I'm contemplating a character who is a bit (understatement) of a nerd. Hardison in Leverage/ Willow in early Buffy level nerd (though this is not a fanfic
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They are more expensive, though some prefer them because of the tight hardware design and underlying BSD kernel. But you'll see them more in the design set.
This. It's all product placement, and it does go both ways (the last season of Smallville, for instance, plastered Microsoft everywhere, from phones to computers belonging to the show's local computer nerd, Chloe) but Mac is definitely throwing more money at product placement overall than Microsoft.
Also, keep in mind that Macs have a very distinctive look to them, there are not very many models, and they spend a lot of effort on product design to make them very distinct, sleek and sexy looking. A computer running Windows (or Linux) can look like pretty much anything, there is so much variation that it is tricky to pin down models or anything, unless it's something like an Alienware gaming computer or something, since they also value slick design, and stick their distinctive alien head logo on their computers rather prominently.
Yup. And Macs are more expensive than PCs of equivalent power. Years ago, it was because of higher quality parts and the fact that the OS and processor were more efficient and ran programs faster than a PC with the same specs, but this is no longer true (macs use the same processor as PCs now). I suspect nowadays they're just gouging you for the cost of the heavy advertising they do.
And yeah, there's a general attitude that true nerds will use linux, lol.
Although the overall design of the Mac OS is still frequently superior to Windows (though "what you learned on" has a huge amount to do with user experience), and customer support is better with Apples than with PCs, according to Consumer Reports magazine (http://www.consumersunion.org/ is their homepage
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It's not true that computer geeks all use Macs. It's also not true that they all avoid them. Judging from my own friends, it's a pretty even split, and depends a lot on what exactly you're into. One of my best friends only has a Macbook Pro; it's all he needs for his research/work. Another person I know uses a gargantuan, ancient IBM laptop that you would hardly believe is still running.
It depends on what your character is into and what they find important. I'm not familiar with the character you reference, so I don't know. If he's building his computers from scratch and playing around with Linux, then he's probably got multiple PCs. If he's your stereotypical TV hacker, then he could have either. If he's big into hot gadgets, he might be more likely to have a Mac.
Basically, you could pick either one and it would be believable unless you had him doing something specific that isn't well-suited to that platform.
Oh, epic and mighty are US OS wars, and many brave champions fall on all sides. Macs tend to be favored by artsy/producer/media types, which is probably why they're the dominant choice in film and comics. But Tylik's totally right. If you want to shout "knows their stuff", have them use Linux or some other homebrewed system.
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I'd go with Linux.
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Personally, I'd say Linux, Mac, Windows in order of preference for this character.
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Also, keep in mind that Macs have a very distinctive look to them, there are not very many models, and they spend a lot of effort on product design to make them very distinct, sleek and sexy looking. A computer running Windows (or Linux) can look like pretty much anything, there is so much variation that it is tricky to pin down models or anything, unless it's something like an Alienware gaming computer or something, since they also value slick design, and stick their distinctive alien head logo on their computers rather prominently.
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And yeah, there's a general attitude that true nerds will use linux, lol.
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Macs are still more expensive here.
It's not true that computer geeks all use Macs. It's also not true that they all avoid them. Judging from my own friends, it's a pretty even split, and depends a lot on what exactly you're into. One of my best friends only has a Macbook Pro; it's all he needs for his research/work. Another person I know uses a gargantuan, ancient IBM laptop that you would hardly believe is still running.
It depends on what your character is into and what they find important. I'm not familiar with the character you reference, so I don't know. If he's building his computers from scratch and playing around with Linux, then he's probably got multiple PCs. If he's your stereotypical TV hacker, then he could have either. If he's big into hot gadgets, he might be more likely to have a Mac.
Basically, you could pick either one and it would be believable unless you had him doing something specific that isn't well-suited to that platform.
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Bonus points for running their own server.
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