pc or mac???

[Zen000]

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) & very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation (photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

 

[bruce komusin]

Stick with what you know.
Do not buy all your software packages twice.
(But don't use same program on 2 computers simultaneously.)
There is no diff between the two choices except marketing hype.
-bruce

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

 

[Zen000]

Stick with what you know.
Do not buy all your software packages twice.
(But don't use same program on 2 computers simultaneously.)
There is no diff between the two choices except marketing hype.
-bruce
Bruce, i wondered if it was marketing hype?

But i must say most adds for jobs i see ask for mac experience! or both!
Im so confused on this mac p/c thing!

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

--

 

[vk]

Stick with what you know.
Do not buy all your software packages twice.
(But don't use same program on 2 computers simultaneously.)
There is no diff between the two choices except marketing hype.
-bruce
Bruce, i wondered if it was marketing hype?

But i must say most adds for jobs i see ask for mac experience! or
both!
Im so confused on this mac p/c thing!

Most adds also ask for work experience You don't need to be OS expert to do photography and related stuff. Try to get some experience by using macs in your multimedia labs.
vk

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

--

 

[miekol]

Stick with what you know.
Do not buy all your software packages twice.
(But don't use same program on 2 computers simultaneously.)
There is no diff between the two choices except marketing hype.
-bruce

Mac is certainly not a marketing hype. Mac has been (and still is, and will allways be) THE standard in the graphic and priting business. All printers, newspapers etc. all work on Mac. Simply because it was the best solution when printers started to switch to computerised solutions and because it still is the best solution. PC has catched on speedwise but the entire bussiness still runs on Mac.

I've been to a AGFA factory in Belgium and they also had a huge showroom for pre-press equipment etc. and everything worked with Mac. They had dual G4 1ghz systems with 22" cinema displays in the demo room and used them throughout the entire factory for all graphical purposes.

But, switching from PC to Mac (and vica versa) is costly. The G4 Powerbook is a amazing machine though, its so thin and has so much power, truely amazing piece of engineering.

That doesnt mean that Dell etc. dont make nice laptops though However If I had the choice, I would personally allways go with Mac.

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

--

 

[john farrar]

Miekol gives good advice:

Mac, certainly here in the UK, is the industry standard platform for publication work. Whether it is better (goes back to the first viable windowing system) is largely irrelevant because it is what you are expected to use.

So, if for example you might be working in a PC version of QuarkXpress, and you send your output cross platform to Mac it will suffer certain alterations that are not entirely under your control.

So, if you want to work in publication-based graphics and imagery then you still need a decent Mac somewhere in your setup. But if you do everything on your own and never need to output to a studio or printers then PC can in all probability do it better. But in this life we do not get the time to reinvent the wheel.
John.

 

[Eric Chi]

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

It's much more important that you learn the software needed for the job, i.e., Photoshop for Photography and QuarkExpress for publication, unless you want to be a system administrator

These days, these kind industryl standard softwares are usually available for both Mac and PC.( How could they survive if they keep only in Mac?) I have dealing with a few publication shop in both US and Taiwan. They all have PCs and Macs regardless the size of the shop. And all they care is you can provide them files in a format they can handle.

Since you are still a student, there is no point to buy the expensive Mac. If you asre interested, you can also learn how to setup a perfect phto editing PC workstation for photo editing. As you may aware, expensive PCs (or Macs) may not be the best solution. You need to learn where to spend the money to get the best out of it. And imaging one day your boss may even ask your help to turn the whole shop to PCs

Save your money buy a professional grade software (while you are student to get a discount) and spend lots of time with it. If you really need to switch to a Mac. Let your boss in the future to foot the bill.

Eric.

 

[miekol]

Miekol gives good advice:
Mac, certainly here in the UK, is the industry standard platform
for publication work. Whether it is better (goes back to the first
viable windowing system) is largely irrelevant because it is what
you are expected to use.
So, if for example you might be working in a PC version of
QuarkXpress, and you send your output cross platform to Mac it will
suffer certain alterations that are not entirely under your control.
So, if you want to work in publication-based graphics and imagery
then you still need a decent Mac somewhere in your setup. But if
you do everything on your own and never need to output to a studio
or printers then PC can in all probability do it better. But in
this life we do not get the time to reinvent the wheel.
John.

Amen

PS, if you're a student the academic Apple Shop (go to apple.com then education and then click store) offers 5% discount for students on all products.

 

[Zen000]

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

It's much more important that you learn the software needed for the
job, i.e., Photoshop for Photography and QuarkExpress for
publication, unless you want to be a system administrator

These days, these kind industryl standard softwares are usually
available for both Mac and PC.( How could they survive if they keep
only in Mac?) I have dealing with a few publication shop in both US
and Taiwan. They all have PCs and Macs regardless the size of the
shop. And all they care is you can provide them files in a format
they can handle.

Since you are still a student, there is no point to buy the
expensive Mac. If you asre interested, you can also learn how to
setup a perfect phto editing PC workstation for photo editing. As
you may aware, expensive PCs (or Macs) may not be the best
solution. You need to learn where to spend the money to get the
best out of it. And imaging one day your boss may even ask your
help to turn the whole shop to PCs

Save your money buy a professional grade software (while you are
student to get a discount) and spend lots of time with it. If you
really need to switch to a Mac. Let your boss in the future to foot
the bill.

Eric.

thanks everyone for your help!

Today i picked up the "dynamic graphics" magazine becaus ethey had an artical win vs mac! Its true what u guys say, that mac is the way to go for designers & especially if you will be sending to prepress, also color turuness is more acurret. thanks for the great/accuret advice.

P.S. according to this artical dit you know that only 4% of the market share goes to mac!!! probably why the are more expancive.

 

[miekol]

Mac's market share is pretty low in consumer PC's, but its constantly growing in professional areas. Printing is allready dominated by Mac, Final Cut Pro is being used to edit more and more feature films. Thanks to Logic more and more musicians start using the Mac. Thanks to Maya more and more 3d modelling gets done on the Mac. And last but not least, thanks to the fact that Mac OS X is UNIX based and therefore that Mac servers are UNIX based, has made Apple one of the biggest players in the UNIX market as well.

Id say the future looks good Apple innovates, Microsoft immitates

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

It's much more important that you learn the software needed for the
job, i.e., Photoshop for Photography and QuarkExpress for
publication, unless you want to be a system administrator

These days, these kind industryl standard softwares are usually
available for both Mac and PC.( How could they survive if they keep
only in Mac?) I have dealing with a few publication shop in both US
and Taiwan. They all have PCs and Macs regardless the size of the
shop. And all they care is you can provide them files in a format
they can handle.

Since you are still a student, there is no point to buy the
expensive Mac. If you asre interested, you can also learn how to
setup a perfect phto editing PC workstation for photo editing. As
you may aware, expensive PCs (or Macs) may not be the best
solution. You need to learn where to spend the money to get the
best out of it. And imaging one day your boss may even ask your
help to turn the whole shop to PCs

Save your money buy a professional grade software (while you are
student to get a discount) and spend lots of time with it. If you
really need to switch to a Mac. Let your boss in the future to foot
the bill.

Eric.

thanks everyone for your help!
Today i picked up the "dynamic graphics" magazine becaus ethey had
an artical win vs mac! Its true what u guys say, that mac is the
way to go for designers & especially if you will be sending to
prepress, also color turuness is more acurret. thanks for the
great/accuret advice.
P.S. according to this artical dit you know that only 4% of the
market share goes to mac!!! probably why the are more expancive.

 

[Veniamin Kostitsin II]

flip a coin. neither system is better or worse - but either of them can be better suited to your needs. you should know that, and not somebody else.

mac experience ? most importantly : closing the window does rarely close the program ;-)) otherwise .... photoshop is photoshop.

but if you want to run maya and have a mac ... lay back, and get yourself a cup ... wait, a pot of tea.

colour management, software, stability, interoperability and interface with other systems is basically the same on both plattforms. don't believe anybody who would say the contrary.

and yes : pc is cheaper (especially if you happen to have a clue)

cheers

veniamin kostitsin
http://www.digitalimage.at/

P.S. for reasons of convenience and "comme-il-faut" (the customers expect a nice mac sitting on your desk when you are talking about photography and arts and design) i own a mac. but most of my work is done on PC

Stick with what you know.
Do not buy all your software packages twice.
(But don't use same program on 2 computers simultaneously.)
There is no diff between the two choices except marketing hype.
-bruce

Mac is certainly not a marketing hype. Mac has been (and still is,
and will allways be) THE standard in the graphic and priting
business. All printers, newspapers etc. all work on Mac. Simply
because it was the best solution when printers started to switch to
computerised solutions and because it still is the best solution.
PC has catched on speedwise but the entire bussiness still runs on
Mac.

I've been to a AGFA factory in Belgium and they also had a huge
showroom for pre-press equipment etc. and everything worked with
Mac. They had dual G4 1ghz systems with 22" cinema displays in the
demo room and used them throughout the entire factory for all
graphical purposes.

But, switching from PC to Mac (and vica versa) is costly. The G4
Powerbook is a amazing machine though, its so thin and has so much
power, truely amazing piece of engineering.

That doesnt mean that Dell etc. dont make nice laptops though
However If I had the choice, I would personally allways go with Mac.

I have a pc (desktop) im considering a lap top (old one dead). but
i cant decide on pc or a mac. im into phorography (in colege) &
very into digital imaging / processing / computer manipulation
(photoshop). most people say mac is best for digital & i see in
many job postings that they require mac experience!
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Nick

--

--
Veniamin Kostitsin II
http://www.digitalimage.at/

 

[Veniamin Kostitsin II]

thanks everyone for your help!
Today i picked up the "dynamic graphics" magazine becaus ethey had
an artical win vs mac! Its true what u guys say, that mac is the
way to go for designers & especially if you will be sending to
prepress, also color turuness is more acurret. thanks for the
great/accuret advice.

that is a big piece of BS marketing

P.S. according to this artical dit you know that only 4% of the
market share goes to mac!!! probably why the are more expancive.

no . they are more expensive because it is not an open platform (try to "upgrade" your mac ... and you will soon learn that it is almost cheaper to buy a new one)

--
Veniamin Kostitsin II
http://www.digitalimage.at/

 

[Bimthecat]

You are what you are use to.
PC vs Mac.
Neither is perfect, but competition (is suppose to) improve most things.

However, there was a disturbing thread last week in which 2 PC users
were discussing how to make their Epson 2200's print faster.

One user switched from USB to Parallel, in an effort to achieve a speed-up.
But he found no difference.

Now granted, the Epson 2200 is a slow machine, but
it's 2003....and PC users are still talking about/considering parallel !!!!!!

The problem is the horrid XP OS.

Bill Gates will walk backwards, and does, if it results in more profit/domination.
Windows, by definition, will always hurt consumer choice and
always hinder inovation.
Just the fact that Gates wanted Sun's Java NOT included in XP,
proves this.
(Sun just won, XP MUST now include JAVA, thank goodness for all of us)
This is what some of that (dumb) Microsoft case is about.

I'll choose Mac ; )

 

[miekol]

Next they probably ignorecon MPEG4 standards, Apple Quicktime has been chosen as international standard for MPEG4 but Microsoft rather ignores that and push their own WMV format, thats typicly Microsoft, nice article about how Microsoft does bussiness:

http://www.euronet.nl/users/frankvw/IhateMS.html

You are what you are use to.
PC vs Mac.
Neither is perfect, but competition (is suppose to) improve most
things.

However, there was a disturbing thread last week in which 2 PC users
were discussing how to make their Epson 2200's print faster.

One user switched from USB to Parallel, in an effort to achieve a
speed-up.
But he found no difference.

Now granted, the Epson 2200 is a slow machine, but
it's 2003....and PC users are still talking about/considering
parallel !!!!!!

The problem is the horrid XP OS.
Bill Gates will walk backwards, and does, if it results in more
profit/domination.
Windows, by definition, will always hurt consumer choice and
always hinder inovation.
Just the fact that Gates wanted Sun's Java NOT included in XP,
proves this.
(Sun just won, XP MUST now include JAVA, thank goodness for all of us)
This is what some of that (dumb) Microsoft case is about.

I'll choose Mac ; )

 

[Ed Snow]

You are a college student, I bet you even have a fast internet connection so you don't need to be told twice how to get software. At least you shouldn't, if so ask some mac friends how they got their software you will get in the loop rather quickly. I am student, I have both platforms, a have a huge powerhouse of a pc and an ibook. They are both as current as you can get and the software was not an issue.

PC's evolve too fast for the mac desktop to be as fast all of time and apple has yet to realize how to price them competatively but nor has dell, intel or any coorporation. The ibook is a steal and for portability, compatability with the rest of th graphics world, and power, and resale, max out the ram but don't do it through apple and you are good to go.

 

[Jamie Benaud]

that is a big piece of BS marketing

Ask any DP pro, and they will tell you about the horrors of Windows colour accuracy. ----- What accuracy?

(try to "upgrade" your mac ... and you will soon learn that it is
almost cheaper to buy a new one)

Why? My G4 takes standard DDR ram, standard ATA hard drives and optical drives, standard AGP video cards (nVidia, Radeon etc). The only difference is the processor, which is quite a reasonable upgrade price. So what's expensive compared to a PC? The expensive Mac upgrade myth is exactly that, a myth.

 

[Adam65058]

Jamie,

From my experience, the upgrade cost of Macs vs. PCs is anything but a myth, it is a hard learned expensive lesson in what not to buy.

On the other hand, the 'color accuracy' of Windows machines is absolutely identical to Mac's. They have the same video chipsets which all use the same numbers to make the pretty colors.

So, I suppose this means not only do I disagree, but I think you got your concepts backwards and I disagree strongly with both or your assertions.

Adam

that is a big piece of BS marketing

Ask any DP pro, and they will tell you about the horrors of Windows
colour accuracy. ----- What accuracy?

(try to "upgrade" your mac ... and you will soon learn that it is
almost cheaper to buy a new one)

Why? My G4 takes standard DDR ram, standard ATA hard drives and
optical drives, standard AGP video cards (nVidia, Radeon etc). The
only difference is the processor, which is quite a reasonable
upgrade price. So what's expensive compared to a PC? The expensive
Mac upgrade myth is exactly that, a myth.

 

[Jamie Benaud]

Adam,

Exactly why is the Mac more expensive to upgrade then? As I said previously, most upgradable components are the same, so how can a Mac cost more to upgrade than a PC? Same parts = same price. I admit, that I often buy my upgrade parts from PC shops because they are typically cheaper than Apple stores, but most parts - and therefore the prices - are the same from Mac to PC.

Also, 2nd hand resale prices are much higher for Macs. I recently traded in my 3 yearold G4 for a new one (It WAS cheaper to trade-up than to upgrade processor, hard drives and get a DVD-R drive at the same time). I got A$1,800 (US $900) for it, tower only. Try getting that for a 3yo PC!

And colour? Macs include (and have for many years) far superior colour-management software than PCs. The graphics cards may be the same, but it is the software that controls the colour. My PC at work (P4 2GHz, Win2000Pro) demostrates it's colour innaccuracy every day, while my Mac at home gets it right every time. From scanner, to monitor, to printer every colour is profiled and corrected automatically.

While it may be possible to get this colour performance from a PC, it takes additional software and user input. With the Mac I don't even have to think about it. It just works.

Now don't get me wrong.....Windows is great.....for spreadsheets.

;-)

 

[bruce komusin]

why talk about upgrading? When you first buy them -- from Apple -- that's when they're expensive. When you buy the inner parts from reasonably-priced places (as Apple does, but doesn't pass the savings on), sure they're the same cost to upgrade. Obviously electonics works the same for Apple & IBM. A resistor is a resistor and a disk drive is a disk drive. They don't mke special ones for Apple -- just special prices.

-bruce

Adam,

Exactly why is the Mac more expensive to upgrade then? As I said
previously, most upgradable components are the same, so how can a
Mac cost more to upgrade than a PC? Same parts = same price. I
admit, that I often buy my upgrade parts from PC shops because they
are typically cheaper than Apple stores, but most parts - and
therefore the prices - are the same from Mac to PC.

Also, 2nd hand resale prices are much higher for Macs. I recently
traded in my 3 yearold G4 for a new one (It WAS cheaper to trade-up
than to upgrade processor, hard drives and get a DVD-R drive at the
same time). I got A$1,800 (US $900) for it, tower only. Try getting
that for a 3yo PC!

And colour? Macs include (and have for many years) far superior
colour-management software than PCs. The graphics cards may be the
same, but it is the software that controls the colour. My PC at
work (P4 2GHz, Win2000Pro) demostrates it's colour innaccuracy
every day, while my Mac at home gets it right every time. From
scanner, to monitor, to printer every colour is profiled and
corrected automatically.

While it may be possible to get this colour performance from a PC,
it takes additional software and user input. With the Mac I don't
even have to think about it. It just works.

Now don't get me wrong.....Windows is great.....for spreadsheets.

;-)

 

[Jamie Benaud]

why talk about upgrading? When you first buy them -- from Apple --
that's when they're expensive. When you buy the inner parts from
reasonably-priced places (as Apple does, but doesn't pass the
savings on), sure they're the same cost to upgrade. Obviously
electonics works the same for Apple & IBM. A resistor is a
resistor and a disk drive is a disk drive. They don't mke special
ones for Apple -- just special prices.

-bruce

True, Macs are expensive at the beginning. But, it's a premium I am happy to pay for what I get.

There is still nothing to compare to the free apps Apple bundles with every Mac - iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto etc. I recently had a friend change from PC to Mac as soon as she got a look at iMovie. There is nothing for Wintel that comes close to the power and ease of use. Especially at the price ($0).

And the availability great tools like Final Cut Pro are a bonus, even if I have to pay for them.