Not opening Mac / PC debate - but,. . . . .. . . .
Discussion
For the life of me I can not descide.
Mini Mac and Screen or even 19" Mac Core Duo.
Or
Matching price PC
I have always had PC's and although the software is old'ish I have collected a nice range of software for them. However I love the look of Mac's, for what I want to do they sound ideal and the less money I can give to Microsoft the better. So is it worth the swap.
I mainly want the machine for video and photo editing and a little bit officy type processing.
Why change to a Mac, Why not, is Star/Open Office available for the Mac? What comes withim iLife and more importantly is it any good?
Sorry for all the quetions but I really can not descide.
Chris
Mini Mac and Screen or even 19" Mac Core Duo.
Or
Matching price PC
I have always had PC's and although the software is old'ish I have collected a nice range of software for them. However I love the look of Mac's, for what I want to do they sound ideal and the less money I can give to Microsoft the better. So is it worth the swap.
I mainly want the machine for video and photo editing and a little bit officy type processing.
Why change to a Mac, Why not, is Star/Open Office available for the Mac? What comes withim iLife and more importantly is it any good?
Sorry for all the quetions but I really can not descide.
Chris
Edited by vex on Monday 11th December 08:47
Openoffice is available for the Mac, as is MSOrrifice if you want (and the mac version is so much better than the windows one!)
iLife is superb - a fully integrated music/photo/movie/web/dvd tool. Very simple, but very easy to use. it'll connect to your photo or movie camera, download your photos/movies, allow you to do basic edits, write DVD's, post pics on the web (if you have a .mac account) with everything accessible from one place. From iDVD you chose moveies from iMove, photos from iPhoto and music from iTunes and link them all together. Does pretty much everything a basic user wants to do. They do offer their pro apps if you want a bit more (I use aperture for photos).
Personally, I'd go for the mac.
iLife is superb - a fully integrated music/photo/movie/web/dvd tool. Very simple, but very easy to use. it'll connect to your photo or movie camera, download your photos/movies, allow you to do basic edits, write DVD's, post pics on the web (if you have a .mac account) with everything accessible from one place. From iDVD you chose moveies from iMove, photos from iPhoto and music from iTunes and link them all together. Does pretty much everything a basic user wants to do. They do offer their pro apps if you want a bit more (I use aperture for photos).
Personally, I'd go for the mac.
I got fired up a while ago after seeing a Mac in a shop, but my enthusiasm died away pretty quick when I realised the upgradability of Macs in terms of limitations and costs were just silly.
Mac memory costs a small fortune, (I don't know about their hard disks...guess they are standard), I'm not sure if all graphics cards work for Macs. If they don't goodness knows how much they cost.
At the end of the day, I think if you have a lot of disposable money around, then a Mac is a very nice choice, however if you want something good and solid, then a PC all the way. Easily upgradable, and these days, very reliable.
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
Mac memory costs a small fortune, (I don't know about their hard disks...guess they are standard), I'm not sure if all graphics cards work for Macs. If they don't goodness knows how much they cost.
At the end of the day, I think if you have a lot of disposable money around, then a Mac is a very nice choice, however if you want something good and solid, then a PC all the way. Easily upgradable, and these days, very reliable.
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
Edited by beanbag on Monday 11th December 09:42
beanbag said:
Mac memory costs a small fortune
From crucial.com, 1GB for our iMac G5 costs 59.99 - 1GB for my old Dell Dimension 3000 also costs 59.99. I'd be inclined to go for the iMac - I reckon any of your three options would be fine for your requirements, and the iMac is the nicest looking of them.
In terms of performance, how do the new Intel Mac Minis compare to the 1.8GHz G5 iMac?
Why does Mac memory cost a fortune? The last time I upgrade the memory in my ageing twin CPU G4 I just went to Scan and brought bog standard PC2100 (see how old it is!) SIMMS. Hardrives are bog standard.
The new Intel dual core machines would potentially represent a decent solution if you cannot decide since you can run both OSs (and if you shell out for a MacBook pro you can run Vista with the new wiz-bang Aqua (whoops I meant Aero) UI).
Both OSs offer stability and a platfrom upon which you can build a solution to meet your needs - they both do it differently and as in all things there are pros and cons to both.
I use PCs at work but when I go home I use an old Mac.
I run Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Lightroom Beta 4 on both platforms and either does a good job of photo editing and media management but I do prefer the way in which the Mac does it.
The new Intel dual core machines would potentially represent a decent solution if you cannot decide since you can run both OSs (and if you shell out for a MacBook pro you can run Vista with the new wiz-bang Aqua (whoops I meant Aero) UI).
Both OSs offer stability and a platfrom upon which you can build a solution to meet your needs - they both do it differently and as in all things there are pros and cons to both.
I use PCs at work but when I go home I use an old Mac.
I run Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Lightroom Beta 4 on both platforms and either does a good job of photo editing and media management but I do prefer the way in which the Mac does it.
beanbag said:
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
I'm not biased. I have both. Windows Vista and XP and Mac OS/X all work perfectly well. I tend to use Windows more often becasue I play games on my main machine and game availability and gaming hardware are more readily available for the PC.
Incidentally, as a former NeXTstep user, I find OS/X awfully familiar.
beanbag said:
I got fired up a while ago after seeing a Mac in a shop, but my enthusiasm died away pretty quick when I realised the upgradability of Macs in terms of limitations and costs were just silly.
Mac memory costs a small fortune, (I don't know about their hard disks...guess they are standard), I'm not sure if all graphics cards work for Macs. If they don't goodness knows how much they cost.
At the end of the day, I think if you have a lot of disposable money around, then a Mac is a very nice choice, however if you want something good and solid, then a PC all the way. Easily upgradable, and these days, very reliable.
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
Mac memory costs a small fortune, (I don't know about their hard disks...guess they are standard), I'm not sure if all graphics cards work for Macs. If they don't goodness knows how much they cost.
At the end of the day, I think if you have a lot of disposable money around, then a Mac is a very nice choice, however if you want something good and solid, then a PC all the way. Easily upgradable, and these days, very reliable.
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
Not much in it cost-wise these days. Memory actually cheaper over at Crucial for Macs. If you are wanting to have a "box" you can stuff upgraded bits in over the years, then go PC. I you want an elegant out of the box solution with perfectly good graphics, processor etc, go Apple. Bear in mind too, that the overwhelming consensus of mac-users is that their machines seem to last longer and if anything perform better as the O/S is upgraded.
I really disagree about the "good and solid bit" only applying to PC's though - if anything I'd say that Apple has that one hands down these days. Something satisfying too about dealing with one manufacturer of hardware and O/S too.
Get thyself to an Apple Shop and see the difference.....
Zod said:
beanbag said:
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
I'm not biased. I have both. Windows Vista and XP and Mac OS/X all work perfectly well. I tend to use Windows more often becasue I play games on my main machine and game availability and gaming hardware are more readily available for the PC.
Incidentally, as a former NeXTstep user, I find OS/X awfully familiar.
Wasn't OSX based on NeXT step when Jobs came back to Apple and brought the rights over with him as they bought NeXT?
beanbag said:
Zod said:
beanbag said:
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
I'm not biased. I have both. Windows Vista and XP and Mac OS/X all work perfectly well. I tend to use Windows more often becasue I play games on my main machine and game availability and gaming hardware are more readily available for the PC.
Incidentally, as a former NeXTstep user, I find OS/X awfully familiar.
Wasn't OSX based on NeXT step when Jobs came back to Apple and brought the rights over with him as they bought NeXT?
Zod said:
beanbag said:
Zod said:
beanbag said:
P.S. Maybe get a PC with an Apple TFT....they are gorgeous!
I'm not biased. I have both. Windows Vista and XP and Mac OS/X all work perfectly well. I tend to use Windows more often becasue I play games on my main machine and game availability and gaming hardware are more readily available for the PC.
Incidentally, as a former NeXTstep user, I find OS/X awfully familiar.
Wasn't OSX based on NeXT step when Jobs came back to Apple and brought the rights over with him as they bought NeXT?
The rumours.....http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?
m12_nathan said:
jimothy said:
Openoffice is available for the Mac, as is MSOrrifice if you want (and the mac version is so much better than the windows one!)
Office 2007 is better than 2004. Sorry.
2007 for the Mac will be along soon and normal service will be resumed...
Useless piece of trivia - did you know that Excel was designed for and released on Mac two years before Windows? Some say the Mac version remains a step ahead....
m12_nathan said:
jimothy said:
Openoffice is available for the Mac, as is MSOrrifice if you want (and the mac version is so much better than the windows one!)
Office 2007 is better than 2004. Sorry.
Disagree. I've got 2007 on my Vista RC2 build and 2004 on 10.4.8 and 2004 is the more usable, useful piece of software.
Disclaimer: I don't use Outlook much and am primarily a Word/Excel user. Visio still doesn't work as well as OmniGraffle, so I use that.
vex said:
For the life of me I can not descide.
Mini Mac and Screen or even 19" Mac Core Duo.
Or
Matching price PC
I have always had PC's and although the software is old'ish I have collected a nice range of software for them. However I love the look of Mac's, for what I want to do they sound ideal and the less money I can give to Microsoft the better. So is it worth the swap.
I mainly want the machine for video and photo editing and a little bit officy type processing.
Why change to a Mac, Why not, is Star/Open Office available for the Mac? What comes withim iLife and more importantly is it any good?
Sorry for all the quetions but I really can not descide.
Chris
Mini Mac and Screen or even 19" Mac Core Duo.
Or
Matching price PC
I have always had PC's and although the software is old'ish I have collected a nice range of software for them. However I love the look of Mac's, for what I want to do they sound ideal and the less money I can give to Microsoft the better. So is it worth the swap.
I mainly want the machine for video and photo editing and a little bit officy type processing.
Why change to a Mac, Why not, is Star/Open Office available for the Mac? What comes withim iLife and more importantly is it any good?
Sorry for all the quetions but I really can not descide.
Chris
Well, if you're a die-hard Windows user, don't bother spending the extra money on a Mac. Seriously. It's a good way to get a really nice machine, but on balance the pay-off just isn't there.
However, if you're interested in a different (and, yes, better, but then I would say that) way of working, I'd be inclined to spring for a Mini. Reason? It's small, cheap, can do a spot of video editing and photoshopping. It's also cheap enough that you can transform it into a PC (with BootCamp) if you want, and you've not pissed £XXX up the wall. The Mac Pro is an awful lot of money for a very nice PC if you decide you hate OS X.
I have Office 2004 on mine, and I've never had a problem exchanging documents with people on Windows.
I'm in the process of putting my money where my mouth is; I'm replacing my G4 Mini and Dell desktop with a single 24" iMac, which should be here next week. I'll be ordering a copy of Parallels for much virtual machine entertainment, including things like Plan9 and BeOS.
CommanderJameson said:
m12_nathan said:
jimothy said:
Openoffice is available for the Mac, as is MSOrrifice if you want (and the mac version is so much better than the windows one!)
Office 2007 is better than 2004. Sorry.
Disagree. I've got 2007 on my Vista RC2 build and 2004 on 10.4.8 and 2004 is the more usable, useful piece of software.
Disclaimer: I don't use Outlook much and am primarily a Word/Excel user. Visio still doesn't work as well as OmniGraffle, so I use that.
Really? oh well, each to their own. Running it on RTM Vista and it is faster and just as easy to use, more intuitive interface, better custom smart tag support than 2003 (does 2004 even do smart tags?), Outlook beats entourage and Project & Visio Enterprise are very useful apps . In fact I don't really get why people thing 2004 is better than 2003 other than it is a bit prettier.
m12_nathan said:
CommanderJameson said:
m12_nathan said:
jimothy said:
Openoffice is available for the Mac, as is MSOrrifice if you want (and the mac version is so much better than the windows one!)
Office 2007 is better than 2004. Sorry.
Disagree. I've got 2007 on my Vista RC2 build and 2004 on 10.4.8 and 2004 is the more usable, useful piece of software.
Disclaimer: I don't use Outlook much and am primarily a Word/Excel user. Visio still doesn't work as well as OmniGraffle, so I use that.
Really? oh well, each to their own. Running it on RTM Vista and it is faster and just as easy to use, more intuitive interface, better custom smart tag support than 2003 (does 2004 even do smart tags?), Outlook beats entourage and Project & Visio Enterprise are very useful apps . In fact I don't really get why people thing 2004 is better than 2003 other than it is a bit prettier.
I dunno about that interface. It makes me to scream, so it does. I have 10 years of muscle memory being thrown away; I resent that. Smart tags is something you either use or you don't, and I fall in the latter category (I don't see it in use round and about in the workplace, either).
There's simply no compelling new feature in Word or Excel 2007 (apart from the novelty of Office applications having their own start button, and all the menus and features being rearranged for yet-to-be-proven benefits, whilst still responding to the old shortcut keys, for added At The Mountains Of Madnessness) for anyone using Office 97 or later. Word's table functions are still clearly the work of a raving loony, for example, and numbered lists still manage to drive me completely up the wall. Given that much of my document output consists of tables, numbered lists (and numbered lists in tables, what fun) you can imagine that I exit my desk some days feeling as though my sanity has taken a bit of a battering.
Project is a closed book to me - not a function of my job role, and it's not the sort of thing you do for fun. What I hear, though, from our project planning people, is that for little projects, it's quite good, but for big projects or those with complex resourcing, you still need to bite the bullet and use P3 or something.
Thankfully, the inertia of the corporate IT around here means that I can stay on Word/Excel 2002 for another couple of years at least. Vista's at least a year away for me. Probably more.
It honestly depends what your planning on using the machine for. If you're a games player or deal with things like AutoCAD then the PC is your man. True you can use things like BootCamp to get XP going (or native boot Vista) but you can get the right hardware for your task from the get go.
However, if you're just toodling around the internet, writing e-mails, documents and generally not doing anything specialised then the Mac will be better IMHO. Whilst more expensive the fact you don't have to worry about the majority of viruses and other malware is in some respects well worth the extra price.
I also find that for general tootling around the internet OS X's font handling abilities make it
easier on the eye than XP; not sure how this will change when Vista appears though.
However, if you're just toodling around the internet, writing e-mails, documents and generally not doing anything specialised then the Mac will be better IMHO. Whilst more expensive the fact you don't have to worry about the majority of viruses and other malware is in some respects well worth the extra price.
I also find that for general tootling around the internet OS X's font handling abilities make it
easier on the eye than XP; not sure how this will change when Vista appears though.
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