September 03, 2004 | View Comments (89) | Category: Our Thoughts
Summary: What is your platform and why?
It is been said that if you are a real designer you use a Mac. Well now I finally have confirmation that I am not a real designer ;-) In any case I was sitting here staring at the computer screens (two 21" behemoths) thinking about how cool it would be just to have an Apple LCD (30" preferrably) and since I am going with the LCDs might as well put a G5 under there as well right?
A man can dream. So I figured I might as well ask you what your platform is and if you feel like telling us why it is your choice please do so. I love how Fridays flyby.
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/325
PC's (Mac for testing).
Reason: Compatibility and interoperability with both ERP and client's systems.
We use .Net for the same reason. The code can be reused not only to make websites, but also web-applications and inside office and communication applications.
How mane ERP systems can do PHP?, not to mention how many email programs support PERL? ...or how many spreadsheets support JAVA?
Thomas Baekdal (http://www.baekdal.com)
15" 667MHz PowerBook G4 with roughly 400GB of disk space spread over three drives, 768MB RAM, and an external CRT monitor (flatscreen will come soon enough). This is my fifth Mac since 1987 and my sixth (probably a new 1.6-1.8GHz G4 PowerBook) will be purchased within six months. I've had experience with both Windows and Linux (my primary client uses both) and while I may be biased by familiarity, I much prefer the MacOS. It's powerful without requiring me to be an über-geek, secure without being paranoid, and user-friendly without being condescending. Plus software availability is very good.
Macs (and Apple) aren't perfect, but I find them to be the best fit for my work and my work-outlook.
Tom
I have found Flatscreens are not very good for pixels in terms of graphic design. At least the Dell LCD that I originally got was that way. Unless you have them on the best resolution, fonts look like crap.
That is why I use a Flatscreen CRT.
I have a 3 gig processor, Pentium 4, 20 inch monitor, 1 gig of ram, 240 gb raid 0 harddrive.
It treats me pretty good. I would really like to get a good LCD monitor, maybe two of them, but
a. thats expensive
b. can't afford it :)
Does anyone have some recommendations of a good LCD monitor that doesn't make graphics look like crap at certain resolutions.
Bryan (http://www.juicedthoughts.com)
I meant to say in that first sentence, Flat Screens is meant to be LCD
Bryan (http://www.juicedthoughts.com)
PCs,mainly because Macs in Poland aren't so popular and that's way they are much more expensive than PCs. But I wish I could have a Power Book some days.. Now I'm stick with 15" Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with Pentium-M 1,5GHz and 768MB ram, I love it. The only thing it lacks is wide-screen, or only 1400x1050 screen.
Bart (http://www.grzybu.webd.pl)
both, I suppose. I do most of my stuff on my PC, because it's much faster and has a much bigger monitor, but I have a white ibook for testing stuff on macs and for web surfing and general airport goodness.
If I had to choose just one, I'd cheat and get the fastest G5 I could, and use VirtualPC for windows stuff.
Or just do like I am now.
All sniping and spin aside, it's hard to beat the price:performance ratio of a PC... for 400-500 bucks you can get a computer that's more than fast enough to do just about anything but print quality graphic design.
But Apple wins on laptops, hands down. Comparable price, comparable power, significant improvements in terms of convenience. We have a dell mobile workstation, a high power machine, but i prefer my ibook any day. I close the lid, it sleeps, instantly, no fuss. I open the lid, I'm back working as if I'd never left, no wait. The dell... well, frustrating is the best word for it. It's fast, but it's also a bit clunky to work with, and that sleep thing just annoys the heck out of me.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Bryan -
As I understand it, LCD monitors are optimized for a specific resolution. Anything else won't look right.
A good quality LCD is *almost* as good as a good quality CRT for color matching and precision and so on... but they're just not there yet (or so I'm told by some of my print designer acquaintances)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Right now at work I am using a 20" flatscreen and a 1.8 dual G5. I confess that I use a PC quite a bit and have one I baby at home. honestly, I don't find much difference between the two as far as performance goes. All the software I need is available on both platforms and seems to run just as well.
The mac has a lot of nice little touches though. I especially dig this keyboard. The mouse has to go. Glad my new Intuos just got in. I don't understand why mac doesn't make a dual button, scroll wheel mouse for people to choose if they want it. Let the newbies keep the single and give an option for the other. And it would match too. :)
The only thing I don't like about the mac is that applications can get annoying with all the other windows showing up in the background. On a PC you have your nice grey work area in the background with the file window floating above it, but within the app. Not so on a mac. All the menus and such are just floating there over the desktop and whatever else you have open. I find myself accidentally defocusing the program quite a bit.
On the upside, Macs are easier to maintain in a work environment because there are fewer updates. But even my G5 crashes for random reasons. Not the whole os. Just photoshop or indesign will just die on me if I click a bit too fast. Its like it confuses it and it just gives up.
Sigler
Mac Powerbook. Powermac dual 1ghz G4 with 17' and 20' LCDs as backup.
I use a Mac a my primary machine because:
1. It just works. All the time.
2. 'Nix underneath. Good for working in an environment close to the 'Nix servers that the web apps I build will be deployed to.
3. Cool apps tend to come out first for the Mac.
Daniel Von Fange
Mac OS X 10.3 Panther - Beautiful and simple to use. Recently switched and couldn't be happier. The only thing that sucks is saving up to get a G5.
jheyer (http://www.jheyer.com)
Mac. 15" Aluminum PB, MDD Dual 1Ghz G4
I am one of those people where using a Mac, at least to me, just clicks. Ever since my switch some 3 years ago, using computers is so much more comfortable than it was before. The Mac seems to work with me, not against.
At the same time, I realize that their are people who feel exactly the same about Windows, which is why it always good to have consumer choice. Different strokes for different folks...
Brad Daily (http://www.bradleyboy.com)
Mac all the way, 12 inch powerbook and a new iMac on the way.
Of course I got an old PC behind me to test out webpages on, and play games on.
Aaron Egaas (http://www.aaronegaas.com)
Though I'm in love with my iBook,. I still have to maintain a PC alongside.
Yes the Mac is superior, but for lack of software availability for the mac is a drag .
Wim (http://pixelpret.nl)
I use a Mac All the way. I have a 17" PowerBook and the screen looks mighty fine for design work... I have an old Peecee running Windows XP pro, and i just use remote desktop to check my work on IE...thats all the time I spend on Windows.
I really love Mac OSX and never looked back after my switch.
Brian Fox (http://www.californiafox.com)
Being a gamer, I spent about $2,300 on a PC last year and don't regret it one bit. Games like Doom 3 make my day and I can't wait for Half-Life 2 and others coming out this fall/winter.
That said, I'm a Mac guy through and through. The only function my PC serves is gaming and IRC (mIRC is superior to anything I've found for OS X). With those exceptions, I hardly ever look at it.
My PowerBook 15" 1.25GHz is almost a year old and still running quite well. I switched on a whim during my Junior year of high school about three years ago.
I'm a strong proponent of "a place for everything and everything in its place". Computers are no different. Macs win for ease of use and their excellent user interface, not to mention the wonderful bonuses that come with owning a Mac. PCs are great for gaming and certain PC-only software applications.
Brian Rose (http://www.heimidal.net)
Another vote for the Mac. I have a 14" iBook G4 (so I can run Virtual PC and work from anywhere in the house), a 1.8Ghz G5 with two 17" Apple LCDs and a dual 1.25Ghz G4 at work (also with two 17" LCDs although one of them is a piece of shit NEC LCD--its contrast is horrible).
Now to the why. To me a Windows PC is like an overcrowded, dingy metropolis--you can get anything you need at any hour of the night but you have to contend with drunkards and crime and car alarms and crime and traffic jams and crime. But a Mac is like a tight-knit suburban community where the restaurants and supermarkets close at 9 but people take pride in their neighborhood and are responsible about its upkeep. I think its the perceived better "quality of life" that wins me over.
Whoa, this makes it sound like I want to move back to the suburbs!
Shaun Inman (http://www.shauninman.com/)
Let's see:
-PowerMac Dual 2GHz, attached to a worn out old Viewsonic 17" LCD. Saving up for a new 23" LCD.
-Powerbook 15" Titanium... getting old, but works for wandering around the house
-A PC gathering dust under the desk. Dual boot XP and FreeBSD. Basically a tester.
I've found Windows is not terrible, so long as I leave it as stock as possible. When i start adding lots of programs and things, it starts giving me grief.
I love my Macs, but of course they aren't perfect. I just don't have catastrophic problems with them. I also love the way the OS looks. And antialiased text all around is lovely (yes, I know you can do it in Windows as well, but ClearType can go... ahem...)
gb (http://gregorybowers.com)
Macs.
One Dual 2GH G5 (with 20" Cinema Display) and one 1.5GHz PowerBook G4. Virtual PC works wonders and avoids the pain of an ugly beige Windows box hogging space better used by an iPod and other Firewire perhipherals.
Scott Boms (http://www.wishingline.com/blog/)
iBook G3 (the purty white ones, not the clamshell iBooks).
Why? Because even though the OS X UI design team isn't perfect, they've done an infinitely better job at designing an easy to use OS than Microsoft's... I've surprised more than one Windows user who was so used to an unintuitive interface that they were surprised by how stupidly simple it is to do something in OS X. It looks like Microsoft told 1000 designers to go design a UI, then some bass-ackward executive chose what he deemed the best parts of each and crammed it into one messy interface. The Mac interface looks like 2–3 people sat at a desk working collaboratively on it until they got it almost perfect.
Compatibility isn't a problem for me – I've never had a problem with Word documents, I bring in my iBook for PowerPoint presentations, and I don't play computer games at all. Everything's good here!
Sage
12" Powerbook 1ghz, 768mb of ram.
Dual 1.8ghz G5.
My wife has a 1ghz iBook.
We both have iPods.
I spend a ton of money on Apple stuff, and it's worth every penny. :)
I switched about 6mo ago and have never enjoyed computing more. At work I have a 3ghz P4 Dell with 2gigs of ram, which is quite fast and nice, but it doesn't have the ease-of-use, and underlying power of the Mac. Honestly if it weren't for OSX I probably wouldn't care about Macs. Without the OS they are just pretty boxes. Which is nice, but not enough to pay for the price difference. OSX on the other hand, makes it all worth it. I'm constantly hitting imaginary buttons when working on the PC, trying to find the button for Expose', etc.
I'm occasionally jealous of my friend's top-notch PC though, just because I want to play the latest games. And on the Mac you have to wait 6 months before you can get them.
There are also tons of really useful little apps on the Mac that never get made on the PC. In my experience, Mac software is of much higher quality than on Windows. And I'm referring to the "little apps", not Photoshop and Dreamweaver, which are identical anyway.
Derek Rose (http://www.twotallsocks.com/)
I like Macs. The interface makes it easier to get by the urge not to do any work. It does things the way I expect. It "just works".
I use PCs when I must. I use PCs for playing the latest games and for testing. I do my work on a Mac.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
I love Macs, but I offically hate everyone who owns one, because it's been on my list of things I don't need to buy, but really feel that I should for a long time.
My setup is typical psudeo-cool nerd.
- Case: Antec Super LANBoy
- Mobo: Soyo KT-400 Black Dragon (plat)
- CPU: AMD 2500+
- Graphics: ATI Radeon 9600XT
- Memory: 1GB Corsair DDR400
- Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 11+
- Storage: 2 160GB Western Digital
- Optical: 4X DVD R+/-RW
That's all the important parts. I've been wanting to watercool it for a while now, but it runs cool enough as it is. I just overkill a good idea sometimes.
As far as operating systems, I am ashamed to say that more often times than not I find myself using Windows XP. Although when I need to do some power using (suspicious grin), I load up Gentoo.
Ryan Latham (http://www.unmatchedstyle.com)
Mac -- it's the closest I can get to a Unix server set-up, which makes web app development much easier -- PHP, Ruby, Python, MySQL, SQLite, PgSQL all happy on one machine.
And my G4/1Ghz/1.5RAM is still plenty fast.
Justin French (http://justinfrench.com)
I prefer Macs. OS X is so delightful to work in. Their notebooks are second to none, for sure. Apple's speed has been much improved since the G5, and although pricier you get a darn nice package. I can't wait for the PowerBook G5, *wipes saliva off chin*, to come.
Mike (http://gs.designbymk.com)
There is only one thing I can say to all the Mac owners out there who feel the need to rub it in the faces of us PC users...stupid faces.
At least we got better games, although we don't have good enough drivers and hardware to run them.
Ryan Latham (http://www.unmatchedstyle.com)
PC with Windows. Why?
I like to game.
Simple as that.
However, if I could I would run Linux 24/7. Gaming just gets in the way. I do plan to eventually have a Linux box and a Windows box. Linux to work on and Windows to game on.
Rick Yribe (http://anythingapplies.com)
15" Aluminum Powerbook, 1.25 GHz, 768mb Ram
Apple 20" LCD as second monitor when not on the go.
Apple Bluetooth Mouse / Keyboard.
Quicksilver 800MHz G4, 1gb Ram, Apple 17" LCD
Virtual PC on both machines to test web projects. Runs at an acceptable speed with 768
Randy J. Hunt (http://www.randyjhunt.com)
17" Aluminum Powerbook, 1.5GHz, 1.5gig RAM, no additional monitor. Apple Bluetooth mouse, standard USB keyboard, iCurve for desktop work.
I also have a 1.8Ghz desktop I built a couple years ago, with a flatscreen 15" CRT, that isn't much good for graphic work but indispensible for PC web testing on my intranet.
I'd love a 30" monitor someday, but I've found the 17" powerbook screen more than adequate for most of my graphic work. 1440x900 isn't bad, really, for a laptop screen.
Eric (http://www.arkitrave.com/log)
It seems you could break this age-old argument into two different parts: OSX vs. Windows or Mac vs. Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Gateway, HP, etc.
Macs and OSX win both competitions, naturally. But Sony comes pretty close in the hardware department. I use all of the above daily, but my 17 inch Powerbook is indispensable.
Fords are the most popular vehicle sold in the US, but I'd much rather drive a more expensive BMW. It's about the performance, not the price. Blah blah blah.
Geoffrey (http://www.lookatlao.com)
Another proud Mac user.
I have three main systems I use, each serving a specific purpose:
My main (home) workstation is a Quicksilver G4/733 MHz, with 1.5 GB of RAM, a 240 GB RAID Level 0+1 Array, DVD+/-RW SuperDive, and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro 128 MB pushing Dual 17" Apple Cinema LCD Displays.
For testing my sites on Windows, I built an AMD-based Shuttle SN41G2 mini-PC and access thru Microsoft's Remote Desktop, or switch to it thru my Belkin SoHO KVM if I need to work out some browser bugs. It's set up to dual boot Red Hat Linux and Windows XP, running multiple versions of Internet Explorer.
For traveling, and working on-the-go, an aluminum 15" Apple PowerBook does eveything I need and more.
I've been a Mac user almost all of my life, and I can't imagine working on any other platform. At work (my day job as a Systems Admin) I am stuck using a Dell machine running Windows, and find myself nearly counting down the time until I can get home, power on my Mac, and crank my creativity up.
I help to manage a large number of workstations (Macs, PCs, and Linux boxes) and even though I am quite proficient in Windows, it just seems to take too much work and “babysitting” fighting off viruses, trojans and other malware, while OS X Just Works™
Apple has spent millions of dollars investing in their intuitive UI, and it shows in every way. OS X is just far easier to use and lets me do my work faster and more creatively than on any other platform.
Ryan J. Bonnell (http://www.ryanjbonnell.com/)
I had to use a Mac once a long time ago for a couple days, and I hated it. I just could not find a way to close the stupid windows (they just kept folding up into narrow horizontal bars), and all the applications used the same menu bar at the top - the menu should be attached to the application window! Otherwise you accidentally click on the wrong window without realizing it, go to the menu, and then you're surprised when you can't find the menu options you wanted. I'm perfectly happy with PCs.
And lately, I've had to do some work on unix machines, and let me tell you, I had forgotten how user-unfriendly it was. Cryptic names left over from when you needed to keep the number of characters down, and confusing sets of command-line options and such... I'm fine with using a command-line, just name things reasonably, so I know what's going on.
Jennifer Grucza (http://jennifergrucza.com)
I use PCs, for no reason other than I can't afford a Mac.
I also use windows, only because BeOS is dead and I need a better connection to download my favourite Linux distro.
The Wolf (http://www.pixelcarnage.com)
Macs, both at work and at home. They just work better for me. And the web looks so much prettier :-)
Mac OS X is great for testing as well. Install Virtual PC, and you can check your stuff in just about every browser ever released, be it for Mac OS 9, X, Win95, XP or Linux.
Roger Johansson (http://www.456bereastreet.com)
i'll have a mac as soon as i drop the student tag and have a job/money. for the moment though i have a pc.
t (http://www.roseability.com/)
Old school stuff.
I have a pair of 2Ghz P4s with 1GB of RAM each. One for graphics, one for code. Both run through a KVM to an aging 19" Sony 400PS CRT (still beautiful though after 7 years).
I wouldn't mind having a Mac, and I would probably buy one if I could exchange about $10,000 worth of Windows software for Mac versions (if they all existed, like 3D Studio Max for example).
Ian Firth (http://www.divsoft.com)
Both. :)
My home PC is Athlon-powered with brand new LG 17" TFT. Lovely machine to use, waiting for one free weekend to be overclocked to hell.
I also regularly use office iBook G4, but mainly for checking things out, not for any real development.
Aleksandar (http://www.aplus.co.yu/)
Mac, 17" PowerBook, would have gotten a 15" but they were still Titanium at the time. A G4 AGP upgraded to 400 Mhz with a 17" Apple CRT (got from work and upgraded to 1.4 Ghz). I get a easy to use appealing OS, that just works, but I can tweak under the hood if I want to. I have a really close system almost right out of the box to my servers, but with Photoshop. For the most part I have consoles for games. I do support/enjoy Blizzard's games that are in the retail box windows/mac.
Caleb Jaffa (http://porteighty.com)
Come on, Jennifer...the menu bar at the top of the screen means you always know where it is...much better UI.
As far as closing windows, well, I guess you just have to get used to it.
There are definately some things I hate about OS X, which I will have to rant about sometime, that Windows has let us do for years (how about moving and changing files in a save dialog box, people?).
But things like closing windows...you just have to get used to a different, but equally valid way of doing things.
Eric (http://www.arkitrave.com/log)
I use both now, but I always used PCs up until almost 3 years ago when I bought a Titanium 550Mhz (I am still using it right now).
I got the Mac thinking it would be cool to have a Unix based laptop for class (CSI Major...) and it certainly was. Before OS X, I would not even remotly consider a Mac.
At first I hated iTunes becuase I was so used to Winamp... but once I really started using it ... man it put Winamp to shame. Then I just started using my laptop for everything except gaming.
I have a 2.6HT P4 1GB RAM Radeon 9800Pro setup for gaming. (ASUS P4P800 Deluxe Motherboard, I recommend it). For nearly 10 years I have been building my own PCs. It is always a headache to get everything running optimally. So having a computer that just worked out of the box was a great change of pace.)
I will still have a PC around for the foreseeable future for gaming, but I am planning on buying a dual 2GHz G5 soon.
Something I like about Mac applications. Generally, they have much less cluttered UIs and I like that. I like apps that do what they do well and stay out of the way.
Sure iChat does not have as many features as the AIM client, or Trillian on Windows, but it is such an unobtrusive chat client I hardly notice it.
Ah well, my $00.02
Jason Gleman
Funny how no-one mentions if they're a designer or not.
I'm here working on a win-laptop, wish I had a mac, mainly coding for the web, wishing I could design.
Then again, I won't instantly become a designer if I ever get a mac. (or is there something I need to know about the mac club?)
AkaXakA (http://akaxaka.gameover.com)
15" PowerBook G4 (first generation) 1Ghz.
Love due to the portability and simpilicity. Plus all my classes at school are Mac based (G5s) ;-)
Ian McFarlan (http://www.mcfarlan.ca)
PC because of Visual Studio .NET. Mac or Linux don't have an IDE between them that comes close. Photoshop works on PC as does Fireworks.
Paul Watson (http://stormfront.typepad.com)
Home: Dual 2GHz G5 w/ 17" CRT (want to upgrade to LCD, but on a budget)
Work: 2.4GHz P4 w/ 17" CRT
David
2.4ghz home built P4 with a 17" CRT for now ( getting a 22" soon) and a 12" G4 Powerbook.
Bryan (http://blog.mrpunkin.com)
19" LCD with a P4 2.6 and a GB of RAM. Also a 1.33 GHz G4 12" PowerBook.
I've got both systems on my desk, the PowerBook nicely displayed by an iCurve. If I'm going to be working on the Mac for an extended period I can use it along with LCD for dual displays. I like the iCurve a lot, definitely recommended.
Brian Behrend (http://www.brianbehrend.com/blog/)
15" 1Ghz Powerbook with 512mb ram (plan on expanding that).
I can only say that after using PCs for 8-9 years, Mac is just an all-around kickass experience.
Everything looks better too, the screens are really top notch, even on small laptops.
BUT
If you're going to invest in a huge LCD screen, here's a little hint: Unless you're ultra keen on the mac screen, you can get similar products (some with more functionality) for 2/3's of the price.
And the most interesting thing is: ITS THE SAME SCREEN! All the big screens use the same LG panel :D Here's the model names, i'm too tired to look them up now for direct links:
Apple 23” Cinema Display
HP2335
Philips 230W5
BenQ FP231W
Brian Andersen (http://www.brian-andersen.dk)
PC: 18" LCD, P4 2.66Ghz, 1Gb RAM.
Powerbook: 15", G4 1.33Ghz, 1.25Gb RAM
Right now, I'm mainly using the PC, but that's cause I just recently got the Powerbook. For about a month, I'll be using that as my main system (I'll be staying with my girlfriend for about a month and don't want to bring over my PC with 5.1 speakers and LCD, lol).
But yeah.. Mac testing and all that. Also the fact that the aluminum case looks cooler than most other laptops I saw was a nice bonus (I wanted a laptop for it's portability, so that's one of the reasons I didn't get a PowerMac G5).
I don't think I do enough CPU intensive stuff that would warrant a PowerMac, but it would be nice to have if I had a couple extra kidneys to donate (preferably not MY kidneys).
chris rhee (http://onlinefame.com/)
I use a Mac because I find I can't be as productive with Windows. It's the little things that count. That, and not having to reinstall the system every few months. As they say, "It just works."
I have an aging Summer 2001 iMac. It does the job. I'm waiting for the G5 to get into a laptop before I get a new computer.
Andrew Dunning (http://www.webinspiration.ca/)
Absolutely Mac. A PowerMac G3 350 with a 15' LCD, they work perfect!
Fabio Ghidini (http://www.fabioghidini.it)
I have been a mac user for a little over a year now and love it there is no turning back for me. For years I was fiercely on the PeeCee side of things. However after design school I started to move the other way. Once I was in my job where I was not allowed a Mac, I started to want one badly. Finally I talked them into getting me a Mac (took over a year!) and I LOVE it! I have a 1ghz TiBook with a 22 inch Flat CRT screen. Still drooling over thoese 23 inch Cinema Displays, but that is not in my near future… at least yet. I still have a PC at home and at work but the PC at work only gets used for testing and the PC at home is used by my wife till we can afford to get her a Mac.
Brent
Mac user since using Apple Classics in School. Running a Dual 867Mhz G4 w/ 512Mb RAM and a 17' LCD at home, and G3 ibook 800Mhz for on the road, doing my own thing.
But since January have been using a Dell Box with Windows XP for work 5 days a week.
As a designer, i notice little difference in the running of your major design applications between platforms. Adobe and Macromedia have done such a wonderful job on their product interfaces that working on either platform is just as easy. Although in many ways i tend to work on the PC as the alt key allows me to work much quicker using shortcuts than I am able to on my mac.
But that being said, i would much rather work in everything else on my mac. OS X is not only beatiful, but so intuitive i couldn't imagine using anything else. And the smaller apps on mac are far superior.
Jordan (http://www.jordesign.com)
Definitely and without a doubt, Mac all the way. I had a Dell laptop which I traded an old Compaq for a few years ago and it doesn't compare. My first, and current, Mac is my trusty 15" PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz. It has made computing fun once again.
Why do I like it so much? I develop with PHP/MySQL and having Apache built right into the OS is just marvelous! I love it's UNIX underpinnings and with only 512MB (hopefully 2GB one day) of RAM it's able to run Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and everything else in my dock with no problem.
I use the family PC just to see how IE has raped my work.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
I completely forgot about font rendering. Apple uses subpixel-antialiasing for text whereas ClearType doesn't (someone else mentioned ClearType sucks, plus I think it's only installed when you put windows on a laptop). Need proof? Check out what my site looks like in Safari vs. IE6/Win...not to mention Safari is the only browser handling text-shadow. Apparently it also handles ICC color profiles!
PC's have their plusses — gaming — but since I don't do much of that, except Myst which usually comes out at the same time and looks better on Macs, I don't have much of a need for them.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
"(someone else mentioned ClearType sucks, plus I think it's only installed when you put windows on a laptop)."
Not true. I can turn ClearType on just by right-clicking the desktop, going to "Properties", and playing with a few menu options. This is not on a laptop either.
As for my personal preference, I like both about equally though I'm more fluent with PCs. Just more exposure to Windows in general than MacOS, but I'd love to have a Powerbook or a G5 here in addition to my PC :).
Vinnie Garcia (http://blog.vinniegarcia.com/)
I work on both platforms but Mac is my favorite. Ok there are more apps on PC but most of them are crap, so who cares as long as all good ones are on Mac and they are! Regarding the issue that Macs are more expensive you have to use an A brand to compare with Apple because Apple is an A brand. To put things in perspective read this article that compare prices to match the features.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/36120.html
Veerle Pieters (http://veerle.duoh.com)
purely for cost (and the ococasional gaming session) i use a pc, but wished xp looked as sexy as the macos does
david arthur (http://www.justride.co.uk)
I am a designer/part-time coder and e-business solutions-studio owner (whatever that means).
I own a 17" Aluminum Powerbook, 1.3GHz, 1 GB RAM commandeering on top of an iCurve pedestal the following goodies:
- Apple Cinema HD Display 23"
- Bluetooth Mouse / Keyboard.
- LaCie 200 and 250 MB External Drives
- ShuttlePro
- Harman/Kardon SoundSticks
- Epson Stylus Photo 2100
... oh yeah, I also got a state-of-the-art PC laptop I will not even bother to mention. Why?
PC are anti-human
While my Mac purrs at any of my commands, my PC running Windows XP gives me only but trouble: Viruses, hideous pop-ups, cryptic messages, file corruption, slow file searching, noisy fans, weak batteries and endless tech maintenance that has nothing to do with what I am trying to accomplish.
I got more than a decade struggling with the Windows environment and half of that enjoying EVERY moment of the Mac OSX experience.
THERE IS NO COMPARISON
Any advantages of a PC (yes, some web sites seem not to follow Web standards and go for ugly IE compliance, and yes, flash cutsy intros do animate slightly faster) are completely over-passed by the ease of use and simply beautiful mechanics of the hardware/software symbiotic synchronization of a Macintosh machine. Close architecture? So what! I love how installing software, upgrading OS or adding some new peripheral takes a fraction of the clicks, warning-reading, stress and decision-making a PC demands out me. I just want to design, not fight the stupid box.
Final recommendation: DO invest on a large screen (if you can afford it of course), even if it costs the same price of a new machine. It will improve your working (and non-working) experience a hundred more times than a few more Megs in your Ram or a few more Herzs in your CPU. Trust me. It is another world (one in which you can fully immerse).
David Gómez Rosado (http://www.lobemultimedia.com)
I am and always will be a PC girl. I've used Macs, I like Macs, I don't even hate Macs. But until the hardware for Macs is as interchangable and customizable as it is for PCs and the price drops a bit, I'll be using PCs. I'm a tinkerer - I need to be able to open up my computer and play with the guts when I want to.
I would definitely not be opposed to owning an ibook or powerbook though - IF i could afford one.
geeky (http://www.simplygeeky.com)
Everybody knows that designing your site on a mac increases your site's boring quotient by at least 15%!
XP user here, but I'm not a real designer. Id consider switching to mac if TopStyle was ever ported to it ;)
On a serious note, I've used macs and like macs too.
John Serris (http://phonophunk.phreakin.com/)
I was a Mac girl as a kid (first CD-ROM on the block, baby!), before which I was a Commodore 64 kid (ha!!). But when I started university I dragged a long my cousin's old PC so as not to rob the family of the family Mac... and became very used to using the PC. I only started designing in my self-induced post-Mac world, so when it came time to upgrade I bought a PC, mainly for financial reasons (repeat: I am a student! I have no money!). Macs are still much more beautiful though, but I'm not sure I choose my operating system based on aesthetics.
I've been known to keep pictures of iMacs cut out from magazines in my sketchbooks. My profs say "What exactly does this have to do with lithography?"
Liz (http://hiptobeasquare.com)
PC.
For several reasons.
#1 I can build a PC from store-bought parts. Much cheaper than an over-priced mac.
#2 I can do EVERY task from the keyboard. With mac keyboard shortcuts support is limited. (No similar function for ALT key).
#3 All my crew generally would think me a faggot for using a mac...
Cheers.
PS A machine doesn't make a better designer...
Almustafa El-Said
If you're trying to use ClearType on a PC with an LCD, you're fine... but if you want to use it with a CRT, it needs a little help to avoid being too blurry. Article on ForeverGeek explains.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
OK Apparently I was wrong about clear type. I remember it being an option on my latop when you right click on the desktop, and it's not that way on my desktop. I forgot, however that it's under the effects menu on the appearance tab of the display control panel. It's pretty useless on a CRT anyway and all it appears to do on that system was put an outer shadow on the text. On my old laptop it changed the colors of the text itself in a craptastic fashion.
@geeky:
Ummm, many parts of the mac ARE interchangeable with 'PC' components. The only things you really can't change are the CPU and motherboard (and daughterboards if they exist), which is basically the sytem itself, just as it it with PCs. Other than that you can switch RAM, HDs, videocards, soundcards, etc. The only thing is that whatever Mac OS you're running has to be compatible with the cards, which it usually is if it's new. So tinker away.
I'm not sure why it's such a big deal for college students to afford a mac. I have NO money, and yet I have a PowerBook. Granted I get paid to go to school, and I have NO money :)
@Almustafa:
This isn't meant to be insulting....so I apologize if it seems that way.
1. How much does a PC laptop cost that has FW400 & 800 (full size ports), 2 USB 2.0 ports, DVI (full size port), S-Video, 64MB ATI Radeon 9600, RJ-11, RJ-45 (gigabit), and PCMCIA? Short answer: it doesn't exist. How about one that has all of that, is 1.1" thin, and is made of an aluminum case so hard that when it hits a metal table instead of denting it takes the paint off the table? Wait, maybe you're building it yourself.
2. There's pretty much an equivalent for every windows shortcut. I knew them all when I had windows, now I'm still learning all of the ones for the mac, and it's easy to find a list of all the ones for OS X in it's help menu. Also, Having 4 keys (Shift, alt/option, ctrl, and command) + a letter designation means that OS X has more keys to assign commands to.
3. That's a stupid reason for anything. If you're afraid of being thought of as a faggot by people who know you that's stupid. Plus the Mac is sexy. Women are sexy. Coincidence? I think not.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
Oh, I quite forgot, if you do happen to find a PC laptop fitting that criterion does it have a DVD R-R/W? That should about do it.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
Bluetooth, 802.11g....the list keeps going on, but I'll stop now.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
I use P4 2.8Ghz with 1GB low latency paired RAM, 19" Flat CRT. Love it and couldn't be happier.
Have a G4 I use for testing sites in Safari and IE on Mac. OSX Panther 10.3.
To me the Mac OS just has too many things I don't like about it. Windows is so much more straight forward and easy to find all your applications and documents. Plus the Mac crashes and locks up for no reason at all, whereas my PC has been running for about 3 months straight with not a single lock up or program crash.
Each to their own I guess. I just find windows more intuitive and you can do anything you want. Mac OS too limited and has stupid permissions problems.
Jason Berry
Wow, PS must be digging for content if he's bringing up Mac v PC... wasn't that dropped among web geeks years ago? Maybe just by Mac users who once felt they had to defend themselves since they don't back "the popular choice." FWIW, I've worked with both, owned both, and choose Mac. And if you think you "can't afford a Mac" then you're really not reading very deeply into the specs. A used Mac is often more powerful than a new, bargain PC. If you truly want one, it can happen. I see "poor students" everyday with them.
You however, can choose what you wish. Don't worry about anybody else.
~bc (http://recently.rainweb.net)
Another vote from a PC tinkerer here. Been building my own for 8 years or so now. Just built my latest one to replace what I left behind in NZ before coming to the UK. £600 for AMD64 2800, half gig RAM, 17" Flatscreen, 80gig HD, 9800Pro gfx card, 8x Dual Layer DVD+/- R/RW etc...
Not bad for the price of two iPods...
I use a Mac at work, dual 1gig G4 with a gig of RAM. It's alright I guess, but I feel the OS X gui is too restrictive. Sure, I could do it all with the CLI, but that's the point of the GUI right?
I find the dock annoying, and it's not like I'm a newbie, I've been using it since 10.1...
Kent
My current production setup is a Dell Dimension 8200, p4 2ghz, 512mb ram, 150gb of hd space on 3 drives, with a matrox g400 driving 2 17" viewsonic g90fb monitors (crt).
I also have a Dell Inspiron 3800 laptop, p3 500 with 512mb ram and a 16gb hd. It is getting old and I am hoping to soon upgrade to a 15" Powerbook.
I also have a G4 iMac running 10.3.5 for testing and DVD burning, as well as a machine running XP SP2.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
I use PCs both at home and at work. I would love to get my hands on a Mac tho. But I don't hate PCs. I'm not religious with my hardware. ;-)
Lea (http://xox.lealea.net/01/)
Clay,
Really dude, you must not know the gaming/hacking community - the real core of the internet community - they would ream you raw(verbally) if you use a mac, no joke!
Plus, its just a matter of fact - you can build, cheaper, a PC machine than a store bought mac...I can find all those parts you mentioned at a hardware store or online and install them myself.
Plus on a mac there is no "ALT" equivalent to open program menus through the keyboard.
Almustafa El-Said
Dual Quicksilver G4 1ghz Mac, 2gig of Ram -- I was a PC user until about 96' or so, when I started to get aggressively into Print Design. I've tested on some pretty massively jacked up PC's, but I've always found my Mac to be more stable working on larger graphic files -- it renders cleaner, and more efficiently. I know as web designers, we don't tend to use files as large as print, but when you've got a 1gig photoshop file with over 30+ layers, you learn to love your mac... now more especially with multi-tasking features in OS X. I also find it easier to control my color spaces, profile my printed output... and to say the least, it hasn't crashed on me in three years. For web, this setup is overkill -- but I can use BBEdit or skEdit, coupled with all my design software, and I've got a killer web setup.
While I think that Apple masqurades as a hardware company, when it's really a software company -- I will keep using a Mac even though I agree it's hardware is overpriced, it's software and OS is the most stable I've ever needed for a workhorse machine. But you get what you pay for -- and when I had a PC I was working out the kinks a lot while creating large graphic files... I don't have to do much at all now but run system optimizer on occassion or update the OS.
Besides, I never enjoyed staring at my computer screen so much as when I'm on a Mac:)
Brady J. Frey (http://www.dotfive.com)
Mac. Switched about 2 months ago and suddenly my productivity has soared, my patience and tolerance has improved immeasurably, and I'm now altogether a much nicer person to know. Everything now just works. I love it!
1.8 dual G5 and 14" 1.2 iBook. Couldn't resist...
Dave Foy
I just built a new PC (my first):
P4 2.8 GHz
512 Mb DDR400
nVidia GeForce MX4000 128 Mb DDR
dual Hitachi 80 Gb 7200rpm SATA HDDs
I'm in the process of a stage 1 Gentoo Linux install. No Windows for me!
At school we have iMacs, and while I hated Macs pre-OS X, I love them now. (Maybe the school will give me a copy to use in PearPC!)
Brandon Walsh (http://www.radioactiverabbit.com)
Yes.
I use a PC at work, but at home I have 3 machines. 1 15" Powerbook, 1 Windows Desktop with a 19" really nice CRT, 1 Linux Desktop/Server connected to a KVM switch. The other ports of the KVM switch is for when people need things fixed.
jake (http://recently.rainweb.net)
Almustafa El-Said,
First of all, I do know the gamer/hacker community as a lot of people I know are into that stuff. I used to read a lot of the information on their sites,etc. However, they are not the real core of the internet community and my buying a mac and talking about how great it is has never been a problem with ANY of those people.
Secondly, I never said you couldn't find those components for a PC so that you can build it. I said where are you going to find a laptop that has it all crammed in — or do you consider a lan-party setup with a backpack harness and a car battery a laptop? Remember, I have a PowerBook, not a PowerMac.
Thirdly, on the mac keyboard there is an alt equilavent, however the fact that it doesn't open menus is a software limitation, not a hardware limitation. In other words, if Apple decides to add that to 10.3.6 we could have it by tomorrow. At any rate, in most programs the most often used menu items have direct shortcuts so you don't even need to bother with menus at all. I really don't have a problem looking through a menu. It's much faster to click on the menu item and select what you're looking for then hitting alt, moving over three menus, and then going down five lines — granted the closer the item is to the top the easier it is to use the keyboard instead of the mouse.
I'm not trying to say that you should prefer mac over PC. The PC has its good points but just because you can get it cheaper doesn't mean it's better. With computers you usually get what you pay for. You may not like OS X — I do. It's made me more productive than Windows XP ever did.
I'm not sure how many of you find the OS restrictive but you're entitled to your opinion. I also don't understand how permissions can be screwed up since you can just go to terminal and 'chmod' whatever file you like. It's not like permissions are very nicely implemented in XP Home! Last but not least, my PowerBook hasn't been shut off in months and it hasn't crashed.
To each his own. To me, Apple.
Joe Clay (http://www.gra-phix.com/)
Restrictive? I never feel that way -- you guys really use alt menus anyways? I always use shortcut keys for just about everything myself.
Brady J. Frey (http://www.dotfive.com)
What: ASUS A2 notebook (PC)
Why: Macs are way over my budget and almost nobody uses them in Europe (compatibility issues). I wouldn't protest a bit to own one though.
dusoft (http://www.ambience.sk/)
I've got a home built Athlon 2200+ with 512 mb of RAM and dual samsung 172N LCDs... (17 inchers, thin frames). Mmmmm. Looks like a good sized plasma screen from across the room.
richard (http://zerophase.net)
Well, I am no designer- I am more of a "she geek".
Here is my current home collection:
* A Dual G4 450 Mac, with 512 MB RAM running OSX 10.3.5.
* An AMD Duron 1.3Ghz PC, with 256 MB RAM running Gentoo Linux.
* An old PII 300Mhz Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop, with 128 MB RAM, running Linux SuSe Pro 9.1 (but as it is a test machine, that can change any day).
* A *really* old SGI O2 workstation, running Irix.
I am also planning to add soon my Mom's old P166 running Debian Linux, to use as a small home server to pull email from my POP accounts and dump in into an IMAP account (after spam filtering), running a little wikiw for note taking in my hone network, a center place for my bookmarks etc.
If you noticed, there is no Windows box in sight :-)
I never actaully planned to have a "non-Win shop", it just worked out that way over the years, and I am very happy from the way this came out to be.
Shoshannah (http://www.xslf.com)
I'm baffled at all these people talking about how they use a PC because it has games. I thought we were all designers here. *lol*
I'm typing this right now on my iBook. It's tough as a tank and could take more, and i couldn't be happier with it. The amount of work that I get done on a mac as compared to a PC is insane. I'll get a website put up in two weeks on a mac, whereas on a PC, half the time it'll end up being an unfinished project. I use a mac because it's intuitive, it works the way I do
and there's no tweeking! oh joy! Everything's perfect, simply put.
Eric Draht (http://www.livejournal.com/users/erictron/)
Used pcs for 11 years prior to november 2003 - converted to mac - impulse buy
bought my first mac, 12 inch ibook g4 800mhz, 640mb ram
since then, i primary dev my website on a dual 1.8ghz G5 with dual 250gb sata hard drives and 2gb ram. Monitors lack quite a bit - 1 17inch dell crt and 1 15 inch generic crt.
also run Virtual PC now with windows xp on it to test in IE 6, but primary dev for FireFox (hopeing the world will change soon)
anyways, first post. nice site
-Mario
Mario
At work, p4-2ghz Dell with 2 19" Monitors.
At home and on the road, 17" Powerbook G4.
I just got the powerbook. Used to have a 15" Dell Inspiron 3800, but upgraded to the powerbook.
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
OSX rocks for both usability and geekability with Unix under the hood.
I moved to Mac as the initial tsunami of web design ebbed a bit and the steady tides of print carried the day. When the subsequent flood of email virus hell arrived, I moved email to Mac and never looked back. Nothing like letting virus ladden email spam splat like a bug on the windshield. It gets in the way, but is dead on contact.
I don't have anything drastic feelings about Windows. Just isn't what I use anymore. Think Different.
I've never had even one instance of software unavailability for my Macs. Since 99.9% of what I use is design related, there isn't any lack there.
These guys do all the design, web,print,Flash, email, project managment, etc.
-------------------
PowerMac G4 450
PowerMac G4 450 Dual
PowerMac G4 733
PowerMac G4 800 Dual
* All running Panther
These do...accounting and Win brower checking and take little kid abuse.
--------------------
Dell Dimension 450
Dell Dimension 400
* both still running Win98
Now that Intuit has created platform compatibility (supposedly) for Quickbooks, Windows may get religated to browsers only next year.
Cole Schweikhardt (http://www.squidzink.com)
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#1
Two 18" LCD's and a P4 2.6 w/ a gig of ram.
I really wish it was a 17" PowerBook though.
I also wish I could say that my Friday flew by as well. But with a 3 day weekend, it's well worth the wait.
Garrett (http://www.yourtotalsite.com)