Thinking about buying a MAC

[Hexis]

I hear nothing but good things about Windows 7. It's still Windows tho. :)

[chafnerjr]

Buy what you want. I'm MCSE certified all the way back to NT, but I use Mac's for all of my personal use stuff... both work and at home. My wife has a macbook, I've got a MacBook Pro and two Mac Pro quad Xeon systems on my desk at work where I am the ONLY technician for ~750 Apple computers as well as various Unix, Linux, Mac, and Windows servers. The mac's are all a breeze. With all that said, I make most of my money repairing peoples home Windows systems and it's usually the same old problems over and over and over again. I would never waste that sort of time and effort to cruise the interwebs and play some games... (My 2 yr old Mac laptop ROCKS Crysis!!!)

Now, here's the kicker. At the beginning of the school year (The high school where I work: www.brewsteracademy.org and yes I know the site is aweful, but it's being rebuilt as you read this). I hand out laptops to each and every one of our 360 students... and it's at least week before I see anyone with an issue (which is usually "I slipped and..."). If that doesn't speak volumes then I don't know what will.

P.S. My mac runs 10.5 Leopard... Windows XP SP3 on bootcamp, AND the same bootcamp partition in Parallels 4 as well as the newest RC of Windows 7. My wife runs none of that crap and NEVER has to ask me a single question about it EVER!

P.P.S. for the one who said Linux never crashes has never used it in REAL LIFE. I love Linux... I mean that I really LOVE Linux... but they crash every bit as often (If not more) in personal use situations. Yes Linux can run a specific kernel on a specific piece of hardware while serving a very specif purpose, but even the most basic home can't run on a specific software load for more than a few months before something needs an update (i.e. flash, java, or whatever your trying to use in place of iTunes.). Just some food for thought.

OH YEA... UM ***WARNING*** DON"T BUY THE MAC MINI*** everything else is just great!

[Ebbed]

I'm flattered i have never been quoted before.

[chafnerjr]

Tell that to my 9600M GT in my laptop. Of the GT 120 in the iMac, or the 9400M in the Mac mini. Maybe the GT 120 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 in the Mac Pro, oh wait also DX10. So that DX10 cards in every mac. Mac suck for gaming for a lot of reasons, but don't just make things up.

Not to step on you here... I agree with everything except that it's the Mac OS itself that doesn't have a lot of gaming support (unless you like Spore, which I do). When running Windows XP in bootcamp It's hands down the best gaming laptop I've ever owned!!! Now, there are great gaming laptops out there, but this MBPro with a highly overclocked 8600 is just sweet! Can't wait to see what my brand new one is like when it get's here next month

[Hexis]

I know, I game on my Unibody MacBook Pro all the time. I just get super annoyed having to reboot. I loves me some zombie killing. The 9600M GT is great.

[TippmannGuy]

MAC FTW

Simple and mindless = MAC
Overcomplicated and painfully complicated = PC

IMO
choose what you like

[skife]

windows 7 ftw

[tribalman]

BS on the antivirus. macs have viruses too.

as for the PCs are hard comment. no. i know 6 year olds that are using Unix. are we basing what a computer is defined as by it's operating system? a PC doesn't mean Windows operating system, it means personal computer. with the hardware MACs are on, why is there this stupid MAC/PC issue? should be MAC/WINDOWS/'Nix. it's not like it's hard to just install an operating system on a computer. i have always thought that macs are overpriced. i always keep hearing good things about apples, but everytime i walk into a mac store and look at the prices, i just say no. and as for the software, i always crash it. don't know how. but i do. my Windows and linux computers only mess up if i do something to the operating system.

i've also never bought into the hype that you need to use a MAC to do any type of creative work. i have no issues working in windows on music or pictures. not really into making movies.

also, a quick look over at http://www.macfixit.com/ looks like macs have the same issues as every other operating system..... "Adobe Flash plug-in may cause online videos to freeze" "Possible solution for Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7 update issue 'mdworker'" oh looky, that isn't fully working. only a possible fix. and my personal favorite "Weekly Utilities Update: Little Snitch, MacCleanse, ClamXav, more...

Staff Pick: ClamXav

There used to be a time when Mac owners could laud the platform's lack of viruses and trojans. These days, however, Mac users are seeing more and more exploits and other malware being developed, and as such keeping ahead of the malware developers is a must.
"

hm...... buy what you feel comfortable using.

[tribalman]

oh, and this too! "MacFixIt provides exclusive troubleshooting content, including renowned special reports on incremental and major Mac OS X releases, e-mail alerts for late breaking items and expert commentary from leading Mac authors. For access to all MacFixIt content, sign up for MacFixIt Pro."

so, windows has windows update, macs have gained updates to their operating systems too. guess that argument is dead for macs too.

[Hexis]

A while back I was talking to my TAM at McAfee (enterprise support contact). We got to talking about photo stuff and got on the subject of OSX. He asked if I ran McAfee on my home Macs (since he could send me copies if I wanted to). I asked how many OSX specific signatures there were, his response "Seven". Yeah 7. This was a while ago, I'll bet there are a good 70 now.

So sure, there is malware that can do bad things to OSX. There is also malware that targets software running on OSX (Flash, Apache, many others). A lot of those exploits can effect Linux and or Windows also. Linux and OSX (and other unix variants) have a significant advantage in that even administrative users run in a unprivileged state for normal operations. Windows still doesn't have a way to elevate privileges and maintain the user environment.

Sure OSX has updates, it is developed by humans after all. The advantage is that with OSX (and unix in general) the OS is a series of tools that work together in a predictable way. Windows is like a massive black box that if you make one change to, you may or may not understand how that change will effect other things. I have found OSX updates to be significantly less problematic than Windows updates.

I think a lot of people who have a dislike for Apple misunderstand the "It just works" statement. In general it does just work. There is still maintenance required. There is still trouble and issues. There is just less maintenance and trouble than on Windows.

The whole creative professionals thing is somewhat true still, just not as much as in years past. OSX still has some advantages over Windows for creative work. Color management is part of the OS, not something you have to add. That's not something most folks care about, but if it's important, it's critical. There is also a good bit of really good software that's only on OSX. Aperture (for me), Final Cut tools, Shake, Pro Tools (Audio). They all end up getting used heavily in a lot of Photo/Video/Audio work. Every single one of those tools is really best of breed. Some have equivalents on other platforms, others don't.

Most of the Mac users I know are IT professionals. These are all folks that know a lot about many platforms. They are all happy Mac users because there is just less to have to deal with to be able to use the system.

[SCpoloRicker]

Incidentally, a somewhat appropriate meme:

I work(ed) for Apple; so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

But trust me.... You don't.

I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you dont know what you are talking about.

This is how bad info gets passed around.

If you dont know about the topic....Dont make yourself sound like you do.

Cuz some AOers belive anything they hear.

/my honest opinion is: if you want to customize, get a PC. If you just want to learn one way of getting it done, buy a Mac. If you are working with creative software, get a Mac.
//the Autococker v Automag debate of the late 90s does seem similar

[going_home]

Trust Me, I Know What I'm Doing

This thread has made me decide to buy a Mac.






A Big Mac !

Not really, I'm actually thinking of 5 Guys lol.

[maxama10]

I think that Hexis pretty much summed it up nicely.

I went from Windows to Mac about 5 years ago and haven't looked back.

I was pleased with my powerbook and I LOVE me some MacBook Pro.

Both have been great and I still use the powerbook now and then.

Edit: I'm probably going to curse myself here but I haven't felt the need to run AV on either of em and have had no problems so far...

[SCpoloRicker]

Edit:

Clearly, you are not operating behind 7 proxies; thus my Linux custom-built box with extraneous lighting, curved tower, eighteen fans, and more computing power than existed in 2004 has clearly identified your retinal signature, checked all 4 (oh yes, 4) credit scores, and the financial situation of Kelly. Yes, Kelly, the girl you took to junior prom. You probably owe her an apology about all this.

[bornl33t]

I think MS has their hands in too many projects. I mean they have not designed anything in the last 3 years that isn't still being patched. My xbox just fried and it was a whole 14 months old. The thing was supposed to have the most up to date chipset and be less likely to fry because of that. I play maybe 3-4 hours a week and it still died. I tried windows 7 beta and it lasted a whole 24 hours after multiple BSOD, media center not working, etc I put XP back on, which btw was to fix the monster that was dubbed windows ME. I currently use a i910 with windows mobile 6.1. Out of the box it's slow and unimpressive, thanks to xda, modaco and ppc geeks developers it's far superior to the iphone...but that wasn't MS's doing. In fact MS has been promising windows mobile 6.5 and 7 since 2007? I will never own a mac, but I love the toys Apple keeps making because it spurs the industry and that brings the toys right to the PC.