Being an editor, I always come across the inenviable arguments that come with the different platforms that we work on.  Although there is a strong feeling that Linux deserves it’s time on the stage, and I won’t necessarily argue that, today I’ll focus on the two big boys, Windows & Mac.  It seems to me that the more graphic intensive artists won’t even bother debating the issue of whether or not to work off of a Windows or Mac based platform, they just use Mac and ignore the banter.  What I’ve come to discover though is that the majority of them don’t really know how to explain why they prefer this platform but rather just use it because their collegues do, almost like a passing down from generation to generation thing.  Now before the lot of you accuse me of being a private Windows marketing agent, I’ll state for the record that I really don’t have any preference, since the  systems I work off of are both Mac and Windows based.  However, the despairing argument from most Mac based users is that “You HAVE to use a Mac…”  if your an editor or graphic artist, and this I have found is more a cliche than an actual fact.  While there are things I prefer about a Mac compared to PC, price and hardware simplicity is not two of them. 

Take myself for example, I recently upgraded one of my systems, and did some real hard investigative research before making any decisions.  The system being replaced was a PC, so I considered the prospect of changing to a Mac based given that the system I had just purchased a couple years back was a Mac and I’ve been loving it.  However, the more I looked into this new endeavor the more I found myself teetering back to a PC.  The facts became clear that price would certainly be an issue considering what I was looking to do and I had to start weighing out the benefits of what I would gain by purchasing a second Mac at this point.  I really wanted to make get a current top-of-the-line system that could survive the next few years and could handle anything you throw at it, and I literally found that PC had an advantage there.  Not only was Mac only offering last years technology in regards to processors and such, but the price to even get in the vicinity of what I wanted strength wise was at least double.  So I began asking myself, what benifit would I gain if I sucked it up and spent the extra coin on a second Mac, and the unfortunate conclusion I kept running into was nothing more than the braggin rights of ‘telling people’ I had a Mac of such strength.  The actual workflow, software, and projects wouldn’t be affected, the render time, exporting and such wouldn’t change.  So really, what was I gaining? 

Due to this, I did eventual replace my older PC with, yes, I newer PC, and I can say with no bias that I think I made a wise decision.  In the end, your clients don’t give a rat’s ass what platform your using, they just want the job done.  And given that I have the ability to use both Mac or PC, I think I would actually put myself at a disadvantage if I went soley Mac based.  Also, and I say this with complete humility, but my new PC would blow the doors off  anything Mac could even remotely recommend in the same ballpark, no wait, city, price wise, so I think that the decision became a no-brainer.  To those waiting for the inevitable statement of what did I get exactly will have to keep guessing, cause I didn’t want to turn this topic into a spec comparison sheet, but the price range was between $2000-$3000  and a Mac of similar power was between $4000-$5000. 

Having been around for awhile, I’ve discovered that, ( especially in this economy ) bragging rights don’t pay the bills, nor do they bring you clients, nor do they make your projects better.  Being good at what you do, knowing the software, and most importantly ( at least what I find ) bringing a fresh and creative perspective to the table will tally you more respect and future prosperity than what operating system your under.  Having said all that, Mac is definitely an important platform to understand as well as the software it brings (Final Cut Studio, Shake, etc ) and by no means should one EVER religate themselves to just one system.  I have and continue to enjoy and prefer the simplicity of Mac over PC as an overall platform, but now days I just cannot ignore the most important factor… cost.  And really when it all comes down to it, if your able to do the same job for less overhead and no time lost then that’s the only factor to consider.