I got a Mac for Christmas and I must say I just love it!!! I can do so much more with this than I could with my Dell. I run Quickbooks on it and do not have any problems transferring files in or out to non Mac users.
I use both because of my work. The mac is very user friendly and it is easy to switch over. And don't forget, early on before macs became popular, the graphics people were the first to adopt macs because they were so very much better for their kind of work.
I've had my new Macbook Pro for about a week now and I love it. It is very user friendly but there is a bit of a learning curve there will be some things that differ from Mac and PC. As far as artsy type stuff goes, I have Adobe CS5 which includes various photo/video/web-editing software, I also have lightroom for photo editing and Apple's Aperture 3 for photo editing. I don't think there is anything I can't run on my Mac. I also appreciate being able to actually go to an Apple Store if I have an issue and get help at the Genius bar as opposed to dealing with someone on the phone.
Those of you that have run PC's and switched to Mac computers, how did that go? Would you recommend it? I do alot of artsy graphics and photos.
I use PC's only and have never owned a MAC book or desktop. I will be getting an iPAD 2 next week for portability reasons. As they're too new for my likiing, I don't trust the newer tablets yet and I'm ready for a tablet now. The iPAD will work fine for me. I don't need to view flash sites on the tablet-iPAD, I have a PC and notebook for that.
All of that said, if you're into graphics and working heavily on photography, website building and are artsy, your best bet would absolutely be a MAC.
I was always told by PC geeks and IT friends that if you do lots of graphic arts on your computer, a MAC is for you. Make sure you have plenty of RAM, 4 gb's minimum or at least expandible to 8 gb's.
Some that do nothing with photography or graphics, yet have MACS have me baffled. To spend a several thousands of dollars on a MAC to try to avoid viruses is silly. Or just because they look cool in white is ridiculous.
There are ways to be cautious with any computer. MAC's aren't the only computer to use to avoid viruses or malaware. And Norton isn't the only AV to use, it eats up RAM. Jmofwiw.
OP, you *need* a MAC for the hobbies you have along with the correct programs to do your work in.
Actually, I still use both PC and Mac. I like both, but at first I did not care for the difference between PC and Mac, as I was more used to PC.
I used a PC almost exclusively working on a Master's in computer education, but now use a Mac at work exclusively.
I like both platforms, and use Adobe Photoshop CS3 on both a Dell PC and a Macbook. I like it on both platforms. Having the memory and power on whatever you are using for that type of program is the issue.
I also have an iPhone, and newly acquired iPad2. The Mac interface is very user friendly.
With a PC, you get more power for the money. Macs are more expensive, but they are a favorite with Graphic and Photo professionals, which tend to use power hungry software.
If you are doing a lot of that, you will likely enjoy a Mac.
Always have owned and used MACs, my whole life. I know PC, but prefer Macs. I am a graphic designer by profession so I obviously favor MAC. They are user friendly, and do not get bombarded with viruses like the PC does. It's just an overall better quality machine, speed-wise, handeling and user-friendly.
About 3 yrs ago I switched to MAC from PC, but my office interface needed me to use PC. There is a program I bought called VM Fusion which allows me to switch over to PC functionality while on my MAC. It works well if you still have some PC based programs you need to run.
I love my Mac and my iPhone together as I have Mobile Me which enables you to sync up mail, contacts, calendars and more between machines. Pretty cool!
