Apple Computer has developed an identity for its innovative design and its importance on being user friendly. Most PC use the Windows OS, developed by Microsoft. so, a range of manufacturers focus on presenting machines within a high price range, emphasizing performance and cost over design and easy of use. Software and Specific Markets Apple Computer has distinguished itself as the machine of option for movie editing, graphic arts and home computing. By compare, most PC run the leading business products software, especially the Microsoft Office Suite of products. Hardware and Performance PC may come in more configurations, while a Macintosh may be available in only a limited number of different models. Accessibility Most PC is easy to work on. Remove some screws, pull off the housing, and a user can increase access to the motherboard, the HDD, video card and other parts of the computer.
A Mac is actually a PC, just its commonplace for the term to be misused. Another way of saying it is A Mac vs a proper computer Quite honestly, the ONLY difference in reality now between a Mac and a 'proper' computer is the operating system that is allowed to run on it. A Mac is actually built from the same parts as a proper computer, only that they limit it to singular product lines. If Mac ended up the dominant PC, it would be extremely bad for the end user. Since Mac's just rely on those singular product lines it would stifle competition and raise prices. Innovation is driven by competition, something which Mac's don't do! So, what it comes down to is what you want to use the computer for. When you consider the MAC OS vs Windows 7 argument, you have to remember Microsoft has to support basically every piece of hardware and software out there, Apple only supports the hardware and software it wants to. 'User friendliness' depends on the perspective of the user! if you're someone who stood (or would have if you could have) in the line for 24 hours and buy an iPad 2 or iPhone 4, site unseen, and do so because of 'the experience' then you're probably going to find the Mac just fine - any Mac! When you buy a proper computer, be realistic in comparison. Don't compare an $800 dollar complete system against a top of the range Mac and say the Mac is better. It should be with the price difference! You can get an exceptionally good PC with better parts in it than the equivalent Mac, as Mac's are overpriced for what you get. The real killer though with Mac's is the price of options, some of the prices are very excessive, although its not as bad as it used to be. Also consider the quality of the parts you get. If you get a $30 power supply, its almost a guarantee you will have problems with it. That does not make Mac better! If you get a cheap any part! it doesn't make the Mac better, it just means you should have actually bought a quality part. You'd still be considerably better off against an equivalent spec Mac. Get an LED backlit (they're still LCD, just the backlight is LED instead of CCFL) monitor, they're more power friendly, are newer technology and the picture quality is far better than what the same monitor would be with CCFL. LED backlit monitors are pretty much the same price now as the models they replace. Computer monitors are typically TN type panels. TN panels are the cheapest to make, and have the lowest picture quality, but they do excel for gaming. Mac monitors I believe are some other type of more expensive technology (PVA, VA, MVA, IPS etc, not sure without looking it up). These look better as they have a much better colour gamut (reproduction), and are better in every way picture quality wise, except for fast motion. They also have a slower reponse time than a good TN panel (good TN panels are 2ms, no point getting a 5ms TN panel) and aren't well suited for gaming. The other thing to be wary of is the aforementioned power supply. Its probably one of the most overlooked components by the typical buyer, and is the most varied component quality wise. A low quality power supply is just bad! They can blow (might be 2 years time), cause sytem instability, they actually waste power! (its true, their efficiency is typically lower), and any failure in the power supply could damage other components in the computer. A good power supply pretty much simply does not blow! Never go for 32-bit Windows 7, any people claiming its better do not know what they are talking about! Also, consider 8 GB of RAM (only in the form of 2x4GB modules). Might sound overkill, but the price has really come down and it will make a very noticeable difference wth system performance.
As Abbee's level of computer knowledge is not MDL-average, a Mac would solve most of his problems. People crying about Apple hardware costing lots of $$$$ and repairs costing lots of $$$$ as well should stfu, because it costs just as much as any other system. Take an IPS panel, it costs money. Get it from Dell, costs the same money. Samsung, same deal. So the real question is: what do you need? Because you can get a random Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge system at any corner, but that doesn't really mean anything in the big picture. For example, do you need a system where you are allowed to make bad choices over and over again, or do you need a system that works, without any choices. (mostly EFI talking here). Or do you need Windows, or Mac OS X exclusively? If you need Mac OS X, go Apple, if you 'might' like or 'might' need it, get a standard PC. Get some OSX86 distro, done. Bam. Then there are things like support. Do you need to be able to take your machine somewhere, have someone look at it for free, and then be off home, with a fixed system? Or do want to spend your own time learning and investigating. The latter is always an option, but the first isn't. Take Dell and HP and Apple for example, they all have great support! You can actually buy premium support if you want to. If you need something that will 'just work', don't go the 'el-cheapo-PC' route. HP/Dell/IBM/Apple, they all cost the same. So no price-whining in here, and personal experience isn't that relevant either, since this is about pure facts and statistics. I could be telling everyone how much I dislike Windows, and do like Linux, Unix, BSD, Mac OS X etc, and how I enjoy tinkering with all kinds of hardware (PPC, x86, Sparc, Itanium, SGI, ARM, MIPS etc), that is USELESS information. About flexibility: there are only two things that define the flexibility of a system; your wallet, and your knowledge. If you can do hardware modding and know how to program, even at low levels, you have all the flexibility you need (but you still need a fat wallet, no matter what).
A Mac with equal/equivalent specs will cost more than the PC. The reasoning is simply the branding of the manufacturer (i.e. Apple likes to portray they are high class where as Dell is portrays savings/mass customization). The question you should be asking is what do I want from my computer/What is more important to me? Do you want to look cool while using it? Do you want to be able to play the latest/greatest games? Do you want it to be compatible with everything? Do you have $XXXX to spend? Are you worried about viruses? Blah, blah, blah... I can tell you that I looked at PC's and Mac's a few months ago when I was purchasing a new computer. The Mac equivalent was $800 more, and it was hard for me to justify pissing away that much money simply for a $30 OS (especially when there are free Linux distros's that are very good non-windows alternatives). Plus, when you get into philosophical questions regarding Apple's business model/strategy/ethics... I place them just below Walmart and just above Enron (probably not the best place to be).