Mac - Windows

M

Magnus

Guest
I just switched to an Apple Mac, well last week but need the time to adjust, Now that I have adjusted I find the Mac in terms of PC the best thing since sliced bread.
Gets me wondering why I had to wait so long, could of saved quite some trouble and energy had I done this earlier.
I am a complete computer know-nothing and I'v allways had trouble with my windows machine, the Mac seems like a natural extension of my brain cells .... it operates logically.

anybody else had the Mac experience ?
 
Magnus said:
anybody else had the Mac experience ?
Click to expand...
I've been using Apple computers (at home) since the Apple II.
I've had Macs since the IIx.
I'm forced to use Windows at work and always appreciate my Macs at home.

Peter
 
I use both a Mac and PC, but I prefer Mac's—a lot more. Usually when I use a PC, it's because I have to for, not because I want to. There are some things I like about PC's mostly little operational conveniences, but Mac's IMO are the best computers around. They are more elegant. I love the new Mac commercials (with the human representation of Mac and PC computers).



.
 
I could certainly go for one of those MacBooks with the 17" widescreen display or whatever.

Mmm. Intel chip in a mac box.

Heaven.
 
There used to be a time when the Mac vs. PC debate was hotter than any film vs. digital, or Leica vs. Anyone else, debate. I've seen some nasty online wars surrounding Mac vs. PC.


:)
 
Yes, for twenty years or so.

The best source of news in EU is http://macuser.pcpro.co.uk.

Get into iPhoto, I find it the best catalog/filesystem product and it's free.

You may need Adobe Photoshop Elements for touching up.

Before you fall for the Microsoft hype for Offic try Appleworks that is already on your machine for free. It's fine for 99% of us.

Apple are a bit mean with the RAM, you may decide to add an extra one.

Forget blue screen of death, viruses and buying a new computer every two years. I have a twelve year old Mac here working perfectly all day every day.
 
Hmm.... bang per buck you can't touch PC's especially when comes to laptops. Powerbooks are certainly very good but also very expensive
 
I use a triad of Os's - Mac, Windows and Linux.

I run a strong preference for using my windows box at home. I use a Mac at the office daily (I'm a Graphic Designer) and it works well. Most of the time. Part of the problem lies in memory issues I've experienced while using Photoshop on the Mac that I don't experience using Photoshop at home under XP. I blame this on Adobe really. They simply haven't been as enthusiastic about cooperation with Apple. That could be due to how Apple works with 3rd party programmers at large software developers like Adobe.

I was an early adopter for using macs in publishing and had championed their use as a graphic designer's tool as far back as '87. 20 years ago, nearly.

Why do I prefer XP? I run the same graphics tools on my homebuilt AMD box for far less moneythan I can on a mac with little appreciable loss in speed. I know - the old argument that if you purchase a Dell or similar box with all the same stuff you will spend more money. But, simply isn't true anymore. Epsecially if you whip up your own box. which just isn't that hard. If a geezer like myself can do it anyone can. Even with ten thumbs.

I used to compare Macs to BMW autos. No more. I have witnessed a fair amount of Apple equipment failure at the office. Stuff that required complete replacement of the entire box. 4 were the top of line dual G5 machines. The last was a new Intel dual core box, shipped back to Apple after 3 days operation.

Is the OS friendlier on the Mac? Not anymore. They are about neck and neck, IMO.

Having said all that - The latest crop of mid range Mac laptops have caught my eye. Too bad Apple charges high premiums but ships with paltry amounts of memory. They are very twitchy about users and after market memory add ons.

Service - Apple and Dell get low marks from me. I've had to deal with both. I'm my own service rep/tech now.

Now, wanna grow some real hair on your chest? Run linux. Real guerilla computing. A bit of a pain when you want to do graphics or photo managemnet and manipulation. But with a little perseverance I've learned one can go pretty far for almost nothing.

So much for once you've gone Mac you'll never go back.

Viva choice!

Bob H
 
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I'm a big Mac fan. There are 3 in my home. I almost never have an issue and there has never been anything I couldn't resolve myself. I have a Windows laptop at work. It's not the hell that some Apple fanatics make it out to be but I can say for certian, it is no Mac. :)
 
I use an iMac and iBook at home (both running OS 10.3.9) and a Windows 2000 machine at the office. I much prefer the Macs' but could live with Windows 2000 if I had to. XP, on the other hand, is a truly horrible operating system and deserves to die, which it will early in 2007 when Microsoft (finally) brings out Vista.

I'm sorely tempted to buy a new Intel Mac, but will wait to see what Adobe does with future versions of Photoshop. You can run existing versions of Photoshop on an Intel Mac, but it has to go through "Rosetta" first which, I hear, slows things down big-time.

For now, I'll wait.

Jim Bielecki
 
I have been using Macs since OS 7.0 on a Classic. Windows is very usable, but I'm happier when working on a Mac. It has allways been due to details: the friendly and reassuring startup sequence, not having to confirm that you want to throw things in the trash, not having to deselect copyright protection before ripping your CD's,... Windows has improved a lot over the years, but so has the Mac OS. Maybe today it is all down to taste... I don't us XP enough to call myself an expert.

There have been bad times (like when using system 7.5 on a Performa), but I'm still happy with my choice of platform. And I don't think I spent more money then I would have with PC's. I never had any fatal crash or real loss of data. My 16 year old Classic still works like when it was new. But my Powerbook is faster on the internet ;)

Wim
 
I prefer my Sun Ultra20 with Solaris 10 at work. I deal with computers all day long so when I get home I don't want to muck around with computer related issues, so at home it is a Mac.

I have never had a bit of trouble with my Mac and Vuescan, the GIMP or Photoshop.
 
Been a Mac User for a very long time both for business and personal use, which however has been interspered with pc's along the way. First Mac was a 1Mb Plus with an external HD which was used to create an entire magazine on back in about 1988. Also used PS in various incarnations alongside Pagemaker and typeset whole books on various different macs.

Macs are not perfect, but are still IMHO way friendlier than PC's. My current iMac almost never crashes for example, and I don't worry about viruses either. Main beef as already mentioned above is pricing.

In response to Jon on the iPhoto front I'd say it was a bargepole job, because however fluffy it can appear to be on the surface, underneath it's a confusing rats nest of folders and doesn't preserve the all important IPTC data. I still use it for family pics, and odd projects, but as even Elements now comes with a version of Bridge you don't need it.

Andy
 
From my humble beginnings with a second-hand Mac SE in '93, I left the PC world and never really looked back. As a freelance computer tech, I now work with either platform (and Win XP is pretty useable these days), but guess which platform is easier for me to resuscitate when it falls on its little tutu?

The household has a a pair of G4 towers (mine and galfriend's, networked), and my PowerBook G3 "Pismo" joined to the networl via AirPort. Piece o' cake to maintain, even with two scanners, two printers, two monitors, plus external and internal CD/DVD burners (and that's just on my end of the network). These Macs are quite some ways away from state-of-the-art now, but they all run OS X quite nicely indeed (yes, they all have at least three-fourths of a gig of RAM, and fast HDs), and will likely serve a few more years' service before thinking about replacement. They last a long time, which, together with their relative lack of end-user headaches, makes them worth the extra cash.


- Barrett
 
It's been Mac only in this household since system 7.1 and my inherited LC II.

Lately, we've been eyeing one of the new Macbooks. My wife has to use a PC at her office and she'd like to have a portable. The Intel processor along with dual booting via BootCamp or virtualization via Parallels will allow her to use the Mac and PC in one box. This technology should coax even more disaffected PC users away from the dark side.

Just my $0.02
 
Used both for ages - from the original IBM PCs and Apple IIs to current XP machines and PowerMac G5s. Used both at home and at work.
In the late 90s when I decided it would be agood idea to have a laptop I picked up a Panasonic Toughbook with Windows 95, Pentium I, 128MB RAM and 4GB drive. I was travelling and the tough shell, shockmounted hard drive and laser trackball were all very appealing. Stupid thing crashed all the time, even without any viruses, and was too slow to run Photoshop 5 properly.
It cost me nearly $3000 and I thought this was going to be cheaper than an Apple Powerbook. The Powerbook of the day probably would have kicked its ass!
I'm now still using the G3 iMac I bought in 2001 at home. I've upgraded as far as Panther and Adobe Creative Suite I. Runs like a clock, albeit a lot noiser than it used to be. Only ever had one major crash, thanks to the original and very buggy OSX. Although it runs everything acceptably well, I use a first generation G5 tower with 1GB RAM for photoshop and FInal Cut Pro. No problems whatsoever.
Everyone I know who uses PCs has had to replace their entire system at least twice in the same time I've owned my iMac, which tells me they are not cheaper by any stretch. Most of my PC friends were getting tired of me trying to convert them, but most of them are switching over, or planning to with their next machine. I don't even need to say anything anymmore. When they ask about what kind of firewalls and antivirus software I use, I just say "none" and leave it at that. They've come to their own conclusions.
 
Just purchased a new G5 2.3 Dual with a super large screen for my new home studio setup. Switched about 4 years back and haven't looked back since. My tech life has generally been trouble free since the Mac appeared and I generally found myself adapting to the digital workflow in a more willing manner than when I was only using wintel platforms. I find myself more enthusiastic about learning new post processing skills and experimenting with untried photoshop techniques. I attribute all of it to the ease of use when it comes to Macs. Can't imagine life without one, or two, or even three.
 
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