Microsoft never made computers until the Surface and I just paid over 2K for one so not sure how they are cheaper. If you mean PC's are cheaper, then I guess it depends on what you are looking for. My work laptop was way more than a Mac, but I got 32 GB's RAM, an I7 processor and two SSD drives.
As far as ease of use, I would agree that Mac's are better for every day stuff like surfing the net, printing stuff and checking email, but I couldn't do my job with a Mac unless I installed Windows on it and that would defeat the purpose of having a Mac.
The whole argument of Mac vs PC can never be won either way because it is totally a personal preference, (unless you work in a world where everything is 90% Microsoft).
Originally Posted by GiveMeLibertyOrGiveMeHead
Been there, done that on both systems plus many others. For all of our work, it is the software that counts and if it ties into anything else - like the operating system.
There are some programs that I have that only run on old computers with a system like DOS; it does the job and that Is all I ask. As far as getting your work done because others have windows; don't believe it. If you write, you can have a Word program on the Mac and use something else like Pages; reserving word for translation, or get another translator.
Feeding iPad, IPhone and a Mac together gives a lot of options. For Data Base work, well for most users that don't do a lot of high end programming try Filemaker: it runs on both Mac and Windows and outperforms anything that you can run on Windows at a low cost. There are other Data Base programs on large servers, but even then Filemaker can serve as a front end to those programs to bring in reports and data and export to spread sheets.
The windows machine is cheaper because Microsoft opened up to operating system to many programers to tweak their programs. Apple did not and they still have the greater control over what software is presented to the user. Thus, it seldom crashes.
Early on I would crash a Mac on a regular basis. The double fork for data meant that everything could be recovered, while everything (and I mean everything) would have been gone on a Microsoft machine.
But cheap hardware and limited programing has it's place, and it is a big place called data input. With just data input and viewing like a Wall Mart Cash Register you do not want the operator to have very many options.
That is a different world than a system where the user does a lot of things all at once.
Windows and Mac are two different systems, and windows has always tried to copy the Mac - good for them. But they keep building and building on a flawed operating system that has tied some of the software to the operating system.
Thus, the Mac is more secure and has few of the problems seen on Windows. I have had concerns about the Intel chip that Apple added several years ago, but so far there have been few problems.
I can do this all day. But it is time to stop. I have three machines that has both the Windows and the Mac operating systems installed together. The other Machines on people's desks are Macs. Equipment operations and data log stuff is all older windows stuff, which is getting harder to get. Ladder logic stuff is on other stuff.
I thought I left all of this stuff behind in 1970 when I left the main frame stuff. Lots of luck. Looks like computers have reached a place where we can't get by without them.
JR
