My cousin once bought a PC but “throws” it away when the red color in his PC monitor turns orange in print.

Now the gap between Mac and PC is narrowing but there is something extra about Macs which keeps people happy. I now use an Windows Laptop at work and a Macbook at home. I know that software are available for both platforms but I prefer the look and feel of the Mac. It is more personal than the “working machine” feel of the Windows.

Danny, I totally agree with your previous comments. I am a former Apple user, later turned to Windows, and now prefer Linux.

I think that most of the Mac crowd tends very much to be elitist snobs. (If you are a Mac user, and not an elitist snob, please don’t take offense.) I think a lot of that is because of a combination of a few things. A couple being that the Mac has always been a “prettier” OS and most of the creative software people have used on a Mac (mostly Adobe products or Apple proprietary software) is much pricier software. Many Mac users think that if it’s more expensive it must be better. The software is more expensive because for Mac users, there aren’t too many options out there so those companies can afford to charge through the nose for their software and Mac users will buy it. Of course, many Windows users fall into that mindset trap – thinking Adobe must be the creme de la creme and will also pay through the nose.

These days, I find the Macs to be overpriced vs a comparable Windows machine. That is only one small reason why there are more Windows users. Coming primarily from an IT background, Windows machines are just infinitely more configurable than a Mac. If you want to dig down into the guts of the OS and configure and tweak things to your liking you can do it in a way you cannot do with a Mac. Due to the nature of the Windows architecture, this does make it more prone to crashes and problems. Plus, there’s Microsoft’s filesystem which constantly has to be scanned and defragged to keep it running smoothly. This is something Unix-based systems don’t have to deal with. but PC’s are also better and more configurable at networking as well. Let’s face it, Macs were originally designed for and intended to be a personal computer, not a business productivity workstation used in a collaborative environment. That is an afterthought on a Mac.

Linux tends to give people the best of both worlds. You get the super fancy, swoopy graphical interfaces, large selection of software, it’s not crash prone, it’s not prone to viruses, and it’s infinitely configurable. Plus….it’s free – which is something neither Mac or Windows can offer.

Like some people said previously, though, it’s not really about the OS or the software, it’s what you plan to do with it. There are a lot of elitist snobs who use Photoshop. Is it a good program? Sure. Is it overpriced? I personally think so. Will people buy it? Sure. Why? Because they market themselves better than everyone else. That’s all. Are there better programs out there? I think so. People don’t buy a program for all the swoopy “features” it has. They buy it so they can get the end resulting product it produces. I can sit someone down and show them a photo, then give them a sample of that photo already edited how I want it to look. If they are experienced in both Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photopaint, they could produce the end result much faster and more efficiently in Photopaint. Does Photopaint have more overall built-in features than Photoshop? No. It’s just designed to work more efficiently. You can accomplish many of the same effects faster because there are less steps you have to go through to do most tasks.

Like others said though, in the end, you use what you are comfortable with and what gets the job done.

However, let me make a suggestion. If you are a new photographer or hobbyist on a really tight budget and cannot afford the Adobe Creative Suites or Corel Graphic Suites of the world, consider trying Linux or some of the other open-source (ie. free) software packages out there available for Linux, Windows, or Mac. Try programs like The Gimp or Inkscape. Try free products like Picasa. There’s nothing wrong with trying new things as long as it helps you get the job done.

By the way, if you want a good laugh, which is related to this topic, check out these commercials by Novell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cldeHjFig_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eTguZ5OzJ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa1RCg-Ccp0

To comments, like chris shaw’s above, which deem the ‘non pro’ as something to look down on, I’m very curious as to why the tools you are the only element to judge someone by? Personally, I couldn’t care less if someone is using Photoshop or Picassa – it’s about the picture.

AS for the Apple crowd, well every time I get drawn in to one of these ridiculous arguments about which is better, it’s always the Mac guys who seem to form the majority of people I’d rather not want to be at a party with.

I use a PC, a Nikon, a Finepix, Adobe software, free softweare, my hands and my eyes. I now don’t use a Mac, because I have no need to, but I can use one (it’s sat under my desk as I type) if I need. I don’t use an iPhone because it’s too expensive. I don’t use an iPod because it doesn’t do bluetooth audio – see – reasons, not myopic fervour.

You know what – who cares about all this, I just want to improve as an amateur photographer.

Good grief.

Now all that being said…I’m a Linux user and now have all of my post processing work happening on that OS running on Intel hardware. And I do have Photoshop running on my Linux box with Wine emulation. It works better then under Vista x64 at this time. Now that I have a RC of Win 7 I will test Photoshop running there and see how it works….

And yes I have a fully licensed copy of PS CS3 with plans to upgrade to CS4 later this year.

If people want to run Windows (or Mac for that matter), I can understand that, especially now that both systems finally work. There’s no real significant difference between them.

And I’ll stick with BibblePro, Digikam and assorted tweakable tools.