Why go Mac?

[Geoff St. Germaine]

thanks for the info. What do yyou think about the software differences i.e. Powerpoint vs keynote?

You can use powerpoint if you want. Office for Mac is available. I run it because it keeps things more consistent with the Windows PCs at work.

 

[IanStephenson]

MacBook is a great basic machine. Does everything 90% of people would ever want.

If you need graphics performance over and above what most people need, then go Pro.

If you really need to go mobile get an Air.

I've got a Pro, but work paid for it, and I need the power (I do graphics software development, including some stuff thats hardware accelerated using Apple Core Image). However as I'm NEVER at my desk, I would have considered an AIR if it had been out (it's probably a bit too cut down for me - I LOVED my 12" PowerBook.).

When I put down family money for my wifes machine a couple of years ago we went MacBook - no problems with it, and perfromance is great even now. No reason to think we should have gone pro.

Ian

p.s. Keynote is great and iWorks is dirt cheap. Unless you REALLY need Office, iWorks does the job, and can reliably import/export Office documents. We have a site license for Office at work, so I could get it installed, but I've never bothered. iWorks has always come through and done the job (though I'm not a Power user of those kind of tools)

 

[Rusty Chainsaw]

Well... how old is your current notebook? I wouldn't suggest getting a mac in the first place unless you need/want a new computer... One option you have is to buy Leopard (the new Mac OS) and put it on your current laptop... I haven't tried this, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. It would be a better idea if you have a intel core duo processor.

This can't be done with an off-the-shelf copy of Leopard - it's locked to Apple hardware. However, there are various hacked versions doing the rounds on the torrent sites which enable you to install it on a regular PC, but there's usually various hardware issues involved (wireless card incompatabilities, sound/graphics card problems, etc).

Having said that, a properly configured Hackintosh is a good, cheap alternative to a Mac Pro - I'm thinking of going that route myself.

Just buy a MacBook and be happy. Be even happier by upgrading it to 4GB. And relive the old days by installing Boot Camp, Parallels or VMWare Fusion and running Windows, should you feel the need (which you probably won't).

 

[afinalfantasy]

I'd stay with the PC. I personally think Macs are overpriced pieces of junk that don't even have the same amount of features you could get on a PC for over $1000 less.

 

[disenchant]

Depends on how "pro" you want to go.

If you're just doing general music and video editing stuff then iMovie and GarageBand are cool.

But if you're getting into effects and stuff, you really need a Pro. I use Final Cut Pro and Logic and I need the extra power. Nothing like hitting "render" and then going out for dinner.

 

[MakiSupaStar]

Depends on how "pro" you want to go.

If you're just doing general music and video editing stuff then iMovie and GarageBand are cool.

But if you're getting into effects and stuff, you really need a Pro. I use Final Cut Pro and Logic and I need the extra power. Nothing like hitting "render" and then going out for dinner.

Oh the things you do while rendering.

 

[XtreO]

I demand you buy a Toshiba, as they are by far the most long lasting. Mac sucks.

 

[Barkless Dog]

I'd stay with the PC. I personally think Macs are overpriced pieces of junk that don't even have the same amount of features you could get on a PC for over $1000 less.

Yeah until you want to integrate your music movies & graphics together easily & seamlessly.

If you just doing word proccessing or gaming go PC if that's what you know.

Garage Band is fantastic, you can be up in recording your own music in about an hour or less.

 

[Sonic_Death]

I demand you buy a Toshiba, as they are by far the most long lasting. Mac sucks.

Is.... is this a serious post?

I am sorry, but I find most Toshiba's to be some of the worst made laptops around, even if they are a little cheaper.

 

[Ben Lesser]

Is.... is this a serious post?

I am sorry, but I find most Toshiba's to be some of the worst made laptops around, even if they are a little cheaper.

+1

My old laptop was a Toshiba. I had it for 4 years, and hated it for 3.5 of those years.

 

[tplyons]

I bought my iPod, then it was all downhill from there.

When it came to replacing my Toshiba laptop, I went with a Macbook for it's reliability, portability, and ease of use. Not to mention a dozen or so nifty features that I LOVE. The hardware is superb. The operating system very stable and well thought out.

I've never gone 9 months with a new computer without having a problem. The problem before was that they were all running Windows

 

[IanStephenson]

My wife had a toshiba before she got her MacBook. After four years, the batter was dead (actually dead after a year or so), the case was cracked and broken, the DVD drive fell out, and the screen would no longer close. When windows crashed we couldn't even reinstall from the restore DVD, as it wouldn't use an external DVD drive.

2 years in her MacBook is still in one piece.

Sure you can find a cheaper laptop, but start with the sticker price you find on the dell website for their entry level laptop, and put decent ram in it, spec up the processor, add a full copy of windows, webcam, firewire etc. Then add what garageband and co are worth to you (easily $100). THEN compare that to a MacBook. Works out about the same, and you still haven't got a MacBook.

Ian

 

[no1likesme]

NEITHER! install ubuntu on your current notebook.

 

[jazzy grille]

NEITHER! install ubuntu on your current notebook.

LAWL.

 

[john turner]

Because once you go Mac, you never go back?

i've had a g4 for a while now, and i only use it when i absolutely have to (protools).

 

[john turner]

My wife had a toshiba before she got her MacBook. After four years, the batter was dead (actually dead after a year or so), the case was cracked and broken, the DVD drive fell out, and the screen would no longer close. When windows crashed we couldn't even reinstall from the restore DVD, as it wouldn't use an external DVD drive.

2 years in her MacBook is still in one piece.

Sure you can find a cheaper laptop, but start with the sticker price you find on the dell website for their entry level laptop, and put decent ram in it, spec up the processor, add a full copy of windows, webcam, firewire etc. Then add what garageband and co are worth to you (easily $100). THEN compare that to a MacBook. Works out about the same, and you still haven't got a MacBook.

Ian

i got a new dell laptop for a _LOT_ less than what the equivalent mac laptop would have cost me. and it even looks like a mac - painted all white, nice with wide screen 1920x1200 wuxga screen, t7700 intel dual core, 200 gig hd, dvd rw drive for $1100 bucks delivered. upgraded the ram from 1 gig to 4 for less than 100 bucks on my own, and there you go.

the secret with dell machines is to buy the bare bones models and upgrade them yourself (ram-wise). you can get 4 gig of notebook ram now for less than 100 bucks. can probably upgrade the internal dvd drive to a blue ray for around 100 more bucks if i get so inclined.

 

[john turner]

Wow, I didn't think I could dislike Apple and my Mac more that I already did until I saw that site. Apple raises the bar while simultaneously reaching a new low.

- Dave

+1

i learned how to program on an apple ][e when they were new (still have it, it still boots ) and i've tried to remain a fan ever since, but their elitist hubris that cost them the original market share to pc's, and their persistent style-over-substance mentality have made me pretty much disgusted with them.

to me osx is unintuitive and kludgy, and too difficult to work with. i want to know what threads are presently running on my machine, i want to know what is dependant on those threads, and i want to know what machine resources they are using. my g4 doesn't make this knowledge available to me - shoot, i put a disk in the drive and i cannot even find how to access it without opening the frickin itune crap. no thank you - if macs running protools were not the studio standard for recording, i'd not own one. undoubtedly some of my dissatisfaction comes from my own ignorance of the OS, but it didn't take a windows book for me to figure out how to access the registry or the system configuration settings in the control panel.

 

[Dave Grossman]

i've had a g4 for a while now, and i only use it when i absolutely have to (protools).

I have a G4 at work in addition to a Windows PC and a Linux box.

I use my Win PC daily for software development. How often do I have to deal with updates? Or system restarts? I'll let you guys know when I figure that out. All critical updates are set to install automatically overnight so I never see them. I rarely restart my system. One time I checked and it had been running without reboot for 45 days with no problems.

My Mac, on the other hand, constantly nags me to update iTunes, Quicktime and OSX for critical security updates. Does that mean that if I don't, my Mac is not secure? I thought Macs were always secure. Could this just more Apple marketing BS? Even though I rarely use it, it still ends up having to be force-rebooted more than both of my other systems combined (I honestly can't remember the last time I had to force reboot either of my other systems or had a system crash). The thing froze up on me while playing a DVD! All I did was touch a navigation control on it. Was that wrong? Their included DVD player sucks really bad too. Every Windows computer I've ever bought with a DVD drive has come with way better software than that.

Then there's the Mac mouse acceleration curve which you have little control over and have to buy a 3rd party driver or utility to fix. Every time I touch the damn thing I want to chuck it out the window. I've spent several hours over the years trying to fix the mouse acceleration without shelling out $20 for a utility or try to find some 3rd party mouse that has a proper mouse friver.

Macs look good and they come with some cool software. However, there are many PC's that look good and at least I have a choice. As cool as the included Mac software may be, it certainly won't compare to 3rd party software.

The reliability of Macs compared to PC is really not as good as Apple would like you to believe. Their "just works" claim is utter BS. They lie in their advertisements. I hold Apple in about as high regard as that company that markets "Head-On".

Pffft.

- Dave

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Awesome! Sheer awesome!

 

[SteveC]

Unfortunately, these threads never stay very nice. I will try. I have used a Mac since 1986. In over 20 years, I have had 1 crash where I had to redo everything. I had a backup so I lost about a weeks worth of stuff. I'm not sure why Dave is questioning their reliability any more than a PC. I was forced to use a PC in my office for 2 years. Thank God that this year we were able to choose the platform we wanted for our lease. I hated working on a PC and Windows. I tried. Nothing worked as simply as my Mac. I like it because it just works - at least that has been my experience.

Yeah, have sold out and use MS Office for Mac because you just have to use Word, Excell, etc., but I don't see myself ever using a PC if I have my choice.