Forget the Hatfields and the McCoys, or other famous blood feuds. Or the weekly rumble in the ring. The most bitter grudge match in the computing arena is still to be found between Mac and PC fanatics who advocate their platform over all others.
Long ago, I participated in this pastime. But my status has shifted to that of a referee over the past decade. I use both computing platforms and recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Or put up with the same. This self-proclaimed neutrality has meant that I’ve had to dodge my share of bottles hurled onto the field.
So you can imagine my trepidation when I found the following message from Jane Scroggins in my inbox: “I am a freelance designer and need to replace my computer in the near future. Could you address the pros and cons of Windows machines vs. Macs? I know the subject is an old one but what is the current view?”
Here we go again! Yes, it is a perennial question, and still a good one.
A glib response to Jane’s question — albeit one that is perhaps closest to the truth — is: It all depends. But that’s no answer, especially when the decision can affect your workflow, productivity, and even creativity.
Root for the Home Team
The platform question remains a hot potato, because the fans from either camp regard as heresy any answer short of recommendation for their chosen computer. A reasonable observation on the relative merits of Macs and Windows is usually quickly drowned out by yelling or by the waving of spec sheets.
Windows proponents will point to the platform’s wide range of vendors and price points. After all, about 90 percent of the world’s computing is done on the PC platform and almost all of it with some flavor of the operating system. Its adherents also point to the recently released Windows XP, which is more stable, and they swear, really user friendly.
Mac partisans will offer a set of familiar counter-arguments: Although having a smaller market share, the Mac provides its users with greater quality and finer integration of machine and human interface. Even better, the Mac now has two superior operating systems in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, as well as a longer history in the professional content creation market, especially for 2D-image editing and page layout.
Half-Time Reports
Content creators would do well to consider the National Football League when considering the performance of comparable Mac and Windows machines. According to sports writers, football divisions have reached a state of parity. On any given Sunday (so the saying goes) any team can beat another in an individual game regardless of their places in the standings.
Just so with the dueling computers. Although each platform may triumph in an individual test, their overall performance is roughly the same. Reviews published this year show that while Intel’s Pentium 4 (aka Xeon) architecture provides faster clock rates (measured in megahertz) than Advanced Micro Devices’ Athlon and Motorola’s PowerPC G4, the systems mostly match up when faced with real world content-creation tests such as rendering a 3D scene or generating a video effect.
Of course, no machine can win all the tests and benchmarks, unless it’s unfairly matched up against vastly weaker products. But even if we pick an appropriate group of models to compare, market forces will do their best to confound us. You have to decide what to buy and then when to buy it.
Send in the Substitutes
Continuing the sports analogy, a team can have a better chance of beating another on a particular week depending on how many players are injured or if key members of the offensive line are in jail. Likewise, the performance advantage of processors used in the different platforms will shift back and forth throughout the year as new models are released into the market.
System vendors incorporate faster processors as they become available and also at strategic times in the year. For example, everyone expects Apple to shortly announce new, faster Macs at January’s Macworld Expo San Francisco. These models will supplant the previous top-of-the-line Power Macintosh G4/800 DP introduced last July.
If you tracked the results of Photoshop filter tests as performed on Macs and on Windows machines over a period of years, the graph might well look like a set of waves, with top position determined only by the moment of selection. Over time, the performance differences even out.
Buying Season Tickets
But what about price? After all, this has been the proverbial argument that Windows partisans have long used against the Mac. Everybody knows that PCs are less expensive, right?
That may be true for mass-market machines targeted to the consumer market (although that’s changing, too), but it’s less applicable to the kinds of high-end machines content creators typically use. In addition to performance parity, the prices of high-performance desktop machines are also very close. A quality machine will cost between $3,500 and $5,000, whether from Apple or a PC vendor. These systems come with one or more fast processor, and support 1.5 GB of RAM or more. Monitor sold separately.
Of course, each platform and model will offer its own mix of performance and value. For example, a Windows model will likely come standard with a speedy Ultra SCSI 160 bus, which is best for Photoshop scratch disks. Macs feature integrated FireWire, which is very useful for digital video and easy backup. No doubt you will end up adding memory, additional video display cards, and other host adapter cards to meet your exact needs. Certainly, there are more options for graphics cards on the Windows side, due to its larger user base as well as overlap from the workstation market.
(Note: For a bare-bones, entry-level single-processor machine, there are more choices in the Windows camp. Nevertheless, if you want a machine that can also handle occasional image or video editing, then you need to look towards a more powerful, mid-range machine such as those with a 1GHz Pentium III or a souped up iMac. Still, none of these entry-level or midrange machines have the horsepower, memory support and expansion capabilities required for everyday professional content creation.)
In the End Zone?
Declaring performance and cost parity galls platform partisans. These cheerleaders want a winner declared so that they can wave the towels and hoot and holler.
On the other hand, this situation is excellent news for computer users. Whichever platform you prefer will give you fine performance. If you are familiar with Macs, there’s no reason to switch to a PC machine. And the same holds true for Windows.
While, performance is important, there are other considerations that content creators should keep in mind when purchasing a machine. As the rabbinical maxim states: “The person who answers speedily errs speedily.”
In my next column, I will examine these additional factors: support for technologies specifically aimed at content creation; your ability to collaborate with other creators; and the effect that your choice of computing platform may have on your clients.
This article was last modified on January 6, 2023
This article was first published on December 20, 2001
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