Morning Folks,
One of the PC's in the office is about to die and we fancy something other than Windows 7.
General office work will be carried out on it. So what are the votes for either Mac mini or a desktop with Win 10??
Answers on a postcard please!
A draw after 12 pages...
Windows 10 is rather good, best of 7 and 8 and makes older stuff run faster. Anyway windows it just works
If you're users are used to the windows 7 way of doing things then windows 10 is the obvious answer, they'll be familiar with the way things are done.
I've recently got a macbook and.... It's a very different experience. It takes quite a bit of time figuring out the subtle things.
EDIT - and it's most definitely not 'it just works'
If there is no particular reason to get a mac, stick with Windows It'll be cheaper in the short term.
If someone really wants a Mac, or is really used to a Mac then they should be getting a mac.
As you say it's for Office general stuff, there is no compelling reason to get a Mac or Windows so go with whatever is preferred.
All my machines are Mac, as I just prefer they way they work - but I have VM's on all of them to run Windows, for some specific apps. Windows 10 is fine, but it's still very confusing like it's trying to be like a mac, but not quite a mac, a PC is best when it's being a PC in my opinion. Windows is getting simpler, but it feels far less logical - but familiarity is the biggest thing I know.
The argument is that Win 10 comes alive with a touch screen, my work machine had windows 8 and a touch screen and I was told the same - leaning over a keyboard to interact with a screen is odd, a tablet makes sense and laptop less so, a desktop even less so.
El Capitan comes with better desktop wallpaper.
.....on a serious note, with the Mac Mini you can also bootcamp Win10 on there, so have the best of both worlds.
All I can say working in a place that has 500 Mac's and 500 pc's is that if you move someone from a pc to a mac they winge for a week or so but if you move them from a mac back to a pc they are still wingeing a year later.
Mac's seem to go wrong less often and we run them for 5 yrs rather than the pc's which are run for 3, but they do cost more !
from a work perspective both are currently a PITA so I'd stick with 7 until all the comparability shit/work arounds have settled down.
HTH
🙂
I run both Mac i7 CPU (El Capitan) and PC i5 CPU (windows 10). The PC is still used for the majority of office based apps, Word, Excel and various accounting packages as I work faster on them and they are more reliable.
I tried converting my office based requirements over to Mac using Parallels for the accounts software (Sage) that wouldn't run on OSX and even buying MS Mac Office. The accounts software struggled with Parallels on Yosemite but for some reason runs better on El Capitan but still not as good as on Windows. The MS Office software is easier to use in Windows and feels cumbersome on a Mac. Page and Numbers didn't really compete with Word and Excel either.
Reliability is pretty much even between the Mac and PC. Both have thrown the odd rare strop but nothing drastic. The Mac was the worst when it crashed, re-installed itself and in doing so lost a profile. Restarted it and the missing profile had appeared again so no loss just an inconvenience.
Build quality is great with Apple but you are paying for it too. Speed wise for normal office requirements there isn't anything between them as neither gets a work out. Windows 10 is faster to boot up and start using from cold and standby than the Mac. Both using SSD drives so quick on any of them.
Page and Numbers didn't really compete with Word and Excel either.
Libre Office is a better fit (and free), I don't really like Mac Office either.
In your shoes I'd go with Win 10. If you needed a Mac you'd know why, and if you really just wanted one you'd have bought it 🙂
Brassneck - that was almost Zen! 🙂
Cheers folks!
The MS Office software is easier to use in Windows and feels cumbersome on a Mac. Page and Numbers didn't really compete with Word and Excel either.
I stopped using a Mac because of Office for Mac 2011, just gone back to a Mac and Office for Mac 2016 is leagues ahead and much more like the stability and functionality you get on Windows now.
Cheers Somouk, just downloaded Mac 2016 version with my Office365 sub. Really is leagues ahead of the old version I tried using previously.