h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Slating Apple is seen as blasphemy by some around 'ere, so I'm glad it's not just me.

Even Apple's "wonderful" operating system is someone else's work that they've just repackaged. It's Unix. They took the operating system of the "beardy weirdy nerds", stuck some pretty graphics on the front so it'd appeal to "creative types" and a couple of zeros on the end of the price tag so it'd appeal to "creative types with no brains"

2,000 posts of unread backlog.

Yeah, a whole lotta bile

There is nothing a Mac can do that a PC can't.

Except make the user look like a pretentious tool.

My brother-in-law (hubby's brother, not sister's husband) is always extolling the virtues of Mac over PC. He doesn't seem to appreciate a number of factors that have affected my choice:

1. When I first bought a computer (back in the early 1990s), Macs were hard to find, more expensive and it was hard to do a meaningful comparison of Mac and PC. I felt that, if Steve Jobs was going to ignore the UK for sales purposes, I wasn't going to go out of my way to support him.
2. About 20 years ago there seemed to be less software available for Macs than for PCs. Even now, there are times when versions for Macs seem to be an afterthought, rolled out after the PC version has been released.
3. I've had a PC for so long that I'm reluctant to change just for the sake of it. There are probably ways of running all my PC software on a Mac, but why should I bother?
4. As Mr. D said, there's nothing a Mac can do that a PC can't.

Years ago I might have gone with a Mac to help the underdog against the 'evil' Microsoft. With the seemingly inexorable rise of iPods, iPhones and iPads I no longer have any warm feelings for Apple. My MP3 player was made by Creative, my phone by Sony Ericsson, and if I ever buy a tablet (unlikely) it won't be an iPad.

Okay, as the resident "I'm not a big fan of Apple" I feel to balance the arguement, without getting all fanbois, I should try and clarify what the benefits of a Mac are over a PC. And I'm going to use PC running Windows 7 here, linux can go mouth breath in the corner for the sake of this.

Firstly, let's look at the operating system. OsX is Unix, it's been around a long time and is stupidly stable. On a Mac it's also accessing the hardware directly, because Apple produce the hardware, they *know* what's going to be in your machine, so they just produce the code that *will* work for that. Windows on the other hand has to contend with deities knows how many manufacturers of parts, and while those manufacturers are supposed to write good drivers for those parts, there's no guarantee that they won't conflict with each other. So, OsX, stable, solid operating system that interacts directly and quickly with the hardware, Win7: layers of code to make all the different things work.

Next up though is the hardware, with a Mac you've pretty much got to buy from Apple. Yes, you can get some things like RAM and hard drives elsewhere, but then you're running the risk of that lovely operating system not working properly.

Thirdly, style. "Ooh, shiney" is the phrase when looking at a Mac. But it's the sort of shiney that you're told is shiney. Personally I don't think they look that good. We're told that they're designed well. But then, we're also told that particular brands of deoderant will make hoards of naked women fawn over us. I don't buy that I'm afraid. But until Apple reinvented itself several years ago all computers looked the same, no-one thought to actually make them look anything different. But since they have, everyone's making nice looking computers.

So, what do we have so far. Macs are likely to work a bit quicker and look a bit nicer. Right. So let's move onto the main thing people talk about with them, price.

The cost of a Mac is not cheap. An equilient PC is almost always cheaper. But surely though, in the long run, having solid hardware from a single supplier will mean you're upgrading less? No. Macs have a near fixed shelf life. It's only recently that you can upgrade them at all. I keep a desktop at home that I upgrade over the years to be around the equivilent of the entry level Mac Pro desktop. It's currently now got a 3ghz quad core processor (the mac has a 2.8) 8gb ram (the mac has 3). The equivilent Mac costs just over £2,000. My desktop has cost over the 5 years I've had it, just over £1,000. And that includes two very nice monitors. So even now that Apple are trying to have loss leaders with some areas of their hardware, in some areas they are still a lot more expensive.

I shan't go into things like being tied into their business "eco-system" model, that's just view points and lots of rants

OK, I won't trot out the ol' dogeared arguments for mac against PC , but:

"there's nothing a Mac can do that a PC can't".

Well, I heard from a few persons who do video editing for a living that, while there are PC software for this, the mac versions are simply much, much better.

(But if you want more in-depth arguments, you'll have to ask professional cutters. I don't know, I'm just reporting here.)

I do video editing too

The fact that a Mac hooks directly to the hardware with less layers means it's quicker with equivelent hardware. However, since Win7 that gap has reduced, and because of the price difference you can supe' up a PC to be far quicker and still be cheaper

I'm not sure it is due only to hardware speed. But as I said, I don't know what are the pros and cons of all these softwares

My personal (possibly outdated) feeling is that when you use a PC or, heaven forbid, Linux, you need to know much more about getting your fingers dirty fiddling under the hood. With mac, everything appears to work seamlessy, for the reasons you (Pastey) outlined (everything being apple-built, so easier to be compatible). (And I'm also aware that many would view this no fiddling under the hood business as a drawback.)



Wait, "softwares" is wrong? Is it "pieces of software"?

("heaven forbid", because it seems there is even more fiddling when using Linux. Not a comment on quality, user-friendliness or whatever else.)

Most PCs these days don't require any fiddling either, but at least you *can* if you choose to

Macs are wonderful when video editing, as I found out when at journalism college; however, I was not endeared to Macs then and I'm not now. I'll stick to my PC and Windows 7 OS thank you- because it's what I know how to use. I couldn't be bothered to change now.

PH: my local education board. I sent the email before Christmas, I sort of expected a response after 7th Jan when everyone's back at work. It's now 24th Jan and no response. I'm gonna have to phone them, which will hike my bill more.

PH 2 and 3: my phone bill (300 this month bloody hell) and bank account (I'll not run out of money anytime soon, I think the card would bounce and purchases wouldn't go through if I had but I'm still terrified to look at it!).

OK, so some of the hardware/software I use rather runs toward the quaint and quirky - measuring, designing, simulating when building loudspeaker boxes. But whenever there´s a problem I can phone the one-man-firm code line poet at stupid o´clock and get help. Try that with apple.

PH Failing to get things in perspective.

The guy on Masterchef last night completely lost the plot when part of his gateau didn't set. You'd think the world had ended the way he gibbered and fretted*, even though when the remaining gateau elements were bunged in a smaller glass, everyone loved it! But by then, he'd effectively already thrown in the towel, by showing how poor he was under pressure, and he was eliminated from the competition.


*of course, he was being watched by cameras, so I have some sympathy for the guy.

I prefer Aussie Masterchef. The people you get on there are far more down-to-earth, and if they get booted off they still go and do some training with a top ched and/or set up their cafe/resturant/barbequed shrimp stand instead of complaining that their dream is over and now they have no choice but to spend the next 30 years doing a job they hate.

I mean really, comparing the two you can see why Australians stereotype the English as 'Whinging Poms'.

ched = chef.

PH: the lack of an edit button on Hootoo.

anyone who knows a proper will just stay out of the way when they are cooking, especially if they are cooking in a stressfull situation.

Mind you, you don't want to be sitting near a proper when MasterChef is on...

Reality shows! ALL Reality shows!!!

What? You mean Masterchef ISN'T a matter of life and death??? Surely not!

(Ringtones - I quite like personalised ones. When I had a Nokia, eons ago, I managed to write the Hitchhikers theme tune for it - there's a guide entry knocking about somewhere, but by now totally anachronistic. I also once recorded and used the speaking bank balance, straight after I'd sold my house, which amused me no end. And more recently I created a personalised one for my husband, using Wrap My Words Around You by Daniel Beddingplant. Whatever happened to him, eh?)

PH: January payday being inordinately long after December payday