apple mac or 'normal' PC?
Discussion
Help me to decide... It's time to replace the old 400MHz laptop, and years of frustration with MS make me want to get a powerbook G4. I want to do picture editing and create DVD's, plus the usual letters, spreadsheets, e-mail and web browsing. The exchange will be broadband in feb (say BT). What are the experiences of anyone else who moved to a Mac? How can I justify the extra £600 to Mrs LWT??
Macs look prettier.
OS X is the first MacOS I have actually enjoyed using.
however, is ISNT Windows.. Sounds obvious... but it needs saying.
If this is only a toy laptop, not requiring serious business use, or modern gaming, then try the Mac.. you may enjoy yourself.
If you need to use this in a work environment, it could pose 'issues' when someone gives you a file type the mac doesnt support.
Enjoy
OS X is the first MacOS I have actually enjoyed using.
however, is ISNT Windows.. Sounds obvious... but it needs saying.
If this is only a toy laptop, not requiring serious business use, or modern gaming, then try the Mac.. you may enjoy yourself.
If you need to use this in a work environment, it could pose 'issues' when someone gives you a file type the mac doesnt support.
Enjoy
I've got a Powerbook and unless i REALLY had to, i wouldn't go back to Windows. It's yet to properly crash, its easy to use and is just excellent in every way.
The only problems ive had are:
- some webpages don't work properly, even running Internet Explorer within OSX. Once i had to do an online application and the frames weren't readable so i had to do that on a windoze pc.
- like Jamie said, some file types can cause problems. This has never happened to me bar the odd .avi not working.
The other bonus is they've got similar power to say an Inspiron but are soooo much thinner.
I couldn't be happier with the choice i made
The only problems ive had are:
- some webpages don't work properly, even running Internet Explorer within OSX. Once i had to do an online application and the frames weren't readable so i had to do that on a windoze pc.
- like Jamie said, some file types can cause problems. This has never happened to me bar the odd .avi not working.
The other bonus is they've got similar power to say an Inspiron but are soooo much thinner.
I couldn't be happier with the choice i made
lwt said:Hopefully the Pistonheads collective can give you a balanced discussion on pro's and con's, but I've never seen as question like this not degenerate into a PC v Mac slagging match.
Help me to decide... It's time to replace the old 400MHz laptop, and years of frustration with MS make me want to get a powerbook G4. I want to do picture editing and create DVD's, plus the usual letters, spreadsheets, e-mail and web browsing. The exchange will be broadband in feb (say BT). What are the experiences of anyone else who moved to a Mac? How can I justify the extra £600 to Mrs LWT??
For what my opinions worth your requirements sound perfect for a Mac UNLESS you want to play games - in which case I still wouldn't get a PC but a games machine.
Extra £600? I've yet to see a comparison based on like-for-like come out with any significant price difference.
Pro's: No Virus's (worth speaking of), no spyware, elegant hardware and operating system, excellent iLife suite, MS Office 2004. Cons? Well, I'll leave that to others as I can't think of any just now...
Have you ever tried OSX though? If not, try to get to have a play - if you are anywhere near London I highly recommend the new Apple Store on Regent Street. Amazing shop
I 'switched' from a RISC PC, Windows box and Linux box to a PowerMac. Never looked back.
I brought an eMac for my wife to use for her Masters. After using it for a couple of weeks she is already more productive on the Mac than she is on XP.
Playing with it myself I find it great for pretty much everything I need to do. Firefox and Camino are great browsers and Office for Mac is very, very good too.
OSX is pretty secure out of the box and setting it up to pick up the wireless network took about 5 minutes.
Downsides are that if you need to get into the guts of it, it is a little bit more tricky than Windows, but that is more likely due to familiarity than anything else.
Playing with it myself I find it great for pretty much everything I need to do. Firefox and Camino are great browsers and Office for Mac is very, very good too.
OSX is pretty secure out of the box and setting it up to pick up the wireless network took about 5 minutes.
Downsides are that if you need to get into the guts of it, it is a little bit more tricky than Windows, but that is more likely due to familiarity than anything else.
Plotloss said:Oi Matt, give me my sandals back!
Get a PC
All the software is free (if you know where to look)
lwt, my 2¢: If you don't know how to use Linux, or not interested to learn it, get a Mac. Its low vulnerability compared to MS Windows justifies the extra cost for private use
You will not be disappointed by the Powerbook. And your Mrs will love it.
I have two Powerbooks (Ti and Al) and an iMac, and these are the only gadgets I've owned (apart from an iPod Mini) that women like!
I don't think there's a file format out there for the PC that you cannot open on a Mac for free, or not much cash.
Office for the Mac isn't cheap (it isn't for the PC either), but it's truly brilliant. Probably the best piece of software that MS has ever released, incl. Office for Windows.
And I'm not wholly sure where the comments for games are coming from either. the choice of games is ramping up rapidly for the Mac, and I've yet to see a PC based laptop be able to run Halo or Call of Duty as well as my latest Powerbook.
As for the frames problems, I'd suggest trying a few different browsers. This is n't so much the Macs fault as it is web standards, but if you were to try something like Firefox, you'll probably find that one will work nicely. Do a search on www.versiontracker.comosx for browsers and you'll find loads. I find that having two in my "dock" has me covered.
For video and picture editing, even the latest PCs do not even come close.
And as for price, as has been mentioned if you compare apples with apples (had to say it!), including the bundled software you get etc, the prices aren't dissimilar.
Go out and do it. You'll never look back.
I have two Powerbooks (Ti and Al) and an iMac, and these are the only gadgets I've owned (apart from an iPod Mini) that women like!
I don't think there's a file format out there for the PC that you cannot open on a Mac for free, or not much cash.
Office for the Mac isn't cheap (it isn't for the PC either), but it's truly brilliant. Probably the best piece of software that MS has ever released, incl. Office for Windows.
And I'm not wholly sure where the comments for games are coming from either. the choice of games is ramping up rapidly for the Mac, and I've yet to see a PC based laptop be able to run Halo or Call of Duty as well as my latest Powerbook.
As for the frames problems, I'd suggest trying a few different browsers. This is n't so much the Macs fault as it is web standards, but if you were to try something like Firefox, you'll probably find that one will work nicely. Do a search on www.versiontracker.comosx for browsers and you'll find loads. I find that having two in my "dock" has me covered.
For video and picture editing, even the latest PCs do not even come close.
And as for price, as has been mentioned if you compare apples with apples (had to say it!), including the bundled software you get etc, the prices aren't dissimilar.
Go out and do it. You'll never look back.
lwt said:
Help me to decide...
If you need further reassurance that you are making the right decision just look back over the last six months of computer threads. Don't think you will find many, if any, 'adware, spyware, Trojan horse, this won't start, that won't connect, have I typed in the right code/syntax'..... ad infinitum, Apple threads.
If you want to be compatible with MS Office but don't want to pay the money, just install X11 and download OpenOffice, it's free.
lwt said:
How can I justify the extra £600 to Mrs LWT??
I'm happy to put my money where my mouth is. I'm sure I could get the 'equivalent' (?) PC for half the cost, but I'm just off to pick up my new dual G5 & 23" display
. The packaging that it will come in will be worth more than the equivalent PC.
>> Edited by Bacardi on Monday 29th November 17:34
murph7355 said:
Office for the Mac isn't cheap (it isn't for the PC either), but it's truly brilliant. Probably the best piece of software that MS has ever released, incl. Office for Windows.
It has to be said that back in the days when a Mac hard disk was an expensive rarity, Word for the Mac beat the crap out of Word for Windoze in all aspects apart from having to swap floppies 20 times to load the thing.
murph7355 said:
As for the frames problems, I'd suggest trying a few different browsers. This is n't so much the Macs fault as it is web standards, but if you were to try something like Firefox, you'll probably find that one will work nicely.
...and is something we can all help to fix by moaning like buggery in emails to the webmaster of any site which doesn't work because it doesn't follow standards.
PC = Pay for the technology
MAC = Pay for a nice case
No seriously MAC's are good machines and they have their advantages and disadvantages, it all comes down to are you willing to pay extra for a pretty, and in someways very useful (Graphic design etc) machine or do want to save yourself a huge amount of money and go with XP.
The reason Windows suffers from Viruses and adware is simply, if you are a virus writer are you going to write a virus for the masses or minority?.
MAC = Pay for a nice case
No seriously MAC's are good machines and they have their advantages and disadvantages, it all comes down to are you willing to pay extra for a pretty, and in someways very useful (Graphic design etc) machine or do want to save yourself a huge amount of money and go with XP.
The reason Windows suffers from Viruses and adware is simply, if you are a virus writer are you going to write a virus for the masses or minority?.
Pigeon said:
...and is something we can all help to fix by moaning like buggery in emails to the webmaster of any site which doesn't work because it doesn't follow standards.
You think they'll care? Mac users are a tiny minority for nearly all applications other than their traditional stronghold - media editing (Desktop Publishing, Photoshop-stylee and now Video). Personally I think Macs are Great! They look great (they always have) and now they even run an OS with a decent kernel (Unix based now) so they're reliable.
I've often toyed with getting one simply because of how cool they are but in the end I always end up getting another PC. Why?
C O M P A T I B I L I T Y.
Precisely because of the huge majority who use Windows/PC Architecture/Internet Explorer I always get one - despite some (well documented) disadvantages.
I have NEVER found a web-site that doesn't work with IE.
I have NEVER found a media-file I couldn't read with the appropriate PC program - which I probably got for free as shareware/freeware.
Office is the same on Windows as it is on the Mac - just as excellent.
I have a HUGE choice of both free and paid for software - and all the best development tools for making it now run on the PC.
Since my broadband connection is through an ADSL/Modem/Router/Firewall no worm is going to attack my PC and, since I run Symantec AV, I've not once had a virus, or suffered from "adware" - "Do you trust DodgySoftwareCompany and wish to install this software?" - err - NO - du-u-uh.
So - if you know you can live with the software base why not get a Mac? If you want flexibility get a PC - and deal with the downsides of having a platform compatible with nearly all software - unfortunately including viruses.
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