I bet you were thinking the title of this article had something to do with the Presidential Election. Gotcha! It has nothing to do with either of the candidates. It is also not about who is superior– Males vs. Females in a “Battle of the Sexes”. We all know the answer to that. <Insert evil laugh> as I run to high five Judy Novotny, our DCT Apple aficionado.
Apples and Oranges Windows
Today, I taught a class on Windows 10 at the local library and had some folks in attendance that decided my class would be their Forum for debate. One man asked, “How is Windows 10 better than Mac OS Leopard?”
The question threw me for a total loop as I am a PC girl and own an Android smartphone. I was thinking to myself, “Where is Judy from DCT?”
Judy is our resident DCT Apple Goddess. I respect her knowledge and have gone to her before. When I am teaching, I never answer anything I know nothing about. I defer it to, “I can get back to you with the correct answer if you would like me to.”
This particular man claimed the Mac Operating System (OS) is better than Windows 10 or any PC OS that has ever been created. I was aware the other 23 people in the room were watching me intently, waiting for my response. I reminded him the class was about Windows 10 and was not a matter of a Mac vs PC preference. I asked him if he owned a PC and he stated his wife did. I stood my ground and did not get frazzled as I redirected his comment. A few minutes later another man in the class raised his hand and asked, “Macs boot faster than any PC, isn’t that so?”
I replied, “That depends on the PC and the hard drive as well as many other factors.”
I have a Solid State Drive (SSD) on this PC and plenty of RAM and an i7 processor so I can attest that my computer boots quickly. No one else in the class brought up Macs for the remainder of the class, for which I was thankful.
There’s nothing you can do to convince a hater that one is better than the other. I am not saying either man in my class was a hater, but there are plenty of haters out there when it comes to PCs vs Macs. Many ad campaigns out there will try to sway your belief by having sexy or studly actors/actresses pushing their wares. The ads I have seen show cool, young, hip people using Macs. I saw a Microsoft ad campaign a few years ago where Microsoft gave someone an amount of money, around $750, to buy a computer that suited their needs. If they could find one, they could keep it. The Mac user (a paid actor) sighs and ends up purchasing a PC and says sarcastically, “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.”
There’s nothing we can do about this volley going back and forth. We can do our part to un-snark (is that even a word?) things as far as we, the consumers, are concerned.
Chocolate & Vanilla… in a way
When people argue over Mac or PC, there are valid arguments for both sides. Every computer user has different needs so the argument can never come to a conclusion. Mac folks love the simplicity of their computers and the belief they have little to fear from security threats. I will not bash them for their beliefs. My two geeky sons are gamers and are constantly adding new components and tweaking settings to play the latest games out there. They are both staunch PC enthusiasts due to the limitations with a Mac as you cannot upgrade most of the components in them. (Please correct me if I am wrong Mac folks.)
I have a Microsoft Zune MP3 player as well as an iPod Touch MP3 player that I acquired from my daughter. I love my Zune much more than the iPod Touch. I intensely dislike iTunes.
With that being said, it’s important to keep in mind that one does not need a reason for preferring Macs over PCs or vice versa. Sometimes, people just prefer one or the other, and that is perfectly valid. I am a very competitive person I might add, and a little competition between the two camps is not a bad thing. Competition is healthy and results in big wins for the consumer.
Let’s keep a healthy, respectful dialogue going about the best parts of our computers and sit back and watch as the two industry giants slowly start to listen to us, the consumers, and make improvements accordingly.
Remember, there is room for both MACs and PCs in the computing world
What are your thoughts folks?
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Sherri. On a lighter side, you might be luckier asking why some people like (prefer) those of another sex, as opposed to those who prefer someone from their own sex.
Hope I got the attention from readers, using that 3 letter word.
We all have what is referred as an opinion – just some are quite about theirs, while others scream it from the mountains (so to speak).
I do not believe we can all live together without different views. It would be as if we were all cloned from the same person.
Being different, unique, makes for a world we can live in – not that it’s perfect, but I’m sure I’d not want to live in a world where we all identical clones, Mindblower! 🙂
“How is Windows 10 better than Mac OS Leopard?”
Sherri, first off, you fell into the age old trap and let it get you without being prepared. After 25 years and teaching a Windows course I would’ve thought you’d be prepared for the question and have a well formulated answer then move on.
I also teach computer classes here for a small community in Ontario, Canada. I don’t fall for the Mac Trap Debate.
I simply say, without going into depth here, that both have their use for the needs of the user. It depends on their environment, office, school or business and the programs/apps that fit for that use. Over and done and I move on with the course. I do say a bit more in my response but this is the basic response.
I don’t allow myself to get into pros and cons because it can lead to a heated argument that always ends up with the rest of the class rolling their eyes.
Create well formulated, politically correct, positive points answer for both systems with the discussion left that there’s good uses for both.
You’ll never win by debating with Mac lovers/Windows haters showing up at a Windows course. It’s not worth wasting valuable time getting into.
Well put. I use a variety of operating systems for different categories of tasks, and in the end my argument is that no one os/hardware combination is “better” than the next. different jobs require different tools. There are some things that windows does better, and there are some things that os x does batter.
I never hated Macs. My preference for Windows has always been the ability to customize the UI to my own specifications, and to use my system the way I want to use it. MACs (the last I knew) do not allow for that. The other huge difference is that so much wonderful software has been available for Windows, far more choices than can be had with any other OS.
Windows 10 put an end to my happy little computing world. In my future, I see a big change. Mac or Linux, which will it be? Sadly, neither will put me back in control.
Thanks for the feedback folks. I respect everyone’s opinions and was not looking to fire up anyone. It is like someone liking Firefox over Chrome. Mac’s are great as you have stated for the right person. They do not meet the budget for some folks. I have used them before and it was a little bit of a learning curve but nothing I couldn’t catch on to.
I respect everyone’s opinion on this subject but was interested in seeing what other folks thought and if someone might enlighten me on that which I do not know about.
It intrigued me that the Mac questioner referred to Leopard, a very old OS at this point. My Mac has Sierra on it, AND Windows 10. I prefer Mac, but as a REALTOR have had to use a PC for most of my career, since most systems were designed around PC. Today, most can now work with any format comfortably.
I do wish to know how I can enter Shortcuts into my PC side so 2 or 3 keystrokes can bring up a longer item without keying in the whole string. Plus, it would be nice if I could figure out how to make the PC save login IDs for private access websites, of which I have a number (several companies related to real estate). Perhaps you could help a W10 flunkey like me?
There are password managers. I personally use LastPass(Browser-based, so if the add-on works in any browser, you can use it on any OS), but others can chime in with their recommendations.
There are also keystroke managers, hotkeys, only a search away. (I personally don’t use any to recommend)