Stop me buying a Macbook Pro

[Strangely Brown]

ewenm said:

Strangely Brown said:

ewenm said:

If I was tied to XP software, I wouldn't consider a Mac.

Why not? If you're tied to XP for business applications there is no reason not to buy a mac. You can still install and run Windows and you have a mac at the same time.

Indeed you can, but for me the advantages of a Mac are mostly related to OS X. Running XP all the time seems to nullify those advantages.

Not necessarily. You can run both OSX and XP simultaneously and use the best parts of each for whatever you need to do. The fact that it can do this and is actually a nice piece of kit (as you said), makes it a no brainer really.

Of course, if you really will only ever run Windows then there really isn't that much point.

[qube_TA]

Strangely Brown said:

qube_TA said:

You have a directory called Stuff on your local machine, you have another directory on a DVD with the same name, on Windows if you drag the remote Stuff to the local machine there's an option to merge the contents. On OSX it'll just replace the old directory with new one, regardless of contents, dates etc.

That's exactly what I would expect to happen. To merge the contents: Open remote folder, select all, drag to local folder. Stuff with the same name will be overwritten, new stuff will be created, existing stuff will be preserved. Of course, you'll run into the same problem again if you have nested folders... and so on... but for a folder of files it'll do what you want.

There is always 'rsync' on the command line if you need more power.

Yup, the point was that on MS it would ask it you wanted to merge or replace, OSX just assumes replace, it's not a problem but it did catch me out at first.

There's always a work around but I still feel that from a file management POV Windows has the edge.

[Strangely Brown]

qube_TA said:

There's always a work around but I still feel that from a file management POV Windows has the edge.

Perhaps. I suspect it's more a case of whatever you're most used to. Familiarity and all that...

[qube_TA]

Strangely Brown said:

qube_TA said:

There's always a work around but I still feel that from a file management POV Windows has the edge.

Perhaps. I suspect it's more a case of whatever you're most used to. Familiarity and all that...

Not really, there's a feature on one but not the other, Mac pride itself on being easy to use but the work around resolves using a CLI like Linux which is criticised for being complicated to use.

As I've said OSX is my preferred desktop OS, I dislike Windows but there are certain things in that OS which I prefer.

[ewenm]

BigJonMcQuimm said:

Am I the only person who thinks battery life is rubbish?

I get 2.5 hours using wifi and sling box on batter

2.6Ghz model, pre unibody

I get well over 4 hours on my Air, connected to WiFi, watching iPlayer etc.

As a general point though, battery technology is a major restrictor for mobile devices. The person who can develop much better battery technology will make themsleves a lot of money...

[bogwoppit]

BigJonMcQuimm said:

Am I the only person who thinks battery life is rubbish?

I get 2.5 hours using wifi and sling box on batter

2.6Ghz model, pre unibody

The new MBPs with the integrated battery reportedly last vastly longer. I have a 2007 2.4ghz model and only ever really got 3 hours ish. I must say my battery life dropped off quite significantly so I got it replaced by Apple after about 21 months. Having said that, I didn't exactly treat it very well - always left in standby, plugged in and out a lot with no regard to remaining juice and once I used a 60W Macbook power adaptor which can't have been good for it (it didn't charge it so much as reduce the rate of discharge ).

[bogwoppit]

Silver993tt said:

bogwoppit said:

Regarding the file management, I guess it's true that the OS X interface is less flexible than modern Windows. However it is entirely by design. Whereas in Windows at every opportunity the OS asks you what to do with a little popup, OS X takes a common-sense approach wherever reasonable.

Case in point: nobody hates the security features of OS X,but everyone hates how Windows warns you about eight times before you open a file you got from the internet. OS X only warns you once, and not even opens some things automatically if they are "safe". Can't really explain it well enough but it's basically like they concentrated on not pissing you off for the 99/100 times you do something rather than making sure you really meant to do it the 1/100 times.

I get one warning from Kapersky if there is a security concern.

I'm really referring to downloading something from the internet - you get an activity bar at the top of IE asking you to confirm, then you're asked whether to save or open it, then when it downloads and you open it it says "warning, this file came from the internet!", then when you install up pops UAC. I don't know about you but I download a fair amount of software and documents from the intertubes. If security software adds another popup into the mix I'd end up topping myself.

I can't put my finger on it but I just feel less 'annoyed' using OS X and there seem to be lots of occasions where it sensibly knows what I want to do without asking me.

[Silver993tt]

bogwoppit said:

Silver993tt said:

bogwoppit said:

Regarding the file management, I guess it's true that the OS X interface is less flexible than modern Windows. However it is entirely by design. Whereas in Windows at every opportunity the OS asks you what to do with a little popup, OS X takes a common-sense approach wherever reasonable.

Case in point: nobody hates the security features of OS X,but everyone hates how Windows warns you about eight times before you open a file you got from the internet. OS X only warns you once, and not even opens some things automatically if they are "safe". Can't really explain it well enough but it's basically like they concentrated on not pissing you off for the 99/100 times you do something rather than making sure you really meant to do it the 1/100 times.

I get one warning from Kapersky if there is a security concern.

I'm really referring to downloading something from the internet - you get an activity bar at the top of IE asking you to confirm, then you're asked whether to save or open it, then when it downloads and you open it it says "warning, this file came from the internet!", then when you install up pops UAC. I don't know about you but I download a fair amount of software and documents from the intertubes. If security software adds another popup into the mix I'd end up topping myself.

I can't put my finger on it but I just feel less 'annoyed' using OS X and there seem to be lots of occasions where it sensibly knows what I want to do without asking me.

ah, ok. I don't use IE, I use Firefox because it uses less resources and the latest version (3.5) I downloaded yesterday is significantly quicker than the previous one.

[jimothy]

Strangely Brown said:

qube_TA said:

I also liked the simple batch file renaming on Windows, you've a load of files with random names, if you select them all and then renamed one of them it would rename all of them and place an incremental prefix at the end of each name, Mac doesn't do this.

OK, that one I concede. Batch renaming would be useful.

Easy, Automator. Batch renaming, batch anything really.

[tinman0]

BigJonMcQuimm said:

Am I the only person who thinks battery life is rubbish?

I get 2.5 hours using wifi and sling box on batter

2.6Ghz model, pre unibody

Dunno, but I get an easy 4 hours on my white Macbook with a 2.2proc. And thats on an 18 month old battery.

[Ordinary_Chap]

tinman0 said:

BigJonMcQuimm said:

Am I the only person who thinks battery life is rubbish?

I get 2.5 hours using wifi and sling box on batter

2.6Ghz model, pre unibody

Dunno, but I get an easy 4 hours on my white Macbook with a 2.2proc. And thats on an 18 month old battery.

Sounds like its run in and done a few miles. They loosen up after a couple of months.

[qube_TA]

qube_TA said:

My only gripe with OSX is the file management is over simplified and a bit limiting but there are various apps you can install to add in that functionality.

Edited by qube_TA on Thursday 6th August 22:08

[TonyToniTone]

cjs said:

Updates are seamless.

About a seamless as every other os out there http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3606

[Rich_W]

Having walked around PC World recently. I love the look of Macs, particularly the 24" iMac. But having had a play on the shop demo ones. I guess it would drive me nuts in the end. Lack of right click. All the little shortcut things that Windows does so well. Also the lack of upgradeabilty puts me off.

I guess I just want a regular Windows based PC or Laptop which looks as good as a Mac. Any one kno of any "Designer" systems. Seems that Dell, HP, etc just fall into the trap of multiple bland box setups.

[navier_stokes]

I switched to a 13" alu macbook about a year ago and never looked back. Yes it will be frustrating at first, but give it a week or two and it is so much more intuitive and flexible than windows. The windows people who have never actually got into OS X and say it's all show and no functionality are completely wrong - I was like that before, but now I am completely converted. Working on a windows PC now feels like going back to the stoneage. I've used a fair few linux OS's in the past too, and a OS X has got their flexibility, reliability and functionality, just in a nice shiny package.

One of the most impressive features is the trackpad with finger gestures - absolutely awesome and pretty much flawless. I never now use a mouse with my MB because it's actually slower and more cumbersome than the trackpad.

Plus, the aluminum cases are gorgeous, and pretty much scratchproof. I've been converted, but will obviously have to see what the next line of Windows sytems are like when my next upgrade comes.

Btw, you do have a right click

[tinman0]

Rich_W said:

Having walked around PC World recently. I love the look of Macs, particularly the 24" iMac. But having had a play on the shop demo ones. I guess it would drive me nuts in the end. Lack of right click. All the little shortcut things that Windows does so well. Also the lack of upgradeabilty puts me off.

1. Rick click - simply put a normal USB mouse for a PC on it. There you go, right click. On a trackpad (on a laptop) just tap the pad with two fingers for right click.

2. Shortcuts are all on the Command key.

3. Upgradeability - never really a problem with a Mac because upgrading is not really an issue other than upgrading the memory and hd which you can do yourself. Its a machine that does a job. Anything missing just use the USB and Firewire and job done. That leaves the processor, and no one really upgrades the proc on a PC anyway. So again, I'm struggling with the concept of upgradeability. A Mac just does the job - you don't think about the computer anymore as its just an elegant tool.

Again, I'm speaking as someone who was a happy PC person until I bought a MacBook 18 months ago.

[Strangely Brown]

Rich_W said:

Having walked around PC World recently. I love the look of Macs, particularly the 24" iMac. But having had a play on the shop demo ones. I guess it would drive me nuts in the end. Lack of right click.

The 24" iMac will come with a mighty mouse as standard which is a four button mouse, it just doesn't look like one. Right-click is, errr, right click.