Migration from PC to MAC. Help me advice!

[MiG-30]

In our departement we'd like to migrate from PC to Mac graphic stations, so I should explain my boss the reason and advantages Mac over PC. Please help me any advice how to do it convincingly.

[defjoe]

what do you do? Are you a design shop? I'll take it for granted that you are of some sort.

first off about 95% of all design is done with Macs. they are more efficient, hardly get viruses and the life is alot longer then PC. you will spend so much time securing security holes in Windows. That alone is a great reason.

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[PrintDriver]

Gonna be tough when you have to justify the software changeover expense. Contact the software companies you use and see if you can get an upgrade rate to do the switch.

Also, what is your department's relationship with the rest of your company. If you are going to be swapping files to departments using PC's there are all sorts of cross-platform issues that should be worked out in advance. Font compatibilty is a big one.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[MiG-30]

I can't say that viruses, security holes stopped our work anywhere for last year. May be it's a fine service of our programmers or admins, I don't know exactly. So I can't say only this reason . But I should explain them why MAC is better than PC in designer's area and reasons must be sagnificant. In our department are only two graphic designers and we develop packings, lables and other printings for company needs. Our main software - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Corel Draw, Acrobat. We creat ideas at first than make it by this software and hand the ready product to any local printing house. Undoubtedly all of that we can do on PC, but MAC is BETTER and FASTER do it. We understand it but can't explain it to our boss. In our city MAC is a rear thing!

[MiG-30]

Forgot to say, all design for packings and lables we send to China printing houses, because they make our main products (everything for garden and home use) under our brand name.

[D-Zine]

I can't give ya a reason why its better - you just said it - you can do the work on either. Will be a huge switch over to justify with your boss and I'm not sure there is any justification. You are already doing all the work on PC with no issues so....Why switch??

Power to the Oldschoolers

[morea]

Ah, the oft-discussed topic of Mac vs. PC.

Both have their uses in graphic design. While Macs have traditionally been considered 'THE' tool for graphic design, either system is acceptable in the industry these days. It’s not which system you use, so much as how you use it.

The quality of our work is NOT defined by our hardware.

The expense involved to change all of your hardware and software from one platform to the other seems completely unnecessary. As far as one being better and faster, I don't know if that's as true any more as it used to be.

I have a kick-ass pc I use at work that has never given me any trouble... and that's with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, email, the internet, and Excel all open at the same time. I haven't had any issues with viruses or performance of that machine.

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[PrintDriver]

Macs are prettier. Even if they do sound like turboprops sometimes.
8]

This is probably the one design forum on the net that truly doesn't care what you use and won't defend or put down either system. If it's aesthetics or because you feel you SHOULD be designing on macs that is one thing that is gonna be hard to justify. If you are already set up on up-to-date PC's with no interface problems, tough sell. Does your work come back from China without issues?
As for speed, it only matters to the overclockers whether you have Mac or PC. Speed can be pretty comparable at times otherwise. If it takes a G5 Mac 0.5 seconds to open a file and a PC 0.4, or vice versa, who really cares.

PD is a grande format digital print dude. His advice/opinions may not apply to the 4color/offset/web world of printing

[D-Zine]

Justifying the switch I think its gonna be hard for you because you don't really seem to have a true reason for needing to switch. You have no issues as far as the PC goes from what you have said. I just upgraded a bunch of stuff in our office (we are Mac based, always have been) and to just upgrade things, it cost the bossman $10,000!! ok take off $4,800 for the XServe we ordered, that you may not need. So we added 2 eMacs, got Adobe CS with 2 full licenses and upgraded to Quark 6 with 6 licenses - $5,200!

How many computers will you need? You will need ALL NEW software, not just upgrades, so how many licenses of Adobe CS are you lookin at? How many for Quark? New scanners if yours aren't Mac/PC compatible, printers if yours aren't compatible....there is alot to consider. ALOT! I think its going to be nearly impossible for you to explain to them why MAC is better than PC in a designer's area with reasons that are sagnificant because it simply is not true...this forum is proof of that.

My suggestion to you is to really think about the reasons why you feel you need to switch and approach him with that. You also need to make a proposal to him that will explain everything you need and why and list all the prices for them, along with a total amount for him to see. This takes tons of research...but its what I did for our upgrades. Bosses tend to like to see the numbers in front of them.

Power to the Oldschoolers

[MiG-30]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advices! Now I just hesitate should I switch or not. Actually there are not sagnificant reasons to do it. Expenses too much but results almost invisible (at least for my boss). May be I'll recommend them only upgrade our graphic stations. :(