WEB TECHNOLOGY is a split decision. There is probably a place for both platforms in most web development settings. Macs are great for the design aspects of web projects. PCs have some advantages in terms of back-end development tools (although Mac OS X may level the playing field a little). If you are a designer on a web development team, a Mac will be a great choice. For a one-person web development business with no or little back-end development needs, then a Mac is still a good choice - although you will need Virtual PC for cross-platform beta testing. For a one-person operation, with significant back-end development aspirations with Coldfusion or ASP (for example), then a PC would be a better choice. And, if you are mostly focusing on back-end development, then stick with a PC.
On top of all these sector specific thoughts, you should also keep in mind that:
i. the PC platform is afflicted by many more viruses than the Mac. Our firm is about 75% Mac, and I know that we haven't had a single Mac virus in 24 months. On our PCs and those of businesses we deal with, the virus incidence has resulted in a significant loss of productivity.
ii. historically, the Mac's in our offices have been productive tools for a longer lifecycle than our PCs.
To end on an philosophical note, our buying decisions (whether intended or not) reward the company in question for their corporate modus operandi. I continue to support Apple, even at a point in time when their functionality/productivity advantages have diminished because I BELIEVE IN REWARDING CREATIVITY and I BELIEVE IN CHOICE. The "90% of the world uses Windows, why don't you" rubs me the wrong way for these reasons. For our firm, and most others that we deal with in the new media sector, buying Macs will remain the default decision, unless a PC is clearly a better tool for the job. Fortunately, the sectors in the new media industry for which this is the case remain in the minority.
Just my subjective beliefs, based upon personal experience.
Cheers!

Wow. Simon thanks for such a long response, even though you landed a double Strongly-Disagree punch on my article.

I understand your critiques -- and agree with many of your points. You'd prefer a segment-by-segment approach to the purchase decision. For example: If a reader is a 2D designer, then they should pick this or that model. That's a logical approach to the question.

However, a problem with that methodology is the presumption that most creative pros just produce one type of content. Many people are doing web and print work, layout and image editing, as well as looking at adding a variety of streaming content to their repertoires.

Performance parity lets someone pick a Mac and feel good about the decision -- despite the "common wisdom" and market share numbers. Or they can buy a Windows machine. After all, that's what choice is all about. Performance is only one factor and I will offer some additional considerations in the second installment.

Your comments seem to assume that I'm somehow against users having a choice of platform. That we should reward Apple for offering an alternative to Windows, I admit never crossed my mind. Here's a radical proposal to improve choice across the industry: the government should create minimum quotas for alternate hardware and OS platforms -- Linux and Macs -- when purchasing equipment. This platform-level redundancy would ensure that computing services would continue even if there was an overwhelming virus attack or if some processor bug was uncovered.

Meanwhile, I was glad to see your point about viruses. I made viruses my story of the year, before reading your comment. Mac users are naive about viruses, which could be a problem when they move to OS X.

Thanks for reading!!!

daviD M.

As your article correctly points out, this part of the debate is all over by now. So why bother writing an article about it? The real issue is not which platform you use personally, but which you choose to serve on. Microsoft continues to develop a proprietary system for web serving. Whether we buy into this or not is a really important question, yet it is one which you do not even admit exists!

I haven't seen the rest of the posts in response to this article, but I will be surprised if many of them don't end up being similar to the vein of my contribution.
Firstly, I fell that there is little merit in writing a column that neither:
a. makes a decent stab at covering the subject in more detail than this one.
b. makes a professional (if only subjective) recommendation.
I think this contributor is making an unfortunate foray into the realm of "news journalism" rather than "editorial journalism". The news journalist often goes out of their way to find a dissenting opinion - even if this opinion only represents the views of 10% of "professionals" on that topic. This sort of misguided attempt at impartiality only serves to confuse the reader. Informed editorial journalism can treat an issue with respect for both sides of an argument, but make an informed professional recommendation at the end. I believe that this approach tends to be much more helpful to readers such as the designer that sent the email that triggered this article. I don't learn much from reviews that pronounce that the products/services being considered are each better in some ways, but don't really provide any specific details as to WHICH ways.
As for my professional views, as a new media professional that manages projects that span the graphic design, video and web technology marketplace, I can make several subjective contributions to the Mac vs PC debate.
For PRINT DESIGN, a Mac is still an obvious choice, for numerous reasons. Not only are the hardware and software offerings as good or better than for PC, but the majority of your colleagues and service bureaus use Mac. I even know of some successful high-end print shops that refuse to take PC files altogether!
VIDEO is a more ambiguous sector. Apple has made a strong push recently both at the entry level with iMovie and at the mid-range level with Final Cut Pro. An interesting anecdote regarding the popularity of Final Cut Pro; on the week before the Windows XP launch, the top selling title at Book Express (one of the largest distributors of computer books on the Canadian West Coast ) was... the Final Cut Pro Visual Quickstart Guide from Peachpit Press. Four of the remaining top ten were Windows XP related. Remarkable. The desktop video industry is evolving quite a bit right now, and the platform decision for the video professional is not limited to only Macs and PCs. Numerous factors will come into play on this one - including the platform preference of other project members and the nature of gear and software already owned. But, if you are just getting into entry to mid-end video production, I can't speak highly enough of the Mac platform. Such simplicity, with great mid-range abilities.