Mac's and PC's :-)

[Tony]

MadDaves thread about a laptop got me thinking about what i was thinking about yesterday.

I had the bluescreen of death about 8 times yesterday and it got to the point (a point i never thought i'd get to by the way) of considering a mac Now i've got nothing against macs but i can get a lot of PC for the price of a mac, in fact the machine i'm using isn't' very old (2 months) and i rebuilt it with windows 7 Ultimate etc.

I used to quite enjoy messing with machines and have my MCSE, some other MCP's and Novell quals etc but these days i just want things to work, I've played with Ubuntu and the like and it didn't quite work for me so yesterday i was thinking 'should i swap my machines for macs?' Then i looked at the price and i don't think it's going to happen, even though i'm tempted.

What justifies the large cost jump over a PC? (other than the blue screen issue, and i know that macs can have problems as well)

 

[korvin karbon]

oh i can hear the fanboys drooling already LOL

 

[rik_uk3]

Macs are very good but IMHO overpriced. Windows 7 is fantastic so just fix the cause of the BSOD Tony and carry on.

 

[Adze]

Other than the "Gucci factor" Tone... there's nothing in the way of justification really.

The operating system is another subset of UNIX, so if Linux didn't really do it for you, then Mac OS X isn't likely to either from an interest point of view. Although since you've got your CNE, perhaps Suze would be a better flavour of Linux for you to try before opting Mac?

Since Mac's use Intel processor architecture these days, there's precious little to choose between Windows PC or Mac at the hardware level these days, "accessoryness" aside.

If you want to be able to play games on it, then you're stuck with Windows - if you definitely do not want to play games on it and have a surfeit of cash then a Mac is a definite option.

 

[Tony]

yeah, i'm having trouble tracking it down, I've made some changes and it's not happened today but it did happen after the changes yesterday.

I do like Win 7 I'm interested though in why people like Macs so much

 

[Tony]

Yeah, Suze, I thought about that ages ago when Novell first bought them......Umm

 

[sapper1]

I recently upgraded from windows xp to windows 7 and in my opinion 7 is like xp but not as good.
As for the price of macs it's ridiculously expensive for something that does virtually the same thing.

 

[Ahjno]

I'm on a Macbook, very happy with it - especially as I got it with a BIG student discount It's stable, no fuss with virusses and constant updating
As for Microsoft: I share Leon's opinion

 

[verloc]

Forget about the price and forget about it "doing the same thing". There is no comparison between a £300 laptop and a Macbook or MacbookPro. thats like trying to compare a kia piccanto against a BMW 5 Series, they both do the same thing but very differently.

The mac hardwares are very well built. If you were to compare it to a win machine then it would be akin to a thinkpad / toughbook etc. OS X is great great OS. Built on a BSD with a very friendly user interface it is superb.

Now I am not a Mac fanboy. I hate my ipod and only bought it because my Rio Karma died, I refuse an Iphone and generally have more nasty things to say about apple corps than good things, but you cannot get away from a company that is putting its own OS on it own hardware really really works.

I have a first gen macbook which has never been reinstalled, has had the crap kicked out of it, and has led a very hard life. it still fires up and works A-OK. I find macs allow much more productivity as I don't have to spend time sys-admin'in my own computer and it actually means I spend less time using it - which again is good.

I have used pretty much every OS out there on many different platforms for many different tasks, and all in all OSX and apple hardware are the best combination at the moment for a multi use desktop machine.

Just my tuppence worth

 

[Trunks]

If you have an intel driven laptop, it is possible to install OSX onto it - i tried it on a DELL laptop. Apart from trouble getting some drivers to work with PC hardware it worked well.

In the end i just bought a Macbook Pro, very nice kit.

 

[salan]

I too am Microsoft cert'd and use both macs and Pc's all day. Also I was brought up on UNIX so prefer linux etc.
For my self, I use Windows at work the most and linux (various ones) at home a lot.
When my father in law wanted a laptop, I reccomended a macbook. Why?
Because it just works. No problem (alright a bit 'rose coloured glasses' approach but hey) with viruses/updates etc etc.
It cost four times the cost of an equivelant windows pc. But he was 85 and I didnt want a hundred support calls a day! lol
Its horses for courses.
Macs are good (but not perfect you can still crash them easily). Pc's are cheap and versatile.

To me the trouble with ALL pc's is that they are sold to the public like a domestic appliance. You pull it out of the box, swithc it on and use it.
Unfortunately they are not really at that stage of evolution. They (IMHO) are more like a classic car that needs 'tweaking' on a regular basis to keep working correctly.
And before some one says 'well i have had my xyz for years and it works fine no messing'
Fine but I bet you are not installing all sorts of stuff on it and then taking it off etc.
Thats where they fall down (plus a lot of other areas).If some one gets a pc and JUST uses it for internet and email plus writing a few letters, then the pc will work for some conciderable time no prob(famous last words!lol). The problem is we always want more. And more and more.
What i have found is that mac people generally tend to just set the thing up and use it!
Not spend half their life putting new software on and trying this and that and the other.
This makes a BIG dif.
Just my 2 cents
Alan

 

[jack by the hedge]

I've worked with PCs (Wins) for 15 years and used Macs at home for 12. I've administered both over that time. I believe that you want to play games or can't feel happy unless you are hacking all the time you should get a PC and put either windows or linux on it.

If on the other hand you want a machine that is well built ( the hardware is designed to work with that software), will last a long time ( still using a 6 year old machine), is designed well ( they do look damm fine in the living room) and has enough preloaded useful software on them, you should get a Mac.

And now that they have ITEL chipsets you can spend a little cash to run your windows apps in a sandpit if you want to use something you can't give up.

It's horses for courses. I don't want to work on a windows machine when i get home having spent 8 hours in front of one already. Like the security of a mac and it's back up system.

And if you find the desktop ( finder) too easy to use, you can open the terminal and work in unix to your hearts content.

Hope that helps and feel free to PM me questions.

JBTH

 

[Tony]

yeah i hear you

verloc, agreed there's no comparison between a £300 laptop and a mac book (pro) but there's a lot of difference between a £1000+ laptop and a macbook or especially a mac pro going at £2k

I think that if i had the dosh i'd get one but they're so hard to justify

 

[dave k]

yeah i hear you

verloc, agreed there's no comparison between a £300 laptop and a mac book (pro) but there's a lot of difference between a £1000+ laptop and a macbook or especially a mac pro going at £2k

I think that if i had the dosh i'd get one but they're so hard to justify

I've got a normal macbook that I've had for 3 years, it's still going strong. I think it cost me 850quid. For me it's a no brainer. I have a windows box that I play games on, but it's a total pain in the bottom to get working properly because it uses vista. There is lots of stuff that you get for free that I use a lot. Iphoto, integration to my online gallery directly with a couple of mouseclicks, etc.etc. The major benefit with the macs is the software interface - it's just nicer and a lot less hasstle.

 

[khimbar]

I still surf the net on an old G3 ibook. It's still working fine. That count?

 

[leon-1]

I think the major difference between the Mac's and PC's is that the drivers for the architecture of a Mac are more specific.

With the old macs they used specific processors, chipsets and graphics. This enabled them to hone more closely the abilities of the drivers to the machine i,e;

A PC can have any number of graphics, chipset or processors combinations fitted to them, the OS has to then sort through and load drivers that work those chipsets (some of these can be windows verified from microsoft and not the actual driver for the chipset or card as windows will install a verified driver over a manufacturers driver if it hasn't been verified), it doesn't mean that those chipset and driver combinations work well together.

A Mac on the other hand deals with a known quantity, the chipsets are hand picked and the drivers for them are installed as much as anything for thier compatability / ability to work togehter. This is probably why when Mac for PC was released for trial it was more or less to iron out what worked and what didn't and once that period of testing had finished so did Mac for PC release.

Unless you are going to go the Gentoo route where the computer creates the drivers for the chipsets from scratch from the binaries installed after interrogating the machine then a Mac will be the faster and more stable in many ways than most PC's.

I run a number of flavours of Linux, nearly all have the KDE interface (Kubuntu, PCLinuxOS and OpenSuSe), but I still have a windows machine which is used for convenience (showing members of the family or friends how to do things on their computers).

Does what Mac have done justify the extra cost, I don't know, but it does work towards a more stable machine which has drivers specific to that machine and not generic "detonator" drivers ready to blow all that you have worked on to kingdom come the next time you get a windows update.

 

[Miyagi]

generic "detonator" drivers ready to blow all that you have worked on to kingdom come the next time you get a windows update.

I hate when that happens!!

I prefer Macs to be honest, but its the cost...

 

[Damascus]

I only recently moved over to Mac's and wish I had done it years ago, so much slicker to use.

I use my digi camera and camcorder a far bit and to handle an view files on the mac is childs play and fast.

i did purchase a copy of windows office written for mac's rather than some bridging software and this handles any bits of PC work I need to read.

Cost aside Mac every time.

 

[tobes01]

Tony,

If you're an MCSE and used to tinkering then a Mac will drive you potty, since there's little to tinker with and it never needs doing anyway I used to be close to MCSE level, then switched to Apple about 7 years ago. Have never looked back. Only thing that ever crashes (and I'm a power user) is Microsoft Word. Only time I ever need to fire up Windows 7 under Parallels is to process Visio files, everything has a Mac equivalent. But it's not cheap (although Macs hold their value well, just look at eBay prices), and it's not to everyone's taste.

If you are REALLY tempted but uncertain, remember that Apple stores offer a 2 weeks no questions asked return policy, so you could give one a serious test drive...

Tobes

 

[locum76]

Macs are for hairdressers and art students.