Perhaps you’ve decided whether a desktop or a laptop computer best meets your needs. And you’ve scoped out your home for the perfect place to set up shop. The next big question is—should you buy a Mac or a PC?
The Apple Macintosh computer is referred to as a Mac or an Apple and has, as you have probably seen, an apple as its logo. Macs were the first computers designed for personal use that used visuals (or icons) as a way to get from one piece of information on the computer to another. They also introduced the mouse and menus (lists of options). These innovations were designed to make the Mac easy, fun to use, and less confusing (aka user-friendly).
In the 1980s, IBM came out with a model called the IBM PC (IBM Personal Computer). For a while people referred to other non-Mac brands as IBM-compatible, but that didn’t make for catchy advertising, so the partial name PC (Personal Computer) stuck.
Technically, a Mac is also a personal computer (PC), but it has the prestige of carrying its own brand name. For our purposes a Macintosh is a Mac or an Apple, and a PC is everything else.
Many companies followed in the footsteps of the original IBM PC and actually surpassed IBM in sales. Some of the manufacturers’ names might be familiar to you: Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell, and Toshiba, among others.
“I had no idea that my daughter used a different type of computer than I did. I thought they all worked the same. When I called her in a panic and she couldn’t help me, I felt lost. Luckily, my neighbor also has a PC, and he came to my rescue.”
—Dan
When the Macintosh hit the market in 1984, the differences between its system and that of the PC were enormous. Mac had an incredibly easy operating system (remember, the operating system is what manages the information you have in your machine) and became known as the company that made computers user-friendly. That translates to being easy to use, less intimidating, and more fun. They accomplished this through creative graphic design and the use of visual cues to access information on the computer.
Macintosh made the decision not to share its operating system with any other manufacturers. Think of it this way: Macs speak a special language all their own. The pickle is that Macs and PCs have different operating systems. When software is designed, it needs to be designed in one version for Macs to understand and in another version for all other PCs to understand.
When Mac decided not to share its operating system, this left the door open for someone else to enter the market. That is exactly what Microsoft did when it came out with Windows 95 (an ancestor of Windows XP, Vista, and the great, great, great grandfather of Windows 7). Microsoft designed a PC operating system based on a lot of Mac’s original ideas. The creation of Windows 95 gave PCs an operating system as straightforward and user-friendly as the Mac’s.
At this time PCs dominate the market. There are close to eight PC owners for every Mac owner. If the majority of people are buying software for a PC, naturally the priority for manufacturers is to create software for the majority. Until recently a lot of computer software came out in a PC version long before the Mac version hit the stores, and in some cases it was never designed for Macs at all. Now, however, there is software that allows a Mac to run most PC applications. It doesn’t always run perfectly, but it’s improving all the time.
From a teaching and learning point of view, this translation software will make life so much easier. That way we can all speak the same language. You’ll see what I mean later when I describe how to use a computer if you have a PC, then how to use it if you have a Mac. It would be much more efficient to have only one system to explain.
The basic pieces of hardware are the same on both systems. However, the ports where you plug in the monitor, keyboard, printer, and other peripherals in the back of the computer case can be different. That means that you can’t always plug a Mac keyboard into a PC computer case and vice versa without some kind of adapter unless it is a USB port. This is another reason why the division between the two is hard to bridge. You really need to commit to one or the other—they don’t mix well.
• Some of the ports at the back of an Apple/Mac computer (right) are different from those on a PC (left).
The dispute between Mac users and PC users is legendary. If you haven’t experienced it, just ask Mac users if they would change to a PC, and they will more than likely square their shoulders and give you a powerful “never.” A PC user might even offer you a knuckle sandwich. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true.
• USB cable.
One big consideration is what your friends and family have—not because you can’t march to a different drummer, but because if you find yourself calling someone at 3 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon with a computer problem, if that person has a different operating system than you, his or her ability to advise you will be limited. What if your daughter wanted to give you her old monitor or share some software, but she has a Mac and you have a PC? You’d be out of luck.
That said, don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. You will learn to use and love whatever computer you decide to buy. This is a win-win situation. There are more happy PC users in the world than blades of grass in your backyard, and the same is true for Mac users.
Q: If I learn on a Mac, will I be able to use a PC at some point?
A: Sure. You can learn anything. There are some differences in how things look on the screen and how to organize documents, but I have total faith that you can make the transition. And once you’re on the Internet there are very few differences between the two.
Q: How can I tell an Apple computer from a Mac computer?
A: You can’t tell one from the other because they are one and the same. Apple and Mac are two names for the same brand of computer.
Q: What if I don’t want to buy an Apple or a PC?
A: At this point in time, that would mean you wouldn’t be buying a computer. I don’t know of a computer store that sells any computers that are not either a Mac/Apple or a PC.
Q: Do I need to buy an Apple computer from an Apple store?
A: Apple computers can be purchased from non-Apple computer stores. However, I wouldn’t recommend it. Only if you purchase directly from Apple are you given the opportunity to purchase AppleCare (their tech support services, which are good) and become eligible to take their in-store classes.