mac and pc
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A research paper comparing Macs and PCsTRANSCRIPT
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Rhetoric and Composition 201
Ahmad Kassim
RHET 201
Section: 08
Summer 2012
Dr. Michael Gibson
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Table of Contents
Cover Letter…………………………………………….. 3
Research Paper………..………………………………. 5
-‐ Introduction…………………………………………... 5
-‐ Critical Analysis……………………………………… 7
-‐ Methodology………………………………………….. 13 -‐ Results of Survey & Analysis...…………………. 15 -‐ Interview……………………………………………….. 16 -‐ Conclusions & Recommendations.………… 18 Works Cited…………………………………………….. 20
Annotated Bibliography………………………….. 22
Appendix A………………………………………......... 28 1st Draft…………………………………………………. 29 2nd Draft………………………………………………… 35 3rd draft………………………………………………… 50 4th Draft………………………………………………… 67 Journal 1……………………………………………….. 84 Journal 2……………………………………………….. 86 Journal 3……………………………………………….. 88 Journal 4……………………………………………….. 89 Journal 5……………………………………………….. 91
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Cover Letter
Dear Dr. Gibson,
I never imagined that one day I would make the decision myself to take a
summer course during my summer break. When I was a child in during primary
school, I remember I used to cry each year on every first day of school up until grade
4. I used to love the summer break with all my heart. Here I am today, a freshman in
the American University in Cairo, and I’m proud to say that I am taking a summer
course. I know this might not seem like a big deal, but for me it is. During the spring
2012 semester, I made that decision to take a summer course. Right after the spring
2012 semester, there was a 2-week break before starting the summer course.
Unfortunately this 2-week break ruined my motivation for the summer course. At the
first it made me regret taking the summer, then once I started going to university
everyday I started to feel like it was a responsibility. Honestly, I started to feel like
I’m finally a grown up. Almost all my friends were on vacation and I was still in
university taking a summer course. It made me feel like I was actually doing
something useful for once in my life, like I was taking responsibility for my own
decisions.
I’m currently taking two courses, RHET 201 and Econ 201. Surprisingly I’m
enjoying both courses! In RHET 201 I’m writing a research paper on Macs and PCs. I
learned quite a lot on both computers and I even got to interview an IT director. I also
helped my best friend, who’s also taking RHET 201, with her research paper on
“Exorcism.” We went to a mosque and interviewed a sheikh. We asked him questions
on Exorcism. When we tried entering three different churches, they all refused to let
us in once they knew what we were going to ask the priest about. It was quite fun and
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spooky at the same time. As for Econ 201, I’m surviving. I’ve always hated
economics and I still do, but there’s one more week left.
I’d like to thank you Dr. Gibson for being there not only as a professor, but
also as a friend. Trust me the best way for a student to love his professor, is by feeling
that his/her professor is his friend. I am lucky to have you twice in a row for my
RHET 102 class, and now for my RHET 201 class. If I could take all my classes with
you I would. I am now proud and confident of myself when I tell my mother that I do
know how to write very good papers. How can I not be good at writing papers when I
have you as a teacher? You taught me to not procrastinate, to organize my thoughts
and my writing skills. You’ve inspired me in many ways and you’ve changed the way
I perceive things. You made me think about everything from two sides, not only from
my perspective. I’ve now become more interactive with the family, especially when
the grown ups sit and talk about politics. I would recommend each and every person I
meet to be a student in your class.
Your favorite student,
Ahmad Kassim
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Ahmad Kassim
900113671
RHET 201
Dr. Gibson
Research paper – Final Draft
Mac Vs. PC
Introduction:
How many people today cannot live without a computer? How many people
feel like life is just boring without the use of a computer just for one day? How many
people fully rely on a computer for their jobs? If we look back just fifty years ago,
there was no such thing as a computer or a laptop that we’re so familiar with today.
Today, computers have become an essential part to almost everyone’s life. They have
transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. The two most popular computers we have
today are Macs and PCs. However, if you were to choose a Mac or a PC to use, which
one would it be? By the end of this research paper you’ll know exactly which
computer suits your needs the most. I’ll try to forget my history with computers and
pretend that I myself am new to computers and that I have to choose one.
Without the following people our lives would have probably never been the
same: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. These
people that I have just mentioned are the ones who founded Apple and Microsoft.
Personally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are my role models in life. Astonishingly, they
both dropped out of college. The more I read about them, the more I get a kick of
motivation and inspiration. How many people would give up on what they’re doing
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once they fail? A lot of people would, but not for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Every
time they got pulled down, they kept on hanging and fighting and in the end it all pays
off. Steve Jobs gave one of the best motivational speeches I have ever heard at
Stanford University’s commencement. He told the audience at the commencement
that he dropped out of college back when he was a college student and that his
standing there on stage was the closest to graduation that he’s actually ever gotten. He
said that when he chose to drop out of college, he noticed that he was not obliged to
take classes in college anymore. He simply decided to then start taking classes that
only came to his interest. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class because he simply found
calligraphy fascinating. How did that help him? He said “10 years later when we were
designing the first Macintosh computer, we designed it all (the calligraphy) into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.” He also said that we have
to believe in ourselves to see that the dots in our future will connect, which will give
us the confidence to follow our hearts even if it will lead us off the right path. This
speech did not only motivate me, but it also made me believe that Steve Jobs is a man
that knows what he’s doing. Ironically, Bill Gates had also dropped out of college
when he was a student. When he was still a high school student he spent so much time
using the school’s computer that he actually wrote a program that allowed students to
play tic-tac-toe against the computer. That’s when he started getting the idea that he
wanted to build a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. Two of my favorite
quotes that I heard Bill Gates say were “Whether it's Google or Apple or free
software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” and “Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Macintosh (Mac) is a computer developed by the famous Apple Inc. The first
computer developed by Apple was introduced in 1988, shortly after Microsoft’s PC
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was introduced. Steve Jobs, former Apple’s chief executive officer, introduced
Apple’s first computer. It was the first computer to contain a mouse and a graphical
user interface, which allows users to interact with programs and devices, such as
mobile phone and flash drives, using images. Before the Apple computer, users
interacted with programs and electronic devices using commands. That meant that for
every move users had to perform on a computer, they had to type in a command.
Apple made this easier for users by featuring a mouse with the computer that allows
user to just drag, point and click on an image top use rather than typing in a whole
command.
The first PC Microsoft developed was back in September of 1981. This PC
was called “Windows”, just like Apple’s first computer is called “Macintosh”. Chase
Bishop, a computer scientist, introduced the first version of Windows to the world.
Windows is the first operating system that Microsoft used when making its first
computer. Although it might sound simple, the PC Microsoft first developed included
the following: a calculator, a notepad, Paint (a program that allows user to paint using
a computer), a clock, and a calendar. Those programs, which today seem to be little
and not so important, were actually one of the reasons why Microsoft had sold so
many computers at the time when the first computers were first being developed.
These little programs such as the calculator, was a big deal to people back in the
1980s.
Critical Analysis:
Most people who are Mac users today, once used to be PC users. So why is it
some people choose to switch from a PC to a Mac? There are a couple points that
answer this ambiguous question. The first main point to emphasize is how Macs
rarely get any viruses. Macs are less vulnerable than PCs are. At some point in time
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they didn’t get viruses at all, but of course with time hackers always seem to make
their way through anything. Macs are known to not have as many viruses compared to
PCs. In fact, Macs rarely get viruses ever since the introduction of the Mac OS X.
Each time a hacker builds a virus against Mac, it very quickly disappears before
starting to spread. Unlike on a PC, you can’t get a virus on a Mac without the user
giving it permission to install itself.
An article written by David Pogue thoroughly explains the steps from moving
from a PC to a Mac. It gives the steps from A to Z. It tells you how to back up and
move your files from the PC to the Mac. This step is actually a very important step
because most people tend to lose their data when moving from a PC to a Mac. This
article also talks about the confusion new Mac users tend to find in hardware such as
using the mouse, the keyboard, and the disc differences. Towards the end of this
article there are ten Mac tricks introduced that the PC couldn’t do. Some of these
commands include waking up the Mac instantly after being in sleep mode. This is
actually a huge advantage for Mac users, because when you put the PC in sleep mode,
it takes a while to open. Another trick is response to voice commands; unlike PCs the
Mac does not only talk to the user, but it also listens to the commands you give them.
This again is a huge advantage for Mac users, especially when helping disabled
people.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to an article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to its honesty. At least, it gained mine. Aayush Arya,
the author of the article called “Microsoft Bing Helps you Choose Between Mac and
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PC”, claims that she found Bing so reliable that she didn’t even consider using
another search engine such as Google.
A group of people got together to examine two types of desktop computers,
the iMac and the Gateway One. An article called “Mac Vs. PC” states that Macs are
becoming so popular that most artists and unemployed writers actually own one. Both
PCs and Macs contain the Intel processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel
processor, the Mac is also capable of supporting Microsoft’s operating system
“Windows” on its computer. According to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and
Microsoft’s Window Vista are very similar in so many ways including the menus and
utilities. Glenn Derene, the author of this article, performed an experiment with both
computers; he made his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a computer, explore
both the Mac and the Gateway One. They also gave both computers to other testers,
and were told to take out the new computers right out of the box and to start using
them right away. The testers were asked to surf the web, open music and other
applications. They were then given a survey. By the end of this experiment, the
winner out of both computers was the iMac.
Steve Detto, a user of both a Mac and a PC, wrote an article on his dual
computer usage. He uses a PC for work-related stuff, and a Mac for the “fun stuff”
such as movies, pictures and music. Detto, the author of this article, claims that the
Intel processor of the Mac allows you to install Windows on a Mac, therefore making
you have both operating systems on just one computer, which is the Mac. According
to Detto there are only two problems when having both operating systems on the
Mac; the first problem is that it’s going to be costy to put the windows operating
system on a Mac because it’s like buying a new computer, the second problem is that
if you want to save a document or a file on both operating systems, you’d have to
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copy it using a flash-drive because Detto and many others still don’t know how to
save a file that could be seen by both operating systems. Like the applications brought
on a Mac, you’d have to buy them and install them again on the Windows. Detto
concludes that he is amazed that such a day would come where he would use
Windows on a Mac.
Alec Watson wrote an article, which includes his opinion towards the
efficiency of Macs and PCs when making music. Watson is an owner of both a PC
and a Mac, he’s a dig audio guy, a beta tester for several software companies, a
reviewer for Canadian Musician and Professional Sound. The author states that
musicians, whom are Mac users, have an easy life and all they have to do is to start
working on their music things straight away. As for PC users, they have to spend a lot
of time setting up the computer and spending too much money for it to be ready to be
used for musicians. Garage Band, a program on the Mac, makes music makes life of
musicians a lot easier! It’s simplicity and easiness in use makes it a big advantage for
musicians to buy a Mac rather than a PC. I myself tried Garage Band a few times,
and I found it to be really entertaining. One time in The American University in
Cairo (AUC), I gathered a few of my friends and opened Garage Band from my
Mac. I got an electrical keyboard and starting playing the drums to make time
pass while waiting for our next class to begin. As I was playing I decided to play a
certain beat just for fun, and then surprisingly a friend of mine started rapping to
the beat. She started rapping by just putting words together of everything we see
in front of us. For example, when we would see a guy walk by us wearing a blue
jacket and red shoes, she’d rap it and be like “guy wearing blue jacket, walking
with a tennis racket. Red shoes on, thinking he’s a patron.” It was actually
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entertaining not only for us, but for the strangers around us. People would stop
by next to us and shake their head with the beat or tell us that we’re talented.
A comparison between Mac’s new operating system “Lion” and Microsoft’s
new operating system “Windows 8” has been thoroughly given in an article written by
John Herman. In his article Herman compares a MacBook Pro with an HP Pavilion.
The comparison revealed that the MacBook Pro has better graphics than the PC, the
MacBook Pro is fast in the Six-App Simultaneous Launch than the PC by exactly one
second, and the MacBook Pro is way faster than the PC when waking up from sleep
mode by 76 seconds! The battery life for the MacBook Pro lasts 7 hours, while the
battery life for the HP Pavilion lasts 6.75 hours, but from personal experience the
battery life for PC decreases at a very fast rate. The researchers gave both laptops to
everyday users, and made them decide which is better to use from their perspective. A
business traveler said that it’s easier and more organized to navigate around with a
Mac, but then stated that he prefers the PC’s mouse pad. He likes how easily he can
left and right click with the PC’s mouse pad. A teacher stated that she’s always been a
Mac user, but surprisingly she’ll change to a PC. A big advantage for PC users is that
the starting price for PC’s are around $600, while the starting price for Mac’s are
around $1000.
As much as I’m trying to stay objective, most of the sources I found leaned
towards Macs. For example, I found a video on YouTube called “Mac or PC? Which
Are you?” This video is about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from
a PC to a Mac. He states that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display.
Jon says that while using a PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with a
Mac. He comments that he’s been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently
purchased a Mac and had the chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he
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claimed to be more than enough to fully convince him that “Macs were the way to
go”. Jon likes typography and he says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike the
PC’s. As I stated earlier at the beginning of this research paper, Steve Jobs brought
calligraphy into the Mac. It is now a clear picture on how this is having a positive
affect towards Mac users. Jon said “Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video
editor of choice for many amateur and professional video makers”. He states that the
only thing missing from a Mac is the video games, but recently video games have
been created for them.
In David Bloom’s article, “Electronic Journal List”, Bloom gives thorough
detail about computer games on PCs and Macs. PC’s have been known to be popular
with video games ever since Windows 98. Throughout the years, the production of
video games has been more focused on PCs, leaving the Mac out. This was a huge
disadvantage for Mac users who are gamers. In recent years, video games for Macs
have started to increase especially with the new power chips and accelerators that
Mac now includes in its new computers. The three most popular games for Mac are
Caesar III, Quake II, and StarCraft. As for PC, I can’t really name the most popular
video games due to the fact that there are so many games on the market for PC
gamers. I myself played the game Quake, and this game is more than just amazing,
it’s epic!
In an article entitled “Assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disabilities”, writer Michael Behrmann talks about how assistive technology can be
used for students with disabilities like deafness or blindness. He says how most
educational institutions can no longer ignore the use of computers within classrooms.
Behrmann also explains how it is a necessity for assistive technology to be available
in all institutions. For the Macintosh computers, there is a program called “Write
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Outloud” that helps the blind by reading the written text out loud, including the menus
and utilities. There’s another program that helps students and teachers develop ways
to teach the blind. Programmers have also built programs that help disabled people
take notes. Programs such as “OmniPage Direct” or “InWords” transform typewritten
notes onto the computer, which is read by a voice synthesizer on the computer.
Methodology:
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC, I came up with a survey that
I posted on Twitter and Facebook. I didn’t really get as many responses as I was
expecting. While my goal was to get one hundred, I received around sixty-eight
responses due to time limitations. The survey consisted of ten questions, some of
which included open-ended questions so that the people taking the survey could state
their own opinions. I told my friends to share the questionnaire so more people could
fill it out. I was thinking about printing out around fifty copies and distributing them
amongst different people in the AUC library, but unfortunately I went to the library
twice and there weren’t as many people there as I had expected, most probably
because we were in summer. I had hoped that I would get people from various majors
to fill out the questionnaire to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are better. I
wanted to see what kind of laptop the majority of computer science majors choose
because I know that they work with certain kinds of programs.
I wanted at first to perform video interviews with several people within AUC
and ask them the following questions: Which computer do you use? Have you always
been a Mac or PC user, and would you ever want to change the type of computer
you’re using? Unfortunately due to the time limits I didn’t have enough time to do the
video interviews. Although I didn’t have time to perform video interviews, fortunately
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I had time to talk with a an IT director for a couple of minutes and a teacher in the
‘Rhetoric and Composition’ department in university. I spoke to a teacher called “Dr.
Ghada Elshimi”, who happens to be my aunt. According to Dr. Elshimi, Macs are so
much better to use than PCs due to their simplicity. She feels that PCs are too
complicated and they tend to become slow over time. Dr. Elshimi only experienced
one problem with her Mac ever since she got it, which was around two years ago. She
claims to have gotten a virus, which is very weird because Macs rarely get viruses.
Dr. Elshimi then explains that she got rid of that virus very easily and ever since never
experienced another bug in her Mac again.
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Results of Survey & Analysis:
Figure 1:
According to figure 1, thirty-five respondents were Mac users and thirty-three
were PC users. I did notice that most of the Engineering majors were PC users, and
according to most of them the reason why they weren’t Mac users is that Mac lacks
downloadable programs needed for most engineers, which are easily available on the
Mac. Another interesting observation was that most Mac users were once PC users,
and more than ninety-five percent of them said that they wouldn’t change from a Mac
to a PC due to the following reasons: Macs are faster than PCs; they have a longer
battery life; they’re more advanced; once you start using a Mac you can never let it
Number of people
Type of Com
puter
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go; they’re fully equipped with everything needed for a good computer; they rarely
need to get fixed (unlike PCs); they rarely get viruses (unlike PCs); they’re easier to
use; they’re built to allow users to change it according to their satisfaction; PCs don’t
perform as well as Macs; Macs switch on and off in a second; they are able to search
for documents faster; they’re much more user friendly; and they have better operating
systems than the PCs. One person who filled out the questionnaire even said “I would
NEVER in a million years switch to a PC, it feels like I’m dealing with a PMS-ing
b*tch”. I found that response quite ironic due to the fact that the so called PC users
are complaining so much, while Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft, had said “your most
unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”, but he doesn’t seem to learn
from them. Another Mac user who was once a PC user said, “no I wouldn’t switch
from a Mac to a PC because it’s a bit of a step down.” According to my questionnaire
almost all Mac users are satisfied. The small majority who isn’t satisfied with their
Macs are those who either major in Architecture or Engineering since Macs don’t
have the programs needed for their fields.
Interview:
My RHET professor, Dr. Gibson, took me to a computer IT director, who
works in AUC in the RHET department. As I interviewed the IT director, Bishoy
Harby, I learned a lot of new information that I hadn’t encountered when researching
on Macs and PCs. Mr. Harby told me that one of the biggest advantages that PC has
over the Mac is that Microsoft’s enterprise support is way better than the Macs. After
hearing this piece of information, I finally discovered why a lot of companies prefer
using a PC rather than a Mac. Another thing I also learned were the following
disadvantages of the Mac, some of which I had mentioned earlier within this paper:
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does not support foreign languages in the Microsoft Office Package; does not support
Arabic throughout the whole operating system; is not as popular with video games as
the PC is; its hardware is very expensive and isn’t available everywhere; and the
Mac’s mouse is fancy, but after using it for a few months, its performance decreases
dramatically till the point of becoming unusable. Mac not supporting Arabic is a very
big disadvantage for Mac users in the Middle East. It makes Arabs think twice before
buying a Mac. Also gamers are more supportive of PC due to the fact that the Mac
isn’t really that compatible with video games. I myself remember that I had a lot of
video games on my PC back when I was a child. The next disadvantage that Mr.
Harby had mentioned was on the Mac’s hardware. Apple is very strict on its products,
as such it doesn’t want people to buy its hardware in any other store, and that is why
its hardware isn’t really available everywhere, unlike PC. When using a PC, if you
want to change your battery you just have to buy a new one, and simply replace it
with the one in your laptop. As for a Mac, when you flip it upside down you’ll see
how you can’t just simply take out the battery. You have to dissemble your whole
Mac just to replace the battery yourself. The final disadvantage of a Mac that I learnt
from the IT director was about the mouse (not the laptops mouse pad, but the actual
mouse). He told me that the mouse was brilliant when he first brought it. Later on he
then discovered that once dust comes inside of it, the scroll in the mouse will stop
working and there is no way to fix it. Those disadvantages mentioned above might
affect some people, but after using a Mac I could still live with those disadvantages.
When the thirty-three PC users were asked if they had the chance to switch
from a PC to a Mac, I was expecting some competition with the Mac users.
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Surprisingly, most of the PC users do actually want to switch to a Mac. Most of the
PC users who responded that they want to switch to a Mac gave the same responses
the Mac users mentioned above on their satisfaction with their Macs. The following
are responses of PC users who said they would not change to a PC:
• “No because I feel Macs are more complicated than PC in the few times I use
Mac”
• “No I am satisfied with the performance of my PC”
• “No I got used to PC”
• “I wouldn’t. PCs are more easily customizable/upgradable and they're more
suited for gaming. A Mac is much more expensive than a PC of the same
specifications, and you don’t get much benefit from the price difference. Plus
the Mac GUI (Graphic User Interphase) feels awkward.”
• “Can't right now because the software I need to use in my major aren't all Mac
friendly”
Conclusions and Recommendations:
Those responses are literally the only responses out of the thirty-three PC
users who would not change to a Mac. The rest of the thirty-three said that they would
love to change to a Mac. According to my survey, Mac is more chosen than PC. Some
of the people using a PC want to change to a Mac can’t due to their majors and the
programs required that only work on the PC. My father, who’s a civil engineer, is also
a PC user, but when he used my Mac several times he fell in love with the computer.
He told me that he wants to change to a Mac, and listed all the programs he needed.
After doing some research I couldn’t find any of the programs he wanted other than
one program, which was over $600. In the end, my father decided to keep his PC. I
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would recommend that you buy a Mac if you have the money to buy one, and if
you’re not an engineer or intending to major in the engineering field.
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Works Cited
Arya, Aayush. "Microsoft Bing Helps You Choose Between Mac And PC."
Macworld 26.9 (2009): 21. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete.
Web. 19 June 2012.
Behrmann, Michael M. “Assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disablilities.” Intervention In School & Clinic 302 (1994): 70.
Education Research Complete. Web. 17 June 2012
Bloom, David. "Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Daily News of Los Angeles, 8 Aug. 1999. Web. 20
June 2012.
Derene, Glenn. "Mac Vs. PC." Popular Mechanics 185.5 (2008):
86. Masterfile Premier. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dotto, Steve. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic Journal
List. North News Shore, 31 May 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Herrman, John. "Mac Vs PC." Popular Mechanics 188.11 (2011): 82.
Masterfile Premier. Web. 19 June 2012.
“Mac or PC? Which Are You?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 20
June 2012.
O'Brien, John. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Courier Mail, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Pogue, David. "PC To Mac." Macworld 20.1 (2003): 56. Computers &
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Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 17 June 2012.
Watson, Alec. "Mac vs. PC." Canadian Musician Nov. 2006: 31. Masterfile Premier.
Web. 20 June 2012.
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Annotated Bibliography
Arya, Aayush. "Microsoft Bing Helps You Choose Between Mac And PC."
Macworld 26.9 (2009): 21. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete.
Web. 19 June 2012.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to this article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to it’s honesty. At least, it gained mine. The person
who wrote this article claims that she found Bing is so reliable that she didn’t even
consider using another search engine such as Google.
Behrmann, Michael M. “assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disablilities.” Intervention In School & Clinic 302 (1994): 70.
Education Research Complete. Web. 17 June 2012
This article talks about how assistive technology can be used for students with
disabilities such as being deaf or blind. It says how most educational institutions can
no longer ignore the use of computers within classrooms. It explains how it is a
necessity for assistive technology to be given at all institutions. For the Macintosh
computers, there is a program called “Write Outloud” that helps the blind people by
read out loud the text written including the menus and utilities. There are some
programs built on the Mac that helps student and teachers develop ways to teach the
blind people. Programmers have built programs that help disabled people take notes.
Programs such as “OmniPage Direct” or “InWords transforms type written notes,
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onto the computer, and then these notes are read by a voice synthesizer on the
computer.
Bloom, David. "Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Daily News of Los Angeles, 8 Aug. 1999. Web. 20
June 2012.
This article talks about computer games on PC and Macs. PC’s have been known
to popular with video games ever since Windows 98. Throughout the years, the
productions of video games have been more focus on PC, leaving the Mac out. This
was a huge disadvantage for Mac users who are gamers. In the recent years, video
games for Macs are starting to increase especially with the new power chips and
accelerators that Mac now includes in its new computers. The three most popular
games for Mac are Caesar III, Quake II, and StarCraft. As for PC, I can’t really name
the most popular video games due to the fact that there are so many games in the
market for PC gamers.
Derene, Glenn. "Mac Vs. PC." Popular Mechanics 185.5 (2008):
86. Masterfile Premier. Web. 20 June 2012.
This article examines two types of desktop computer, the iMac and the
Gateway one. The article states that Macs are becoming so popular that most artists
and unemployed writers actually own one. Both the PC and Macs contain the Intel
processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel processor, the Mac is capable of
supporting also Microsoft’s operating system “Windows” on its computer. According
to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and Microsoft’s Window Vista are very similar
in so many ways including.
Kassim 24
The author of this article performed an experiment with both computers; he made
his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a computer, explore both the Mac and the
Gateway one. They also gave both computers to other testers, and were told to take
out the new computers right out of the box and to start using them right away. The
testers were asked to surf the web, open music and other applications. The testers
were then given a survey. By the end of this experiment, the winner out of both
computers was the iMac.
Dotto, Steve. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic Journal
List. North News Shore, 31 May 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
This article is about a guy who uses both a Mac and a PC. He uses a PC for work-
related stuff, and a Mac for the “fun stuff” such as movies, pictures and music. Detto,
the author of this article, claims that the Intel processor of the Mac allows you to
install Windows on a Mac, therefore making you have both operating systems on just
one computer, which is the Mac. The only problem he says with having both
operating systems on the Mac is that it’s going to be costy because it’s like buy a new
computer. Like the applications brought on a Mac, you’d have to buy them and install
them again on the Windows. Detto concludes that he is amazed that such a day would
come where he would use Windows on a Mac.
Herrman, John. "Mac Vs PC." Popular Mechanics 188.11 (2011): 82. Masterfile
Premier. Web. 19 June 2012.
A comparison between Mac’s new operating system “Lion” and Microsoft’s new
operating system “Windows 8” has been thoroughly given in this article. This article
compares a MacBook Pro with an HP Pavilion. The comparison revealed that the
Kassim 25
MacBook Pro has better graphics than the PC, the MacBook Pro is fast in the Six-App
Simultaneous Launch than the PC by exactly one second, and the MacBook Pro is
way faster than the PC when waking up from sleep mode by 76 seconds! The battery
life for the MacBook Pro lasts 7 hours, while the battery life for the HP Pavilion lasts
6.75 hours, but from personal experience the battery life for PC decreases at a very
fast rate. The researchers gave both laptops to everyday users, and made them decide
which is better to use from their perspective. A business traveler said that it’s easier
and more organized to navigate around with a Mac, but then stated that he prefers the
PC’s mouse pad. He likes how easily he can left and right click with the PC’s mouse
pad. A teacher stated that she’s always been a Mac user, but surprisingly she’ll
change to a PC. A big advantage for PC users is that the starting price for PC’s are
around $600, while the starting price for Mac’s are around $1000.
“Mac or PC? Which Are You?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 20
June 2012.
This video is about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from a PC to
a Mac. He states that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display. Jon says
that while using PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with the Mac. He
comments that he’s been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently purchased
a Mac and had the chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he claimed to
be more than enough to fully convince him that “Mac’s were the way to go”. Jon likes
typography and he says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike PC. He said
“Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video editor of choice for many amateur
and professional video makers”. Jon states that the only things missing out from a
Kassim 26
Mac are the video games, but recently video games have been starting to become
created for the Mac.
O'Brien, John. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Courier Mail, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
This article talks about Macs and viruses. Mac’s are known to not have as many
viruses compared to a PC. In fact, Macs rarely get viruses ever since the introduction
of the Mac OS X. Each time a hacker builds a virus against Mac, it very quickly
disappears before starting to spread. Unlike on a PC’s, you can’t get a virus on a Mac
without the user giving it permission to install itself. In conclusion, Macs are not as
vulnerable as PCs are.
Pogue, David. "PC To Mac." Macworld 20.1 (2003): 56. Computers &
Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 17 June 2012.
This article basically explains thoroughly the steps from moving from a PC to a
Mac. It gives the steps from A to Z. It tells you how to back up and move your files
from the PC to the Mac. This step is actually a very important step because most
people tend to lose their data when moving from a PC to a Mac. This article also talks
about the confusion new Mac users tend to find in hardware such as using the mouse,
the keyboard, and the disc differences. Towards the end of this article there are ten
Mac tricks introduced that the PC couldn’t do. Some of these commands include
waking up the Mac instantly after being in sleep mode. This is actually a huge
advantage for Mac users, because when you put the PC in sleep mode, it takes a while
Kassim 27
to open. Another trick is response to voice commands, unlike PCs the Mac does not
only talk to the user, but it also listens to the commands you give them. This again is a
huge advantage for Mac users, especially when helping the disabled people.
Watson, Alec. "Mac vs. PC." Canadian Musician Nov. 2006: 31. Masterfile Premier.
Web. 20 June 2012.
This article talks about the opinion of an author towards the efficiency of
Macs and PCs when making music. The author of this article is an owner of both a PC
and a Mac, he’s a dig audio guy, a beta tester for several software companies, a
reviewer for Canadian Musician and Professional Sound. The author states that
musicians who are Mac users have an easy life and all they have to do is to start
working on their music things straight away. As for PC users, they have to spend a lot
of time setting up the computer and spending too much for it to be ready to be used
for musicians. Garage Band, a program on the Mac that makes music makes life of
musicians a lot easier! It’s simplicity and easiness in use makes it a big advantage for
musicians to buy a Mac rather than a PC.
Kassim 28
Survey – Appendix A:
1. Are you a Mac or PC user?
a. Yes
b. no
2. What’s you major/intended major?
3. How often do you use a computer?
a. 0-2
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
d. 9+
4. What are the most common problems that you’ve faced while using a Mac or
PC?
5. How often do you repair your computer?
a. 0-2
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
d. 9+
6. How satisfied are you with your computers battery life?
7. If you’re a Mac user and had the chance to switch to a PC, would you? Why
or why not?
8. If you’re a PC user and had the chance to switch to a Mac, would you? Why
or why not?
9. Have you ever changed from a Mac to a PC or vise versa? Why or why not?
10. Do you think that your computer would be easy to use for a disabled person?
Why or why not?
Kassim 29
Ahmad Kassim
900113671
RHET 201
Dr. Gibson
I-‐Search Paper – First Draft
Mac Vs. PC
Introduction:
How many people today cannot live without a computer? How many people
feel like life is just boring without the use of a computer just for one day? How many
people fully rely on a computer for their jobs? If we look back just fifty years ago,
there was no such thing as a computer or a laptop that we’re so familiar with today.
Today, computers have become an essential part to almost everyone’s life. They have
transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. The two most popular computers we have
today are Macs and PCs. However, if you were to choose a Mac or a PC to use, which
one would it be. By the end of this research paper you’ll know exactly which
computer suits your needs the most. I’ll try to forget my history with computers and
pretend that I myself am new to computers and that I have to choose one.
Without the following people our lives would have probably never been the
same: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. These
people that I have just mentioned are the ones who found Apple and Microsoft.
Personally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are my role models in life. Astonishingly, they
both dropped out of college. The more I read about them, the more I get a kick of
motivation and inspiration. How many people would give up on what they’re doing
Kassim 30
once they fail? A lot of people would, but not for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Every
time they got pulled down, they kept on hanging and fighting and in the end it all pays
off. Steve Jobs gave one of the best motivational speeches I have ever heard at
Stanford University’s commencement. He told the audience at the commencement
that he dropped out of college back when he was a college student and that him
standing there on stage was the closest to graduation that he’s actually ever gotten. He
said that when he chose to drop out of college, he noticed that he was not obliged to
take classes in college anymore. He simply decided to then start taking classes that
only came to his interest. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class because he simply found
calligraphy fascinating. How did that help him? He said “10 years later when we were
designing the first Macintosh computer, we designed it all (the calligraphy) into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.” He also said that we have
to believe in ourselves to see that the dots in our future will connect, which will give
us the confidence to follow our hearts even if it will lead us off the right path. This
speech did not only motivate me, but it also made me believe that Steve Jobs is a man
that knows what he’s doing. Ironically, Bill Gates had also dropped out of college
when he was a student. When he still a high school student he spent so much using
the schools computer that he actually wrote a program that allowed student to play
tic-tac-toe against the computer. That’s when he started getting the idea that he
wanted to build a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. Two of my favorite
quotes that I heard Bill Gates say were “Whether it's Google or Apple or free
software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” and “Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Macintosh (Mac) is a computer developed by the famous Apple. The first
computer developed by Apple was introduced during the 1988’s, shortly after
Kassim 31
Microsoft’s PC was introduced. Steve Jobs, former Apple’s chief executive officer,
introduced Apple’s first computer. It was the first computer to contain a mouse and a
graphical user interface, which allows users to interact with programs and devices,
such as mobile phone and flash drives, using images. Before the Apple computer,
users interacted with programs and electronic devices using commands. That meant
that for every move users had to perform on a computer, they had to type in a
command. Apple made this more easier for users by featuring a mouse with the
computer that allows user to just drag, point and click on an image top use rather than
typing in a whole command.
The first PC Microsoft developed was back in September of 1981. This PC
was called “Windows”, just like Apple’s first computer is called “Macintosh”. Chase
Bishop, a computer scientist, introduced the first version of Windows to the world.
Windows is the first operating system that Microsoft used when making its first
computer. Although it might sound simple, but the PC Microsoft first developed
included the following: a calculator, a notepad, Paint (a program that allows user to
paint using a computer), a clock, and a calendar. At the time, those what seem little
program, are actually one of the reasons why Microsoft had sold so many computer.
These little programs such as the calculator, was a big deal to people back in the
1980s.
Most people who are Mac users today, once used to be a PC user. So why is it
do some people choose to switch form a PC to a Mac? There are a couple points that
answer this ambiguous question. The first utter most point to emphasize on is how
Macs rarely get any viruses. At some point in time Macs didn’t get viruses at all, but
of course with time hackers always seem to make their way through anything. Mac’s
are known to not have as many viruses compared to a PC. In fact, Macs rarely get
Kassim 32
viruses ever since the introduction of the Mac OS X. Each time a hacker builds a virus
against Mac, it very quickly disappears before starting to spread. Unlike on a PC’s,
you can’t get a virus on a Mac without the user giving it permission to install itself. In
conclusion, Macs are not as vulnerable as PCs are.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to this article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to it’s honesty. At least, it gained mine. The person
who wrote this article claims that she found Bing is so reliable that she didn’t even
consider using another search engine such as Google.
A group of people got together to examine two types of desktop computers,
the iMac and the Gateway one. The article states that Macs are becoming so popular
that most artists and unemployed writers actually own one. Both the PC and Macs
contain the Intel processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel processor, the Mac is
capable of supporting also Microsoft’s operating system “Windows” on its computer.
According to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and Microsoft’s Window Vista are
very similar in so many ways including. The author of this article performed an
experiment with both computers; he made his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a
computer, explore both the Mac and the Gateway one. They also gave both computers
to other testers, and were told to take out the new computers right out of the box and
to start using them right away. The testers were asked to surf the web, open music and
other applications. The testers were then given a survey. By the end of this
experiment, the winner out of both computers was the iMac.
Kassim 33
A video on YouTube called “Mac or PC? Which Are you?” This video is
about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from a PC to a Mac. He states
that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display. Jon says that while using
PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with the Mac. He said that he’s
been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently purchased a Mac and had the
chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he claimed to be more than enough
to fully convince him that “Mac’s were the way to go”. Jon likes typography and he
says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike PC. As I stated earlier at the
beginning of this research paper that Steve Jobs brought calligraphy into the Mac. It’s
a clear picture now how this is having a positive affect towards Mac users. Jon said
“Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video editor of choice for many amateur
and professional video makers”. Jon says that the only things missing out from a Mac
are the video games, but recently video games have been starting to become created
for the Mac.
Methodology:
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC I’ve come up with a survey
that I’ve posted on Twitter and on Facebook and so far I haven’t actually gotten as
many results as I was expecting. The survey consisted of a eleven questions and some
of which included open ended questions so that the people taking the survey could
state their own opinion. I’ll start telling my friends to share the survey so more people
could fill it out and I’m thinking about printing out around fifty copies and to
distribute it amongst different people in the AUC library. I hope that I get people from
various majors to fill out the surveys to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are
better.
Kassim 34
I will still perform video interviews with several people within AUC and ask
them the following questions: Which computer do you use. Have you always been a
Mac or PC user, and would you ever want to change the type of computer you’re
using? I hope that there
Kassim 35
Ahmad Kassim
900113671
RHET 201
Dr. Gibson
I-‐Search Paper – Second Draft
Mac Vs. PC
Introduction:
How many people today cannot live without a computer? How many people
feel like life is just boring without the use of a computer just for one day? How many
people fully rely on a computer for their jobs? If we look back just fifty years ago,
there was no such thing as a computer or a laptop that we’re so familiar with today.
Today, computers have become an essential part to almost everyone’s life. They have
transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. The two most popular computers we have
today are Macs and PCs. However, if you were to choose a Mac or a PC to use, which
one would it be. By the end of this research paper you’ll know exactly which
computer suits your needs the most. I’ll try to forget my history with computers and
pretend that I myself am new to computers and that I have to choose one.
Without the following people our lives would have probably never been the
same: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. These
people that I have just mentioned are the ones who founded Apple and Microsoft.
Personally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are my role models in life. Astonishingly, they
both dropped out of college. The more I read about them, the more I get a kick of
motivation and inspiration. How many people would give up on what they’re doing
Kassim 36
once they fail? A lot of people would, but not for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Every
time they got pulled down, they kept on hanging and fighting and in the end it all pays
off. Steve Jobs gave one of the best motivational speeches I have ever heard at
Stanford University’s commencement. He told the audience at the commencement
that he dropped out of college back when he was a college student and that him
standing there on stage was the closest to graduation that he’s actually ever gotten. He
said that when he chose to drop out of college, he noticed that he was not obliged to
take classes in college anymore. He simply decided to then start taking classes that
only came to his interest. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class because he simply found
calligraphy fascinating. How did that help him? He said “10 years later when we were
designing the first Macintosh computer, we designed it all (the calligraphy) into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.” He also said that we have
to believe in ourselves to see that the dots in our future will connect, which will give
us the confidence to follow our hearts even if it will lead us off the right path. This
speech did not only motivate me, but it also made me believe that Steve Jobs is a man
that knows what he’s doing. Ironically, Bill Gates had also dropped out of college
when he was a student. When he still a high school student he spent so much using
the schools computer that he actually wrote a program that allowed student to play
tic-tac-toe against the computer. That’s when he started getting the idea that he
wanted to build a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. Two of my favorite
quotes that I heard Bill Gates say were “Whether it's Google or Apple or free
software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” and “Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Macintosh (Mac) is a computer developed by the famous Apple Inc. The first
computer developed by Apple was introduced during the 1988’s, shortly after
Kassim 37
Microsoft’s PC was introduced. Steve Jobs, former Apple’s chief executive officer,
introduced Apple’s first computer. It was the first computer to contain a mouse and a
graphical user interface, which allows users to interact with programs and devices,
such as mobile phone and flash drives, using images. Before the Apple computer,
users interacted with programs and electronic devices using commands. That meant
that for every move users had to perform on a computer, they had to type in a
command. Apple made this more easier for users by featuring a mouse with the
computer that allows user to just drag, point and click on an image top use rather than
typing in a whole command.
The first PC Microsoft developed was back in September of 1981. This PC
was called “Windows”, just like Apple’s first computer is called “Macintosh”. Chase
Bishop, a computer scientist, introduced the first version of Windows to the world.
Windows is the first operating system that Microsoft used when making its first
computer. Although it might sound simple, but the PC Microsoft first developed
included the following: a calculator, a notepad, Paint (a program that allows user to
paint using a computer), a clock, and a calendar. Those programs, which today seem
to be little and not so important, were actually one of the reasons why Microsoft had
sold so many computers at the time when the first computers were first being
developed. These little programs such as the calculator, was a big deal to people back
in the 1980s.
Most people who are Mac users today, once used to be a PC user. So why is it
do some people choose to switch form a PC to a Mac? There are a couple points that
answer this ambiguous question. The first utter most point to emphasize on is how
Macs rarely get any viruses. Macs are less vulnerable as PCs are. At some point in
time Macs didn’t get viruses at all, but of course with time hackers always seem to
Kassim 38
make their way through anything. Mac’s are known to not have as many viruses
compared to a PC. In fact, Macs rarely get viruses ever since the introduction of the
Mac OS X. Each time a hacker builds a virus against Mac, it very quickly disappears
before starting to spread. Unlike on a PC’s, you can’t get a virus on a Mac without the
user giving it permission to install itself.
This article written by David Pogue thoroughly explains the steps from
moving from a PC to a Mac. It gives the steps from A to Z. It tells you how to back up
and move your files from the PC to the Mac. This step is actually a very important
step because most people tend to lose their data when moving from a PC to a Mac.
This article also talks about the confusion new Mac users tend to find in hardware
such as using the mouse, the keyboard, and the disc differences. Towards the end of
this article there are ten Mac tricks introduced that the PC couldn’t do. Some of these
commands include waking up the Mac instantly after being in sleep mode. This is
actually a huge advantage for Mac users, because when you put the PC in sleep mode,
it takes a while to open. Another trick is response to voice commands, unlike PCs the
Mac does not only talk to the user, but it also listens to the commands you give them.
This again is a huge advantage for Mac users, especially when helping the disabled
people.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to an article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to its honesty. At least, it gained mine. Aayush Arya,
the author of the article called “Microsoft Bing Helps you Choose Between Mac and
Kassim 39
PC”, claims that she found Bing so reliable that she didn’t even consider using
another search engine such as Google.
A group of people got together to examine two types of desktop computers,
the iMac and the Gateway One. An article called “Mac Vs. PC” states that Macs are
becoming so popular that most artists and unemployed writers actually own one. Both
the PC and Macs contain the Intel processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel
processor, the Mac is also capable of supporting Microsoft’s operating system
“Windows” on its computer. According to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and
Microsoft’s Window Vista are very similar in so many ways including the menus and
utilities. Glenn Derene, the author of this article, performed an experiment with both
computers; he made his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a computer, explore
both the Mac and the Gateway One. They also gave both computers to other testers,
and were told to take out the new computers right out of the box and to start using
them right away. The testers were asked to surf the web, open music and other
applications. They were then given a survey. By the end of this experiment, the
winner out of both computers was the iMac.
Steve Detto, a user of both a Mac and a PC, wrote an article on his dual
computer usage. He uses a PC for work-related stuff, and a Mac for the “fun stuff”
such as movies, pictures and music. Detto, the author of this article, claims that the
Intel processor of the Mac allows you to install Windows on a Mac, therefore making
you have both operating systems on just one computer, which is the Mac. According
to Detto there are only two problems when having both operating systems on the
Mac; the first problem is that it’s going to be costy to put the windows operating
system on a Mac because it’s like buying a new computer, the second problem is that
if you want to save a document or a file on both operating systems, you’d have to
Kassim 40
copy it using a flash-drive because Detto and many others still don’t know how to
save a file that could be seen by both operating systems. Like the applications brought
on a Mac, you’d have to buy them and install them again on the Windows. Detto
concludes that he is amazed that such a day would come where he would use
Windows on a Mac.
Alec Watson wrote an article, which includes his opinion towards the
efficiency of Macs and PCs when making music. Watson is an owner of both a PC
and a Mac, he’s a dig audio guy, a beta tester for several software companies, a
reviewer for Canadian Musician and Professional Sound. The author goes states that
musicians, whom are Mac users, have an easy life and all they have to do is to start
working on their music things straight away. As for PC users, they have to spend a lot
of time setting up the computer and spending too much money for it to be ready to be
used for musicians. Garage Band, a program on the Mac, makes music makes life of
musicians a lot easier! It’s simplicity and easiness in use makes it a big advantage for
musicians to buy a Mac rather than a PC. I myself tried Garage Band a few times,
and I found it to be really entertaining. One time in The American University in
Cairo (AUC), I gathered a few of my friends and opened Garage Band from my
Mac. I got an electrical keyboard and starting playing the drums to make time
pass while waiting for our next class to begin. As I was playing I decided to play a
certain beat just for fun, and then surprisingly a friend of mine started rapping to
the beat. She started rapping by just putting words together of everything we see
in front of us. For example, when we say a guy walk passed us wearing a blue
jacket and red shoes, she’d rap it and be like “guy wearing blue jacket, walking
with a tennis racket. Red shoes on, thinking he’s a patron.” It was quiet
Kassim 41
entertaining not only for us, but for the strangers around us. People would stop
by next to us and shake their head with the beat or tell us that we’re talented.
A comparison between Mac’s new operating system “Lion” and Microsoft’s
new operating system “Windows 8” has been thoroughly given in an article written by
John Herman. In his article Herman compares a MacBook Pro with an HP Pavilion.
The comparison revealed that the MacBook Pro has better graphics than the PC, the
MacBook Pro is fast in the Six-App Simultaneous Launch than the PC by exactly one
second, and the MacBook Pro is way faster than the PC when waking up from sleep
mode by 76 seconds! The battery life for the MacBook Pro lasts 7 hours, while the
battery life for the HP Pavilion lasts 6.75 hours, but from personal experience the
battery life for PC decreases at a very fast rate. The researchers gave both laptops to
everyday users, and made them decide which is better to use from their perspective. A
business traveler said that it’s easier and more organized to navigate around with a
Mac, but then stated that he prefers the PC’s mouse pad. He likes how easily he can
left and right click with the PC’s mouse pad. A teacher stated that she’s always been a
Mac user, but surprisingly she’ll change to a PC. A big advantage for PC users is that
the starting price for PC’s are around $600, while the starting price for Mac’s are
around $1000.
A video on YouTube called “Mac or PC? Which Are you?” This video is
about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from a PC to a Mac. He states
that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display. Jon says that while using
PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with the Mac. He said that he’s
been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently purchased a Mac and had the
chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he claimed to be more than enough
to fully convince him that “Mac’s were the way to go”. Jon likes typography and he
Kassim 42
says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike PC. As I stated earlier at the
beginning of this research paper Steve Jobs brought calligraphy into the Mac. It’s a
clear picture now how this is having a positive affect towards Mac users. Jon said
“Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video editor of choice for many amateur
and professional video makers”. Jon says that the only things missing out from a Mac
are the video games, but recently video games have been created for the Macs.
In David Blooms article, “Electronic Journal List”, he talks about computer
games on PC and Macs. PC’s have been known to popular with video games ever
since Windows 98. Throughout the years, the productions of video games have been
more focused on PCs, leaving the Mac out. This was a huge disadvantage for Mac
users who are gamers. In the recent years, video games for Macs are starting to
increase especially with the new power chips and accelerators that Mac now includes
in its new computers. The three most popular games for Mac are Caesar III, Quake II,
and StarCraft. As for PC, I can’t really name the most popular video games due to the
fact that there are so many games in the market for PC gamers. I myself played the
game Quake, and this game is more than just amazing, it’s epic!
Michael Behrmann talks about how assistive technology can be used for
students with disabilities such as being deaf or blind. It says how most educational
institutions can no longer ignore the use of computers within classrooms. It explains
how it is a necessity for assistive technology to be given at all institutions. For the
Macintosh computers, there is a program called “Write Outloud” that helps the blind
people by read out loud the text written including the menus and utilities. There are
some programs built on the Mac that helps student and teachers develop ways to teach
the blind people. Programmers have built programs that help disabled people take
notes. Programs such as “OmniPage Direct” or “InWords transforms type written
Kassim 43
notes, onto the computer, and then these notes are read by a voice synthesizer on the
computer.
Methodology:
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC I’ve come up with a survey
that I’ve posted on Twitter and on Facebook and so far I haven’t actually gotten as
many results as I was expecting. Until now I’ve gotten around sixty-eight responses,
while my goal was to get one-hundred The survey consisted of ten questions and
some of which included open-ended questions so that the people taking the survey
could state their own opinion. I told my friends to share the survey so more people
could fill it out and I was thinking about printing out around fifty copies and to
distribute it amongst different people in the AUC library, but unfortunately I went to
the library twice and there weren’t as many people there as I had expect most
probably because we’re in summer. I hope that I get people from various majors to fill
out the surveys to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are better. I want to see what
kind of laptop does the majority of computer science majors choose because I know
that they work with certain kinds of programs.
I wanted at first to perform video interviews with several people within AUC
and ask them the following questions: Which computer do you use. Have you always
been a Mac or PC user, and would you ever want to change the type of computer
you’re using? Unfortunately due to the time limits I don’t have enough time to do the
video interviews. I chose to only stick to my survey because it is basically like doing
an interview. Although I didn’t have time to perform video interviews, fortunately I
had time to talk with a teacher in the ‘Rhetoric and Composition’ department in
university. I spoke to a teacher called “Dr. Ghada Elshimi”, who happened to be my
Kassim 44
aunt. According to Dr. Elshimi Macs are so much better at use than PC due to its
simplicity. She feels that PCs are too complicated and they tend to become slow over
time. Dr. Elshimi only experienced one problem with her Mac ever since she got it,
which was around two years ago. She claims to have gotten a virus, which is very
weird because Macs rarely get viruses. Dr. Elshimi then explains that she got rid of
that virus very easily and ever since never experienced another bug in her Mac again.
I hope that this research paper helps the readers when they think about buying a
laptop.
Results:
According to the sixty-eight people who filled out the survey, thirty-five were
Mac user and thirty-three were PC users. I did notice that most of the engineers were
PC user though, and according to most of them the reason why they weren’t Mac
Kassim 45
users is that Mac lacks downloadable programs needed for most engineers, which are
easily available on the Mac. Another interesting observation was that most Mac users,
were once PCs, and more than ninety-five percent of them said that they wouldn’t
change from a Mac to a PC due to the following reasons: Macs are faster than PCs,
they have a longer batter life, more advanced, once you start using a Mac you can
never let it go, fully equipped with everything needed for a good computer, rarely
needs to get fixed unlike PC, rarely gets viruses unlike PC, easier to use, built to allow
users to change it into their satisfaction, PC doesn’t deliver the amount of
performance a Mac does, switches on and off in a second, easier to search certain
documents, much more user friendly, better operating system than the PC. One person
who filled out the survey even said “I would NEVER in a million years switch to a
PC, it feels like I’m dealing with a PMS-ing b*tch”. I found that response quiet ironic
due to the fact that the once called user of a PC is complaining so much, while Bill
Gates, owner of Pcs, had said, “your most unhappy customers are your greatest source
of learning.” Another Mac user who was once a PC user said, “no I wouldn’t switch
from a Mac to a PC because it’s a bit of a step down.” According to my surveys
almost all the Mac users are satisfied.
When the thirty-three PC users were asked if they had the chance to switch
from a PC to a Mac, I was expecting some competition against the Mac users.
Surprisingly, most of the PC users do actually want to switch to a Mac. Most of the
responses of the PC users that want to switch to a Mac are the same responses the
Mac users mentioned above on their satisfaction of their Mac. The following are
responses of PC users who said they would not change to a PC:
• “No because I feel Macs are more complicated than PC in the few times I use
Mac”
Kassim 46
• “No I am satisfied with the performance of my PC”
• “No I got used to PC”
• “I wouldn’t. PCs are more easily customizable/upgradable and they're more
suited for gaming. A Mac is much more expensive than a PC of the same
specifications, and you don’t get much benefit from the price difference. Plus
the Mac GUI (Graphic User Interphase) feels awkward.”
• “Can't right now because the software I need to use in my major aren't all Mac
friendly”
Those responses are literally the only responses out of the thirty-three PC users
whom would not change to a Mac, the rest of the thirty-three said that they would
love to change to a Mac. According to my survey, Mac is more chosen than PC. Some
of the people using a PC that would want to, but can’t switch to a Mac are due to their
major and some programs required that only work on PC. My father, who’s a civil
engineer, is also a PC user, but when he used my Mac several times he fell in love
with the computer. He told me that he wants to change to a Mac, and listed all the
programs he needed. After doing some research I couldn’t find any of the programs
he wanted other than one program, which was over $600. In the end, my father
decided to keep his PC.
The following are the questions that were asked in the survey:
11. Are you a Mac or PC user?
a. Yes
b. no
12. What’s you major/intended major?
13. How often do you use a computer?
a. 0-2
Kassim 47
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
d. 9+
14. What are the most common problems that you’ve faced while using a Mac or
PC?
15. How often do you repair your computer?
a. 0-2
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
d. 9+
16. How satisfied are you with your computers battery life?
17. If you’re a Mac user and had the chance to switch to a PC, would you? Why
or why not?
18. If you’re a PC user and had the chance to switch to a Mac, would you? Why
or why not?
19. Have you ever changed from a Mac to a PC or vise versa? Why or why not?
20. Do you think that your computer would be easy to use for a disabled person?
Why or why not?
Kassim 48
Works Cited
Arya, Aayush. "Microsoft Bing Helps You Choose Between Mac And PC."
Macworld 26.9 (2009): 21. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete.
Web. 19 June 2012.
Behrmann, Michael M. “assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disablilities.” Intervention In School & Clinic 302 (1994): 70.
Education Research Complete. Web. 17 June 2012
Bloom, David. "Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Daily News of Los Angeles, 8 Aug. 1999. Web. 20
June 2012.
Derene, Glenn. "Mac Vs. PC." Popular Mechanics 185.5 (2008):
86. Masterfile Premier. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dotto, Steve. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic Journal
List. North News Shore, 31 May 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Herrman, John. "Mac Vs PC." Popular Mechanics 188.11 (2011): 82.
Masterfile Premier. Web. 19 June 2012.
“Mac or PC? Which Are You?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 20
June 2012.
O'Brien, John. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Courier Mail, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Pogue, David. "PC To Mac." Macworld 20.1 (2003): 56. Computers &
Kassim 49
Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 17 June 2012.
Watson, Alec. "Mac vs. PC." Canadian Musician Nov. 2006: 31. Masterfile Premier.
Web. 20 June 2012.
Kassim 50
Ahmad Kassim
900113671
RHET 201
Dr. Gibson
I-‐Search Paper – Third Draft
Mac Vs. PC
Introduction:
How many people today cannot live without a computer? How many people
feel like life is just boring without the use of a computer just for one day? How many
people fully rely on a computer for their jobs? If we look back just fifty years ago,
there was no such thing as a computer or a laptop that we’re so familiar with today.
Today, computers have become an essential part to almost everyone’s life. They have
transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. The two most popular computers we have
today are Macs and PCs. However, if you were to choose a Mac or a PC to use, which
one would it be. By the end of this research paper you’ll know exactly which
computer suits your needs the most. I’ll try to forget my history with computers and
pretend that I myself am new to computers and that I have to choose one.
Without the following people our lives would have probably never been the
same: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. These
people that I have just mentioned are the ones who founded Apple and Microsoft.
Personally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are my role models in life. Astonishingly, they
both dropped out of college. The more I read about them, the more I get a kick of
motivation and inspiration. How many people would give up on what they’re doing
Kassim 51
once they fail? A lot of people would, but not for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Every
time they got pulled down, they kept on hanging and fighting and in the end it all pays
off. Steve Jobs gave one of the best motivational speeches I have ever heard at
Stanford University’s commencement. He told the audience at the commencement
that he dropped out of college back when he was a college student and that him
standing there on stage was the closest to graduation that he’s actually ever gotten. He
said that when he chose to drop out of college, he noticed that he was not obliged to
take classes in college anymore. He simply decided to then start taking classes that
only came to his interest. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class because he simply found
calligraphy fascinating. How did that help him? He said “10 years later when we were
designing the first Macintosh computer, we designed it all (the calligraphy) into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.” He also said that we have
to believe in ourselves to see that the dots in our future will connect, which will give
us the confidence to follow our hearts even if it will lead us off the right path. This
speech did not only motivate me, but it also made me believe that Steve Jobs is a man
that knows what he’s doing. Ironically, Bill Gates had also dropped out of college
when he was a student. When he still a high school student he spent so much using
the schools computer that he actually wrote a program that allowed student to play
tic-tac-toe against the computer. That’s when he started getting the idea that he
wanted to build a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. Two of my favorite
quotes that I heard Bill Gates say were “Whether it's Google or Apple or free
software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” and “Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Macintosh (Mac) is a computer developed by the famous Apple Inc. The first
computer developed by Apple was introduced in 1988, shortly after Microsoft’s PC
Kassim 52
was introduced. Steve Jobs, former Apple’s chief executive officer, introduced
Apple’s first computer. It was the first computer to contain a mouse and a graphical
user interface, which allows users to interact with programs and devices, such as
mobile phone and flash drives, using images. Before the Apple computer, users
interacted with programs and electronic devices using commands. That meant that for
every move users had to perform on a computer, they had to type in a command.
Apple made this more easier for users by featuring a mouse with the computer that
allows user to just drag, point and click on an image top use rather than typing in a
whole command.
The first PC Microsoft developed was back in September of 1981. This PC
was called “Windows”, just like Apple’s first computer is called “Macintosh”. Chase
Bishop, a computer scientist, introduced the first version of Windows to the world.
Windows is the first operating system that Microsoft used when making its first
computer. Although it might sound simple, but the PC Microsoft first developed
included the following: a calculator, a notepad, Paint (a program that allows user to
paint using a computer), a clock, and a calendar. Those programs, which today seem
to be little and not so important, were actually one of the reasons why Microsoft had
sold so many computers at the time when the first computers were first being
developed. These little programs such as the calculator, was a big deal to people back
in the 1980s.
Most people who are Mac users today, once used to be a PC user. So why is it
do some people choose to switch form a PC to a Mac? There are a couple points that
answer this ambiguous question. The first utter most point to emphasize on is how
Macs rarely get any viruses. Macs are less vulnerable as PCs are. At some point in
time Macs didn’t get viruses at all, but of course with time hackers always seem to
Kassim 53
make their way through anything. Mac’s are known to not have as many viruses
compared to a PC. In fact, Macs rarely get viruses ever since the introduction of the
Mac OS X. Each time a hacker builds a virus against Mac, it very quickly disappears
before starting to spread. Unlike on a PC’s, you can’t get a virus on a Mac without the
user giving it permission to install itself.
An article written by David Pogue thoroughly explains the steps from moving
from a PC to a Mac. It gives the steps from A to Z. It tells you how to back up and
move your files from the PC to the Mac. This step is actually a very important step
because most people tend to lose their data when moving from a PC to a Mac. This
article also talks about the confusion new Mac users tend to find in hardware such as
using the mouse, the keyboard, and the disc differences. Towards the end of this
article there are ten Mac tricks introduced that the PC couldn’t do. Some of these
commands include waking up the Mac instantly after being in sleep mode. This is
actually a huge advantage for Mac users, because when you put the PC in sleep mode,
it takes a while to open. Another trick is response to voice commands, unlike PCs the
Mac does not only talk to the user, but it also listens to the commands you give them.
This again is a huge advantage for Mac users, especially when helping the disabled
people.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to an article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to its honesty. At least, it gained mine. Aayush Arya,
the author of the article called “Microsoft Bing Helps you Choose Between Mac and
Kassim 54
PC”, claims that she found Bing so reliable that she didn’t even consider using
another search engine such as Google.
A group of people got together to examine two types of desktop computers,
the iMac and the Gateway One. An article called “Mac Vs. PC” states that Macs are
becoming so popular that most artists and unemployed writers actually own one. Both
the PC and Macs contain the Intel processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel
processor, the Mac is also capable of supporting Microsoft’s operating system
“Windows” on its computer. According to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and
Microsoft’s Window Vista are very similar in so many ways including the menus and
utilities. Glenn Derene, the author of this article, performed an experiment with both
computers; he made his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a computer, explore
both the Mac and the Gateway One. They also gave both computers to other testers,
and were told to take out the new computers right out of the box and to start using
them right away. The testers were asked to surf the web, open music and other
applications. They were then given a survey. By the end of this experiment, the
winner out of both computers was the iMac.
Steve Detto, a user of both a Mac and a PC, wrote an article on his dual
computer usage. He uses a PC for work-related stuff, and a Mac for the “fun stuff”
such as movies, pictures and music. Detto, the author of this article, claims that the
Intel processor of the Mac allows you to install Windows on a Mac, therefore making
you have both operating systems on just one computer, which is the Mac. According
to Detto there are only two problems when having both operating systems on the
Mac; the first problem is that it’s going to be costy to put the windows operating
system on a Mac because it’s like buying a new computer, the second problem is that
if you want to save a document or a file on both operating systems, you’d have to
Kassim 55
copy it using a flash-drive because Detto and many others still don’t know how to
save a file that could be seen by both operating systems. Like the applications brought
on a Mac, you’d have to buy them and install them again on the Windows. Detto
concludes that he is amazed that such a day would come where he would use
Windows on a Mac.
Alec Watson wrote an article, which includes his opinion towards the
efficiency of Macs and PCs when making music. Watson is an owner of both a PC
and a Mac, he’s a dig audio guy, a beta tester for several software companies, a
reviewer for Canadian Musician and Professional Sound. The author states that
musicians, whom are Mac users, have an easy life and all they have to do is to start
working on their music things straight away. As for PC users, they have to spend a lot
of time setting up the computer and spending too much money for it to be ready to be
used for musicians. Garage Band, a program on the Mac, makes music makes life of
musicians a lot easier! It’s simplicity and easiness in use makes it a big advantage for
musicians to buy a Mac rather than a PC. I myself tried Garage Band a few times,
and I found it to be really entertaining. One time in The American University in
Cairo (AUC), I gathered a few of my friends and opened Garage Band from my
Mac. I got an electrical keyboard and starting playing the drums to make time
pass while waiting for our next class to begin. As I was playing I decided to play a
certain beat just for fun, and then surprisingly a friend of mine started rapping to
the beat. She started rapping by just putting words together of everything we see
in front of us. For example, when we say a guy walk passed us wearing a blue
jacket and red shoes, she’d rap it and be like “guy wearing blue jacket, walking
with a tennis racket. Red shoes on, thinking he’s a patron.” It was actually
Kassim 56
entertaining not only for us, but for the strangers around us. People would stop
by next to us and shake their head with the beat or tell us that we’re talented.
A comparison between Mac’s new operating system “Lion” and Microsoft’s
new operating system “Windows 8” has been thoroughly given in an article written by
John Herman. In his article Herman compares a MacBook Pro with an HP Pavilion.
The comparison revealed that the MacBook Pro has better graphics than the PC, the
MacBook Pro is fast in the Six-App Simultaneous Launch than the PC by exactly one
second, and the MacBook Pro is way faster than the PC when waking up from sleep
mode by 76 seconds! The battery life for the MacBook Pro lasts 7 hours, while the
battery life for the HP Pavilion lasts 6.75 hours, but from personal experience the
battery life for PC decreases at a very fast rate. The researchers gave both laptops to
everyday users, and made them decide which is better to use from their perspective. A
business traveler said that it’s easier and more organized to navigate around with a
Mac, but then stated that he prefers the PC’s mouse pad. He likes how easily he can
left and right click with the PC’s mouse pad. A teacher stated that she’s always been a
Mac user, but surprisingly she’ll change to a PC. A big advantage for PC users is that
the starting price for PC’s are around $600, while the starting price for Mac’s are
around $1000.
A video on YouTube called “Mac or PC? Which Are you?” This video is
about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from a PC to a Mac. He states
that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display. Jon says that while using
PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with the Mac. He said that he’s
been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently purchased a Mac and had the
chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he claimed to be more than enough
to fully convince him that “Mac’s were the way to go”. Jon likes typography and he
Kassim 57
says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike PC. As I stated earlier at the
beginning of this research paper Steve Jobs brought calligraphy into the Mac. It’s a
clear picture now how this is having a positive affect towards Mac users. Jon said
“Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video editor of choice for many amateur
and professional video makers”. Jon says that the only things missing out from a Mac
are the video games, but recently video games have been created for the Macs.
In David Bloom’s article, “Electronic Journal List”, David gives thorough
detail about computer games on PCs and Macs. PC’s have been known to popular
with video games ever since Windows 98. Throughout the years, the productions of
video games have been more focused on PCs, leaving the Mac out. This was a huge
disadvantage for Mac users who are gamers. In the recent years, video games for
Macs are starting to increase especially with the new power chips and accelerators
that Mac now includes in its new computers. The three most popular games for Mac
are Caesar III, Quake II, and StarCraft. As for PC, I can’t really name the most
popular video games due to the fact that there are so many games in the market for PC
gamers. I myself played the game Quake, and this game is more than just amazing,
it’s epic!
Michael Behrmann talks about how assistive technology can be used for
students with disabilities such as being deaf or blind. It says how most educational
institutions can no longer ignore the use of computers within classrooms. It explains
how it is a necessity for assistive technology to be given at all institutions. For the
Macintosh computers, there is a program called “Write Outloud” that helps the blind
people by read out loud the text written including the menus and utilities. There are
some programs built on the Mac that helps student and teachers develop ways to teach
the blind people. Programmers have built programs that help disabled people take
Kassim 58
notes. Programs such as “OmniPage Direct” or “InWords transforms type written
notes, onto the computer, and then these notes are read by a voice synthesizer on the
computer.
Methodology:
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC I came up with a survey that I
had posted on Twitter and on Facebook. I didn’t really get as many responses as I was
expecting. While my goal was to get one hundred, I received around sixty-eight
responses due to time limitations. The survey consisted of ten questions, some of
which included open-ended questions so that the people taking the survey could state
their own opinions. I told my friends to share the questionnaire so more people could
fill it out. I was thinking about printing out around fifty copies and distributing them
amongst different people in the AUC library, but unfortunately I went to the library
twice and there weren’t as many people there as I had expected, most probably
because we’re in summer. I had hoped that I would get people from various majors to
fill out the questionnaire to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are better. I wanted
to see what kind of laptop the majority of computer science majors choose because I
know that they work with certain kinds of programs.
My RHET professor, Dr. Gibson, took me to a computer IT worker, who
works in AUC in the RHET department. As I interviewed the IT worker, I learned a
lot of new information that I hadn’t encountered when researching on Macs and PCs.
He told me that one of the biggest advantages that PC has over the Mac is that
Microsoft’s enterprise support is way better than the mac. After hearing this piece of
information from the IT worker, I finally discovered why a lot of companies prefer
using a PC rather than a Mac. He also told me the following disadvantages of the Mac
Kassim 59
and some of which I had mentioned earlier within this paper: does not support foreign
languages in the Microsoft Office Package; does not support Arabic throughout the
whole operating system; is not as popular with video games as much as PC; it’s
hardware is very expensive and isn’t available everywhere; and the Mac’s mouse is
fancy, but when operating it becomes bad over time. Mac not supporting Arabic is a
very big disadvantage for Mac users in the Middle East. It makes Arabs think twice
before buying a Mac. Also gamers are more supportive of PC due to the fact that the
Mac isn’t really that compatible with video games. I myself remember that I had a lot
of video games on my PC back when I was a child. The next disadvantage that the IT
worker had mentioned was on the Mac’s hardware. Apple is very strict on its’
products that it doesn’t want anyone to buy its’ hardware in any other store, and that
is why its hardware isn’t really available everywhere unlike PC. When using a PC, if
you want to change your battery you just have to buy a new one, and simply replace it
with the one in your laptop. As for a Mac, when you flip it upside down you’ll see
how you can’t just simply take out the battery. You have to dissemble your whole
Mac just to replace the battery yourself. The final disadvantage of a Mac that the IT
worker mentioned is the mouse (not the laptops mouse pad, but the actual mouse). He
told me that the mouse was brilliant when he first brought it. Later on he then
discovered that once dust comes inside of it, the scroll in the mouse will stop working
and there is no way to fix it. Those disadvantages mentioned above might effect some
people, but after using a Mac I could still live with those disadvantages.
I wanted at first to perform video interviews with several people within AUC
and ask them the following questions: Which computer do you use? Have you always
been a Mac or PC user, and would you ever want to change the type of computer
you’re using? Unfortunately due to the time limits I didn’t have enough time to do the
Kassim 60
video interviews. I chose to only stick to my survey because it was basically like
doing an interview. Although I didn’t have time to perform video interviews,
fortunately I had time to talk with a teacher in the ‘Rhetoric and Composition’
department in university. I spoke to a teacher called “Dr. Ghada Elshimi”, who
happens to be my aunt. According to Dr. Elshimi, Macs are so much better to use than
PCs due to their simplicity. She feels that PCs are too complicated and they tend to
become slow over time. Dr. Elshimi only experienced one problem with her Mac ever
since she got it, which was around two years ago. She claims to have gotten a virus,
which is very weird because Macs rarely get viruses. Dr. Elshimi then explains that
she got rid of that virus very easily and ever since never experienced another bug in
her Mac again.
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Results:
Figure 1:
According to figure 1, thirty-five were Mac user and thirty-three were PC
users. I did notice that most of the Engineering majors were PC users, and according
to most of them the reason why they weren’t Mac users is that Mac lacks
downloadable programs needed for most engineers, which are easily available on the
Mac. Another interesting observation was that most Mac users were once PC users,
and more than ninety-five percent of them said that they wouldn’t change from a Mac
to a PC due to the following reasons: Macs are faster than PCs; they have a longer
battery life; they’re more advanced; once you start using a Mac you can never let it
Number of people
Type of Com
puter
Kassim 62
go; they’re fully equipped with everything needed for a good computer; they rarely
need to get fixed (unlike PCs); they rarely get viruses (unlike PCs); they’re easier to
use; they’re built to allow users to change it into their satisfaction; PCs don’t perform
as well as Macs; Macs switch on and off in a second; they are able to search for
documents faster; they’re much more user friendly; and they have better operating
systems than the PCs. One person who filled out the questionnaire even said “I would
NEVER in a million years switch to a PC, it feels like I’m dealing with a PMS-ing
b*tch”. I found that response quite ironic due to the fact that the so called PC users
are complaining so much, while Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft, had said “your most
unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”, but he doesn’t seem to learn
from them. Another Mac user who was once a PC user said, “no I wouldn’t switch
from a Mac to a PC because it’s a bit of a step down.” According to my questionnaire
almost all Mac users are satisfied. The small majority who isn’t satisfied with their
Macs are those who either major in Architecture or Engineering since Macs don’t
have the programs needed for their field.
When the thirty-three PC users were asked if they had the chance to switch
from a PC to a Mac, I was expecting some competition with the Mac users.
Surprisingly, most of the PC users do actually want to switch to a Mac. Most of the
PC users who responded that they want to switch to a Mac gave the same responses
the Mac users mentioned above on their satisfaction with their Macs. The following
are responses of PC users who said they would not change to a PC:
• “No because I feel Macs are more complicated than PC in the few times I use
Mac”
• “No I am satisfied with the performance of my PC”
• “No I got used to PC”
Kassim 63
• “I wouldn’t. PCs are more easily customizable/upgradable and they're more
suited for gaming. A Mac is much more expensive than a PC of the same
specifications, and you don’t get much benefit from the price difference. Plus
the Mac GUI (Graphic User Interphase) feels awkward.”
• “Can't right now because the software I need to use in my major aren't all Mac
friendly”
Those responses are literally the only responses out of the thirty-three PC users
who would not change to a Mac. The rest of the thirty-three said that they would love
to change to a Mac. According to my survey, Mac is more chosen than PC. Some of
the people using a PC that would want to, but can’t switch to a Mac are due to their
major and some programs required that only work on PC. My father, who’s a civil
engineer, is also a PC user, but when he used my Mac several times he fell in love
with the computer. He told me that he wants to change to a Mac, and listed all the
programs he needed. After doing some research I couldn’t find any of the programs
he wanted other than one program, which was over $600. In the end, my father
decided to keep his PC.
The following are the questions that were asked in the questionnaire:
21. Are you a Mac or PC user?
a. Yes
b. no
22. What’s you major/intended major?
23. How often do you use a computer?
a. 0-2
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
Kassim 64
d. 9+
24. What are the most common problems that you’ve faced while using a Mac or
PC?
25. How often do you repair your computer?
a. 0-2
b. 3-5
c. 6-8
d. 9+
26. How satisfied are you with your computers battery life?
27. If you’re a Mac user and had the chance to switch to a PC, would you? Why
or why not?
28. If you’re a PC user and had the chance to switch to a Mac, would you? Why
or why not?
29. Have you ever changed from a Mac to a PC or vise versa? Why or why not?
30. Do you think that your computer would be easy to use for a disabled person?
Why or why not?
Kassim 65
Works Cited
Arya, Aayush. "Microsoft Bing Helps You Choose Between Mac And PC."
Macworld 26.9 (2009): 21. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete.
Web. 19 June 2012.
Behrmann, Michael M. “assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disablilities.” Intervention In School & Clinic 302 (1994): 70.
Education Research Complete. Web. 17 June 2012
Bloom, David. "Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Daily News of Los Angeles, 8 Aug. 1999. Web. 20
June 2012.
Derene, Glenn. "Mac Vs. PC." Popular Mechanics 185.5 (2008):
86. Masterfile Premier. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dotto, Steve. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic Journal
List. North News Shore, 31 May 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Herrman, John. "Mac Vs PC." Popular Mechanics 188.11 (2011): 82.
Masterfile Premier. Web. 19 June 2012.
“Mac or PC? Which Are You?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 20
June 2012.
O'Brien, John. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Courier Mail, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Pogue, David. "PC To Mac." Macworld 20.1 (2003): 56. Computers &
Kassim 66
Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 17 June 2012.
Watson, Alec. "Mac vs. PC." Canadian Musician Nov. 2006: 31. Masterfile Premier.
Web. 20 June 2012.
Kassim 67
Ahmad Kassim
900113671
RHET 201
Dr. Gibson
Research paper – 4th draft
Mac Vs. PC
Introduction:
How many people today cannot live without a computer? How many people
feel like life is just boring without the use of a computer just for one day? How many
people fully rely on a computer for their jobs? If we look back just fifty years ago,
there was no such thing as a computer or a laptop that we’re so familiar with today.
Today, computers have become an essential part to almost everyone’s life. They have
transitioned from a luxury to a necessity. The two most popular computers we have
today are Macs and PCs. However, if you were to choose a Mac or a PC to use, which
one would it be? By the end of this research paper you’ll know exactly which
computer suits your needs the most. I’ll try to forget my history with computers and
pretend that I myself am new to computers and that I have to choose one.
Without the following people our lives would have probably never been the
same: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Bill Gates, and Paul Allen. These
people that I have just mentioned are the ones who founded Apple and Microsoft.
Personally, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are my role models in life. Astonishingly, they
both dropped out of college. The more I read about them, the more I get a kick of
motivation and inspiration. How many people would give up on what they’re doing
Kassim 68
once they fail? A lot of people would, but not for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Every
time they got pulled down, they kept on hanging and fighting and in the end it all pays
off. Steve Jobs gave one of the best motivational speeches I have ever heard at
Stanford University’s commencement. He told the audience at the commencement
that he dropped out of college back when he was a college student and that his
standing there on stage was the closest to graduation that he’s actually ever gotten. He
said that when he chose to drop out of college, he noticed that he was not obliged to
take classes in college anymore. He simply decided to then start taking classes that
only came to his interest. Steve Jobs took a calligraphy class because he simply found
calligraphy fascinating. How did that help him? He said “10 years later when we were
designing the first Macintosh computer, we designed it all (the calligraphy) into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.” He also said that we have
to believe in ourselves to see that the dots in our future will connect, which will give
us the confidence to follow our hearts even if it will lead us off the right path. This
speech did not only motivate me, but it also made me believe that Steve Jobs is a man
that knows what he’s doing. Ironically, Bill Gates had also dropped out of college
when he was a student. When he was still a high school student he spent so much time
using the school’s computer that he actually wrote a program that allowed students to
play tic-tac-toe against the computer. That’s when he started getting the idea that he
wanted to build a computer company with his friend Paul Allen. Two of my favorite
quotes that I heard Bill Gates say were “Whether it's Google or Apple or free
software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes” and “Your
most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Macintosh (Mac) is a computer developed by the famous Apple Inc. The first
computer developed by Apple was introduced in 1988, shortly after Microsoft’s PC
Kassim 69
was introduced. Steve Jobs, former Apple’s chief executive officer, introduced
Apple’s first computer. It was the first computer to contain a mouse and a graphical
user interface, which allows users to interact with programs and devices, such as
mobile phone and flash drives, using images. Before the Apple computer, users
interacted with programs and electronic devices using commands. That meant that for
every move users had to perform on a computer, they had to type in a command.
Apple made this easier for users by featuring a mouse with the computer that allows
user to just drag, point and click on an image top use rather than typing in a whole
command.
The first PC Microsoft developed was back in September of 1981. This PC
was called “Windows”, just like Apple’s first computer is called “Macintosh”. Chase
Bishop, a computer scientist, introduced the first version of Windows to the world.
Windows is the first operating system that Microsoft used when making its first
computer. Although it might sound simple, the PC Microsoft first developed included
the following: a calculator, a notepad, Paint (a program that allows user to paint using
a computer), a clock, and a calendar. Those programs, which today seem to be little
and not so important, were actually one of the reasons why Microsoft had sold so
many computers at the time when the first computers were first being developed.
These little programs such as the calculator, was a big deal to people back in the
1980s.
Critical Analysis:
Most people who are Mac users today, once used to be PC users. So why is it
some people choose to switch from a PC to a Mac? There are a couple points that
answer this ambiguous question. The first main point to emphasize is how Macs
rarely get any viruses. Macs are less vulnerable than PCs are. At some point in time
Kassim 70
they didn’t get viruses at all, but of course with time hackers always seem to make
their way through anything. Macs are known to not have as many viruses compared to
PCs. In fact, Macs rarely get viruses ever since the introduction of the Mac OS X.
Each time a hacker builds a virus against Mac, it very quickly disappears before
starting to spread. Unlike on a PC, you can’t get a virus on a Mac without the user
giving it permission to install itself.
An article written by David Pogue thoroughly explains the steps from moving
from a PC to a Mac. It gives the steps from A to Z. It tells you how to back up and
move your files from the PC to the Mac. This step is actually a very important step
because most people tend to lose their data when moving from a PC to a Mac. This
article also talks about the confusion new Mac users tend to find in hardware such as
using the mouse, the keyboard, and the disc differences. Towards the end of this
article there are ten Mac tricks introduced that the PC couldn’t do. Some of these
commands include waking up the Mac instantly after being in sleep mode. This is
actually a huge advantage for Mac users, because when you put the PC in sleep mode,
it takes a while to open. Another trick is response to voice commands; unlike PCs the
Mac does not only talk to the user, but it also listens to the commands you give them.
This again is a huge advantage for Mac users, especially when helping disabled
people.
How weird is it that a Microsoft search engine called “Bing” tells you to buy
the Apple computer, Mac. Well ironically, it is true. According to an article,
Microsoft tries to convince buyers to buy a PC by saying that it’s much cheaper in
price and that most people use it across the world. When I think about it, Bing just
gained many people’s trust due to its honesty. At least, it gained mine. Aayush Arya,
the author of the article called “Microsoft Bing Helps you Choose Between Mac and
Kassim 71
PC”, claims that she found Bing so reliable that she didn’t even consider using
another search engine such as Google.
A group of people got together to examine two types of desktop computers,
the iMac and the Gateway One. An article called “Mac Vs. PC” states that Macs are
becoming so popular that most artists and unemployed writers actually own one. Both
PCs and Macs contain the Intel processors, and surprisingly due to that Intel
processor, the Mac is also capable of supporting Microsoft’s operating system
“Windows” on its computer. According to the article, both Mac’s OS X Lion and
Microsoft’s Window Vista are very similar in so many ways including the menus and
utilities. Glenn Derene, the author of this article, performed an experiment with both
computers; he made his wife’s stepfather, who never touched a computer, explore
both the Mac and the Gateway One. They also gave both computers to other testers,
and were told to take out the new computers right out of the box and to start using
them right away. The testers were asked to surf the web, open music and other
applications. They were then given a survey. By the end of this experiment, the
winner out of both computers was the iMac.
Steve Detto, a user of both a Mac and a PC, wrote an article on his dual
computer usage. He uses a PC for work-related stuff, and a Mac for the “fun stuff”
such as movies, pictures and music. Detto, the author of this article, claims that the
Intel processor of the Mac allows you to install Windows on a Mac, therefore making
you have both operating systems on just one computer, which is the Mac. According
to Detto there are only two problems when having both operating systems on the
Mac; the first problem is that it’s going to be costy to put the windows operating
system on a Mac because it’s like buying a new computer, the second problem is that
if you want to save a document or a file on both operating systems, you’d have to
Kassim 72
copy it using a flash-drive because Detto and many others still don’t know how to
save a file that could be seen by both operating systems. Like the applications brought
on a Mac, you’d have to buy them and install them again on the Windows. Detto
concludes that he is amazed that such a day would come where he would use
Windows on a Mac.
Alec Watson wrote an article, which includes his opinion towards the
efficiency of Macs and PCs when making music. Watson is an owner of both a PC
and a Mac, he’s a dig audio guy, a beta tester for several software companies, a
reviewer for Canadian Musician and Professional Sound. The author states that
musicians, whom are Mac users, have an easy life and all they have to do is to start
working on their music things straight away. As for PC users, they have to spend a lot
of time setting up the computer and spending too much money for it to be ready to be
used for musicians. Garage Band, a program on the Mac, makes music makes life of
musicians a lot easier! It’s simplicity and easiness in use makes it a big advantage for
musicians to buy a Mac rather than a PC. I myself tried Garage Band a few times,
and I found it to be really entertaining. One time in The American University in
Cairo (AUC), I gathered a few of my friends and opened Garage Band from my
Mac. I got an electrical keyboard and starting playing the drums to make time
pass while waiting for our next class to begin. As I was playing I decided to play a
certain beat just for fun, and then surprisingly a friend of mine started rapping to
the beat. She started rapping by just putting words together of everything we see
in front of us. For example, when we would see a guy walk by us wearing a blue
jacket and red shoes, she’d rap it and be like “guy wearing blue jacket, walking
with a tennis racket. Red shoes on, thinking he’s a patron.” It was actually
Kassim 73
entertaining not only for us, but for the strangers around us. People would stop
by next to us and shake their head with the beat or tell us that we’re talented.
A comparison between Mac’s new operating system “Lion” and Microsoft’s
new operating system “Windows 8” has been thoroughly given in an article written by
John Herman. In his article Herman compares a MacBook Pro with an HP Pavilion.
The comparison revealed that the MacBook Pro has better graphics than the PC, the
MacBook Pro is fast in the Six-App Simultaneous Launch than the PC by exactly one
second, and the MacBook Pro is way faster than the PC when waking up from sleep
mode by 76 seconds! The battery life for the MacBook Pro lasts 7 hours, while the
battery life for the HP Pavilion lasts 6.75 hours, but from personal experience the
battery life for PC decreases at a very fast rate. The researchers gave both laptops to
everyday users, and made them decide which is better to use from their perspective. A
business traveler said that it’s easier and more organized to navigate around with a
Mac, but then stated that he prefers the PC’s mouse pad. He likes how easily he can
left and right click with the PC’s mouse pad. A teacher stated that she’s always been a
Mac user, but surprisingly she’ll change to a PC. A big advantage for PC users is that
the starting price for PC’s are around $600, while the starting price for Mac’s are
around $1000.
As much as I’m trying to stay objective, most of the sources I found leaned
towards Macs. For example, I found a video on YouTube called “Mac or PC? Which
Are you?” This video is about a guy named Jon who tells us why he’s switching from
a PC to a Mac. He states that the Mac has a much better video and graphic display.
Jon says that while using a PC, he didn’t feel really satisfied unlike his usage with a
Mac. He comments that he’s been using PCs for most of his life, and that he recently
purchased a Mac and had the chance to use it for only two days. Those two days he
Kassim 74
claimed to be more than enough to fully convince him that “Macs were the way to
go”. Jon likes typography and he says that Mac’s font is brilliant and clear, unlike the
PC’s. As I stated earlier at the beginning of this research paper, Steve Jobs brought
calligraphy into the Mac. It is now a clear picture on how this is having a positive
affect towards Mac users. Jon said “Mac’s Final Cut has become the primary video
editor of choice for many amateur and professional video makers”. He states that the
only thing missing from a Mac is the video games, but recently video games have
been created for them.
In David Bloom’s article, “Electronic Journal List”, Bloom gives thorough
detail about computer games on PCs and Macs. PC’s have been known to be popular
with video games ever since Windows 98. Throughout the years, the production of
video games has been more focused on PCs, leaving the Mac out. This was a huge
disadvantage for Mac users who are gamers. In recent years, video games for Macs
have started to increase especially with the new power chips and accelerators that
Mac now includes in its new computers. The three most popular games for Mac are
Caesar III, Quake II, and StarCraft. As for PC, I can’t really name the most popular
video games due to the fact that there are so many games on the market for PC
gamers. I myself played the game Quake, and this game is more than just amazing,
it’s epic!
In an article entitled “Assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disabilities”, writer Michael Behrmann talks about how assistive technology can be
used for students with disabilities like deafness or blindness. He says how most
educational institutions can no longer ignore the use of computers within classrooms.
Behrmann also explains how it is a necessity for assistive technology to be available
in all institutions. For the Macintosh computers, there is a program called “Write
Kassim 75
Outloud” that helps the blind by reading the written text out loud, including the menus
and utilities. There’s another program that helps students and teachers develop ways
to teach the blind. Programmers have also built programs that help disabled people
take notes. Programs such as “OmniPage Direct” or “InWords” transform typewritten
notes onto the computer, which is read by a voice synthesizer on the computer.
Methodology:
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC, I came up with a survey that
I posted on Twitter and Facebook. I didn’t really get as many responses as I was
expecting. While my goal was to get one hundred, I received around sixty-eight
responses due to time limitations. The survey consisted of ten questions, some of
which included open-ended questions so that the people taking the survey could state
their own opinions. I told my friends to share the questionnaire so more people could
fill it out. I was thinking about printing out around fifty copies and distributing them
amongst different people in the AUC library, but unfortunately I went to the library
twice and there weren’t as many people there as I had expected, most probably
because we were in summer. I had hoped that I would get people from various majors
to fill out the questionnaire to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are better. I
wanted to see what kind of laptop the majority of computer science majors choose
because I know that they work with certain kinds of programs.
I wanted at first to perform video interviews with several people within AUC
and ask them the following questions: Which computer do you use? Have you always
been a Mac or PC user, and would you ever want to change the type of computer
you’re using? Unfortunately due to the time limits I didn’t have enough time to do the
video interviews. Although I didn’t have time to perform video interviews, fortunately
Kassim 76
I had time to talk with a an IT director for a couple of minutes and a teacher in the
‘Rhetoric and Composition’ department in university. I spoke to a teacher called “Dr.
Ghada Elshimi”, who happens to be my aunt. According to Dr. Elshimi, Macs are so
much better to use than PCs due to their simplicity. She feels that PCs are too
complicated and they tend to become slow over time. Dr. Elshimi only experienced
one problem with her Mac ever since she got it, which was around two years ago. She
claims to have gotten a virus, which is very weird because Macs rarely get viruses.
Dr. Elshimi then explains that she got rid of that virus very easily and ever since never
experienced another bug in her Mac again.
Kassim 77
Results of Survey & Analysis:
Figure 1:
According to figure 1, thirty-five respondents were Mac users and thirty-three
were PC users. I did notice that most of the Engineering majors were PC users, and
according to most of them the reason why they weren’t Mac users is that Mac lacks
downloadable programs needed for most engineers, which are easily available on the
Mac. Another interesting observation was that most Mac users were once PC users,
and more than ninety-five percent of them said that they wouldn’t change from a Mac
to a PC due to the following reasons: Macs are faster than PCs; they have a longer
battery life; they’re more advanced; once you start using a Mac you can never let it
Number of people
Type of Com
puter
Kassim 78
go; they’re fully equipped with everything needed for a good computer; they rarely
need to get fixed (unlike PCs); they rarely get viruses (unlike PCs); they’re easier to
use; they’re built to allow users to change it according to their satisfaction; PCs don’t
perform as well as Macs; Macs switch on and off in a second; they are able to search
for documents faster; they’re much more user friendly; and they have better operating
systems than the PCs. One person who filled out the questionnaire even said “I would
NEVER in a million years switch to a PC, it feels like I’m dealing with a PMS-ing
b*tch”. I found that response quite ironic due to the fact that the so called PC users
are complaining so much, while Bill Gates, owner of Microsoft, had said “your most
unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”, but he doesn’t seem to learn
from them. Another Mac user who was once a PC user said, “no I wouldn’t switch
from a Mac to a PC because it’s a bit of a step down.” According to my questionnaire
almost all Mac users are satisfied. The small majority who isn’t satisfied with their
Macs are those who either major in Architecture or Engineering since Macs don’t
have the programs needed for their fields.
Interview:
My RHET professor, Dr. Gibson, took me to a computer IT director, who
works in AUC in the RHET department. As I interviewed the IT director, Bishoy
Harby, I learned a lot of new information that I hadn’t encountered when researching
on Macs and PCs. Mr. Harby told me that one of the biggest advantages that PC has
over the Mac is that Microsoft’s enterprise support is way better than the Mac’s. After
hearing this piece of information, I finally discovered why a lot of companies prefer
using a PC rather than a Mac. Another thing I also learned were the following
disadvantages of the Mac, some of which I had mentioned earlier within this paper:
Kassim 79
does not support foreign languages in the Microsoft Office Package; does not support
Arabic throughout the whole operating system; is not as popular with video games as
the PC is; it’s hardware is very expensive and isn’t available everywhere; and the
Mac’s mouse is fancy, but when operating, it becomes bad over time. Mac not
supporting Arabic is a very big disadvantage for Mac users in the Middle East. It
makes Arabs think twice before buying a Mac. Also gamers are more supportive of
PC due to the fact that the Mac isn’t really that compatible with video games. I myself
remember that I had a lot of video games on my PC back when I was a child. The
next disadvantage that the Mr. Harby had mentioned was on the Mac’s hardware.
Apple is very strict on its products, as such it doesn’t want people to buy its hardware
in any other store, and that is why its hardware isn’t really available everywhere,
unlike PC. When using a PC, if you want to change your battery you just have to buy
a new one, and simply replace it with the one in your laptop. As for a Mac, when you
flip it upside down you’ll see how you can’t just simply take out the battery. You
have to dissemble your whole Mac just to replace the battery yourself. The final
disadvantage of a Mac that I learnt from the IT director was about the mouse (not the
laptops mouse pad, but the actual mouse). He told me that the mouse was brilliant
when he first brought it. Later on he then discovered that once dust comes inside of it,
the scroll in the mouse will stop working and there is no way to fix it. Those
disadvantages mentioned above might affect some people, but after using a Mac I
could still live with those disadvantages.
When the thirty-three PC users were asked if they had the chance to switch
from a PC to a Mac, I was expecting some competition with the Mac users.
Kassim 80
Surprisingly, most of the PC users do actually want to switch to a Mac. Most of the
PC users who responded that they want to switch to a Mac gave the same responses
the Mac users mentioned above on their satisfaction with their Macs. The following
are responses of PC users who said they would not change to a PC:
• “No because I feel Macs are more complicated than PC in the few times I use
Mac”
• “No I am satisfied with the performance of my PC”
• “No I got used to PC”
• “I wouldn’t. PCs are more easily customizable/upgradable and they're more
suited for gaming. A Mac is much more expensive than a PC of the same
specifications, and you don’t get much benefit from the price difference. Plus
the Mac GUI (Graphic User Interphase) feels awkward.”
• “Can't right now because the software I need to use in my major aren't all Mac
friendly”
Conclusions and Recommendations:
Those responses are literally the only responses out of the thirty-three PC
users who would not change to a Mac. The rest of the thirty-three said that they would
love to change to a Mac. According to my survey, Mac is more chosen than PC. Some
of the people using a PC want to change to a Mac can’t due to their majors and the
programs required that only work on the PC. My father, who’s a civil engineer, is also
a PC user, but when he used my Mac several times he fell in love with the computer.
He told me that he wants to change to a Mac, and listed all the programs he needed.
After doing some research I couldn’t find any of the programs he wanted other than
one program, which was over $600. In the end, my father decided to keep his PC. I
Kassim 81
would recommend that you buy a Mac if you have the money to buy one, and if
you’re not an engineer or intending to major in the engineering field.
Kassim 82
Works Cited
Arya, Aayush. "Microsoft Bing Helps You Choose Between Mac And PC."
Macworld 26.9 (2009): 21. Computers & Applied Sciences Complete.
Web. 19 June 2012.
Behrmann, Michael M. “Assistive Technology For Students With Mild
Disablilities.” Intervention In School & Clinic 302 (1994): 70.
Education Research Complete. Web. 17 June 2012
Bloom, David. "Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Daily News of Los Angeles, 8 Aug. 1999. Web. 20
June 2012.
Derene, Glenn. "Mac Vs. PC." Popular Mechanics 185.5 (2008):
86. Masterfile Premier. Web. 20 June 2012.
Dotto, Steve. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic Journal
List. North News Shore, 31 May 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Herrman, John. "Mac Vs PC." Popular Mechanics 188.11 (2011): 82.
Masterfile Premier. Web. 19 June 2012.
“Mac or PC? Which Are You?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Oct. 2010. Web. 20
June 2012.
O'Brien, John. "Full Text Electronic Journal List." Full Text Electronic
Journal List. The Courier Mail, 25 Feb. 2006. Web. 20 June 2012.
Pogue, David. "PC To Mac." Macworld 20.1 (2003): 56. Computers &
Kassim 83
Applied Sciences Complete. Web. 17 June 2012.
Watson, Alec. "Mac vs. PC." Canadian Musician Nov. 2006: 31. Masterfile Premier.
Web. 20 June 2012.
Kassim 84
Ahmad Kassim
900113671
Dr. Gibson
RHET 201
Journal 1
Exploring Possible Topics
There’s actually a certain topic that I’ve wanted to gather more
information about, than the information I already know about it. One of the
topics I’d like to research about is a major here in The American University in
Cairo (AUC), and that major is called “Management of Information and
Communication Technology” (MICT). This a major that I’ve been thinking about
majoring in, but unfortunately my dad isn’t agreeing. Another topic I’d like to
research about is on the recent elections here in Egypt after the revolution,
whether I think it will make a big difference if Ahmed Shafik became president of
Egypt. An interesting topic that could relate to many people today that I could
research about is Windows versus Macintosh. I’ve always used a Windows PC up
until two years ago when I switched to a Mac. I’d like to know why most
companies prefer using Windows rather than Macs.
The topic I chose to write about is PC versus Macintosh. I find that this
topic is the most interesting topic to “tech” people today. I find that a lot of
students today debate on whether the use of Mac or PC are better! In my opinion,
Macs are so much better than PCs because they’re not common with viruses,
they don’t lag, and they’re more user friendly. I’d like to know why PCs in the
recent years have been degraded, and now Macs have become more popular. I’ve
Kassim 85
also come to notice that companies are more of a PC user, than a Mac user. Did
the death of Steve Jobs effect the sales of Macs?
Kassim 86
Ahmad Kassim RHET 102 900113671 Dr. Gibson Journal 2
First Link: http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=8399&sr=HLEAD(Mac+and+PC+still+duelling)+and+date+is+May,%202006 The first source is about a guy who uses both a mac and a pc. He explains how uses a Mac when doing the “fun stuff” as in photos and videos etc, and he uses the PC when doing work related stuff. He also mentioned something that’s very important; he said that Macs could also support the PC or windows interface, which is in favor for Macs big time. Basically a Mac could basically include both Windows and the Mac operating system. "LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions." LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2012. <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr>. Second Link: http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr&csi=8399&sr=HLEAD(Nielsen%2FNetRatings+compares+Mac+and+PC+users)+and+date+is+July,%202002 The second source is about the famous telecommunication company “Nexus” who made a report on the difference between Macintosh users and PC users. Their reports and research found that 70.2% of the Mac users have a university degree. Mac users are more likely to build websites and shop online than PC users. This report contains more statistics on between the two computers. "LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions." LexisNexis® Academic & Library Solutions. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2012. <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?verb=sr>. Third Link: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=81c71636-‐ca4b-‐470f-‐9723-‐c163c8decf9c%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=iih&AN=44381924 The third source is basically a search engine, which is actually made by Microsoft, the search engine actually tells us to buy a Mac instead of a PC.
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Fourth Link: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=f7edb92b-‐c7c9-‐4b31-‐a56c-‐cd7c6c949c03%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=75330798 This fourth link gets in depth about the differences between the Mac and PC! It reports that they performed testing on both laptops such as the battery life, speed, and functions. Fifth Link: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=4db3f15a-‐a20e-‐448e-‐8787-‐ce5a230fb4a2%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=31834381 The fifth source also includes a differentiation between the Pc and Mac. It seems reliable and interesting because it’s unbiased. To form an educated opinion I have to fully explore the pros and cons of each and the differences and similarities between them. And this source provides exactly that. Sixth Link: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=f304277b-‐3605-‐4108-‐9a56-‐1fec9b19cf1d%40sessionmgr11&vid=1&hid=12&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=f5h&AN=24378685 This source is about the author’s opinion on the worldwide debate on the efficiency of Macs and PC’s. The difference between Mac and PC. The info provided in this source is sufficient enough to detect feature differences between Macs and pc’s. So I will be able to make a better comparison.
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Ahmad Kassim RHET 102 900113671 Dr. Gibson Journal 3 Source 1: This source gives information towards the famous question on whether Mac is safer to use than a PC. This is a very important question to my research because according to my past knowledge Macs do not get any viruses unlike Pcs.
Abrams, Rany. “Is A Mac Safer Than A PC?.” San Diego Business Journal 30.49 (2009): 4. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13 June 2012 Source 2: This source is about an article that compares both the PC and Mac. It explains how the PC’s parts are made by other companies, but the Mac is completely made by apple from head to toe. O’BANNON, ISAAC M. “The Mac Vs. PC Battle.” CPA Technology Advisor 19.8 (2009): 12. Business Source Complete. Web. 13 June 2012. Source 3: This source is an article talking about the in depth performance of the PC and Mac. Komando, Kim. “PC Vs Mac.” Popular Mechanics 177.7 (2000): 72. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13 June 2012. Source 4: This source is an article discussing the advantages and disadvantages of PC and Mac. Northway, Wally. “Mac Or PC? The battle Continues.” Mississippi Business Journal 30.38 (2008): 4. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 13 June 2012. Research Question: Being a user of Both a PC and a MAC, which one is better and why? This is the topic that I set my mind on researching about, because today we live in a world full of technology; the two most popular computers worldwide are both Mac and PC.
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Ahmad Kassim RHET 102 900113671 Dr. Gibson Journal 4
Here’s the questionnaire that I’ve made on the topic of Mac Vs PC. I will
try to get as many people as I can from different majors to answer this
questionnaire because some majors requires certain computer programs to use.
I’ll try to focus more on Mascom, computer science, and architecture majors.
Questionnaire:
1. What’s your major/intended major?
2. How often do you use a computer?
3. Are you a Mac or PC user?
4. Which computer do you prefer?
5. Which do you think is more helpful with your current occupation?
6. Which computer is more user friendly?
7. If you were a Mac user and had the chance to switch to PC, would you? Why or
Why not?
8. If you were a PC user and had the chance to switch to Mac, would you? Why or
why not?
9. Which computer has a longer life span?
10. Do you think that Macs are for specific types of people and PCs are for other
specific types of people?
11. Which computer would be easier to use for a disabled person.
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As for the interviews, I’ll go to the different departments in the American
University in Cairo (AUC), and ask different professors and students. Here are
examples of some of the following questions I’ll ask:
1. Which computer do you prefer to use?
2. Have you always been a Mac/PC user (depending on the answer for question 1)?
3. Would you ever want to change the type of computer you’re using?
Results till now:
I sent out the questionnaire to a couple of students in AUC and I still
haven’t gotten a lot of responses till now. Until now, I’ve gotten almost four
responses so I cannot conclude my results till now. According to the results,
three of the students were Mac users, and only one student was a PC user.
Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of time to do the interviews, but it shall soon be
done.
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Ahmad Kassim RHET 102 900113671 Dr. Gibson Journal 5
In order to see how many people use Mac or PC I’ve come up with a survey
that I’ve posted on Twitter and on Facebook and so far I haven’t actually gotten as
many results as I was expecting. The survey consisted of a eleven questions and some
of which included open ended questions so that the people taking the survey could
state their own opinion. I’ll start telling my friends to share the survey so more people
could fill it out and I’m thinking about printing out around fifty copies and to
distribute it amongst different people in the AUC library. I hope that I get people from
various majors to fill out the surveys to see whether it matters if Macs or PCs are
better.
I interviewed an IT director, Bishoy Harby, in the American University in
Cairo (AUC) who was unbiased in his judgment towards Macs and PCs. He gave
some new information that I haven’t read about during my research. If I had the
chance I would have liked to interview more IT directors in order to get new
information based on their experience. Unfortunately due to time limitations, I
didn’t really have enough time to interview more people in the IT field.
Throughout my life I’ve never really enjoyed writing papers. I couldn’t
imagine myself writing a paper during my summer break. Here I am, in the
summer of 2012, writing a research paper for my RHET 201 class. Surprisingly
I’m enjoying this research paper that I’m currently writing. My topic is about
Macintosh and PC. I hope that someday I would enjoy writing all my papers, just
like I’m enjoying writing this one.