Mac vs PC

As part of my recent tour around Australia and New Zealand, for the Kodak seminar series, I gave presentations at various photographic colleges. While visiting the various campuses, I poked into some of the classrooms to see what computers were provided to students - to see what was the basic platform of the teaching curriculum. 

Once upon a time it would have been impossible for visual creatives like graphic designers and photographers to produce on anything but a Mac. But in recent years new applications and programs like Windows have given PCs a much more visually-oriented interface. 

So what did I find at the colleges? Yup, most of the photographic departments were lavishly stocked with Macs. I didn't have time to question the reason for the choice - maybe they got good bulk discounts. But it did help me feel justified in my own choice of platform. I still maintain that a Mac presents your images and applications, like Lightroom and Photoshop, in the cleanest, most efficient way possible. There are many factors to consider but one recent review (September 2008) summarized Mac as "Superior graphics, superior third party graphics software" and PC as "Serious graphics cost extra, third-party graphics software catching up" (www.pc.com/learn/beforeyoubuy/establishyourneeds/macvspc). 

For creatives, I think Mac still has the edge.