Mac or PC ?

[warmwaffles]

I use JKDefrag to defrag my systems.

You know the fragmentation problem wouldn't be that horrible if I had a friggin Solid State Hard Drive that had a capacity of 300GB .. but for now they are only at around 127GB (??) and expensive as hell

 

[GVBN]

320gb hard drives cost only about $80

 

[Quintillus]

PC. More bang for the buck - and it runs all my programs. Which is kind of, you know, important. Add Windows to a Mac and that adds $200 more to the cost. Not to mention I had horrible experiences with Mac OS 9 - from what I've heard OSX is much better but I'm not going to pay money for it after my OS 9 experiences.

^GVBN, Drivebymaster was referring to Solid State Hard Drives, not traditional ones. And they are terribly expensive. I think it's on a Sony where you can upgrade from 120 GB regular HD to 32 GB Solid State for $600+ - sure Sony has high mark-ups, but the cost compared to regular ones is still just absurd. For 128 GB you'd probably be paying more for the hard drive than the rest of the computer combined.

edit: Sorry, Drivebymaster, guess my crosspost skills are improving!

 

[warmwaffles]

Solid State Hard Drives...flash memory man...I know a 500 costs less than that but I want a flash memory hard drive...faster read write speeds, no fragmentation, less electricity used, can practically drop it and it would still work fine...depending on the drop

edit:
DANG YOU QUINTILLIUS!!! beat me to it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...10070068+1053122577&name=Solid+State+Disk(SSD)

 

[Zelig]

Vista does defrag automatically.

 

[Strahlemann]

1 mouse button, can't make your own, and I really don't like those (well, I have to admit they are funny )

No actual Mac has the mouse with one button anymore.
Most Macs are fitted with this mouse: http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/
Although i don't use it, because i like my logitech mx518 much more.

I prefer Macs instead of PCs mostly because it can run OSX. The design of my 20" iMac was also a big reason why i bought this computer. It takes so little space on top of my desktop and it still has descent power to run all the things i want.

My english is not good enough to tell you exactly why i prefer macs. But since there obviously almost only mac bashers in this thread, i wanted to leave at least one positiv statement from a Macuser in this thread.

However.. macusers have more sex.. that's an unchallengeable fact..

And now let the bashing continue..

 

[Onagan]

I don't bash on Mac. I always use the phrase: "hate Apple, love Mac".

I have to admit that I don't like the company and his CEO. They are far to commercial. But the problem is that they make the best Operating System in the world.

1. Exposé, I loved it from the first moment, and I really miss that feature on Windows.

2. Multi-language, I run OS X in English, my wife still use Dutch. And I know that my children will use Swedish when they become old enough.

3. No Viruses, Infections, Spy-ware, Trojans and Ad-ware.

4. User Interface, every descent application has the same short-cuts, same layout of the menu etc, etc. If you know that -H means Hide, You can use it everywhere, even in Civilization IV.

5. iChat, videoconference for the rest of us. It's great when you live 1400 km from your family and your parents want to see their grandchildren.

6. Design, It's a beautiful computer and thanks to that, it's allowed in the living-room, And therefore I'm able to play Civ and take care of my 4 kids.

 

[Onagan]

Vista does defrag automatically.

Only four years behind, impressive

 

[Asher]

Pc!! Down With User-friendlyness!!

Windows Vista and Windows XP have more functional and user-friendly UIs, really.

Download Safari for Windows to experience the functionality and ease of use of OS X...

 

[Speedo]

3. No Viruses, Infections, Spy-ware, Trojans and Ad-ware.

In the minds of Apple's marketing people, at least.

4. User Interface, every descent application has the same short-cuts, same layout of the menu etc, etc. If you know that -H means Hide, You can use it everywhere, even in Civilization IV.

Actually, Windows apps are far better about this than Mac.

 

[Asher]

1. Exposé, I loved it from the first moment, and I really miss that feature on Windows.

You don't need it on Windows. The reason OS X needs this is it has no window-level selection tool before, unlike Windows' taskbar. The Dock is application-based, not Window-based (another interface no-no).

2. Multi-language, I run OS X in English, my wife still use Dutch. And I know that my children will use Swedish when they become old enough.

Windows has this feature too. You've never used this before?

3. No Viruses, Infections, Spy-ware, Trojans and Ad-ware.

I've none of those either, but this isn't true. iTunes embeds your personal information in all of your MP3s. Any program you install can actively send information about you without you knowing because OS X does not have an outbound-protecting firewall. Did you know Netscape on OS X, as an example off the top of my head, sends every site you visit to netscape.com? That's spyware.

As for viruses/infections/trojans/adware, you seriously believe these do not exist on OS X? All have been written. Viruses/infections/trojans aren't very popular because the platform isn't very popular. People write these types of malware in order to cause damage or gain something from it -- neither of which is possible when only 5% of machines use that platform.

Adware and trojans are particularly funny claims. If you can run third-party programs on your platform, you can get adware and trojans...period.

4. User Interface, every descent application has the same short-cuts, same layout of the menu etc, etc. If you know that -H means Hide, You can use it everywhere, even in Civilization IV.

Inconsistency is actually the biggest mark against OS X' interface. Brushed metal vs plastic, which one should be used?

All of your stuff also goes for Windows...WINDOWS-D will always "hide" windows and show the desktop as well.

5. iChat, videoconference for the rest of us. It's great when you live 1400 km from your family and your parents want to see their grandchildren.

This has existed in easy to use programs long before iChat added it. Programs like Skype are still more flexible than iChat.

6. Design, It's a beautiful computer and thanks to that, it's allowed in the living-room, And therefore I'm able to play Civ and take care of my 4 kids.

You call it beautiful, I call it bland. I presume you're not talking about the PowerMac, the cheese grater that is offensive to everyone on this planet except Mr. Jobs.

 

[Chairman Meow]

I don't bash on Mac. I always use the phrase: "hate Apple, love Mac".

I have to admit that I don't like the company and his CEO. They are far to commercial. But the problem is that they make the best Operating System in the world.

Agreed. The "Apple can do no harm" people are extremely annoying. Similarly the Windows fans can be just as annoying.

1. Exposé, I loved it from the first moment, and I really miss that feature on Windows.

I find it interesting that in the next version of OSX they're adding multiple desktops. I've found through experimentation with Compiz/Beryl that I can work well with Expose or multiple desktops, but I get annoyed easily when neither are present or when both are present (they become redundant).

No actual Mac has the mouse with one button anymore.
Most Macs are fitted with this mouse: http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/
Although i don't use it, because i like my logitech mx518 much more.

My Macbook came with a one-button trackpad, which is occasionally an annoyance to use, so I plug in a USB mouse.

I've none of those either, but this isn't true. iTunes embeds your personal information in all of your MP3s.

It's sneaky, yes, but it's not exactly a secret. If you don't like it, don't buy from iTunes. Personally, I avoid running iTunes at all, because it's horrible at dealing with OGG tracks.

Any program you install can actively send information about you without you knowing because OS X does not have an outbound-protecting firewall.

Neither does Windows XP. (I don't know whether Vista does, I never looked into that)

Did you know Netscape on OS X, as an example off the top of my head, sends every site you visit to netscape.com? That's spyware.

I don't know of a single person who runs Netscape on OS X. In fact, I wasn't even aware that there were any recent Netscape versions that ran on OS X.

Inconsistency is actually the biggest mark against OS X' interface. Brushed metal vs plastic, which one should be used?

As someone who primarily uses Linux and sees nothing wrong with using both KDE and Gnome applications, I don't quite understand the obsession (on the Apple side or the Windows side) with all the programs looking the same. Who cares, as long as the programs do the job they're supposed to do?

 

[Onagan]

@Asher
1. you sure do need Expose. When I'm having 15 photo's open and want just that one with the Elk, you needed.

2. I never find it in Vista.

3. Netscape is a dinosaur, and yes I had never in my live one virus.

4. finding settling on a Windhoos machine isn't easy. I have to use sometimes Vista, so I know. I call it the Cancel or Allow hell.

5. Of course there are other and more flexible videochat solutions, but iChat works great, no doubt. even my own mother can use it

6. you can call it bland, but i love the I/O ports on the back (i have a 2 years old iMac G5). Everything behind the screen. It's have only one cable attach to it, the powercable.

 

[Onagan]

My Macbook came with a one-button trackpad, which is occasionally an annoyance to use, so I plug in a USB mouse.

The Mighty Mouse isn't everything. but on your MacBook you can right-click with 2 fingers on your trackpad and clicking on your button. I hadn't any problem with that. I love the 2 finger scrolling on those machine. that's better then the MM scrollball.

 

[Speedo]

1. you sure do need Expose. When I'm having 15 photo's open and want just that one with the Elk, you needed.

Or, in windows, just click the button in the task bar that says "elk.jpg".

3. Netscape is a dinosaur, and yes I had never in my live one virus.

Just hope that Macs don't become popular, or you may have a nightmare. In many ways OSX is more vulnerable than windows.

 

[Onagan]

And you think I give names to all of my photo's? It's just called HP0001456 or something like that.

 

[Asher]

It's sneaky, yes, but it's not exactly a secret. If you don't like it, don't buy from iTunes. Personally, I avoid running iTunes at all, because it's horrible at dealing with OGG tracks.

It doesn't matter. It exists, and it's Apple's own software doing it. This is the point.

Neither does Windows XP. (I don't know whether Vista does, I never looked into that)

ZoneAlarm is free and integrates with Windows. Is there an equivalent for OS X?

I don't know of a single person who runs Netscape on OS X. In fact, I wasn't even aware that there were any recent Netscape versions that ran on OS X.

Doesn't matter. RealPlayer is another example. The statement was made this kind of software does not exist on MacOS X. It does. Therefore the statement is incorrect.

As someone who primarily uses Linux and sees nothing wrong with using both KDE and Gnome applications, I don't quite understand the obsession (on the Apple side or the Windows side) with all the programs looking the same. Who cares, as long as the programs do the job they're supposed to do?

UI consistency is perhaps THE most important part of a functional, easy-to-use UI. The fact that, as a Linux user, you do not see value in it speaks volumes. This is also a major reason Linux remains useless to the vast majority of people, by the way.

Take some HCI courses or read some books about it. Consistency is key to a user interface.

 

[Asher]

@Asher
1. you sure do need Expose. When I'm having 15 photo's open and want just that one with the Elk, you needed.

1. Why do you have 15 photos open? That seems excessive. In any case, perhaps you should acquaint yourself to the "Windows" menu where you can have it arrange your windows for you. Or press ALT-TAB in Vista, or WIN-TAB in Vista. Or view the thumbnails, which is kind of the point of the thumbnails...

2. I never find it in Vista.

Well, that's your problem. It's there.

3. Netscape is a dinosaur, and yes I had never in my live one virus.

Netscape 8 is all of a couple months old...

4. finding settling on a Windhoos machine isn't easy. I have to use sometimes Vista, so I know. I call it the Cancel or Allow hell.

English please. I don't see what any of this has to do. Your comment was consistency in that you can press ?-H to hide in any application. The same principle applies in Windows -- in fact, before such a feature existed in MacOS.

5. Of course there are other and more flexible videochat solutions, but iChat works great, no doubt. even my own mother can use it

And my grandmother uses MSN Messenger to videochat with me. This is no reason to use a Mac.

6. you can call it bland, but i love the I/O ports on the back (i have a 2 years old iMac G5). Everything behind the screen. It's have only one cable attach to it, the powercable.

Yes, having the I/O ports on the back is awesome. I don't know of ANY PC at all with the I/O ports on the back. Will the Apple innovation ever cease?

 

[jkp1187]

I love making fun of Mac people, but I have to say that your third poll option is the worst. There are a few, very few, niche markets where a Mac is the best choice, but if you're asking on this site, you're not one of them. But saying PC and Mac are the same is almost blasphemy.

That said, the last Mac I would even consider using myself was the Apple IIe, which was a pretty decent system for its time. Nothing since then is worth the money. I like my computers being customizable, upgradable, and having loads of direct and 3rd party software.

Except the Apple IIe wasn't a Macintosh; it was...well...an Apple IIe.

Apple provides good products and backs them up. That said, whether or not you should purchase one depends on your primary use for the computer. If I was less of a gamer, I would be interested in purchasing a Mac. Gosh, if I didn't play Civilization, I probably would go for the Mac, since most of my other uses (web surfing, audio/video playback, word processing,) the Mac does just fine. I suppose I should look into how well Civ IV for Windows plays on Macs that run Windows....

Alas, none of these great PC games like Beyond the Sword are ever released for Mac in a timely fashion. And I'd frankly have a coronary event if I have to wait beyond next Monday for my copy!

 

[Jamesds]

You are all tearing eachother's posts apart over this ... let's not get too heated .

A couple of my thoughts:

- I think Macs do look rather nice. However, PCs can look just as nice, and some (that incidentally you pay a bomb for) look amazing with all the lights and metal.

- I do have a laught at the Mitchell and Webster videos, but I think Apple are pushing themselves way too far. They always give the message "Macs are cool, PCs belong in dull offices". This is so untrue, I think the range of games for one thing makes PCs all the more suited to 'play'. And, there's is nothing you can do on a Mac that you can't do on a PC.

- Macs are more expensive for the same hardware and performace than a PC. Especially when you can get the PC without the monitor, saving even more money . Macs are really quite limited in their customisability here. You can build PCs from scratch, but you can't build your Mac from scratch.

- It is said that Macs have higher security. Well, I guess that at the moment they do. But when the people that spend their time manufacturing viruses/spyware, etc, and finding security holes in software hear that for too long, they will soon lock their sights on Macs. They will then no longer be as safe, it is only their relative obscurity that brings them this security currently.

- Macs make the most funny, clanging sounds at start up. As if the polite "beep" from a PC wasn't enough...

- The Mac doesn't offer any any TV features on FrontRow - Windows has had that for a long time. In this way, PCs are more suited to multimedia and home use.

- When new hardware is released (e.g. Bluray drives, new CPUs) it is almost always for the PC first. Then the Mac might get it later. Basically, Macs are always behind in the latest technology.