 | Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years. Thanks, CNET Support |
Is it true they are better then Microsoft based laptops? They hardly get any virus'?
Audrey
Discussion is locked
(yet)
There is some debate about the virus or trojan issue as you must install those onto the MacOSX. I will not discuss that as it's been done.
If that is a feature you need, why not get one?
The answer is "it depends".
For ergonomics I'd take a ThinkPad over a MacBook any day.
For the operating system I'd go Vista/OS X/XP in that order for usablity and stablity (Yes I put Vista over OS X). Where I bump into problems with Vista is getting the install to work right. No problem with XP, and OS X came on the Mac and I've not needed to reformat.
As for the Virus thing, that's true. People target windows. OS X tends to fly under the radar. They do have some risk but not like windows. (Risk of a virus is different than security risk, Windows is less of a security risk but is targeted so much more it renders it a moot point for the average user).
MacBooks are not bottom end computers. Most of the retail windows computers are bottom feeders. They cut corners and you get what you pay for. The high end Windows machines though have the same Horse Power as a Mac and tend to cost less anywway. A MacBook itself though is a fairly good deal in the Mac world. The MacBook Pro tends to run expensive.
So after all that here is my next computer.
I'm going to get a ThinkPad and turn it into a dual booting Hackintosh. The Apple OS is nice in some areas, but I like the ThinkPad layout one heck of a lot better than my MacBook.
Macs and Windows, in the end, for the average user, will provide the same functionalities.
Macs tend to be safer because of the security behind it. You can get applications such as CrossOver Office to run Windows-applications on your Mac. So that's an upside.
Windows are not 'as' safe as Macs but if you know what you're doing you can make it really safe. Windows has had a bad beating because of Vista, which honestly is not a bad operating system at all.
I, myself, has personally used both platforms on my laptop (A hp and macbook), and, overall, my desktop (Windows-based which is even older at 8-9yearold) hadn't been hit by a virus which as I take precaution of ignoring totally dubious emails of links, files, etc, even from my friends, even to the point of totally locked myself out from running even legitimate website's scripts and ads (even MS and Apple's own website I've gotten problems viewing due to me disabling scripts).
Thus, if you have a particular budget and certain softwares that you have to use which is available on that platform, you should go ahead. Both sides has its pros and cons, design-wise, usability-wise.
Anyway, safer on Mac, probably, except my uncle who uses only Mac, got hit by virus, even though all his stuffs were gotten from Apple Store from hardware to software and the only thing he does was video editing recorded on his video cam.
Thus, practice caution and you'll be just fine.
Macs are known to have the bleeding edge technology on editing software. So that in mind -- that's another advantage to using a Mac.
People nowadays expect the computer to be secure from the gitgo... Which isn't always the case. People are usually careless about the security of their computers and blame it on the operating system -- when in fact it's the negligence of the end user.
Well, for me, I have preference for wideo editing on windows platform and it performs fine for me and furthermore, my macbook was on 10.4, so didn't come with video editing stuffs, as my windows had been on pinnacle studio and Adobe premier. So, just personal preference.
I will definitely love to try out on mac platform against windows on Adobe stuffs, and the only one from them which I could was Photoshop, and, on my 8year old 1.8Ghz rambus system of 768MB memory, it actually performs faster, against both my laptops of macbook 1st gen and my normal hp Nc6220 (of which both are 3year old on ironically are also 1.8GHz and 2GB memory)
Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic