Mac vs PC? Meh. We’ve grown up.

Social Meteor by Troy Janisch

Designers and video editors used to ‘need’ Mac computers to get the job done. Now, they’re getting the job done equally well on both platforms.

Macs have been the preferred tool of visual designers and video editors for decades. They’ve also been an outcast of PC-centric corporate networks. Over the years, an epic battle raged between network administrators and corporate creative groups over which machines were best for the company.

The choice is often left up to a company’s marketing leader, like myself, who needs to balance competing points of view. As a lifelong Mac enthusiast, I’ve always erred on the side of Macs. In recent years, however, the benefits of Mac-centric design and video editing have diminished. Print-ready PDFs have become the standard format for file delivery. Adobe InDesign conquered QuarkXPress. Adobe Premiere trumped Final Cut Pro. PC processors, hardware and operating systems are capable of meeting — sometimes surpassing — the performance of their OsX-based equivalents.

After taking the time to vet differences among more than 50 print designers (Macs staunchest defenders), its become clear to me that Macs in the workplace are no longer the result of business need. They’re the result of personal preference. Using a LinkedIn poll and several LinkedIn design-oriented discussion groups, I asked designers to reconsider the ‘Mac vs PC’ debate. Although most designers still prefer a Mac, few said they ‘require’ one to complete their job. A growing number of designers are platform agnostic or prefer working on a PC. read more...