Microsoft Launches PC vs. Mac Site

It’s been almost two years since Microsoft’s laughable, misleading and creatively bereft “I’m A PC” ads, and you’d think they’d have learned something about appearing too defensive… but no! Right in time for the annual “Back to School” laptop sales wars, Microsoft has launched an official PC vs. Mac section on their website.

Needless to say, it’s laughably misleading.

Under “Compatibility,” for example, Microsoft states:

Plain and simple, if you’re a PC user, lots of your favorite stuff just might not work on a Mac. With PCs outselling Macs 10 to 1, the reality is that most computer software is developed to run on PCs.

What this propaganda ignores, of course, is that every modern Mac is a PC, perfectly capable of booting into Windows to accommodate the infinitesimally small number of programs and file types without native Mac analogues. Unless you go through a complicated hacking process, though, you simply can’t boot into OS X on your PC if someone, say, sends you an iMovie project.

Here’s some more disingenuousness:

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Things just don’t work the same way on Macs if you’re used to a PC. For example, the mouse works differently. And many of the shortcuts you’re familiar with don’t work the same way on a Mac.

Well, by that token, many of the shortcuts I’m familiar with on a Mac don’t work under Windows… at least without remember that I need to switch the Command key for the Alt key. That’s hardly rocket science. And despite this rhetoric, my Microsoft laser mouse will attest that any mouse you care to plug into your Mac will work just fine and indistinguishably to if it were plugged into a PC.

In essence, Microsoft’s message is simple: “Change is scary. It’s better to stay with a crappy product you already know than spend a couple of hours transitioning to something superior.” This is head-in-the-sand talk, guys. How much market share does Apple need to take from Microsoft before they start being progressive instead of defensive?

79 comments »

About the author

John Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Apple, News |

http://www.mycfmx.com/ Robbiegod
To your point of Macs being PCs at there core because they use PC hardware like Intel processors. Then why does a MAC cost way more then a PC with similar specs?
I use both because I am web developer and there are some differences between a mac and a pc that I’d like to point based on experience.
1. Why is it so hard to send a path to a folder on our companies network on mac? Our shop is 95% mac based. I, on the other hand, am one of the few peoples that use a PC. When one of the artists posts files for me to grab on our internal server he has to take a screenshot of the Apple Info screen so i can see the path to the file. I don’t know if there a way around this but I would love to just get the folder path in Windows format so i can just click a link and go to the files instead of looking at an image and then having to click through all of the folders.
2. The windows point about the mouse working differently on a mac vs pc. I don’t think they were talking about the movement of the cursor or whatever. I think they were talking about the one-button mouse that have with macs for years (until recently). I have an A/B switch so i don’t really suffer from this because I use my PC mouse with my mac and i gave the mouse that came with my mac to someone else. I prefer the 2-button mouse. I like to right click and see a menu on windows and mac. Until recently, on a mac, you had to hit option or alt and mouse button to see a menu. Kind of dumb and awkard. And i don’t like the mac mouse that has the right click option in it. I always constantly accidently right click or left click. It just doesn’t seem very functional to me.
3. I like my programs to have a background to them. I don’t want to see the desktop. On my mac when i am using Photoshop, I get a small menu at the top with all of the options for photoshops menu and i also see the palettes too, but i also see all of the icons on the desktop and the picture that’s displayed as my background. I find this distracting. I’ve also had instances where i would go to grab the lower corner and accidently click an icon and open another file that is on my desktop. This sucks, but could easily be fixed if they would just make a shell for the program. On windows, when you open a program it is obvious that the program is open and loaded because it covers the desktop.
4. I hate navigating through the OSX navigator. I don’t like the different views they offer. Navigating seems much easier on a PC.
5. In our office, on my mac, everytime I want to connect to our internal server, I have to click Run or Go -> Connect to Server in Finder (sorry i forget the menu name) just to connect to our internal server. It might be because we have to login to access the network. On my PC, I’ve logged into that same server one time and now Windows XP Pro (an old operating system) remembers the server name and now when i open my computer from my start menu i can just double click and i’m on the server.
6. My computer at work is a DELL that is duel boot. It has windows xp pro as my primary OS and then as a secondary boot I have Windows 7. I’m using Windows 7 64-bit right now on my home computer.
7. I like to build computers to save money. I don’t buy from DELL or HP. I buy all of my parts and put the machine together myself. There is no kit available that i know of to build a custom mac. I really don’t want to do that and i think Apple should let other hardware run there OS. I would love to have a PC that had a second boot with OSX on it. But i don’t want to pay the crazy mac prices because they are pretty much a rip off. I can get the same hardware for much cheaper and build a PC with Windows.
I didn’t read the Windows site and I also do not like “slam” tactics that are done in advertising. All of the examples that I gave were from personal experience.
When i was in college, I had to buy a mac. $2500 down the drain. Later on, after college, I bought a PC that had more hard drive space, a faster processor, and was just all around better machine for just $900 and i got a 17 inch sony trinitron monitor — which was huge 12 yrs ago.
http://www.ljlh-designs.com Libby
I could not agree with you more. I happen to have a Microsoft mouse too and it works just fine with my MacBook. I’m working on getting a new magic mouse or that fancy new track pad though. I’ve had two Mac’s in 9 years. Never had a problem.
The fact that Apple has actually taken the step to let users run Windows on a Mac shows how smart they are. Two computers in one! So people think Mac people are arrogant? Apple is willing to adapt and Windows machines aren’t? Hmmm. Who is trying to be arrogant and say we are better?
Ryan
Libby, your second paragraph actually refers to the openness of the Windows OS to be launched by any firmware. It is Mac OS X that requires special Apple hardware and firmware to run. You have it backwards.
Jeff
Maybe OSX is more stable but it only has to be able to run on a very select bunch of hardware. Windows does the impressive job of being able ttrip o run on an infinite number of hardware configurations. I choose to build my own computers because there is more choice and it is cheaper. I wouldn’t buy a prebuilt PC and a Mac costs even more.
Jim H
First reaction: how is “net neutrality” endangered by Apple and AT&T? Seems to me, if you want to talk about those who endanger net neutrality, it’s the recent agreement between Verizon and Google. Oh, but Google is open, they say. Suckers.
Also, the tip-off that it’s Microsoft are those drab, stock photos.
Bryan
“Slowly and steadily application unresponsiveness is progressing in Win7, yet again.
Programmergamer from Twitter”
This is from there live feed, they don’t check them very well.
Zeyo
had a peek at the microsoft atrical and found this:
“Intuitive, familiar, and easy to use, PCs do what you want: they just work.”
hummmm sounds very familiar!
in my experience of PCs, you have to outwit them to get them to do anything!
http://www.dadams.co.uk Darren
The £1,500 I spent on a 24-inch iMac was probably the best £1,500 I ever spent. I had limited Mac experience before then so it was rather a leap of faith. We have three members of the house-hold permanently logged in, and I have a lot of apps open when I work from home, yet the performance is incredible and almost every task is instantaneous. Compare that to the same set of apps running on Windows (with no-one else logged in in the background) – I’d spend half of the day watching an hourglass spin.
Windows and Office are Microsoft’s cash-cows, they’re clearly worried about that revenue getting eaten away. What stops Mac getting really embedded into mainstream business is the price and the maturity of business applications on Windows. Home users can take the hit of £1,500 rather than £800 for a decent Wintel machine, but businesses can’t multiply that across 2,000 people… even if you do get what you pay for. I’m sitting here looking at my Macbook Pro compared to my colleague’s Windows laptop, and it’s like a Maserati compared with a *insert crappy old car of your choice here*.
Janet Smith
aha, I sitck with MAC. now Apple’s 12-core MAC Pro can order.
I’m a diehard Mac user and already own a Mac Pro, I really like it, and it of course do good jobs for me, work, entertainment, or someothers. No doubtly, MAC pro maybe a little expensive than other PC, but I think it just worth its value, I believe the professionals are professional, like ifunia, a MAC multimedia software developer, dedicated in simplifying Mac life, just do the professional conversion tool for MAC, I really like the iPad video converter from it.
loldorks
If you’re a Mac user who thinks that you can just Bootcamp into Windows and have no problems whatsoever then you’ve never tried to do anything substantial in Windows on a Mac. There are still many aspects of Mac hardware that are not standard and it simply won’t function properly in Windows under certain conditions.
Furthermore there are generic hardware products designed for use in Windows that will suffer annoying problems in Mac OS.
I’m writing this on a Mac. You guys are wrong. End of story.
kalpal
Some years ago I was persuaded to set aside my mac andstart using a PC. I have had a decade of woe. Microsoft’s biggest innovation is using obvious lies as a marketing tool.
Scott
Not to drag politics into it, but Microsuck seems to be the Republican party of the computer world. What they offer is inferior and they must trick, fool, and scare people as to why their ideas are ‘better’.
I could really care less what kind of computer you use, but after using PC’s for twenty years and then switching to Macs about three years ago, I can tell you that it’s a no brainer. But the again, both Microsuck and the Republican party depend on people with no brains
David
I love macs, but I hate Apple. The way they treat customers makes Microsoft look like the most caring company on the planet. Why do I have to upgrade a perfectly useful operating system just so I can use a new phone? Having said that, there is no way I would go back to Windows. When I buy a car I want to drive it, not spend all my time with my head under the bonnet.
Steve
“Wow, this is a horribly hypocritical article. Mac is the industry leader in misleading and confusing people. Their MAC adds were so full of BS that I could hardly stand to watch them. As if MAC’s dont’ get viruses and as if MAC’s are quality computers. MAC’s are terrible computers that tend to break down much quicker than a PC except in the case of a MAC it costs 3 times as much to fix it and it breaks down twice as much. So, if MAC really wants to put out an add that’s not “misleading” like you are claiming PC is doing, then they should put out an add that says “Hey, we aren’t really as good as PC and we really can’t hold up in the computer market, but if you have a ton of money you don’t know what to do with and want to spend a bunch for a picture of an apple, then we’re your brand.” HOUZZAH!!!!”
Wwwwwhat? I’ve used 3 different macs over the past 6, and no I’ve never had a virus. My mac has never slowed down, never needed maintenance and never given me a single headache. Nope, never broken down. In fact, I have a 5 year old macbook that still works as good as the day I bought it. Perhaps you should try a Mac and see for yourself rather than making a fool of yourself?
Steve
PCs outsell Macs 10 to 1. Great, good for PCs. It’s funny because nobody who owns a Mac cares. We just go ahead and enjoy our product and watch as the haters spend hours on forums like this trying to convince us that we’re “fanboys.” How many people do you know who’ve owned a Mac, return to PCs? I wonder why that is…
By the way, FoxNews is also the most watched news channel in the US. Does that make them the best news station?
Steve
PCs outsell Macs 10 to 1. Great, good for PCs…. nobody who owns a Mac cares, they just enjoy their Mac products and everything they offer.
By the way, Ford outsells Ferrari in the US by a ratio of 1000 to 1. Does that mean that Ford is the better vehicle? Apple haters are hilarious.
IAmTheBlurr
David said: “I love macs, but I hate Apple. The way they treat customers makes Microsoft look like the most caring company on the planet. Why do I have to upgrade a perfectly useful operating system just so I can use a new phone? Having said that, there is no way I would go back to Windows. When I buy a car I want to drive it, not spend all my time with my head under the bonnet.”
I think that’s a perfectly fair assessment of the difference between the Mac OS and the Windows OS.
For me personally, when I buy a car that’s new to me, the first thing I do is pull the engine, look for areas that improvements can be made, make them and in the end have a car that performs way better than it did new. I like to tinker and hack what I have. I can assume that you (David) probably aren’t interested in performance and neither are most Mac users and that’s fine.
If you are interested in squeezing power out of every possible corner, the Apple way isn’t for you.
Everyone, regardless of their OS flavor preferences, needs to remember that getting a virus is entirely dependent on how they use their computer. Getting a computer virus is just like getting an STD, if you choose your partners poorly, or make poor operation decisions, you’re more likely to catch something and it doesn’t matter what OS you’re running.
Machete9236
@IAmTheBlurr: Well, I think Mac users are interested in performance, just like many other computer users. What they usually aren’t as interested in is methods of absolutely maximizing performance.
IAmTheBlurr
@ Machete9236 Perhaps but if that’s the case then Mac users are only interested in performance in the way that a new Corolla owner wants the “S” model rather than the performance enthusiast getting a used M3 then doing enough mods to give it an extra 150 hp.
I think most Mac users are only concerned with it “just working” and if that’s the case, they’re going to get something relatively mediocre every time. I would absolutely love to take a hardcore Mac user along with me on the journey to build a new computer; it’s so much fun!
Zach
Wow people!!! Shut up! They’re both fine computers. If someone on here talks about how one computer is awesome and the other one sucks, they are FANBOYS! I use both. I prefer Mac, but I have to use a PC for my job. I don’t write code or care about operating systems because I’m not a loser. I use my Mac to record music and edit video. It works just fine. I use a PC for programs like Access, Canvas, and Deed Plotter and it works just fine. Lastly, every PC I’ve ever had got a virus. I’ve had a macbook pro for 5 years now and still runs like it’s brand new. I’m just saying.
Mauricio
I’ve seen comments from Mac lovers and from Windows lovers, each defending their own platform. I’m recently a Mac convert, and would never consider the possibility of returning to Win-World. I have used Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows XP and -ugh- Windows Vista. Windows IS slow, unsecure and unreliable. I can say now very confidently that Macs are way better than Windows, using my Mac Book Pro for aprox. 6 months. My experience is 18 years using Windows, 6 months using Mac.
Why would I be biased against Windows? I repeat, 18 years using Windows . . .
Jason
I’d be more impressed with this article if it showed up anywhere but a PRO MAC SITE! Of course, some of what the article says is true. But what about what the rest of the site says.
What about games? Oh, you can “boot into windows” and play them, but that defeats the “superiority” claim of the Mac platform if you must boot into the OTHER OS to play many games that are, honestly, NOT MADE IN MAC FORMAT!
If Mac is so superior, why is the majority of the WORLDS computer programing, game programing, banking, airline, and security processing done on NON MAC BASED PC’s? (granted, a lot are on Sun systems.)
Oh, and a few of the claims made on the site are NOT false. I use both systems and setting up networks, sharing files and generally doing anything but surfing the net and using Mac proprietary programs is easier on the Windows system.
Now, I’m not saying that the Windows system is perfect by any means. No, that’d just be lieing to myself. But, when it comes to viruses, most viruses are writen FOR PC, not Mac. So of course the viruses are gonna be writen to try and expliot or circumvent some of PC’s safeguards. Ask anyone who has ever writen a virus.
Since (as stated above), most of the world uses PC’s, why would a virus writer waste their time trying to hack into a system that noone of importance uses? Plus, it’s EASY to hack Mac OS cuz its built on top of a program that encourages you to hack it; LINUX. Hell, one of the selling points of Mac OS was the fact you can change the code if you knew how.
Plus (and this isn’t debatable, its just plain numbers), PC’s are cheaper than Mac’s. If all you do is watch movies, surf the net and MAYBE do some video editing, (which, out of the box, Mac’s do better than PC, but most software in that field is now built for PC and then reprogramed for Mac. Don’t believe me? Look at adobe.com and you’ll notice that the 1st price shown is for PC’s) then of course your Mac will still run hella fast. YOUR NOT DOING ANYTHING ON IT! If you buy a car and never drive it, it’ll run just as fast when you finally DO decide to drive it as when you bought it.
To close, starting the first argument with “is that every modern Mac is a PC” kinda defeats your whole argument. It also defeats your years of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials.
KC Wells
Years ago I switched to a Mac. It is laughable to suggest that there is any reason whatsoever to return to a PC.
I don’t know anyone who ever switched back to a PC.
IAmTheBlurr
@ Zach’s comment: “I don’t write code or care about operating systems because I’m not a loser.”
So you’re saying that all of the OS and software programmers who write code at Apple, and the people who wrote the code for cultofmac.com are losers?
Just being clear here, because that does seem like that’s what you’re saying; that you’re calling them all loser. Kinda sounds like something someone from the early 90′s would say in high school haha.
Zach
@IAmTheBlurr – Was I not clear? I said people who write code are losers. So whoever writes code is a loser. I went to a school with a game design program and all those kids were hermits. But like I said before, I like both computers.
IAmTheBlurr
@ Zach – Yep, just as I thought, you’re an idiot.
“Oh, I’ve seen a few people write code and they were all losers so therefore all people who write code are losers.” Wow… just wow. Great use of logic there genius.
http://www.dadams.co.uk Darren
Larry Ellison used to write code, and I think a fella named Bill Gates did too. Now they’re both billionaires. Billionaire losers, right Zach?
Elizabeth
Oh noes! I’ll just die if I can’t get a pink 10″ computer with a blu ray player! waaaah
John
I have a PowerPC Mac running OSX Leopard (I also have a Dell desktop with Windows 7). I hear people complain about how Microsoft is leaving XP behind and why that’s a reason to switch to the Mac, but I feel like I’ve been left behind with my Mac. You can’t upgrade to the new OS and most software won’t run anymore. My AirPort connection loses connection once every 20 minutes regardless of what Wifi connection I’m connected to. Video has always been choppy and I don’t know why nor has anybody been able to fix it (I’ve even re-installed the OS). I’ve had one problem after another throughout my stent with it but when I seek help I’m often told that I’m the problem which doesn’t help. Urg.