There has always been an unsaid rivalry. Windows? or Apple? A rivalry if not necessarily between the companies, but most definitely between their consumers. What most people don’t realize is that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have worked together to greatly influence our technology whether through rivalry or partnership according to CNET’s article Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: It’s Complicated. If anything, the public opposition fueled the competition– which in turn increased sales through the publicity. That being said, the real billion dollar question really lies within the consumer; whose products are better?

A noticed trend is if users are fans of Windows they absolutely despise Apple and vice versa. The average person is usually brought up on either Apple or Windows. Most people aren’t going to want to learn how to use a brand new OS (Operating System) especially if they are comfortable with the OS they’re already familiar with. Then again, some are known not to have a preference at all and just use what happens to be before them.

But just like  anything, both companies have their pros and cons.

Windows provides a less expensive alternative– if you’re not looking to get much out of your platform, however, if you change your mind after your purchase, you could experience some problems. If you don’t want to spend the extra time and money to upgrade your PC don’t be too surprised if it crashes. You can’t put more into a machine than what it is built to handle. That being said, Mac doesn’t have specific user based categories. Each platform is built to allow web surfing, movies, gaming and professional tasks. Yes, what you buy as a consumer is the same quality that small businesses or big corporations use to get their work done; whether it be tracking sales or building 3D animation. And their are many choices in deciding what Mac is best suited for you. Portability (MacBook, Mac Mini), Stability (iMac, Mac Pro), memory, or speed of performance. Not to mention a simple upgrade in RAM equals an extreme increase in speed. A simple 12G upgrade on the recent iMacs can open a complex program like Illustrator within very few seconds.

3 Second Start up for Illustrator (Video)

Windows can still achieve those speeds, but not with all platforms. This brings us back to the fact that not everyone needs that much performance out of their system. A feature all PC’s have is that they can be highly customized  and run Windows (or Linux). Both OS’ enable complete control over the hardware and software of any platform it’s compatible with. And if you’re one of those computer geeks, this is a feature you can definitely appreciate. Apple doesn’t enable this much control but it is amazingly user friendly. The solid elegant layout of Mac’s OS has been so favorable that Microsoft has been sued by Apple because their OS had been based off of Mac’s OS. (Read news article here)

There has been some controversy whether or not consumers should just purchase Macs ever since they started integrating intel chips into their systems that allow you to run BOTH Mac’s OS and Windows. Unless you specifically need to run both systems (ex: for Media Design) there is not a need to worry about running Windows on Mac at all. There are a couple of drawbacks, one being that you still have to purchase the Windows OS and install it. And two, don’t expect your Mac to run at a preferable speed if you don’t have at least 8G of RAM since Mac still needs to be running while using Windows. If you do decide to run both OS’ on the Mac, viruses shouldn’t be a worry according to Macworld (www.macworld.com) Article Mac virus onslaught in 2011? Not so fast. With Windows, unless you have an anti-virus or never use the internet you have a high probability of getting one. Thanks to Microsoft you can click here for a list of viruses your computer can catch. For PC’s whether it be upgrades, anti-virus, or if your computer just flat out crashes– you’ll probably end up spending the same amount of money as you would if you had purchased a Mac. Luckily, at the end of the day, the consumer gets to decide which product best fits their lifestyle.