Verified answer

When thinking of the differences between PCs and Macs, there are two things that come to mind: Difference in the hardware (actual machines), and the difference between Windows and Mac OS X.

=== === A Mac is technically a type of PC made by Apple Inc. Apple makes the hardware (a high end Mac Pro tower, the iMac all-in-one, the small Mac Mini, the professional MacBook Pro laptop, the consumer MacBook, or the lightweight MacBook Air) and the software (Mac OS X). Other companies, such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, and Acer, make a wide variety of what is commonly referred to as PCs (Desktops, Laptops, and Tablets), and they use 3rd party software, either Windows or Linux, as the operating system. Macs are typically a little more expensive than PCs

For practicality, both operating systems will fulfill almost all needs just fine. They share almost all basic functionality and have more similarities than differences.

=== Hardware: === * On PCs you can install many 3rd party operating systems. They often ship with Microsoft Windows, but some people replace that with Linux. Macs always ship with Mac OS X, and they have recently gotten the ability to duel-boot with Linux and Windows. * Macs can and do run Mac OS X, but PCs cannot legally run Mac OS X. * Macs are generally more expensive and more reliable than most PCs. * One of the main element of Macs since the late 1990s are their aesthetic design, something that many PCs still lack. Included in this is a reduction of indicator lights such as CPU usage.

* iMacs, Mac Minis, and the different MacBooks lack internal flash card readers and certain less common ports that many PCs do have (such as older monitor ports and a phone jack), and this must be dealt with by purchasing a USB hub and various port extensions. * MacBooks lack a two-buttoned touchpad, so right-clicking requires holding two fingers on the touchpad, holding the "control" key, or purchase of an external mouse. * MacBooks are often thinner and more lightweight than their PC laptop counterparts. * The MacBook Air, though the thinnest existing laptop, lacks an internal CD/DVD player that most ultraportable notebooks have. * MacBooks use magnets to remain shut; notebooks usually use hooks which could easily become damaged. * MacBooks, unlike other PC notebooks, has a magnetic power cord to prevent tripping over or yanking of the cord.

* iMacs and MacBooks all include built-in webcams for video conferencing. Some PC developers have recently begun to include webcams as well. (Apple has recently patented a design to spread the CCD sensors between pixels on the screen, allowing the user to maintain eye contact with the other chat member. This design is not yet in practice.)

=== Windows vs Mac OS : === * Windows has a large number of viruses and other malware, while there are no Mac OS X viruses and very little malware. * Windows is based on the Windows NT kernel; Mac OS X is based on Free-BSD/UNIX, something generally considered to be faster and more secure. * Mac OS X uses a Dock to list the most common applications and those in use; Windows uses a Start Menu and Taskbar. * Windows has a larger number of programs written for it than Mac OS X does, but the difference has recently become negligible. * Almost all advanced 3D games are supported by Windows, but companies such as EA and id have recently added support for Mac OS X to their games.

* Computers shipping Windows often include extra software which is unwanted and reduces performance; Mac OS X includes iLife for things like creating web pages and photo organization, though they do not run at startup to reduce system performance. * Mac OS X is more intuitive for beginners than Windows is. * Windows requires internet or phone product activation, including re-activation upon major hardware modifications of the PC. Frequent hardware modifications can result in prevention of access to Windows and your files/programs. Losing a product key on an old copy of Windows could pose a similar problem. Mac OS X does not require activation

The similarities are how the hardware works; for instance, they both have motherboards, CPUs, RAM, and so forth. But from there on there don't seem to be many similarities. OS X is built off of an open-supply undertaking called Unix however has been entirely refined in many approaches. For example, OS X makes use of OpenGL (as do all different *nix techniques) instead than DirectX for its drawing instructions which means that it takes rather a lot less graphics vigour to do way more ingenious and attractive things. For instance, the brand new MacBooks have a 64mb shared integrated pix handler, whilst the new Vista requires at the least 256mb shared images processing vigour, and OS X nonetheless appears a lot better. I would go on and on about how much better Macs are, however here is one thing most individuals do not believe of or comprehend: windows XP runs higher on a Mac (with Intel processor) than it does on a computer.