Apple or PC

<waits for the onslaught by web designers>

Traditionally, windows and PC's/laptops were for normal people, and Mac's were for creative types who worship the Apple and have long said the Mac is far superior to Windoze when it comes to graphic design type stuff.

But then Windows brought out Vista and iPhones and iPads took over the world

If you've got an iPhone and iPad, then maybe for continuity you'd consider a Mac. Other than that guess it's down to personal choice. If you're familiar with Windows and have never used a Mac, then maybe see if you can play with one and see what you think? If you have loads of PC apps and need to be up and running asap, then stick with a PC.

PC's/laptops tend to give you more choice as there are multitudes of venders, and different operating systems, from Unix to Windoze which is why they have been traditionally cheaper.

Mac's are more specialised but (and at least used to be) a lot more efficient with they way they managed resources, processor, memory etc

Interesting facts there about apple Steve. Just like Pestpro I have always wonder if those Macs are worth all that money. However apart from their good performance, some people want to have them just for prestige.

I agree Roxy there's good marketing by Apple to make us want them.

Steve I'm sticking with PC, I don't like Apple as a company and I have come to the conclusion I can live without the kudos.

I bought an Ipad 3 and a month later they sneaked a newer model without me even realising.

one thing to be careful of with buying a Mac is to check that you can get all the software you need for it and at a price you want to pay. we get endless emails asking if our Windows software runs on a Mac.

Tom

You can get a cheap PC and install Mac OS on it and save yourself the money on the hardware. There are many articles you can search on Google on how to do it.

For a business, as apps become more web/broser based, the operating system that something runs on becomes less important.

With products like VMWare Player, you can easily host "guest" operating systems on your computer inside a Window. It's useful for those who have Windows 7 and like to run applications that will only work on XP. Using VMWare player you can run OS X on your PC without having to format or parition your hard disk.

VM ware is cool Used to run windows in Linux at one point before I dual booted one of my older PC's with linux and windows. If memory serves it was gentoo and XP

I don't know about macs tbh. I've either always used Linux or Windows. I'm an artist so most times I'm working with photoshop and such and even though I could easily get it for a mac, I've never been interested in swapping over.

I've used VMWare on a large scale for server estates; Microsoft is trying to make significant inroads with it with their equivalent, HyperV, but many established VMWare sites that I know don’t want to migrate. I personally think MS missed the boat on the whole virtualisation concept.

I personally found the Windows VMWare player far better at legacy USB support than MS Virtual PC, particularly when running Windows XP 32 bit on a 64 Bit OS host.

It was really useful as I had some older scanning hardware that didnt have 64bit drivers. To use USB on Virtual PC, I found that you needed to have the drivers on the host OS (which weren't available in my case), but VMWare doesn't care as you can map the USB port directly into the guest OS.

Got a brand new Mac Book in my office that my wife brought home, but I've never really used it as all the developer tools I use are on my PC. It was useful to test our website out on the Mac. Found some issues with Safari, but when we installed Chrome for Mac OSX it worked just like browsing on a PC.

Support loads of Macs and PCs in my day job.
No difference in form factor or performance these days.

Macs - pretty, trendy and possibly easier to use.
PCs - much easier to network with servers and use Microsoft software.

If you want to get the job done in an office environment get a PC.

due to the fact that they now share almost every main hardware component with PCs, there is very little hardware difference. in fact, lately there have been several macs that have had fairly shocking build quality.

they use the same CPUs, ram, basic motherboard components - even their previously exclusive efi bios system, has been used in the PC industry for the past few years (as u-efi). essentially, there isn't really any reason for them to cost so much, which leads me to my next point.

cost. macs are extremely expensive for their specification when comparing desktop computers, and very expensive for the spec at the notebook/laptop level.

there is the point of stability, but a properly maintained PC will be almost as reliable. the idea that macs are inherently more reliable is a myth, it is simply because they have VERY strict control over what can - and cannot- be installed into a mac, and this limits potential issues. if a PC has the correct drivers installed, is maintained properly, having good components and no PEBKAC errors, it should be fine (mine hasn't put a foot wrong in months).

a mac can break just as easily as a PC. one bad component like ram, or a hard drive, CPU or graphics chip can bring down he entire system, and due to their locked-down nature, are infinitely harder - and more expensive - to put right.