OK gurus - serious replies only please :
I want to buy a good spec desktop or laptop to replace my dodgy sounding WinXP machine.
Normally I would have jumped straight for a Vista machine from one of the more reputable co. (eg Mesh/Evesham), but I'm a bit miffed that my work HP Laptop is failing me (Win2000) and also that I'd have to add lot of new software. My boss at work swears by Mac (as most Mac users do !)
Who can start with the key pros and cons for a Vista PC / Vista Laptop or MacBook.
I do : lots of browsing / limited email / photo uploading & storage (but want to learn more about photo manipulation - Canon DSLR & Compact) and offcourse MSN (video & sound) / MS Office (as work) and some video editing (when I can get the camera to work !).
I'd obviously have old file/photo data on DVD-RAM / CD etc. and an existing Netgear router (plus a free BT Hub sitting in a box !).
Thoughts ???
PC V Mac
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thinfourth
- Posts: 3177
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- Location: Playing in the mud near aberdeen
I won't mention windoze as it is the work of satan
For web browsing i use safari which is good enough for m y uses but firefox and opera plus many other on OS x
E-mail outlook can be got for OS x but is use mac mail which is fine for me
Photo uploading this could depend on what site you are uploading to as some don't do mac but they are a minority
Photo manipulation photoshop always has a parallel release on mac at the same time as windoze. but going from RAW to jpeg then i use bibble pro which is a piece of software way more powerful then i will ever use
MSN not so sure if you can have webcam and stuff but you can get boggo messenger
MS office i have always preferred the mac version to PC version
video editing don't do much but you can have packages from freebie iMovie with a mac to thousand of pounds pro packages. macs have always been very strong in this market and up until recently were way ahead of PCs in this market
As most mac users i would not go back to windoze as i find it clunky and nothing is where you expect it to be. A mac just seems slicker. The main difference i find is windoze has the wizard and helper things that try to make it easy for you but somehow make it far more difficult. A mac does not try and help you with such wizards it makes things easy enough for you to do without some dancing fecking paperclip.
As to prices on the higher end stuff it turns out a mac is no more pricey then the same spec machine from the big boys. but the RAM is
expensive so buy your machine then visit crucial to upgrade.
Also all macs are now intels so you can run windoze on dual boot should you wish.
For web browsing i use safari which is good enough for m y uses but firefox and opera plus many other on OS x
E-mail outlook can be got for OS x but is use mac mail which is fine for me
Photo uploading this could depend on what site you are uploading to as some don't do mac but they are a minority
Photo manipulation photoshop always has a parallel release on mac at the same time as windoze. but going from RAW to jpeg then i use bibble pro which is a piece of software way more powerful then i will ever use
MSN not so sure if you can have webcam and stuff but you can get boggo messenger
MS office i have always preferred the mac version to PC version
video editing don't do much but you can have packages from freebie iMovie with a mac to thousand of pounds pro packages. macs have always been very strong in this market and up until recently were way ahead of PCs in this market
As most mac users i would not go back to windoze as i find it clunky and nothing is where you expect it to be. A mac just seems slicker. The main difference i find is windoze has the wizard and helper things that try to make it easy for you but somehow make it far more difficult. A mac does not try and help you with such wizards it makes things easy enough for you to do without some dancing fecking paperclip.
As to prices on the higher end stuff it turns out a mac is no more pricey then the same spec machine from the big boys. but the RAM is
expensive so buy your machine then visit crucial to upgrade. Also all macs are now intels so you can run windoze on dual boot should you wish.
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bertieduff
- Posts: 2253
- Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:19 am
- Location: Purple Side of the Moon
I am with Thinforth on this
I have both Macs and Windows XP computers but rarely ever switch on the XP machine. My main reason to using the Mac more was for ever getting problems with viruses even when an XP computer gets a slightest whiff of the interent.
I find a Mac and the bundled iLife package does all I need. I also have a .MAC account which gives me .mac email addresses and 1Gb online storage as well as synching all my macs and data over the internet.
Macs seem to be designed to do what people want to do using a computer with the minimum off fuss. If you want software with more adavnced features than the iLife suite then there is a good selection available but to be honest iLife does all I need.
iLife applications work with my contacts, documents, calanders, music, photos, videos, web sites and connect fine with all the different hardware I have such as DVD burners, USB and Firewire drives and of course the whole range of iPods. Plug a camera in and a few mouse clicks later the photos can be displayed on your .Mac website and copied to your iPod.
Iain
I have both Macs and Windows XP computers but rarely ever switch on the XP machine. My main reason to using the Mac more was for ever getting problems with viruses even when an XP computer gets a slightest whiff of the interent.
I find a Mac and the bundled iLife package does all I need. I also have a .MAC account which gives me .mac email addresses and 1Gb online storage as well as synching all my macs and data over the internet.
Macs seem to be designed to do what people want to do using a computer with the minimum off fuss. If you want software with more adavnced features than the iLife suite then there is a good selection available but to be honest iLife does all I need.
iLife applications work with my contacts, documents, calanders, music, photos, videos, web sites and connect fine with all the different hardware I have such as DVD burners, USB and Firewire drives and of course the whole range of iPods. Plug a camera in and a few mouse clicks later the photos can be displayed on your .Mac website and copied to your iPod.
Iain
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My understanding, from my brother who has been a Mac engineer and reseller on and off for years, is that Mac is great for the audo-visual and creative experience. And it offers a credible port of MS Office. If lifestyle is your priority, Mac is your answer.
I nearly, nearly bought one when our home laptop started to die as it is essentially just a music client...but then it miraculously recovered so I spent the money on the Elise instead
I doubt you would be disappointed with a Mac. They just work.
Campbell
I nearly, nearly bought one when our home laptop started to die as it is essentially just a music client...but then it miraculously recovered so I spent the money on the Elise instead
I doubt you would be disappointed with a Mac. They just work.
Campbell
If you can get all the applications that you want on the Mac then it is better than a Windows device - simple as that really. Macs seem to get better and better all the time, not the same for Microsoft. Just a case of getting used to it like all technology.
2004 Exige S2 1.8 - Ardent Red
2003 RAV4 vvti 2.0 - Baleric Blue shiny version
Don't Fear The Reaper
Back on the road!
2003 RAV4 vvti 2.0 - Baleric Blue shiny version
Don't Fear The Reaper
Back on the road!
I use mac at home and windows and linux at work.
I only got the mac at home so that I wasn't looking at the same sh*t I look at work.
The mac has been great, so much so that when I wanted a laptop I got a macbook, which is a pleasure to use as well.
Keep windows for doing the accounts and payroll and use mac for anything you actually like doing.
Malcolm
I only got the mac at home so that I wasn't looking at the same sh*t I look at work.
The mac has been great, so much so that when I wanted a laptop I got a macbook, which is a pleasure to use as well.
Keep windows for doing the accounts and payroll and use mac for anything you actually like doing.
Malcolm
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thinfourth
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:06 pm
- Location: Playing in the mud near aberdeen
I'm a bit late along to this one, my but my recommendation is definitely the Mac.
I used Windows throughout Uni, along with a bit of Linux and Unix. Then, in my first 'real' job after uni, I had to use Macs. Unfortunately, it was OS 9, which admittedly was a bit rubbish. However, they soon switched to OS X and the difference was amazing. I continued to use Windows and Unix in my next (and current) job, but was constantly frustrated at Windows. My main frustration was comparing it with Unix that I used the rest of the time. Unix just worked. It didn't fall over. It was so stable and reliable.
When coming to change my PC at home, I wanted what I had with Unix but with a better user interface and more everyday software. Mac OS X is just Unix with a pretty face, so I found my answer. Several friends had Macs and raved about them and I knew it was the right choice from the minute my Macbook arrived last June.
Macs just work. As everyone above has said, they just make small things simple for you so you can get on with the real stuff. For example, installing software on a Mac can often be as simple as dragging an icon to your Applications folder!
A lot of the features on Vista are complete rip-offs of features that have been in OS X for ages. Even the look and feel is becoming similar. You can get all the software you use on Windows (or an equivalent or better software) for a Mac. I'm not saying Macs are completely bug-free, but they don't fall over the way Windows does. The only reason mine is ever re-booted is if I have to when I do a software upgrade. They don't crash. They're more secure. They don't get viruses.
They can do all the tasks you've mentioned above, but they do it much better than Windows. I can't believe that iMovie, for example, is a free piece of software. It's fantastic. Same goes for Garageband if you're a musician and want to record music.
It will take a bit of getting used to with the different user interface from Windows, but after a few days you'll be completely used to it and will never look back!
D
P.S. Edited to say: If you're worried about losing Windows-only features, install Windows on a small partition on the Mac. You can now do this with them having Intel chips. I did this on mine and I've probably booted the Windows partition all of twice since last June, and that was just to show people that it could run Windows! You really don't need it!
I used Windows throughout Uni, along with a bit of Linux and Unix. Then, in my first 'real' job after uni, I had to use Macs. Unfortunately, it was OS 9, which admittedly was a bit rubbish. However, they soon switched to OS X and the difference was amazing. I continued to use Windows and Unix in my next (and current) job, but was constantly frustrated at Windows. My main frustration was comparing it with Unix that I used the rest of the time. Unix just worked. It didn't fall over. It was so stable and reliable.
When coming to change my PC at home, I wanted what I had with Unix but with a better user interface and more everyday software. Mac OS X is just Unix with a pretty face, so I found my answer. Several friends had Macs and raved about them and I knew it was the right choice from the minute my Macbook arrived last June.
Macs just work. As everyone above has said, they just make small things simple for you so you can get on with the real stuff. For example, installing software on a Mac can often be as simple as dragging an icon to your Applications folder!
A lot of the features on Vista are complete rip-offs of features that have been in OS X for ages. Even the look and feel is becoming similar. You can get all the software you use on Windows (or an equivalent or better software) for a Mac. I'm not saying Macs are completely bug-free, but they don't fall over the way Windows does. The only reason mine is ever re-booted is if I have to when I do a software upgrade. They don't crash. They're more secure. They don't get viruses.
They can do all the tasks you've mentioned above, but they do it much better than Windows. I can't believe that iMovie, for example, is a free piece of software. It's fantastic. Same goes for Garageband if you're a musician and want to record music.
It will take a bit of getting used to with the different user interface from Windows, but after a few days you'll be completely used to it and will never look back!
D
P.S. Edited to say: If you're worried about losing Windows-only features, install Windows on a small partition on the Mac. You can now do this with them having Intel chips. I did this on mine and I've probably booted the Windows partition all of twice since last June, and that was just to show people that it could run Windows! You really don't need it!
Last edited by dezzy on Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
2009 Mini Cooper, Midnight Black
2008 Elise S, Solar Yellow
2008 Elise S, Solar Yellow
Try the latest version of Redhat Linux. It's great. You don't even need to use the command line these days. The user interface is on a par with Windows.thinfourth wrote:i haven't tryed linux for years. last time did it was damn unfriendly and i couldn't get bugger all to work but that was 4 years ago
If my old PC was not very dead i would try and get it running on that
2009 Mini Cooper, Midnight Black
2008 Elise S, Solar Yellow
2008 Elise S, Solar Yellow
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thinfourth
- Posts: 3177
- Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:06 pm
- Location: Playing in the mud near aberdeen
I would never purchase a MAC. Too restricted when i comes to software availablity IMO. I tend to find its arty/design types that use MACs because of PhotoShop applications which i believe is the industry standard. The bu##ers are a pain the ass to support too ... MACs that is not arty/design types .... but probably bacause i never use it.
I always buy Dell for Workstation based stuff, when through a phase of home built PCs but its not worth it. Never had a problem with a Dell machine. I have a few mates in the IT industry however and they swear by HP because the support is better than Dell. Dell laptops on the other hand are argubaly not the best but i tend to puchase the cheap ones.
I have a couple of PCs running Vista Business, not played with it too much but its looking good. Vista Ultimate could look awesome if you have the hardware to run it in best mode. Not played with it enough yet though.
IMO BTW
Scott
.... but probably bacause i never use it.I always buy Dell for Workstation based stuff, when through a phase of home built PCs but its not worth it. Never had a problem with a Dell machine. I have a few mates in the IT industry however and they swear by HP because the support is better than Dell. Dell laptops on the other hand are argubaly not the best but i tend to puchase the cheap ones.
I have a couple of PCs running Vista Business, not played with it too much but its looking good. Vista Ultimate could look awesome if you have the hardware to run it in best mode. Not played with it enough yet though.
IMO BTW
Scott