Why people use a MAC.

It took me exactly 8 years to know the truth. Here is a little bit of insight on why people use a MAC and if you are thinking of getting one, then you should probably read this.

First of, I am not a MAC fan. I am a developer and therefore have to use everything, Operating System to me is just another environment where a piece of software needs deployment. For years it bogged my mind about MAC and why people using MAC (specially designers, editors) turn in to such a Crazy Fan of it. After some video production and graphics work I got a very good understanding why people move to MAC.

The first and foremost reason is just like what the MAC fan's say "It comes with everything".

When you first buy a Windows computer, its pretty much a bare bone system and this is where MAC gets ahead, most people are not tech nuts, neither do they have the time to waste 32 hours getting the OS ready for war. It doesn't even come with the basic media codecs, which means it cannot play your favorite movie that you just downloaded. Well MAC is just a little bit less bare bone than Windows. And when you need something, its an app store away, you don't have to go Google for answers or be lost. Out of the box MACs run a good web browser (safari whereas Windows is still stuck with crappy Internet Explorer) and allows you to do a bit more by providing tools you need for everyday life out of the box.

Drivers and hardware choice is another MAC benefit and a curse. Since you do not have the freedom of every hardware. Since every hardware manufacturer doesn't support MAC, or MAC doesn't support every manufacturer. The limiting factor makes MAC better because its their choice of hardware (the choice isn't much though) and their optimized drivers. So that's why things work slightly tighter on a MAC. It may not have the best in line graphics card or the cutting edge memory but they have the right drivers to use their hardware more precisely. That coupled with a good kernel gives MAC its ability to run non-stop for weeks or even months.

While I indulged myself in designing for printing media I felt the need for the extra wide color GAMUT Adobe RGB produces (windows uses sRGB by default), the difference is minimal but the extra amount of color difference you can see on a MAC screen helps make you better designs. All the pro level (high end) laptops (ex: Dell Precision) and Professional monitors have Adobe RGB available.  Regular LCDs doesn't come with a wide color gamut to keep the costs down. MACs do cost a lot of money, but for a reason and it is true they do profit a lot out of your pocket and also from the developers pocket by charging them for software that they make for you.

I have heard MAC FAGs repeat this dialogue so much : " MACs just work !!" with hands up in the air. At one point I was about to slaughter some of these FAGs, Oh yeah ! . Then it hit me, why wouldn't it work? there are no virus , no slowdown, the OS doesn't let you actually do anything to it (example: wreck it), the less you get to fiddle around, the more stock it remains(adding a theme and widget customization is not OS customization, changing the shell is). So the MAC OSX just runs and runs without much problem.

Windows machines to me are still better than MACs since I only use server 2003 and 2008. Having the freedom to use any software is also a plus, when you are part of the majority you also benefit from the regular things such as playing any games, unlimited upgrade choices etc. MAC being the minority has created a shell around them to protect themselves from the bad things and kept only the best things. But you are a social creature and bound to have friends with windows and when he shares a software that doesn't work on your MAC then you look at your pretty machine and just feel like you are being left out of the playground.

Chose a MAC if you want a hassle free life. Get some Windows if you have the balls to be careful. Thats it.