Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

in language for 5 year olds, as I only got grade 6 in physics with chemistry back in 1969, what the difference is between a PC and a Mac?

I know Windows 98, 2000, XP whatever is what works a PC but that's about the extent of my knowledge!

PC stands for Personal Computer and refers to any IBM-compatible computer. The term PC comes from the first personal computer made by IBM. A computer that is IBM-compatible means that its architecture is based on the IBM microprocessor. A number of different operating systems are compatible with PCs, the most popular of which is Microsoft Windows. Some others are the unix variants, such as Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris.

Mac is short for Macintosh and refers to any computer produced by Apple Computer. Macs are traditionally classified separately from PCs because they are based on the PowerPC architecture from Apple/IBM/Motorola instead of the traditional Intel based microprocessors that have powered PCs for decades. A great deal of software is also compatible with either Mac or PC, but not both.

As time moves on the line between Mac and PC as begun to blur. Apple redesigned their operating system based on UNIX in 2000, and more software packages and file formats have become interoperable between PCs and Macs every day. In early 2006, Apple switched to an Intel architecture for their computer systems which now makes it possible to run Microsoft Windows on Mac hardware. Up until this point Apple hardware only support the Macintosh Operating System (Mac OS), and Mac OS itself was not compatible with any other hardware besides Apple’s.

PCs and Macs are still not 100% compatible, despite their now similar architectures. While many software vendors release their products for both platforms, not all do. Particularly, most of the popular computer games

Yes!

Mac is a brand, owned by Apple Inc (not to be confused with The Beatles Apple Corps)

PC is short for personal computer. PCs are made by lots of companies such as Sony, Compaq, Toshiba, Sanyo, HP etc whereas Macs are only made by Apple Inc.

PCs are cheaper and most (not all) run on software made by Microsoft such as Windows. Macs are more powerful and more expensive (and also nicer to look at generally) and are widely agreed to have more stable 'operating systems' i.e. they run on software that is less susceptible to crashing and/or viruses. PCs are primarily used for traditional work-related tasks such as producing word documents/spreadsheets whereas Macs are better suited to multimedia such as video and music editing. Nearly every piece of music recorded today will at some stage have gone through or been directly recorded on a mac. Most modern films are edited using Macs. Macs definitely have the 'wow' factor...

marty wrote:Macs definitely have the 'wow' factor...

Yes, it usually is "Wow, look at all the software that is available for a PC"
There are some good posts on this thread in answer to Andy's question.
I thought somebody would have come up with "A PC is a box of electronics and a Mac is a coat that you wear in the rain".
JR didn't, so I won't mention it!

Haven't you seen these ads?

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/british- ... 232143.php

PC is an officer of the law, something sadly rarely seen these days.

A Mac is an article of clothing worn by DOM, and generally used to frighten women and children.

Next question ???

If you're thinking about buying one or t'other, get a Mac if you want it to look pretty, be easy to use for a non-computer-person and don't want to do anything too complex. Otherwise, get a PC.

My husband, who works in education/design, uses Macs. That is the industry standard and apparently the options available for desktop publishing, design etc are better. But we also have Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint installed in order to communicate with the rest of the world. Daughter no. 1, who is in year 7 at school (ie. age 12), is now au fait with all Microsoft programs and also Quark XPress, MacWrite, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Bravo, the new generation. I can vividly remember my computing lessons at Horsham on the BBC computers. I had no idea what on earth was going on. We had never been near a computer at Hertford, and didn't even know how to switch the things on! I hasten to add that I have caught up a little, but still can't do a spreadsheet.

Yeah, I remember the BBC Micros at CH, hilarious - and also working on the Xenix boxes, very creaky. PC's turned up when I was there, 286's, amazing as they were at the time.
Macs being better for design (etc.) applications is a myth - it used to be the case five or ten years ago, but now PCs can do all that Macs can do and more. Macs are just still living off that reputation and their "coolness".

I was at CH when the RM Nimbus PCs turned up - and now I've been working for RM for 10 years!


My memory of the RM PCs was all that drew me to the job advert - so in some ways CH got me this job!

J