On a side note, I always found it strange that Microsoft’s Xbox360 will read HDs formatted with Mac OS Ext. Journaled, but not NTFS.

On a similar note, I found it strange that when even Apple went over to Intel processors, leaving the IBM PowerPC processors behind, who did Microsoft turn to to develop the processor for the XBOX 360?

Well it wasn’t Intel or AMD… And funnily enough, though everyone thought IBM would go tits up after Apple left them, they’ve never had it so good with so many XBOX’s out there in the world each with one of their processors in!

I would imagine MS went with IBM as they would have got a spectacularly good deal from them, as they knew they had just lost a very big client.

…saying that, IBMs main biznizz is servers, so even Apple jumping ship wouldn’t have been the end of the world.

At home we have 3 Macs ( 2 mini ones doing largely browser and media server stuff and an iMac) one Dell PC and one Linux Laptop. I use PCs at work.

Which crashes most? One of the mini-macs
Which is the most PITA with updates? The PC.
Which is fastest? The iMac.

The macs were not cheap – but do usually just work.
The mac route is not necessarily always more expensive however – Changing 3 macs to the newer snow Leopard OS, adding the full Office-equivalent Mac suite plus iLife (including Garage band) cost about £70 the lot and we could have done 2 more for that. If only MS stuff were as cheap. And you didn’t need to hunt down lost drivers…

But the standout in terms of speed of operation – given the hardware – is Linux.

And yes – Safari sucks. FFX is way better.

If look/design is more important to you then its Mac all the way. The mac book air is a beautiful bit of kit. The closest to it is Sony.

Like the iphone it does things very well but you dont get the option to try other things if you want. A little bit like comparing the iphone to the android.

The software is no better or no faster than windows 7.

You will have more choice with software in windows.

As earlier both ‘just work’ so it usually comes down to the design factor with most people and if you want to pay for that.

Macs keep working and don’t get slow, plus they always do the same thing every time. I love them. We’ve just bought my sister in law one who has cerebral palsy. She had a PC before. She’s already adapted to it, just took a few days.

GB

Apple hardware is good.. but [the internals] its nothing you can’t get elsewhere.. and you are paying for a Unix based OS.. it might have the edge for publishing and design, just like windows does for gaming – the various OS are good at different things

The monitors seem expensive, since you can get quality monitors from other manufactures that use IPS panels

I see windows as a convenience thing.. people like it because it seems easy to use and its all they’ve ever known.. you can easily get yourself in a mess with it too – things getting installed when they shouldn’t or accessing things they shouldn’t so easily..

So hereby await flameaggedon by suggesting you try Linux – unless you game alot or have a very specific need for a certain piece of software

Which won’t cost anything and the amount of software available is staggering.. someone will probably say its all **** but there’s plenty of good stuff out there… and all the while it is catching up in areas where it might be or is perceived to be behind

Just trying to remember why some of the members don’t like it… last time it seemed to be that most hadn’t tried it for long enough to actually form a sensible opinion.. those who encountered the smallest of problems gave up

Its partly an image thing too.. people would be afraid to say they used it

I know one or two members on ‘ere have used it thought

Oh and Xbox 360 has an ATI GPU in it IIRC

rant over heh

Which won’t cost anything and the amount of software available is staggering.. someone will probably say its all **** but there’s plenty of good stuff out there… and all the while it is catching up in areas where it might be or is perceived to be behind

Big problem is MS Office. Running it through some kind of emulator thing is a pain. Open Office is not the same, particularly if you have to work with other people who have MS Office, as it doesn’t format documents exactly the same, so you end up breaking each other’s formatting.

Joe

joemarshall – Member
Big problem is MS Office. Running it through some kind of emulator thing is a pain. Open Office is not the same, particularly if you have to work with other people who have MS Office, as it doesn’t format documents exactly the same, so you end up breaking each other’s formatting.

What do you mean? MS Office is available for OSX and it’s really good (2011 is better than the latest Windows version imho)

Linux is just too much trouble for most people, Conq. It just is. I wish it weren’t, but that’s the sad reality I’m afraid.

retro83 – Member

joemarshall – Member
Big problem is MS Office. Running it through some kind of emulator thing is a pain. Open Office is not the same, particularly if you have to work with other people who have MS Office, as it doesn’t format documents exactly the same, so you end up breaking each other’s formatting.

What do you mean? MS Office is available for OSX and it’s really good (2011 is better than the latest Windows version imho)

Ah, Linux, disregard my post then! 😳

Macs keep working and don’t get slow, plus they always do the same thing every time.

Sorry, but I’m a fan of OSX for sure, much prefer it over windows, but either you’re just a casual user or don’t have much experience of Mac’s at all. OK, they dont slow down as quickly as PC’s in general, but my god you can still bring them to a grinding halt if you want, or you’re a bit jam fisted.

well everyone has their opinion molgrips… but at least give your reason for the benefit of the thread 😆

—————————————————–

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-013-HO&groupid=17&catid=1120&subcat=

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003A4H17S/

£1600 for an all in one computer, running a sandybridge processor with a 27″ IPS screen is not, comparatively speaking of course, that much more compared to what a similar PC variant would cost surely?

easily achievable with probably a lot of money to spare using one of those two monitors above

Stinkpad FTW – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/17/computing-opensource

easily achievable with probably a lot of money to spare using one of those two monitors above

but why would you? it doesn’t run osx (without hacking) and is ugly as sin (like most other PC’s)

i use both daily, cant say theres much in it, from a work point of view a lot more shareware type stuff works better/easier with pcs
other than looks and maybe ergonomics/weight (of the laptops) a mac just seems overpriced

Macs keep working and don’t get slow, plus they always do the same thing every time.

Rose tinted specs there I’m afraid. In the real world they dont all just keep working and my windows 7 laptop (running ss hd) which has been running for 2 yrs is faster than a macbook pro 1 yr old. Boots quicker, Office apps open quicker.

Some people get a bit carried away with how things open and close on a Mac, which I must admit is very nice but sometimes I dont want it to bounce around I just want the bloody thing to open quickly!!

Sorry forgot to add. SS drive is the business. I’m not sure if they come as standard on the Macs but if you get the option choose the ss drive. More expensive on the PC but worth it.

Nibby that’s what I don’t like about the os, and you can’t turn off that animation as far as I’m aware.

Tom, yes it’s annoying. It’s not designed for 10 yr olds and very annoying that it wont turn off (as far as I know?) I find that annoying about the OS in general. It seems more closed in that it will only let you do up to a point. Which for some people is a good thing but again stop treating us like 10 yr olds!!

easily achievable with probably a lot of money to spare using one of those two monitors above

Can I watch when you try to shoe horn the components into that Dell monitor please 😉

Nibby that’s what I don’t like about the os, and you can’t turn off that animation as far as I’m aware.

Which animation we talking about?

My 2010 MBP is no more stable than my 2004 XP work laptop – I have to reboot them both just as often to solve various issues. I much prefer the MBP, but OSX isn’t really that stable. Parallels has quite a few issues as well inc randomly deciding to use 100% of the CPUs for no reason – http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=96981

Which animation we talking about?

The bouncy icon on the dock which is fun for the first few times after which you think “stop wasting time and open up my bloody program”.

Uncheck the following in System Preferences>Dock, Tom:

but why would you?

Last time I checked saving substantial amounts of money was a good thing. Especially when the two items in question perform the exact same tasks.

I had a recent foray back into Microsoft land, having been convinced by the the positive feedback people were giving about Win7. Bought a copy and stuck it on a desktop so that I could have a play around. The OS itself seems okay, but the petty restrictions and faffy nature of installing the product reminded me of all the reasons why I got fed up with Microsoft and switched to OSX in the first place.

I think part of the problem is that comparing my MacBook Pro to the Win7 Lenovo that my wife has from work isn’t very easy. The build quality of the two machines may be very similar, although I still prefer the aesthetics of the aluminium mac to the plastic shelled Lenovo. The visual simplicity of the Apple product is much more to my taste, and that matters to me. To my mind, it’s a bit like comparing an Aston Martin to an Impreza – visually, I prefer the clean lines of the Aston and, if I had the cash, I’d never consider an Impreza or an Evo simply because they look too cluttered.

when I was a student, I built all my own desktops – still remember the fear as I sat in my room with £900 worth of components lying on the bed wondering if I could make this new Cyrix 200Mhz processor work! After years of spending time tinkering and faffing with Windows boxes, and a variety of Dell laptops, the final straw came when I spent a couple of hundred quid buying a new video editing card and software for a youth work project I was involved in, only to discover that the damn thing didn’t work properly thanks to poorly implemented drivers. I went and bought a PowerMac and a copy of Final Cut Express and got the job done with a minimum of fuss.

I’m unlikely to switch back now unless something happens in Apple world to generate the same level of dissatisfaction with Macs, although a brief experience of being treated like a criminal with Windows 7 means I’d have to be really pissed off to contemplate using it on a computer again. To be honest, computer processing power benchmarks stopped being a meaningful measure of what I buy a long time ago, as I’m not doing anything so intensive that it really matters that much. I’d be perfectly happy with an inferior machine specs-wise as long as the technology doesn’t interfere with me doing the things I want/need to do with a computer.

Uncheck the following in System Preferences>Dock, Tom:

Oh, I must’ve missed that somehow – cheers 🙂

Oh, I must’ve missed that somehow – cheers

Yup. It’s easy to miss….what with there being about 3 check boxes 😉

Last time I checked saving substantial amounts of money was a good thing. Especially when the two items in question perform the exact same tasks.

does it run final cut? logic?
will it’s firewire 800 port (if it even has one?) put out enough power to run my digital back?
will it run in target mode so i can quickly move gigs of files from computer to computer?

re: Linux – I work with it everyday, and I’m afraid I’d have to agree with Molgrips. If you just want email, web and open office it would do the job.. but then they inevitably go and buy a Windows only printer or want to run some weird sha-mo that Wine can handle at a crawl.. unless you’re dead keen on the fiddling it just isn’t worth the hassle… i.e. you install linux because you want too or need too.

I run PowerPC ubuntu on an eMac in the garage but my wife would tell me to sod off were I to try to replace the Hackintosh with it – OSX is just lovely for digicams, music etc. but having got Win7 imposed on me at work some months back, the difference is not so pronounced now – the Windows Live apps are pretty damn good for nowt.