas -- cameras, scanners, and printers -- is also generally more realized on Macs.

Otherwise, it is true that all the major pieces of software that you use, e.g. Adobe's products, is pretty much the same.

Certainly, the Macs are more beautiful, and the interface design was envisioned from a perspective that tends to resonate with people in creative fields. And there are all the non-creative-specific benefits of OS X (vis-à-vis viruses, spyware, stability, and so on). But all of that is relatively "soft."

In the end, though, you should buy what you are comfortable with, and what resonates with you. If it's in a customer-facing portion of your business, it should also be appropriate to the image you're trying to portray.
 
rule? 5% market share doesn't "rules" anything.
but, it looks pretty :D
about photoshop, I really doubt there is much difference between PC version and mac version, otherwise, users should have drown adobe with mouth water already.
 
It's prettier. You feel better about using it and the advantages are largely in the intangibles, although as others have pointed out for print work the Mac had some advantages - although those have now been whittled down quite a bit.

You do feel like you're playing even when you're working because there's lots of tiny little cool things about the OS.

The Mac 'package' doesn't quite work for me, especially in terms of the inferior hardware and the poor support. But I can't really fault the OS.
 
Blue Velvet said:
Which is why the pro desktops are really where it's at... ;)
Click to expand...

I'm not going there...

...But it's probably fair to say that since I'm probably the only regular poster here with a dual Xeon 3.0 Pro as well as dual Xeon 3.0 and Core 2 Quad Windows hardware for home - let alone work - I might be more qualified than most to say first hand where it's actually at ;)
 
Since you are comfortable with Windows and have been using it professionally for many years, there may be no reason for you to switch. The best reason may be that it gives you more flexibility. You have access to all of your Windows programs plus many programs that are only available on the Mac. Being able to run both Windows and OSX is very handy when you are designing web sites. If you are not in a rush, I suggest waiting until Spring when Photoshop will be universal, Leopard will be out and the current machines will probably be upgraded.
 
clevin said:
rule? 5% market share doesn't "rules" anything.
but, it looks pretty :D
about photoshop, I really doubt there is much difference between PC version and mac version, otherwise, users should have drown adobe with mouth water already.
Click to expand...


Yes it does. 3-5% of the global market, but probably more like 90% of the print/graphics/web/film industry use Macs in production. Be careful with statistics :)

Straying OT a bit...

Also, difference between versions of PhotoShop - PhotoShop CS2 is more responsive on my PowerBook (G4 1.67, 1.5gb) than my fat desktop Windows PC (P4EE 3.2, 2gb), which always shocked me. Okay so processing is way faster (filters etc) on the PC, but actual interaction is much better on the Mac.
 
clevin said:
rule? 5% market share doesn't "rules" anything.
but, it looks pretty :D
about photoshop, I really doubt there is much difference between PC version and mac version, otherwise, users should have drown adobe with mouth water already.
Click to expand...

After using Windows and Mac versions of Adobe products, I'd say that the Windows versions are lacking precision and others had mentioned this to me in times past. I seriously doubt that Adobe would be sloppy but I'd think that it was a lack of support in the operating system.

Market share is only about new machines sold. It says nothing about the installed base and there is quite an installed base of Macs. I'd wonder about how many Windows machines are actually working 100 % vs. how many were sold even 6 years ago.

When I work on my machines, I don't have to worry that the colour will change from camera to Mac and Photoshop to printer. It looks the way I saw it. I've also had a lot less difficulty getting from one end of the process to the other. On a daily basis, I have minimal to no problems and I could never say that when I used Windows daily--things frequently occurred that caused me to re-do work.
 
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