I like PC the most but I am currently on a crapple... Erm apple. Its a macbook issued by the school. I dont like it. Its slow, cheap (screen cracked 2x, keyboard edges have cracks) And they are so expensive to fix! Well school is part to blame for that as they rip you off for repairs!

That sounds more like abuse typical of institutional anything. Still, aluminum unibody >> plastic.

Yes. Fortunately for us, the large multi-national conglomerates in the rest of the world are kindly, almost saintlike, institutions who have nothing but the welfare of their fellow men at heart.

And, to get back on topic, I'm "both", I'm running a Hackintosh. I refuse to pay the apple premium for what is basically off the shelf hardware painted white. And yes, I did purchase the software.

I like Apple hardware; it's elegantly designed which appeals to my artistic side. However, I agree with you in that OS X (Unix!!!!) is what makes a Mac a Mac; without that the hardware is nothing.

Actually this is not the aluminum one, rather the cheap old style plastic one. I dont abuse this computer. I always keep it in a thick padded case. Just cant hold up to the long backpack encased rough school life.

I dont think I know any other student whos laptop has -not- had this issue.
http://www.blackstickblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dsc033271.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3345/3335476837_88c1a2f0a8.jpg

I understood it was a plastic one. Plastic is unfortunately not the best material for a portable computer. If it doesn't crack or something, it gets creaky and squeaky. My unibody MBP is so much nicer in this regard. I carry it about a good bit, and yet it is still as solid as it was when I got it a year ago.

Midrange CAD applications (AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks, SolidEdge) are Windows only. CATIA & Pro/E still have Unix versions but I don't know that they would run natively on MacOS.

Do they not run under parallels or fusion?

The Unix versions would probably run via the command line in X11. OS X is Unix.

They might for a small assembly or simple parts, but for large machinery or complicated parts that use 4GB or more of RAM, you are probably better off without the extra layer for stability and speed reasons. Parallels and Fusion are basically a virtual machine layer that you can run Windows in, right?

My point to the original poster was that there are some applications for which there is no native Mac substitute.

If a virtual machine doesn't work, you can always dual boot an Intel Mac. Any processor/graphics intensive app really should be run natively anyway.

A Intel processor computer running Windows natively is a PC, even if it has an Apple logo on it.

I think that goes without saying...though it looks a heckuva lot nicer than any other PC.

Mac. In the early 90's I had started using video and computers. NEVER did I have a problem as I did with PC's. I ditched the platform and went Mac, never went or needed to go back.

Interesting update:
Microsoft Announces Improved BSOD

LMAO!!!!!

That is seriously innovative form, Horowitzian! I don't think I've ever see someone write "LMAO!!!" followed by "Best Regards"!!

Mac! Two PowerBooks at home and anxiously awaiting delivery of my iPad. (C'mon April 3 ... a gift from the best Apple-employed brother in the whole wide world!!) They still stick me with a lab full of PCs at work, though.

My BIG investment is my piano. My get-by-with-what-I-must investment is the computer. PC.

PC, cheap HP laptop from my dad. Used to run Linux (Mint, Debian, Slackware) but switched back to Windows because of problems with audio, and now that I got 7 instead of staying with XP, I have the same problem with audio I had on linux, I can't run an ASIO (JACK on lunix) audio app and a normal app both at the same time... which wasn't on XP. Whee.

So do you have that iPad yet?

I like windows since I learned how to use a computer with the old windows Me, then I moved to XP and finally to Vista.
I was not very happy since I had to format the pc many times, had virus, etc... and then I needed a new pc, and I bought a sony vaio just when Vista came out. that means a XP computer with a software to big to it. I wanted to buy a Mac, it was around the same price, but in the last minute I gave up and bought the vaio.
it was the biggest mistake of my computer life. I couldn't play games, I had less then an hour of battery... awful.
In last year's november, I bought my macbook withe, I like it much better then the vaio, the screen is awesome, I've 7 hours of battery, it didn't crash or and a virus.
but i must say that I really miss the Office and MSN.
about linux, I don't like it because I didn't found out how to install stuff on it.
in the future, I think I will get an IMac for my home, and a pc as a laptop, because Macs aren't very popular around here, and I need a Windows to work.
I don't think that macs are over priced. I need a computer that lasts a lot of time, my mac was 899, I think that in 5 years I will have it working just fine... a pc of €600 wouldn't do the same

As an artist myself, I've got to vote Mac, though I do think they're overpriced. I don't hate PCs like a lot of Apple fans, they each have their benefits. The Mac I'm on now cost a fair bit, but it's lasted well and always been able to do all I ask of it.

I turned to the Mac side cus PC's well certain OS's that is are getting too bogged down with having to defend their selves from invasion.

My PC and Midi interface always suffered latency, I got my Mac connected the same midi interface and voila, no latency straight out the box.

I like the Mac cus it just keeps working, I have a PC but I usually mess around with it installing linux and whatever I can get me hands on. Saying that, I'll probably be selling the PC soon cus it mostly sits around collecting dust.

Cheers

Mart.

PS. I work on PC's all day by the way, I'm an IT Tech so have to suffer them daily. :o(

PC, because I understand how computers work. Windows 7 definitively ends all security concerns with the revamping of user permissions.

Laptop is a Lenovo T61 with 4GB ram, 2.8ghz core 2 duo, and 250GB OCZ Vertex SSD. 5 hour battery life. Three years old and looks like absolutely brand new despite having fallen off of grand pianos onto hardwood floors over thirty times. Magnesium alloy rollcage, waterproof keyboard, etc. Built far better than any Mac (or other windows laptop), and was far, far faster than anything available at the time - with more features to boot.

HTPC is a custom built machine in a Silverstone GD02-MT Black touchscreen case with a 4ghz core i5, 8GB ram, 4TB of storage space, and a Radeon 5870. Absolutely nothing Mac has can even remotely compare to the power and ease of use of Windows Media Center. Runs a complete projector based home theater with full HD codec capability (including DTS-MA and TrueHD), all from the ease of use of my Logitech Harmony One remote (the touchscreen case has a built in IR receiver). Good luck getting your mac to do that!

This kind of ignorance always makes me smile. And statements like this are often followed by an impressive spec sheet – big numbers and cool letter combinations to prove how 'good' the system is and how knowledgeable the owner is about computers.

I think you'll find that the average Mac user has more Windows experience than vice versa.

Just for the record, I have a quad core workstation that I built myself to be dead quiet, and it runs Snow Leopard. But most of the time I'm on my MacBook Pro chatting with friends about how cute it is, because it's too slow and dumb for any serious work, like me. Lolz.

I am a PC, and I use Finale.

I've used Macs, I've used Sibelius, and I honestly prefer what I've stuck to. PCs run into all sorts of little minor problems, but none of them compare to the glorious rainbow wheel of death. If it weren't for that, I would probably switch over to using a Mac... but that's the way things are.

As far as Finale vs. Sibelius goes (not sure if this is related...) I prefer Finale because it feels a lot more like writing the music out by hand. It feels like "real" composition, where I always feel like the computer is assisting me when I write with Sibelius. That said, Sibelius is much more streamlined; Finale has a lot of kinks.

But anyway... I am a PC

Long term Mac user here. Well, I say that... I run Windows on my Macbook Pro as well (for the occasional game generally..!!) which pretty much snuff's out the PC is Better argument..

I'm a software developer, and I use a Mac, Windows, *and* Linux, often at the exact same time At work I have a MBP set up on one external monitor, then I have two more monitors connected to a nice box running Ubuntu which also dual boots into Windows 7. If I can't be bothered to restart the computer into windows, I can always run it inside a virtual machine (VirtualBox). I'm able to use the same mouse and keyboard on both physical computers with Synergy, an awesome program that sends mouse clicks and keystrokes over your network.

Here's what I like about Linux:
1) You need software? Fire up your software manager and just download it. Everything you ever need is free, and most of it is quite good.
2) Secure. Same lack of virus/malware problems as a Mac.
3) Powerful. If you're willing to learn a bit of command line fu, you can do pretty amazing things.

Linux cons:
1) While community help is generally easy to find, sometimes you have to dig around for just the right thing. Since there are so many flavors (distros) of Linux, getting the right info can be a bit hard sometimes.
2) Won't play your kids' games. They're written for Windows, although there are a few good ones available for Linux (and you can always try Wine as mentioned elsewhere, but don't get your hopes up).

Things I like about Mac:
1) It's pretty
2) No viruses/malware, etc

Mac cons:
1) I really don't know where people get this "it's so intuitive" stuff from. Take some of the keystrokes for instance. Go google how to take a screenshot on a Mac - go ahead, I'll wait. Done? Yeah, there are at least four different keystroke commands, consisting of at least 4 keys each, to take a screenshot. A small example, I know, but I don't buy that macs are more intuitive - especially since 3rd party developers on mac make the same bad user interface decisions that they make on Windows. And don't even get me started on copying/pasting with the keyboard.
2) Super expensive. They call it the Apple tax for a reason. You can get the same hardware in a PC for about half the price and do the same stuff with it.

Things I like about Windows:
1) That I can turn it off

Windows cons:
Really, there are too many to list. After being turned onto Linux, I can't really go back except to play games.