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Grant Meisenholder
Trad climber
CA
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-If macs were SO MUCH BETTER OH MY GOD then the world would use Macs...-
Nice try, but the issue is with the licensing of the OS. Microsquish didn't limit the ability of programmers to write stuff for their OS and subsequently got a lot of people designing their business systems around it. Apple chose to charge a fairly hefty fee to play which led to much less development at first. By the time anyone noticed, the Gates empire was firmly established despite Apple having the far superior platform.
I remember when "GUI" was frowned upon by the programmer "purists" as being too simple and allowing non-nerds to actually use a computer with little to no training.
Just about everyone I know who is chained to the PC platform wishes they could switch. If there was a way for people to switch without having to buy new programs, I'll bet 99% of them would.
Macs are Amazons while PCs are frumpy librarians.
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Jaybro
Social climber
wuz real!
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Interesting insights, Grant.
make the switch, don't get squished.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Anastasia, I gotta call you on your BS.
My personal PC is older than 5 years. I can develop user apps on it.
My PC at work is even older and I use it 8 hours+ day. One runs XP and the other runs Windows 2000.
At work they just started switching to XP this year. We have over 300,000 customers running below Vista paying megabucks.
A computer is only as good as it is suitable to YOUR tasks. For graphics artists - mainly - this used to be Macs. Developers for most other stuff had long ago moved to PC as primary platform.
Why do you think Macs run Windows?!!! Hello. Because they would already be out of business otherwise. Even all the good graphics stuff had moved to PCs as their primary target platform.
Macs are on an upslope. They have made tremendous progress just staying in business.
It is not all about hardware. You can buy ruggedized PCs that can literally be thrown across the room and still work.
My son loves his Mac. But it cost $400 to fix the condensation problem. If he had sent it back to Apple, he would have been buying a new Mac for what they would have charged to repair!
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mark miller
Social climber
Reno
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Macs....Knott even a ? If you kneed to run Linux or even windows the Intel processors, through "BOOT camp" work fine I run Windows XP to handle auto cad. Works wonderfully. I have parallels but auto cad is such an archaic pig that only the simplest plans can be run on it. Spend another 100.00 and enjoy a well thought out machine. Every time I have to use my wife's HP notebook I want to throw it out the window...Do people actually create and complete projects on those pieces of shite?
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Decko
Trad climber
Colorado
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Had PC'S for years, Toshiba, Dell, all laptops.
Have a BRAND NEW Dell Laptop at work, all the bells and whistles, blah, blah, blah......
When I get home I am so HAPPY that a couple of years ago I bought a Powerbook G4......
I've taken it in for major overhauls, New hard drive, keyboard, touchpad, battery, software glitches......and it's back within 2 days.
ALL FREE AND ALL GREAT SERVICE.
Get a PC and an 800 number to India when it breaks...
Everything about my Mac I love...Now outside of warranty but the GF dropped it on the floor and it STILL charges along....
Can't actually wait for it to die so I'll have an excuse to slap down the extra bucks, and yes I do think they are overpriced, but for me and my uses, Photo's, videos, climbing, kids....and general OS I'm more than happy with going to MAC
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Mac, it's will worth extra cost
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Here's a bump for the iLife apps too. Mostly I use my Macs for work and the basic home computing stuff (surfing the Taco...). But I just started dabbling in GarageBand a few weeks ago, and it is AWESOME!!! I can cut a track, add vocals, add harmonies, whatever, and then send it to my buddy in Kansas to add some more tracks. It's so versatile, easy, and downright amazing!! And when I think about the old days, trying to mix down a demo on a crappy 4-track, I just shake my head. And now we're doing transcontinental collaborations. Another app I just started dabbling in was iMovie. Last weekend, I bombed down to paddle around in Drake's Estero and try to photograph some Leopard Sharks. I failed miserably in getting shots of the sharks, but I did take a bunch of photos and some movie footage. A couple of hours of figuring out how iMovie works, getting my Ken Burns ON and whatnot, add a soundtrack and some goofy sound effects, edit it down, and voilá, I made myself a decent little slideshow (it's on YouTube if you really care to check it out). Super-easy, super-versatile, and it blows my mind to think that this technology is in the hands of every kid out there running a Mac. I'm a total newbie hack with that stuff, and generally lacking in talent anyway, but I can't wait to see/hear the art that this generation will be producing in 5-10 years.
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Redwreck
Social climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Get a Mac, and if you need to occasionally (or frequently) run Windows (or Linux or FreeBSD or whatever), get Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion and you can run MacOS and the "other" OS at the same time. This is for Intel Macs only but that's all they make now and buying an old PowerPC Mac at this point wouldn't be a great idea anyway.
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couchmaster
climber
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Tough choice:
Knott!
I think if you are astute with computers, PCs are great, and the better choice. However, it truly is like buying a used car that has issues. You are expected to get the carburetor tuned up yourself, Fix the breaks yourself, etc etc. So if you don't want to be a mechanic.....
Macs just seem to do it if you need to get a job done, and don't want to spend a week trying to reinstall some arcane driver: or having your laptop seamlessly connect to a connection in the airport: Macs are it.
Of course, I'm still personally using a Dell Optiplex running Windows 2000, but I've bought a Mac for my wife and a Macbook pro for my brother, and they are the shizz.
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Domingo
Trad climber
El Portal, CA
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I'm with Werner, but I'm an engineering student. I actually need to have my computer do exactly what I tell it to, unlike the average Mac user.
Sure, I could buy a $3000 Mac, but why would I do that when I could buy something for less that works just as well and gives me more freedom and guarantees my programs will run?
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nature
climber
Santa Fe, NM
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IF you can afford it buy the Mac.
IF you are an engineering geek or computer programming geek than listening to Werner and Domingo is worth the time. IF that's the case build your own box and install Ubinta.
But if you you need to save the money and don't mind dicking with the OS, dealing with the risks of viruses etc. that are written for Windows and all over the place than get a windows machine.
I've used both and hands down love the Mac OS. I can barely tolerate the windows environment. I pity the foo' that has to work with it.
I ran over my MacBook with a truck and it still works. If I get this contract job I bid on I'll spend have the cash on a G5.
My first computer was an Apple LCII and 15 years later can't say enough good things about 'em.
Oh... and I can make my Mac do whatever I want it to. But then.. I know shell scripting, Perl... (but not C) so....
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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The hardware is your next toaster, and the OS is like who f'n cares because it doesn't actually do anything. What matters is what you need to do with the computer, and who's writing the software to do it. If all you do is play with your photos and surf the net, then Mac is an option. For most other cases, it's not.
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ryanb
climber
Seattle, WA
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Don't listen to the people claiming windows or even linux is the way to go for technical people, they are either out of date and stuck in their ways or hobbyists who enjoy fixing issues with computers. I am a full time software engineer every technical professional i know either has a mac laptop or wants one. The folks who work for Microsoft boot windows on theirs, the rest mostly use os x with occasional use of virtual machines/WINE.
Some people might enjoy building boxes and messing about cleaning spyware and viruses out of windows as a hobby. Some might even like spending endless hours setting up their own version of linux. I'f i'm messing with a computer i expect to get paid. Mac's let me get my job (developing a linux server based bioinformatics web application) done with the least hassle.
Try one, i'm on my third ( a reconditioned last gen macbook pro for 1400+ apple care) and can't recommend them enough.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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Werner, are you using a virtual/thin client?
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tooth
Mountain climber
B.C.
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Hardman Knott...
7/6 is a fraction. Is that what you mean when you say you can get a PC for a fraction of the cost of a Mac?
Used Dell laptops in the office, no end of problems for years. Bought a mac for home and will be using macs in the office asap. I can't believe the windows operating system, little bubbles keep popping up telling me there are un-used things on the desktop and whatever, it drives me nuts! I don't know how people can stand using them, but apparently no-one does once they use a mac. Those of us who don't use one 8 hours a day that is.
Orthodontist friend of mine has about 24 macs in his office, 16 at the chairs, 5 at the front desk, one that people use to check in with, great program to use for dentistry and 50 or 60 inch plasmas in his two conference rooms to show people before and what they could look like after shots - hooked up to macs. Sweet system, makes it really easy to take a pic of a suspicious lesion with the camera wand and instantly send it to the pathologist to see if it should be biopsied, etc. Smooth fast communication with that program. OK, none of you care, I'm sorry.
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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i hate my mac.
mac sucks.
if you're used to PC, get a PC.
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nature
climber
Santa Fe, NM
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tooth: that's a cool set up you described.
oh... and HK is a troll ;-) He loves his Macs.
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stevep
Boulder climber
Salt Lake, UT
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The biggest definitive reason to get a PC would be if you're into games. Most only run on Windows, and the selection of hardware is much better for Windows.
Beyond that, Macs are nice. They look good, are dependable, and Apple's customer service is great.
However, I've certainly had good luck with Windows computers recently. In the last two years running XP in the office, and Vista at home, I've had no hardware issues, maybe one bluescreen. The home computer is basically on 24x7. Vista updates itself, and with Norton running, I've had no virus issues. Occasional program crashes, but they are isolated to the program. My previous IBM laptop at work lasted 5 years of heavy use with no issues. This one is going on two with no issues either.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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note: I know zero programming but..
in my house I set up a wireless network between my airport wireless hub, my Imac, and my Ibook laptop. I can wireless surf the net, exchange files between my desktop and my laptop, and also wirelessly control the music on my stereo (hooked to my desktop) from my laptop.
I set up all that stuff without once reading any manual and only casually consulting on-line help. You just dive it and it intuitively works.
Peace
Karl
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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"The folks who work for Microsoft boot windows on theirs, the rest mostly use os x with occasional use of virtual machines/WINE."
If you load Windows on Mac hardware, you have a Windows box with a pretty case.
The Intel architecture is common to both and is designed the same. With a PC you can purchase your hardware at a lot of different quality and performance levels. With Mac, they sell middle to upper only. In the end, computer performance per doller is going to be way better with PC hardware as there is more competition. Mac's only edge is that they fully integrate and qualify their products and are there with their own code to tightly stitch everything together. Dell and the other OEMs do this too, but they are not writing the low level software themselves. But if you load Windows onto a Mac, you basically have a Dell.
Also, if you claim you write software that doesn't eventually interact with Windows, you probably don't write much software or you haven't been doing it for very long. Nobody doing this stuff seriously is going to use a Wine or VM emulator and expect to keep their job and/or their clients on anything but the most trivial of projects - no way.
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