I've never heard of programmers being heavily into Macs, but the graphic artists issue is a complete fallacy in my opinion. Graphics and programming is what I do, and have never been able to find any logical reason that a Mac is more useful in any way whatsoever.

The best theory I have seen to explain the fallacy is that a lot of graphic people, from the beginning of the switch from older formats to digital, were very non-technical - even technophobic - so the ultra user friendly approach was what worked in the marketing to them. And once they are on the Mac platform, it is very hard to get them to switch because of expense. It's not just the cost of a new computer, it's more the cost of replacing all the software to buy PC versions instead of Mac, which can run into thousands.

Sadly, it is shortfalls in graphics software that primarily keeps me using Windows rather than switching to Linux permanantly. As cool as TheGimp is for OpenSource software, it isn't Photoshop in terms of abilities or ease of use, and as for 3D graphics modelling software - forget about it.

People in graphics and print tend to lean towards Macs because typeface and graphics are displayed as they will be printed. Windows alters fonts for greater end-user visibility on the monitor.

At the moment, I can't find the article where I read this, but I'll add it if I find it.

EDIT:

I'm pretty sure it was this article

Font smoothing, anti-aliasing, and sub-pixel rendering - Joel on Software

wow my goodness I have stured up a hornets nest lol this place is awesome! Thank you all for all of your replys so far. Your opion is highly valued. I may even have to now look into linux kind of slid off my radar for a while there.

I would love one but maybe not the modern ones. They after all PC's in a party dress.

I often find my self cruising eBay looking at those brightly coloured iMac's. Not for their power but their ease of use... Or is it the colours? who knows?!? They don't cost too much it's just the shipping LOL

Interesting article, but I do find it hard to believe that these subtle differences in font display have played a major role in the choices people have made for computing platform. For one thing, I would say more (or at the least, comparable amounts) graphic work is produced now for the web than for print. For another, if this was a genuine reason people have been using in their decision making process, it would be more broadly discussed, given the ongoing intensity of the Mac vs PC fanboy wars.

On a side issue, as an avid movie buff, it seems clear that Mac spend more on product placement budget than Microsoft do. If we were to believe our screens, 95% of on-screen characters would use Macs, compared to the 5% (or whatever it is) of people in the real world.

I think you've hit on the real reason that Macs are perceived to be better at 'multimedia'----marketing.

That's a bit of an oversimplification. I think it's more that the Mac originally attracted artistic types, starting out as a more graphical and media-oriented machine than the IBM PC of the day. Having such an audience and better hardware for doing music and graphics attracted the best software first, e.g. MIDI sequencers and Photoshop. It became self-perpetuating that people looked to the Mac as a media platform, so the software kept favoring it.

Of course recently there is closer parity between Windows PCs and Macs for multimedia. But the point is that a historical perception dies slowly. My argument is that it's not current marketing, but historical advantages that matter here. So yes, you don't need a Mac to do graphics or music anymore. But if you want to be absolutely sure you have the best possible laptop screen for color matching or the best possible MIDI sequence you still may want to consider it. The Mac audience is just more demanding, so the software and hardware quality has to consistently meet higher standards.

Interesting take. I don't have a Mac, and the one time I used one I got so frustrated with the one-button-mouse that I couldn't concentrate on anything else.

First thing I did when given a Mac was to ask for a conventional mouse (Microsoft). They work fine. I had a harder time with the keyboard and the wacky use of modifier keys.

Kind of funny Mac started selling two button mice some time ago and calling them real innovative.

Something like €70 for the bluetooth and €50 for the cable version...

Every mouse I see in the stores has at least 5 buttons now, I guess apple will add additional keys when the maya calender ends.

Nice. I love brainiac jokes.

I just wish there was more choice... The PC (i86) platform has become totally dominant.

The only real difference we have is the OS that is installed. MS Windows, Apple X or Linux. What runs underneath the OS is much the same. I'm not sure if I would want to return to the heyday of miro-computing. When two dozen competing platforms were kicking around.

It would be nice if there were 5 or so different computers trying to out do each other just to relieve the boredom of the current MS monopoly. There is more going on in the console market between MS, Sony and Nintendo. It would be nice to have that type of competition with desktop PC too...

Yeah, it would be fun to have Amiga, BEOS and others as healthy competitors. Of course it would be nice if the applications could still run on any of them, so they'd all have equivalent software availability.

If there was true competition, it wouldn't quite be one-to-one, but there would be strong choices for all of the platforms.

Yeah, I realized it would be boring if they all were just shells around the same core. It would be nice to start using non-Intel type chips too. Wouldn't hurt to have a more vibrant CPU market either. The Mac was interesting because it didn't have the same exact applications, and many of the ones it had were both different and better.

So... just out of curiosity... does anybody have an opinion on when Apple's actually going to release Leopard?? The site says that its coming in October... and we're IN october now, soo...

I don't have any information, other than knowing they're more interested in the iPhone right now. They cut the resources available to other things, like Leopard.