Another Reason to Dump PC for Mac

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

I have had my Dell laptop for nearly 4 years now. And from almost the moment I took it out of the box, it has been sluggish to boot up. Every Windows based PC takes FOREVER to boot. Even if it gets to the log-in screen fast, it still takes at least 2 minutes before you can load a program. The thing I LOVE about Macs is that once you see the desktop, you are ready to go. No need to sit and wait while the computer pounds away for a few minutes while you stare at the desktop and wait.

 

[Daveway]

They were slow because of a slow hard disk. But the Mac startup sequence is soo much more gratifying, maybe because it doesn't come often.

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

But the Mac startup sequence is soo much more gratifying, maybe because it doesn't come often.

Would you be so kinda as to explain that to me? I use a Mac at school for video and sound editing, but I have never used one at home.

 

[yippy]

Mac users almost never have to restart their computers. Most only restart for system updates, so they never see the startup screen. Just put it to sleep all the time, hit a key and 3 seconds later you are good to go, exactly how you left it.

 

[ldburroughs]

Mac users almost never have to restart their computers. Most only restart for system updates, so they never see the startup screen. Just put it to sleep all the time, hit a key and 3 seconds later you are good to go, exactly how you left it.

Sorry Mac people (myself included) but PCs have a sleep mode too! I have a Gateway Centrino and I used it for the past year in law school. I may have restarted it once a week, if that. All I had to do to make it sleep was hit a function key or one of the programable buttons at the top of the keyboard. To wake it up I just hit the power button. It was up and running in the same amount of time as my Mac. Maybe the four year old Dell didn't have this function, but all the newer PC laptops can.

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

Mac users almost never have to restart their computers. Most only restart for system updates, so they never see the startup screen.

See, I like that a lot. With my laptop, i used to have to restart it every 2 or 3 days if I was doing heavy processing like Photoshop. I would get a message saying that I am out of RAM and need to reboot.

 

[gallivant]

Two big differences:

Windows machines *need* to be rebooted. Things start getting flaky after a week or so of unrestarted use.

Also, sleep on Windows laptops sucks. My Centrino laptop loses about 5% of its battery life each hour it's asleep. Pretty good, eh? But you wouldn't want to leave it asleep, say, overnight without plugging it in; you'd have lost nearly half your battery life by the next morning. An iBookr or PowerBook, on the other hand, would have lost about 5% over the ENTIRE NIGHT.

 

[virividox]

when i put my powerbook to sleep and dont turn of the airport i lose more battery, so maybe thats why centrionos lose battery if they dont shut down their wifi card?

dunno maybe thats the issue

but i dont think pc boot up times are that bad. its just that macs are just easier to use in general, and less hassle

 

[jemeinc]

Sorry Mac people (myself included) but PCs have a sleep mode too! I have a Gateway Centrino and I used it for the past year in law school. I may have restarted it once a week, if that. All I had to do to make it sleep was hit a function key or one of the programable buttons at the top of the keyboard. To wake it up I just hit the power button. It was up and running in the same amount of time as my Mac. Maybe the four year old Dell didn't have this function, but all the newer PC laptops can.

All I had to do to wake up my PC was walk by it too fast- or often times it would wake itself up- when it would start shaking violently, and slide across the desk simultaneously, that always woke it up too...lol...;-)

 

[1macker1]

I haven't rebooted my XP machine in a month...no problems.

Two big differences:

Windows machines *need* to be rebooted. Things start getting flaky after a week or so of unrestarted use.

Also, sleep on Windows laptops sucks. My Centrino laptop loses about 5% of its battery life each hour it's asleep. Pretty good, eh? But you wouldn't want to leave it asleep, say, overnight without plugging it in; you'd have lost nearly half your battery life by the next morning. An iBookr or PowerBook, on the other hand, would have lost about 5% over the ENTIRE NIGHT.

 

[Arcus]

I have had my Dell laptop for nearly 4 years now. And from almost the moment I took it out of the box, it has been sluggish to boot up. Every Windows based PC takes FOREVER to boot. Even if it gets to the log-in screen fast, it still takes at least 2 minutes before you can load a program. The thing I LOVE about Macs is that once you see the desktop, you are ready to go. No need to sit and wait while the computer pounds away for a few minutes while you stare at the desktop and wait.

I love macs as much as the next guy BUT this was more the fault of the junk installed than it was the OS. If you buy a PC/Laptop from Dell/gateway etc etc there are a TON of things starting that are just totally useless.

Not every every Windows based PC takes FOREVER to boot. Install a clean OS and boot it up. Its starts just fine.

 

[Darwin]

I love macs as much as the next guy BUT this was more the fault of the junk installed than it was the OS. If you buy a PC/Laptop from Dell/gateway etc etc there are a TON of things starting that are just totally useless.

Not every every Windows based PC takes FOREVER to boot. Install a clean OS and boot it up. Its starts just fine.

Thats true, looks like somebody needs to visit MS Config (Program in Windows) to clean up their Startup list of programs

 

[winwintoo]

I was scratching my head too about this slow starting thing - my previous experience with Windows was the Win95 system at work that I had no control over and it was slow, but when I got the WinXP laptop recently, I was amazed at how quickly it rebooted and I wondered if it was perhaps not really *rebooting* but maybe just doing some fake *reboot* to make reset some files and make me think it was rebooting, so I killed it completely - unplugged it, removed the battery etc. - and then started it up again and the same thing - it was blazing fast!

The only program besides WindowsXP that starts up is Norton. Even the wireless card has a separate start button, so my evaluation would be that, WindowsXP itself is not slow to start.

I think the Win laptop has a 3.4 Mhz processor which is underclocked to about 1.6 Mhz to save battery power (if that makes any difference in your evaluation of my remarks)

Having said that, I still prefer Panther and rarely use Windows.

Margaret