nasarik.com – one man's journey through life and design

The age old debate between two sworn enemies rages on, perhaps there will never be a true winner but I think I may have found some neutral ground for them both.

So first I’ll start with the Apple Mac, this is the professional designers weapon of choice and has been for as long as I can remember. Apple have always created unique looking machines such as the Mac Classic right through to the more recent Mini Mac, couple that with a consistently slick operating system and applications that seem to run so smoothly why would any designer want a clunky, slow and Microsoft ridden PC?.  Well they wouldn’t and I can remember many a debate with die hard Mac users who just simply refuse to use anything else because it is simply dirty to do so.

And now if I dare say it ‘the PC’, ok, so the PC is not as pretty as its counterpart, the operating system is sluggish and the design applications don’t run quite as well then why would you ever want a PC!.  However, the PC has two main strengths over the Mac, for one they are considerably cheaper to purchase and to upgrade, this makes the whole process of buying and maintaining a machine less painful, the second is the array of software that you simply can’t get on a Mac, I’m not saying there is no software available for the Mac just that there is a vast selection difference. 

I have used PC’s for a long time both personally and professionally and the varied software has always been a god send, you know those times when a client emails a file you have never heard of before and you need to convert it, or you have an idea and you need software to aid in the design then there is always a wide range of options for the PC and that is where the Mac generally fails.

Both have advantages and disadvantages, how do you decide?.  Well I have both, I own a desktop PC and a Laptop as well as an i-mac.  The way I look at it is like this, if photography and music is all you use your computer for and you have a spare £1500 lying around then get a Mac it will do the job you want perfectly as well as looking good at the same time, and if you want to try your hand at video editing, design, programming, and a whole host of other things or even if you’re not sure how you will use it then get a PC, there are simply more software options for it. 

So in a nutshell and if you are like me get both, but if you have to choose good luck because someone will always think you have made a mistake no matter which you go for.