I have been discussing macs with colleagues and friends recently. I find it a very interesting topic. Some things I have noticed about people's general perception of a mac:
1: Macs are more reliable/stable and crash less often.
Personally based on my experience I completely disagree.
2: Mac hardware is higher quality and this is why they are priced higher.
The underlying components are the same parts used in laptops/PCs but since branded as Apple are more expensive. They are not higher quality.
3: Mac OS is more intuitive.
I can but only completely disagree.
4: Macs are better for "media", specifically audio/video/graphical work.
This is the most interesting point for me, I will come back to this below.
5: Macs are built to last hence the higher price.
See point 2 above. With regard to design and toughness, I generally hear of more problems with Macs breaking. In fact of the people I know with Macs, they are always moaning about how they are having to "get this done/replaced" at significant cost. I recall a particular incident where a friend of mine had to buy a new Power adapter for some silly amount. However, power adapters for laptops can be a rip off for the basic function they do as well so...
6: Macs allow you to do more things at once.
Again see point 2 with regard to hardware. Not really a fair statement. It depends what Mac you buy, what you do. The Mac OS seems to be perceived as more stable, but I can't really agree with this at all. In fact, quite the opposite.
7: Macs are very "secure" and do not suffer from viri and spyware.
The first mac I ever used was when a friend gave me one to "fix" because it had a "virus". This actually turned out to be a spyware issue in the end but still, they are not untouchable as some people make out. They are also susceptible to user error with security threats the same as a PC.
I said I would come back to this point:
4: Macs are better for "media", specifically audio/video/graphical work.
This is the NUMBER 1 reason I hear of people recommending macs. Apple must be doing something right as Macs generally are recognized as more of an industry standard piece of hardware for editorial roles, magazines, articles, video editing, photography work, audio software work.
However, everytime I ask someone for more detail as to why they are better, I get the same mumbles: "they just are", "the software is better" "the graphics are better" "they are easier to use".
Well, based on my experience they are much less intuitive than a PC and rely heavily on "knowing" how to use one with regard to learning keyboard shortcuts and navigational aspects. I have not seen anyone go into detail about why they are better.
I would be the first to attempt to explore Macs again if I felt it worth wile in any way, but based on my experiences of using them and reading the same poorly constructed and detailed reasoning as to where the benefits are, I would have to REALLY REALLY want to learn it, as for me I see Macs as a big waste of money and time and a general headache, for when a PC would do the same job more efficiently on so many levels whilst being much cheaper outright.
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