I was asked to explain this to someone recently, and decided to post it here.

In my opinion when people think of PCs, they think of frustrating experiences, viruses, blue screens of death, etc. When people think of Macs they either think of glossy shiny things that work well, or if they love PCs, they roll their eyes.

When it comes down to it though, a PC really is a machine capable of running Windows, or a variety of other operating systems such as UNIX, Linux and more as well. PCs, can be built for a fraction of the cost of an Apple machine, and are highly customizable. Hardware can be mixed and matched, and upgraded as well, but in general at a price. Hardware incompatibility issues always arise, for example that 5 year old scanner that worked great with Windows XP, might not be supported in Vista.

The difference with a Mac is that it is capable of running Macintosh OS X, which a generic PC cannot. Modern Macs are also PCs with the ability to potentially run any operating system, including Windows. This is all thanks to the new Intel Core 2 chips they are running on. The downside to a Mac is the price. The lowest priced notebook weighs in around $1,000. But since Apple makes the OS, the hardware, and a good portion of the default software, everything works the second you turn it on.

If we're talking strictly about Windows vs Mac OS X, it is hard to say objectively which one is better. Let's talk about Windows first. It's widely available, in fact it comes pre-installed on about 90% of new computers that are available for sale. It's proprietary software, meaning that the source code can't be viewed or modified by anyone, leaving all updates to Microsoft, the company that makes it. In the past Windows has gotten a really bad rap for being insecure, catching viruses, crashing, and in general making a crummy experience for the end user. Windows Vista, the newest version of it improves on quite a bit of these previous issues, it's more secure, less likely to crash, has a much nicer looking interface, and in general is an all around pleasant experience. One of the downsides however is that there are at least 6 versions of Windows Vista, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, Server and more. Features vary from OS to OS, and because it is designed to run on a seemingly infinite number of configurations and systems, hardware incompatibility issues continue to arise for it. The one major upside to Windows however is that you can probably find any application you need for it, since around 90% of machines run some flavor of it, there is much more of an incentive for developers to write apps for it.

Macs have this new reputation for just working, and with good reason. The Mac OS X is built off of UNIX, an operating system that has been around for over a decade. The core of it, it's kernel, is open source, which means anyone is free to copy, distribute and modify the source code. This means anyone, not just Apple can tinker with this code and find bugs and fix them. The rest of the OS is however proprietary. But with that solid foundation of UNIX you find that the operating system will rarely lock up, and in general will work fairly well. Applications however are only as good as their programmer and can crash just as frequently as their Windows friends. Macs in general also have that extra "polish" which can be attributed to the design of both the hardware and graphics in the interface. Apple even has a "human interface guideline" which describes to developers how to make applications according to a standard that are both intuitive to the user and attractive to the eye (it's also the reason that you will see icons for applications that resemble what they do, such as a CD+music note for iTunes, a photo+camera for iPhoto, a speech bubble for ichat, a calender for ical, an inkwell and pen for Pages, etc. Think about the difference on windows, what are the icons for Office? a W for word? an X for excel?) It should also be noted that there are only two current versions of OS X, OS X (currently Leopard) and OS X Server. The other think about a Mac is that when you turn a new one on for the first time it has a music application, photo management application, music creation applications, video editing, calender, mail, and a browser. Many people are also unaware that on the disc that ships with every new mac are the XCode developers tools, which is what Mac developers use to create the applications that run on the system, on the Windows side, a similar package costs around $1500. Granted the average person can't develop applications, but the tools are there should you ever decide to learn how. The major downside to OS X though is the fact that it only has around 8-10% market share, meaning that a lot of specialized software is simply not available for it. But for most people what comes on the machine alone is enough for what they need to do.

I shouldn't leave out the other major OS, Linux. Linux is a free an open source operating system that will run on both mac and PC hardware alike, and has also been adopted for use in many major electronics such as HDTVs, Tivos and more. There has recently been a big increase in momentum and support behind it now that different versions of it are just as easy or easier to use then Windows. Linux also has the advantage of being able to run on older hardware, and is a less vulnerable target for viruses and malware then Windows. Currently the most popular version is called Ubuntu, and it's slogan is "Linux for Humans". Linux also powers the computers that are being manufactured for the one laptop per child program.