on hardware level, no, because you don't have as much freedom on hardware level on the Mac as with the PC, it's just a fact.
True, you can't get as much low end hardware for mac as you can for windows machines... but from a performance standpoint that doesn't really matter. Since Apple uses a closed hardware system, there aren't hardware conflicts. When I plug a hardware periferal into my mac, it just runs it... no driver issues... no crashy bad hardware implimentations. That there is more
total hardware available on the windows platform is true to an extent... but high end hardware is pretty much the same across the board. In fact, most windows based hardware I can just stick in a mac, flash the firmware and it will run natively since the hardware itself isn't really any different for the most part. It's been
many years since the hardware interfaces were different between the systems. As much freedom of hardware? No. As good or better performance? Yes.
Workflow: I don't see why I as a Photoshop user (because that's what we're talking about right now) need a Mac to be more productive. Care to share any examples of what makes workflow on the Mac so much better than Windows (again, in the context of Photoshop), to a point that a customer says; "Hey, how did you finish the job that fast?!?!".
Well... first, I said that things were "more streamlined", not that you "need a Mac to be more productive". Macs are designed from the ground up with graphics in mind. It's little things like having all your common special characters (?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, ∞, ?, ?, ?, ?, √, ∑, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, etc.) on the keyboard rather than having to track down obscure alt+ codes (can you even make a real ellipsis on windows? I haven't found it). To things like OS X being one of the first operating systems to build color management in at the OS level. From what I've heard OS X is the only OS that can send CMYK data directly to an output device (without going through some kind of a RIP RGB conversion process). Pre-2000, the mac was untouched in these areas... windows is slowly catching up. The gap isn't as big as it used to be for sure... you can certainly do graphics work on windows now. My point is that it's just more smooth and easy to work with on Apples. And from a purely historical sense... you wouldn't even have Photoshop without Mac... it was designed as a tool to take advantage of the first macs. Most of the processes that are used in graphics pre-production were developed on and for the mac platform and then later taken and adapted for use on other systems (color managed workflow, true type fonts, graphically based design programs, etc.).
Second... by it's very definition, "workflow" implies that you are doing more than
just working in Photoshop. I'm not talking about tooling around in Photoshop for the hell of it, I mean if you actually wanted to get something output in a format besides viewing it inside Photoshop. So... from a standpoint of just being inside Photoshop working with it's native tools the one major thing you'll see from a functionality and efficiency standpoint is that it works. It doesn't crash, it doesn't slow down and die when it tries to save a file, it doesn't not recognize your plugins, it just runs. When you move out to a "workflow" standpoint, which does impact the speed of production, I can think of one major advantage of mac over windows. I can open damned any file on a mac. Send me some obscure graphics format or media file and chances are I'll be able to open it and get at what's inside. This is rarely the case on windows. It's not the nightmare that it was a few years ago on windows, but it's still not up to par with mac's ability to handle files. (Speaking of files, since OS X drives don't fragment... read that again
don't fragment ever due to how they write files to disk, you don't have progressive speed degeneration on your OS while working and more importantly, you greatly decrease the likelyhood that the files you're saving out will be corrupted.) I'm not sure what it is that causes this one, but I can't say how many times I've been working on a winXP machine... open a PSD... make a change... go to save the file and it gives me a permissions error leaving only the option of quitting and restarting photoshop... often having to log out and back in for some reason. Never had anything even remotely close happen on a mac. So, like I said... from a tools standpoing within photoshop... they are the same more or less... but my point was always that you have to talk about the entire process, not just the one application.
And just to nip it in the butt before someone says the inevitable... macs don't cost more (someone was thinking about posting that, you know it.
). Last information that I saw on the subject said that not only do
comparably equiped macs and window machines cost roughly the same, but the cost of operation of macs is
substantially less than windows machines after only a year of operation (this includes things like tech support, additional hardware issues, downtime, and that windows machines use about 75% more electricity than macs... nice to know when buying your UPS
).
I've used Mac PCs (did I mention that Apple actually introduced the phrase "personal computer" way before windows machines started using it?
), windows machines, linux machines, unix machines (OS X is BSD, so this isn't as big a leap anymore from a back end standpoint) and slew of others. Most machines have one thing or another going for them (even that hacked up, reverse engineered, and outright stolen beast windows has a couple features I like) but I've kept coming back to macs over and over. There are lots of variables. If you have tons of software for windows that you can't swap out, a single platform vendor, or some other legitimate reason for sticking with windows then go for it... things aren't as black and white as they used to be. But if you're buying a new machine and updating software, it's a good idea to keep your options and your mind open.
Just trying to be objective here.
Always a good thing. I might come off as a "mac zealot" sometimes, but it's not without reason... I've been using computers for a
long long time... it's just experience. Take it for what it's worth.
I don't want to turn this into a mac vs. windows flame war... because really... what's the point? I think we've had enough of those on the internet to last more than one lifetime. Just trying to throw out an alternative that might not have been considered. YMMV.
$0.02
