Mac Vs PC for web design

eddypeck

Member
I hope this isn't going to spark a war, and I'm sure we're all grown up enough not to get tangled into the mines better than yours playground disscusion.

But I've been in the design business in one way or another for 15 years, the first 4 of which were Mac only design for print, when I go into web design in the late 90s I started working with PCs - since then I've had the hard and fast rule, print work on a Mac web work on a PC and I've worked with both pretty much since.

Before you PC guys start, I went for a while when I was PC only, but as I did a lot of contract work for design studios I had compatibilty issues, usually font based so my clients almost dictated I got a Mac although I appriciate cross platform compatibility has got better in recent years.

Anyway my point... after recently spending a small fortune upgrading my Mac I thought it seemed stupid that I was then using a lower spec PC for a percentage of my work. I am currently working on 3 website simaltaneously and they are going to be my first Mac built sites. One is also also going to be my first PHP site, I'm learning along the way, one HTML and Javascript, the third is HTML to a point before I hand it over to a developer freind who will take it into .NET

If you notice my other thread you'll see IE6 is causing trouble, but apart from that it's been pretty good. Just wanted to share and invire comments
 
Hi Tim,

I'm on PC currently for all my freelance work, as it tends to be more web design than print. Back in my previous design studio job I worked on a Mac for everything, but that was predominantly print design. With all the various tools now available such as browser previes, and browser plugins like Firebug, there's not so much of a traditional divide between the two platforms. You could always run Windows on the Mac if you was keen on testing sites in a PC environment?

How did you find working on websites with the Mac?
Do you have a personal preference for print design/web design?

Greg
 
personally it doesn't matter if its a Mac or PC.. Its the program you're using not the OS.

why have one as well.. surely its best to have both so you can test on both (if you are designing for the web or interactive CD/DVDs?)

just my opinion.
 
Mac. I use Exposé every single day. I would get so annoyed changing the way I work to suit PCs.
 
eddypeck said:
I've had the hard and fast rule, print work on a Mac web work on a PC

that's pretty much how i like to work too, but prolly because i prefer to use wordpad for coding... when i've used a mac i have to stick with dreamweaver... but then again, i'm not exactly a web designer... i just know enough to get back... i have used a mac for a couple of sites and i was really a case of getting used to it for those projects... but i'm definitely mac all the way for print design.
 
It's the software and the designer that counts for most of it. I use PC but wouldn't mind getting a Mac too. It's just a preference that fanboys often take way too far.
 
Nik said:
that's pretty much how i like to work too, but prolly because i prefer to use wordpad for coding... when i've used a mac i have to stick with dreamweaver... but then again, i'm not exactly a web designer... i just know enough to get back... i have used a mac for a couple of sites and i was really a case of getting used to it for those projects... but i'm definitely mac all the way for print design.

Whats wrong with TextEdit?
 
I've been mac for about 5 years now, and I love them. I have always thought there is something in the stability of the OS that makes the difference.

I read a blog by Scott Hansen (iso50) about this, he uses a PC, if i remember correctly his comment was, if you spent to amount you would on a mac on a PC to the same spec, you would notice the difference.

There seems to be alot more scope for add ons on PC, but at the same time there are UI parts of OSX that I could not live without anymore!
 
I dont get why people view web design and print design as two separate entities when talking about OSs. You use the same programs regardless.
 
jHouse said:
I dont get why people view web design and print design as two separate entities when talking about OSs. You use the same programs regardless.
Was going to say that too...

I work a lot faster on a Mac than I do on a PC. But you probably say the same thing about PCs.And I still think Mac just has a more pleasant interface, but you could also install skins and stuff for that matter.
 
I think I work faster on a mac just because most of the programs are built to cross relate better than windows. I think windows hates me but I like the power that the PC packs.
 
I do most of my work on my desktop PC but that is only because I game on it as well and have gotten accustomed to it. I use a mac laptop which I prefer over a PC because I think mac laptops are much more friendly for on the run work but I wouldn't do without my PC for my main work. It has a lot more options available.
 
I do all my work on Mac OSX and think that a few of the OS features make things quicker to do. Like in finder menu on left, the expose to change between programs & open documents with ease, and my honest view, less crashing of programs! Plus much nicer to work in and open programs.

I would never go back to PC for web design, that is just my view.
 
I've always been a Mac man myself, but then I come from a print background. Find them much more reliable and stable then PC's (but that's my own personal opinion, others may disagree).

What may help you out is that if you have a Mac with OSX10.5 you can use boot camp to boot up as a windoze machine (providing you have Windoze installed) or you can use VMWare or parallels and install Windoze. Would help for testing, but not sure about Windoze specific browser specs (bit like Channel 4's crappy catch up service that doesn't support Macs). I haven't tried it myself, don't want to waste my money on any Microsoft products, (and I'm not interested in watching anything on Channel 4) so can't say if this post helps or not!
 
I have been using both Macs and Windows PCs for many years. However, it's the Mac I use mostly these days after many years suffering the reverse scenario.

I don't see why Windows should be the logical choice for Web development, unless you were working with some obscure Windows-only application. I generally find Mac apps to be more robust, productive, better integrated with the OS and generally more enjoyable to use.

Of course no credible Web developer can realistically avoid Windows - you need an effective test/dev environment with IE as your primary target. I run Windows XP and Vista on my Mac using Parallels. So, I get to work mostly on the Mac but still have two versions of Windows at my fingertips. This setup works incredibly well.

At the OS level if you had to compare the two platforms, consider Mac OS X with its solid Unix-based underpinnings, an OS born in and for the Internet world. Compare that to Windows: bloated-out with spare and legacy code; it has to support an almost infinite number of hardware combinations and is dragged down further by a huge burden of backward compatibility and an architectural history that pre-dates Internet support. It's a miracle that Windows works as well as it does, but under even Vista's eye candy lurks a real mess. The endless flow of security problems should be enough of a warning.

I could go on - and on - but I really don't want to turn this into a Windows-bashing post...
 
My only regret I have using a PC is Coda text editor for mac, and that CSS one too. Brilliant looking apps that i would die to use, but i love my PC too much!
 
It comes to a point in all designer's life where this question arise.
I have some good arguments agains PCs and Mac.

I might say that I feel more confident walking into a meeting room with my mac, but I know that I can edit and test code quicker in PC.
I also found that I cannot run 3DMax on mac... then I'm forced to have a pc in order to render (and don't say that rinho would do... it won't!).
From a business point of view, it's easier for me buying and upgrading PCs for the people that works in my studio. I feel sorry for the guys using PC for printing, but investing let's say 6K in 4 workstations that I will be forced to trash 1 years looks unrealistic (upgrading a mac is kindoff... well you all know).

I think that at the end of the day what bothers me most is that besides the fancy alluminum cladding, all new Macs have the same components that you can buy OEM for a PC. Same graphic cards, processors, hard drives, RAM, etc... The screens where outsourced to Sony years ago, and before that Nec was their provider.

My best advice (I think I suggested this before) is having and bloody damn flashy MAC laptop for your meetings and eventual print work and a cheap yet extremely powerful destop PC with a dual eight core processor. If you feel to depressed about the looks, set it up with unix multi partition AND mac OS + Windows.

-make sure you get a nice shoebox, paperbag or hide your PC under your desk... and never ever let any other designer know that you own one! otherwise they will think that you are still using coreldraw!

:p
 
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