If you are in the USA, you have seen the "Hi, I’m a PC… and I’m a Mac" commercials.
Amusing.
You have heard the smug superiority of Mac users.
(I guarantee you are going to hear more in the combox!)
You have heard PC users grouse about the Blue Screen of Death and its dire equivalent in the Macs OS when kernel panic results from something you should have – DARN IT – been able to do.
It wasn’t your fault!
You use your computer for … what?
E-mail only? Gaming? Streaming the Z-Cam? Graphics? Doing your taxes? Getting photos of your grandkids? Writing that novel?
If you are a PC user, you have lots of software options. Fewer on Mac, but better in some spheres.
And now Mac can run PC stuff but not the other way around.
So… which do you use? Mainly… that is.
Let’s leave aside the arcana of alternative operating systems, such as installing Ubuntu on your PC, etc.
We also know that some people use BOTH PC and Mac, for different purposes. In that case… just do your best.
POLL CLOSED
What sort of computer do you use mainly?
- "Hi! I’m a PC…" (69%, 872 Votes)
- "… and I’m a MAC" (29%, 362 Votes)
- Other or none (e.g., phone or handheld only) (2%, 27 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,261
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netbook w/ linux
fight the man
I recently got rid of my computer at home. It was a Powerbook 190 (16 shades of gray). It had a Iomega drive. It worked great. I no longer needed or wanted it. I type all day at work. I make rosaries at home. I keep records in paper ledgers. Ahh, life as a Luddite.
Before the Powerbook I had a Mac SE.
Before that I had a soroban. (ha).
Hi, I’m a Mac.
I use a Mac. Always have.
That said, at work I use a PC. Now, due to IT restrictions, I can’t really ~play~ with my work PC and install all sorts of fun stuff, but I guess I can say I am a knowlegeable user on both platforms. I prefer the MAC.
I did get a new PC at work last year and before any of the usual IT Admin locks were enabled, I ~was~ able to download cool stuff and trick out Windows XP to look and act just like OS X. Har!
As Umberto Eco famously wrote, Macs are Catholic and PCs (well, MS-DOS at the time) are Protestant. I not only believe this, I would go one step further. There are two types of Mac users.
The first are Cradle Mac Users: it is what they have always done; they are less zealous, perhaps even a bit embarrassed by their computer; maybe they don’t even know how to use a PC because a Mac is all they have known; they know it’s better, but they don’t really know why; they are easily confounded by aggressive PC users who challenge them on such tenets as multi-tasking.
The second are the Mac converts: they are zealous and aggressive, more self-assured; they used to use PCs, and proudly so; but then they had a conversion experience, they learned more about Mac, they were slowly drawn to the Apple; they now ferociously refuse to pollute their Macs with Microsoft software; they often evangelize at every turn; they are well-armed with apologetic counter-arguments to challenges about such tenets as multi-tasking.
I am a Cradle Mac user, and proudly so.
Older PC w/ Linux! Free, fast, and reliable – not a single crash.
I do also use a 12″ iBook quite frequently. It’s small and portable.
I’m typing this on an Apple iBook G4 laptop. I used to have dialup Internet access at home, but no more. So I use the wireless access at the library.
I have email, but haven’t looked at it in awhile. So I mainly use my computer for surfing the Net…and reading blogs like WDTPRS!
If I have to do something that requires printing, I go to the computers in the library [they have a time limit on how long you can stay on it, though…stinks].
I use mac for pro audio… I also prefer the vastly superior OS. That said I have used both platforms for a variety of uses and both have their problems. Anyone who thinks that Macs don’t crash is sorely mistaken. I’ve managed to crash an Imac and macbook pro in ways that would cripple the techno faint of heart. Mac dominates Audio but more and more PC is making inroads with industry users. In fact game audio houses use mostly PC. This is to do with available software for audio implementation within the game. I think my friends in Vis FX use PC almost exclusively so software uses and cost all have an impact. My mac is very powerful but not that cheap, especially when Apple will introduce the next round of computers with no notice…
Remember all computers are deeply flawed foul machines that make life much more complicated. As for those adds… As a mac user, I wish a PC company would lead a counter add campaign documenting the incredibly annoying problems with macs and their product support.
Peter Mulholland
p.s. Happily, I don’t worry about computer viruses;)
I am assuming my computer is a PC, I don’t know for sure. I turn it on, I turn it off, that is as technical as I get.
Oh, I forgot-I also use my laptop to play CDs and DVDs.
Twice this week I watched a DVD of Jane Austen’s “Sense & Sensibility” that I borrowed from the library….great production! I can never resist a British costume drama! Especially with dashingly cute actors…woo hoo! [turning red in the face with a silly grin]
I use a linux laptop (Ubuntu) and a Windows desktop. The desktop is the workhorse and does a little gaming. The laptop is for work – web, email, coding, and is my main computer.
I too am a PC user running Ubuntu… one desktop, one netbook.
Uses range widely from photo editing to email to surfing the web (mostly blogs) to listening to netcasts (“podcasts”) to typing papers and notes.
The netbook is invaluable for taking notes in class; most of my professors have responded well to my using it.
And I too have no virus fears, though as we speak the Downandup virus is ravaging the Windows PCs on campus.
I use mine mostly for Internet, secondarily for recording and writing, and everything else after that. It’s a 2005 display model laptop with XP onI it, which I bought in 2006.
Before that, I had the same computer since I bought it as a display model in 1993, at which point it ran Windows 3.1. I gradually upgraded and changed components and OS’s (about three to seven years behind everybody else), but it was still the same thing. It still works, too; it’s just less convenient.
So that’s the real Catholic computer. It has a hermeneutic of continuity.
Mac 15″ Powerbook.
Use: DVD’s, Music and WDTPRS.com/blog
Vox Borealis, hmmmm, I am a convert who has always used a Mac. Am I in my “own” category?!
BTW, Father Z, wonderful poll idea! Where in the world do you come up with all these great ideas?! (Z-chat, Z-chat, Z-chat!)
:-)
PC…it’s buggy but it’s cheap.
unfair poll! What about us Linux users? Not all PC’s are created equal :P Also, since Apple moved to using Intel x86 based processors the divide between PC and Mac is just software (you can run windows just fine on any of the newer x86 based Mac’s).
Personally I only run windows on a laptop for work. I run Debian/Ubuntu on all of the other computers I use (http://www.ubuntu.org)
Mac – pretty GUI, great software, and I still can have a shell prompt. Ahhhhh
What’s a PC?
hp pavillion dv9000 laptop. Running Vista. (No complaints). That makes me the geeky fat guy on the left. I am online way too much and a laptop makes it way too easy. The best I can do is just try to make my online reading quality high like this blog, as opposed to fluff or gossip sites. Umberto Eco had a essay that argued that macs were for catholics and pcs were for protestants. I became a “protestant” when my mac powerbook was stolen from my dorm room in 1995 and they had recalled the new powerbooks for some kind of battery issue. I needed a new machine stat as I was writing my dissertation. So I “converted” and never looked back.
Windows and Ubuntu here. I’ve been running the Windows 7 Beta for two weeks now as my day-to-day machine, and it is delightful. It’s easily the most stable and efficient version since Windows 2000.
As for the Mac being Catholic, I don’t buy it. The 1984 Superbowl Commercial was their equivalent of nailing the 95 theses to the Wittenburg Cathedral’s door. They’re always contrasting themselves with the big, old, authoritarian IBM/Windows monopoly.
PC (Laptops and desktops) with Linux for nearly ten years.
I didn’t vote since there wasn’t a Linux option. Linux will run on nearly any hardware platform. [We are not considering OS right. You use a PC. Vote!]
I used to use PCs, from MSDOS3.3 all the way to Windows XP with a sojourn into the world of Unix at University in the late 1980s. Then I went to Canada and had a Damascus Road experience (no, Mr Ferguson, not the Oblates of Mary Immaculate!) and came back with a licence in Canon Law and a penchant for Apples. Mac all the way since then. I mean it even talks to the parish photocopier wirelessly with no setup required beyond entering wifi passwords.
Macs are clearly Catholic: everything is top down with a centralised authority. Apple dictate everything (even the apps in the iphone app store). PCs are Protestant: anyone can cobble bits together as they want and then wonder why it doesn’t hang together as a unified whole…
I think I had best run for cover behind my firewall at this point ;)
Fr Stevem Fisher
Ramsgate, Kent, UK
PC dual boot. Linux and WinXP
Linux if mainly for more technical work, and Windows is used more for writing and streaming the awesome Z-Cam.
MacBook,
However, most of my “real” work is done in VMWare Fusion, running XP on a virtual machine, or in Bootcamp running Vista, or remoted into one of my servers (2003, mostly).
There are of course a plethora of multivalent though redundant systems. But there aren’t any technical support mechanisms to serve as platforms for alpha data generators as of yet. Only baseline readers of extraplatform generated material with varying types of metrics for interpretation. Users are typically attracted to whole narrative hard and software which in their multi and plurivalence offer the customer a near infinite number of data combinations which are for the most part sufficient, but never total. Even the most complex system’s ultimate integers are asymptotic however and this merely serves to reinforce the retail value of exploiting the psyches awareness albreit implicit that are platforms are only beta tests. The real question is not beta tests for what — that is not interesting and for the most part goes unasked –, but beta tests for WHAT, which although for the most part goes unasked is the alpha and omega or pc, mac, and all other software.
Linux kitchawank 2.6.26-gentoo-r3 #1 SMP Sun Nov 30 15:58:15 EST 2008 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
I’m a PC, but can’t afford a mac on my pathetic salary
I use this iBook G4 for keeping up with the news and the blogs, personal finances, some shopping etc– most definitely not for work, however (thank goodness). I admit to preferring the old PC I had but also must acknowledge that probably this is a symptom of my increasing intolerance of having to learn new tricks at an advanced age rather than any defect in the iBook, ha.
(And, by the way, there is a UK series of PC v Mac ads, if my memory serves correctly. The US actors are better.)
We have an Apple orchard of Macs in our home.
A current 24″ iMac for me and a current 15″ Macbook Pro for my husband. Looking at a Mac Pro w/ 30″ monitor for heavy screencast rendering projects using Screenflow and Final Cut. Also looking at a simple 2.4GHz 13″ MacBook for my writing sessions at the local cafe.
I use my iMac to write, attend online events, participate in social media, scan my feeds, create with Adobe CS3, and plan/maintain my sites — usually all at once. The screen size allows for many open apps.
We have a 1 terabyte Time Capsule for automatic wireless back up of all our machines.
I do like using Microsoft Money, so I have VMWare installed to run that particular Windows app.
I will smugly say no problems on this end. :-)
I have three computers at home, two run Ubuntu Linux, one runs Xandros Linux. I use Windows XP and HP-UX Unix systems at work.
Just an observation. The Mac users are the definite minority int he voting, but they seem to be the heaviest in writing about it. Many of the PC users who wrote in qualified their PC with their use of Linux.
We run both in our family. Two Mac’s and one PC (Dell). We definitely prefer Mac but we need a PC for apps necessary for homeschooling and honestly, I prefer it for Internet use. I also wanted a laptop and PC laptops are more affordable than Mac laptops.
I got a Macbook after starting university in 2007, and I haven’t looked back since. I even have an iPod Touch, named Bartholomew. I don’t think I could ever go back to PCs.
Though I am using a PC now, I have been increasingly disgusted with it and Microsoft over the last 4 years. I am due for a new computer this year and my wife and I are both going over to Mac without question.
Dennis: Interesting point about the Linux. I suspect that those of us who are adept enough to work with Linux in all it’s complexity and weirdness are adept enough to use Windows without the worry. Inexperienced Windows users are the ones that tend to get virii and malware, random BSoD’s and so forth. More experienced users know how to avoid and/or fix those problems.
I’m done patting myself on the back for my 1337 hax0r skillz.
PC. It is relatively cheap. And I have to use one at work anyway.
But I hardly ever watch television, so no, I have never actually seen these ads.
comment
My main computer is a PC. I am putting together another computer from spare parts to run Ubuntu Linux. I booted it last night for the first time. Looks good! I’ll be playing with it over the next few days to put it through its paces.
My first foray in trying to install a package (Open Office 3.0) has been a challenge. Time to read up.
Here’s a link to that wonderful piece by Umberto. I only recently saw it and am perhaps the only Catholic Mac user to have not read it until recently.
http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html
I’m a PC user, running XP. I use mine for graphic/web design and photo editing (I run my own freelance business and the parish website), and for school work, which involves rather prodigious use of Word.
Linux
Free Software’s surprising sympathy with Catholic doctrine:
http://www.linux.com/feature/49533
Christian endorsement of Free Software increases:
http://www.linux.com/articles/53644
Mac!
71% PC
28% Mac
Hmm … Looks like about 28% of current WDTPRSers may have latent liberal or progressive tendencies. (Speaking as one who was an avid Mac user during a several-year period of exclusive Novus Ordo attendance.)
I had to buy a new computer a few years ago and made the mistake of buying one with Vista, which accomplishes little else than XP except make some of my software (e.g., Scripture programs and for loading MP3 players) incompatible.
Ha, ha!!! Cradle Mac user!!!! That was great! So Vox, what is your description for a Trad (Cradle or Convert) Mac user?
I use both. The Mac is the mainstay in the graphic design office where I work, but I use a Windows laptop for most of my straight code work. Never tried Linux. One of these days…
I am a PC.
I have owned 2 PCs since 1996 ( my newest is only 2 years old). I have never had any problems.
My friend has been through 5 Macs, 7 IPods, and I don’t know how much money in the same time frame. All failed.
I think I will stick to my PC
OOOOOO……smug, smug, smug indeed. Love my Mac. Cradle Mac user who is also aggressive about Apple software and machines! Heheheheh
Oh yeah, no crashes, no viruses, great graphics….what can’t one do on a Mac? Use it for just about everything computer related. I’m a convert….Mac user way before becoming Catholic.
17″ MacBookPro here.
I have used both in the past. My Dell desktop running Windows XP did an excellent job for five years. But I really do prefer the interface, the flexibility and the ease of use of the Mac OS. Since it is based in Unix (and pretty much any Unix windowing system can be set up on a Mac) and it has the ability to run Windows without having to have a dual boot setup, users that need it actually have the option of running three operating systems in one unit. It is really hard to beat that.
This comment has been typed on one of the new Macbooks. Ooooh, shiny and with a backlit keyboard. I have no idea how big it is – 13″?
I’m a bit agnostic when it comes to this one. At work: Windows and Linux. At home: MacOS X and Linux. I frankly have no use for anything other than Linux in the server room, but a Mac makes a darn fine desktop. I personally despise Windows, especially Vista.
I use a PC at work and a Mac at home. I am constantly battling viruses and virus protection software in the PC. No so with the Mac, which seems to be a stabler machine and more user friendly for photography, which is my hobby.
Isn’t there a third option? Browser. I personally have most of my work in the cloud and the choice of hardware or operating system doesn’t matter. With that said, I use a MacBook (unibody) at work, a Sony Vaio P on airplanes, a Windows Vista machine in my home office (Vista isn’t that bad), and a Ubuntu machine (an old Macintosh laptop) at the kitchen table. My portable computer is an iPhone 3G. I take one week off every summer to backpack into the high Sierras to get away from it all. ;)
Home desktop: Dell Inspiron PC running Windows XP (I opted for a downgrade instead of buying Vista). Internet access mainly via Google’s Chrome browser; IE and Safari for Windows also installed.
Office desktop: Dell Opiplex PC running Windows XP. Internet access via Microsoft’s Internet Explorer;
Notebook: Sony Vaio used maily for travel purposes (ergo, another PC); Windows XP; Internet access maily via Google Chrome; IE also installed.
Smartphone: Apple’s iphone 3G (running the adapted version of Mac Os as pre-installed from the factory); the pre-installed Safari web browser is used for internet access.
I have used Mac desktops in the past, and I like them very much. But I don’t owe one. So, except for the smartphone, I’m a PC guy.
I am using a MacBook Pro running a virtual machine with Windows XP … so my proper answer is both. My XP virtual machine is pretty clean. It has no viruses and contains all my work related software.
I’m a PC user, but that’s because I can’t afford to buy a new mac. Back before Apple was using the intel chips I wouldve been strongly on the Pro PC side. I’m a gamer, I always found Apple’s approach towards gamers and developers/publishers to be stadoffish and frustrating. since the inclusion of the intel chips though the idea that I can triple boot my computer with Mac/Windows/Linux to run just about anything is very appealing. I’m saving up for a machine to run OSX/Windows 7/Ubuntu
I have a PC running XP on my desk, and next to it I have a MacBook. The PC is for personal use and for revenue projects that are unrelated to my \”day job.\” The MacBook is what I mainly use, in terms of hours/day, for my \”day job.\” Ironically, I use the MacBook to write and edit articles that are mainly for or by PC users. It\’s a funny old world, isn\’t it?
Both systems have their strengths and their weaknesses. I generally advise people who are looking for their first computers or to replace an aging computer to buy a Mac. Macs cost more, but they offer better value (more stuff built in, software tends to be cheaper). The exception is when what they need the computer for is something for which there is no suitable Mac software. Macs are not necessarily easy to use. PCs are not necessarily an inherently dumb choice.
When I don\’t HAVE to draft or produce something in digital form, I prefer a pad of paper (or a Moleskine notebook) and a fountain pen (sometimes a pencil). Cheap, reliable, \”green,\” and extremely portable. Life is good when you have choices.
I didn’t vote since there wasn’t a Linux option. Linux will run on nearly any hardware platform. [We are not considering OS right. You use a PC. Vote!]
Fr. Z. You are missing the point. The PC vs Mac adds are really Windows vs. Mac adds.
Furthermore, Linux doesn’t care what hardware it is running on. I ran Linux on a Mac last year (one that no longer had a copy of OS X on it anymore.) Linux runs natively on anything from wrist watches, to my TV, to PCs, Macs, PS2s, and Supercomputers.
Plus at this point, Macs are for all practical purposes no different from PC in terms of hardware. They are running Intel hardware, which is the traditionally the hardware of a PC. Mac OS X will run on a PC. Vista will run on a Mac.
So operating systems really do matter and it would be improper for me to say I am running a P.C.
Sorry, not enough choices. I am an advocate of true diversity (Or I am a total computer geek) Up and running are a Windows Vista, a Mac OS 10, a Windows XP, and a Suse Linux 11.1
@GNW_Paul
Am a Mac.
I use an Aspire 5920 notebook PC. It’s dual boot with Vista (not so good) and Redhat Linix (better.)
AMDG
In our family we like to work. Computers help.
My extended family of farmers are known to use a different tractor for a specific job, (mostly old tractors, as in real old, even 40 years old), and end up with many tractors to save time and money.
For computers I use an old e-Machine XP PC, a newer inexpensive e-Machine Vista laptop, and an Asus with Linux OS. (The Asus uses only 22 watts). A Mac would be useful, but is not needed.
These computers are used for work, for staying connected to family and friends, for research, and, recently, for this blog.
I like to think it is all for God and consider it all to be part of my “prayers, works, joys and (sometimes) sufferings”.
I’m a PC user — it’s a tough lil Compaq laptop running WXP that I use for Research, email, TurboTax, PhotoShopping, coupon hunting, job hunting and blogging. And I plan to play with Ubuntu Linux too. Love that OpenSource!
Well I’m not reading this blog with it, but I have a functional Apple IIe in the next room. Does that count as a Mac or a PC?
Mac is latin. PC is “vulgus”. All mac users speak a common language. No two PC users have the same experience but it is always less elegant…
It would seem that Mac is like the Extraordinary Form and PC is like the Ordinary Form if the numbers are any indication.
I could draw LOTS of comparisons here… but I will refrain.
I am too confident in the superiority of my little Mac mini to feel the need to point out the obvious….
:)
It’s a PC that had Windows unceremoniously ripped off of it and replaced with Ubuntu.
I shall soon purchase an EEE 901 Xandros edition. I shall then remove Xandros and replace it with Ubuntu-EEE.
I am all about the opensource.
PC running debian Linux :)
I’m force to use Windows at work. But when I get to choose, I use a Mac or Linux.
I am communicating from a Medion laptop and recently bought a Medion desktop. It’s the most popular brand in Europe and made in Germany. Both come loaded with media related programs
and lots of memory. The customer service is in England and it is outstanding…people who actually speak understandable English who can solve problems. Both run Vista.
I used to mock the Mac cult. But I became so exasperated by the stupid myriad problems I encountered with Windows and my Dell laptop, including the slow speed caused by always having to run virus software, “registry problems,” yadda yadda yadda, that I threw up my hands almost two years ago and bought an iMac. It is hard to express what a different experience this is!! I have had ZERO regrets and I am thrilled with my choice.
So yes, I most definitely am a Mac!
I’m a Cradle mac. And I still have my first Mac Classic bought in 1989! It saved me a number of times when the newer models need repairs. No internet access or email, but I could still write, print and fax!
Work Laptop: Dual Boot Vista / Ubuntu – Im almost ALWAYS in Ubuntu
Netbook: Windows XP
Home PC: Ubuntu On the Left and Mac OS X on the Right
(I have other various Machines – including access to an AIX box but those are my main work horses)
I use Windows XP on a laptop. I’ve had it for almost three years now, and have had no problems with it, even though I’ve connected to public wi-fi in shopping malls and town squares. I do find it annoying that my anti-virus program insists on running a scan every week or so without even notifying, which slows down the computer somewhat. I find it specially annoying because it never finds anything – but that’s really a good sign.
I have used Macs at school, and I have to say that… I definitely prefer Windows. I find the permanent bar on top on the Mac’s screen an eye sore, and also it’s annoying that a program’s window can’t occupy the entire screen unless the tray where the shortcuts are is in auto-hide. Not only is that a waster of good vertical space, but the bit of exposed wallpaper looks stupid. My film history professor has a Mac, and he’s always moving his windows around.
Applications are harder to find on the Mac (unless you want an overlong tray with programs you rarely use, I suppose), which made me realize what a stroke of genius the “Start” button is. A friend of my friend had issues installing Photoshop on the Mac, so my friend’s dad had to help her. Macs are pretty for sure, but useless.
I have an iMac that I use for internet browsing and accessing webmail, playing with music and movie software. It is soooo problem-free and simple to use. It is fast and elegant.
I access my old Windows PC through the Mac for documents and using Outlook calendar. Internet access on the PC became such a headache with viruses, slowdowns, mysterious spyware, missing files, error messages, etc that it drove me to the iMac.
I still have a lot to learn about the available software for the iMac – one day I hope to leave the PC behind. Unfortunately I do come across things that just aren’t written for a Mac and have to be accessed/used on the PC.
I am surprised by the number of Ubuntu users here. Pretty cool. But that would seem to be the equivalent of post Vatican II software. I prefer the traditional approach, so I use Debian. ;-)
I use both. Almost 50/50, actually. Both for fun and for work. I grew up on Commodore 64. Then MS-DOS. Then every flavor of Windows. Limited exposure to Mac until OS X, which I’ve been using regularly for 8 months.
Father, don’t think that getting a Mac will solve your problems. You will have frustrations no matter what you use.
My advice, right now, is generally that if you can use a Mac and only use native Mac software and don’t have to interface much with a PC network, then Mac will probably be the best experience overall. Oh and definitely buy the support plan.
Fair warning, though. I’ve yet to find any particularly good blogging clients for Mac. The best so far is Ecto, but it’s just sort of plain. I am an avid fan of Windows Live Writer on Windows.
I use Macs almost exclusively, and always get frustrated when I have to use a PC. The only downside of using macs is that every once in a while something pops up that requires a PC (which only is a problem since I don’t have an Intel Mac). But since I’m not the gaming type, this rarely happens, and the few times it does, in most cases it can be solved by either using other software or (in the case of files) run the stuff through some conversion software.
Macs are good-looking, quick and, most importantly, VERY user friendly. 99% of the time you don’t need to read instructions first to do what you want. Download it or plug it in and it works right away. I HATE this stupid “driver” thing that always causes problems on PCs. It never happens on a Mac. That in itself is a reason to get a Mac.
I clicked \”I\’m a Mac\” mostly because that is what I use for the internet and so it is a daily use item. However, my laptop for classes and my desktop for writing (neither is hooked to the internet) are wonderful and familiar friends.
So I\’m both, each for a different use. They are both good at what I use them to do.