The Great Mac Vs. PC Debate

I'm not really big on arguing about politics (mostly because I've never seen anyone's mind change by screaming at them), but this is an issue that I've been thinking a lot about lately.

If you talked to me at this time last year I would a) have repeatedly told you how much I hated my job and then asked you if you knew of any available positions and b) the word "Mac" would not have come out of my mouth with anything but derision. I was 100% a PC girl, and I thought Macs were for losers who couldn't figure out how to work a regular computer. Basically, I assumed that Macs and AOL went hand in hand.

One year later, I have a new (MUCH better) job, am no longer quizzing people on their job availability, and use four different computers (half of them Macs) on a daily basis. On the first day of my new job I was introduced to a very very fancy Mac, and I regarded with the great fear of the unknown. It sat there on the desk looking very shiny and large, gleaming at me with its different operating system and strange keyboard shortcuts. I begged for a PC, any PC, to use and banished the Mac to back corner of my office. I continued to use the old, junky, and LOUD PC to do anything I could, and only begrudgingly would use the Mac if there was no other choice.

Slowly, I began to realize that having a widescreen monitor was very helpful. I noticed that everything seemed to just go faster on the Mac. I trained my fingers to hit the "Apple" key rather than the "Control" key. I liked the fun little toolbar on the bottom of the screen that seemed to know exactly what I wanted to do. I still used the PC for everything I could, but I was curious about the Mac. I wanted to learn more about it, and I wondered how you changed the settings or fixed it if there were problems.

Then, due to some changes at work, my old PC went away and a lovely iMac now sat on my desk. My primary machine had suddenly become a Mac, and I wasn't sure if I could handle the change. What if I wanted to change the screen saver? How would I organize all my files? What if I wanted a program and couldn't get it on the Mac? But I learned as I worked, and I discovered the absolute joy of being able to have six programs all running at once, and using three of them on the 20" widescreen monitor. I noticed that I hadn't had to restart the iMac because of a program freezing AT ALL. I noticed that everything just seemed to work, with no hassle or problems. I also had a blast playing in Adobe, and gloried in moving and changing images on a grand scale. And most of all, I noticed that everything was just faster than any other computer I'd ever used.

My eyes were opened and I learned not to discriminate against others because of their differences. I have grown to love my iMac, and wouldn't trade it for the world. I also use another Mac at work, and have even been able to run troubleshooting on several Mac laptops. At home, however, I am still a PC girl. I recently purchased a PC laptop, and still have a PC desktop. Quite honestly, I would love to have a Mac laptop (Macbook Pro, be mine?) but they are so much more expensive than my little $400 laptop. I agree that they are worth the price (for the superior screen, processor, and life expectancy) but sometimes you just can't swing the dough. So to break it down (from my exceedingly non-technical/non-official position) here are the pros of the two systems.

Mac:

• Extremely fast processor
• Reliable
• Really really pretty monitors
• No viruses
• Far better performance over time
• Competitive, if not better, operating system

PC:

• Cheap
• Can view all content on the internet (if I switch to Explorer from Firefox)
• Cheap

That's all I've got. I guess you could say that I am a mostly Mac, partly PC girl whose ideals don't match up to her pocketbook.

The-End