Mac Vs Pc

Mac vs. PC: The Everlasting Debate

In the world of computers, the choice of systems can be a complicated one. There are two competitors out there, PCs and Macs. Everyone has their own opinion on which is better, and there are many die-hard fans in each camp. The truth is, PC's are far more popular, and for good reasons, yet the Mac system is actually the more durable and useful of the two.

Firstly we will consider software availability. The majority of computer users own PC's, both for work and recreational use. Therefore, software companies find that it is far more profitable to develop software that is for use on a PC instead of a Mac. There is such a variety of software written for PC's that is unavailable for Macs that it could be a topic unto itself, yet Macs do have an advantage in one area. Mac computers have some highly specialized software for media production, and have been ahead of PC's for quite some time. Recently, however, many different kinds of advanced media editing software has been written for PC's, so PC's are no longer very far behind in that aspect (Kaufman, 2003).

Another area in which PC's have Macs clearly beat is in gaming. For some, gaming isn't very important; for this reason, many features of the PC are never truly realized. The vast majority of games have been designed for the PC. Mac systems do have a variety of games available, but there are far more made for PCs. The game play quality is also generally better in a PC than in a Mac. This is because there are many tweaking options available to PC owners that Mac owners just can't do with the same ease. With the PC, it is a simple matter to overclock the graphics card and other similar modifications, but with the Mac, you are plagued everywhere with passwords, and the Mac designers made it difficult to change such settings (Destinys-Child, 2000).

Settings changeability aside, Mac is easier to use. First-time users have an easier time doing things on the Mac OS X than with Windows. At one point, the Mac's OS was so much easier to use than the PC's OS, there was no contest whatsoever. Today, however, Windows XP has greatly reduced the gap between the two systems. The main problem with the Mac OS is the fact that applications could be in any of several places, such as the Dock, the Desktop, or the Applications folder. With Windows XP, all applications can be accessed from the Start menu, as well as in other ways (Kaufman, 2003).

Another area that Macs are ahead of PC's in is stability. The Mac OS is built on the UNIX operating system, which is by far more stable that PC's own foundations. This results in fewer crashes with the system. The Mac systems are also more stable because Apple controls everything that is plugged into the system, and each system is complete straight out of the box. With PCs, there are more peripherals to plug in, and a wide variety of different add-ons available, increasing the likelihood of device conflicts (Kaufman, 2003).

The people who create Macs have managed to get very far ahead of those who create PC's in design points. The Mac has been detailed to perfection, and looks sleek and simple.