Reasons why not to go Macintosh

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Reason 20 : "I need to use an application that is not on the Mac"

Validity level:

There is little that can be done on a PC that cannot be done on a Mac, or vice-versa. Many of the top mainstream applications are available for both platforms. There will be some applications that are available for one platform and not the other, but invariably, there will usually be a comparable alternative. Don't fall into the trap of assuming a particular application is the only application of that type. It's likely there will be a viable alternative, maybe even better than the one you're used to. But there are potential exceptions...

Specialist applications

Specialist applications for specialist tasks outside of the mainstream, may not be worth developing for minority platforms for instance. Or third party add-ons and appliances that require custom utilities to interface to your computer, may only cater for the dominant platform to cut development costs, e.g. some mobile phones or MP3 players. For some people, these can be defining issues to preclude Mac ownership. For others, may simply involves a more limited choice. Others still, may even be a complete non-issue at all.

Plus of course there is the issue of games; Windows has lots, Mac has few. See also 'There's no games for the Mac' for a closer look at this.

Internet

More and more today, services are being made available on the Internet via your web browser, as opposed to custom built, platform specific applications. This can be a good thing as it enables the same service or content to run on any platform, be it Windows, Mac, Linux, or any number of lesser known operating systems. That is if recognised industry standards are adopted in its development, and any content it delivers. But again, there are potential flies in the ointment...

In an ideal world, all web developers would adopt these platform agnostic, industry standards. But this is not an ideal world. Unfortunately, there are developers out there that do not do this. They instead build their products that are reliant on proprietary standards, usually pertaining to the dominant computer platform, i.e. Microsoft Windows. This has the undesirable effect of excluding anyone who uses anything other than Windows, e.g. Macintosh. For some, this could be a killer blow to any aspirations of choosing anything but Windows, but to others, it's merely inspiration to not give custom to any content provider or business whose web designers choose to ignore the industry standards the Internet is supposed to be based upon.

See also 'Macs are proprietary and incompatible'

So...

...for some people, the issues raised here are potential roadblocks to viable Mac ownership. If you're one of these people whom they effect to a significant degree, for which there really is no alternative, I can only draw your attention to dual booting Windows for use when you absolutely have to do something that is only available for Windows. The viability of this is of course dictated by how often you need to do this...

On one hand, if you need to spend most of your time in Windows, then a Mac's ability to run Mac OS will offer little benefit to you; but if your need for Windows is infrequent, and perhaps even diminishing, then the dual boot option on a Mac could be a viable choice.

See 'Running Windows on a Macintosh' for more details.

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