Mac vs. PC Speed: It Doesn't Matter

By Apr. 16, 2008, 11:00am PT 12 Comments

We’re about to be subjected to another extended argument in the blogosphere over the relative merits of Mac and Vista personal computers. That’s because Popular Mechanics just published the results of their “ultimate lab test,” a supposedly objective comparison of laptops and desktops including benchmarking for raw speed and perceived speed. They found the Macs to be superior on these measures, which will no doubt lead to crowing among Mac advocates and challenges from Windows users.

But you know what? If you’re a web worker looking to settle on a computing platform, this sort of speed test doesn’t matter. Certainly you should make the decision with some care, but my advice: don’t even bother reading benchmark results like these. There are much better ways to decide which way to go.To begin with, the plain fact is that either platform is almost certainly fast enough for what you need to do. If the entry-level systems that Popular Mechanics looked at are sluggish, you can spend more and get a high-end system of either flavor. True, you may have to invest thousands of “extra” dollars – but if your billing rate is reasonable, that’s money that you’ll make back.

So how should you decide? You need to look at two things: software choices and network effects.

Mac users are fond of pointing to graphics packages and video editing tools that run best on OS X, but this sort of thing cuts both ways. If you want to develop .NET software, for example, you will probably have the best results running an actual Windows box. Yes, you could run that instance of Windows on the Mac using Boot Camp or virtualization, but most users are more efficient when they’re not switching between different operating systems frequently. If my focus was still on Windows software development, I’d work on my Windows box, not on a Mac that also runs Windows.

In most cases, though, whatever software you need can be found on either platform. In that case, look at network effects: not the computer network, but your personal network. What platform are your clients using? What platform are your peers using? While you can be a Mac in a PC world – or a PC in a Mac world – eliminating friction will normally make you a better web worker. If you’re constantly having niggling issues around things like the format of shared files and how to schedule appointments, then you’re on the wrong platform.

To some extent, of course, working on the web insulates us from these issues. If your work is 100% in the browser, then you can usually just pick the computer that appeals to you personally based on style or prejudices (unless your work involves something like developing sites that run best on Internet Explorer). But most of us aren’t yet in that happy state: if your work hasn’t moved entirely to the cloud, it’s still worth thinking about how to best fit in with your customers.

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