The PC vs. Mac wars just need to die. They’re stupid and pointless. They accomplish absolutely nothing but just more back-and-forth shouting, and the same exact arguments come up every time, making the PC vs. Mac flamewar one giant cliche.
Here are six arguments that come up in every PC vs. Mac debate that are complete myth and have absolutely no merit.
“Macs can’t play games!”
Yup, they can actually. The Portal series runs great on a Mac and so does Civilization IV, Bioshock, and numerous other grade-A games thanks to Steam. Even on the low-end Macs that only have integrated graphics, these games coast along fairly well.
I will say, though, that PC has and will probably always have more titles available than the Mac, but the number of games available for Mac machines is growing and will always grow from this point on.
“PCs are slow, they always crash, and get viruses!”
I’m not sure what PC you’re using, but within the past five or so years that I’ve owned my PC, not once has it gotten a virus or crashed. I also never considered it “slow.” That’s mostly because I took care of my PC and knew how to use it. It’s just like a vehicle: If you know how to use it and take good care of it, it will perform admirably. However, if you never change the oil, expect only problems to arise.
Aside from regular maintenance (on a Mac too, not just PC), you should expect the occasional failure of hardware. It shouldn’t happen, but it just does. And it’ll happen with both PCs and Macs.
Whenever a Microsoft hater spells the company name with a “$” (Micro$oft)
So, I’m pretty sure you’re not aware that Apple is the most valuable company in the world and has more cash reserves than the Federal Government. Microsoft’s money-making ways don’t even come close to Apple’s.
Apple’s “stupid” one-button mice and “not-that-much-better” trackpads
I will admit that Apple’s one-button mouse from a few years ago (the Mighty Mouse) was pretty crappy. Like…really crappy, but they’ve come a long way since then with the Magic Mouse and glass trackpads thanks to the implementation of multitouch.
The trackpad on the MacBook is simply nothing like a standard PC trackpad. That sounds really subjective at first and most PC users will say, “It can’t be that much better than my HP’s trackpad.” However, it really is. MacBook trackpads are configurable to almost an excessive degree thanks to multitouch and utilities like BetterTouchTool. I can click, right-click, middle-click, scroll, two, three, or four-finger swipe in four different directions, pinch-zoom, expand, rotate, two-finger tap, three-finger tap, and four-finger tap. That’s just the tip of iceberg, really. There are a ton of other gestures that I can do, all with a flat surface and one single button.
“OS X just simply runs better than Windows”
This sort of goes back to the second myth, but the latest OS X (10.7) does not run better than the latest Windows (7) and vice versa. This argument did have some merit a few years ago when Windows actually wasn’t that great, but today both OSes perform fairly equally. They both have their strong advantages that make each unique, but they also have their own tiny, albeit annoying quirks that make you want to pull your hair out.
“Macs are way overpriced!”
I saved this one for last because it’s probably the most-known and most-used argument of all. A lot of Apple haters like to play the overpriced card and say they could get a PC with the same specs for way less. While it is possible to find a PC that’s cheaper on average, that doesn’t mean Macs are overpriced by any means.
However, the price gap between PCs and Macs is shrinking, especially with the direction that the industry is going with Ultrabooks and the MacBook Air (in fact, there’s hardly a price difference in that category). Eventually, the overpriced argument will be obsolete. I think that’s because PC manufacturers are now starting to add their own “Apple tax” to their new Ultrabooks because “if Apple can sell their thin-and-light laptop for that much, why can’t we?”
Conclusion
When it comes down to it, it’s all about preference. Some people like PCs because they like Windows and they’re cheaper overall, and others like Macs because they’re aesthetically pleasing and come with a richer user experience you won’t find elsewhere. They both have their advantages and disadvantages, which makes them unique in their own ways. I’m both a PC and Mac guy because I couldn’t tell you straight up which one is better. I like both very much and I think they each have great things going for them.
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