Mac Questions by Non-geeks
Saturday, May 8, 2010 at 8:33PM This is part of the Questions by Non-geeks series.
In this article we answer some common questions that non-geeks ask us about the Mac computing platform.
What are Macs?
Macs are computers that are made by Apple Inc. Mac's come in all shapes and sizes from the little Mac mini, the all in one iMac, the laptop range (MacBook or MacBook Pro) and to the all powerful Mac Pro. By default Macs come with OSX preinstalled rather than Windows like most PCs do and they also come with a suite of software called iLife. This software allows you to manage photos, create DVD's, create websites and much more.
What do you use Macs for?
Macs are great for general computer use such as browsing the web, checking email, listening to music, watching videos etc as well as for more specialist roles such as Computer Aided Design and media creation. Media creation is where the Mac really stands out, as said previously Mac's come with iLife by default and is great for people who want to manage their photos and create movies and music. There are also some fantastic, professional grade tools for the Mac, these include Final Cut, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Logic Studio.
What do you like about Mac?
Very simple user interface and a great suite of built in applications, OSX is built on top of a rock sold UNIX (BSD) foundation which gives the OS great stability. It's also quite easy to choose that Mac that is right for you since there is only one vendor of Macs (Apple) and a small but very good range of models to choose from. The pre-installed software that is included with the Mac such as iTunes, iMove etc are in general quite easy to use and very useful for basic tasks.
What do you not like?
First off and a big one for a lot of people, price. Macs are rather on the costly side, they can in some cases cost more than double of a PC with similar hardware. Limited choice in games and third party software is another limitation, more publishers are getting on board with the Mac platform so this situation will improve in the future. Software (especially games) can be more expensive for the Mac compared to the same software on the PC. Of course there may be things that you don't personally like about the Mac (like the User Interface for example) but you won't know till you have tried one out, it's best to have a go at using one at an Apple retailer or at an Apple store and see for yourself.
Is it true that I can easily install OSX on a normal PC?
You can't install OSX on any PC you like, it's not likely to work for one reason or the other. OSX will however run happily on some computers that are within certain hardware perimeters but this is breaking Apple's licence agreement and of course these platforms are not supported by Apple, so if there are problems then your on your own. Also updates to OSX can break your system or cause it to become highly unstable. There is a resent episode of Tekzilla that shows OSX being installed on a PC. If you would like to watch it just click here.
How good is gaming on the Mac?
Gaming is not as good on OSX as it is on Windows to be honest but it has certainly improved compared to what it was a few years ago. I personally think this is due to a couple of reasons. The first one is the improvement in Mac hardware, Apple has (mostly) moved away from using the pretty rubbish Intel integrated graphics to Nvidia integrated graphics, they also offer good discrete graphics options and of course the switch to Intel CPUs from IBM's Power PC architecture. Another reason is their market share which has went up quite a bit from a few years ago. Some of the games for the Mac include World of Warcraft, Spore, Command and Conquer Red Alert 3, The Sims 3 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Valve's popular Steam platform which offers downloadable games is coming to the Mac soon, this will increase the amount of games for the Mac by quite a bit. The problem with most games on the Mac though is the OSX versions are normally more expensive than the Windows versions, they are not always released at the same time as the Windows version is and the games are still limited in number right now.
There is a solution to this problem on the Mac though, Windows! No really it is! As long as you have an Intel based Mac just use Bootcamp to install either Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 along side OSX and your Mac and you can play Windows games to your heart's content.
Is it true that Macs don't get viruses?
Mac's are not entirely virus free. OSX like all operating systems does have security holes. Recently illegal torrents of iWork and Adobe Photoshop CS4 contained a trojan horse. As long as you don't download illegal software like this however you should for now, be fine. There are hardly any known exploits in the wild on malicious web sites to infect your Mac but this may change in the future as the Mac gains market share.
Why do Macs cost more than the PC?
Macs are sold as a luxury computer brand and the costs certainly do reflect that. You do get good build quality the the Mac which you would hope so with the price your paying, most other computer manufacturers are cheaper than Macs but their build quality can (in some cases) be worse than the Mac. Also the software that comes with the Mac is another reason that Apple gives for it's justification of the price of their computers.
Will my Mac crash like my Windows PC does?
Macs do crash from time to time just like PCs do, Macs tend to be more graceful when they crash, if a program crashes on a Mac it tends to just crash the program rather than crash your entire machine which is nice. You do get system wide crashes now and then but they are quite rare.
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