Everyone’s got their favourite but (and keeping in mind what i want to use it for – photo manipulation, graphic design, web design) i’m looking for a new computer – so do i:

a) Buy one of the new i-macs and make do with my old 17 inch laptop for sufing, twittering and all that

or

b) Buy a desktop with AMD phenom processors and a couple of netbooks (one for me one for the wife) for the same money

Are there really any benfits to shelling out for the Mac if i’m not doing any of the things mentioned above for a living

Sensible answers please, i know the whole Apple vs PC from a willy waving stand point

c) Buy a Samsung NC10 Netbook, double the ram, add a 20 inch monitor and install Mac OS X on it.

Personally I like Macs, but use PC’s as well (“my” computer is a Mac) but why not just stick with whatever platform you have?
If it is for work and you use a Mac currently would that not be cheaper, keeping the software you have rather than rebuying?

5yr old G4 ibook. Its died 3times, resurrected and been dropped/knocked off tables onto the floor. I dont know if mine is ‘special’ but its tough as old boots

I use a Mac, for very much the reasons you want a new machine for. I have done for over 8 years at home, and over 15 years all together. I have also used PCs for the same tasks.

I’ve found that the Macs cope with the tasks better, are more efficient at multi-tasking, have a much nicer OS, aren’t vulnerable to viruses etc like PCs are, and don’t crash. I have never experienced and hardware issues with my Macs. I have had to change components in PCs a few times.

Macs have less built-in obsolescence, and while they may cost more initially, they offer greater value for money in the long run. They come bundled with some really good software, and are much easier to use ‘out of the box’.

Everyone I know who has switched to a Mac, has said they much prefer them. And to date, no-one I know has experienced any serious issues with their Macs. Most have, with PCs.

My students who use Macs seem to be progressing faster than those who have PCs.

These are my opinions and observations.

I do not work for Apple Computer Inc.

?

i love my imac.
I also have a work laptop which is pony.

HTH

Having used both. It’s a no brainer. Mac.

Saving up my pennies for a macbook here.

It’s like single speeding, once you try it you won’t go back…

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?wwwwwow what is it?

having spent hours rebuilding the OS on my SO’s laptop last week, get a Mac.

The hardware is the same. The cost is different.
Windows won’t break if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t want to know what you’re doing, go for a Mac with that price premium.

Running bloat free Server 2008 here.

Windows won’t break if you know what you’re doing.

By ‘if you know what you’re doing’, I’m assuming you mean having a degree or something in computer stuff?

I am reasonably savvy with the Mac OS. I have had to re-thing my PC several times. I don’t have the time or inclination to sit with it for hours, sorting it all out if it goes wrong. I want it to work.

Running OSX Leopard here. The best OS known to Mankind.

Windows won’t break if you know what you’re doing. If you don’t want to know what you’re doing

Like using it for email and web browsing, really hard and difficult tasks that resulted in the OS dying and only allowing me access to Dos, the joy of relearning how to copy from the hard drive to an external drive. Before repeatedly trying to get the OS to reinstall and work again.

This was Vista and to be fair i don’t have a problem with windows 2000 that runs on my Work PC. But if that is progress god help anyone who gets windows 7.

Having used both I’d go for a PC every time. I have no idea what the people who have issues are doing to their boxes but I’ve been running a variety of machines for many, many years on XP with absolutely no problems whatsoever.

It pains me every time I have to use a MAC. There must be something wrong with me because I simply don’t get it and I have tried to like them. The only thing good I can say is ‘nice screen’, that’s about it.

Having bought a Mac just over a year ago, I would not go back to a PC now. Yes, they are more expensive if you just make a comparison on a spec basis with a comparable PC build, but the quality of the hardware is excellent IME, and is just getting better I think (I have the ‘old’ MacBook Pro, which is nice, but the new ones is even better build-wise). However to me the main reason is user experience. My Mac runs as good now as when I first got it, even with the hard drive nearly 80% full. I can honestly say that with all the PC’s I’ve had, within a couple of weeks the performace has cratered, I’ve had errors etc. I’ve never run any maintenance utility on the Mac, it just works – and I like most people I guess have no interest in what’s ‘under the bonnet’ I just want something that works (a bit like my bikes, but that’s another story…)

What RudeBoy said! I’ve had my MacBook for about 9 months now and couldn’t go back to PC.

5yr old G4 ibook. Its died 3times, resurrected and been dropped/knocked off tables onto the floor. I dont know if mine is ‘special’ but its tough as old boots

‘died 3 times’ in 5 years? That’s not so good is it? We’ve got Dell, Toshiba and other PC laptops that are still happily chugging along after that kind of time, without being dead.

Personally, I develop software, and have had some bad experiences with Apple as a company (evil monopolising, closed system buggers that they are*), so I only develop for Windows, so I need a Windows PC, but to be honest the user experience is much of a muchness nowadays.

Joe

* much more so than Microsoft

Can you buy a Mac and upgrade the hard drive?
Are they still worth buying if you’re going to be using Windows on them a few times a week?

Horatio; you can upgrade the HD in any Mac, as they all use standard components. Granted, you will probbly invalidate the warranty, but you’ll probbly only be wanting to do this after a couple of years when it’s out of warranty anyway.

I understand doing so with an iMac is relatively straightforward. A little less so with the laptops, but then they are trickier to do stuff to anyway.

Time Machine works brilliantly, as a back-up system, or you could simply use an external HD (not spensive) for storage. Or you could, as I’m planning to do, use a network HD, which can be accessed wirelessly.

I have a HD with a Windoze partition on it. I can either boot straight into that from Startup, or from OSX, using VMWare. It actually boots up quicker than my PC! You will need an anti-virus, though. I use AVG, seems to work ok.

I can understand people like Joemarshall needing a Windoze PC for their particular work, but I think the vast majority of us find using Macs simpler and nicer.

Run Windows XP with VMware Fusion on a new Mac. It’s more secure and faster than running it on a PC.

and don’t crash.

Never had a single crash with my Vista Tosh laptop. Not once, in a year.

Advantages to Mac – nicer OS, more user friendly, nice hardware, less crap to worry about.

Disadvantages – more expensive, less software about*, no games to speak of**.

* lots of people say stuff like ‘hey I’ve got this great program for X, do you want it?’ ‘I wish I could, but I’ve got a Mac :(‘.. eg my Dad’s bridge software, the wordsearch maker my Mum uses for work, tracklogs (not that I use a ‘borrowed’ copy or anything) etc etc

** by games I mean the stuff they sell in Game ie full-on computer games. This may or may not be an issue.

I would say that it’s not worth the premium for a Mac seeing as you can do exactly the same with a PC. There is a lot of Mac hype about how terrible PCs are but it’s just rubbish. They may not be quite as easy to use, but you have far more future proofing with a PC (despite what was said above) because the hardware isn’t so locked down.

Of course, Macs make you more intelligent, apparently. They probably also increase your sex appeal and do all your work for you. It’s up to you what’s important, 2 new netbooks or joining The Revolution(tm)?

Traildog, how is a PC more future proof than a Mac? Serious question.

Looks like a doddle to swap out the HD on an iMAC

😉

I changed the HD on my MacBook for a 320G at Christmas and it took about 15 minutes + reinstalling the OS and software etc. I now run it with VMFusion which allows me to run my **licensed** copy of Tracklogs and log into my office systems.
Both pc and Mac are tools for the job, I use both, neither bothers me overly much.

My students who use Macs seem to be progressing faster than those who have PCs.

What do you teach and how can the brand of computer affect this one way or the other?
or is it because you mark down those that choose PC’s over Macs?

Remember Apple is a company created to make a profit. They are not members of your family or friends.

My students who use Macs seem to be progressing faster than those who have PCs.

Do you teach ‘Learning to use a MAC, lessons 1 to 4?

I teach ‘photographic manipulation and digital image making, using software from a popular software manufacturer’ (Photoshop, but I’m not allowed to advertise it as such).

The application GUIs are essentially identical, but the issues PC users have are usually in retrieving documents, and naming them (you can call a file virtually anything you like on Macs, and have spaces and odd characters in file names etc). Also, Some of my PC using students have experienced problems with memory sticks, CDs and DVDs, and with images downloaded from tinternet.

These are just observations. I appreciate that most of the issues are probbly down to user error. This is less common amongst the Mac users, as the Mac OS is more intuitive and nicer to use.

the Mac OS is more intuitive and nicer to use

That may possibly be true if you’ve never used a computer of either type before, but if you’re coming from a PC it certainly isn’t – it’s a whole new OS to learn.

(you can call a file virtually anything you like on Macs, and have spaces and odd characters in file names etc).

Really it’s quite amazing how you can do that on a PC too, There are only 9 reserved Characters which can’t be used in file or folder names on a PC, most of which are also reserved characters on Linux/Unix too.

Anyway TBH get Either. I use Windows/Linux and Apple day in day out, they all have their quirks and issues. Apple reall should drop their hardware costs though since they switched to off the shelf components, it’s just not realistic.

Mind you my Dual booting Hackintosh at home is great HP XW4200 boot’s Xp and OS-X and is a shed load faster than the Mac Pro’s we have at work…

Rudeboy – Re – Macs ‘aren’t vulnerable to viruses etc like PCs are’

Whats it like with your head the sand pal?

It’s a 5 minute job to change the hard disk on a Macbook.

If you know someone at Uni, get them to buy it with you to get the discounts. 10% off the computer and any bits, and something insane like 80% off the extended warranty.

Whats it like with your head the sand pal?

I don’t know- you tell me!

Never had a virus on my Macs, in 8 years. Never had any ‘anti-virus’. Never heard of anyone i know, have a virus on their Macs.

And the file name issue? Apparently, PCs don’t seem to like files created on a Mac, that have spaces in the name. That’s what I’ve observed.

I love the way it’s only really the ‘geeks’ that leap to Windoze defence. The vast majority of us just want something that ‘just works’. Macs, in my experience, do this task better than PCs. Thus, I prefer them.

weester – Member

Rudeboy – Re – Macs ‘aren’t vulnerable to viruses etc like PCs are’

Whats it like with your head the sand pal?

Errr, i think rudeboys got a point….i have never heard of anyone get a virus on a mac?

Unlike a pc, where i think everyone must have had one at some point, or at least a little trojan warning alert…

Traildog, how is a PC more future proof than a Mac? Serious question.

Because you can take them apart easier and plug things in easier. The very fact that the hardware isn’t as locked down as on a Mac, which makes the Mac easier to use, is the reason a PC can be upgraded easier.
I only mentioned it because someone higher up said it but the other way round.

Replacing a hard drive on a Mac Book is really easy, RudeBoy implied it was slightly it was more difficult to do so than on an iMac which requires the following as per my link above:

“First you need a pair of dent-puller suction cups to remove the iMac’s glass faceplate, which is held in place by 14 magnets. Then you’ll need a T9 Torx driver to remove the 12 screws that secure the front bezel and the eight that hold the LCD panel, and a T6 to remove the display cable.”

Never had a serious issue with either in 12 or 15 years of using both regularly. Just wish I could get the fonts from my wife’s old MacBook to work on her new Mac Book Pro without having to convert them all on my Windows machine like I have been doing.

Never had a virus on any of the PC I run either. TBH they’re so similar these days just pick which ever you feel happiest with.