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Post-Holiday Shopping Advice: Coke vs. Pepsi
Hi, I’m Coke. And I’m Pepsi.
Which do you prefer? Me? I like root beer; any kind will do. I am sure that someone can give you reasons why Coke is objectively better than Pepsi, but they won’t actual be objective. They will be observations the person uses to convince you that their choice is based in objective fact, but will actually be based in their own preferences and biases.
So it is with the Apple vs. Microsoft debate. Now, before I go in to this, let me lay out two groups of facts, and one opinion, so you will know where I’m coming from.
Fact Group A: I’ve worked in IT for 25 years and have done almost everything within it. I’ve done programming. I’ve been a database analyst. I “operated” a mini computer at a hospital. I’ve managed networks, big and small. I’ve also spent a lot of time evaluating computers for myself, my friends, and the companies I’ve worked for. I’ve built computers from scratch, and rebuilt ones from spare parts. I’ve worked with every version of Windows since dirt was new, and I’ve worked with Mac OS for a while, too. Bottom line: I know computers, not from a ones and zeroes perspective (though somewhat) but from the perspective of a knowledgeable, professional end-user. My biggest concern is that a computer do what it is supposed to do.
Fact Group B: As an end user, I use an iMac and a MacBook at home; at work, my primary computer is a Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10, but I’ve also got an older MacBook that I do MacBook stuff on. I use an iPhone as my primary mobile device. I’ve tried Windows Phone and Android, and don’t really care for either.
Opinion: My advice on whether you should buy a Mac or a PC is the best advice you’ll ever get. Some fans of Microsoft will tell you with great fervor that Apple is from the devil; Apple fans will tell you the same about Microsoft; some really nerdy people will tell you to dump both and go Linux. Their opinions are all junk. Mine is right, and you should listen to me. I’ll tell you why in a moment.
Now, I am not interested in engaging in the debate. I’ve had it, a million times and have argued both sides until I was blue in the face. It is pointless. As pointless as trying to tell you that Coke is better than Pepsi (it is). The fans of all sides will tell me that there are objective reasons why their choice is the right one. There aren’t. There are reasons why Mac is better than PC. There are reasons why PC is better than Mac. There are reasons you should buy an Android tablet instead of an iPad. There is no point in getting in to any of those — because in the end — it comes down to your individual preference. Neither is objectively better in some cosmic sense, though either may be objectively better to a particular person for a particular purpose.
I get asked a lot (and I do mean a lot): “Spin, what kind of computer should I get?” Often they add little bullet points for me like “I don’t like Dell,” or “My son-in-law says to get a Mac,” or “I don’t need anything fancy.” I don’t care who they are, nor what they say, I always begin by asking the question that drives the answer more than any other factor: how much money do you want to spend?
If they say “A few hundred dollars,” then the answer is “Go down to Best Buy, Office Depot, or Costco and find whatever suits your fancy and buy that. In the $300 range, all of the computers are more or less the same.” Often I get an incredulous look, as if too say “That doesn’t help!” It should: if $300 is your budget, you can feel safe in the knowledge that whatever you buy is going to be just as good as whatever you didn’t buy. And when I say “just as good,” I really mean “just as bad.”
And when I explain that, they ask “Well, what should I do?” At which point I say “You should spend between $1,200 and $1,500 on a computer that will last you several years.” They will then give me that look again “I can’t afford that!” But if you think about it, an expensive computer that lasts you last years costs you $300 to $375 per year. A $300 laptop from Costco has a life of 12-18 months if it is used regularly (cue the guy who tells me his bargain basement special lasted since Spock kissed Uhura). So, as a matter of annual cost, we’re likely arguing over chump change.
Notice, I have yet to discuss Mac versus PC. That is because it doesn’t matter! It really doesn’t. Some will say that Mac’s operating system is better because it runs on Unix. Some will say Windows is more widely used. Neither of these facts — nor the myriad others people use to convince you of rightness of their decision — mean anything, not in any real sense. Can I browse the web in Windows? Yep. Can I run Excel on a Mac? Yep. Can I edit a video on a Mac? Yep. PC? Yep. There is nothing the average person wants to do that you cannot do on each platform.
So the question remains: PC or Mac? Well, what do you like? What are you comfortable with? If you have used a PC for years and like it, get a PC. The Mac fanatics will tell you that if you buy a Mac, the instant you lay finger to keyboard your whole life will change. Nonsense. The Windows people will tell you that if you get a Mac, there are a ton of things you won’t be able to do. Also nonsense. Get what you are comfortable with. You won’t go wrong with either choice.
Published in Culture
I am afraid to ask how you can make this comparison with such assuredness.
… unless you are thinking about the Abrams movies!
I like Dr. Pepper too. And Root Beer, hold the root.
Nobody does.
It’s always seemed odd to me that advice is to get either a cheap PC and replace it every other year, or (if you want something nice that will last) a Mac.
Apple uses off-the-shelf parts, the same as pretty much every other computer manufacturer. They don’t design or produce anything but the chassis.
A 13″ Macbook Air with 256 GB of storage goes for $1,199. An identically configured (yes even the Thunderbolt port) Dell XPS 13″ in the same weight category costs $899. It’s likely to last just as long.
The one element that is missing is the famous Apple Retina display, but at 13.3″ the 1080p screen’s pixel density is approaching the threshold of human perception anyway.
I can understand if you feel the different OS and the Retina display are worth $300 extra, but let’s not pretend that it’s likely to last a user any less time, or that the Dell won’t also produce a satisfactory user experience.
Why do people insist on comparing Apple, a premium product, to bargain basement PCs instead of similarly priced competitors?
I’m guessing about what deer urine tastes like based on my sampling of beer (some of this goes back to the smell of cheap beer soaked into plywood bar tops when I was about 6; I never bothered to taste the stuff till I was about 27). Give me diet soda pop, lots of caffeine, no cola or root beer, please.
Proportionally speaking I’ve crashed Macs just as many times as PCs. Possibly moreseo. Haven’t spent enough time on Macs to call it a significant sample, mind you.
Seagate had a bit of a reputation for failing more often. Since then they’ve tightened up quality standards quite a bit. At least as far as I can tell working for a component supplier. Generally these days I buy Western Digital because they buy more of our stuff.
Even so, I’m not singing karaoke at the Minneapolis Meetup.
Clearly, the guy just had a run of bad luck. I’ve seen bad lots of drives from all of the manufacturers, especially after the big flood in Thailand took out something like 70% of all drive manufacturing worldwide for a while.
I try to stay objective. Macs are usually well built machines, and there are some Mac applications that are just fantastic. The vast majority of the time they’re a slightly different way of doing the exact same thing. What really frustrates me is the superiority complex of the owners, and their decisions that since Macs are inherently better in their minds, they must work perfectly in a Windows network with line-of-business applications built for Windows.
I also don’t understand why “you can just run that in Parallels/Fusion” is an acceptable answer to anyone. Why would you pay $80, and buy a Windows license, just to kluge the wrong tool for the job into sort of working?
As a side note, I owe my job to that flood.
Give me enough root beer and I’ll do it.
I made an arraignment with Mr. Balzer. One of us drives, the other one gets drunk enough to sing karaoke. He chose ‘drunk’ because if I were singing he’d want to be drunk enough to stand that too.
It’s Ricochet. I’m sure you can find a willing DD. Of course, it’s also Minnesota…
Bravo! I too remember the “old Coke.” It was wonderful. Then they did the taste test and decided to be Pepsi. Screw Pepsi! If I wanted Pepsi, I’d have bought Pepsi.
Of note, the taste of Coke (and Pepsi) have changed. There is a difference between cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup. If you want the original Coke taste, you buy the Coke made in Mexico because the Coke made in Mexico uses cane sugar.
I also like root beer, some more than others; both 7-Up and Sprite, and the occasional orange soda, or if you prefer orange pop. (I grew up with ‘pop’ as in a bottle of pop, and I met people in the Marines who were unfamiliar with that description of soda. They were from back East. I had to give them a huss [help, which I learned from those Easterners] with the idea of pop.)
I hope that husses you out.
I’ve always been a PC person and the idolatry of Mac and Apple have always freaked me out. And give me a glass of cold water and ice–AAhhhh!
My iPhone and iPad both have Swype.
No, Coke is not better than Pepsi. Coke makes each of my teeth feel as if it is wearing a nasty, furry little mitten. Pepsi doesn’t do that, so Pepsi wins. Truth be told, I don’t like either very much.
But I will say, after over thirty years as a lifelong PC user, from the MS and PC-DOS days, and all the not-quite-compatible variants of BASIC therewith, through Windows 1.0 and up (the blueprints for our house were designed with a product called In-a-Vision, the first available third-party program that ran on Windows 1.0, on a system with two floppy disk drives, and which had a run-time version of the Windows operating system built in), this Christmas I actually spoke the words, “perhaps it’s time to get an iMac,” as I contemplated my now six-year old PC and what needs to happen next.
I probably won’t, as I have so much invested in the Windows platform, software and files back to Lord-knows-when (my emails alone go back to 1997), but the fact that I uttered the words is telling.
And kind of sad. For me, anyway.
I agree. The little Apple-oid robots at the Apple store (they’re incredibly friendly and helpful in an almost creepy sort of way) put me off from the start.
That’s all a Windows license costs? I thought they were more than that.
Actually I have heard plenty of people say the best hardware to fun Windows 7 on was a Macbook Pro.
I don’t find them helpful at all. Creepily cheerful, yes, but not helpful.
I’ve heard plenty of people say that Apollo 11 was a hoax and that Barack Obama is the best president in American history.
Plenty of people have zero idea what they’re talking about.
I assume the roots used are hallucinogenic?
Oh, do they have Swype now? They didn’t when I last picked my phone.
I think it’s an overblown phenomenon, ackshully. There are lots and lots and lots of brands out there that foster extreme devotion from their fans. Apple isn’t that much of an outlier.
I mean, just look at the heated rivalry between Ferrari and Lamborgini.
No, the $80 is how much Parallels and VMware Fusion both cost. Windows licenses are in addition to one of these. They start at $99 for Windows 10 Home for the OEM version that is, legally, forever tied to the hardware it is installed on.
Retail and Volume licenses are a bit pricier, but can legally be transferred to a different physical machine once every 90 days. Volume licenses are only available for the Professional or Enterprise versions, and currently come with downgrade rights to Windows 7 or 8.1.
Windows Professional editions come with Hyper-V Workstation (a hypervisor like Parallels or Fusion) built in. There’s also a free version of Oracle’s VirtualBox, a free version of VMware Player, or the paid version of VMware Worstation available for Windows.
I’m aware of a number of people having installed Mac OS X on all of these platforms to create a “Hackintosh,” though this is in violation of Apple’s licensing agreements.
Download it from the Apple store.
What exactly were the circumstances under which you taste-tested deer urine?