I need to upgrade my computer. I currently use Windows XP. Over the years I've been told that Apple is the way to go for those who are into photography, video, graphic design, etc. Is this still true? Is there still a strong differential between an Apple and the Windows format?

Does anyone have a strong case for Apple? What are the advantages? What about all the software I've already purchased for Windows? Would I get a discount if I transferred applications? What about upgrades like CS3?
What about my plug-ins from a 3rd party?

If I stay windows do you have any recommendations? Dell, HP, etc? It seems one can buy a lot for less than $1,500

hi,
this is my opinion, years ago I would have recommended apple for serious grphics and movie editing... however that was about 10-15 years.. a big difference I do not believe there is that much difference any more....

and from mac fan I'll probably get ping on ...lol.....

I think maybe the strong points of apple right now is... it a little more user friendly, there using a more mature OSx operating system , a little more safer against malware, there gui interphase for things more smoother than your wintell ( a windows/intell system) . and heard very good things about there teck support...

the big drawbacks for apple is low variety of software avail and high cost.....

your wintell machines in general are much more powerfull and faster... much larger variety of programs and cost less...

if you go the apple route... your not going to get any discounts for your software.. smile... however depending on the apple model... you can load along with OSx , windows xp and using a program llike bootcamp run your windows xp programs.... but I am not real familiar with that process talk to some one who has that setup already...

as far as which wintel system...mmm. Dell tech support been poor the last 3 or 4 years..... gateway and emachine has gotten better,, right now I think i would lean toward HP!! however..... I always prefer a customize machine....!!! from a good reputable shop... you get to determine what parts and how you want the system put together.....



I need to upgrade my computer. I currently use Windows XP. Over the years I've been told that Apple is the way to go for those who are into photography, video, graphic design, etc. Is this still true? Is there still a strong differential between an Apple and the Windows format?

Does anyone have a strong case for Apple? What are the advantages? What about all the software I've already purchased for Windows? Would I get a discount if I transferred applications? What about upgrades like CS3?
What about my plug-ins from a 3rd party?

If I stay windows do you have any recommendations? Dell, HP, etc? It seems one can buy a lot for less than $1,500

Thank you for your feedback. Just a comment. I've had terrible customer service support from HP. In the past, I've own many of their products from scanners, to PDA's, to computers. When I had a problem it was hell getting a real person on the phone and when I finally did the service and support was terrible. Is HP better now?

I've lurked here for a while and never posted, but here's finally something I feel I have enough knowledge of to post about it.

I was a windows user for many years, and a couple years ago converted to purely mac. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages and you have to weigh them on your own to decide which is best for you. Below is a quick list.. Please note that these are only my opinions from my own experience, having worked tech help lines and been dealing with computers for many years.

Apple -

Advantages - No viruses, malware, spyware, or stability problems. To put it simply, they just work. No complicated install/uninstall procedures (not even driver installs to run hardware usually), and no insane system registry to get clogged up with old installs. Very reliable, very stable, very difficult to crash. If something does go wrong, you have a keystroke command to shut down any program causing problems, that works 99.9% of the time (unlike alt+cntrl+del on windows, which occasionally works)

Disadvantages - Expensive (some would say overpriced), limited options on the system setups.. you are limited mostly to whatever apple is producing at the time with what options they happen to be offering. Not compatible with many programs, though for image processing it's not really a problem.

________

Windows based -

Advantages - you can get a powerful system for a low price, compatible with almost any software.

Disadvantages - Many virus/malware/etc problems, though these can be mostly prevented with proper system care. Prone to crashing, require a lot of disk maintenance to keep things running smoothly. New windows vista is a MASSIVE system hog, and requires a lot of power to function properly, meaning you need to go for a little higher up system to get the same performance.

______

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and clearly you can see my bias towards apple, but that's simply the experience I have had. They just work.

So in my opinion, Apple is worth the extra cost. However, if working on a budget, you will get more bang for your buck with a windows system. Using the two systems is very much similar. The file structure is basically the same concept, and the keystrokes you are use to with windows are often exactly the same on a mac, you just use the apple/option keys instead of control/alt.

One last note.. with the new intel based mac systems, you now have the ability to run the windows os as a dual boot on the same machine, which lets you switch over to windows if there are some vital programs that you use that are windows only.. which pretty much eliminates the compatibility problems.

Kyle

hi,
as far as HP periheals I have always had good support over the years... now on the pc support... well 4 or 5 years ago hp was so so... and dell was good... but now dell is so so and hp been getting a lot of good reviews on thier teck support.... and that reflective in customer satisfaction surveys...
now of that is relative... smile...

otherwise I don't know what else to say... smile.. like i mentioned I always bought a customize machine... where I know the parts are good... and windows hasn't overly been tweaked... a lot of your brand computers will over tweak a system to make windows work with the hardware..


Thank you for your feedback. Just a comment. I've had terrible customer service support from HP. In the past, I've own many of their products from scanners, to PDA's, to computers. When I had a problem it was hell getting a real person on the phone and when I finally did the service and support was terrible. Is HP better now?

So it is a matter of performance. As far as the utilization of the software for page design, graphics, photos and video one would say they are equivalent?

Scott Finnie, a Windows expert and writer for Computerwworld, decided to have a three-month trial of a Macintosh as his primary machine.

His experience of moving to the Mac platform is found in the following three Computerworld articles. He writes about his likes/dislikes, his problems, his search for Mac software, etc.

Be forewarned, these are lengthy articles. Listed in order of publication.


http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9004803

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005712

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9010759


Pete

Additional cost of replacing Windows software with Mac software used to be a BIG consideration in a Windows --> Mac conversion.

Is that still true with the new WinTel Macs or does, say, Windows Photoshop CS2 or Windows Office 2003 run w/o problems on the new Macs?

I've lurked here for a while and never posted, but here's finally something I feel I have enough knowledge of to post about it.

I was a windows user for many years, and a couple years ago converted to purely mac. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages and you have to weigh them on your own to decide which is best for you. Below is a quick list.. Please note that these are only my opinions from my own experience, having worked tech help lines and been dealing with computers for many years.

Apple -

Advantages - No viruses, malware, spyware, or stability problems. To put it simply, they just work. No complicated install/uninstall procedures (not even driver installs to run hardware usually), and no insane system registry to get clogged up with old installs. Very reliable, very stable, very difficult to crash. If something does go wrong, you have a keystroke command to shut down any program causing problems, that works 99.9% of the time (unlike alt+cntrl+del on windows, which occasionally works)

Disadvantages - Expensive (some would say overpriced), limited options on the system setups.. you are limited mostly to whatever apple is producing at the time with what options they happen to be offering. Not compatible with many programs, though for image processing it's not really a problem.

________

Windows based -

Advantages - you can get a powerful system for a low price, compatible with almost any software.

Disadvantages - Many virus/malware/etc problems, though these can be mostly prevented with proper system care. Prone to crashing, require a lot of disk maintenance to keep things running smoothly. New windows vista is a MASSIVE system hog, and requires a lot of power to function properly, meaning you need to go for a little higher up system to get the same performance.

______

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and clearly you can see my bias towards apple, but that's simply the experience I have had. They just work.

So in my opinion, Apple is worth the extra cost. However, if working on a budget, you will get more bang for your buck with a windows system. Using the two systems is very much similar. The file structure is basically the same concept, and the keystrokes you are use to with windows are often exactly the same on a mac, you just use the apple/option keys instead of control/alt.

One last note.. with the new intel based mac systems, you now have the ability to run the windows os as a dual boot on the same machine, which lets you switch over to windows if there are some vital programs that you use that are windows only.. which pretty much eliminates the compatibility problems.

KyleHey, Kyle... great 1st post. Keep 'em coming.

So if you boot Windows on a new Mac, doesn't that open one up to all the downsides of Windows native, i.e., drivers, registry hassles, etc?

Danny

>>So if you boot Windows on a new Mac, doesn't that open one up to all the downsides of Windows native, i.e., drivers, registry hassles, etc?

Yes, it does.

Adobe offers a cross grade option for folks who need it. Contact their customer service.

Something that people don't talk about is the fact that When you buy a Mac you not only get premium hardware components (Apple controls what goes into the machine - hard drives, optical drives, sound card, etc. and controls the quality of the goods), but Apple also creates the Operating System that runs the hardware providing seamless and stable reliability and true Plug and Play compatability. The folks in Redmond attempt to create a single Operating System that will run on anything and drive everything creating a maze of dll files and registry files that often conflict with each other because no one is in control. If I see the Apple OS trademark on a third party keyboard, I KNOW it will work on my Mac. The manufacturer cannot put that trademark there unless Apple approves it.

I only have 3 third party drivers installed on my Mac. Epson Twain, Wacom Tablet, and Intel 5 button mouse. My Zip drive, external floppy drive, external Firewire CDR burner, 2 external firewire drives, iSight camera, Creature Speakers, 2 flash thumb drives, 2 Epson Printers, 1 HP PostScript laser printer, Bluetooth dongle, camera memory cards reader, USB midi interface, iPod Nano etc. never required the installment of third party drivers. All work just fine with native OSX drivers. Talk about Plug and Play! :-)

One of my latest additions was a wireless keyboard. I purchased a Bluetooth USB "dongle", plugged it into my monitor, ran the Apple Bluetooth utility and was up and running in about 15 seconds. It immediately recognized the Bluetooth capability of my Razor cell phone at the same time it was logging in the keyboard. It's almost magic! At the same time, my neighbor added Bluetooth card to his Gateway machine. Four hours later he finally managed to send a photo from his cell phone to his computer, but now he cannot print wirelessley from his laptop unless he disables the Bluetooth. There seems to be some dll or registry conflict or something.

My son spent two days with tech support at UCLA trying to get his new Think Pad laptop to see the University's wireless network. He came home for a short visit, booted up his Think Pad and was immediately online through my Apple Air Port base station. I'm telling you, it's magic!

My S/O had a client at the print shop that needed to upload about 35 JPEGS to a canned real estate web site. He went to their house to help them at 5:00 PM and worked until 12:00 AM on their new Sony Vaio. It kept locking up, freezing, multiple reboots, patches etc. He came home and got my old Power Book at 12:30 took it back to their house and set up a new user account on it for them and had the JPEGS uploaded in 15 minutes. He left my PB with them so they could finish adding the descriptive text the next day. When they brought my laptop back to him, they said they wished they had gotten a Mac instead of the Vaio.

My 85 year old uncle just bought a top of the line DELL. All tricked out with bells and whistles. He's running Win XP Pro. Well, he tries to run it. It stays online constantly downloading patches and malware fixes. He can't get his external speakers working or his midi interace (he plays clarinet in a swing band and uses Band in A Box software). DELL tech support has had him reinstall the OS about 4 times, tinker this, trash that. Still no joy. I can plug his USB speakers into my laptop and they work fine through either iTunes or Garage Band. I ran out of USB ports on my laptop, but once I added a USB hub and plugged in his midi interface, his Roland worked fine with Garage Band.

The point I'm trying to make is...Four different computers. All probably decent hardware, but combined with a Swiss Army Knife Operating System from Microsoft, they all had problems doing things that people just "want to do" on their computers. Once you are "in" a program, they all work about the same. PhotoShop on the PC is almost identical to PhotoShop on the Mac. It boils down to a solid Operating System that is designed to serve the external devices and treat memory protection, port access and drivers between applications with respect. Anyone who developes hardware or software for Apple computers MUST stick to the rules so that everyone and everything will "play nice" and THINGS JUST WORK!

I second Swampy and Kyo. I retired 4 years ago. After working with Intel computers for 20 years, I switched to a Mac Powerbook G4. When i got it home and turned it on, it found my network without a problem. It took less than an hour to get used to it. The biggest problem I had was the 1-button touch pad and I solved it by purchasing a cheap 3 button mouse for it.

Last year, I dumped my PC and bought a 20" Intel iMac. The only thing I had to do was transfer my Photoshop CS2 license from the PC to the Mac. I haven't looked back since. I didn't like the one button mouse so I bought an Apple Might Mouse. It has worked flawlessly for me so far. The only thing i woule like to see is more Mac-compatible extras for Photoshop, but that's not such a big thing.

I reinstalled Windows XP on the PC and gave it to my wife. I installed Word and Excel on it because we have a lot of documents in both programs. These are the only Microsoft programs I have on the Mac. It just makes it easier for use when we're working together on a project.

My wife constantly downloads updates and patches, etc.. She has had trouble with it locking up on occasion and I have to come to her rescue.

Now if I can just get more proficient in Photoshop, I'll be a happy camper.

I've got a intel QE6600 PC
installed it with OSX native just to run aperture. yap PC with OSX.

well it's about the same speed with vista. no diff.

the only real diff is that PC can overclock. currently running a QE6600 2.4Ghz at 4.5Ghz. air cooling.

You've got me interested in Apple..but it seems I'd have to take a big hit buying software if I want to be compatible with Apple software. I hear what you are saying about using windows xp on a Mac but lets say I worked on a photo in a windows application could I drag it over to a Mac application? In addition I would want to keep buy windows applications to support the window format. If I bought CS3 for example for Mac I'd have to repurchase plug in's to support the new format..right?

Skydog,

A Photoshop file that you do on a PC can be opened in the Mac version with the caveat that you are using the same version of Photoshop on both platforms in that your file does not contain features or new capabilities that an older version may not have. You can get around this by saving out as a flat TIFF file that can be opened in any version of Photoshop.

Yes, you would need Mac versions of your Plugins if you were using the Mac version of Photoshop. Many actions, brushes, textures etc are cross platform compatible though.

Since Adobe allows for full installation of its products on up to two computers (under one registration number), They may allow for one install as Mac and the other as PC. I do know that Adobe used to offer a great package of the CS suite especially for professionals that included BOTH PC/Mac versions in one purchase. I think it was called "Adobe Partner's". The total cost was about $600,

"In addition I would want to keep buy windows applications to support the window format."

Hi Skydog,

if the hands-on experience of actual switchers is any indication you will NOT "want to keep buy windows applications to support the window format". Why would you? It doesn't make sense to spend money on apps you never use...

Have fun!

Hi there,
when it comes to photoshop I believe that there isn't a great difference between the two performance / usage wise. Most of your plug ins should be cross platform compatible. I have found that the mac is a lot better at creating DVDs, etc. Also as other people have mentioned macs just work. You can turn them on straight out of the box and within a few minutes you can be up and surfing the internet, creating DVDs, and photoshopping.
Macs are dearer than their PC counterparts, but then it is like buying a Volkswagen and a Porsche......
Just my 2 cents.
Drew.

People can (and have) taken both sides on issues of cost, usability, speed, etc. And frankly, if it's just you and your computer working alone, either for your own pleasure or for a living, then you can let your research lead you where it leads you. The computer that's best for you is the one you like the most.

But one thing no one ever seems to talk about is working in a professional, collaborative imaging environment. In that case, there is a serious advantage to working on a Mac. And I'm not talking about compatibility or communications or interoperability or anything else like that. It's more a cultural thing, akin to your wardrobe or what accent you speak with.

I've lost work because I use Windows. And I work freelance from my home. And I work as a writer and editor, not as a photographer or retoucher. So even though I'll never touch their machines, never work on their files, never communicate with their network, never share software, or even meet these people in person, I've still lost jobs because I "speak with the wrong accent".

Granted, it's only happened a couple of times, but I know from speaking with others that it's even more pronounced for those interviewing to work on staff. It may sound outrageous, or unfair, but working on a Mac will give you the same disadvantage if you're hoping to work in other industries (finance, sales, engineering, etc.).

Doug...

>>>but working on a Mac will give you the same disadvantage if you're hoping to work in other industries (finance, sales, engineering, etc.).
__________________
I don't know if that is true or not. Might be true if you were in IT, but most job applications that I see in the paper just say "Must have working knowledge of (insert program name here)". Never a mention of which platform Mac/PC.

As fully demonstrated by this very forum, people with a working knowledge of similar programs achieve sellable results regardless of the platform they are working on. I'm totaly lost when someone here gives tutorials in Paint Shop Pro because I use Photoshop. So, my "accent" is Photoshop, yours might be Painter, but the hardware has little bearing save for the programs that are availbe for it.

My interests are photo retouch, photo effects, and doing faux-art renderings on photos. Although both platforms will run Photoshop and Painter, many of the third party plugins and specialty tools are PC only.

As fully demonstrated by this very forum, people with a working knowledge of similar programs achieve sellable results regardless of the platform they are working on. I'm totaly lost when someone here gives tutorials in Paint Shop Pro because I use Photoshop. So, my "accent" is Photoshop, yours might be Painter, but the hardware has little bearing save for the programs that are availbe for it.


Like prejudice, snobbery has no sense or value to it.

The people who judge others by what software or platform they use are not usually swayed by the fact that you produce outstanding work on your programme/platform of choice, just that you don't use the one they want you to and that therefore you should be shunned.