Posted on 04/16/2008 2:50:20 AM PDT by Swordmaker
This computer rivalry has been elevated to a cultural divide on par with Pepsi versus Coke. Taking it beyond personal taste, PM crunches the numberswith some surprising results (and detailed benchmark scores).
We all know the stereotypes. Apples popular commercials have painted the picture in stark terms: There are two types of people, Mac people and PC people. And if the marketing is to be believed, the former is a hip, sport-coat-and-sneakers- wearing type of guy who uses his computer for video chatting, music mash-ups and other cool, creative pursuits that starchy, business-suited PC users could never really appreciate unless they tried them on the slick Apple interface. Then again, Windows PC enthusiasts probably think that Mac guy is a smug slacker with an overpriced toy that cant do any serious computing anyway. Funny thing is, both stereotypes are wrong. With a 7.5 percent market share, Macs are no longer just the computer choice of artists and unemployed writers. (Apple is, in fact, the fourth largest computer manufacturer in the world.) And now, more than ever, the guts of both platforms are remarkably similar. Both types of machines use Intel processors (although some PCs can be configured with processors from AMD). Both buy memory, hard drives and graphics cards from the same small pool of suppliers. The underlying operating systems have distinctly different flavors, but in terms of functionality, Microsoft Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard have surprisingly similar built-in multimedia, Internet and productivity applications.
Yet what makes the platforms feel so dissimilar is their approaches to these applications. Internet Explorer versus Safari, Windows Media Center versus Front Row, Photo Gallery versus iPhoto, Backup and Restore Center versus Time Machinethese system components from Microsoft and Apple are designed to accomplish essentially the same goals. To users, however, the position and movement of the virtual knobs and levers make all the difference.
These things are largely matters of preference and style, but you can still make a reasonable attempt to quantify them, and we did. We tested two all-in-one desktops and two laptopsone Mac and one PC per categoryand assembled a panel of testers with a range of experience and preference that ran the gamut from expert users to my wifes stepfather, who, by his own account, had never actually turned on a computer. Our testers were asked to set up the computers right out of the box and explore the machines through everyday tasks such as Web surfing, document creation, uploading photos, downloading Adobe Acrobat files and playing music and movies through Media Center and Front Row (the entertainment software suites integrated into Vista and Leopard, respectively). Our testers were instructed to divorce themselves as much as possible from their previous technological preferences and rate their experiences with each computers software and hardware.
Usability surveys are like taste testsa useful look at the subjective appeal of a device. (Is it fun? Is it easy? Would I be happy to live with this thing?) But beneath their packaging, computers are data-crunching machines that can be run like racehorses. So the second component of our test regimen was about pure performance.
Our computers were closely matched, but in the interest of full disclosure, well spit out the caveats: The Gateway One PC had a processor that runs 400 MHz slower than its iMac competitor (not a heck of a difference in this age of dual-core chips), but it also had two extra gigabytes of DDR2 memory. In the laptop category, our Asus M51 had a 2.2 GHz processor, compared to 2.4 GHz for our MacBook. But the Asus had a larger screen, a more sophisticated graphics card and an extra gig of RAM.
All that extra RAM may seem to give an advantage to the PCs. Vista, however, is a noted memory hog, so throwing more RAM into PC computers is probably less of a perform ance booster for manufacturers than it is a new baseline hardware specification.
Before we pulled out our stopwatches, we turned to two industry-standard, cross-platform benchmarking toolsGeekbench from Primate Labs and Cinebench from Maxonto get third-party results. We ran both benchmarking programs on our Mac and PC desktop and laptop computers before our testers got their dirty little hands on the equipment to ensure that no confounding software could poison the results.
These benchmarks are reliable indicators of performance, but the numbers feel somewhat meaningless to ordinary users. Which is why we created our own suite of tests to meas ure the speed of everyday tasks. We logged boot-up and shutdown times, and launch times for the Internet browser and media player built into each operating system, as well as for common applications such as Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop. We tested how long it took for each computer to rip a CD and install a few big software suites. The laptops were forced to play the longest movie we could find (Saving Private Ryan2 hours, 49 minutes) until they wheezed, sputtered and shut down. Finally, we put all four computers through a stress test. We ran three video sources (a YouTube clip, a DVD and an .avi file), DivX encoding, instant messaging, Word, Adobe Acrobat and a spyware scan simultaneouslythen retimed our launch of Photoshop.
The results gave us a clear winner in the performance categories, but the big surprise was how little difference we found in user preferences. Turns out, both platforms are capable and easy to use, but only one was the victor.
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SPECS |
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Hardware | 20-in. screen, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 RAM, 320 GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, 8x CD/DVD burner, remote control, ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card. |
Software | OS X Leopard, iLife '08 (iTunes, iPhoto, GarageBand, etc.), Front Row, iWork (30-day trial). |
USER RATING |
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Design | ![]() |
Ergonomics | ![]() |
Internet surfing | ![]() |
Digital photo management | ![]() |
iWork | ![]() |
Front Row (movies, music, etc.) | ![]() |
Overall | ![]() |
SPEED TEST | Click here for detailed benchmark scores |
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Boot | Average startup | 28.7 sec. |
Average shutdown | 4.0 sec. | |
Install | Microsoft Office | 4 min. 17 sec. |
Adobe Creative Suite 3 | 31 min. 44 sec. | |
Program Launch | Safari (Internet browser) | 3.3 sec. |
Microsoft Word | 4.2 sec. | |
Adobe Photoshop | 4.0 sec. | |
Stress-launch Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) | 21.36 sec. | |
CD rip | 3 min. 35 sec. |
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SPECS |
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Hardware | 19-in. screen, 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 3 GB DDR2 RAM, 500 GB hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi, 8x CD/DVD burner, remote control, ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics card. |
Software | Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Works 8.5, Media Center, Microsoft Office (60-day trial). |
USER RATING |
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Design | ![]() |
Ergonomics | ![]() |
Internet surfing | ![]() |
Digital photo management | ![]() |
Works | ![]() |
Media Center (movies, music, etc.) | ![]() |
Overall | ![]() |
SPEED TEST | Click here for detailed benchmark scores |
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Boot | Average startup | 1 min. 13 sec. |
Average shutdown | 44.3 sec. | |
Install | Microsoft Office | 6 min. 25 sec. |
Adobe Creative Suite 3 | 25 min. 45 sec. | |
Program Launch | Internet Explorer | 6.3 sec. |
Microsoft Word | 5.2 sec. | |
Adobe Photoshop | 5.5 sec. | |
Stress-launch Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) | 40.0 sec. | |
CD rip | 3 min. 35 sec. |
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SPECS |
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Hardware | 13.3-in. screen, 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo (Penryn); 3GB DDR2 RAM, 160 GB hard drive, 8x CD/DVD burner, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. |
Software | OS X Leopard, iLife '08 (iTunes, iPhoto, GarageBand, etc.), Front Row, iWork (30-day trial). |
Weight | 5 pounds |
BATTERY TEST |
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With the DVD drive spinning and screen at full brightness, the MacBook made it through our movie, but fell short of Apple's stated 6-hour battery life: 3 hr. 34 min. | |
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USER RATING |
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Design | ![]() |
Ergonomics | ![]() |
Internet surfing | ![]() |
Digital photo management | ![]() |
iWork | ![]() |
Media Center (movies, music, etc.) | ![]() |
Overall | ![]() |
SPEED TEST | Click here for detailed benchmark scores |
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Boot | Average startup | 41.6 sec. |
Average shutdown | 3.9 sec. | |
Install | Microsoft Office | 2 min. 57 sec. |
Adobe Creative Suite 3 | 34 min. 54 sec. | |
Program Launch | Microsoft Word | 5.3 sec. |
Adobe Photoshop | 4.1 sec. | |
Stress-launch Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) | 16.2 sec. | |
CD rip | 5 min. 49 sec. |
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SPECS |
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Hardware | 15.4-in. screen, 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 250 GB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card, 8x CD/DVD burner, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. | |
Software | Microsoft Vista Home Premium, Works, Media Center, Office (30-day trial). | |
Weight | 6.5 pounds | |
BATTERY TEST |
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Many users liked the Asuss 15.4-in. screen, but that large display is a drain on the battery. The Asus couldnt make it through our 2-hour, 49-minute movie: 1 hr. 30 min. |
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USER RATING |
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Design | ![]() |
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Ergonomics | ![]() |
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Internet surfing | ![]() |
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Digital photo management | ![]() |
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Works | ![]() |
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Media Center (movies, music, etc.) | ![]() |
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Overall | ![]() |
SPEED TEST | Click here for detailed benchmark scores |
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Boot | Average startup | 1 min. 51 sec. |
Average shutdown | 25.4 sec. | |
Install | Microsoft Office | 4 min. 46 sec. |
Adobe Creative Suite 3 | 21 min. | |
Program Launch | Microsoft Word | 6.2 sec. |
Adobe Photoshop | 5.2 sec. | |
Stress-launch Photoshop (w/ 8 apps running) | 25.5 sec. | |
CD rip | 3 min. 9 sec. |
Mac: In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apples computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didnt come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Our respondents liked the look and feel of both operating systems but had a slight preference toward OS X. In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apples platform-switching Boot Camp softwareand found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.
PC: Simply put, Vista proved to be a more sluggish operating system than Leopard. Our PCs installed some software faster, but in general they were slower in our time trials. Plus, both PCs showed weaker performance on third-party benchmarks than the Macs. Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateways, purchase a copy of Vista to bootand still save $100.
Benchmark Test | iMac 20-in screen; 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo; 1GB DDR2 |
Gateway One 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo; 3GB DDR2 |
Geekbench | ||
Overall | 3180 (2651) | 1903 |
Integer | 2766 (3398) | 2324 |
Floating Point | 4460 (2675) | 1713 |
Memory | 2299 (1720) | 1597 |
Stream | 1916 (1819) | 1707 |
Cinebench | ||
1 CPU | 2619 (2429) | 1979 |
2 CPUs | 4840 (4641) | 3739 |
Graphics | 4819 (3834) | 2913 |
Benchmark Test | MacBook 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo; 1GB DDR2 (Out of production) |
MacBook 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo (Penryn); 3GB DDR2 |
Asus M51 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo; 2GB DDR2 |
Geekbench | |||
Overall | 2885 (2465) | 3156 (2657) | 2445 |
Integer | 2536 (3099) | 2734 (3421) | 3102 |
Floating Point | 3959 (2429) | 4395 (2660) | 2444 |
Memory | 2156 (1730) | 2378 (1785) | 1636 |
Stream | 1809 (1850) | 1853 (1717) | 1772 |
Cinebench | |||
1 CPU | 2409 | 2741 (2561) | 2214 |
2 CPUs | 4468 | 5216 (4838) | 4198 |
Graphics | 2027 | 2040 (835) | 2495 |
Mac users don’t know how to handle the sorts of crises that Windows users find routine. Hmmmm.... Now what does THAT say?
>> Will she even need an Office type program? <<
Oddly, I used Macs last year for the first time in quite a while. I was shocked to find that MS Office ran better on Macs than on Windows. All I can figure is that MS knows it has to compete if it wants to sell Office to Mac users.
Unless you have use for Access (a program which is underused in homes and small businesses), OpenOffice is comparable to MS Office... but it’s available for free! (openoffice.com)
Not since Apple got a patent on the electric universe and bought the Shroud of Turin.
= )
It isn't that so much as it is a lack of effort. When I help a Mac user, "I don't know" is the operative phrase. Both types of machines can have issues, but I find that PC users will at least try before picking up the phone. When I ask a Mac user to verify something for me, since I don't use a Mac on a regular basis, the response is "where is that?" In their defense, I would say that Apple hides many things from the user that would be of help; I guess to protect them from themselves. Just an observation from a weary support guy.
I run NOD 32 on my Laptop and home server—I actually forget it’s even there. I switched to it from McAfee which used to bring my laptop to a crawl.
I use the free AVG. I used to use McAfee and Norton before that and would occasionally get a virus they missed or coldnt’ handle. I have had AVG for much longer than I had both of the others together and have not had any virus problem with it at all.
I am still using W2k and do not plan to “upgrade” even to XP.
I don't have MS Office on my computers.I miss Word about 10 percent of the time I use TextEdit. OpenOffice-- open source freeware-- works pretty well on my Intel machine, although MS Office is still a little bit better.
Is MS Office worth the price? For me, no. For some probably, yes..
It took me about 3 minutes in front of an iMac for me to
ditch Windows forever. I think if most people would use
one for a few minutes, they would follow suit.
It says that PC users are more experienced in solving problems because their computers FU a lot more.
AutoCAD isn’t available for OS X. You’d have to go virtual or Boot Camp, or forget buying a Mac.
Photoshop was born on the Mac.
You can get MS Office, Apple’s own iWork suite or install the free Neo Office (Mac version of OpenOffice).
The F@H SMP client works.
On the outside maybe, but underneath it's entirely different. Most Mac users I know are former Windows users who switched and are so happy they want to let others know there's a better way. I still use Windows more than Mac, and it constantly reinforces how much better the Mac is. It's a practical, logical thing.
Obama supporters are just blinded by the charisma or the ideology.
There are a few large deviations, most notably the creative professional using the design apps, the pro video editor, the college kid and the old-time UNIX guys who switched because now there's finally a usable UNIX.
Of course Windows has been marketed as the entertainment outlet for years and even has a special version for it, Windows Media Center.
Nah, it is something else. The execs with their crackberries are the same. They don't bother to learn; it is all blackbox to them. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing about Macs and have a G5 at home for my daughter's art work. It is just an observation about the users. And Macs do have their own issues from time to time.
The Mac Office developers have pride in their work and have a standing challenge to always do better than the Windows Office developers. They'are a tiny enclave in the huge Microsoft, so they have something to prove.
I was a bit annoyed at this at first. For example you have to drop into terminal (UNIX command line) to fine-tune the power saver settings. OTOH, I understand it's the user interface concept of progressive disclosure, not hitting the user with a wall of options and capabilities all at once. Exactly where the line is drawn will appear to some people as too simplistic, and possibly others as still to complex.
I'm still trying to find where that darned 'any key' is.
Whether she needs Office or not depends on her. You can get the educational version of Office for Mac or PC for about $150, and it includes multiple installations.
The price on Autocad is pretty impressive. Four grand for the full version or $160 for a student version that expires in fourteen months.
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