Mac vs. PC Info-War (NewsFactor)

Like a modern day Odd Couple, two guys stand against a white backdrop.

"I'm a Mac," says the unshaven character played by Justin Long, featured in the TV series "Ed," in the movies "Accepted" and "Jeepers Creepers" and in other roles.

"And I'm a PC," says John Hodgman, the buttoned-up, dry comic actor/writer and former literary agent who has patiently provided expert commentary for fake stories on the Comedy Channel's "The Daily Show."

In a now-classic series of commercials, nine in all through June of 2006, these two guys anthropomorphize the two most famous personal computer platforms on the planet.

Most everyone agrees these ads are funny. But not everyone agrees that they are accurate.

Viruses, Clock and Out-of-the-Box

In one commercial, appropriately called "Viruses," the PC Guy sneezes and says he caught a virus, one of "114,000 viruses for the PC" in the last year alone.

"PCs, not Macs," says Mac Guy.

In another, Mac Guy says that iLife — a suite of programs for the Web, photos, music and video — comes bundled with every Mac, working as seamlessly as iTunes. PC Guy replies that he has "apps" bundled with him as well, dropping air quotes around the word. He mentions Calculator and, when pressed for others, comes up with Clock. "Sounds like...hours of fun," Mac Guy says.

"WSJ" features PC Guy quoting a Wall Street Journal review of the Mac as "the finest desktop PC on the market, at any price." In the one called "Better," Mac Guy says he does "life stuff" better, like photos and video.

After showing the two computer guys holding hands — that is, networking — in another commercial, Mac Guy extends the chain by holding hands with a Japanese woman who is a new digital camera from Japan. He then turns to her and starts talking in Japanese — he speaks her language. PC Guy tries "buon giorno" on her, but to no avail.

"Out of the Box" shows the two computer-guys half out of boxes. Mac Guy is ready to get started on Web pages, photos and more, "right out of the box." PC Guy says he first needs to "download new drivers, erase trial software" and has "lots of manuals to read." But he can't get out yet, he says as Mac Guy heads off-screen, because the rest of him is still in other boxes.

They briefly talk in "Restarting" about how they both run Microsoft Office and share files, and then PC Guy freezes. When he starts up again, he says that he had to re-start. "You know how it is," PC Guy says. "No, not really," Mac Guy replies.

And, in "Touché," Mac Guy says that he can run PC as well as Mac. As he attempts a retort, PC Guy becomes confused in a "who's on first"-like exchange centered around the word "touché."

A Debate As Old as the Mac

The wry, counter-cultural sophistication has been vintage Apple advertising since the legendary commercial two decades ago when a scantily-clad female runner threw a hammer at Big Brother's image and launched the Mac.

This ongoing debate is as old as the Mac. But we're now heading toward the end of the first decade of the 21st Century. Windows-based machines are overwhelming dominant in the market. And the market is chock full of people downloading and playing music, managing digital photos and video, using Webcams and making voice-over-the-Internet phone calls.

In this age of rampant multimedia and online communications, are these Mac-versus-PC commercials accurate?

As with any debate scorecard, terms must be defined first.

The John Hodgman character is simply called "PC." But what exactly is a PC? You can run , Home or Pro, Windows NT, even earlier Windows versions, on many different manufacturers' hardware. You can even call an Intel-based platform that runs a PC.

Let's assume that the target is XP-based platforms, since XP is the world's most popular PC operating system (OS). Even though XP Professional is often recommended over XP Home Edition by knowledgeable users — Dell, in fact, recommends the Pro version on its Web site — let's consider both XP versions here.

Mac's current always runs on Apple hardware, but XP can run on a wide range of hardware configurations from many different manufacturers. Since OS's don't run in empty space, we need to factor in the varying PC hardware configurations in assessing platform versus platform.

In terms of hardware, a key irony to this incarnation of the debate is that current Macs are now silicon brothers to PCs, in that both have Intel microprocessors. And many, many more PCs are used for multimedia every day than Macs.

Is this still a meaningful debate?

A Scorecard

For one Web site that is entirely focused on this legendary battle — called XvsXP.com — the debate is very much still on.

The site offers a comparative analysis, and even has a scorecard. While the scorecard doesn't directly rate the exact issues raised in the commercials, it does cover applications, files and folders, graphic user interface, general system and power users.

The bottom line, according to XvsXP.com: out of a possible 920, and counting free system upgrades that can help to stabilize or enlarge an OS, OS X 10.4 Tiger gets 643, XP Pro with Service Pack 2 gets 642 and XP Home with Service Pack 2 gets 616. On the specific issues, the site's co-owners have their own opinions. It is true there are many PC viruses, said site co-owner James Scariati, who uses both machines but considers a Mac to be his personal computer.

And, at most, there are only a few viruses for Mac, he said. "But it's a misconception that Macs can't get viruses," he said, pointing out that they could. It's just a marketing decision, he said. Macs, at less than 5 percent of the worldwide market, are such a small target.

What about Mac Guy not only speaking Japanese with that "new digital camera from Japan," but sharing a joke with her?

"The point is implied that the Mac talks to an external device like a camera," Scariati said, "and that the PC can't." But both systems are pretty good these days at connecting with compatible external devices, he said.

As for freezing up, Scariati said "they're both pretty stable and the issue is exaggerated." He said he's had both OS's freeze up, but that it was more of a problem with the PC before XP came around. "Part of the problem for the PC," he said, "is that Microsoft doesn't make the hardware," as Apple does, "and you can't test for all configurations."

But Samir Bhavnani, director of research at technology research firm Current Analysis, disagrees. He said that there were fewer freezeups on Macs, even in the current XP era. "Every Windows user has experienced frustration at their computer freezing up," he said. "In terms of stability, the Mac OS is more stable."

Level of Comparison

The multimedia readiness of both platforms depends on how that is interpreted. Out of the box, the Mac does have the iLife multimedia suite installed. The PC does not come with iLife and, depending on the manufacturer, can require some putting-together time, including installing some other media apps.

But the level of comparison can greatly influence the results. On the XvsXP.com scorecard, for instance, the comparison is detailed. For video playback, in fact, XP scores a nine and Mac only a four. This is because the site's owners penalize the Mac for such things as making you buy the QuickTime player for full screen support and not offering free MPEG-2 support.

But for video editing, the site ranks Mac as one and XP as nine, largely because iLife, although included with a new Mac, is not part of the OS, while XP's Windows Movie Maker is included as part of the OS itself. Updating the OS updates the version of Movie Maker, which is not the case on the Mac.

For audio, they are even at 9 each. For DVD playback, Mac scores a 9 to XP's 3, with XP being dinged because it lacks an included DVD decompressor. It is also trumped by the overall convenient features of Mac's DVD Player.

And, of course, you can indeed readily run XP and its apps on the Mac, and the reverse is not generally done on the PC. But that's for the same reason that there are proportionally more native Swahili-speakers who also speak English than the number of native English-speakers who also speak Swahili. It's a matter of overwhelming market share differences.

In general, though, a feature-by-feature match-up of the current platforms is a draw. "Anything you can do on one, you can do on the other," said Scariati. "The key difference between the two OS's is not so much the features themselves, but their implementation."

He said that, in general, Apple's approach is to "make things as simple as possible for most people," whereas Windows gives you all the options up front.

As a small but characteristic example, he notes that you can clear Recent Items on the Mac with one click at the bottom of that menu screen. With XP, you have to go to the Start menu, click Customize, then Advanced, then clear recent documents.

The Main Message

But some argue that a feature-by-feature comparison misses the point, and that the point of the commercials is not literal truth, but an attitude.

"The main message," said Current Analysis' Bhavnani, "is 'simplicity.'"

"Apple wants to get across a message of 'It just works,'" he said. "And that 'Apple is cool; Windows is not cool.'"

Mac's market share had been relatively flat, stuck at less than 5 percent worldwide, Bhavnani said. "But if you look at the growth rate since the Intel transition," he said, "it's beginning to inch up. Macs are being offered through mass retailers, such as Best Buy, and iPod's success have caused more consumers to take another look at Apple."

The point of the commercials, obviously, is to make Windows users or those new to computers altogether into Mac users — by conveying the differences in general sensibility.

A real but hard-to-quantify difference between the two computer systems...like the difference between the buttoned-down guy and the tee-shirt-and-jeans guy...may be style.

"I like the interface better," said Scariati, although his site's scorecard rates the features on the Mac's graphical user interface as a 117, with the XP close behind at 113. "It's cleaner, simple to use, nicer to look at."

"It comes down to preference," he said. "Like the Mac has a single bar menu on the top of the screen for all apps, while Windows has a bar menu in each application." Other observers have been known to wax eloquent about the visual style, the Apple font, or a certain something that still separates Mac's visual design from Windows'.

But the bottom line might come down to one factor, a factor that applies equally whether you like the straight-laced guy or the cool guy better, or Windows versus Mac machines. It's a factor that, ultimately, no debate can ever resolve: Personality.

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