Working in IT for 8 years now, the old "Mac vs. Windows" debate has sprung up quite a few times. I've used both (I have both), we support both here. I prefer Windows. And I have no problems using Windows 8. That said, your average Windows user who first experiences Windows 8 and doesn't understand the difference between "Desktop" mode and "Metro" screen will get frustrated pretty fast. The biggest complaint we get is the old "Start" menu is gone. The metro screen has exactly the same thing as the old start menu. The difference is you can add or remove at will, you can divide icons into groups, name the groups what you want, etc... it is essentially the start menu on steroids. They added "live tiles" as well (for some programs/apps). My coworkers here complain daily about Windows 8. I just don't get what the big problem is. It is Windows 7 with a new start menu interface and better security. Not to mention it brought in the ability to sync your settings and preferences from all your Windows PCs, Windows tablets, and even Windows phones. Yes, I know Mac did this long ago, great! Now Windows does it too. Sure, there are minor anoyances I have, but they are minor. As for Macs, they're great computers. Unix is a wonderfully secure and stable base operating system. My problem with Mac is I can buy a computer for at least HALF the price, install Unbuntu (Linux) on it and do exactly the same stuff the Mac does. I can add tons of software at no cost, most of which Windows and Mac versions would pale in comparison to. But I'd go back to my Windows computer simply because it's what I know. But also because I like the features better. As a computer nerd, I like the control I have over Windows versus the work I have to do to get the same effect on a Mac. Red mentioned "Terminal" and you can "hack" the Mac to death. Thats all fine but I'd say MOST normal users would have no idea where to start, what to type, and might even break it and end up restoring back to factory (I've actually done this with my mac air). When you tell someone to start hacking around in the terminal on a Mac, thats like telling someone to start changing stuff in the registry on Windows. Point is, with Windows, I can simply click around and make it what I want without breaking stuff, without researching, going to school, or even "Google-ing" it. Now, to be fair here - to all you Mac fanboys, I'm not knocking it by any means. Someone else mentioned something about coding sucks in a mac. That's like saying you can't use Google maps to find your house. Our programmers all use Macs for all coding. They've made some changes to their systems to be sure, but Macs are coding BEASTS. You put in a few bars of code and out pops the statue of liberty, FULL size. (Yes, we have a statue of liberty sticking out of the roof of the office and yes, the guy responsible got fired. No, there is no statue of liberty here I was kidding. No one actually got fired and yes, I am a nut, get over it). Ok so this got long in a hurry, wow, sorry! LMAO! But this is why I don't get into pissing matches over Macs and Windows computers. Because its all in personal preferences, your knowledge of computers, and your experience with computers over the years. Its like arguing over music, is one band better than another band. For me, Windows is better for most things, for a few things though, Macs are the better choice.
This is why they hide the terminal in the utilities. One has no business using it if they don't grok UNIX. But, having used UNIX for decades, I find it extremely powerful and useful. I agree with all you say, but complaints from those who say that you can't modify or customize the MacOS simply are not true. One actually can customize it beyond recognition . . . but you have to know what you are doing . . . when customizing any OS. I rarely use the terminal to hack the macOS, I mostly use it for doing the neat things that UNIX commands can do. Sometimes fairly simple things like ping and for opening huge, I mean huge, text files that choke word processors. vi gobbles them up them up and spits them out . . . as long as you know the parameters. UNIX is powerful and elegant, but unforgiving to the uninitiated.
So I ended up getting an HP Pavillion that runs 2.7 ghz, 6 g ram, with an i5 processor. It's only got 750 g of storage but I have 4 external 1 TB hard drives so the space wasn't a must. In order to get those specs on a Mac I would have had to pay around 1200 bucks. I saved 800 dollars by sticking with a pc and it runs the software I need it to run like a champ.
Music doesn't take up near the space of video. You can get thousands of songs on a 16 gig USB drive. I wouldn't think you'd need 4 TB for every song ever recorded.
I have a lot of free space and Wav files which I create are larger than mp3's which is why I have so much, but I already have over 2 TB of music alone. It's not hard to download 5 or 6 gigs of music every few days.
I don't, I would say at least 60 percent of the music I have has never been listened to. But if I get hired to do a gig and its themed I know I have music to fit whatever it is they are looking for.
For Windows 8 users who can't get past the lack of a Start Menu: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/. My wife loves it. I'm waiting for Windows 10 before upgrading my laptop. I have actually been thinking about just building a monster desktop to use for home media server and occaisional word processor and then buying a stack of tablets for everyone to use instead. I rarely use the laptop anymore.
