NF Why you should buy a Windows PC

[Guest lundboy]

After extolling the virtues of the Mac in a recent thread, I thought that it might be fair to give the Windows PC a chance...

 

Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Buy a Windows PC:

 

10 - You plan to pirate your software and all your sources use Windows

09 - Michael Dell could really use your support right now

08 - The Gateway Cows are getting skinny

07 - Vista needs your beta test skills

06 - You really like the colour blue

05 - If you quit buying PCs, Virus & Spyware will start to hit Macs

04 - Symantec and McAffee will continue to create new viruses just for you

03 - In the winter it can help lower your heating costs (get a bigger A/C for summer)

02 - You live for the latest video games. You also don't mind dropping $500 for the latest video card to play them

01 - Microsoft loves you!

 

Bonus - Solitaire

 

Sorry, I tried to write (I did make up most of the ones above) something serious in favour of Wintel PCs, but it's really hard! If you do a Google search to find reasons to buy a PC it litterally returns nothing but reasons why not to buy one. The only true reasons that consistantly show up are below, and most are hyperbole like lack of games (more available now than ever before), you can use ANY mouse on a Mac as well as any USB device or firewire device. Prices are within 20% of equiv PC hardware. As far as not being able to easily adjust to OS-X from being a Windows user... I agree! I kept trying to do things the hard way, then I caught on that everything is so easy to do that I couldn't wrap my brain around it at first!

 

from: http://www.901am.com/2007/9-reasons-normal...ick-to-pcs.html

1. Cost:PCs are cheaper and there are a lot more to choose from, where as Mac's are expensive and you can pick from a handful of systems. Software is also on average more expensive on a Mac due to a lack of choice.

2: Operating System: yes, some may laugh, but with a PC you've got choices. XP, Vista, a whole pile of Linux distros, BEOS the list goes on. Mac OSX might be pretty, but it's still proprietary to a Mac box.

3: Software: The is a huge smorgesboard of software available for PC's. Mac on the other hand suffer from a serious lack of options. Mac users say that a Mac just works and that's true: Mac's do just work because there's less choice on the platform, and the little there is can and is tested heavily prior to availability, but what would most people prefer? the choice of one color in their cars or a choice of many colors? Mac is the Model T of the computer world.

4: Gaming: Want to make a Mac user cringe? ask them if they've played the last in game yet? they wouldn't have because gaming on Macs is close enough to being non-existent. But they'll tell you that's alright, because they're the cool guy in the Mac ads. In the movies that guy usually gets a capital L.

5: Servicability: something gone wrong with your Mac? not a problem, if you're lucky enough to live near a Apple shop they'll fix it for you. In my case there isn't 1 Apple store in the entire country (Australia) and the nearest authorized Mac dealer is 200km due North. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, Apple doesn't like you tinkering under the hood so you can fix it yourself. Something with my PC goes wrong, I flip the lid and have a look, or I take it to any number of PC shops that do repairs all within close driving range. Further the days of Mac users saying nothing goes wrong with their hardware are over, Mac run the same hardware as a PC.

6: Parts/ Upgrading: see in part point 5. Mac users will tell you they don't need to upgrade, well if that was the truth they'd all be still running Mac IIs now wouldn't they. As technology advances so do the requirements of all computers, Macs as well. Apple makes it near on impossible to upgrade Macs, from sealed boxes through to layouts that are impossible to tweak by all except the most highly trained experts. PC's are more like lego. You can take parts out and put new parts in, so easy that my 59 year old mother can competently upgrade and add things to her PC. And the best thing with a PC: the parts are 99.9999% guaranteed to work with the PC due to extensive driver support. A Mac is like pot luck, by a new part and you never know whether it's going to work or not because half the time there isn't official drivers for it.

7: Peripherals: see in part 6 because the same rule applies. Sure you can plug something into a Mac the same way as a PC, but will it work with a Mac? Believe it or not theres more to peripherals than digital cameras, which all work with a PC anyway.

8: Better Peripherals: more choice and no stupid 1 button mouse. PC mice also come with a scroll wheel for scrolling, a Mac Mouse has a weirdish rubber button thingy.

9: Usability: for the average person who doesn't live in Silicon Valley, PC's are actually more usable, after all, not only do you hardly ever find a Mac in an average (ie non-tech firm) business, very few other places run them, where as PC's are everywhere and virtually everyone has exposure to Windows. Buy one for home and you're going to know how it works, how to start a program and surf the internet. Mac's a like going to France and not being able to speak French, you can struggle your way through but if you could speak the language natively life things would be better.

 

Edited March 2, 2008 by lundboy