Die-Hard PC Fan

This post is not directly about me, it is about a guy I know who works for Microsoft and is a die-hard PC lover... This past Sunday, he was going on and on about how PCs were better than Macs and why. I don't generally getting into debates with die hard people, because often you cannot win these debates.

Anyways, I work on both a PC and Mac platform. I prefer a Mac, but I am perfectly adept at working on a PC. On Sunday, I was asked if I had ever had problems with my Mac crashing or programs freezing up. The answer is no.

Well today, I was working in Microsoft Word (on my Mac) and the program froze up on me. I have never had to force quit a program on my Mac and here I found myself having to force quit a Microsoft program. I just thought that was kind of ironic and funny considering Sunday's conversation...

Mac vs PC

I love these Mac commercials and I definitely understand them first hand. In some ways, these commercials show the dynamics between me (a graphic designer) and my husband (a civil engineer).

This is my personal overview of Macs vs PCs.

Here is a little history about me: I started out on a Mac in college (I could go back further but for the purpose of this comparison I will stick with the last 10 years of my life).

While studying graphic design in college, I used a Mac. I worked predominantly with Quark, Photoshop & Illustrator and Macs were the way to go.

At my first job I was introduced to the PC. I actually worked simutaneously on the 2 platforms for about 2 years. This experience taught me a lot about trouble shooting PCs and to love the ease of use of the Mac. During this period I began using a lot of different types of software programs (Quark, InDesign, PageMaker, Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel, Publisher and more). Mostly I would end up frustrated with the PC. I was constantly dealing with the blue screen of death (BSD) and my computer freezing. But to make my job work, I had to adapt so I learned to fix the problems and move on.

For the last 3 years I worked almost exclusively on PCs. This was not by choice but I managed. Most of the time I struggled with trying to convince my IT department (or anyone who was listening) that my problem was not necessarily the PC but the fact that my hard drive space was NOT BIG ENOUGH to run the programs I was working with. Also for about a year I worked out of Pagemaker (ugh) and once we upgraded to InDesign I was much happier.

In January I began freelancing out of my home office. I have a PC for my desktop computer and a Mac for a laptop. Here are a couple of thing I have learned along the way: Macs are definitely "friendlier" but if you know how to deal with the PC problems, they aren't too bad. To be honest, my home PC rarely freezes and I never get the BSD. However I have had to reformat my PC a couple of times due to viruses and that has never happened with any Mac I have worked on.

This may sound strange coming from a graphic designer, but for me it is more about the software than the platform. I work almost exclusively with Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office and these companies have made working between both platforms pretty effortless. I am very comfortable floating back and forth between my PC and Mac.

Maybe I am just and oddball, but it works for me. My biggest struggle would be hot keys, but even then I make it work.

confused fingers

i used to only use macs (you know, back in the college days when i had access to a computer lab when i couldn't afford my own computer). and then my first couple of jobs i was blessed with macs as my main computer.

but over time i had to adapt to pcs. this is not b/c i wanted to, but more out of necessity. to have the corporate type jobs that i have had, i have been relegated to pcs. i have adapted and longed for my mac days, but i have managed to work fine on a pc.

however i recently got a mac powerbook and i am back in the land of macs - which is awesome. the problem is this: i still use a pc (almost as much as my mac). actually that is not even the problem - the problem is that i use hot keys for practically everything. so when you switch back and forth between a mac and pc you end up doing all sorts of fun things to your computer b/c for a mac you hit the apple key for everything (which is the alt key on a pc) and on a pc you use the control key for everything (which is practically useless on a mac).

so by the time my fingers adapt to using the correct buttons on whatever platform i am working from, i then switch over to another platform and my fingers wreak havoc once again...

i see this to be a continuing problem in my immediate future. my fingers need to get smarter to automatically know the difference between my mac & pc.