The Ultimate Battle: PC versus Mac Throughout the past quarter century there has always been a huge argument between nerds and geeks all around the world: which is better, a PC or a Mac? If you want to get two nerds arguing in front of you that would be the question to ask. I will be discussing what I believe to be the key points in each system where one may outshine the other or where they may be equal, to determine which should be the best choice for the general, everyday consumer. My personal preference for computers is with PCs; however, I believe the final choice should be up to the customer based on the following points.
First let’s start with the basics: how much is it going to cost? Immediately many people will tell you how expensive a Mac computer is and that a PC is so much cheaper. This I will have to agree with, but before we make that decision let’s break the PC and Mac down a bit. Mac computers come in a very short variety; you have the MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini micro desktop, the all in one iMac, and the Mac Pro power desktop. Not as many choices there as the PC and almost the entire line of Macs will carry at least $1, 000 prices tags.
Now that’s a very hefty price tag for a system that can’t be customized with the exception of what you get when you order it. PC’s on the other hand can range anywhere from $300 all the way to $3, 000. But the main point here is how many options you have when it comes to choosing what you want with your computer. This will have to go to the PC’s for their variety of choices that can fit the budget of almost anybody. This brings us to the next key point of comparison, customization. Macs have never been known for their ability to be customized.
This is one of the weakest points in the battle of Macs against PC’s. The only points of customization when it comes to Macs are from the point of ordering the system whether you want a bigger hard drive or more RAM. This part is one of the biggest turn-offs with consumers. Most consumers want a computer that they can upgrade, whether it is upgrading it themselves or taking it somewhere to be upgraded. When it comes to PC’s this leads to another one of their strong points. Most people know that a PC can be customized in an almost endless amount of ways. The customization can range from just if they ant a different CD-ROM to whether they want to upgrade their motherboard inside the desktop. PC Laptops too are even customizable; there are some that can have things from their RAM to their video card upgraded. The desktops have the most possibilities for customization. Every single part on a PC Desktop can be upgraded or replaced, and most cases can even be done by a basic computer user. This point also will have to go to PC’s due to their nearly endless possibilities of customization. Once you finally find out what kind of configuration you want on your system the next item you will look to is the Operating System.
PC’s have various choices and Mac is only OSX, but can virtually emulate Linux and Windows. The operating systems that PC’s use at this time ranges from Windows XP to the new Windows 7. That also includes Windows Vista which came before Windows 7. When Microsoft released Vista is was equivalent to Windows ME which in my opinion was their worst operating system they have ever released. Vista is actually somewhat comparable to ME due to the many patches that have been needed for the system. When they released Windows 7 they raised their bar and made it much more secure with the usability of Windows XP.
Most PC’s now will come pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium which is a very user friendly operating system that is a decently secure system. On the Mac side you have OSX Snow Leopard. This is their newest update to their line of operating systems. Their layout of their operating system is much smoother, and more atheistically pleasing. For users who switch from PC to Mac they will take some time to get used to the new system. But for the most part I feel their operating system is a very secure, well managed, and well maintained. This part I believe will have to go to the Mac operating system OSX Snow Leopard.
The next, and most users feel, biggest part of choosing the right computer is security. This is one of the major turn offs or turn on with consumers because they do not want to take the chance of getting a system that will be full of loopholes, vulnerabilities, and any possibility of a hacker penetrating their system. PC’s have been known to have many viruses, spam, malware, and many other various negative system problems. But when the user is educated on what they should and should not do on a computer, and what not to download, this problem can be an easy fix. Mr.
Espiner shows that contrary to the public statement of Windows being the most attacked system, Linux and UNIX had more vulnerabilities than Windows based on a report by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) (Espiner). Linux and UNIX based operating systems which include the Mac OSX, had over twice as many vulnerabilities as Windows (Espiner). One of the reasons that there are more with UNIX and Linux are because most companies systems are ran based on UNIX, which is the programming behind Macs. So there are vulnerabilities on both ends of the spectrum for the operating systems.
However, Macs generally are not known to have very many problems come up so this will end up going to Mac versus the PC. So after all of the points shown above, the final comes out to a tie. Mac and PC both have much strength and many weaknesses. But that doesn’t, in my opinion, make one better than the other. But my personal choice would be for PC’s because of the massive amount of customization that can be done. Ultimately the choice of which type of computer the consumer chooses will come down to their personal preference based on the facts that are given to them.
So as we saw Mac is a strong and secure system with an aesthetically pleasing look to them while the PC is the most customizable and user friendly. Both are great machines and both generally can do the same thing but the choice of which is better, Mac or PC, is the choice the consumer makes in the end. Works Cited Espiner,, Tom. ” Linux and Unix ‘had More Vulnerabilities than Windows'” ZDNet. ZDNet. co. uk, 5 Jan. 2006. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
