funny how both those 2 links have a lot of ads for anti-virus software 🙄

llama – that does not show they are prone does it? I didn’t say Macs are free from risk, but they are massively less susceptible to viruses than a PC.

Here you go – a timeline of PC viruses to compare – if Macs are ‘prone’ then what does this make PCs?

It’s still a fact that the shoebox macs I used in 1990 were prone to a virus spread by floppy disks. I cannot tell a lie.

The point I am making, for those of you immune to my sarcasm, was that to say that ‘DOS was crap, therefor Windows7 is too’, is a pointless argument.

You might as well say the same about any technology.

(for the record I would buy a macbook if I had £1500 sitting around but I’d have to have a windows VM)

The point I am making, for those of you immune to my sarcasm, was that to say that ‘DOS was crap, therefor Windows7 is too’, is a pointless argument.

But you weren’t making that point. You were making another (absurd) point.

And the fact (as Molgrips rightly pointed out) the OS has been completely re-written since then so your assumption is simply wrong.

More about Macs and viruses here…

An Apple Macintosh computer can get a virus, so the short answer to the question is Yes. However, the likelihood of an Apple Macintosh user getting a virus when compared to a Microsoft Windows user is very little to none. In fact, many of the Apple Macintosh users don’t even run an antivirus protection program.

And the fact (as Molgrips rightly pointed out) the OS has been completely re-written since then so your assumption is simply wrong.

Yes I agree and know full well

The absurd way I put it obviously was too abstract for some of you creative mac types 🙂

An Apple Macintosh computer can get a virus, so the short answer to the question is Yes. However, the likelihood of an Apple Macintosh user getting a virus when compared to a Microsoft Windows user is very little to none. In fact, many of the Apple Macintosh users don’t even run an antivirus protection program.

Windows has been rubbish for this, partly down to holes, partly down to idiot users, and partly down to the fact that there are many many more windows installs than mac.

However it is not really true now. The holes are few and far between. I have a windows 7 box that is blemish free but runs no AV software. One of my daughters has a win8 box, no AV software, no problems.

It annoys me that when I try to search for a tune 400 odd mail notifications obscure the search box.

I realise there’s probably a way of sorting it

Egh? Or use the search box in iTunes rather than using spotlight? [/quote]
That’s what I thought. Also, what’s this “f arrow” business?

One of my daughters has a win8 box, no AV software

It has built-in AV software.

I am searching in the iTunes box but it is obscured by the mail notification box when I turn the computer on.
The f arrow thing is when I want to take a screen shot. Why can’t I just click on a button rather than having to look up what combination of buttons I need.
As someone said above ,I want to turn it on and use it. I’m not a computer buff ,I don’t want to read a book about it, I don’t give a shit what system I’m running I just want it to work sensibly.

Why can’t I just click on a button rather than having to look up what combination of buttons I need.

Because there are options for screen-shotting on a Mac: Command + Shift + 3 for whole screen; Command + Shift + 4 for a crosshair to select the exact co-ordinates you want; Command + Shift + 4 then hit the space bar to screenshot the open window the curser is hovering over.

As someone said above ,I want to turn it on and use it. I’m not a computer buff ,I don’t want to read a book about it, I don’t give a shit what system I’m running I just want it to work sensibly.

As johndoh says.

Don’t forget you weren’t born being able to use Windows, it’s learnt.
Just because you can speak English doesn’t mean you start throwing your toys round because you can’t speak Spanish without a few lessons.

When you’re a bit older you’ll be one of those blokes saying ‘it weren’t like that in my day’ 😆

And to be fair, I spend more time looking for the Prt Sc button (what does that mean anyway, that has to be learnt too) on a Windows machine than the automatic second nature key combo on the Mac.

And I haven’t done it for a while, but do you still have to immediately ‘paste’ the Prt Sc into another programme then save it? No need to do that on a Mac – it immediately saves the screen shot to your desktop as a file.

Don’t bother with Prt Scr (print screen), just use the snipping tool. It’s brilliant!

It was all going so well.

Oh, and snipping tool.

As I said, I haven’t done it for a while on a PC so I assumed they must have copied Apple by now 😉

It’s still a fact that the shoebox macs I used in 1990 were prone to a virus spread by floppy disks. I cannot tell a lie.

owned and used macs since 93 and never had a virus on any of the numerous apple computers i have owned and watched terabytes of grot on.
i cannot tell a lie.

vinnyeh – Member

Don’t forget you weren’t born being able to use Windows, it’s learnt.

Well yes and no- Windows is pretty intuitive IMO, people pick up the basics very fast from a standing start once they know the basics of click and icon. That used to be true of mac OS too, now I think not so much.

Its ubiquity helps, because when people are making standalone OSs for other uses, they tend to look and feel like Windows- dvds, interactive tv, touchscreen ticket booking etc.

So lets create the most uppity person in the world….
a cat owning, 650b riding ,mac user.

owned and used macs since 93 and never had a virus on any of the numerous apple computers i have owned and watched terabytes of grot on.
i cannot tell a lie.

LOL – someone had to have the balls to say it. Well done that man.

Well yes and no- Windows is pretty intuitive IMO, people pick up the basics very fast from a standing start once they know the basics of click and icon. That used to be true of mac OS too, now I think not so much.

I made the jump from Windows XP so haven’t experienced the latest Windows stuff but the hardest thing for me was remembering what side of the window the close button was located.

Not preaching but for those that are recent to Mac and think you don’t need antivirus stuff and are safe from all nasties etc. have a read of this if you haven’t already done so…

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3291

I spend more time looking for the Prt Sc button

it’s been top right for a very very very very long time, like for longer than windows existed as a consumer OS

but do you still have to immediately ‘paste’ the Prt Sc into another programme then save it?

Dunno about windows.
Linux might vary. press 1 button and you may have a file in your home dir. Mine is set up so 1 button gives me choice to save whole screen, window, user selection, include or exclude mouse pointer, apply a delay (handy if you want to get a snapshot of some mouse activated context), save to file, email, direct to imgur or one of several image sharing sites, flickr, …
Hitting Prt Scr is way easier than trying to remember if it’s Cmd-1 Cmd-2 or Cmd-3 or PrtScr, Alt-Prtscr or Ctrl-PrtScr, … for that user selected area.

Well yes and no- Windows is pretty intuitive IMO

the basics were, but only cos we got brought up on windows.
then M$ went and messed it all up with the Office Ribbon where you can’t find anything, the full screen page to print files in Office where the button to actually commit the print doesn’t even look like a button, etc. and that’s before trying to make desktops work like tablets and getting arm ache with a touch screen.

And finding anything in control panel now is a pita, and you either need to suffer with Steve Ballmer’s screen bling that’s playing catch-up to Steve Jobs’ screen bling and even Linux GUIs, or hunt high and low how to change a setting.

So no. IMHO, it’s not really that intuitive, but just habit.

the hardest thing for me was remembering what side of the window the close button was located.

Ubuntu / Unity tried to copy OSX and stuck them on the (unintuitive) left hand side.
In most Linux, including Ubuntu Unity, it’s a configurable option. Left, Right, change the button order,… can probably have them on both sides if you really felt that way inclined

Its ubiquity helps, because when people are making standalone OSs for other uses, they tend to look and feel like Windows- dvds, interactive tv, touchscreen ticket booking etc.

Huh?

The only time I’ve seen a touchscreen ticket booking look anything like Windows was the one in Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof that blue-screened.

With nice big target rectangles, if anything, Windows 8 copied what has existed for decades. My very first job in 1993 was devloping a touch screen GUI. Only difference between that and W8 start screen or your android phone is the colour, the resolution and the finger detection, and the fact that it fit in something like 256kB of memory with 50% unused.

It amuses me when one of these fancy touchscreen things give up the ghost and you see the good old BSOD behind it.

andytherocketeer – Member

the basics were, but only cos we got brought up on windows.

Speak for yourself! I struggled through BASIC, original MAC OS and Arthur, oh and whatever the **** it was that our Wang word processor used.

What is the best guide to helping me unravel the mysteries of my mac book then?
All this stuff is easy if you know about it, obviously I don’t!

Then M$ went and messed it all up with the Office Ribbon where you can’t find anything

The ribbon’s great – all the commands you need in one place, and easy to find. I really hate having to go back to something like Open Office and its crappy menus.

And why M$ instead of MS? You’ll be writing “Windoze” soon, too. Or £pple.

Was actually brought up on RML Link380z and then Vax VMS, but windoze 3.1 would have been the first “proper” foray in to GUI use (ignoring Atari, GEM, Amiga etc. which was barely interactive for most and 99% of things were booted from floppy)

The ribbon is dumb. Or at least the names of the tabs in the ribbon is dumb. Editing/formating tools… oh they’re in Home.

Best feature about it is the fact that it still lets you create your own toolbar with the 4-5 really most useful tools, then hide the ribbon.

What is the best guide to helping me unravel the mysteries of my mac book then?
All this stuff is easy if you know about it, obviously I don’t!

https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/

And finding anything in control panel now is a pita

Change it from ‘category view’ to ‘large icons’. Problem solved.

Utter, utter twaddle – our office runs entirely on MacBook Airs and Pros, all shipped with 4G Ram (apart from one from the refurb store that was meant to be 4G but was actually 8G). It makes absolutely no discernible difference to performance and they all get hammered all day every day running multiple applications.

John. It’s just a computer. It’s not really important which one is better.

Where you will have problems running 4G on a macbook for example, when you fire up a couple of monster applications like office and firefox at the same time, you’ll eat into your swap space because the memory will be packed. Sleep to wake will take much longer, swapping between apps will be slower.

I could of course simply be making it up and putting a load more memory in didn’t fix this for me at all but the internet does appear to be jam packed full of lots of people like me who have had very similar experiences.

Really though, it’s just a computer.

What is the best guide to helping me unravel the mysteries of my mac book then?
All this stuff is easy if you know about it, obviously I don’t!

Online tutorials at Apple website
Lots of tutorials posted on youtube (some good, many rubbish !)
Free tutorials at larger Apple Stores
Find a mate to show you

Really though, it’s just a computer.

exactly, so if you are a ‘power user’ you have 16-32-64 gb ram and an SSD scratch disk as well as boot and everything connected via thunderbolt.
when upgrading my last mac i gained an hour a day because of reduced save/read/write times working in final cut/photoshop with 5-10gb images. which brings me to the cost angle people always go on about, a mac of similar spec to a Mac Pro or maxed out macbook retina doesn’t always cost more as you are into the realms of custom spec which is never cheap and so what if you save a few £? i happily pay the ‘apple tax’ for usability, efficiency and reliability especially when that ‘tax’ is earned in a day or less. “you could hand build your own” i could but why on earth would i want to?

sure if you sit on the internet and fiddle with spreadsheets get a £250 laptop, it’s probably all you need.

For generic browsing, email etc. I’m with Stoner though –

Power usage: my iMac Core i7
Sofa usage: my Samsung Chromebook.

I have a hackintosh – so it’s the best and worst of both worlds. I find OSX really inutitive, stable and fast. The only thing that took some getting used to was going from the Ctrl to the Cmd key…

My wife on the other hand can’t seem to get to grips with using the Mac at all , even though it has Office etc. Looks like I’m going to have to surrender a huge chunk of time an HDD space to Microsoft, or just buy her a craptop.

wow this thread is still going… who would have seen that coming 😉

John. It’s just a computer. It’s not really important which one is better.
Where you will have problems running 4G on a macbook for example, when you fire up a couple of monster applications like office and firefox at the same time, you’ll eat into your swap space because the memory will be packed. Sleep to wake will take much longer, swapping between apps will be slower.
I could of course simply be making it up and putting a load more memory in didn’t fix this for me at all but the internet does appear to be jam packed full of lots of people like me who have had very similar experiences.
Really though, it’s just a computer.

Whatever, I was just giving my opinion based on running an office full of Macs and I have never seen a commercial reason to bling up the kit with more RAM. (And yes I know I can’t add RAM to an Air after purchase).