Mac vs PC - The Never Ending Debate

You just can't escape this one. I hear it everywhere I go. In the graphics department. In the lunch room. At the water cooler. Every school I ever attended and every place I have ever been employed. The debate gets more intense than the most heated political discussions. What's better for graphics production - Mac or PC? Being and avid user of both of these platforms since the mid-1990s, here's my take on the subject.

(For the record, my view is strictly based on the use of these platforms for graphics and media production.)

The Mac - Great machine. Well built. Very stable. Has a nice, elegant feel to it. They're just cool!

I was introduced to the Mac back in college. After generating graphics using only a windows based PC for a few years, I saw why users of this platform were so loyal to it. Why they swore by it. The Mac grows on you! It has a cool look to it, and it runs very smooth. The computer pretty much has a personality of it's own.

So how did Macs end up in the hands of graphics professionals? Well, back in the early 1990s, Microsoft Windows based PC's were just coming onto the computer scene. The Mac, with its GUI (Graphical User Interface), was the prime choice for graphics and publishing professionals. At the time, it was an easy computer to use for publishing tasks. Back then, publishing software was generally written for the Mac because of its ease of use and graphical and PostScript capabilities. So those of you new to the graphics and media field who are wondering how the Mac became the 'premiere' graphics computer, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

The PC (Windows based) - They're everywhere. Never had a problem finding software for it. Inexpensive.

PC's have been around forever. Microsoft just made them a heck of a lot easier to use back in the early 1990s with its Windows operating system. Now, like the Mac, the PC was given a friendly graphical user interface.

So how did PC's wind up in the hands of graphics and media professionals? Originally looked at as a 'business' computer, PC's pretty much had adopted all the hardware bells and whistles of a Mac within the last ten to fifteen years. Sound, powerful graphics cards, etc. Many of the major software companies - Adobe, Corel, Macromedia - began writing their applications for the Windows platform. People started looking to Windows-based PC's as an alternative to the Mac, being they generally cost less. The result? The Windows platform became increasingly more popular, with pretty much all the major software applications available for it, just like it's Apple counterpart.

The bottom line - Choose your weapon(s)

As a graphics and media professional for over a decade, I still use both these platforms on a daily basis to perform my job. Nowadays the technologies between the two platforms are very similar and the software applications are nearly identical. So for graphics and media professionals, which is 'better'? In my opinion, they both get the job done. I don't favor either one in a production sense. No matter where you work or what you do, you're bound to see them both at some point.

Want to get an extra edge in this field? Learn them both. It will make you that much more marketable as a professional.

Now that that is off my chest, when I run into someone and this subject comes up, I may just direct them here to save my breath. :)

Happy Computing!
- Frank

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