The poll about Macs and PCs

Within the last month I’ve finally made the leap from PC to Mac at home. Some of you will have followed my “square peg in round hole” threads where I tried to ensure I could do on a Mac what I do on a PC 😆

Anyway, I thought I’d share my findings with the 3 people who might be interested.

Hardware – yeah, yeah, so it is harder to upgrade an iMac than most PCs. However the hardware is ACE. I’m on Lion OS with a Magic Trackpad and it is a pleasure to use. Slick and responsive and looks sexy. I’ve got a trackpad on my new work Win 7 laptop and the multi-touch gestures are rubbish – and often don’t work – whereas on the Mac they always work. I already find myself frustrated by not being able to do the same stuff on Windows. Not quite as revelatory as the first time you use a decent touchscreen tablet, but not far off.

Software – The OS and iLife suite is pretty good and all works very well together, but iPhoto is love-hate. Trying to get iPhoto to easily manage every user’s photos in one library (like Picasa does with great ease) has been a painful and unresolved struggle even when following Apple’s advice. Macs don’t always “just work”. I guess this is one of the reasons Apple are launching iCloud.

On the plus side being able to pinch, zoom, rotate and flip through photos is great (like on an iPhone/iPad etc) and the screen makes pics look fantastic.

The multiple desktops (I think they used to be called Spaces) are great too. It makes working on remote computers from the Mac a real pleasure, since I can easily switch from one remote session to another with a quick swish on the trackpad.

So, if you’re thinking of moving from PC to Mac:

1. Get a Magic Trackpad
2. Take note of my woes with iPhoto
3. Decide if you can be bothered to re-learn an OS. It’s not hard, but if you can’t be bothered, you’re not missing out on too much by sticking with Windows 7 (but you will be saving some money).

Apologies. I’ve just re-read my post and realised how dull it all sounds 😕

the title’s misleading too, but never mind 🙂

I had to lure you in somehow 😆

Apologies. I’ve just re-read my post and realised how dull it all sounds

don’t worry about sounding a bit dull, it’ll become 2nd nature in no time at all 😉

Some good stuff here….

http://www.apple.com/in/pro/tips/

I thought as a newbie to Macs who has already had “issues” I would be a refreshing change to the fan-boys. You’ve got to try and break these toys you know. I seem to have succeeded, which is actually a great shame

Move along, nothing more to see here 🙂

I found that quite valuable as someone who is thinking of changing.
Do you have an ipodphone or an ipodpad? Do you find that having a mac offers you any more integration (cool stuffs) than with a PC?

I bought a 27in iMac on Saturday. I’ve been saving 7-8 months for it.

Firstly, 100% agreement on the trackpad. I like pads on laptops anyway, so this was a no brainer, and it’s brilliant.

Secondly, unless you REALLY need a wireless keyboard, go for the full size wired one. It’s nicer to use and has arrow keys, a seperate delete key and 2 USB ports in it. Handy. AND I got a refund on the wireless one.

Thirdly, I (i)honestly(/i) thought after many years on a PC that it would take weeks/months/forever to get used to the Apple way of doing stuff.
I was sitting on the Mac setting everything up, with my (Pretty decent) laptop behind me. After a short time on the Mac, turning round to use the laptop was like stepping back in time to a ZX81. It’s a massive difference in speed and ease of use. And the screen is a revelation.

What went wrong?
It took me AGES to work out that the menu bar doesn’t always sit in the window of the program you’re using…. It sits at the top of the screen, seperately. That flummoxed me in iTunes for quite a while!

I’m the keyboard shortcut king. Some of them are quite different, but mostly they make sense and are easy to google.

Password! Every time I left it alone for 2 minutes, I had to put the password in again! Arrggghh! Took me quite a while to find how to change that setting!

On the whole, after a days’ use, I was pretty much up to speed. It’s a LOT slicker and more intuative IMO…. And I hope mI never have to use a mouse again! 🙂

Do you have an ipodphone or an ipodpad?

I have an iPhone and there is no doubt that it work betters with a Mac than a PC. On my old XP PC I struggled to get the photos off the iPhone. Both Windows image transfer and Picasa crashed when trying to import. As such I very nervously had 600 odd pics on my phone that I couldn’t transfer and was in constant fear of losing them. With the iMac and iPhoto I plugged in the phone and the rest was a doddle.

I went for a wireless keyboard BTW. Part of the move to Mac was a cosmetic one and I didn’t want wires. I thought I’d miss a numeric keypad but so far so good. I have a USB extension cable gaffer taped under my desk as my USB “hub”.

Totally agree with PP about the menu bar. I think this is Mac’s achilles heel. It seems so counter-intuitive that the menu bar bears no relation to where the program you are running is located on your desktop. I’m getting used to it…slowly.

PP, do you not find the 27″ Mac a monster? That’s a big old screen

Yeah, it’s big. But I knew I’d regret not getting the big one (Fnarr-Fnarr!) Best thing is that you can have 2/3 windows open all on the same screen. I’ve worked with 2 screens before, but this is better. 🙂
I doesn’t look that big until you sit in front of it, TBH…. 🙂

Made the leap to but won’t be getting my Mac Book until beginning of next month.

I find multiple desktops means I don’t need to have so many windows on the same screen and then I can flick from one to another easily. I love the fact I can drag locally running Skype into a desktop where I’m accessing a remote computer. Very convenient.

Excuse the encroachment in to this Mac love in.

I am under pressure from a daughter, who looks like she is heading down the art / design route in collage, to get a mac of some sort. She wants to get in to photoshop and no doubt other stuff that will also be expensive.

If we have a joint windows and mac household can you just transport stuff between computers on memory sticks. i.e. photos or are they completely different beasts.

uwe-r – use dropbox, seamless and a good way of backign up stuff, to boot.

I agree about iphoto – gave up trying to set up a single library that multiple user logins could access from the same mac.

The solution was to get divorced – although this might be a bit extreme for you

3. Decide if you can be bothered to re-learn an OS.

+1.
The mrs keeps telling me how she hates the iMac because it doesn’t do what she wants, but she resolutely refuses to learn anything about how OSX works 😐

re the iPhoto issue. I got it working across multiple accounts, but its not straightforward at all, some command line fettling is required, I’ll have a look to see if I can find the tutorial i used

can you just transport stuff between computers on memory sticks

Yes. The only thing to be aware of is that whilst the files will copy from PC to Mac with no problem at all (I just connected my machines to the same network), metadata may not. So, if you have a load of pictures in, for example, Picasa, that all have tags or faces assigned, they will not transfer by default (and may not do at all).

Do take heed of my warning with iPhoto. It is a lovely piece of software to use but fundamentally flawed in how it handles photo libraries. Picasa does work on a Mac but without the fab navigation you get using a Magic Trackpad in iPhoto.

uwe-r – Member
Excuse the encroachment in to this Mac love in.

If we have a joint windows and mac household can you just transport stuff between computers on memory sticks. i.e. photos or are they completely different beasts.

Yes, you can. Both OSs understand all the common file formats, or they would be useless. Surely easier to just transfer stuff over your home network though assuming you use wifi at home?

I did the jump a few years back, picked up a Powerbook G4 about 6 years ago, i boxed the Mac about 2 years back as the battery had died, the “Y” key has fallen off and it was starting to fall behind in the spec’s.

I went back to PC, 2 laptops later which have died i dug out the mac, yes i can’t currently connect my iPhone, but as a web surfer its great, and has out lived 2 PC’s, i wish i had not bothered getting the other laptops and invested in a new mac, but ive learnt the lesson, going to hold out with the dying mac and get a new mac mini to replace it with next year.

some command line fettling is required

That’s the conclusion I’m coming to following my research. I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty with computers, but one of the reasons for moving to a Mac was that I hoped I would not have to. As a Mac newbie I’m not (yet) up for getting into command line stuff. I’d still appreciate having a look at the tutorial though.

Uwe-r

Yes you can move files between Mac’s and PC’s with out any issue or problems using a memory stick. You can also connect them to the same network wirelessly to share files or use dropbox as wwaswas suggests. Its free and great to ensure you have hassle free backup

Use dropbox all the time to keep all my work and home computers in sync.

There is really very little difference between osx and windows 7. I’ve got osx at work and windows at home and there are parts of both that I prefer.

So I’ve installed cinch on my mac to give me aero snap from windows and a similar program to give me expose on my windows machine.

The only thing with a mac is that you can’t buy a cheap one. Most people who are mac vs pc are comparing a 5 year old £400 pc with a brand new £1200 mac. There is never going to be any competition there.

My approach is simple – if someone else is buying I’ll have a mac (ie. work can’t under spec it too much or buy a low quality one), if I’m buying it’ll be s pc.

this is the tutorial i used ( i think, its certainly similar) you only have to do it once, and I’ve never had trouble with is since setting it up a year or so ago.

linky

Most people who are mac vs pc are comparing a 5 year old £400 pc with a brand new £1200 mac

I think you’re probably right. In my case though I got a new home iMac at the same time as a new work Win 7 laptop. It put me in quite a good position to compare apples with apples (pun intended).

Cost was the main reason I put off buying a Mac for so long

Thanks Warton. I have seen that article before, but was a bit worried about getting into terminal stuff so soon. Will it also work across multiple devices? I.e. can the same library be viewed/edited on an iPad for example?

Having a shared library is not the holy grail here. The main thing I’m trying to achieve is for photos added by one user to appear in another user’s library with minimal (read: no) effort. For example I take some photos of the kids and import them into my iPhoto library. When my wife logs on she sees them in her library. Picasa does this so easily that I’m seriously thinking of using that instead.

work Win 7 laptop

Ah, but that’s my point, that’s the wrong way round to compare it. You get rubbish pc’s, but you don’t get rubbish macs. If work haven’t spent enough money or have it so locked down that you can’t tweak the settings and programs to your liking then the mac that cost more and and you have control of will win hands down.

The only thing with a mac is that you can’t buy a cheap one. Most people who are mac vs pc are comparing a 5 year old £400 pc with a brand new £1200 mac. There is never going to be any competition there.

And herein lies the problem, for the mostpart Apple hardware is still very expensive…

Sent from my Quad Core Hackintosh PC that’s as fast as a current i5 iMac and cost me about £300 to build yet I’m still running OSX natively on it!

😉

Apple hardware is still very expensive…

Yep, and it looks it too. That’s the big appeal 🙂

Finder is still absolutely shockingly shit. Tries to be too minimal and ends up removing functionality.

* owner of MBP and Mini *

I don’t see the appeal on Macs. I could just build a PC which is higher spec than a Mac and install iOS on it. Then it would be superior in everyway.

Finder is still absolutely shockingly shit. Tries to be too minimal and ends up removing functionality.

I use quicksilver. Ctrl + space, type what you want to find, be it a file or software and it brings it up, then you can perform actions on what you’ve found

I’m on a hackintosh here, does that count as being in both camps?

PlopNofear – I doubt you’ll be installing iOS on your PC… OSX perhaps?

PlopNofear, if you don’t see the appeal of the exceptionally nice design of a Mac compared to a PC, then you’re quite right to build a higher spec PC for less money. I’ve yet to see ANY PC/laptop running windows that looks as good as an iMac. Very subjective stuff.

It’s like oohing over Mercedes as opposed to Ford. Except that Mercedes owners whilst appreciating their cars don’t go around insisting everyone should buy one, cos they appreciate that not everyone can afford it or wants to spend that much cash… 🙂 And we live happily side by side.

So you purely buy a Mac because it looks nice?

So you purely buy a Mac because it looks nice?

People buy bikes on the same basis 🙂

So you purely buy a Mac because it looks nice?

If you translate ‘looks nice’ into ‘solidly made’ then it’s not as crazy. Macs are very well built. The inside of my mac pro at work is beautiful, certainly a lot nicer than the mess of zip tied cables in my windows machine.

If you look at the mac book air there is no windows laptop top that matches it on the combination of spec, price and build quality.

Having carried my iMac through Reading on Saturday, I can confirm that they are very solid. Very solid indeed. That hurt that did!