I’ll admit to being a little narrow-minded when it came to computers over the last 8 years or so. I was one of those people who thought that there was no other operating system other than that of Microsoft’s Windows. There was very little chance of me ever trying a Mac or Linux based machine.

In April of this year, I finally started to notice that Windows was not the be all and end all when it comes to computer operating systems. My purchase in April was a shiny new iMac. What led me to switch operating systems you may ask? Well I am currently doing a degree in design and website design, many graphic and design drivers recommended that I take a closer look at OS X and some of the design tools available to it. I’ll admit that I was very sceptical at first, simply because I thought that the tools I was already using on Windows were doing the jobs I needed to do fine. To an extent this was (and still is) true, but I trusted the views of my friends, as they knew more about both the Mac and design than I did.

I am glad that I took their advice, as it has turned out to be the perfect tool for all of my courses design needs. Making the switch to the Mac was far easier than I expected it would be. Every program that I used on Windows has been available to me on the Mac from Microsoft Office to Macromedia’s Dreamweaver MX.

It isn’t a hard task to make the switch from Windows to a Mac, and Apple just about get it right in stating how easy it is to do so on website, the most noticeable thing is the completely different way of using file menus, but on the whole there is nothing a regularly Windows users will find difficult. Windows users complain about the lack of programs on a Mac, but to me it has all of the programs I need to use, and some damn fine ones that are Mac only like iTunes, NetNewsWire and more, it also has various Microsoft programs like Office which is excellent for Mac users and better than Office XP in my view, It has MSN Messenger, which again is a very good addition to the Mac program library and better than the Chat program that ships in OS X, we also have Internet Explorer, but unfortunately this is a pretty dire browser for anyone with a Mac who has now become used to the excellent Safari or Camino browsers released over the last few months.

There is quite a difference with the “Start menu” on a Windows PC and the “Dock” on OS X the main difference being that the Start menu looks quite dated, yet the Mac’s Dock looks gorgeous, but enough about looks…The Dock on a Mac is where you place your most used folders and programs, it displays the great looking icons for the folder/program and you hover-over the one you want to select/load and just click.

Another difference a lot of people will notice is that a Mac has a distinct lack of system tools such as defragmenter etc, there are programs you can buy from Norton and such like if you want to defragment your drive, but the Mac doesn’t suffer quite as badly as the PC can do here.

What does Windows have for plain and simple users who don’t need a great deal of depth to an operating system other than gaming and chat that a Mac doesn’t? Quite simply you can play games on it for a start, with Windows, just about every game comes out first for PC, and graphically gaming on the PC is still way ahead of the Mac. While I am not one of those people who state that this is because of the speed of a PC, it does have major benefits here. PC’s are reaching speeds of 3/4 GHz this year and the Mac G4 is just up to 1 1/2 GHz, not a speed that can run most of the upcoming titles of today like Splinter Cell and Doom 3/Half Life 2, but in saying that the new chips that are just around the corner for Apple Mac’s. The G5 could well have a performance that rivals that of an Intel 3 GHz machine, which is great news. Quite simply at the moment, If you are a gamer, you should stick to the PC, but in my view, if you are paying out $1000+ for a PC as just a games machine you are mad, when there are such good consoles around.

Next we have the look of the Operating system, if anyone says Windows looks better than a Mac then in my view they really do need to look closer. To be honest, one of the main reasons I switched to a Mac was because the operating system looked so damn good. Icons are gorgeous, transparency effects are great, fonts are clear, nearly every Mac comes with a Flat screen monitor now, colours are vivid, video is much clearer than on a PC, Windows and programs just look better, no jaggies, it is just generally a wonderful looking operating system and it is a real shame that Microsoft will take until 2005/6 to catch up with the looks of OS X that was released nearly 2 years ago.

Now despite what people have been writing in saying, I am not someone who is locked down to one operating system or the other. I see benefits in both that others do not, but that’s all part of having an opinion and listening to other people’s views, something that few people in forums and comment boards seem to be able to do.

There are loads of things to consider when buying a PC or a Mac, things like API’s, software and hardware support, networking capabilities, usability and security then you have the major one, the price. You also have to consider that Mac’s are certainly aimed at the consumer market while Windows is aiming for both Consumer and Business users.

I am not stupid, I know that for the masses Windows is clearly the winner in most cases, but people have to realise that for some of us in the minority, we prefer a Mac. So perhaps now there will be some proper discussion about the subject matter in hand instead of the usual shouting matches.

So today I ask of you all, why would you not consider switching to a Mac? Or switching from Mac to Windows? What reason is there for you not to?

Perhaps the Mac/Windows doesn’t run the programs you use the most? As I discussed yesterday I made the switch to an iMac for these reasons:

• It looks and feels great.
• It runs the programs I use better than on my PC, in terms of screen space, window arranging and such like.
• It has programs I like to use that Windows doesn’t such as Safari, which I now prefer, to the Windows version of IE and NetNewsWire.
• I have an iPod and it works better on a Mac than Windows!
• I love working on designs in Widescreen.
• For digital media it is way ahead of Windows currently.

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