Why is everyone using mac for design, still?

[chroniq]

Before you continue reading, this isnt an attempt for a flame thread, lets try to keep it clean, if u plan on starting ur reply, WINDOZ SUCKS0RZ, please leave. i just want someone to clarify something, and correct me if iam wrong

Design Related Software

mac: very limited, not sold everywhere (talking about shops like office deput and so forth, not internet), and i believe even the Adobe CS collection was released on PC first later on mac (correct me if iam wrong)

pc: large quantities, sold almost EVERYWHERE, has more design apps then the whole osx software library put together (ok maybe exagerating but u get the idea)

Design Related Hardware

mac: relativly expensive, only a handful of options to choose from (ie video cards, capture cards..etc), usually not the latest technology

pc: do i really need to say anything here? literly thousends of options for hardware, always has the latest technology and in many cases performance

note: iam not saying mac hardware sucks, iam just saying u dont get that many options. and usualy not at the best price.

so my question here is, why the hell do all the advertising companies use macs? its like an unwritten rule .. even universties! they use macs to teach some of their digital design classes .. WHY??! dear god why??? ... its cheaper/more options to go for windows and a pc .. latest technology and more variety in software .. SO WHY?

note: saying that osx is cool does not count, even though i do agree that it is much cooler and neater, that still just doesnt make sense there has to be more to the story ..

post your thoughts or facts :)

ps. please dont turn this to a hate thread, lets spread the love

[joseph-]

Hope you have an asbestos body suit and some hip waders...it's about to get hot *and* deep in here.

[someguy03]

  chroniq said:

Before you continue reading,? this isnt an attempt for a flame thread, lets try to keep it clean, if u plan on starting ur reply, WINDOZ SUCKS0RZ, please leave. i just want someone to clarify something, and correct me if iam wrong

Design Related Software>

mac: very limited, not sold everywhere (talking about shops like office deput and so forth, not internet), and i believe even the Adobe CS collection was released on PC first later on mac (correct me if iam wrong)

pc: large quantities, sold almost EVERYWHERE, has more design apps then the whole osx software library put together (ok maybe exagerating but u get the idea)

Design Related Hardware>

mac: relativly expensive, only a handful of options to choose from (ie video cards, capture cards..etc), usually not the latest technology

pc: do i really need to say anything here? literly thousends of options for hardware, always has the latest technology and in many cases performance

note: iam not saying mac hardware sucks, iam just saying u dont get that many options. and usualy not at the best price.

so my question here is, why the hell do all the advertising companies use macs? its like an unwritten rule .. even universties! they use macs to teach some of their digital design classes .. WHY??! dear god why??? ... its cheaper/more options to go for windows and a pc .. latest technology and more variety in software .. SO WHY?

note: saying that osx is cool does not count, even though i do agree that it is much cooler and neater, that still just doesnt make sense there has to be more to the story ..

post your thoughts orfacts>:))

ps. please dont turn this to a hate thread, lets spread the love

586086276[/snapback]

- more stable

- more efficient

- debatibly better software for design

[sanctified Veteran]

If you think that design its just about some hardware and software similarities then you obviously dont have any idea of what it takes to be a designer.

Just to resume, the vital point of any designer its color management. Something that no wintel machine can do properly, just emulate.

[Vice]

ok, I have thousands of files on my Mac related to adobe documents and things like that, now lets say I need specific things I have done in the past 20 different parts of an image which I want to merge into 1 image, I open photoshop go to file use the spotlight search type in the related information then create a virtual folder with them items in them, now if I need them later on in a few hours or tomorrow. I can quickly access that virtual folder with them files without having to manually create a new folder and waste yet more hard drive space.

This is just one tiny aspect as to why I personally prefer using Adobe Photoshop on my Mac then on my Windows PC (even though I do use it on both). btw, Longhorn will have this virtual folder thing but from 2001 to 2006 that's a considerable gap in which I think the Mac platform has excelled.

[Japlabot]

Because

(1) The usability of the Operating System applies to applications (such as Adobe CS) that run on it, making them easier to use than their Windows Counterparts

(2) The Hardware that Macs use (PowerPC) are more optimised for intensive CPU work which makes things like Photoshop Filters and Video Encoding faster clock-for-clock than on a Pentium 4.

(3) Price isn't an issue when the above two reasons are more important than money and help achieve the desired result more effectively.

[Kreuger]

I've heard alot of people say mac is better graphically..

[sanctified Veteran]

Also, its bovious you dont have a clue of how Mac hardware works with design.

[chroniq]

sanctified: yeah ive been hearing that alot, but how bad is it on windows xp .. iam it cant be that mircosoft/adobe..etc have ignored the fact they have really bad color managment on their pc platform :/

someguy03: 1. stable, window has become VERY stable, so stable i really cant remember when was the last time it crashed on me. 2. efficient: well i cant argue with that cause thats just too broad to debate. 3. better software: clearly windows has a more varied library, it has the best and the worst .. much more then osx

[sanctified Veteran]

  chroniq said:

sanctified: yeah ive been hearing that alot, but how bad is it on windows xp .. iam it cant be that mircosoft/adobe..etc have ignored the fact they have really bad color managment on their pc platform :/

586086312[/snapback]

Adobe didnt ignore them. But Windows cant manage it correctly. The fact its that I dont think they care that much since their main market are not designers.

[chroniq]

[sanctified]

"Also, its bovious you dont have a clue of how Mac hardware works with design."

ok now ur just being silly :) ..

[Mr Farrar]

even though you seem to have made your mind up, why dont you go check out a creative suits and apps like motion and logic.

[sanctified Veteran]

  chroniq said:

[sanctified]

"Also, its bovious you dont have a clue of how Mac hardware works with design."

ok now ur just being silly :) ..

586086317[/snapback]

Why? The PPC processors handle the media information way differently. Try to open a 400mb photoshop file in both plataforms for example.

Apple has total control over the hardware they use.

[Mr Farrar]

also with the apps its more quality not quantity...

[chroniq]

Quick Reply: in a benchmark done by maximumpc (i'am looking if they have it on their website) .. they benchmarked the g5 against the athlon fx53 and pentium 4 extreme edition .. the only two benchmarks the g5 took was for the ps filter benchmark which was made by some mac magazine and the other in quicktime encoding .. it lost to all the rest (divx, quake 3...etc) even another intensive ps filter benchmark which was not made by some mac magazine

[Mr Farrar]

  chroniq said:

Quick Reply: in a benchmark done by maximumpc (i'am looking if they have it on their website) .. they benchmarked the g5 against the athlon fx53 and pentium 4 extreme edition .. the only two benchmarks the g5 took was for the ps filter benchmark which was made by some mac magazine and the other in quicktime encoding .. it lost to all the rest (divx, quake 3...etc) even another intensive ps filter benchmark which was not made by some mac magazine

586086331[/snapback]

dont EVER use games as bench marks, there had never been a a game ported correctly to the mac.

[sanctified Veteran]

  chroniq said:

Quick Reply: in a benchmark done by maximumpc (i'am looking if they have it on their website) .. they benchmarked the g5 against the athlon fx53 and pentium 4 extreme edition .. the only two benchmarks the g5 took was for the ps filter benchmark which was made by some mac magazine and the other in quicktime encoding .. it lost to all the rest (divx, quake 3...etc) even another intensive ps filter benchmark which was not made by some mac magazine

586086331[/snapback]

Are you seriously comparing game benchmarks to make your point? :omg: :blink:

Just wow.

[mac15]

I often think the same thing, the idea of Macs are better at designs seems so 90s to me. By now you think PCs would have caught up (if they haven't already).

[vertigosity]

It's also quite possible that it might have something to do with the origins of it all, IE, Macs back in the 1980s. Most design types have just stuck with what they knew, and made the transitions through the various hardware changes Apple's made, keeping software with them and leapfrogging versions and hardware like they could do and not have to learn a different operating system and way of thought (not to mention at least MacOS classic did a pretty good job of seperating computerry stuff from your work - can't speak for OSX as I haven't used it much) - and Photoshop was originally a Mac program, back in the day. And back then, Macs were definitely better machines for doing wizzywig/gui stuff.

[Starcom826]

  someguy03 said:

- more stable

- more efficient

- debatibly better software for design

586086286[/snapback]

That's more of a myth now. People say Macs are more stable. That is a complete farce. Well whoop dee doo, you compare a top of the line mac with an old PC running Windows 98, of course its going to be more stable. If you compare it to say a modern dell running Windows XP, there really isn't much of a stability difference. The PPC processors may be more efficient per clock cycle, but it doesn't mean they do things faster. The poster was asking about design, and Photoshop runs on a P4 faster than it does on a mac. Really, it comes down to other things. Stability and efficiency are not among them. I know same mac fanboys are going to burn me alive for saying it like it is, but its about time they faced up to it.

[chroniq]

[sanctified]: funny u should say, i once had a 130mb flash file (yes 130mb, some idiot kept on pasting high rez images) which made it a nightmare to handle in flash .. althought i was barely editable on a g4 mac .. i couldnt open it at all on my 1gb pc 2.4ghz .. but then again i would imagine that this is a software flaw not a hardware related problem .. or is it?

[sanctified Veteran]

  chroniq said:

[sanctified]: funny u should say, i once had a 130mb flash file (yes 130mb, some idiot kept on pasting high rez images) which made it a nightmare to handle in flash .. althought i was barely editable on a g4 mac .. i couldnt open it at all on my 1gb pc 2.4ghz .. but then again i would imagine that this is a software flaw not a hardware related problem .. or is it?

586086344[/snapback]

Macromedia apps are not that good on apple. Also. the g4 processor its quite old. That comparision was just unfair.

Also, it seems you are thinking that web design its the main field of work of design. Thats a big mistake.

[wtmcgee]

Every major design app is available for both platforms. Also, all the talk about color management is dead on. Mac OS is by far the best OS for color accuracy right now.

Computers are merely tools to achieve a job or a task - and for a lot of people a Mac is an easier to use platform that adheres to standard UI guidelines, which makes any workflow much faster. I'm not saying Windows or any other OS does not have a HIG standard. However, if you can use one app for the Mac, you can generally accomplish tasks in other apps as well (where are the prefs? tools? options? file?).

I use both Windows and Mac OS, and I personally am much more efficient on the Mac. Does that mean Windows or Linux suck? No - it means that a lot of designers - heck ... a lot of PEOPLE ... feel more efficient on the Mac. The OS doesn't get in the way and you can just get your job done.

[chroniq]

vertigosity: thats what i thought at first .. since it had a much better postscript printing driver .. and quark .. but then again before that time .. there was commodore which had multithreading, 4096k colors..etc before mac and pc could even spell "color" .. now when ever i ask anyone working in an advertising agency .. they simply reply .. "its better" .. i really cant see how or why

[mac15]

  [sanctified] said:

Macromedia apps are not that good on apple. Also. the g4 processor its quite old. That comparision was just unfair.

Also, it seems you are thinking that web design its the main field of work of design. Thats a big mistake.

586086349[/snapback]

Dreamweaver is a pleasure to use on XP, its horrible in Mac OS X. But thats not because the PC is better, its just crappy coding on Macromedia's behalf.