PC or Mac?

AT, I suspect you have a vested interest in 'talking up' PCs and Windows, as it ensures a steady stream of frustrated punters for your business...

Like Tony, Windows has been my bread & butter for many's a year, and I suspect I know it a bit better than most (as a MS developer) but there's no arguing that it's trailing some distance behind OSX, and unquestionably less reliable/secure...

John

 

Don't get down about something that has not yet happened. Look upon IE7 as a new trade to master after all their can't be too many IE7 experts in the wild. I'm sure fetteling with IE7 will keep you well paid for years to come.

 

IE7 won't work as well as Firefox unless MS sort out the CSS rendering engine rather than forking a new Frankenstandard of their own (as they are wont to do). In terms of reliability, well, it's MS, it's going to be encumbered with ActiveX and integrated into the OS and, and, and... [ctd. p236]

 

WinXP SP2 is a good product. Win2003 Server is a very good product.

PC's are inherently non standard hence the unpredictable results, but I personally have almost no issues at all with the PC's we build to use in our company and at home. They are reliable, very fast, very flexible, more modern in terms of architecture - and very cheap compared to Apple.

I would hate to be lulled into using Apple hardware, brainwashed by Jonathan Ive's beautiful design and mistakenly believe the beauty extended somehow to Apple's corporate identity.

...only to realise that all my music and data was encoded in a proprietary format which required me to pay big bucks to upgrade my hardware.

Apple offer excellent marketing and good quality products but are very proprietary. Moreso the Microsoft these days.

 

I'm no Microsoft fan by any means, but some of their preferred DOM concepts are actually better IMO than the supposed open standards. I dont find Firefox a compelling experience.

 

I love Firefox, and I love the .NET development system. Greg if you don't like Firefox have you tried Opera?

 

I dont dislike Firefox, but everyone at our place has without exception: tried it, initially switched to it, become a bit irritated with it, switched back to IE for general use. I do like Opera, I actually prefer it to Firefox myself. The mobile version is v impressive. IE has plenty of flaws, but I dont accept it's rubbish. I dont think much of Safari.

 

Thank you for all the feedback.

What are the problems? Very frequent registry troubles; or plain slowing down that resists to any attempt to cure it; following reformating.

How do I use the computer? I always use a portable (it is a necessity, there is no option here). I use my pc (a Toshiba) to advanced word processing (hence the mac option) and text editing (Adobe products). I also use SPSS (a statistical package), font editors and I do have a huge collection of fonts (type I). I have used every kind of 'Office' software (WordPerfect, Microsoft, OpenOffice). The font question is very important because I actually buy type; I would have to buy it again, and that is very costly.

I need to be able to edit videos (not comercial ones: plain recordings I make).

I don't mess with Windows; it messes up quite by itself.

What I want is a trouble free computer that will allow me to work without problems. I need PC compatibility because I use PCs at work. It is very important that software is not too expensive.

I fear Linux because it seems only computer literate persons can work with it, and I need simplicity.

 

I've wondered myself about how compatible are mac's an pcs?

Is it possible to have them on the same network and working/sharing fully for example?

 

Greg what are you on about?

If by proprietory you are referring to iTunes (only one application amongst many available for OSX) then its not proprietary for anything other than an iPod, if you don't like the philosophy they fine get an iRiver.

Its this kind of misinformation from PC users that insures people don't look elsewhere.

I would agree though that like google and everything else, believing that a company has a philosophy is crap, they are out to make as much money as possible, in their position I would too.

You will have to quantify how they are more modern in architecture.

 

Mo, yes. In the system prefs on the mac click on the tick box that says windows sharing, and thats done.

God knows how you do it on a PC.

 

Looking forward to an expert answer to this one.

I've just commited to buying a new iBook. I'm sure that everything will be fine for mine and my families simple needs though ( for the kids MSN , er yep thats it, just MSN , for the wife just internet access), I'll probably just carry on using my #1 XP Pro sp2 computer without having to wait for 'my turn' and just have the occasional play with the new laptop, i don't like them 'finger pad' things anyway on lappy's.

 

On a PC, you just access shares in the same way as connecting to another Windows computer, only it needs a username and password.

Its also very easy to do sharing etc. between Linux and Mac, Linux and Windows etc.

 

If you are having regular registry problems then you are either installing and uninstalling loads of crap, all the time, or your hardware is faulty - faulty RAM can cause registry errors.

OK its important to point out here that i am in no way after a fight - I am genuiinely curious.

Can someone point out to me how good the Mac is in the following areas:-

Bit perfect CD copying (ala EAC)
Peer 2 peer file sharing programs (i.e. bit torrent, direct connect, limewire and usenet)
Compressed file encoding (other than mp3 or apple, example musepack, ogg vorbis, flac, monkeys audio, div X, X vid etc etc)
Disc cloning software (like Clone CD)
Java based VNC server / client (like Real and Ultra VNC) - for controlling home PC through web browser at a remote site?
Chat clients - MSN Messenger, MIRC etc etc
Freeware photo editing - i.e. GIMP
Freeware antivirus - i.e. AVG Free
Compatability with USB devices - not just IPOD, but rival players, digital cameras, etc.

If the Mac could give me all of this I might be interested - if I had any money that is. I am quite happy to be proved wrong, but I bet i'd have to make do with at least one thing out of that list?

Greg - someone who finally sees firefox for what it is - mediocre. Better than IE? Yes probably, but thats hardly anything to brag about, and frankly browsers like Maxthon and Opera blow Firefox into the weeds, IMO.

 

I'll try:
1) Not sure
2) Limewire and torrent software is available for mac
3) There are quite a few mac programs I think, not sure how happy it is with DivX, I remember reading about problems with DivX and the newest OSX
4) No idea I'm afraid
5) VNC for mac
6) MSN, AMSN, Yahoo Messenger etc. all available
7) I think GIMP has been ported
8) You don't need antivirus
9) Usually mp3 players just work as a drag and drop on a mac I think


I hope these are about right, I don't have a mac myself, but have used my brothers a few times

 

Surely even on a mac it's wise to have anti virus installed?

 

If you must:
http://www.mrfreefree.com/free_software/free_anti_virus_software_for_macintosh.html

 

I think because of your font issue alone you might have to face sticking with Windows. Personal rec. IBM T series or HP/Compaq notebooks seem, in our experience, to offer the best combination of build quality, performance, features, support and integration versus price.

Specifically taking Lenovo (formerly IBM) T43:
- properly tested and integrated system (very unPC and very Apple in terms of it just works)
- excellent support (drivers, updates, components)
- high quality build, very light, good screen, rigid.
- decent performance
- quite expensive though (how very Apple)
- good bundled features, security sub-system and excellent Network connection profile feature allowing intelligent automation when switching between home, wifi, work, wired connections, DHCP to fixed IP, etc.

Downside they look a bit dull. Upside they dont have a big luminous Apple on the case

 

If you do get a new laptop, get as much RAM as possible, SPSS is a real hog (I had the 'pleasure' of using it at uni)

 

PCI-E, SATA, SATA2, DDR2, Dual Channel Memory, 64bit/dual core CPUs. I havent researched this so i stand to be corrected but I dont think you see these newer architecures/design concepts in Apple hardware yet? I may be wrong.