I Don't Hate XP I Just Like OS X Better

[bbrosemer]

My 17'' MacBook Pro that I ordered about a month ago I have fallen in love with. I find that I use the XP less and less on my MBP. I originally had a 68k Mac and it wow was slow. About 7 years ago I got my first PC and I wasn't all that impressed or fond of it. It was running Windows 98 and crashed every other minute. Then came Windows 2000, NOT ME (I NEVER USED ME OTHER THEN ON A FRIENDS COMP AND BOY DID IT SUCK), any way Windows 2000 was awesome and is still my favorite much more so then XP. Anyway XP came along and I had it up and running it works ok, there are so many problems that annoyed me. I had to constanly fix the regristy, I had to shut down so many pointles services that XP had in comparision to 2000, and I had to keep turing off all of the useless startup stuff that would mainfest itself in the boot.ini file. Eventually I got good at it and had my PC at startup running on 84 Mb of ram with only a mere 10 process running. But this got annoying have to constanly keep it at this prestemied condition. Then the chance came my 4 yr old dell laptop finally quit and here was my chance to get a MBP. I did and I am loving it. It is the fastest computer I have ever used, well other then my tower with 2 xeons running Linux, but still it screams. It is so easy to use. It is so easy to access what software comes up at startup and disable it. There is no regristy that I need to tinker with overall I love this computer and feel safe in saying that I will truly never go back to the PC world.

[dmw007]

Isn't it nice to be able to use a computer that just works. :)



Glad to hear that you are enjoying your new 17" MacBook Pro bbrosemer. :)

[swano]

Now if we could just convince the rest of those foolish pc users....actually, let them suffer.... haaahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa

[dmw007]

Now if we could just convince the rest of those foolish pc users....actually, let them suffer.... haaahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa

Come now, lets not be so heartless......


.....ah, what the heck, let them suffer. ;) :D :)

[bbrosemer]

There are a good number of people that just need to use a PC for XP, however now with Boot Camp lets hope that number shrinks and then people will see the same thing that I did that they use XP less and less.

[dmw007]

There are a good number of people that just need to use a PC for XP, however now with Boot Camp lets hope that number shrinks and then people will see the same thing that I did that they use XP less and less.

I hope the same thing. I see Boot Camp/the switch to Intel doing big things for Apple. :)

[macanudo]

I agree with you guys. The only time I need to use WinBlows is for MS Project. that's it. Then I go back into my OSX Sanctuary where there are no pop up windows in the system tray, just no BS.

[dmw007]

I agree with you guys. The only time I need to use WinBlows is for MS Project. that's it. Then I go back into my OSX Sanctuary where there are no pop up windows in the system tray, just no BS.

I guess that is the difference between Mac OS & Windows- with Mac there is no BS. :D

[ahunter3]

Once upon a time the Other Side was running MSDOS while we ran the Mac operating system (System 1-early 7). The users thereof made fun of icons. They made fun of mice. They called the Mac a toy.

Frankly, it was hard to credit them with working synapses, let alone judgment skills.

But the PC word has made major progress over the years. Wndows95 was usable (and very Maclike). Windows 2K and XP retain the superficial GUI (well, if you switch to classic interface in XP at any rate), and under the hood have a much more robust system architecture. As you say, I don't hate Windows (as long as I don't have to use it, I still don't like it personally). They DID it, they moved from a piece of crap OS to an OS you can actually use.

(I'd still rather use a 15 year odl Mac than today's Windows PC though. The everyday little stuff matters and it does add up.

[bbrosemer]

I dont see why more people arent replying I guess the people who always refer to us as ignorant PC haters arent coming out of the wood work like they usually do.

[FF_productions]

I dont see why more people arent replying I guess the people who always refer to us as ignorant PC haters arent coming out of the wood work like they usually do.

I'm waiting for the flames to start coming... I'd say 75 percent of these people on this forum have a Mac because their PC wasn't doing the job (I'd say that about 75% of mac users but that's a little to extreme).

[Rovman]

I'm stil both a windows and mac user, and still like them both. I bought a Mac basically to give it a go and see what its like.

Now i love the fact that i just turn the mac on and then like "use" it, but could anyone tell me some of the things that are so great about mac os x?

So far in my week of using it, it does everything that windows does, like windows does it but looks different. I'm finding it quite difficult to pick out these amazing features that apparently exist somewhere?

granted expose is cool. (how do i do an e with an accent? :P)

There are some things that annoy me though, first being instant messenger support. Adium appears to be the best choice for msn/google talk support, but i can't say that i like the program. iChat has a more intuitive interface but no MSN kills it for me as none of my mates use either a Mac or AOL.

Are there any good online Guides or Ebooks that can teach me the ins and outs of Mac OS X (and i dont mean a 5 step noob guide), I've googled about but can't find anything usefull.

[ahunter3]

I I'm finding it quite difficult to pick out these amazing features that apparently exist somewhere?

Well, since you seem to be seeking an example ;) —

granted expose is cool. (how do i do an e with an accent? :P)

You do an é as in Exposé by hitting option-e then e again. Want an ümlaut for words like hügel and Hüsker Dü? option-u then u again. Want a Spanish ñ like you need in Español? option-n then n again.

British pound sign (£)? Option-3 (Shift-3 is #, Option-3 is the "other pound sign")
Cent sig (¢)? Option-4 (Shift-4 being the $ of course)
Yen (¥)? Option-Y
Omega (Ω)? Option-Z
Bullet-dot (•)? Option-8 (Shift-8 being *)
Degrees (°)? Shift-Option-8
¿Hispanic starting question mark? Shift-option-/ (Shift-/ being "?")
¡Hispanic starting exclamation mark! Option-1 (Shift-1 being "!")
Division sign (÷)? Option-/
Registered trademark? (®) Option-R
† mark for second footnote after you've used * already? Option-t
En-dash (–)? Option hyphen.
Em-dash (—)? Shift-option hyphen.
"Doesn't equals" mark? Option equals.
Nonbreaking ellipsis? (…) Option semicolon.

That's off the top of my head without consulting a special character diagram. Special characters on a Mac are easy to learn because they most of them make intuitive good sense.

The Windows PC equivalents?

"Uhh, hold down the alt key then type the following three-digit number on your numeric keypad..."

Glad you asked?

[mduser63]

ahunter3's reply was great! If you're looking for more, look at the features coming in Windows Vista. Then notice that they're all already in OS X and have been for a while. Then realize that Leopard will be out around the same time as Vista and will have even more cool stuff. While Vista languishes for the next 5-8 years, OS X will keep improving as it has for the past 5.

There are a lot of other little things too. AppleScript, free (good) developer's tools, lots of little GUI niceties, and I could go on. Also, a lot of the software that I like is Mac-only, although I realize there's also some good Windows-only software.

[dmw007]

(I'd still rather use a 15 year odl Mac than today's Windows PC though. The everyday little stuff matters and it does add up.


Same here- I would much rather use an old Mac than a new Windoze machine. :)

[wxboss]

Once upon a time the Other Side was running MSDOS while we ran the Mac operating system (System 1-early 7). The users thereof made fun of icons. They made fun of mice. They called the Mac a toy.

Frankly, it was hard to credit them with working synapses, let alone judgment skills.

But the PC word has made major progress over the years. Wndows95 was usable (and very Maclike). Windows 2K and XP retain the superficial GUI (well, if you switch to classic interface in XP at any rate), and under the hood have a much more robust system architecture. As you say, I don't hate Windows (as long as I don't have to use it, I still don't like it personally). They DID it, they moved from a piece of crap OS to an OS you can actually use.

(I'd still rather use a 15 year odl Mac than today's Windows PC though. The everyday little stuff matters and it does add up.
Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner! :)
Your comments echo my feelings also.

The problem with MS is that they follow and don't lead when it comes to technology. Their ideas are based on the work of others, and they come too late to really be worthwhile. Although those who continue to religiously stick with MS will find their "advances" ground breaking, their not, actually.

XP made great strides towards stability. Now they need to work on everything else.

[bbrosemer]

My 68K Mac finally gave in last week :( We tossed it, it was a sad day.

[Rovman]

That's off the top of my head without consulting a special character diagram. Special characters on a Mac are easy to learn because they most of them make intuitive good sense.

The Windows PC equivalents?

"Uhh, hold down the alt key then type the following three-digit number on your numeric keypad..."

Glad you asked?

Thanks for all the tips :)

British pound sign (£)? Option-3 (Shift-3 is #, Option-3 is the "other pound sign")

Actually since I'm using British English keyboard layout, Shift + 3 is infact British Pound sterling £ :D

[Applespider]

Same here- I would much rather use an old Mac than a new Windoze machine. :)

Actually, I wouldn't use a pre-OS X Mac over XP - and yes, I used System 7/8/9 and Windows 95/98/XP

To be honest, much as I like Exposé, Dashboard, Spotlight and the easier non-standard characters, I can't quite put my finger on why I prefer my home Mac to my work PC. It's partly look and feel, it's partly the consistency (generally) of shortcuts, it's drag and drop behaviour that I can trust with springloaded folders etc, it's the integration between apps without the worry that I'll end up opening web pages within Outlook. And it's the knowledge that things just 'happen' without multiple wizards/dialogue boxes etc trying to take over. When I log onto my machine at work, every so often it has the desire to tell me I'm still connected to my network, it's almost like it expects a round of applause for doing what I expect it to. Yes, I'd like to know if a connection dies, but I don't need to know that it's still working on a random basis!

[bbrosemer]

You honestly would rather use windows 95 over system 7 ... are u searious

[Applespider]

You honestly would rather use windows 95 over system 7 ... are u searious

I did say pre-OS X over XP. I'd say Win 95 (clean install)/System 7 would be a push depending on what I was trying to do. Catching system extension conflicts was never nice... and that darned system bomb with the tempting button that did nothing, wasn't much better than the blue screen of death.

[bbrosemer]

I did say pre-OS X over XP. I'd say Win 95 (clean install)/System 7 would be a push depending on what I was trying to do. Catching system extension conflicts was never nice... and that darned system bomb with the tempting button that did nothing, wasn't much better than the blue screen of death.
Very true cant say I used 95 all that much when it came out becasue I used System 7 and OS 8 but I didnt get the bomb all that often, but I loved Jigsaw way better then Chip's Challenge

[dmw007]

Very true cant say I used 95 all that much when it came out becasue I used System 7 and OS 8 but I didnt get the bomb all that often, but I loved Jigsaw way better then Chip's Challenge


Jigsaw vs Chip's Challenge- the true deciding factor when deciding between Mac OS & Windows. ;) :D

[McNewbie]

I too am a new Mac Convert:) for two weeks now. My initial attraction to Mac was due to it's nice looks. I was in the market for a new laptop and after two faulty pc laptops within a period of two weeks I decided to go with my initial instinct to buy a Mac. I really wanted a Mac but feared that I wouldn't be able to learn how to use OSX. I was able to buy with confidence knowing that Bootcamp was available and that I could go to Windows if things got really bad. Since Windows have been installed on my Macbook the total times I've been on it...NONE...oh the time I installed it :eek: I love my MAC! It's just great all around.

I think that with the availability of Bootcamp more people are willing to dive into the Mac world because they have a safety option, but once they use OSX you can guarantee that times in the Windows partition would be very minimal if any at all.

The best book I found for troubleshooting and introducing me to OS X is David Pogue's "The Missing Manual" a bit thick but if you preferred simpler books there are heaps out there that doesn't go through so much details.

[bbrosemer]

Also Chip's challenge was way tooo easy at least Jigsaw you could use your own pictures. O how I miss Jigsaw.. :(

[d4rkn1ght]

I did say pre-OS X over XP. I'd say Win 95 (clean install)/System 7 would be a push depending on what I was trying to do. Catching system extension conflicts was never nice... and that darned system bomb with the tempting button that did nothing, wasn't much better than the blue screen of death.

I Don't Hate Windows 95 I Just Like System 7 Better!! :D

[Paimon]

I don't mind either.

OS X has a few problems but generally speaking things just 'work.' The OS is nice looking and gives you little hassle with applications and hardware.

Windows used to be a complete nightmare but I actually don't mind XP, aside from the viruses anyway. It's usable, crashes infrequently and is relatively painless to navigate. Hopefully Vista will continue the improvement.

Truth be told I'd much rather be using a Mac, but the software availability / price points make it pretty even in my mind.

Now what I truly don't understand is why someone would inconvienience themselves with Linux which is not only extremely annoying to use, but has next to no software available. The worst of both worlds.

[Scarlet Fever]

Same here- I would much rather use an old Mac than a new Windoze machine. :)
they are pretty much the same thing, aren't they? i mean, windows is that far behind :p

I installed expee on my MacBook a few weeks ago.
• I had to re-format the HDD to put windows on it. I dont know why, but it was no biggie; just back everything up, erase, re-format, put everything back on. Including re-installing OS X, this took me about 2-3 hrs to do.
• Installed BootCamp. Easy as easy.
• Installed expee. It took aagggeess to get the files in order, the installing process made me believe i was looking at Matrix code, and confused the hell out of me ("Agree, press F8." wtf? how about those two "yes" keys, enter and return?)
• Set up the OS. I want everything in English - Australian rather than US. Also, what could loosely be called the GUI was the same as the pre-expee era (grey boxes with black "shadows".) Didn't have support for the graphics card, so any movement was painfully slow.
• its finally loaded! YAY! now for drivers. I saw a USB Video device was being recognised, so i tried to open it while installing drivers. Black screen. Restart. "There was a major problem with XP. Please re-insert the install disc to correct this error (sic)". So i did. i couldn't show it where the OS was. Back into MacOS to erase the partition, and try again. GAH!!!
• Repeat everything again, but i didn't touch anything while the drivers were being installed :p

I couldnt face having a virus on the computer, so i didnt connect it to the internet. After about a dozen restarts, the OS was in some kind of usable form. It gave me the irrates, and also i only had 45GB on my Mac OS partition, 15 of it was in apps and 10 in iTunes media, so i felt kinda cramped. I decided i could easily live without expee.
Ive installed both OSes more than once, and having done so only made me realise just how much i love the Mac OS. A mate of mine is a PC fanboy, and he said himself, "i like windows better because it has more holes i can mess around with".

[bbrosemer]

45 min and counting as I wait for XP to finish installing.