Mac vs Windows

Mac Hardware Costs Too Much for What You Get

Many feel the cost of a Mac is too high for what you get, but 

others justify the heftier price tag by citing top-tier support, higher quality hardware, and the benefits of the Apple ecosystem. Whether or not you feel those points are accurate, Mac hardwaredoes come with a number of limitations when it comes to specifications. If you want a machine you can upgrade beyond the drive, RAM, or sometimes anything at all, it'll cost you $2,499 for a Mac Pro. Reader (and systems administrator) Stego summarizes this problem nicely:

The kicker with Mac, however, is that only a limited selection of hardware is officially sanctioned, and they're no longer the powerhouse machines of yore; few include dedicated GPUs, and those that do cost thousands of dollars (in other words, you can forget about a good gaming experience).

If you want a cheaper Mac made by Apple, you're stuck with a computer you can't do much to upgrade and likely won't be able to use for gaming purposes. You can, of course, build a hackintosh to work around this problem. You can still use OS X, get more powerful hardware, and pay a lot less. That said, as Stego notes, the hardware isn't officially sanctioned by Apple meaning you handle the repairs and compatibility could break at any point.

Windows Has More Software

As reader Chris Vician mentions, Windows has "[t]ons of software. Just tons of it." If app stores offer any indication, he's right. The Windows Store already has over 50,000 apps despite its youth whereas the Mac App Store had a little under 14,000 at the end of its second year. Of course, the Windows Store is also a store for tablet apps, so those numbers may not be a perfect measurement. Mac users could also make a quality-over-quantity argument, but that's largely a matter of personal opinion. From our standpoint, as bloggers who sift through many downloads on each platforms, you'll find plenty of crappy downloads regardless of your platform. While what software you love and use may matter the most when choosing a platform, Windows unquestionably offers more options, at least when it comes to bigger apps like music players, video players, IM clients, and other things of that nature.

Of course, both Windows and OS X have their own standout apps that aren't available on the other.

Both Platforms Work Well for Designers

Back in the 80s and 90s, Macs had a legitimate reputation as the first choice for designers because the selection of design applications was superior to what you could get on Windows PCs. Nowadays you often see Macs in design firms likely due to their aesthetic or just out of habit. Both Windows and OS X feature plenty of great design apps, and high file compatibility between both platforms. As a result, you'll find more people who prefer designing on Windows despite the stereotype. Reader Scruffy Kitty prefers Windows for design due to its speed, device compatibility, and better multi-monitor support:

[I'm a p]rofessional graphic designer who weirdly prefers Windows. I often find with my Mac that I use at work slow and not fantastic at multitasking. It is an iMac, fairly new, and it chugs through things my similarly priced laptop (currently running Windows 8) does with ease. I had to buy a $30 adapter so I could use my Cintiq with my iMac at work, and god help me if I wanted to switch between the screens with iMac one running Photoshop and the Cintiq running Illustrator without having to wait an endless amount of time for it to stop stalling. I've lost a lot of time at work waiting for my computer to start working and have learned that if I'm going to work on any hi-res art I should just bring my laptop in and transfer the files over when I'm done.

Many designers still prefer Apple hardware and OS X for their workflow. Because Macs are stereotypically seen more as the choice for artists (regardless of whether or not that's actually accurate), software companies often target Macs for design-related tools. Additionally, OS X offers excellent font management out of the box and other built-in tools like Preview for quick conversion and other tasks. Both platforms have their pros and cons, but when it comes to the design argument you won't find a clear winner on either side. Like with most things, personal preference will dictate your choice here.