Why Macs Are or Are Not Better Than PCs (OK, So I Stole My Own Comment)

As Darwin once said, loosely quoted, "It's not the ones with the most strength or the most intelligence that survive but those who are most able to adapt."

I just read Coach Katerina's blog on conversion to the Mac for Real Estate agents. Actually, I couldn't think of a better group of people to consider abandoning the PC and working with a Mac with one of the Windows flavors of PC, whether Bootcamp, Parallels, Fusion or Crossover. Most Real Estate agents I know are just trying to get their work done and move on to managing their business and interacting with clients. So often, I see them struggling with some computer program or website and then having their PC freeze up or lock down to creepy-crawly slo-mo mode when the last thing they have is time and patience for such grief. Maybe Windows 7 will improve on that experience and maybe the horde of virus writers and hackers that follow the MS OS brand will find ways to make life miserable for the new converts just like they have in the past.

Yes, the Mac OS enjoys less attention from the script kiddies and that's one more reason I use it. That said, the Linux OS (the underbelly of OS-X) is inherently better secured than the MS OS for the present (even though those using the root account are risking it all on the Mac). None of that argument is the basis of my comment on Katarina's post. The basis is a pragmatic approach to computing. What does the best job right now in the context of what I'm trying to do?

Here's the rest of what I said:

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One of your commenters, John?, compared "Mac converts" to ex-smokers but I'm pragmatic in my approach to computers- what works is what works. I have several things that I do on Windows, especially in the hosting of MS SQL databases & MS SQL programming. That said, I do my day to day work on my Mac. That includes web development, and even some of the SQL stuff. Further, there are some things I will never do on the PC again.

Why? Workflow and stability. Why deal with, for example, producing a video montage on the PC when the Mac is twice as easy and nearly twice as fast just by virtue of not crashing in a render or transition? Besides that, often the basic tools of a Mac produce more visually pleasing products right out of the box, but then that's always been the focus of Apple, you know, design and innovation.

My Mac gets the job done faster with less stress- that's an observation with 20 years and counting on PCs of all flavors.

The time I save from those inevitable freeze-ups in IE, especially on database-driven, application type sites (like the MLS or Amazon, etc.) Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox are all better alternatives and, in my experience, are even better and more stable on OSX.

Yes, I'm still using my PC, actually 3 of them including the virtual one that runs on my Mac, and I'm also using a Linux machine for a phone system because that's what works best for that application.

The fact that the Mac works better than its competition for many and even most tasks seems to irritate a lot of people. This isn't an election, it's just what's working out. As Darwin once said, loosely quoted, "It's not the ones with the most strength or the most intelligence that survive but those who are most able to adapt."

Geez I just blew a whole blog entry here!