Mac Users?

[Eidorian]

How many board members here are Mac users? Or even know how to use one effectively enough to be productive?

I've been thinking about switching since before I came to college. My physics teacher had just bought an iBook during my senior year at high school and he seemlessly integreated it into our existing Win 98 PII 233 network. My interest was peaked then and I looked into my own iBook. Eventually I simply settled with a good Compaq laptop.

Once arriving in college I could never get a Windows PC in any of the computer labs. There were always lines just to get one computer. I was always to lazy to carry my laptop around since even it became a hassle. Strangely, there were never lines in any of the Mac labs. I taught myself allf the basics of Mac OS X and even read some books for reference.

My roommates and gaming are the only real thing that keep me from switching. I'm not going to stick with my current roommates since they're taking too much of my time on games. It's also too expensive to get an apartment with them. I'm going to sell all the games I bought to play with them and probably get all the DS games I wanted.

I'm still being ridiculed by them since I just helped them build their new computers. To them even wanting a Mac is "fruity" or "ghey". i just want a machine with an OS that isn't constantly shafted by Windows flaws and Microsoft's latest "ideas". I'm still keeping the PC I built last summer but I'm switching my browsing, audio, video, and imaging applicatons to Mac.

I'll either settle with a Mac mini but I'd love a 17" iMac. I'm just waiting for Apple to get Tiger out and update the hardware on the iMac.

[HereticPB]

Mac has its own flaws as well they are just less known.

The possible reason at least at my High school and my dabbings in College is the Mac computers weren't connected to the internet. Quite possibly the lines for PC is because of the internet.

Or the other thing is Mac is a tiny fraction of computers these days and they are much much much more expensive than PCs and still to this day have less software than PCs. That is really the only problem I see with a mac. More expensive less Software.

I really don't see the point if you always update windows its fine. Spyware, viruses, etc are just a part of computer life you deal with and move on.

[Eidorian]

It depends on the software. For gaming, I'll admit that Macs aren't the best option. I've really strayed away from PC gaming though. After 2000 the titles that I wanted eventually did come of the Mac OS. As long as Unreal Tournament is on the Mac too. I'm happy with my choice of FPS.

In the past two years I've spent 4x as much on GCN games then what I have on PC games.

What other software are you talking about?

[Crow]

like Heretic said there's less software but i hear its pretty good

[HereticPB]

Eidorian just about all software outside of Adobe Products are not on Mac. Though it has improved since the old days. And as for gaming on the Mac I think that has been destroyed by Steve Jobs.

At one point Macs were becoming like PCs with towers, customization, gaming, etc. But Apple hired back Steve Jobs and that was squashed.

But I'm not a mac user I don't pay to much attention to them cause they are small in the computer industry. But if your having problems with a PC I suggest you get a mac and stay. But from what your telling me you know a lot about PCs. A suggestion try Linux.

[Eidorian]

Macs aren't all about Adobe.

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=200163+4294967191&Ne=500936

I'm too lazy to learn Linux. Yes, I'm serious.

This is my PC bible.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0789731738/qid=1105115198/br=1-1/ref=br_lf_b_1//103-6167883-0044605?v=glance&s=books&n=3830

[Sendok]

I love my mac, plain and simple.

From the stable OS, to the fact that every program i want i can get on mac makes it a perfect fit for me.

Now don't get me wrong, windows has its place. If you want comp games ASAP use windows. However if you are like me and you don't play many comp games (i have consoles for games) try mac.

---

Linux is pretty good also, while i don't know much about it and my time on it is limited its music player sucks ass. (i love music btw so this was a major dissapointment)

[Relient J]

Eidorian, let me give my perspective on the Mac. I used Windows until the summer of 2000. That was when I bought my first Mac, an iBook Special Edition.

First of all, yes there is less software written for Macintosh because it is a less widespread platform, but I have rarely had difficulty finding software for the Mac platform to fulfill any need I might have had. A good starting place would be a site called VersionTracker at http://www.versiontracker.com/. Apple also has lists of a lot of compatible software on their site. The only category of software that you'll find in short supply for the Mac are games. While there are a lot of great titles for the platform like Unreal Tournament and Halo, there aren't as many as there are for Windows. Like nayrk, I don't play many games outside of the GameCube, so it's not a problem for me.

Secondly, Heretic said that dealing with viruses and spyware is just a part of computer life. Well, that's completely untrue for the Mac! To my knowledge I have never once been infected with either a virus or any form of actual spyware.

As you've probably discovered, Macs even work pretty well when integreated with Windows networks. You can easily share files with any computer running Windows XP (2000 too I think, but don't quote me). In my home we have an iMac G5, an iBook, and a Windows PC all connected wirelessly to the Internet using a Linksys wireless router. The only problem I've had is trying to print from one of the Macs to a shared printer on the Windows machine, and that may be due to ignorance on my part.

I highly recommend the Mac platform to you. With the advent of the iMac G5 and the Mac mini, not to mention all of the predictions of an increase in Mac market share, it's an exciting time to buy a Mac!

Sorry if this is considered bumping a thread. It was still on the main page in my browser.

[Eidorian]

Thank for the support. I'm waiting for Tiger and a Rev B. Mac Mini to come out first. In addition Apple might bump up the default RAM for 512 from 256 MB.

[Relient J]

Yeah, I agree about the RAM. When I bought my iMac G5 I had it upgraded to 1 GB. Tiger should be out the middle of April if the rumors prove true. A revision to the Mac mini though is probably going to have to wait until summer at the absolute earliest.

[Eidorian]

Yeah, I agree about the RAM. When I bought my iMac G5 I had it upgraded to 1 GB. Tiger should be out the middle of April if the rumors prove true. A revision to the Mac mini though is probably going to have to wait until summer at the absolute earliest.No problem on waiting until summer. I'm broke on computer spending money right now. I'm keeping track of the days.

[Sendok]

^yeah i know, right now im lookin at the 1.8GHz G5 tower, but im gonna have to wait till the end of summer.

[=NukeBlaze=]

I love my PCs. The only ups for Apple I really see are slightly higher performance in photoshop , more secure OS by means of smaller number of users, and its really, really, blue and applely.

Besides that , I personally prefer a PC due to faster and cheaper Hardware, larger number of utlities and programs due to the windows and DOS world, etc.

Both ends have thier ups and downs, put for the price of a $1500 G5 @ a single 1.8 Ghz, you could get quite a beast of a computer. Crazy mac people. :)

[Sendok]

^referbs are quite wonderfull for that reason. i can get a referb 1.8Ghz for around or under $900.

[Relient J]

The Mac Night Owl, otherwise known as Gene Steinberg, had a piece about the subject of Mac pricing and performance on his blog today, entitled "All Right Macs Are Slow And Expensive." You'll find if you read the piece that he actually disagrees with that statement. You can read it at http://www.macnightowl.com/.

[Eidorian]

^referbs are quite wonderfull for that reason. i can get a referb 1.8Ghz for around or under $900.I was considering on getting a used G4 Power Mac. Still, I'm cheap and those things aren't dropping in price fast enough. I'm going to stick with my old PC right now. It runs Half-Life 2 at 50 fps with settings at high and I'm happy. If Battlefield 2 needs more than that for medium graphics, I'll be cranky.

I'm just tired of Norton bugging me and I want to have a separate machine to handle my music, pictures, and web browsing. In addtion the Mac OS itself would help me interact more with the foreign language department here on campus. Most of them use Macs due to the built in multi-language support and education software.

I'll just hang out until the end of the summer. The Mac Mini already has almost 80 days since its last revision. 100 more and it "should" get another one. Hopefully it won't get put back on the updating shelf like the Power Mac & eMac. It's a hot item so I believe Apple will keep it current to ward off naysayers.

[Sendok]

Another thing you might want to check out is the macs on campus and see if they are upgrading anytime soon. I know that OfAnAgeGoneBy (the lucky bastard) is getting an old iMac im thinking the 500MHz version for jack squat.

[Eidorian]

Another thing you might want to check out is the macs on campus and see if they are upgrading anytime soon. I know that OfAnAgeGoneBy (the lucky bastard) is getting an old iMac im thinking the 500MHz version for jack squat.Good idea. I've noticed that the G4 iMac here are much faster than their Windows counterparts on the network. I should ask when they're going to upgrade those to G5's. I'd sure like an all-in-one G4 iMac. I'll have to hunt for one in good condition. At worst I'll just have to replace a keyboard. Those Apple keys have taken a beating on nearly every machine. I hate using the one on the right.


Appleinsider reports (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=973) that Apple will bring updates to the iMac, eMac and iBook lines next month. The report is short on details, includes the following predictions...

The iMac is expected to be bumped to 1.8GHz - 2.0GHz speeds alongside with speculation about a HD version of the iMac. The current iMac speeds range from 1.6 - 1.8GHz.

eMacs are also expected, but few details are provided.

Finally iBook revisions may also make their debut soon with speed bumps to 1.33 - 1.55 GHz and "an improved ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processor".

First word of April iMac and eMac (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/03/20050311160237.shtml) updates came in early March with few other details provided. The iBook, iMac and eMac product lines are all due for upgrades (MacRumors Buyer's Guide) (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/) based on their product timelines.

[WolfmanNCSU]

I think macs definitly look great. They have awesome HCI (Human Computer Interaction),-especially the design of the OS, software, etc. And they run smoothly on less demanding hardware because of its lack of byte swapping etc.

Howver, I just don't like them. They are very expensive and very intergrated - to the point that its tough to build a mac from scratch. If I had the money, I would definitly own one, but since I dont, I am sticking to the PC world.

I run both a windows and a linux machine at home. Linux is really not that hard to learn. There are tons of online references, tutorials, and plus the Gnome interface looks pretty much the same as the Windows interface you are used to. So its like getting the best of both a Command Line and a GUI.

Anyway, I think they are awesome machines, but not for my taste (But I do love my iPod).

Oh yeah, and these are my computer bibles....

Code Complete (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735619670/qid=1112276042/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/103-1537855-2828650)
Refactoring (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201485672/qid=1112276639/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-1537855-2828650?v=glance&s=books)

[matrix7]

I agree totally with ReliantJ on this one - when I switched to my new job 6 months ago I was pretty much forced to learn Macs as that was what my boss used and what my laptop would be (I have the 17" Power with 1GB of RAM and a CD burner/ DVD burner :-)

It took a little patience but eventuaally I got more comfortable with the layout and now I refuse to go back. I am a die hard Mac fan. The computers are much more powerful (and stylish to boot) and they crash FAR less than Windows.

Before you guys think I am just a fanboy here I have over 5 years of experience as a Network Administrator and a ton of hours invested in computers in general. That being said Apple makes a far superior product to the rest of the world (a high end ABS or AlienWare would be the closest I could think of in the PC world).

Virus/Spyware being a part of life? Sheesh where have you been the past five years? Macs DO NOT get that stuff. You can say it's because they don't own a large enough market to target all you want but if you look at who uses Macs (design firms, print companies, newspapers, 3D rendering studios, networking and computer professionals) they are all people who know PC's as opposed to the average XP user who knows just enough to be dangerous. I will take the small group of people who know what the heck they are talking about over the majortiy of blithering idiots any day...

When they hired Jobs back some major changes took place in Apple (nearly all for the better). Since then all of the things I did not like about Macs in the late 90's has been changed to the new OSX style (which rocks by the way). The reason for this is when Jobs left he started up a company that sold NextStep systems. These were very VERY expensive but totally revolutionary for their time. They were doing things in the early 90's that are JUST NOW getting implemented into our OS's. I have a video of Jobs from back in the day showing off a Next Step and it is amazing and very very OSX-like. These changes (and iPod of course) are basically what saved Apple.

Who should switch? Of course I would love an Apple-dominant market but if you are a heavy gamer Mac may not be for you. The performance is much better don't get me wrong but there are a plethora of games on PC and while nearly all of the best ones make it over some do not (especially the obscure ones that seem to capture our attention the most). Of course if you have a Mac you have better things to do than games right? Graphic editing (Photoshop, Fireworks, etc...), rendering (Lightwave, 3DSMax), presentations (Keynote), sound editing (Garage Band) it's all here. On top of all that most Mac's come preinstalled with a really nice package that will leave you speechless.

Anybody who says PC's are just as good (Im sorry) does not know what they are talking about. Macs are a cut above the rest to be sure. While it's true the main reason is (1) Everybody is used to Winblows (2) They are usually more expensive

Not so with the new MacMini. This tiny little bugger is 2" tall, 6" wide and 6" deep. Barely big enough to put a CD in. They start at $499 but I suggest the $799 one with wireless (yep integrated wireless, no ugly antennae here!) for decent performance. They ship in a box smaller than most igloo coolers and hook up easily.

I am basically done ranting now but bottom line is Mac is the way to go if you are willing to take a couple of months to unlearn all the crap you have had to learn with Windows and learn a different way to compute. It's not for everyone, but I think after you give it a serious try it is for most ;-)

[Eidorian]

Time to hit surplus.

http://www.purdue.edu/surplus/Welcome.html

^_^

[Sendok]

^not workin for me.

[Eidorian]

^not workin for me.I cleared my cache and loaded it in IE and Firefox.

http://www.purdue.edu/surplus

I hope this works. I asked around the language department and they sent me to their computer manager.

[=NukeBlaze=]

I have used OSX in my school, it really does not do anything for me. It is nice and all, but probably due to a PC user wandering about the mac world, Disorientiton set in. I remember gettings used to the keyboard shortcuts, the bloody little apple key was finally found to open the sub-menu on a file for the mouse lacked a 2nd button. That happened to drive me crazy on this perticular mac, but I do realize that they do have 2 buttoned mice.

As far as MAC OS is concerened, it is a good thing that MAC is not popular in the world. With the advent of that its OS would encounter the same numerious problems with ad-ware and viruses that plague the windows world. It is true that the averge mac users knows a lot more about a machine than thier PC coutnerpart. As far as windows is concerned for my personal machine, I rarely , if ever, have a problem with viruses or any form of spam. Back to the ratio of computer knowledgeable mac and pc user ratios, I fix PCs all the time for people that are just cluttered with Adware . These are the average PC users that don't know thier ASCII from a hole in the ground. While they do supply me with money....for asprin...I do wish there was a soultion to them.