Why do so many people run photoshop on a mac?

[themisfit610]

Well...

Here's how I see it.

64 bit CS4 for Windows is awesome. I can easily gobble up tons of RAM just by opening a few 10MP RAW images from Lightroom (tell your sister to get / learn that too. Seriously. Amazing...).

But, she's in a field where people use macs - for whatever reason, be it legacy knowledge, false perceptions, or simple trendiness.

Now, for a technical enthusiast like us, running Windows in such an environment, and running circles around overpriced macs (except the MacPro, can't touch that) is a great way to wave red flag of defiance!

I guarantee your sister doesn't give a shit, wants to fit in, and would be happiest with something people in her field are familiar with. This isn't the time for us all to use your sister's entrance into a mac dominated field as a proxy for our nerd-rage.

Just make sure she gets the base model MacBook, and you upgrade the RAM to 4GB for her. Get a half decent 22-24" LCD, and a big external hard drive. Then she can Photoshop all she wants without spending TOO much money, and everyone wins. If that's too much money, you can probably consider alternatives like a Dell Vostro (seriously... such an awesome little 17" laptop zomg)

~MiSfit

 

[cludinsk]

new and exciting topic, never heard this discussion before.

 

[mchammer]

IMO, re: photoshop, the ui matches with that of a Mac very well, where there is one menu bar at the top and no giant window to contain the entire app. In photoshop, the menus are used a lot, and having them at the top edge allows much faster access. Plus unless you are a true ninjitsu, the ram situation isn't a big deal.

It is nice to see what windows are floating around between your working windows. Now I like XP for what I need, but Vista Aero is ugly and inconsistent.

About these other Mac vs. Windows arguments, much of it comes down to that MS has chosen and must maintain backwards compatibility for a massive amount of software, much of it used in the corporate environment and they can't do stuff in their OS that would break it under any circumstances.

Apple doesn't have such worries (or 40 some odd BILLION in cash laying around to worry about), so they can be much more nimble and drop support for stuff quick. I heard they were planning to take carbon 64 bit and then changed their mind, part of the soap opera between them and adobe. With MS, they do everything to help their developers, but soon this will lead to a large amount of messy hard to maintain code. Time will tell.

 

[alevasseur14]

There's a lot to be said about your sister getting a computer similar to the one the people that will be teaching her will be using. It'll just make the process that much easier.

Also, I think for your sister, the whole 64 bit issue is being blown way out of proportion. It's not as though your sister is going to be designing ad campaigns for Coke in class or anything. If her class is anything like the Photoshop class I took in high school, she'll probably find a way to survive without 64 bit support.

As much as you want to rock Photoshop with 8 cores and oodles of memory, your sister will be absolutely fine with a MacBook.

 

[0roo0roo]

its because the entire os understands color/calibration or something to make sure everything would match when printed, it was explained on lab with leo once a while back with some greybeard photo expert dude. course this is way more for professionals than what regular user cares about, but its got that level of detail taken care of from the start. so its not so good for pc users to just knee jerk claim that people are just using macs to be trendy..there are historic and technical reasons why photoshop and desktop publishing was so popular on macs.

for instance safari is even color profile aware, so its display of pictures can be more true than others.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColorSync
http://news.cnet.com/Safari-us...00-1012_3-6191815.html
http://developer.apple.com/ref...idxColorSync-date.html
http://www.northlight-images.c...improve_mac_color.html
they were on this stuff back in 93. thats a long time...a nd i guess this is one area where pc users got simplistic controls whereas apple users had better stuff. and probably why most pc users are ignorant about this stuff. 13 year head start on mac.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: alevasseur14
There's a lot to be said about your sister getting a computer similar to the one the people that will be teaching her will be using.
It'll just make the process that much easier.

Exactly...

 

[DontShoot]

Originally posted by: Comdrpopnfresh
My sister doesn't know much about computer hardware, and is currently taking a community college course on photoshop, and is somewhat of an apprentice with a local photographer. She wants to get into digital photography as a new career, including the editing portion. She keeps telling me how the computers in the class are macs, and how everyone in the class goes home and practices on a mac they own- even her friend who is an aspiring digital photographer uses photoshop on a mac laptop. It boggles my mind really.

hello

I've been lurking for years but I just decided to register when I saw this thread (bored today!)

As a professional photographer, my main rig for post-processing is a Mac Pro. This is simply because the color management is leaps and bounds better than windows can offer today (for instance, on windows the color space "Nikon sRGB" looks way off when compared on the Pantone guide and also w/ Spyder Pro calibration)

Also, most books on Photography have illustrations that are done on a Mac, so that alone could confuse someone who is not familiar with Mac. Also as mentioned above, the majority of us pro shooters use Mac in the field, so if this is what your sis is trying to get into, it would REALLY be easier to communicate with fellow photograhers when you're using the SAME platform. If she needed a certain filter or plugin for Adobe Lightroom, she can easily ask one of her shooting buddies.. imagine if they are all using Macs and she's on a PC?

I use BOTH Mac and PC, by the way. Different strokes for different folks!

 

[TheStu]

As others have pointed out, right now, for really big projects and serious PhotoShopping, then she will want to get a Windows box, running a modern, 64bit OS (Meaning Vista/7) and gobs of RAM. That is because, as another poster pointed out, Adobe did not have a 64 bit Cocoa version (Apple originally announced, early in 10.5's development, that Carbon would be supported for 64bit in 10.5. Later, they retracted that and have instead invested their time into Cocoa) of CS4 ready. In theory CS5 will have 64bit on OS X... but I honestly am not holding my breath due to how Adobe and Apple seem to not get along (if you get a chance, look up some stuff on the CS4 installer for OS X... it is a joke!)

So, performance wise, Windows has the edge for the first time in a while (at least to my understanding). However, as others have pointed out, if her books, professors, fellow students, and people online all are running OS X on Macs then perhaps that might be reason enough to get a MacBook.

The performance of the 2.4GHz MacBook is nothing to laugh at, and from what I can find, the price is reasonable considering the quality of the construction.

However, the 2.4GHz MacBook Pro is only $400 more after student discount, and is worth it. The FireWire 800 port (external drives and cameras perhaps), ExpressCard34 slot, MUCH better screen, and the better/second graphics card. So, $1900 after student discount for a powerful, high quality laptop, that is easy to carry around, has good battery life, and will suit her quite well for photoshop.

Yes, you can get a <insert OEM brand here> for cheaper probably. But, I think that the pros outweigh the cons here in favor of the Mac. And that isn't just because I am arguably a Mac fanboy, (really i am an OS X fanboy, I just can't imagine using anything but an Apple portable) but because of what she is studying in school.

 

[StinkyPinky]

If I was Microsoft I'd be throwing money at Adobe to ask them to only make their stuff on Windows.

Anyway, about your sister. If everyone is using a mac, then she will be getting one. Don't bother talking her out of it, you'll just make her unhappy. People are sheep remember. Plus the Mac laptops aren't too bad. Overpriced of course, but nice enough specs to run photoshop. She's only a newbie remember, she's not going to be doing hardcore stuff on it.