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I'm at a loss - switching TO windows? :o

L

LastLine

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 24, 2005
1,313
21
Well here's one for you - my brother's looking at selling his Powerbook and buying a Windows laptop. Now I've explained the concept of dual booting to him, yet he seems to argue that he 'doesn't see what he can do on a Mac that he can't do on Windows'

Anyone care to put an argument forwardhere? :)
 
Well, if his sole reason for switching is that there's nothing he can't do on Windows, he's probably mostly right, especially if he's looking at e-mail, internet, gaming, etc.

The pluses for the Mac aren't what you can do instead, but more what you don't have to do, such as virus checking, spyware checking, adware checking. Windows.

If he's tried the Mac and just prefers Windows, I'd say let him be. And try to buy his PB for cheap. ;)
 
emw said:
Well, if his sole reason for switching is that there's nothing he can't do on Windows, he's probably mostly right, especially if he's looking at e-mail, internet, gaming, etc.

The pluses for the Mac aren't what you can do instead, but more what you don't have to do, such as virus checking, spyware checking, adware checking. Windows.

If he's tried the Mac and just prefers Windows, I'd say let him be. And try to buy his PB for cheap. ;)
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Here here....nice post...
 
Agreed, let him go. Oh, and tell him to have fun running Vista several months from now, making sure he realizes that it is an OS based on 2-year old technology (i.e. Tiger). Tell him you think it's funny he wants to run old technology, and then say, "But oh well, I guess some people like to pointlessly cripple themselves." :D :cool:
 
~Shard~ said:
Agreed, let him go. Oh, and tell him to have fun running Vista several months from now, making sure he realizes that it is an OS based on 2-year old technology (i.e. Tiger). Tell him you think it's funny he wants to run old technology, and then say, "But oh well, I guess some people like to pointlessly cripple themselves." :D :cool:
Click to expand...
Ditto. Besides, there is one thing he can do on a Mac that he cant on windows: work uninterrupted. No crashes, freezes, BSOD's, annoying popups from the taskbar (i HATE those things!!!!!), etc.
 
Kingsly said:
annoying popups from the taskbar (i HATE those things!!!!!), etc.
Click to expand...

I hear ya on that. That sound that it makes when those stupid things pop up drives me up a wall. Who thought that crap was a good idea anyway?
 
from what i understand, it is very difficult now not to know the advantages of using a mac. if he has used one and doesn't like it, than that's his business. what each of us prefers should not be used against us in public forums, but should be respected. there's no doubt he knows the pros and cons of running each system and the hardware associated with each company. let him be.
 
iLife...

If there was no such thing as iLife I could live happily on a PC. Contrary to what many others on the boards say, I do not have problems with crashing, BSOD, pop-ups, spyware, adware, hardware incompatibilities, freezes, multitasking or anything else that Macs are supposedly better at when I am running Windows. My Windows systems are ultra-stable, fast and reliable. That is not to say that iLife is the only reason, just by far the main reason.

Other things that I like are the design, the support, hardware/software integration, resell value (somewhat offset by higher initial price), and of course OS X.
 
if he doesn't want a mac anymore. thats fine. just be sure he knows that he'll have to find his own tech support. ;)
 
FredClausen said:
I hear ya on that. That sound that it makes when those stupid things pop up drives me up a wall. Who thought that crap was a good idea anyway?
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How do you turn the damn things off? I hate it when they pop up as I'm printing out a billion resumes for our interview days at work. Yes, I know they printed so ****!
 
I had an uncle and a friend on the phone this week, both in panic cos they lost everything because of a virus.
Sure, switch back in this day and age. What was that report that came out this week? 89% of PC's contain spyware? :D
 
FredClausen said:
I hear ya on that. That sound that it makes when those stupid things pop up drives me up a wall. Who thought that crap was a good idea anyway?
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And how they just come back after I've closed them? What was the point of putting a little close box?

"really? I had no idea that I just crawled under my desk to turn on my printer. Thank you captain obvious!"


Switching to windows... ugh.



'pop!'
 
I sort of understand him

I, like the OP's brother, am thinking of switching back to Windows? Why?

Believe me, it's not my choice. I am switching to a new job where I will do a lot of work on a laptop while "in the field". IT requires it to be a windows machine. All of the proprietary software we run is for windows only. The company intranet even requires IE to function correctly.

Sure, I could buy a macbook and run parallels, but that would not be supported by IT. (plus --- I haven't researched this in depth yet --- I think by the time I added a full copy of XP pro and parallels, it would be more than a comparable HP or Dell.) I have a very small home office, so I do not have room for both my iMac and a notebook. (Yeah, I know I can take the notebook to another room, but I'm the type that if I'm not in my "workspace," I won't be working). So, unless I can think of something else, the iMac is going to have to go.
 
Wow, switching intentionally to a job where they require IE is a little frightening these days.

If I can find a way to afford a laptop for me, I'm going to start bringing it to work. I'll set it right in front of my Dell and use the Apple instead. Tried for 4 months to get an Apple laptop, or at least an iMac, or possibly a Vaio laptop, or at the very least a Dell laptop. Got a Dell tower and it bores me.

We only use two programs that I can't get on OSX, and I can use remote for them.
 
timmac said:
I, like the OP's brother, am thinking of switching back to Windows? Why?

Believe me, it's not my choice. I am switching to a new job where I will do a lot of work on a laptop while "in the field". IT requires it to be a windows machine. All of the proprietary software we run is for windows only. The company intranet even requires IE to function correctly.

Sure, I could buy a macbook and run parallels, but that would not be supported by IT. (plus --- I haven't researched this in depth yet --- I think by the time I added a full copy of XP pro and parallels, it would be more than a comparable HP or Dell.) I have a very small home office, so I do not have room for both my iMac and a notebook. (Yeah, I know I can take the notebook to another room, but I'm the type that if I'm not in my "workspace," I won't be working). So, unless I can think of something else, the iMac is going to have to go.
Click to expand...

I run a Panasonic Toughbook at work all day.

What a P.O.S.!!!! and they paid over $3000 for each one.

The IT guys are clueless about the capabilites of dual booting or anything that does not fit into their tiny little MS Certified brains.

They want you to run the system they understand because it's their job to keep track of everything you do on company time and God forbid they might have to learn something new.

They freaked when I noticed their secure network IP numbers at log in.
Like it was some big damn secret.

I just smiled and said gee those numbers could come in handy some day! :D

My philosophy is that they have to pay me to use Windows.
In fact if they want me to use Windows, then they are buying the machine.

If I'm buying the machine out of my own funds, it's going to be an Apple product.
If they say I need a Windows capable machine, then I'm covered both ways.
 
~Shard~ said:
Agreed, let him go. Oh, and tell him to have fun running Vista several months from now, making sure he realizes that it is an OS based on 2-year old technology (i.e. Tiger). Tell him you think it's funny he wants to run old technology, and then say, "But oh well, I guess some people like to pointlessly cripple themselves." :D :cool:
Click to expand...

Techically its based on technology even older than 2 years. It uses BIOS which was around more than 10 years ago? They are just covering it up with nice tiger (2 year old) features and calling it Vista and/or Delayed.
 
topgunn said:
iLife...

If there was no such thing as iLife I could live happily on a PC. Contrary to what many others on the boards say, I do not have problems with crashing, BSOD, pop-ups, spyware, adware, hardware incompatibilities, freezes, multitasking or anything else that Macs are supposedly better at when I am running Windows. My Windows systems are ultra-stable, fast and reliable. That is not to say that iLife is the only reason, just by far the main reason.

Other things that I like are the design, the support, hardware/software integration, resell value (somewhat offset by higher initial price), and of course OS X.
Click to expand...

So thats pretty much everything :rolleyes:
 
Angelus520 said:
How do you turn the damn things off? I hate it when they pop up as I'm printing out a billion resumes for our interview days at work. Yes, I know they printed so ****!
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Download the Windows XP Power Toys from MS's web site and fire up TweakUI. Select the "Taskbar and Start Menu" item and uncheck the "Enable balloon tips" item. Click on "OK" to save the changes.
 
I use both PC's and Macs on a daily basis. You're right that there isn't anything that your brother can do on a mac that he can't do on a pc. I can't exactly explain it, but given a choice to perform a task on either platform I will always choose my mac over my pc. I like the look, the feel the performance on my mac. I have had very few problems with my mac, I just have more faith in my mac for my computing needs. The only issue I have had in the last year has been browser related. There is this one website I have to use that doesn't support the safari browser. But they recently added fire fox support so that solved that. Other than that I haven't had any other issues.
 
~Shard~ said:
Agreed, let him go. Oh, and tell him to have fun running Vista several months from now, making sure he realizes that it is an OS based on 2-year old technology (i.e. Tiger). Tell him you think it's funny he wants to run old technology, and then say, "But oh well, I guess some people like to pointlessly cripple themselves." :D :cool:
Click to expand...

And make sure he realizes that a Windows machine he buys today most likely will not be able to run Vista very well given the ridiculous hardware specs.
 
miles01110 said:
And make sure he realizes that a Windows machine he buys today most likely will not be able to run Vista very well given the ridiculous hardware specs.
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Ah, come on, everyone has 4 GB of RAM and a 1 TB HDD installed in their PC.... :p ;) :D
 
Well for those that's interested we ended up with him getting a New(as in sealed box from retail store) 1.83 MBP for £750. A good compromise as he can now play his little Sims games on his Mac as well as the other stuff he wanted :p
 
Heh that reminds me of when my grandfather in-law got a Dell after using Macs for years for exactly the same reason. I think he used the Dell for about 3 hours before sending it back, and then refusing to pay the restocking fee because the Dell was such a piece of crap. ;)
 
If I was forced to buy my own computer for work, it would be a MacBook running
PGP desktop on the MacOSX partition and XP Pro as provided by the company.

They would never find anything on my XP partition not related specifically to work.

And with PGP's military grade encryption, my OSX partitional would be off limits
to the IT snoops :cool:
 
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