Do more doctors use Macs or PCs

[Lukkie]

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i was just curious what doctors use. i've always stuck to PCs except in elementary school where we had those old macs with oregon trail on em. maybe if doctors use macs more and i plan to be a doctor sometime i should learn how to use it better.

 

[BennieBlanco]

Doctors exclusively use Macs. They are for smarter/more liberal/eco-friendly/rich people. So obviously Macs.

Any other questions?

 

[UNMorBUST]

i was just curious what doctors use. i've always stuck to PCs except in elementary school where we had those old macs with oregon trail on em. maybe if doctors use macs more and i plan to be a doctor sometime i should learn how to use it better.

Oregon trail rocked

 

[xrevision]

90% of the world uses a windows operating system.

 

[Twiigg]

All the plastic surgeons I've seen on TV use macs to play with their patient's faces.

 

[DrYoda]

If the answer is Mac, then I'll make a terrible doctor. I can't figure out how to do anything on those things.

And Oregon Trail is sweet.

 

[Dissected]

Doctors exclusively use Macs. They are for smarter/more liberal/eco-friendly/rich people. So obviously Macs.

Any other questions?

pshh

 

[AZFutureDoc]

I dunno if my school is special, but the majority of pre meds (myself included) use Macs. And a lot of the facilities I have seen also use Macs. As someone who values my time, sanity and productivity, I just can't stand Windows and dealing with crashes and other downright ridiculous "features" of that OS. Heck, even MS Office Mac is a faster, more intuitive program package than the "same thing" on Windows.

The day Windows doesn't suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners.

 

[TupacalipseT96]

Plastic surgeon/dermatologist = trendy macbook with a color case to match their teacup chihuahua.

Radiation Oncologist/Radiologist/anybody-else-who-knows-a-damn-thing-about-computers-or-technology = PC with Windows (or Linux if you're a real badass)

"intuitive" is macspeak for simple and restrictive.

 

[vadd0]

Heck, even MS Office Mac is a faster, more intuitive program package than the "same thing" on Windows.

False.

I am a big time Apple user, and I hate how slow Office 2008 is compared to 2007 on Vista. I run both using Bootcamp, and if I have to write anything significant I switch to Vista.

 

[RoadRunner17]

Most doctors I have run across use PCs with Windows XP, also because that's what they are required to use by the hospital.

 

[Bacchus]

I've only volunteered in one hospital, but all PCs were Dell...or maybe they were IBM. Regardless, it was a PC.

 

[Chemist0157]

PCs are way more popular and usually less expensive so I'm going to vote for PC.

I don't get this die-hard Mac love some people have...

 

[BeardedRunner]

Most hospitals have PCs so that's what the doctors use.

 

[armybound]

Without a doubt a PC.

 

[NiCad089]

Mac or PC?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM

 

[BennieBlanco]

Guys there is absolutely no debate here. Apple is best. Vista is by far the best operating system on the planet.

 

[cast128]

Mac or PC?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM

Thats so funny that you posted that......a lot of that video was shot on my campus and a bunch of my friends are actually in it as back up "mac and pc" dancers

 

[richse]

90% of the world uses a windows operating system.

Two problems with this statement.

1. What most people do does not always equate to the best option for any specific group with specific needs. An example would be that most of the internet is run on linux/unix type systems running web servers like apache. I take it you meant that 90% of home users run windows. Which leads to problem #2

2. Windows dipped to under 90% market share this month. The trend has been headed down for quite a while so I wouldn't expect them to get back to above 90% anytime soon. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9121938

 

[copingmethods]

Two problems with this statement.

1. What most people do does not always equate to the best option for any specific group with specific needs. An example would be that most of the internet is run on linux/unix type systems running web servers like apache. I take it you meant that 90% of home users run windows. Which leads to problem #2

2. Windows dipped to under 90% market share this month. The trend has been headed down for quite a while so I wouldn't expect them to get back to above 90% anytime soon. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9121938

Also: "Apple's U.S. Mac sales have grown at triple the rate of the rest of the PC industry"

http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/21/technology/apple_computers.fortune/index.htm

 

[mmmcdowe]

A computer is a computer. Drop a pc and a mac off a building. I bet you they look the same when you get down to street level, plus it'll end the debate over them.

 

[Destro96]

Most hospitals have PCs so that's what the doctors use.

This is very true. Not much Mac in corporate, but this may be changing.

I am a non-trad--my graduate degree is in computer info systems. I've been around PC since the days of MS-DOS (and Windows since v. 3.1).

Vista is the ABSOLUTE WORST POS EVER. Worse than Millennium (Me), which was referred to in the industry as the "Mistaken Edition."

I have a high-end Lenovo ThinkPad (formerly IBM) that I bought within the past 6 months. They are widely considered the best in the business (but expensive). It was a SNAIL out of the box, with 4GB RAM and a 7200 RPM HDD.

It runs ten times better after I pulled Vista and replaced it with XP.

That being said and Office 2008 load issues aside (this is a documented problem related to font lists in Mac, I believe), I am seriously going to consider a Mac for med school when I quit my job.

 

[cyclin M]

I am a big time Apple user, and I hate how slow Office 2008 is compared to 2007 on Vista. I run both using Bootcamp, and if I have to write anything significant I switch to Vista.

lol? That is because Office 2008 is a huge POS that got stripped of many functions compared to Office 2004 for mac. I'm still using 2004 and it's solid.

I also hate the new Office 2007 suite. Dear god it is painful to use. Powerpoint is better, but Word and the new menu bar that comes down trying to make it more aesthetically pleasing...ultimate FAIL.

I use a Mac, but they have Intel processors nowadays and I have XP on mine (since Vista is another POS) as well incase I need it for that obscure Windows-only program. :\

OP you should know that Macs are easier to use than Windows-based computers which are all POS to me anyways. I have a windows-mobile phone and the only good thing is that you can customize it unlike the iPone, but dear God it is a POS and I yearn for the day my contract expires so I can get another phone. Windows = headache. Mac = heaven. You should have no problem migrating to a Mac from Windows as I did several years ago.

I would like to end with an e-mail that shows how Mr. Gates shares my sentiment:

--- Original Message ----
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system ... and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn't Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn't use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night -- why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like "Open" or "Save". No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven't run Moviemaker and I haven't got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don't you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.

 

[JackInTheBox]

Vista is the ABSOLUTE WORST POS EVER. Worse than Millennium (Me), which was referred to in the industry as the "Mistaken Edition."

I have a high-end Lenovo ThinkPad (formerly IBM) that I bought within the past 6 months. They are widely considered the best in the business (but expensive). It was a SNAIL out of the box, with 4GB RAM and a 7200 RPM HDD.

In my experience, people who complain about Vista have underpowered systems. Did you stick with the weak sauce integrated Intel graphics? I have Vista running on two systems, one slower and one faster than yours, and I've had no problems at all. It runs just as fast as XP did, and is much more stable. I've probably restarted my computer once in the past month, which is in sharp contrast to the much more frequent kernel panics I used to get on Tiger/Leopard.

I also hate the new Office 2007 suite. Dear god it is painful to use. Powerpoint is better, but Word and the new menu bar that comes down trying to make it more aesthetically pleasing...ultimate FAIL.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but the ribbon interface in Office 2007 is infinitely superior to the traditional interface.


The whole "it just works" thing that Apple users like to spout is total crap. The iPhone was released half-baked, it took several software patches just to get the iPhone 3G to do what it should have done at launch, and the new aluminum Macbooks and Macbook Pros have had all sorts of weird issues with the trackpad, video cards, sleep mode, and 3rd party RAM. There's also the awful build quality of the power adapters. What brain dead electrical engineer designed the original iPhone 3G power plug or made it so that the new Macbooks need both the battery AND the AC adapter to run the CPU at full speed?

 

[Isoprop]

 

[vadd0]

I'm still using 2004 and it's solid.

My intel mac disagrees. If 2004 had been rereleased as a Universal Binary, then I would agree. But I remember trying to work some excel sheets on 2004 for analytical chemistry a few years ago (on this machine), and the sheets would lock up this system. 2008 recently handled the task (on this machine) a lot better, but it was still slower than 2007.

 

[Chemist0157]

I still use Windows Office 2000, lol.

 

[JoltOfFuel]

Macs are for whiny, technologically inept fools who think paying 400 dollars for a trendy design makes a computer better.

 

[Myuu]

Macs are for whiny, technologically inept fools who think paying 400 dollars for a trendy design makes a computer better.

I just like having a *nix-based system that is stable, functional, and user-friendly. What it looks like is entirely inconsequential. That being said, they do overcharge on a ton of things, so if they'd just start charging market value for SSD upgrades, I'd be a lot happier...

 

[BuffGold]

Mac or PC?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkrn6ecxthM

Excellent!

 

[FatherOblivion]

Macs are for whiny, technologically inept fools who think paying 400 dollars for a trendy design makes a computer better.

Macs are for non-technerds who have better things to do then waste time with a mediocre interface. Macs are for people who enjoy innovating products that improve their quality of life (we all owe the iPod and iPhone an awful lot for pushing the envelope even if we use different products). Macs are for people who can afford to avoid endless prompts from Vista. Macs are for people who interact with real live human beings instead of spending half their lives in a dark room "gaming" with their "friends"

You know what I enjoy most about these conversations? How pissed of and defensive PC users are. We get it. You're an obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-in. Everyone who hasn't mastered the ancient art of making Vista useable is just trying to be trendy. The inferiority complex is ridiculous. Get a life.

 

[Myuu]

You're an obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-in.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/role_strategy/ddmanager.html

(Also, I happen to know a bunch of DnD-playing Mac-owners, as well as techy
Mac-owners. I just wanted to point out that Windows-users aren't the only variety of DnD shut-in.)

 

[FatherOblivion]

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/role_strategy/ddmanager.html

(Also, I happen to know a bunch of DnD-playing Mac-owners, as well as techy
Mac-owners. I just wanted to point out that Windows-users aren't the only variety of DnD shut-in.)

Don't get your elf-lord costume in ruffle.

I think the more relevant point is that not everyone is a "gamer". Most professionals don't have the time for stuff like that, and thus don't care if their computer can double as a video game platform. If I offended any dungeons and dragons players I sincerely apologize.

 

[kac714]

both my boss and my dad who are docs use macs. Even if I go to a med school that makes you get a tablet PC i will still mostly use my macbook... macs>>PC

 

[searun]

Mac Man here. Yeah, I love my Mac. Those television commercials with the Mac guy and the PC guy pretty much have it covered. And Michael Dell vs. Mr. Jobs, who is cooler? Be honest. Jobs dominates.

 

[skijumpbump]

This thread is hotter then an MD vs DO debate.

 

[THH]

Macs are for non-technerds who have better things to do then waste time with a mediocre interface. Macs are for people who enjoy innovating products that improve their quality of life (we all owe the iPod and iPhone an awful lot for pushing the envelope even if we use different products). Macs are for people who can afford to avoid endless prompts from Vista. Macs are for people who interact with real live human beings instead of spending half their lives in a dark room "gaming" with their "friends"

You know what I enjoy most about these conversations? How pissed of and defensive PC users are. We get it. You're an obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-in. Everyone who hasn't mastered the ancient art of making Vista useable is just trying to be trendy. The inferiority complex is ridiculous. Get a life.

Huh?

It doesn't take an internet superhero to figure out the Windows' interface.

Stereotyping all PC users as "obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-ins" is as bad as stereotyping all Mac users as wannabe trendy douchebags.

 

[FatherOblivion]

Stereotyping all PC users as "obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-ins" is as bad as stereotyping all Mac users as wannabe trendy douchebags.

I would agree with you, but I was in no way calling all PC users anything. I was calling JoldOfFuel, and perhaps more broadly all of the other techy jerks who espouse his obnoxious, mean-spirited opinion on the internet "obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-ins." I'm prepared to stand by it.

 

[THH]

I would agree with you, but I was in no way calling all PC users anything. I was calling JoldOfFuel, and perhaps more broadly all of the other techy jerks who espouse his obnoxious, mean-spirited opinion on the internet "obnoxious techy dungeons and dragons playing shut-ins." I'm prepared to stand by it.

I think JoldOfFuel might have been trolling.

 

[vadd0]

Macs are for whiny, technologically inept fools who think paying 400 dollars for a trendy design makes a computer better.

I use my mac for it's BSD subsystem, because Mac built on Darwin. I get the power of Unix without the loss of proprietary software. Macs are both easy to use, and incredibly powerful. Some of us need a built in X11 server.

 

[NodForce]

Macs are for non-technerds who have better things to do then waste time with a mediocre interface. Macs are for people who enjoy innovating products that improve their quality of life (we all owe the iPod and iPhone an awful lot for pushing the envelope even if we use different products). Macs are for people who can afford to avoid endless prompts from Vista. Macs are for people who interact with real live human beings instead of spending half their lives in a dark room "gaming" with their "friends"

translation: I paid about twice the amount I should have paid for my computer so I could be "hip" and have a pretty computer. This makes me bitter about people who made better decisions

Seriously, Apple makes crappy products all the time. They always have. The only thing that makes them popular is their marketing. Their marketing is very good, I will give them that. But you have to think, if a company that's main, and most of the time only, point in all their commercials is how "horrible,glitchy,and impossible" the competition's product is, how good is their product?

 

[HanginInThere]

Plastic surgeon/dermatologist = trendy macbook with a color case to match their teacup chihuahua.

Radiation Oncologist/Radiologist/anybody-else-who-knows-a-damn-thing-about-computers-or-technology = PC with Windows (or Linux if you're a real badass)

"intuitive" is macspeak for simple and restrictive.

I hate to join in these debates, but this was just crying for an answer. You do know that Mac OS X is built on a UNIX kernel, right? You must - the Mac tecchies hype it so much, how could you not?

If you want to be badass, get a Mac. Look through your applications, find the Terminal, and launch it. That's a real UNIX shell you're looking at, not some Cygwin-style emulator wannabe. You can be as hardcore as you want there: man `ls /usr/bin` and take your pick of whatever floats your *nix-geek boat. [Plus, you get to do your text editing in emacs OR vi.]

Or you can ignore all that junk and just use the computer to do the stuff you actually care about. Because "intuitive" is actually macspeak for getting out of your way.

Ah, and I see Vadd0 beat me to it with his badass X11 response.

 

[suizyme09]

I use my mac for it's BSD subsystem, because Mac built on Darwin. I get the power of Unix without the loss of proprietary software. Macs are both easy to use, and incredibly powerful. Some of us need a built in X11 server.

The PC users are the technerds huh?! I love my PC and I have no idea what he just said!

Why don't we all just agree that PC's are for ppl who like PCs and Macs are for ppl who like macs. Or would that be too much compromise? I dunno maybe everyone just wants to haz rul da internetz.

 

[FatherOblivion]

translation: I paid about twice the amount I should have paid for my computer so I could be "hip" and have a pretty computer. This makes me bitter about people who made better decisions

Seriously, Apple makes crappy products all the time. They always have. The only thing that makes them popular is their marketing. Their marketing is very good, I will give them that. But you have to think, if a company that's main, and most of the time only, point in all their commercials is how "horrible,glitchy,and impossible" the competition's product is, how good is their product?

Translation: I don't have enough money to afford the goods so I ignore all reason and write off anyone with a preference different from my own as just trying to be "hip." I'm going to let everyone know how badass I am by making sure I tell people that do things different from me that I make "better decisions." I've probably never tried what it is they do, but I'm so brilliant that I can just sense that they're wrong. When people tell me they like something I immediately assume that they're compensating because they actually don't like it. I'm young and naive, so I still don't appreciate that my worldview is limited and that I sound like a child when I speak.


I've owned macs and I've owned PCs. So long as I can afford it, I'm never going to buy another PC. I'm not bitter at all (accept with regards to the POS Dell I owned for 3 miserable years). I owned macs when there was nothing even remotely "hip" about it. Your logic sucks. Between the two of us, it's pretty clear you're the only one who cares about advertising. A company doing a good job selling its product in no way makes the actual product any worse. Since when is it out of line to point out the flaws in a competitors product?

Once again, I'm not even remotely bothered by your decision to buy and use whatever you want. Why does my happiness with my choice upset you so much? Is it because you are the one secretly unhappy with your choice? Maybe it's you that's a little bitter.

 

[suizyme09]

Translation: I don't have enough money to afford the goods so I ignore all reason and write off anyone with a preference different from my own as just trying to be "hip." I'm going to let everyone know how badass I am by making sure I tell people that do things different from me that I make "better decisions." I've probably never tried what it is they do, but I'm so brilliant that I can just sense that they're wrong. When people tell me they like something I immediately assume that they're compensating because they actually don't like it. I'm young and naive, so I still don't appreciate that my worldview is limited and that I sound like a child when I speak.


I've owned macs and I've owned PCs. So long as I can afford it, I'm never going to buy another PC. I'm not bitter at all (accept with regards to the POS Dell I owned for 3 miserable years). I owned macs when there was nothing even remotely "hip" about it. Your logic sucks. Between the two of us, it's pretty clear you're the only one who cares about advertising. A company doing a good job selling its product in no way makes the actual product any worse. Once again, I'm not even remotely bothered by your decision to buy and use whatever you want. Why does my happiness with my choice upset you so much? Is it because you are the one secreteley unhappy with your choice? Maybe it's you that's a little bitter.

OH OH OH!! I found a spelling error in your post!! Who's childish now huh?...HUH?!

 

[Chemist0157]

Certain people in this thread need to CHILL OUT. Geez.

 

[suizyme09]

Anyone have an Enya CD we can borrow?

 

[majahops]

Hardware-wise, Macs are better than PC (partially because they keep it simple, don't have too many variations on the mac theme).
To be more specific, when you get a PC, you may be getting jipped on some feature (graphics card, sound card, resolution of monitor, RAM speed, etc) and not know it until it's too late... and since there are so many variations in terms of system configs, few support people are able to give you reliable info about what your particular system can and cannot do. While I, being a nerd, know this stuff on my own, the vast majority of people don't - and are ripe for the booty treatment, hold the vasoline. When you get a Mac, since there are < 10 variations in total on what you can get in a notebook, you pretty much know that what you're getting is solid and is going to treat you right. In fact, this general rule holds true: MacBook if you don't need HD video or serious Gaming capability, MacBook PRO if you do need these things.

System Software-wise, Macs are better than PC (partially again because they keep it simple, trade off of increased stability for arguably less flexibility).

HOWEVER, Third-Party Software-wise, PC is far better (because they have the development market LOCKED down).

I personally use a MacBook with Windows XP installed via Boot Camp. I almost never use the Mac OS, actually I NEVER do. I initially thought I would use Mac OSX only, since I wanted to start keeping things "simple"... But when I realized they didn't offer Microsoft Access for Mac, I had to get outta dodge quick. If I could go back on my decision, would I have bought an HP Laptop (by far the best value in the laptop market)? Probably... but the MacBook is so sturdy and sleek.

I would guess the story is similar with Medical software and medical PDA synching, etc... PC (or Windows at least) is simply hard to do without. Sigh.

 

[copingmethods]

I would guess the story is similar with Medical software and medical PDA synching, etc... PC (or Windows at least) is simply hard to do without. Sigh.

Aren't they developing epocrates and other medical applications for the iPhone?

 

[JackInTheBox]

Hardware-wise, Macs are better than PC (partially because they keep it simple, don't have too many variations on the mac theme).
To be more specific, when you get a PC, you may be getting jipped on some feature (graphics card, sound card, resolution of monitor, RAM speed, etc) and not know it until it's too late... and since there are so many variations in terms of system configs, few support people are able to give you reliable info about what your particular system can and cannot do. While I, being a nerd, know this stuff on my own, the vast majority of people don't - and are ripe for the booty treatment, hold the vasoline. When you get a Mac, since there are < 10 variations in total on what you can get in a notebook, you pretty much know that what you're getting is solid and is going to treat you right. In fact, this general rule holds true: MacBook if you don't need HD video or serious Gaming capability, MacBook PRO if you do need these things.

How can you say Macs are better than PCs hardware wise when they use exactly the same components? If anything, the Mac build and engineering quality (especially in the Macbooks) has taken a nosedive in the past few years (problems with the screens, video cards, trackpads, memory, batteries, and power adapters to name a few). And when has less choice ever been a good thing?

Saying that only people who buy PCs will end up getting it in the rear by unscrupulous vendors is ridiculous. With Apple, you're shoehorned into one of their systems. If you want to upgrade and don't know much about computers, you pay through the nose to let those "geniuses" install a stick of RAM. Getting taken advantage of when buying a computer is less a matter of brand and more a matter of being an educated consumer. Case in point, I went into the Apple Store and overheard a salesman trying to sell a Mac Pro to a middle aged guy who wanted something that would surf the web and run Office. I'm pretty sure that dude walked out of the store with way more computer than he needed to do his taxes.

System Software-wise, Macs are better than PC (partially again because they keep it simple, trade off of increased stability for arguably less flexibility).

That's more a matter of preference than anything else. Some people actually prefer Windows to Mac OSX. Shocking for some other people, but the fact that you use XP through Boot Camp is an example of that.


In the end, this arguing is pretty silly. People buy the computers that do the things they want to do. A Mac might be best for one person, but it might be completely useless for another. The same goes for Windows based PCs.