CreepingNet's World

PC vs. MAC vs. LINUX
Explaining The Lexicon of using a Computer to the Masses (again)

When I was a kid in the 1980's, if you had some form of "Digital Device" these days, it was going to be a "Computer" - basically a large, beige fixture that sat on your desktop, and most likely ran very "important" and "Expensive" software for super-important purposes. If you were a kid, it was a real privledge to play games on one, and as an adult, you most likely were as terrified of it as most of us are of A.I. right now (well, not me, I'm cynical of it's overstated importance having lived through the PC age and all, but that's another article).

Today, "digital devices" can refer to anything from a number of things including your computer/laptop, your cell phone, a tablet, any one of the IoT (Internet of Things) Devices that include cars, refridgerators, or your TV even. I'm not here (mostly) to talk about anything, but the COMPUTER. Because a proper Computer is still the best way to do most of the "heavy lifting". I'm also vehemently against SaaS (Software as a Service) and the closed-architecture of most modern commercial devices (I'm looking at you Apple and Android).

Let's start with the basics, what is a "Computer" versus a "Smartphone" vs. a "Tablet"....

NAME PICTURE	DESCRIPTION
COMPUTER	A computer is a large device that usually runs Microsoft Windows or Mac OS (or Linux if you're someone like me ;) and is intended for heavy duty data processing, creation, and heavy use beyond what would be convenient with your phone. People say you can do "everything" with your phone, and in a way, that is "somewhat" true, but for the sake of simplicity, it is not. You wouldn't process a 3050 row Spreadsheet on your cell phone, right? You wouldn't write a 5 page college thesis in Google Docs on your iPad? Kapis? You would not play a fully 3D realistically rendered First Person Shooter on a device whose only contol is a godforsaken touchscreen - got it? So THAT is what a computer is for. They range from the humble ultra-portable laptop which has outshined the larger, and generally a little more powerful DESKTOP computer. I'm writing this on a desktop PC right now, and backing up a movie collection, and running a Windows 7 virutal machine for patch editing on a guitar processor right now. You can't do that conveniently, quickly, quietly, or easily, on a Android phone.
SMARTPHONE	The Smartphone became ubiqutous when Apple created the first "Affordable" (But still blood-curdling expensive) iPhone back in the 2000's. AFter that, because of it's lineage to the mp3 player, the iPod (the original on-the-go device), everyone slowly started to gravitate to using their phone for f***ing EVERYTHING. Apps, games, productivity, but let's face it, phones did not get that liberating moment that we got when IBM created the PC. Maybe in the future, the Smartphone (or even Smart Watch) will become a nuclear device that can be expanded to fit any function, but until then, the Smartphone is best kept for calling people, texting, doom scrolling on social media, and raising your heart rate reading the news.
TABLET	The tablet is nothing more than a larger Smartphone. That's about it. Some even can use your phone plan and make calls. Basically, it's meant to be a larger device that "feels" like a book, but functions like a smartphone, but because of the bigger screen, may (or may not) be more usable. Still to me, you can't really do the things you can do with a computer, with a tablet, because of a limited interface. They don't come with a keyboard and trackpad as a stock item, you have ot buy them, and even then, the software isn't always the same or as compatible with these devices as it would be on a regular computer. That's why I say, want to play Angry Birds? Great. But if you need to create a pivot table and a presentation - probably better to go use something running MacOS or Windows.

Another Table - Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux

Now, we will explain the "Triad" of computers in most popular use today by their operating system, because that has now become the most defining characteristic. It used to be in the 1980's and 1990's, we called PC's "IBM Compatibles" - but IBM sold their PC business to Lenovo in 2004, and there were far more "Clones" than actual IBMs out there (Compaq, Dell, HP (aka. Hewlett Packard), NEC, Gateway (2000), Packard Bell, E-Machines, and the list goes on and on). So these days we focus on what O/S it can run, even though it's really just two types of hardware that both can run Linux if you choose - which is the third.

Category	(IBM Compatible) PC	Apple Macintosh	Linux
PICTURE
BRANDS	Alienware, Dell, Everex, Gateway, NEC, ASUS, Samsung, Lenovo, HP (Hewlett Packard), Compaq (actually HP), and the list goes on and on...	Apple, that's the only people who make them.	Pretty much anything above an i486 CPU for modern purposes....so a megaton!
PROCESSOR	Typically uses processor chips made by Intel and AMD (ie Athlons, Core i-series....basically anything with "Core" "Pentium" or "on" at the end of the name)	Currently Apple M1 Silicon, previously they used the same CPUS as PC's, before that, ironically IBM PowerPC CPU, and before that, the Motorola 68000	Anything and everything fast enough to run a kernel new enough to do modern tasks
OPERATING SYSTEM	Microsoft Windows	Apple MacOS	Linux is the name of the operating system, the hardware is widely variant
FURTHER INFO	A "PC" is pretty much still generally seen as a "serious" machine. They started off primarily as Business Machines made by IBM (International Business Machines), and were aimed at business. Today, they still are, but they also have a niche market with the "gaming PC" crowd as well as the hardware is open enough to allow many businesses to get into the game. A big reason the PC never went away is worldwide corporations putting billions and trilions of dollars into an infrastructure started by IBM and Microsoft in the early 1980's. As IBM, Microsoft, and the PC lexicon became more essential, and grew, eventually eclipsing Apple (and threatening their existence as a whole), the more the corporate world has been "locked in" to the use of Desktop PCs. It's like the Fender Stratocaster guitar of computers - everyone has one, and it's been copied and imitated more than anything else in it's market.	A "Mac" as they are commonly called, is basically an Apple computer - usually a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Mini, running some form of Mac OS (Macintosh Operating System). Unlike Microsoft, Apple became known as that "trendy" PC because it found a niche in the entertainment industry, and celebrities talked about them a lot back in the early days. Honestly, modern Tech Bro culture pretty much grew out of Apple's whole thing of having Steve Jobs in a turtleneck on stage with celebrities talking about an otherwise generally "nerd" device. Apple sells astronomically more iPhones and iPads than they do iMacs, but they still sell quite a lot of them, and they tend to be liked much by the rich, people who want to look rich or famous, and people who want to look trendy. That said, they are no more or less usable than a Windows PC, and have all the same fallabilities and problems AS a PC. They also cost about twice as much as a comparable PC, and lock you into a "walled garden" (a scenario where the company making the hardware and software force you to use only their approved products, something MIcrosoft is also following suit with as well with Windows 11 and later), and tend to treat your computer like it's something they "loaned" you for the "right" to use "their" Operating System.	That "Linux Thing" is just an operating system that is free (for personal use at least) and runs on any computer that's been released that the kernel is capable of suporting (the kernel being the "core" of the operating system that makes it work for lack of better words). Linux is generally the somewhat commercially polarizing operating system mostly run by non-profits and corporations who will let you compile their code for free but may still charge if you want a fully compiled commercial version for SOME of their software. Most other software falls under the "FOSS" acronym - meaning "Free Open Source SOftware" which is the original, and the attracting spirit of using Linux. It's polarizing because the other two love to spread lies about Linux, while Linux nerds....well some, have got to be some of the most condescending pricks I've ever met in a forum on the internet, making support tough...I'm looking to change that. Linux will run on a computer as old as 15 years old well enough to do basic tasks and can really unleash the beast on some kind of high memory, high speed fire breather like the hot-rodded Lenovo I'm typing this on tonight. Linux has started gaining traction because it's not tethered to any one "distribution", nor any singular figurehead (except maybe Linus Torvalds who created LInux in 1989 as a personal project, but he's not a tech bro billionaire with his own personal ted talk every time a new Kernel is released, he just sorta states the facts and stays out of the way from what I can tell). If you want to know more about LInux, go read my other sections on these pages because that's what I primarily use, and that's what I primarily support.

In Practice, what's the DIfference

In practice, all three at their core, do the same exact things any comptuer does. Loads an Operating System from which you can search the internet, read e-mails (again from the internet), write a letter, create a spreadsheet or a presentation, draw graphics, play games, all the basic stuff we've been doing with the Desktop computer since the days of the Tandy TRS-80 and Commodore PET (ie 1977-1984-ish).

But all three have a very different user experience...

The biggest "Walled Garden" - a term meaning that you are largely buying into, and being forced to STAY WITHIN a specific hardware brand/model/architecture - is Apple. Apple is a brand that basically expects you to buy one of their computers (Mac Mini, iMac, Macbook), to use with one of their phones (iPhone), with an intermediary called a "iPad" (basically, an Apple Tablet). Everything is tied to an "Apple Account" - we're talking Software as a Service here (SaaS) - which is an acronym for aforementioned phenomenon. Basically, you have an account with Apple, ALL of your Apple devices are tied to it, both to grant or deny access from certain products and features. THey make it incredibly difficult to get outside of that walled garden, though most intermediate Linux guys like me can do a lot of "outside shit" with a Mac because it/s O/S - known as MacOS currently - is another "Unix-Alike" like Linux and uses a lot of the same commands and whatnot. There's just a lot of graphical hoops to jump through to get to them. Apple products are also VERY expensive, but their hardware is very well made, but there's a sort of premature tendency to "obsolete" products before their full usefulness is over.

Once the official computers of business, running on the Microsoft Operating System, the PC - once called the "IBM Compatible PC" after the IBM PErsonal COmputer 5150 EVERY ONE of these machines are (now extremely loosely) based on since August of 1981 - are the staple of business, and home use. They almost killed Apple in the 1990's. If it hadn't been for the iPhone and iPod, Apple would have been wiped off the map by Microsoft and the PC Manufacturers. THey differ from Apples in that you can buy them in a lot of different brands: Dell, Lenovo, HP/Compaq, Microsoft themselves (Surface ring a bell?), Gateway, SuperMicro, and a lot of small, local builders in little hole-in-the-wall PC shops all over the world. ALl of these PCs run an Intel or AMD Microprocessor, now 64-bit, but still borrowing some from their legacies from 1995 forward for marketing purposes. They all run, from the factory at least, Microsoft Windows. THe draw of these was the comeptitiveness for the best manufacturer, the open architecture - which means any willing programmer or hardware designer could make products FOR the PC. This meant a higher level of user-modification, which was a big draw for business and home users alike. However, a lot of these benefits are beginning to dwindle, largely due to somewhat scummy "InfoSec" side of I.T. (Information security), using scare tactics to get you to buy new equipment every 3-5 years per-Apple. Also like Apple, SaaS is largely taking over PCs as well, leading to all of the issues leading to current discussions about software ownership vs. software licensing, and software piracy. To add to it, the hardware is not as user-modifyable anymore, unless you spend a lot of money on a high end "Gaming Rig" which is it's own niche corner of the PC World.

All of these funnel into Linux, especially when they become "obsolete" as their corporate I.T. forebearers deem them. Linux runs on older PCs, and brand new PCs, and is growing in marketshare due to many of the negative aspects of the platforms I mentioned above. However, the impact of these negative aspects varies depending on what "use case" - basically your purpose of using such machine.

So...

What Is a "Use Case"

You've probably heard the guys at the computer store or Best Buy say this. A "Use Case" (pronoused Yoose Case), is what the computer in question, will generally be used for.

Most modern "end users" - ie YOU - use a PC for the following things: E-mail, buying stuff, correspondance that requires more than just a simple text or short e-mail, finding a job, streaming movies when the TV isn't available, and playing with A.I. - just to name a few of the uses of a modern computer. Most of it is internet centric, but most of it relies on needing better input devices (ie keyboard and mouse vs touch screen) to do the job because there's only so much you can conveniently do with a touch screen.

And use-cases have Stereotypes too....the classic stereotypes are...

Windows - Business computing, or heavy gaming. Either you have a man in a suit and tie trying to do the fiscal budget, find stats on work productivity, make a map to a jobsite, or sending e-mails and teams messages....or you have some fat kid in his parent's basement playing Call of Duty on some "1337" gaming rig with a $950 video card in the basement, decked out in more lights than a spaceship from a 1980's sci-fi flick.

Mac - The stereotype is the creative, trendy indvidual whose portrayed as "poor", but most likely is very rich to be owning such a machine. Basically, they make art with adobe Creative Cloud, create music or make beats in GarageBand, and do more intensive posts on the Socials to promote the art created.

PC - The stereotype is usually some nerd whose openly antagonistic of Apple and Microsoft for being "too corporate" and "not allowing for full control of the machine". What does he do with Linux? (because despite me knowing not 1 but five women who use Linux, it's always assumed nerds are guys) Nobody knows, because nobody who uses linux except myself apparently, wants to talk about the *mundane* tasks mentioned above. Instead they want you to think they are all grey hat hackers who can disable your bank account if they really wanted to. And once you are in the fold, they talk condescendingly towards you as a "Newb" for not knowing things that are basic to me and them, but hard for the average user to do.

And like all stereotypes, these are generally wrong, and counter-productive...

All three can do what the other can do. I do music and video on Linux using Ardour, ShotCut, and Open Broadcaster Studio. I write documents and do spreadsheets using Libre Office, I can also use the Microsoft Office 365 online apps in Mozilla Firefox, which I use as my primary browser. I can do ALL of the same things you can online with Linux.

Microsoft Windows can do just the same stuff using much the same software for free. Ditto Mac double-over because it's basically a *nix operating system at this point as well.

And then there's all the commercial products they can use for that as well.

So why do people use one or the other specifically?

The first part of this is "familiarity". 40+ years ago, nobody used any of this stuff. Documents were written in pen, or on a typewriter. Spreadsheets were just math on a piece of paper. People played video games on something like an Atari 2600 or NES. You clocked in with a actual time clock with a punch card (which was probably counted by a computer operator in a giant air-conditioned room somewhere mysterious in your company - called a "Mainframe") - that's about as "computer-y" as it got.

But today, everyone is familiar with one platform or another based on their lifestyle, chosen profession, and how computer-centric it is, and what platform the company/companies they work for invested into, as well as their home invested into, over the last 20-40 years. And people are frustrated by change. And it's going to be Apple or Microsoft these days, maybe Google in a minority base.

And Companies, they don't want to leave the Microsoft empire just yet, because they invested Billions or even Trillions in their Microsoft systems, some of which is still legacy, and has been "working just fine" since 198x. IBM was THE computer in the 80's, and that meant your user-side of an organization ran MS-DOS! MS-DOS gave way to Microsoft Windows, with the changeover completing sometime about 1995 when Windows 95 came out and more people had already started using Windows 3.11. In the 2000's, there were still DOS and Win31 embedded stuff kicking around, even some 95 and 98, while XP was king for a period of about 14 years, and was soon overshadowed by WIndows 7. Windows 7 gave way to Windows 10, and here we are, almost october of 2025, and I'm sure your ogranization you work for is looking at moving to Windows 11 at this point. To change to Linux would cost almost as much as they invested. To change to Apple would be pure insanity (and a administration headache for all I.T. Staff). That's why you get issued another faceless black Dell Latitude instead of a purple Macbook for your work PC.

Apple almost died. People forget that. By the early 2000s, Apple was considered a future failure, and then Steve Jobs came back, and his people created the iPod - which saved Apple. Yep, Apple is ONLY here because of a smartphone and an MP3 player, not their computers. More people have iPhones than they do iMacs, Macbooks, or Mac Minis. Few corporations have ever put a significant amount of funding into putting an Apple Server into their network closet. I'm willing to bet, wherever you work, you will see a sea of HP and Dell EMC equipment if you peeked in there - nothing or almost nothing with a apple with a chunk bitten out of it on it in there.

Linux is kind of like the ATM, or Kiosk, and may even be running that. It's all around us. It runs the internet in the form of servers, it runs on a minority of desktops like mine, it runs on embedded devices as a part of the Internet of Things or IoT as they call it - ie toasters, fridges, thermostats, coffee makers, your car... what have you with built-in connectivity for internet access for various reasons from the ridiculous to the actually somewhat quite useful.