Mac vs. PC: The Clash of Giants
NEIRAD enilno edition
It is a well known battle: Mac versus PC. As students walk through the halls, this topic can often be heard as they debate which machine they should have asked their parents to give them for Christmas.
Mac has always had the cool factor advantage, or in the words of Tally Thoren the non-PC people are the”more hip Mac users.” From its sleek design, to the marking apple on the cover, the Macs are indeed more “hip” looking.
PCs are legendary for the machine’s game playing capacity. The computers are what the more than 15 million World of Warcraft players use. Also, the players of first person shooters such as Counterstrike, will we disappointed to hear it has not been made for the Macintosh. Many first person shooters cannot be found for Macs and therefore give PCs the advantage to the modern day gamer who plays these fps games. But Mac is trying to change this non-gaming cloud that surrounds its products. They have stepped it up to include games such as Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty 2, but this amount cannot be compared to the quantity of games available for PC users.
It is well known to us all that the Windows Vista system is not the best program. As Sophomore Taiga Soejima said “I definitely like PCs better, just not Vista,” this opinion is also shared by Tally Thoren “I like PCs better, but with Windows XP not Vista.” As soon as it came out Vista had problems, from non-compatibility with its previous program the XP, to crashing, Vista was surrounded by complaints. Many companies who had acquired computers with Vista decided to switch back to Microsoft’s previous, more successful system XP.
Mac is a notorious for its appealing to college goers all over the globe. We’ve all seen the commercials for Mac, “Hello I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC.” These usually depict a young “Mac” saying how they do better on college campuses, and a “PC” saying something that just proves the “Mac’s” point. Mac is renowned for its easy manageability, and smooth running operating system. Senior Michael Hickey says “I use Macs because they are user friendly, they don’t get viruses, it’s good for music, and it is extremely reliable.” Macs are known for their anti-virus capabilities, it is rare to see a Mac break down because of a virus. But the old Mac desktops such as the old eMacs, you know the ones that were in the Neirad room, or you might recognize one from a comedic scene in “Zoolander” where Owen Wilson tries to literally take a file out of the iMac by prying it open.
The old Macs were and are notorious for crashing. The Neirad staff can only tell you how many times they had to call in an outside administrator to fix the eMacs. In fact, Neirad spent more than $5,000 last year paying an outside contractor to fix the dilapidated eMacs. That heavy cost influenced the team's decision to plead to the district for the new HP PCs, which were installed over the summer. The switch to PCs has brought a much reduced need for IT support. That being said, the new Macs come reinforced; they rarely crash; they don’t get viruses; and above all are better protected against hackers. If only Neirad had just waited a few years and not been forced to buy the eMacs in 2005, Neirad might still be powered by Apple.
“Macintosh's used to be power houses in the art design & music creation business sectors but now that software that once separated Mac from PC in those businesses now runs on both Macs & PCs,” IT administrator James Flynn said. And vise-versa, PCs used to be purchased because of its amazing program called Microsoft Office, but now what used to separate PC from Mac is now available for any Mac, making it the best notebook for college.
Even avid PC supporter Taiga says “Mac is probably better for college,” this represents a lot of high-schooler’s opinions. From picture managing, to music, to legitimate school work, anything is available for a Mac as much as for a PC.
