Mac Versus Pc In A Graphics Environment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Table of Contents

Abstract

Computers have become a massive importance to our lives from helping us do our work to personal use. It is necessary to have one at work, school, in the library even at restaurants. For the past decade two different types of computer users have been battling it out to be the king in the graphics world, when their machines were both made for two entirely different reasons. Why do PC users insist that their computer is the absolute best for a graphical environment even though the MAC was entirely designed around the GUI when the PC was made for the business purposes in a business environment and in a home environment for personal use?

Introduction

This report will be inputting the main reasons and solution to the cause of the MAC vs PC debate that has been going on for over a decade. The reason for this is that this debate about which computer is better has been going on for over a decade now and the argument is always the same, the PC can do everything the MAC does, the MAC doesn’t freeze or the PC can be upgraded and repaired yet the MAC has to be replaced if it breaks.

All these points are the top arguments each side brings into any debate between the two computers. The whole point of this report is to establish the reasons being to how the argument had started and moved onto the graphics environment and how the solution can be dealt with to finally put the end to the endless debate. There have been many answers to this debate already presented but not many of them really give a valid reason as to why that specific computer has won the overall battle. The aim of this is to go beyond the in-depth argument and get some real professional criticism from everyday graphic designers from both sides of the argument.

The main problem with this debate is that the argument has been going on for over a decade now and still to this date the same argumentative points are being thrown at each other. There are no new hard facts being used to achieve the upper hand. No real evidence of why the specific computer modal is the best approach in a graphics environment. Most arguments brought forward are from users that use their PC or MAC for personal use or rarely use them for any graphical design. From the recent research gathered there have not been much valid professional arguments involved it has been mainly from personal use.

Also from the research gathered there have been a lot of points made on hardware to support their argument. These are valid points but they are very repetitive. Yes the argument is that if you have better hardware there is a better result but what about the software involved? Very rarely there has been a strong point on the software side of the argument, it has always been the hardware that was the key point or most thought about point to use in the battle between the MAC and PC.

The report will target mainly the users that are interested in graphic design or web design. This can also give them an overall idea of how each computer works in both environments and which one will suit them for the purpose. Graphic designers and web developers would be most interested in the points made in this report as it will consist of many pros and cons to why each computer is suitable for the job and what each of the flaws are of the MAC and PC when involved in the graphical environment compared to other environments. This will help resolve the issue to choosing between the MAC and PC for a graphic related job.

The research gathered will help determine from a professional side and average daily user side to which is the preferred computer to use. This form of research will involve surveying company employees for their opinions on the debate and why they think their choice is the best. The use of this research will help bring out new ideas and new points into the argument to help conclude the everlasting battle between the two computer users.

Proposal

It all started in the year of 1979 when an apple employee called jef raskin wanted to make a user friendly version of the current business PC, but at a much lower cost than the current models. The project was given the go ahead in September 1979. He was collected a few people and started up a team consisting of Chris Espinosa, Joanna Hofman, George Crow, Jerry Manock, Susan Kare, and Andy Hertzfeld (kelby 2004).

After years and years of extensive designing and marketing the first Macintosh was released to the public at a retail price of $2,495.00 in January 1984, it was the cheapest computer going at the time for personal use. Just to show off their newly developed GUI they threw in a two programs that would show off their newly designed interface. These two programs were called Macwrite and Macprint.

The computer museum states that the first PC was designed in 1971, before microprocessors were invented; the Kenbak-1 had 256 bytes of memory and featured small and medium scale integrated circuits on a single circuit board. This was created much earlier than the MAC but was never really intended for personal use. These types of computers were mainly used for businesses and people that could afford the hefty $50,000 charge for a computer the size of the average refrigerator. These PC’s were used by research labs or used for projects by businesses.

The first generation of microcomputers started to appear in the early 1970s were less powerful and in some ways less versatile than business computers at the time but on the other hand a lot more versatile in the sense that they involved better graphics and built in sound. They were generally used by computer enthusiasts for learning to program and for running simple office/productivity applications. Also for electronics interfacing, and games, as well as for accessing BBS's, general online services such as CompuServe for example.

For over a decade or since the 1980s to be more specific a few years after the MAC was introduced and the personal computer was established for personal use in homes the MAC versus PC debate has been raging on and on with both sides at each other’s neck about the argument bringing up valid points about why their computer is the best overall. There has been very little debate on why businesses prefer the MAC to PC when situated in a graphical design environment. According to Kelby he states that "Because the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode and command-driven programs had to be redesigned and rewritten." This is saying that the MAC was initially designed to show off its ability of presenting a user friendly new age GUI rather than focusing on the way the computer will be used like typing out documents and performing simple tasks, were as the pc was hitting off the business side of the computer world by presenting its ability to process word documents and do simple tasks that the MAC couldn’t do as well at the time.

Literature review

Due to the decade long debate between MAC and PC there has been an astonishing amount of research and essays explaining why either the MAC or PC is better but not really any explain to a full extent of why they think that their chosen computer meets the criteria to be crowned the best. The current state of the research shows points in hardware and software situations but rarely is there any research showing the best possible solutions for a graphical environment or any environment in the matter for example a web design firm or a law business, they all seem to be based on personal use.

Over the past few years there has been a massive improvement in software and hardware advancements and new upgraded computers have been introduced with state of the art technology like never before. This means that there are new points to uncover to which party best fits the suited environment. The aim is to find these new points and use them in this situation.

The main gap in the research is once again which computer best suits the graphical environment but in the more up to date time as this subject has been briefly explained but never taken to its full extent. The way that this can be achieved is to introduce surveys to employees and professionals in this working environment that have had experience with both circumstances and used both the PC and MAC. All other articles and essays on this subject are now useless or out of date as with the increase in technology and way each company has developed ideas for their operating systems it appears that both systems are very close to each other in design, software and hardware specifications.

Most essays theoretically could be written by die-hard fans of either competitive side. The aim of this is to review the research gathered and achieve a professional opinion on the topic from a selection of different type of users and see what the outcome of the argument is. The types of users will consist of die-hard fans, practical users and professional job based users. The reason for this is to see what are or if there different views and relevant points made from each side of the argument.

Essay

Kevin jacoby - freshman

Kevin Jacoby wrote a very brief MAC vs PC essay on the "never seems to end" debate. This online essay highlights quite a few good points like "The truth is, PCs are far more popular, and for good reasons. Yet the Mac system is actually the more durable and useful of the two." Saying this he brings very little factual evidence or referenced logical research to how the debate could be settled or argues points over to why the specific computer has a hierarchy in a certain area.

This essay focuses mainly on the software and hardware issues between the two rival computers which is the most common points made by each die-hard fan that still to this date does not help truly argue why their option is the best for a graphical environment. This especially applies to the subject of software between the MAC and PC as time has developed there has been a drastic comparison in availability of software available.

Now days software is made available for both MAC and PC but at the end of the day the debate stands that the software was originally developed for the MAC which means arguably it should be a lot better to run on an MAC than PC due to the programs being compatible for the MAC specifications and ability to render at high speeds. Ways that this could be taken a lot further and be approached in a more productive and logical way is to use a range of primary and secondary research like conducting surveys or implementing hard facts and citing quotes made by professionals to help back up points made in this essay.

One of the only ways this essay really relates to the topic of this discussion is the debate between MAC and PC. The subject is very broad and could be approached in many different ways leading on to other aspects of the MAC vs PC debate this does not keep on a specific subject like which one would best suit a graphical environment or which would best suit a business environment. Overall there are very few points that could relate to this discussion but the points made are high valued points none the less.

Methodology

As stated many times before the problem here is that many of the arguments that come into factor are taken from die-hard fans of either the MAC or PC, thus giving inconclusive results due to the data not being trustworthy over favouritism of a specific brand or model. Also the problems that arise are not all users have used both products one may favour the PC as it is the only computer system they have used. The same goes for the MAC users. If for instance the user has experience with both products then there is the chance he / she has not used the computer to its full potential and therefore favours one over the other.

Conducting a fair and trustworthy research results is the key role in this dissertation as without a trustworthy source of information the whole dissertation becomes invalid due to the inconclusive results gathered. To ensure that this is not the case each subject will be selected after thorough investigation into what computer they use and why they use their selected choice. After comparison of the chosen subjects a test using both the MAC and PC will be conducted to see whether the subject’s choice has changed since the beginning of the test.

Firstly the twenty selected subjects will be requested to answer a thorough survey to help understand their knowledge of each computer and which one they prefer and why. The reason behind this sort of survey is to distinguish the PC lovers from the MAC lovers and distinguish the die-hards from the everyday regular users. After the testing they will then be asked to answer a second survey to determine if their choices had changed, if so then why.

Getting other subjects personal opinions gives me a broad idea of which computer would win the debate. To enhance this test personal opinions would be needed as well so not only will the test subjects being approaching this topic with a choice of their own as will I. To ensure this dissertation is concluded with a professional and fair opinion the test will also be approached by myself to make a final conclusion without hypocritical results.

Why not have die-hard fans too? The reason for this is that die-hard fans will always choose their favourite brand of computer be it MAC or PC whether deep down they prefer the other one after intensive testing, thus resulting in inconclusive and false results making this dissertation lead right back into the argument with invalid arguments.

Results and findings

The debate

Most readers will roll their eyes at seeing another article about the MAC versus PC debate. Until this date there has not been a thorough in-depth or professional approach to look at why there is such a debate between these two brands.

Nearly all debates are prominently associated with the hardware and software of the MAC and PC in a personal environment. This debate is associating the same specifications in a way but in a graphical environment for example making logos, websites or global architecture. The aim is to not just get an everyday user opinion but get professional views from employees that use the specific computer for its intended use.

History of the computer

According to the computer history museum the first recorded "computer" was the Hewlett-Packard. This was the HP 200A Audio Oscillator founded by David Packard and Bill Hewlett in 1939. Walt Disney had noticed this piece of equipment and ordered 8 of these to create sound effects for a film called fantasia released in 1940.

Both computers were originally set out to be used for personal use and use with businesses. Over the years many companies has kept this tradition and continued to make affordable PCs that an everyday user can buy.

On the other hand Apple has always created their own products and operating systems so everything is MAC specific. Apple has steered away from personal use over the years to create computers that are specific to business and design. These specifications include a dramatic increase in screen quality and resolution and also hard drive capacity. The one aspect apple have always kept alive is to dominate the GUI interface in the computer world. Ever since the beginning of creating their computers their main goal was to make a GUI that would destroy the competition. Still to this date the MAC does that including their new products like the ipad, iphone and ipod touch.

Origin of the window and GUI system

Here is a little history on how the origin of the GUI was established and presented on a window in its early years.

A window is a rectangular portion of the display on a computer monitor that presents its contents (e.g., the contents of a directory, a text file or an image) seemingly independently of the rest of the screen. Windows are one of the elements that comprise a graphical user interface (GUI).

Windows were originally developed by a man called Douglas Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as part of his invention of the computer mouse in which his first prototype was created in 1964 for the use with a GUI contained on a window.

Microsoft was the first to announce the current development of a GUI personal computer in 1983. The Macintosh was the first personal computer to actually be commercially released with a fully working GUI a year later after the announcement by Microsoft. Thanks to the visit of Steve jobs in 1979 the GUI was created in which he was highly impressed by the numerous (about 150) Altos in use there. In addition to overlapping windows, the Macintosh's GUI also featured icons, pull-down menus and a mouse. Unfortunately Microsoft had only just developed these capabilities two operating systems later.

These two versions of the GUI was not the only ones to hit the scene another GUI system called the X Window System, was developed in the early 1980s at MIT as Project Athena. Its sole purpose was to allow users of the newly forming graphic terminals to access remote graphics workstations without regard to the workstation's operating system or hardware. With the huge success to its performance and open source nature, the X Window System has become the standard windowing system for virtually all Unix-like operating systems in today’s market.

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows started as a vision at first. Then In 1983 Windows was announced by Microsoft's founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen. At that time, it was going to be called Interface Manager until one of Microsoft’s experts persuaded bill gates to consider the name of Microsoft Windows because the Windows name triumphed since it suitably described the windows or boxes needed to view the new operating system.

On November, 1985, Microsoft introduced Windows 1.0. Before Windows was unveiled, users had to type MS-DOS commands. With the introduction of Windows 1.0, users could use a mouse to click through windows or screens. With the introduction of Windows 1.0 it also included the use of scroll bars, drop-down menus, dialog boxes, and icons, which were very user friendly compared to the earlier MS-DOS platform. Users were also able to switch between multiple programs without quitting and restarting each program the wanted to use.

Hardware

Hardware development and research has increased massively over the past decades screens have increased in resolution size, monitors can go from a small 4inch screen to anything larger than a 60 inch screen depending on whether the computer is connected to an external monitor like a TV or projector. Capacity or hard drives and internal memory have sky rocketed from 512 MB to more than 3TB worth of data being allocated to the everyday user. Graphics and sound cards have dramatically increased from a green screen to full HD colour at 1080p or even retina display recently released by apple. This helps enhance the viewing and sound experience of using a computer.

Hardware can be brought from any tech shop or online store nowadays. These include in the UK shops like PC World and Currys and local small tech shops. Online hardware can be found anywhere like on Ebay or Amazon sold at cheaper discounted prices.

Monitor

PC monitors have advanced massively over the decades running from the original Video Display Terminal (VDT) monitors all the way up to the MAC issued retina display monitors we see today in the new IMAC and MacBook pro. The colour aspect of monitors has gone from a 2 colour VDT to a dramatically increased monitor containing millions of different colours we see today.

Early days

The early days of computing started with the video display terminal monitor where a keyboard would have been attached to a very large computer by a serial connection. Due to this sort of connection the VDT was revered to as "dumb terminals". The only colours these screens could produce for text was either black or green. This had no use in the graphics world as everything was only black and green GUI was not even introduced in this time period.

IBMs CRT

The graphics world was slowly starting to take shape with computers with the introduction of the CRT monitors usually used for TV’s. The first PC created using IBM CRT was named the "three piece computer" this was due to the fact it was the first PC that had the monitor, CPU and keyboard separately.

Two colour adapters were introduced by IBM the Colour Graphics Adapter (CGA) and the Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA). The CGA allocated four colors with a resolution of 320 x 200. After this they went a step further and enhanced the technology with the EGA which allowed 16 colours at a resolution of 640 x 350. This was at the time still a useless monitor for computer aided graphic designs. But as technology increased so did the range of colours allowed on PC monitors.

VGA

Just 3 years later IBM had introduced the video graphics array as an introduction to their new PS/2 computer systems. After the introduction of these new VGA adapters these became a standard issue to any new PCs introduced to the market. The introduction of the VGA meant that new computers could increase their colour aspect ratio to a value of 256 colours and a resolution of 640 x 480. Because of the increased colour palette graphic design on a PC was now possible with the integration of the GUI.

XGA / UXGA

By 1990 display capability took an astonishing leap into the future with the use of the Enhanced Graphics Array XGA with the introduced term "true colour" equivalent to human sight. The average human can see 10 million different colours and the XGA brings out 16.8 million colours. Current computers to these dates that use monitors like CRTs and LCD are using Ultra Enhanced Graphics Array or UXGA which displays on monitors with a resolution of 1600 x 1200, normally used on monitors ranging from 21+ inch screens.

LCD

During the domination of the CRT monitors liquid crystal displays or LCD monitors were being tested and used on smaller devices like calculators. By 1980 the LCD had nearly caught up with the CRT in the computer industry. LCDs had started to drop in price while the size of the monitors increased from 21 inches and higher. By 1997 LCD monitors had started to compete with their rival CRT monitors. In the graphics world LCD would have been the choice due to the size of the monitors the larger they got the better they got for designing products in more detail.

Motherboard

A motherboard in todays’ term is the brain of the computer which is a complex printed circuit board (PCB), which is the central part of most electronic systems, especially computers. They are rarely known as mainboard, system board, or if you’re an apple user it’s a logic board (Apple Computers). It is a flat platform that offers electrical connections through which other components of a computer communicate, and also houses the central processing unit (CPU) now seen in today models.

History of the motherboard

Before the invention of microprocessors, computers were built into the mainframes with components that were connected by a backplane that had a mass number of slots for connecting the wires. In the old designs the wires were needed to connect card connector pins until the PCB was introduced.

It wasn’t until the late 1990’s – 2000 that ATI Technologies Inc. announced the implementation of 3D graphic card technology which was a huge advancement in computer graphics. This gave the opportunity for graphic designers to enhance their skills on computers thus making better looking websites and graphic designs on computers.

The beauty of today’s motherboards is that they now come with expansion card slots and many come with a CPU directly welded to the motherboard. With new technology comes logic and connectors that support input devices via USB or 4+ pin connectors depending on the accessory Instead of having different power adapters the motherboard comes with power connectors that use the electricity from a computer power supply to run the expansion cards, memory, CPU, and chipset. The Integrated sound card can be replaced with new and upgraded versions. A clock generator is a vital component that sets the system clock signal to help sync itself to a variety of components .Some of the main features are that there are non-volatile memory chips that contain BIOS or firmware of the system.

Graphics card

The first form of the graphics cards we use today was first implemented in 1940s by the military of the United States. They used it in SAGE computer systems that were used as a flight simulator. Although during this time computers could only display 256 colours in any graphic. Computer graphics was primarily used in desktop publishing software for creating images and advertisements especially during the war.

After the first personal computer the graphic cards began to start moving ahead as serious researchers had started to produce programs via C++ and also a developed by adobe called postscript were animation became a big hit for the future.

The introduction of Microsoft Windows in early 1990s sparked a mass interest in high resolution and high speed 2D bitmap graphics. The high rise in the PC market allowed the developers to focus on a single programming interface known as Graphics Device Interface (GDI). GDI is the traditional programming interface (API) for output in Windows. When an application needs to display or print the page or specific part of the page, it makes a call to a GDI function and then it sends it the parameters for the object to be created. A similar explanation is it basically draws the image onto the screen and makes it available for printing. This was soon advanced with the introduction of windows XP including the improved version of GDI called GDI+.

After this and the advancement of research the AGP Accelerated Graphics Port technology was introduced resulting in a faster transfer of graphical data. With the technology today multiple graphics cards are able to be used for processing.

3D graphics was introduced in the late 1990’s thanks to the DirectX API (application programming interface) and with the similar functionality in Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), GPUs (Graphic processing units) had started to add programmable shading to their capabilities.

With these advancements graphic design reached a new level of 3D modelling posters and images could be created in a 3D model basis with shadowing effects. This would be just the beginning for the graphic design world.

Software

Microsoft Windows 95 emerged in August, 1995 to include built-in Internet support and dial-up networking. It also included its own email client known as Microsoft Outlook. By then, those who wished to upgrade their Microsoft Windows applications could do so only through both floppy disks and CD-ROMs. Including the new internet capabilities, Windows 95 also offered multimedia functions, mobile computing features, and integrated networking features.

With the introduction of new software and operating systems users now have no reason to use command prompt like they were issued to be used in the early days of computing. After the introduction to the GUI interfaces we see today everything is done in the background due to the very capable functionalities of the new GUI introduced over the years.

Internet explorer

Internet explorer codenamed "O’Hare" is Microsoft first World Wide Web browser that became an add-on feature to Windows 95 codenamed "Chicago" Microsoft released its first version of Internet Explorer 1.0 in 1995. Microsoft had made great advancement over the next year with version 2.0. This was Microsoft’s first cross-platform browser, available to both Macintosh and 32-bit Windows users. Version 2 of internet explorer was introduced to support a wide variety of emerging Internet technologies, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), HTTP cookies, RealAudio, Virtual Reality Modeling Language ("VRML"), and support for Internet newsgroups (NNTP).

By the time version 3.0 had hit internet explorer was the leading internet browser ahead of their competitors Netscape. Reason being for this is that Netscape were charging their customers $50 just for the web browser yet Microsoft were handing their internet explorer product in a bundle package for free. So popularity had hit internet explorer and not just for their free product. Version 3.0 had included many features and internet standards that other browsers had yet to reach for instance the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) had made a huge impact on the way web browsers looked like. There was also the introduction of internet mail and news 1.0.

With the development and introduction to these new internet standards web design skyrocketed with the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets the web had changed like never before putting the GUI to use on the internet. Web designers could now create visually appealing websites with colourful backgrounds and animated images etc. in the graphical environment of the computer world this was a huge step in the development of graphics and websites with windows PC’s.

Microsoft research into graphic enhancements

Microsoft research located on www.research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/graphics/ explains the exploration of 2D and 3D graphics algorithms and representations for rendering, geometric modelling, and animation.

Computer graphics creation is a memory hungry process depending on the software and complexity of the creations. Adapting to the right graphics card and hardware can help eliminate the processing time and enable real-time rendering.

Microsoft have started researching ways to improve real-time rendering by introducing improvements to real time soft global illumination, texture synthesis, 3D surface acquisition and reconstruction, understanding polynomials and more.

Thankfully specialised graphics hardware is becoming more powerful by the year and new software programs are making the impossible become possible in todays’ computing world. Multi-core computers with many processors are also developing like the new iMac with 12-core processing where geek bench browser ( http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks ) gave the MAC pro a score rating of 25279 in the 64 –bit benchmark table resulting in first place.

According to Microsoft research the mainstream approach to graphic hardware processing is the use of "algorithms that perform computation only over a small, local working set, stream data from input to output, and amplify data as it moves through memory hierarchy levels successively closer to the computational units." This is seen as the main logical way to approach the graphic representation. Microsoft research have taken a different approach by exploring into new graphics representations and algorithms that can take full advantage of existing and upcoming hardware features to enhance the quality of real-time computer graphics to compete with today’s market.

The only issue with these developments is whether the latest MAC range would be able to cope with the new technologies being implemented. As with the windows pc all that really needs to be done is and installation of new hardware like RAM, CPU and a if needed a new graphics card. With the MAC this is not a change that is made easy as you can’t replace hardware with new ones easily without buying a new or the latest model.

Apple MAC

The Apple Company was first started in Cupertino, California, on April 1, 1976. It was co-founded or started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wosniak, and Ronald Wayne. Since then apple has been a visionary making the best looking computers on the market and the best looking GUI featured operating systems to date. The only recent competition they have received with their operating system design is with the new windows 8.

Hardware

The hardware for MAC’s is only made by apple as they make their own operating system and their own products. By doing this they know where the faults are and what products work with the models. Apple played this card very well due to the only hardware installed with MAC’s are that of the hardware they have made themselves resulting in easy answers for their commonly asked questions due to each model has a minor specification change depending whether it is a stock model or custom built MAC.

Monitor

The apple monitors have ranged from the standard edition CRT all the way up to the latest retina display only shown on the latest versions of MACs. The first standalone model monitor was the apple colour RGB made in 1986. This was the first monitor to make the 3 part computer we see today. This monitor is where it all started. The screen resolution was 640 x 480 with the introduction of RGB colour standards.

Just under a decade later the Apple AudioVision 14 with Trinitron display which is a aperture grille instead of a shadow mask for creating the image on the screen. The rights to the Trinitron display were taken over by Sony.

The first apple studio LCD display was introduced in 1998 which was established for the macintoshes at the time. This was the first step by apple into better technology with monitors.

Just a year later the CRT version of the studio display was introduced to the market to accompany the "blueberry" version of the MACs.

As the new millennium hit so did the final CRT model released by apple. This would soon be replaced by the remarkable advancement of the apple studio 22" monitor display. By 2004 the monitor displays have increased to as large as a 30" monitor display. Then by 2008 just four years later the newest LED cinema display was released with 24"display.

From 2008 to this current day the monitor has rapidly increased due to mass advancements in technological research. Apple have recently introduced the Retina display monitors that are apparently meant to be the closest monitors that represent resolution and detail equivalent to the human eye as defined by the "retina" display.

Motherboard (Logic board)

Apple call their motherboards logic boards as it is the area where all the logical processes occur with the RAM, CPU and more. The reason for this term is that it is a branded-term that has stuck with apple since the beginning. They are both the same things essentially just the term is different. All logic boards are very similar to those of the general PC apart from the fact that with PC’s you can change everything on the motherboard as with the MAC you can’t due to the sophisticated casing not allowing the user access into the hardware.

Graphics card

iMac

The standard issue graphics card in the 21.5 inch iMac is the NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M with 512MB which is acceptable for standard Photoshop rendering and 3D modelling. There are only three different graphics cards you can get with the 21.5 inch and 27 inch models these range from the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1GB GDDR5 to the one with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5 which makes it a bit faster.

MacBook Pro / Air

With these forms of apple mac laptops you can’t choose which graphics card you want the only specifications available are the Intel HD Graphics 4000" and "NVidia GeForce GT 650M.

Accessories

With the introductions of the iPhone, iPod and iPad / mini it has never been easier for graphic designers to take their work on the go with the use of iCloud. The introduction of the iPad means that the user can design websites and write HTML coding on the go depending if they have the WIFI version or the 3G version.

Software

In 1985 after being forced out of the company he co-founded, Steve Jobs launched his own called NeXT. This was a hardware and software company, partly funded by the future presidential candidate, Ross Perot. The hardware part didn’t end particularly well, so the company ultimately focused its effort on the software side of things, they then developed a programming standard called OpenStep.

Pc mag defines OpenStep to be "An object-oriented development environment from Apple, which runs on Windows, Sun and HP machines. OpenStep was originally developed by NeXT Computer as part of its NextStep operating system. OpenStep was incorporated into Rhapsody and later Mac OS X as the Yellow Box programming interface (Cocoa)".

After making OS 9 obsolete, the completely new operating system made from the baseline of OpenStep OS X was introduced with its many different little design touches that have redefined what people expect from a personal computer today, and which complement Apple hardware.

The beauty of their operating system is that you have to have a MAC to install the operating system legally. You would need a hackintosh to be able to install the system on a computer other than a MAC but this is considered unlawful.

Safari

Safari is a web browser that was created by apple to be in competition with windows internet explorer since 2003. It then became available for windows systems from the 2007 making the competition heat up more as it switched over to windows.

Originally Netscape navigator and Internet Explorer were used on Macintosh computers. But after Apple had finally created their own web browser called Safari 1.0 that was included in the operating system as an optional browser due to laws and regulations with Microsoft over having Internet Explorer as the default browser. Eventually 2005 the safari browser was named the exclusive web browser for the Macintosh.

Two years later Apple had made their own safari that was compatible with the windows platforms. After a number of tests it was concluded that safari was a faster browser than Internet Explorer but loaded the cache memory at the same time.

With the noted features it seems that Safari was the first browser to have private browsing which will browse without personal information and browsing history being recorded. According to Apple's web site, the Safari browser is the world's fastest web-browser and the first to use HTML 5 audio and video, which allows developers to integrate audio and video directly into traditional HTML formatting, reducing development time and load time while improving on usability. The implementation of HTML5 gave the Safari users and developers a chance to experience the potential HTML5 has to offer for many developers.

The design of the Safari browser is to focus the users’ attention on the web page and not any clutter going on around the page like toolbars. There is a one pixel wide frame going around the whole web browser and the "status bar" does not appear on the bottom unless it is needed. The browser doesn’t really use a status bar it is more of a gear design within the browser to show progress when it is intended to.

After the huge release of the Apple iPhone internet browsing via mobile had taken a huge step. Now Safari had adapted to a mobile version but still being able to display mobile web pages identical to those displayed on a full size desktop computer, without sacrificing the usability of the web page itself. Safari had done what no other mobile browser could. Many other mobile web browsers tried to capture web pages in the same format but resulted in limited viewing of pages and incorrect layout and formatting and more.

Operating systems: MAC or PC?

Choosing between an operating system can be daunting if you are more comfortable with a specific operating system. For example the PC or Windows user may have no idea how to use a MAC and when faced with the challenge are confused to as why some of their functions they try to use do not work on the MAC or work differently for example pressing enter to open a file on a MAC initially makes you rename a file instead of opening like it would on a PC. This evidence comes from the test subjects mentioned earlier from the findings gathered by the surveys and personal monitoring.

There are quite a few differences between the two operating systems as an example we will be talking about windows 7 and MAC OS X Lion as they are visually most similar in comparison. Late on we can compare windows 8 and the iPad similarities and differences as windows 8 is very similar in the fact it is supposed to be used with touchscreen monitors.

Many of these differences are hardware based differences but what people need to remember the operating system is controlled by the hardware without the hardware the operating system can’t be used to its full potential.

Firstly there is the CMD key on the MAC keyboard that imitates the ctrl key on the windows keyboard they both initially do the same thing like ctrl / cmd + c to copy a highlighted object or text just the ctrl key is also on the MAC but it has a different use compared to the PC version.

Secondly when a file or folder is highlighted in the MAC’s Finder, hitting the Enter key lets you edit the name of the file or folder, similar to hitting the F2 key on Windows Explorer. A single click on the file/folder with the mouse will also enable the user to edit the name instead of opening the item. Instead of doing this you would use the CMD – O to open the file/folder, or double-click the item with mouse.

Graphic design programs: MAC or PC?

The future

Conclusion

Reference

What Was The First PC? - CHM Revolution

Designed in 1971, before microprocessors were invented, the Kenbak-1 had 256 bytes of memory and featured small and medium scale integrated circuits on a single circuit board.

http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/personal-computers/17/297

PC VERSUS MAC

Because the machine was entirely designed around the GUI, existing text-mode and command-driven programs had to be redesigned and rewritten.

Kelby, Scott (2002), Macintosh... The Naked Truth, New Riders Press

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~viettran/history.htm

GUI windows: definition, advantages, origin and future.

A window is a (usually) rectangular portion of the display on a computer monitor that presents its contents (e.g., the contents of a directory, a text file or an image) seemingly independently of the rest of the screen. Windows are one of the elements that comprise a graphical user interface (GUI).

http://www.linfo.org/window.html

Graphics - Microsoft Research

algorithms that perform computation only over a small, local working set, stream data from input to output, and amplify data as it moves through memory hierarchy levels successively closer to the computational units.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/graphics/

OpenStep Definition from PC Magazine Encyclopedia

An object-oriented development environment from Apple, which runs on Windows, Sun and HP machines. OpenStep was originally developed by NeXT Computer as part of its NextStep operating system. OpenStep was incorporated into Rhapsody and later Mac OS X as the Yellow Box programming interface (Cocoa)

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/48499/openstep

Bibliography

http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?year=1939