Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Questions

OK, so, I have a few of those questions in my mind that are just... curiosity. PC and MAC. Why do MAC users refer to "other computers" as PCs? Or PeeCees? PC Stands for Personal Computer, so aren't MACs considered personal computers? If not, why not? They are computers, and ... if you own one, isn't it your personal computer?

Working in the computer industry, I know that people either love or hate MACs. I have never experienced a MAC, so I cannot voice an opinion on their operation.

We (the company I work for) are an Authorized Service Provider for Apple, so our techs do work on them, but not a huge amount, so I have seen the "service" side of Apple. And... in my opinion, they are not the most cooperating of companies, but.. they are far from the worst. Their parts (if your unit was to have problems outside of the warranty period) are quite pricey. More than double what it would cost to repair a "PC" - so what is the lure? (I fully expect a comment from Matt or Deb on this one since they are both MAC users!) I just honestly would like to know.

Since Jeff is entering a technology field with his college degree he is working toward, he mentioned that he would like to get a MAC to see what the difference is, and so that he can get some experience on them. But I am not so quick to want to run out and buy one. The draw backs, for me, are:

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Power Point
Microsoft Outlook

These are programs I use all the time. At work and at home. I doubt (since I do not know for sure I say doubt) that Microsoft software is usable on a MAC. And don't the majority of people/companies use Microsoft Office products? Is there something available on MACs that would allow you to convert the file into something viewable? And how do MAC users send files to people who do not have MACs?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tsk, tsk, tsk. (I have to rub this in after our IM conversation this afternoon and my "IM abbr" ignorance...haha).
You are in the IT industry and don't know that they make an MS Office MAC version? What am I going to do with you?

LMAO <---AND I now know what that means too!

Katie said...

:P NO! I didn't know... I have never even seen a MAC that was turned on! (We have one in the depot, but it has not been used since it came back from the customer site!) So, I was curious...

Lots Of Love! LMAO!

Anonymous said...

Okay, first, it's a "Mac" not a "MAC". (The former is a line of computers, the latter is the internal address on your ethernet card).

Office is very usable on the Mac, I use Word, Excel and PowerPoint on a Mac at work every day. (I also use them on PCs, so it's not that I haven't compared them). There's some complicated stuff (embedding of Word and Excel documents in other applications) that work better on Windows, but generally they are pretty equivalent.

That said, I personally think Outlook is unusable on either the Mac or the PC. I use Thunderbird on Windows and Apple Mail on Macs.

Finally, why "PC" and not "Windows". Because the first IBM-style computer was called the "PC". (Remember the lower-level PC Jr and all the Charlie Chaplin ads?) The name stuck. They've also been called "IBM"s generically as well for the same reason. At one time it was Apple or IBM PC. Mac and Windows were both later developments.

The main reason to pick a PC over a Mac (or vice versa) is software availability. With a product like Parallels (that lets you run Windows on a Mac), you can even get around that, but do note that software that relies on the underlying hardware (Windows graphics-intensive games being the most ubiquitous example) may not run as well on a Windows-emulated system.

The other reason I have had a PC at home is that I used to teach computer programming, and things like Visual C++, Visual Basic, etc. are only available for Windows, but I bet they'd run fine in an emulated environment.

Let me know if you want more info. :)

Deb Ellsworth said...

What Eric said... I like my Mac because it's pretty...

Anonymous said...

Mac, Mac, Mac.

If you're a geek, you might want a PeeCee since you find it rewarding to "beat" the computer, which is to say to figure out a solution for getting your way with your computer--getting it to "work" at all in many instances. I actually started on a PeeCee (well, a Commodore, but that's a different story) and enjoyed it very much when I had oodles and oodles of time on my hands and liked "tinkering" with getting it tweaked just so. Now that I am busier and not so mono-maniacally focused on computers as a past-time, I enjoy the Mac since it "just works" so much more often than my work HP laptop.

That the main attraction, but it is also the fit-and-finish stuff that I can't believe doesn't happen on both kinds of computers. Why is it, for instance, that it takes 2-3 minutes (!) to shut down either the ThinkPad laptop I had before or the HP laptop I have now versus just closing the lid on the Mac laptops I've had over the last several years. If I don't take the time to "shut down" the way the PC wants me to, I will have an over-heating backpack on my walk home because the damn thing is still on. I hate that. I don't like it when the comptuer makes me work the way it wants to work. It should work the way people do, and I find that happens more on the Mac-side.

No question they are "more expensive" out of the box. But that's because they are more capable out of the box. To get the same level of functionality on a PC, you'll have to upgrade upgrade upgrade. It's because Jobs is so crazy about controlling both the hardware and the software. It makes things work better together.

Aside from the software issue as well. They make Office for Mac, but that's not what I use in *my* job that much. It is all email and graphics (some PPT, but then I get sad). But for home, I am all about pictures and video. This software comes with a Mac. And is, often, best of breed, and is CERTAINLY easy and intuitive to use.

Anyway, I could rant for days and days, but it also comes down to what you know. I know both, so I decide based on other merits. But if you know PeeCee: first, I'm sorry; and second, you'll probably be more comfortable because you're used to doing things a certain way. I feel so bad my parents keep getting PCs because they run into so many stupid problems that either don't crop up, or are very easily handled on the Mac side. Especially because of what they need a computer for (basically just web/email/grandkids photos and writing). Why deal with 14,000 kinds of computer-slowing Virus software before you even begin using the computer for the reasons you wanted to use it for in the first place.

< /rant >

Deb Ellsworth said...

What Matt said... oh, and now that you can boot into Windows with your PC you can open yourself up to all of those PC gaming titles... Why would anyone ever want a PEECEEEEEE. :)