Not sure of the accuracy of your percentages there, but of the ‘10%’ that use Macs, a great many of them would do so in a creative capacity, and thats still millions of Macs, so why not on Mac first?
The whole desktop art and design industry began on Macs!!, and is still the most reliable platform out there.
You’ll also find that truly comparable PCs are not cheaper than a high end Mac - but on the flip side, you get what you pay for, so of course you can get ‘a pc’ for cheaper.
Adam 
Aside from what Kromehat has already stated: the MacosX is by far the most advance OS on the market today and is quickly being adopted by developers for that simple point. In fact if it were not for the games market windows would be in significant trouble. I can use windows for games but for everything else that matters the Mac is the way to go.
iLLinCruX, to be blunt - your full of it. I guess MS is paying you a monthly fee. No matter how you look at sales over the years, MS has never had 90% of the market, except through propaganda. I’m sure a lot of my fellow Linux users would also like to see data from you. I use Mac and Linux in small and large international corporate environments on several continents, Windows makes up less than 30% of the user base with everyone I work with. Ouch! And MS sure doesn’t control the server market either.
I don’t care if you like Windows or not, Mac or not, Linux or not, you have no more rights than anyone else.
Play nice.
First and foremost, I’m not trying to start a debate here but clearly I hit a soft spot amoungst those who use a mac. In no way, shape or form am I saying that MACs are crappy. I didn’t say that at all if you re-read my post.
In fact, my beliefs are that any OS can be just as bad or just as good as the opposing one. What it all really comes down to is the users knowledge of the platform in which one works and how to best utilize it and configure it to ones own needs. It’s the lack of knowledge amongst most users that makes so many break their equipment -
Whether it be Linux, Mac, or MS…their biggest vulnerability is the user.
By the way, I pulled up the statistical evidence from here:
http://techspotlight.today.com/2008/10/01/os-war-mac-vs-pc-statistics/
Clearly, MAC has been gaining 1-2 percent of the market with each coming year…
Mac runs off PC hardware these days:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple–Intel_transition
Mainstream Computer Hardware manufacturers have been developing for the MS OS for a very long time and so the support is limited to the MAC OS. This is all coming from someone who has been building his own computers for the past 10 years. I’ve looked inside a number of MACs and have done the price comparisons.The conclusion I’ve come to is that Apple slaps ridiculous prices on their components…
Every time I purchase a new component for my RIG, I always read the reviews and look at the benchmarks, while also looking up where the individual chips, capacitors, resistors etc were manufactured.
Quality Hardware is everything to me which is part of the reason why I don’t own a MAC. Also, I make my own custom installations of windows and tailor it specifically to my needs which in fact does consist of playing a number of games since I did grow up on Nintendo and Atari. 
So my development of games for the PC goes hand in hand with playing games on the PC.
Mac 3.2 users are trailing behind 3.5 PC users.
If we didn’t have the last upgrade we would be at 3.1.2b and PC would be at 3.5.
I consider cross platform continuity the sign of a strong company.
BTW, Autodesk MB is at 7.5 for MacUsers and 2010 for PC.
Hopefully the scales will be balanced soon…as it should be.
I highly doubt it would be used on a server and just how many of the client computers are running MAC? Coming from an IT background myself, most if not all client machines run windows in most corporate environments…but that’s all dependent on the industry, so of course the statistics will vary. But yes, at a large scale, MS owns the mainstream of computing for the greater majority.
You should have enough wisdom at your age to know not to make such comparisons in the way you just stated it.
It’s all good though. 
All in all, my motto is use the best tool for the job…and the way im phrasing it is OS independent.
Making art is what is about…not that machine…it is just a machine…whichever the brand name…same with the software…and zBrush is pretty good for making art… But I would like zapplink on a Mac…
I’m really tired of this kind of threads but as long as people state the false with obvious prejudice I can’t avoid replying.
First and foremost, the percentage of PC vs Mac is extremely inaccurate and meaningless.
In the entertainment world the Macintosh is the number one choice for the creative professional. It’s pointless to compare how many PCs vs Macs are used at your local DMV, it has no bearing with what WE do. The most widely used video editing program is Final Cut Pro, a Mac-only application. Adobe has full cross-platform support for the entire Master Collection Series, a $2600 package and they have increased their support for Mac OS in the last 2 years. In the field of visual effects and movie production the Mac is a predominant force, endorsed by many veterans in the business.
Second, the price myth. This argument has been demolished long time ago. Go to apple.com, get the full spec of a Mac Pro 8-core, then go to dell.com and try to spec the same machine. With no complete match, the Dell PC offers less and costs a few hundred dollars more. I attached the screen grabs.
What Apple doesn’t give you is the bare-bones, good for nothing, PC that is used to catch your attention and make you click on a ridiculous low price only to lead you to their page. They are in the medium to high-range market. They never made a mystery of it. Compare equal features and you’ll see that the Mac is actually very competitive.
BTW, the argument about building your own PC is non-existent in this context. My time is worth more than spending days in getting the specs for a PC and assembling it on my own. I have done it, I know how to do it. It’s not the right approach for professional work.
Support. My MacBookPro needed to have the SuperDrive, the DVD reader/writer, replaced. I had the extended warranty, 2.5 years after the purchase I brought the laptop to an authorized Apple repair center. They switched the drive in 2 hours. I had no downtime. Before that I had an issue with the battery, drove to my local Apple store, they replaced the battery on the spot, no questions, no fuss. The service is excellent.
So, please, be aware that making the kind of statements that you have posted is going to insult millions of people who use Mac machines and who have spend a great deal of time and money in taking that decision a long time ago. I developed software for the PC since the days of DOS 2.11. I know a thing or two about computers and OSs, having used pretty much every PC OS that appeared in the last 27+ years.
You are definitely entitled to your opinions, but the kind of provocative, broad-stroked statements that you have made will insult and cause a reaction. Why don’t we rather talk about ZBrush?
I don’t use final cut pro and I honestly don’t ever care to use it either since it doesn’t have cross platform support and there are alternatives that get the job done. Also, I absolutely hate apples proprietary codecs…benchmark them against the alternatives and you’ll find that they fall very very short…even against some of the open source communities such as k-lite or cccp.
I really am not trying to insult anyone here, I’m merely stating what I’ve come to believe just as the rest of you are.
As far as prices go, here is the latest RIG I’ve built:
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=15917348
And here are a some of the reviews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8_1cQkYTO4
http://samsungf2380.blogspot.com/
http://techreport.com/articles.x/11273
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2288834,00.asp
Clearly I’m getting a hell of a lot more bang for my buck…enough said.
Although I have to say, any professional that relies heavily on the performance of a computer needs to know how to build one that fits their every need…But if you want to go through a re-distributer, such as mac, dell, or gateway…you’re selling your self short and impeding your full potential as far as efficiency and speed goes. To put it into perspective, would a race car driver buy a car or build a car?
Oh my iLLinCruX. You posted someones interpretation of data and not the data. Fascinating. You have made a few other posts here since the one I responded to, with quite a few more erroneous bits of information.
I can assume from these posts you have a view and search to find comments rather than data to support you. That is fine, as it is constantly done across the web as the new standard rather than actual fact and data.
I could fill up this thread with lots of proof with actual data that puts Linux and Unix (specifically OS X) ahead of Windows in every real world benchmark.
But, what’s the point?
The issue originally was your belief Windows should be supported without care for other platforms, specifically OS X as Linux is not specifically supported by Pixologic. Yeah, yeah MS needs all the support they can get.
As for my age, well I admit I didn’t have an internet as a kid. Nor a laptop as they didn’t exist and all games that dominated were from Atari and DOS didn’t exist. We did have computers though! Huge, monolithic building size thingies!!
Happy Joy Joy and Pleasantries.
You’re delusional man, I never said that it should be supported without care and I have given plenty of evidence to my claims (if you want more, merely ask). As one of the previous posters stated so well, the strength of a company can be measured by it’s interoperability between platforms.
If you refuse to support your claims, then I really cannot take you seriously. Support your claims by giving evidence, that’s how debates work on the net my good friend.
[edit]
You’re not only educating the one you’re debating against but also giving insight to those who are learning…so don’t be selfish with your knowledge!
Some people like to buy a top spec computer, a refined OS, and get on with the job of creating, knowing that the machine is reliable, wont get in their way, wont suddenly grind to a halt because of a virus etc.
Some people, just like to build computers, and then preach about their savings…
To each their own huh!? :rolleyes:
Thankfully - no Mac I have ever owned, as ever owed me anything! - they have all earned their cost many multiple times over, remained reliable, and are all still in use either with me, or with friends and family. I think THAT is why I/we buy them.
Adam
Like I stated in one of my previous posts, the biggest threat to a computer is its operator. How else would a ‘virus’ come into being if it were not for the direct actions of the user? There are plenty of delinquents writing viruses for MAC, only there is less exposure on them since apple’s (aapl) market value is much lower than microsoft’s (msft) if you take a look at the nasdac…which leads to only one conclusion, there are more PCs out there running windows than mac. All in all, the exposer of virus infections on a windows machine is much greater.
I’m not preaching about the savings I’ve made on my machine, I did a few weeks of research on all of the equipment before making my purchase. Price was a factor, but quality was the biggest factor of them all. I could just as easily loaded up any other OS on it other than Windows. But I’m not a music producer (most if not all of my friends at Harmonix (the creators of guitar hero and rock band) use macs for music production) nor somebody that likes to spend weeks/months configuring a linux system; so windows is for me since I like to make a lot of digital art and play games at the same time.
[Edit]
And that’s my main argument here, why is goz only for mac? I mean, there’s already a plugin for mudbox that can ‘one-click’ any of your creations between a wealth of applications.
It was written by one guy, it’s got cross-platform support, and it only took him a month to do it…so what’s the hold up Pixologic!!!
Really? - who are these people - why havent any of these viri made it on to any Mac out there??
Trust me, the quantity of Apples versus PC’s is not why there are ‘less’ Mac viri - there simply aren’t any to speak of.
I dare say that only a minority of cg artists has the time, technical expertise and general willingness to do a monthlong research on their new computer and purchase all parts separately to assemble them on their own. They focus on their trade and let Dell or Apple pursue theirs
Apple lacks in certain areas and you cannot get very sophisticated support contracts (only by 3rd parties) but has the advantage that soft- and hardware are from the same supplier and if you have a problem and call them they cannot turn you down and ask to call Microsoft / the hardware vendor respectively.
Because you must be intelligent and you prolly don’t blindly click sketchy links nor install sketchy software. 
[edit]
Btw: http://theappleblog.com/2009/01/26/more-mac-viruses-similar-sources-time-to-worry/
There are no mac only viruses? cough
Now a days, the top reason why most of these viruses are written is so that people purchase and download the antiviral software to remove it with. Most of these pin heads either go on to join a company that specializes in virus removal, or they go on to establish their own company in virus removal while simultaneousness writing viruses to gain market value for their product. Mac is on the up and up, and so now they’re not only targeting windows users, but mac users as well…just to put it into the grand spectrum of how to view it.
I mean if you can write a virus that can effectively infect thousands of computers and be the only one with the fix…who do you think is gonna come to who first for the fix? $$$$$$
Its time for this retarded mac vs. pc argument to come to an end.
it’s true, the only reasons Macs never really suffer virus attacks is because it is not as popular as the Windows OS. Actually I think I read somewhere and interview with Steve Jobs (or some important fellow from Apple) that they were starting to be more security conscious now that mac is becoming more popular.
If hackers were to start writing viruses for mac, we would be in as much trouble as Windows user are (which really sucks).
Btw, I won’t bother uploading “evidence” to my claims, because honestly, that’s kind of lame.
And if you’re from windows and your complaining that you don’t have GoZ, well, we don’t have zspheres II, so we’re even. Sort of.
Lastly, I love my Mac and will never, ever, ever, ever go back to Windows. Also, cool update. though I realy wish we could get a taste of zsketching.
Personally, I don’t really care much for zspheres II since I don’t use zbrush for character modeling. I find it to be a very effective terrain modeler. Although once I get down to the medium details of trying to extract individual objects, I have to constantly jump back and forth between maya and zb during that process of breaking it all up…lol, this is why i’m going nuts about it. :lol: Although, I might migrate to 3D-Coat since it pretty much allows me to do anything without having to switch back and forth…such as pulling up geometry to form a rock arch or digging through one side of an object to the other to form a cave…plus it works with linux, mac, and win at its current version and is a hell of a lot faster than both mudbox and zbrush combined.