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Why go Mac?

Which notebook to go with?

  • MacBook

    Votes: 25 25.3%

  • MacBook Pro

    Votes: 44 44.4%

  • MacBook Air

    Votes: 2 2.0%

  • Keep the pc notebook you have now.

    Votes: 28 28.3%
  • Total voters
    99
#81
Lalabadie said:
Macs have more idiocy-protection, and that's what a lot of people look for.
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I know what you mean, but this is where the terminology is mis-leading. Macs don't have more idiocy protection. There are less malicious apps and individuals out there looking to entrap Mac users. If there were as many looking to exploit Mac as there are looking to exploit PC's, the problem would be just as big and significant. Mac's are no more secure than PC's.
 
#82
Lalabadie said:
But they DO! Everyday!
It's not the PC, it's the PC user that's dangerous!

Macs have more idiocy-protection, and that's what a lot of people look for. I have one 'cause I feel more at ease on it, the OS pleases me more, and very importantly the client is reassured when he sees a slick shiny glossy white machine working with me.

But I will never underestimate the power of properly used PCs.
Click to expand...

I know. I've seen it too. I was just being funny. I agree with you. A non networked, or a machine on a closed-firewalled network, dedicated to one purpose is going to work fine even if it's windows.
 
#84
The medical support systems I've seen are typically on wireless networks, connected to a hospital VLAN of some sort, with connectivity through to the internet, via a firewall of course. They are portable stations that can be wheeled from room to room. They aren't running ANY kind of antivirus or spyware at all as that would introduce more contention for CPU cycles. No problem.
 
#85
I've been on this fence, and in the end I stuck with a PC. It "Just Works" for me. ;)

The learning curve would have cut down in my productivity, and I had plenty of software for the PC that I didn't want to port to the Mac. My day job is in a Windows environment, and wanted the flexibility to interface with that environment readily.

A Mac is great if you want an intuitive and well designed user interface, and don't want a world of options. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with sticking with a PC. It's easier on the wallet as well.
 
#86
Disco_Gee said:
Paint Shop Pro X2 - PC only.
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That's my point - what FUNCTIONALITY does PSProX2 provide that isn't in all the other paint packages?

You can choose between 10 paint packages on the PC, but that functionality is the same as you get in the 3 or 4 good packages that run on the Mac.

More choice does not mean better, unless those choices each add something.

Ian
 
#89
SuperDuck said:
Snap. :D Dave and I found something that we agree on.
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That article is full of gems like that.

"Mac owners often sneer that kind of defence back at you when you mock their silly, posturing contraptions, because in doing so, you have inadvertently put your finger on the dark fear haunting their feeble, quivering soul - that in some sense, they are a superficial semi-person assembled from packaging; an infinitely sad, second-rate replicant who doesn't really know what they are doing here, but feels vaguely significant and creative each time they gaze at their sleek designer machine. And the more deftly constructed and wittily argued their defence, the more terrified and wounded they secretly are."

"Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose. If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that "says something" about your personality, don't bother. You don't have a personality. A mental illness, maybe - but not a personality."

Ouch! :D

- Dave
 
#91
Lalabadie said:
My Fisher-Price toys are the industry standards, okay? :atoz:
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+1, if you're in graphic design or audio recording. There's no other excuse you need give for owning/wanting a Mac. That's my entire argument. For Mac users to then go further by claiming they are more secure, easier, faster, and anything else is complete absurdity. I run Windows Vista on my professional laptop because I'm an systems engineer in a large consulting company. It's industry standard. If I went around with a Macbook I'd be a complete idiot. I don't have to claim that Vista is better than anything to do this. If I showed up some graphics design class with it, I'd also be an idiot.

Use the platform that gets the job done GIVEN the job. IF that means Mac, then go forth and be happy. But then be secure enough in your decision without having to boast that your Mac is somehow superior to what 95% of the rest of the world uses.
 
#94
Eublet said:
An unintuitive interface that they have to relearn is usually the first put off. Sure you can learn it, but for all the claims of how easy it is, most people don't find this to be the case, and there are independent studies out there that prove this.

If Mac were better, they would be the number one brand. They would be running the business desktop, the business servers, etc.
Click to expand...

Actually, I've seen studies that the MacOS actually is faster and more intuitive OS when it comes to workflow. And just because you have to re-learn a logic the OS uses, it doesn't mean it's a bad one - simply that you are used to some other system. It's just natural a different OS will feel weird at first. My MacOS experience has been very positive even though it was a tad strange at first, I came from a background of using different Windows versions for a decade before getting my first Mac. I wouldn't be a Mac guy if I didn't like it!

The sole fact that Apple is successful in selling computers to a market that's saturated with one system in monopoly position, even in a position where the people have to get accustomed to a "weird" OS and you can't even get every piece of software for it, does prove that Apple is doing something right with it's machines.

Most PC-nerds are happy to put this under "pretty covers and a lot of marketing", however if Mac would be just a company that does a poor machine with a poor OS, throwing a bit of glitter and marketing hype on top, people simply wouldn't buy it enough to keep the company up. We are living the information age, not the wild west where you can travel around selling snakeoil, word gets around.

And SuperDuck claiming that "Macs just won't make the cut.." - it's funny, my university's Comp. Sciences department has a few pretty hardcore Mac fanatic heads of staff - even to the point that the CSc dept has a couple of full-Mac classrooms, plus at least a couple of Macs available for student use in most computer halls around the whole campus. But hey, what do they know, they're just IT professors, right? :D

It's true though, that some fields can be very PC-oriented. If you have interests in those fields, it's obvious that you want to use a PC as a work machine (or simply dualboot your Mac to Windows), nothing wrong with that. But for more generic use, I still feel that Apple offers products that are superior to Windows boxes when it comes to the user experience.
 
#95
Tsal said:
And SuperDuck claiming that "Macs just won't make the cut.." - it's funny, my university's Comp. Sciences department has a few pretty hardcore Mac fanatic heads of staff - even to the point that the CSc dept has a couple of full-Mac classrooms, plus at least a couple of Macs available for student use in most computer halls around the whole campus. But hey, what do they know, they're just IT professors, right? :D
Click to expand...

Having a few Mac classrooms and some student-use computers is a pretty far cray from "cutting it" in the professional world. I have yet to see a Mac used in any application in an professional setting I have ever been in. (I don't work in graphics, FWIW.)

But what do I know, I just work in the engineering field, right? ;)
 
#97
Tsal, I certainly haven't claimed that Mac's or OSX is inferior to PC's. It depends on the application. There are plenty of studies that suggest that Windows is the more intuitive interface. I don't mean for someone switching, I mean for someone brand new to both and trying to learn them.

Mac's are solid products. No doubt about it.

By the way, most IT professors I know and have worked with are some of the most behind-the-times technologists in the world. IT education in the University/College environments moves very slowly compared to the rest of the world. It takes WAY too long for colleges to update their curriculum when the technology industry is changing at the speed of light. I'm involved with three different higher education facilities right now, and most of their professors couldn't talk intelligently about a single new product that's come out over the last 3 years. They're just getting a handle on Windows Server 2003, and if you mention Windows 2008, they give you the deer-in-the-headlights look. Most CIS students exiting college are several years behind the times with what is going on. They've learned older development tools using older programming languages on older systems. That's my experience, which I've had a good bit of.
 
#98
To the majority of the posters: get your own damn thread. I asked nicely for you guys to avoid this discussion so I could get some of my questions answered. You obliged for, like, 18 hours. Thanks...I guess.

In the meantime, any other words out there regarding Keynote vs. Powerpoint? I am going back and forth on whether or not to get one, so some professional advice would be nice, and not just "Macs are for hippies" and "PC's suck".

Thanks...
 

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