Why is the difference between a mac and a PC?

[d4m4don3]

also, what is UNIX and why is it nearly impossible to mess up? ..i understand most software jargon btw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix

Essentially it's one of the Grand Daddy's of most Operating systems. It's robust and harder to crash since it was essentially designed to run as a server and handle multiple users in a computing environment. It's not user friendly unless you get the OS X variant.

[tribalman]

so like... i'm not really that diverse with computers, ive had mine since 03. it's a dell laptop... today me and my girlfriend were having a discussion about mac computers, and our first question is why do they not get viruses?

also what are the differences between a pc and a mac? good points/bad points..

other points to consider is that i'll be needing a computer after highschool for college.. stuffs...

pc, almost all the programs work on them that are out there. the most of the issues people have with the software orginate between the keyboard and the seat.

and apples have no viruses? http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne.../apple.trojan/ dated 2k4. they just aren't talked about as much.

from evil "
if you can try a MAC for 1 week and i guaranty you will never go back. it just makes sense when you start to use one.
Today 02:27 PM" yeah right. before i owned a computer at home i would use my friend's apples and the ones at school for 4 years until i got a PC. to this date i cannot stand using macs. i find them less intuitve (a big claim from apple) and just annoying to use. it's all flair. i would actually like to take my current computer and see if i can get os X installed on it and see how much it bogs down. seeing as how vista is a "rip" of osx and it's a system hog, i'm sure it is.... and to quote maddox of "best page in the universe":
"If everything on a Mac just works, then why does a website called "Mac fix it" exist? Here are a few choice topics on macfixitforums.com:

-Login window stuck!
-lower caSe "S" key not working!!
-Menu bar keeps flashing
-I can't drag and drop!""

hm... can't drag and drop, lower case "s" issue? sound like an ID io t error to me.

fixing a mac. you don't. you buy a new one. fixing a pc, replace the broken part. silly proprietary computers.

master_alexander:
also, what is UNIX and why is it nearly impossible to mess up? ..i understand most software jargon btw.

Unix is an open source operating system. the user is has much more control of the system and how it runs. it is not impossible to mess up. it's actually very easy to mess up, or to delete one file and kill the OS. see glickman's thread " I am going to stab whoever thought of wildcards for shell scripting. Me: hmm, ok lets get rid of these test directories...
Bash: rm -r dir*" the command "kill". haha. at least windows makes it a little bit harder to accidentally remove the OS.

[robnix]

The only reason they don't get viruses is because hackers don't spend the time making them for macs. There are more PC users out there, so thats what viruses are made for. There are a few smaller reasons, but that's the main one.

It's not numbers. If you look at numbers, windows only dominates on the desktop and even then the percentage of viruses per installed systems is heavily in favor of Windows systems. I can count known Mac viruses on my hands and linux viruses in only double digits, but Windows viruses clock in at over 100,000. Just look at the windows security model, mistakes like .dll injection, the ease of running scripts and executables on Windows, the default user running with admin rights, and the non modular nature of windows. It just makes it easier to attack than *nix based systems.

Even file extensions makes it easier to attack Windows.

[Cow hunter]

macs are better. Almost all pc programmers use them. They are also less compatible with 90% of software you will need in college. Get a pc.

wait.....what?

[Target Practice]

INSTALL LINUX LOL

[maxama10]

pc, almost all the programs work on them that are out there. the most of the issues people have with the software orginate between the keyboard and the seat.

and apples have no viruses? http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne.../apple.trojan/ dated 2k4. they just aren't talked about as much.

from evil "
if you can try a MAC for 1 week and i guaranty you will never go back. it just makes sense when you start to use one.
Today 02:27 PM" yeah right. before i owned a computer at home i would use my friend's apples and the ones at school for 4 years until i got a PC. to this date i cannot stand using macs. i find them less intuitve (a big claim from apple) and just annoying to use. it's all flair. i would actually like to take my current computer and see if i can get os X installed on it and see how much it bogs down. seeing as how vista is a "rip" of osx and it's a system hog, i'm sure it is.... and to quote maddox of "best page in the universe":
"If everything on a Mac just works, then why does a website called "Mac fix it" exist? Here are a few choice topics on macfixitforums.com:

-Login window stuck!
-lower caSe "S" key not working!!
-Menu bar keeps flashing
-I can't drag and drop!""

hm... can't drag and drop, lower case "s" issue? sound like an ID io t error to me.

fixing a mac. you don't. you buy a new one. fixing a pc, replace the broken part. silly proprietary computers.

master_alexander:
also, what is UNIX and why is it nearly impossible to mess up? ..i understand most software jargon btw.

Unix is an open source operating system. the user is has much more control of the system and how it runs. it is not impossible to mess up. it's actually very easy to mess up, or to delete one file and kill the OS. see glickman's thread " I am going to stab whoever thought of wildcards for shell scripting. Me: hmm, ok lets get rid of these test directories...
Bash: rm -r dir*" the command "kill". haha. at least windows makes it a little bit harder to accidentally remove the OS.

Dude, no one said that Macs don't have their problems. So ftw on digging up some issues. Go search for trouble on windows. Guarantee you'll find many more problems.

Don't know that it proves much but: search "windows error" 160 million "mac error" 72million "osx error" 1 million 660 thousand. "xp error" 51.9 million

Google is in favor I guess

[jenarelJAM]

The way I personally see it is that there are two real operating systems. Windows, and Linux.

Windows is easy-to-use for people who know very little about computers. Linux is less "user-friendly" for non-power users.

Windows gives you less control than Linux.

Linux is much much more stable than Windows.

Most software is written for Windows.

OSX is the advertised version of linux for those who need the ease-of-use of a pc, with a ridiculous price tag, no interchangeable parts and the inability to be used on any hardware not "macintosh."

imo.

[bornl33t]

Dude, no one said that Macs don't have their problems. So ftw on digging up some issues. Go search for trouble on windows. Guarantee you'll find many more problems.

Don't know that it proves much but: search "windows error" 160 million "mac error" 72million "osx error" 1 million 660 thousand. "xp error" 51.9 million

Google is in favor I guess

Google is a lib farce to be reckoned with, but biased polls mean squat

search vista works 61.7 million hits
search osx works 1.7 millions hits

lets not use google to validate stuff anymore oK? thanks!

[Hexis]

The way I personally see it is that there are two real operating systems. Windows, and Linux.

Windows is easy-to-use for people who know very little about computers. Linux is less "user-friendly" for non-power users.

Windows gives you less control than Linux.

Linux is much much more stable than Windows.

Most software is written for Windows.

OSX is the advertised version of linux for those who need the ease-of-use of a pc, with a ridiculous price tag, no interchangeable parts and the inability to be used on any hardware not "macintosh."

How small the world must be for you.

OSX is not Linux. OSX is a version of Unix. Linux is a version of unix as well.

Quantity of software is meaningless. Quality matters a lot more. I suspect you can find a lot more volume of linux software than windows software (since all the development tools you need to get started on a linux version are free). That means nothing since there is less usable software for linux. Even that may not matter if the software you (in the royal sense) need to use is available for whatever platform.

Apple hardware doesn't have a ridiculous price. It's not really any more expensive than equivalent PC hardware. Apple does not offer low end hardware, so people think that Apple computers are more expensive.

Apple also used many standard components. Drives and memory on all machines are totally standard. Those are the two components people are most likely to want to change (upgrade or replace). The integrated display nature of the iMacs makes them as proprietary as any laptop. The mac mini is similar to other tiny form factor computers. The Mac Pro is the closest equivalent to a tower case. It's a unique case, but most of the internals are standard. SATA drives, standard FB-DIMMs, normal PCI-E slots. The case differences allow the machine to be one of the quietest machines I have ever heard. My printer across the room is louder.

For me OSX is an OS I can just use. I know far too much about the internals of a lot of systems. I'm literally a information security expert and work on a huge enterprise network with many different technologies. Lots of Windows there. However, at home, on my network I use Macs, purely by choice.

[d4m4don3]

How small the world must be for you.

OSX is not Linux. OSX is a version of Unix. Linux is a version of unix as well.

.

Wrong, Linus Torvaldis would seriously correct you if he saw you posting that. Linux came out of the need to modify an OS completely without violating copyright laws. If you take a look Unix is a proprietary copyrighted OS with many variants like BSD, HP-UX, and System V. It's a different beast in itself and much of the code is copyrighted. Remember the IBM/Sco/Linux lawsuit? Because SCO was blaming IBM for contributing code to the gpl thatthey said was proprietary to SCO's Unix?
Linux was born of a need for a completely free OS of which the code that it is made of can be modified without fear of a lawsuit or copyright violation. This is good if you're in engineering, IT , or Science. It was born in the early 90's and that's why its so popular and became part of the GPL. You can do whatever you want to the OS. The code is completely public to everyone.

[maxama10]

Don't know that it proves much but:

Google is a lib farce to be reckoned with, but biased polls mean squat

search vista works 61.7 million hits
search osx works 1.7 millions hits

lets not use google to validate stuff anymore oK? thanks!

yeah k thanks...

bye

[Hexis]

Wrong, Linus Torvaldis would seriously correct you if he saw you posting that. Linux came out of the need to modify an OS completely without violating copyright laws.

I figured going into how linux was actually just unix like would be a bit more detail than was needed for a discussion about OSX. I guess you missed the subtle clue of Unix being capitalized WRT OSX and not for the linux reference.

[thecavemankevin]

OSX on a PC, abomination

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php

switching to Intel was the best move apple could have ever made

actually i'm thinking about trying this for fun and for iDVD/iMovie. I use them all Windows XP/Vista (and i don't think that vista is as bad as most people say it is) (and most of those loud mouth opinions have hardly even seen vista, let alone used it. I also have limited OSX and linux experience, but i am getting more and more into all of them.

Macs are all the rage on college campuses (i work on one), but they are still outnumbered. They are nice, but over-rated in my opinion. However, i liken the Mac fanboys to the AGD fanboys in that they are very passionate and wont let anyone tell them they are using a substandard product. But the biggest difference is that Macs are selling like hotcakes, AGD on the other hand...

[maxama10]

OSX on a PC, abomination

http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php

switching to Intel was the best move apple could have ever made

actually i'm thinking about trying this for fun and for iDVD/iMovie. I use them all Windows XP/Vista (and i don't think that vista is as bad as most people say it is) (and most of those loud mouth opinions have hardly even seen vista, let alone used it. I also have limited OSX and linux experience, but i am getting more and more into all of them.

Macs are all the rage on college campuses (i work on one), but they are still outnumbered. They are nice, but over-rated in my opinion. However, i liken the Mac fanboys to the AGD fanboys in that they are very passionate and wont let anyone tell them they are using a substandard product. But the biggest difference is that Macs are selling like hotcakes, AGD on the other hand...

Blasphemy!

[Chris_automag_07]

macs are better. Almost all pc programmers use them. They are also less compatible with 90% of software you will need in college. Get a pc.

he speaks mostly the truth...i am a mac user...and i love my macbook. but when it comes to college this year, the proffesors , for the most part use PCs and will send you things in that format. i actually have microsoft word on mine and a few other things to make it compatible...but unless you want to spend bundles of cash...get a pc...they can be much cheaper for the most part. but still....macs rule. and are better...

bias?