Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Geeky stuff
Original poster

Mad to move from MacBook to pc laptop?

29 replies

ErnestTheBavarian · 08/11/2010 13:32

Our Macbook is dead. I've only ever used macs. Dh toting with idea of replacing it with a pc notebook. Looking at a Sony i7 if that helps? He reckons they are miles cheaper. Need it mainly for iTunes, iPhoto, a bit of WP & spreadsheets and general Internet - googling/ games.

Almost bought one on Saturday but shop was out of stock of the one we chose, only reason we didn't get it. Anyway, a friend today said I would hate a pc notebook after having had a mock, loads of virus problems, just not as good.

So, is he right, once you've had a MacBook are you spoiled and can't return to a pc. Not that I've ever had one.

Thoughts?

OP posts:
whomovedmychocolate · 08/11/2010 13:34

Yeah you'd have to be a muppet to go back to PC. I am on my fourth mac. One crash in ten years is all I'll say.

Rocketbird · 08/11/2010 13:36

I use a Mac at home and a PC at work. Never in a million years would I buy a PC for home. Despite using them since I was about 20 I don't feel comfortable with it and there are lots of things I would rather take home to do than faff about on this thing.

Unprune · 08/11/2010 13:37

Completely agree with Rocketbird.
They are worth the extra money just for not being PCs.

LadyintheRadiator · 08/11/2010 13:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
ErnestTheBavarian · 08/11/2010 13:52

Aha, it's coming across quite clear. So, pc prone to viruses and crashing? But isn't there loads more software, games etc on pc? Just throuwing thoughts ideas in. Am happy to be convinced to get another Mac. Which MacBook would you recommend? Need loads of memory (photos and music)

OP posts:
HouseOfBamboo · 08/11/2010 13:56

I've always had PCs at home, and Macs at work. Tbh I don't have much of a preference as long as the machine and software are up to date and doing what I need them to.

I buy PCs when it's my money because they are a lot cheaper than the Mac equivalent. You always used to have more choice of software with a PC, thought that may not be such an issue nowadays.

The build quality on the Macs is usually better, which might be worth considering if you're likely to bash it around a lot. But if you're careful about which PC laptop you choose there are some very nice ones out there - make sure you choose one with a keyboard and screen that suits you, and doesn't have hot fans blowing out on your lap etc.

Re viruses - as long as you sort out some anti-virus protection (which isn't that hard to do) it should be fine. And there has to come a day when Macs will have to start having the same anyway.

But it's all a matter of personal preference and whether you're prepared to take on a short learning curve with Windows.

prism · 08/11/2010 14:04

There is indeed more software for PCs but unless you have very specific requirements most of it you would never use. And PCs are better for games (there are more of them) but if that's your principal purpose you'd be better off not buying a laptop anyway. Plus if you get desperate to run Windows programs you can install Parallels or Fusion and run it for real- MacBooks make very fast PC laptops with that option.

I'd go for the 13" MacBook Pro- as well as being neat, it's a doddle to upgrade so if you run out of space on your hard drive you can put another one in very easily.

Thank goodness they were out of stock of the Sony...

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:06

The advantages of the PC are that you can buy cheap PCs and gaming. Yes you can install Windows on a Mac and play top of the range games (Macs are very powerful computers) but then you have to shell out more money for Windows and have to take on all the complexity of Windows that having a Mac should allow you to avoid.

And yes viruses on a PC will be a major worry, you'll need to keep your firewalls and anti-virus all up to date, where as on a Mac you just don't need to worry about such things.

True enough you can get free anti-virus software that really is very good, but it's just an extra hassle to deal with all of that.

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:10

"And there has to come a day when Macs will have to start having the same anyway."

OS X is ten years old and there are still no viruses....

I would never say that OS X is invulnerable, but it is fundamentally more secure than Windows (it has it's roots in a secure multi-user Operating System rather than a desktop Operating System that has exploded via code sprawl).

For the record I prefer Windows on my work machines and Macs as my home choice. I couldn't imagine "working" with a Mac (Windows is very very flexible) or ever having a home Windows machine again...

Rocketbird · 08/11/2010 14:15

I think as far as software goes, I've always understood it to be that to do x requires certain software. For Macs there'll be 3 versions to choose from, for Windows there'll be 30. But in reality, everyone, regardless of operating system, uses y to do that task so the other choices aren't much of an issue. At least, that's the way it was 10 years ago, things will only have improved, not worsened.

As well as that, if your primary activities are regarding photos and music then Macs have that cornered anyway with iTunes and iPhoto.

whomovedmychocolate · 08/11/2010 14:19

Badgerpaws - you're wrong actually, there are mac viruses but they are very rare and do not cause damage beyond your Mac (at the minute). But most rely on you using IE to contract them so if you avoid anything by MS you'll be fine :)

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 08/11/2010 14:22

We have a PC, and then I have a Mac laptop. I would never ever use a PC/Windows based laptop again.

The only reason we have the PC, is that DH is an IT geek and doesn't like the way that a Mac does it all for you. He likes to be able to fiddle Grin

prism · 08/11/2010 14:23

Could you give us an example, WMMC? I am not aware of a single one.

whomovedmychocolate · 08/11/2010 14:25

OSX/Inqtana.A would be the first that springs to mind - it's a worm.

whomovedmychocolate · 08/11/2010 14:27

And it is now in the wild, in another form. I know because I came across it the other day (on a deeply geeky site) - ironically unlike Windows though, it's those folks who have super dooper up to date OS that are vulnerable.

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:28

"you're wrong actually, there are mac viruses"

No, there are not, there's not one. And let's be precise about this we're talking about OS X here, older versions of the Mac OS definitely did have viruses.

There are Trojans and Malware but no viruses.

There's a whole lot of information here:
www.reedcorner.net/thomas/guides/macvirus/

Very briefly the Mac security problems require the user to do something to run or accept the dodgy piece of software. And in all honesty there's not much that any computer can do to protect a user from that.

A genuine and true virus is something that will just spread and infect a machine without any interaction from a user.

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:30

"OSX/Inqtana.A would be the first that springs to mind - it's a worm."

Not a virus....

The user has to accept the requests from the virus to infect the machine (though of course that's not how it phrases what it's up to).

Unprune · 08/11/2010 14:31

DH "works" only on Mac - refuses to use PC. He does computational analysis of biological data. Seems to do all right Grin

brimfull · 08/11/2010 14:33

can I butt in here and ask somehting

what would you recommend as laptop for dd to take to uni

mac or pc

she's used to both

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:35

"DH 'works' only on Mac"

Horses for courses :)

I was just saying what I said to show that it's not as if I think any platform is perfect and they've all got their own pros and cons.

Never trust anyone that tells you that Macs/Windows are good for everything/nothing :)

Unprune · 08/11/2010 14:36

I just didn't want to leave yours as the only impression wrt Proper Working, BP - I agree, horses for courses.

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:38

"what would you recommend as laptop for dd to take to uni"

Unless she's a hard core gamer or doing Computer Science I'd recommend a Mac. Even then with Computer Science there's a possibility that a Mac "might" be more suitable.

However, and this is a big one, Macs are more expensive. If all she's after is a cheap word processor and browser then you could pick up a cheap PC and then not be so heart broken if it ends up getting damaged during a move/party.

prism · 08/11/2010 14:39

Possibly a PC for university as it's less likely to be nicked.

Incidentally for anyone who avoids Macs because they aren't sufficiently tweakable; they are- get in to the Terminal and do things of unimaginable flexibility (Bash, Korn, XCode, X11, you name it...). Also if you're a geek and want a cheap Mac, buy a PC laptop and install Mac OS X on it (Hackintosh). There is much fun to be had.

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:43

"I just didn't want to leave yours as the only impression wrt Proper Working, BP - I agree, horses for courses."

True, true.

My work is very technical and I need to "bend" my computer into all sorts of interesting shapes and configurations. I just couldn't imagine doing all of that on a Mac. OS X is generally more restrictive in terms of what you can do compared to Windows (which is part of why Windows is more liable to viruses).

BadgersPaws · 08/11/2010 14:46

"buy a PC laptop and install Mac OS X on it (Hackintosh)"

That might be fun for real geeks but I suspect they'll probably just skip OS X and head to a flavour of Linux.

If a a home user did that then they should know that they're breaking Apple's licensing guidelines and won't get any support from Apple.