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Anyone considering the Switch?
- Thread starter amac4me
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Switched
Ive used a mac ally my life, and just recently got my gf and her lil sister to switch to an iMac rev B. We would have done it sooner had her dad not been a M$ flunky.
Ive used a mac ally my life, and just recently got my gf and her lil sister to switch to an iMac rev B. We would have done it sooner had her dad not been a M$ flunky.
amac4me said:
I turned mine into a MythTV box. It was an interesting project, and I got it working fairly easily with the help of KnoppMyth.
However, I since have decided that TV is too much of an expensive waste of time (~$45/mo), and I'm going to cancel my cable subscription. I ended up recording hours and hours of TV, and not watching it. Also the advertising is just crazy, the content, amount and VOLUME!
So, I don't know what I'm going to do with it now. (1.4 Ghz Athlon, 120GB HD)
yea i switched two weeks ago,
my old computer was a joke....Gateway 2000 32mb of ram and 2gb hard drive...so i advanced to the Imac 17" 2GB of ram 250 GB hard drive, bluetooth keyboard + mouse ....and to top it off i added a 20GB ipod.
it arrives on saturday....cant wait.
my girlfriend is tired of hearing me talk about it though...Tough i said
my old computer was a joke....Gateway 2000 32mb of ram and 2gb hard drive...so i advanced to the Imac 17" 2GB of ram 250 GB hard drive, bluetooth keyboard + mouse ....and to top it off i added a 20GB ipod.
it arrives on saturday....cant wait.
my girlfriend is tired of hearing me talk about it though...Tough i said
Rangerhall6
macrumors member
I will be a switcher soon I hope. I am waiting for the iBook update just like so many others. Its getting frustrating having to wait so long but it should be worth it in the long run. Anyways, Macs are sweet and I cant wait to switch!
Andrew
Andrew
rotlex
macrumors 6502a
Just switched 4 days ago after thinking about it for well over a year, LOL.
Bought a new G5 Powermac, 2.3Ghz model with 2GB ram to replace my toasted Sony Vaio desktop. I will NEVER go back again. Even after 4 days, I feel right at home no this machine. Fast, clean , beautiful and well, just about everything else I've ever wanted in a computer.
My primary uses, other than the web of course, are digital photography and video. (Both personal and some side\paid work). This this is a DREAM compared to the Windows box.
Now, if I could just find a replacement for Qimage, for printing, I'd be truly in heaven!
Bought a new G5 Powermac, 2.3Ghz model with 2GB ram to replace my toasted Sony Vaio desktop. I will NEVER go back again. Even after 4 days, I feel right at home no this machine. Fast, clean , beautiful and well, just about everything else I've ever wanted in a computer.
My primary uses, other than the web of course, are digital photography and video. (Both personal and some side\paid work). This this is a DREAM compared to the Windows box.
Now, if I could just find a replacement for Qimage, for printing, I'd be truly in heaven!
My first time
Hello MacPeople!
This is my first ever visit to a Mac website. The reason? I'm getting a little fed up with Windows and I went to the Apple store in Regent Street, London and was very impressed with what I saw. I guess what prompted me to investigate apple further is the release of Tiger. It does seem to have overtaken Windows. I have believed in the past that Microsoft were the leaders and innovators in OS and office software, but I think they have lost their way lately. Longhorn is overdue and is reducing in spec as time goes on so that they can get it released, I'm not sure I want to wait, and indeed not sure whether the wait is even worth it. I have four machines at home:
1) P4 2.4Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 400Gb HD main desktop machine running XP Pro - this is used by my wife and kids too. The machine is slowing down, and it takes five mintues to boot up - what is it doing? I have SATA disks, lots of RAM, hyperthreading. It also freezes on me a lot
2) 1Ghz 1Gb RAM, 60Gb HD Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop - this is the machine I use when on the move, on the train on the way to work, hotels, etc. It's been quite a good machine actually and oddly enough seems faster than my desktop machine.
3) 1.4Ghz AMD Athlon with 1.5Gb RAM, 200Gb HD running Windows Server 2003 Entperise Edition. This is my server as I work on enterprise class database systems in my work. I use this for running VMWare, development of code, running MS SQL Server and also as a file server for my other machines.
4) 750Mhz AMD Duron with 512MB RAM, 60Gb HD - Crash and burn play box. Dual booted XP Pro with Mandrake Linux 10.
I have some questions to ask about Macs before I buy one. I intend to buy a mini and connect it to my existing 19" CRT through a KVM switchbox before investing in anything meatier.
1) Can multiple users have programs running at the same time? For instance my wife writes documents and has email open on the XP box, and if I want to use it I use Fast User Switching, and I go into my login and do my work, log out and all her programs are still running. Can the Mac do that?
2) Speed. It seems at first glance from the specs that Macs are woefully slower than a Windows PC. How does this compare in a user experience? I would appreciate some benchmarks in this area. For instance Word, Excel, Digital Editing, etc comparisons between high end and mid range PCs and Macs. I don't want to buy a Mac and find it is dog slow.
3) Software support. I am concerned that software support is limited for the Mac. There are some applications that I use often that I'm not sure even exist in the Mac World. These are: Mind Manager, Microsoft Money, WinAmp, VMWare.
I will have to keep my PC because my work is heavily integrated with Microsoft Technology, but for day-to-day admin, email, internet, office software, finance, photos, I'm considering using the Mac.
I'd appreciate any comments - I'm trying to find unbiased comments so no Mac zealots please. I don't really care for the strange loyalty that Linux and Mac owners seem to exhibit. I just see a computer as a tool to get my work done, and if I can find a secure, reliable, fast, pleasant environment to do that then I will go with whatever system offers that, be it Linux, Windows, Mac.
keymoo
Hello MacPeople!
This is my first ever visit to a Mac website. The reason? I'm getting a little fed up with Windows and I went to the Apple store in Regent Street, London and was very impressed with what I saw. I guess what prompted me to investigate apple further is the release of Tiger. It does seem to have overtaken Windows. I have believed in the past that Microsoft were the leaders and innovators in OS and office software, but I think they have lost their way lately. Longhorn is overdue and is reducing in spec as time goes on so that they can get it released, I'm not sure I want to wait, and indeed not sure whether the wait is even worth it. I have four machines at home:
1) P4 2.4Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 400Gb HD main desktop machine running XP Pro - this is used by my wife and kids too. The machine is slowing down, and it takes five mintues to boot up - what is it doing? I have SATA disks, lots of RAM, hyperthreading. It also freezes on me a lot
2) 1Ghz 1Gb RAM, 60Gb HD Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop - this is the machine I use when on the move, on the train on the way to work, hotels, etc. It's been quite a good machine actually and oddly enough seems faster than my desktop machine.
3) 1.4Ghz AMD Athlon with 1.5Gb RAM, 200Gb HD running Windows Server 2003 Entperise Edition. This is my server as I work on enterprise class database systems in my work. I use this for running VMWare, development of code, running MS SQL Server and also as a file server for my other machines.
4) 750Mhz AMD Duron with 512MB RAM, 60Gb HD - Crash and burn play box. Dual booted XP Pro with Mandrake Linux 10.
I have some questions to ask about Macs before I buy one. I intend to buy a mini and connect it to my existing 19" CRT through a KVM switchbox before investing in anything meatier.
1) Can multiple users have programs running at the same time? For instance my wife writes documents and has email open on the XP box, and if I want to use it I use Fast User Switching, and I go into my login and do my work, log out and all her programs are still running. Can the Mac do that?
2) Speed. It seems at first glance from the specs that Macs are woefully slower than a Windows PC. How does this compare in a user experience? I would appreciate some benchmarks in this area. For instance Word, Excel, Digital Editing, etc comparisons between high end and mid range PCs and Macs. I don't want to buy a Mac and find it is dog slow.
3) Software support. I am concerned that software support is limited for the Mac. There are some applications that I use often that I'm not sure even exist in the Mac World. These are: Mind Manager, Microsoft Money, WinAmp, VMWare.
I will have to keep my PC because my work is heavily integrated with Microsoft Technology, but for day-to-day admin, email, internet, office software, finance, photos, I'm considering using the Mac.
I'd appreciate any comments - I'm trying to find unbiased comments so no Mac zealots please. I don't really care for the strange loyalty that Linux and Mac owners seem to exhibit. I just see a computer as a tool to get my work done, and if I can find a secure, reliable, fast, pleasant environment to do that then I will go with whatever system offers that, be it Linux, Windows, Mac.
keymoo
For your desktop, see what-all you have loading in startup. That can seriously compromise your system startup time. Also make sure there's no spyware, viruses, etc on it. AdAware and Spybot should do the trick for the spyware (run it as an administrator account to get everything.) Defrag the drive, as well. All of these things can help. Especially if your kids are using it, there might be a lot of junk.
As for your questions...
1. I just started using it myself. I'm not sure if there's an equivilent, but I'm sure someone who is more knowledgable than me will answer this for you.
2. You can't compare just the numbers. The CPU threading works differently, thus by just number standpoints the comparison isn't accurate. This website has a good chart: http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html. The Mac Mini is going to be slower than your P4. (My PC desktop is an XP box with a P4 3 Ghz processor, so I notice some difference.) There are some software benchmarks out there but I don't have them bookmarked.
3. There's a wide variety of software available. You can buy most microsoft products for the mac, if you want them. The mini also comes with Quicken, if I recall (I haven't opened it.) You can also run Virtual PC and run Windows applications, but you'll need more RAM (the mini definitely needs more than the basic ram it comes with) and you'll take a performance hit. I wouldn't recommend it for a mini, really, but that's my opinion. WinAmp's equivilent would be iTunes, which I've finally learned to love after being a Winamp and MusicMatch devotee for ages. It loads fast on the mac.
For day to day stuff you'll be fine. I'm not finding any problems so far, and I work daily with PCs for my job. My home PC runs very solidly, too. It does take some getting used to -- it was helpful to have a friend who knew where things were when I was trying to first start up, since I was utterly clueless.
As for your questions...
1. I just started using it myself. I'm not sure if there's an equivilent, but I'm sure someone who is more knowledgable than me will answer this for you.
2. You can't compare just the numbers. The CPU threading works differently, thus by just number standpoints the comparison isn't accurate. This website has a good chart: http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html. The Mac Mini is going to be slower than your P4. (My PC desktop is an XP box with a P4 3 Ghz processor, so I notice some difference.) There are some software benchmarks out there but I don't have them bookmarked.
3. There's a wide variety of software available. You can buy most microsoft products for the mac, if you want them. The mini also comes with Quicken, if I recall (I haven't opened it.) You can also run Virtual PC and run Windows applications, but you'll need more RAM (the mini definitely needs more than the basic ram it comes with) and you'll take a performance hit. I wouldn't recommend it for a mini, really, but that's my opinion. WinAmp's equivilent would be iTunes, which I've finally learned to love after being a Winamp and MusicMatch devotee for ages. It loads fast on the mac.
For day to day stuff you'll be fine. I'm not finding any problems so far, and I work daily with PCs for my job. My home PC runs very solidly, too. It does take some getting used to -- it was helpful to have a friend who knew where things were when I was trying to first start up, since I was utterly clueless.
PCMacUser
macrumors 68000
I think a lot of people who switch to Macs are often 'Windows fatigued' to coin a phrase. In that I mean, simply sick of the way it looks. In fact it's really quite boring to look at, all cold and business-like with small icons. Then comes along OS X with its bubbly bouncy happy dock with big friendly icons and large fonts. It's the computer equivalent of a sign that says 'Don't Panic'.keymoo said:
Well I can definitely recommend the Regent St store if you do decide to buy an Apple computer - they give you 14 days to return it if you don't like it and they have good customer service.
As for the OS situation, there are some things that XP does that makes Tiger feel a little primitive - and the situation applies in the reverse too. Features such as spotlight are great to have integrated into the system, but to have the same functionality on an XP machine is a 10 second download from Google (although spotlight is much nicer to use!). Automator is ahead of its time, but does not provide the 'all essential' Undo feature - something I discovered the hard way after making the wrong changes to hundreds of picture files.
Very wise decision. I wish I'd done that instead of buying a PB, but that's where the nice guys at Regent St came in...keymoo said:
I'm not sure about this one. But on another semi-related note, if you do want to have more than one user sharing a Mac, and perhaps want to share your photos, documents, movies and music between you, then make sure you read the various forums on how to do this - it can be quite complicated (particularly with the iphoto pics). On my PC I just make my 'My Documents' folder and my wife's 'My Documents' folder point to the same location which takes about 2 seconds - it's not this simple on OSX.keymoo said:
My PB was a G4 1.67ghz machine, and was perfectly adequate for most operations in Tiger - in fact it felt pretty quick - but it was a clean install. When it came to 3d performance, it was a bit of a letdown. The Mac mini has a less-powerful GPU than the PB I had, so it's not gonna be great in that area. But enter the world of G5 dual processor machines with X800 PCIx graphics cards, and you're right up there with cutting edge performance. For something inbetween, I'd recommend a G5 iMac (if you can stomach the design - it's not to everyone's taste).keymoo said:
You will not have any problems finding software that provides you with day to day functionality on a Mac. Office 2004 works great. However I was very disappointed with the integrated approach to Apple's software. Mail, iCal and Address Book are very basic programs which I think will disappoint anyone who has come from MS Outlook or even Outlook Express on a PC. Entourage (from Office 2004) is significantly better, but Apple does not allow it to integrate with its built in apps such as iSync. So if you have an iPod or mobile phone with bluetooth and want to sync them with your address books and calendars etc, but want to use Entourage (or any other non apple app such as Thunderbird), tough luck! But if one is content with the Apple apps then it's a great system to use.keymoo said:
For photos, I would only recommend iPhoto for slideshows or making photo discs. I would suggest the purchase of Photoshop Elements for anything more demanding than this (such as editing them). Try out Picasa 2 (free google download) on your PC and see what features iPhoto SHOULD have!
All in all, for around £500 (for a 1.42ghz with extra ram) you really can't go wrong with a Mac Mini. Despite the things that annoyed me about Tiger, I still loved to use it and I hardly touched my PC in that time. So that must say something!
I was considering the switch, in fact I have a powermac on order.
Here's whats bugging me though. I'm non xp and I've had zero viruses and only a slight spyware problem which was fixed by installing spyware protection. I normally leave my system running a week between reboots, it is very very stable. I assembled it from parts so if something breaks down I just go and buy another part. I can pick and choose which motherboard and which processor I use and I'm not held hostage by one company. I guess freedom of choice is what's bugging me about the "switch"
Here's whats bugging me though. I'm non xp and I've had zero viruses and only a slight spyware problem which was fixed by installing spyware protection. I normally leave my system running a week between reboots, it is very very stable. I assembled it from parts so if something breaks down I just go and buy another part. I can pick and choose which motherboard and which processor I use and I'm not held hostage by one company. I guess freedom of choice is what's bugging me about the "switch"
skubish said:
eMacs are great, I dont own one but my school has three, all networked together, and surrounded by ugly black dells. There great, no up to speed with my pb, but for the price, we do major photoshop indesign ect, (Year Book) and they work great. I also think the displays look just fine on them. Dont give up on the eMac option. The only way you need more is 30 layered photoshop and anything with video, beyond small projects in iMovie.
sushi
Moderator emeritus
Keeping Winders running is simple.BKKloppenborg said:
1. Killdisk the HD.
2. Do a clean install of everything while not connected to the Internet.
3. Update as needed (DL updates with another system (Mac?) or with the system you are going to setup before you do step 1. Burn updates to CD.
4. After everything is up and running perfectly, connect to the Internet. Verify all updates are installed, virus definitions are up to date, etc.
5. Image your HD to CD/DVD
6. Repeat steps 1-5 as needed (weekly/monthly/yearly).
BTW, never had to do this with a Mac -- owned and supported quite a few since the MacSE. But with Winders, sometimes it is just easier to punt and use a procedure like above.
BTW2, quit using Winders IE (Internet Explorer). Use another browser such as FireFox.
See, keeping a PC running is easy! 😀
Sushi
shadowmoses
macrumors 68000
I have come across many Mac bashers in my life all of them have never used a mac for more than 10 minutes or are stubborn and cannot change there windows ways.
There are many reasons that Macs are worth it:
1. They are a worthwhile investment-->If you buy a Mac it will last for years(note i am using a 6year old powermac and it still looks better than most PC Towers i have seen, and it runs a hell of a lot better than a 1999 dell would) Another thing is they hold a good value, there depreciation is minimal. Therefore they may cost more than a PC initially but due to there ability to keep a value they work out a better deal.
2. Mac OSX is absolutly amazing(you have to try it for a while to believe it), I am nausious everytime i use a XP PC and yes i know how to use them i keep windows PC's very clean no spyware viruses etc.
3. They look better than PC's.
Anyone who doesnt consider a switch to Mac is losing out
There are many reasons that Macs are worth it:
1. They are a worthwhile investment-->If you buy a Mac it will last for years(note i am using a 6year old powermac and it still looks better than most PC Towers i have seen, and it runs a hell of a lot better than a 1999 dell would) Another thing is they hold a good value, there depreciation is minimal. Therefore they may cost more than a PC initially but due to there ability to keep a value they work out a better deal.
2. Mac OSX is absolutly amazing(you have to try it for a while to believe it), I am nausious everytime i use a XP PC and yes i know how to use them i keep windows PC's very clean no spyware viruses etc.
3. They look better than PC's.
Anyone who doesnt consider a switch to Mac is losing out
Actually keeping a winxp box virus free and spyware free is fairly easy, AS LONG as your antivirus program and spyware detection software are updating automatically and you have a firewall. Fortunately for me I work in the IT department so I have plenty of advice, if I didn't..well it would be a hassle.
I'm switching because the Mac OS is simply more "elegant", it's Unix basically. I'll still have my winxp box, being in web design/development I couldn't imagine switching entirely to Mac. My winxp box is set up with IIS, I can do asp.net, coldfusion (my fave language) and php. On the Mac I can do php, from what I understand CF is a hassle to get going on mac, and you can't use access. I have several clients that bring me access databases they want on the web. With that said, I am so looking forward to being on the mac platform at least part time, for some reason I'm able to be more creative on the mac, I have no idea why but it just "feels" better. Alot of windows only folks just don't get what I'm talking about with "feel". At any rate, my powermac dual g5 2ghz box will be here next week (had a bit of a runaround with apple on my prev dual 1.8 box but in the end, they treated me right). My extra RAM and Dell 20" monitor are sitting on the floor beside my desk....I feel like I'm coming home 🙂
I'm switching because the Mac OS is simply more "elegant", it's Unix basically. I'll still have my winxp box, being in web design/development I couldn't imagine switching entirely to Mac. My winxp box is set up with IIS, I can do asp.net, coldfusion (my fave language) and php. On the Mac I can do php, from what I understand CF is a hassle to get going on mac, and you can't use access. I have several clients that bring me access databases they want on the web. With that said, I am so looking forward to being on the mac platform at least part time, for some reason I'm able to be more creative on the mac, I have no idea why but it just "feels" better. Alot of windows only folks just don't get what I'm talking about with "feel". At any rate, my powermac dual g5 2ghz box will be here next week (had a bit of a runaround with apple on my prev dual 1.8 box but in the end, they treated me right). My extra RAM and Dell 20" monitor are sitting on the floor beside my desk....I feel like I'm coming home 🙂
mukansa monkey
macrumors newbie
Couple of answers, hope this helps
In response to keymoo:
Multiple users is no problem. OSX does exactly what you're talking about. Individual users can be set to various levels of access. Some software, such as QT and iTunes, have options to allow one user's stuff to continue playing in the background while the other is active. The limitations tend to be memory and bandwidth, if my wife and I have several things runnings simultaneously it can get a bit crowded. This is a relative issue though, not an OSX limitation.
Concerning speed, your first glance of woefully slow is incorrect. If you study some sites like the aforementioned systemshootouts.org, you'll find that at similar *price* levels the Macs often have an edge. Now a Mac Mini isn't going to be terribly powerful... but neither is a $500 Dell really. Moreover, since your stated intent is to use the Mac for apps that generally aren't processor-intensive, I think speed will be a relative non-issue in your case. Now if you get a hankering to start doing video editing, you'll want to head up into G5 territory.
For most of your software needs you shouldn't have any trouble on the Mac. MindManager I'm not entirely certain what the equivalent would be, although Omnigraffle does nice flowcharting and such, and it comes with OSX. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ VMWare you're porbably not going to find an equivalent for on the Mac, but you did say you're going to keep your Winderz machines around for serious work.
About sharing files between users: It's kind of inconvenient in Panther, but there's some freeware that pretty readily makes it pretty simple. Supposedly Tiger made improvements in this area, but I haven't gotten around to installing it yet.
In response to jeffgtr:
In 15 years of owning a Mac, the only hardware problem I've had (apart from floppy disk errors) was a CD drive that started getting intermittent errors after logging easily a thousand hours of continuous usage (too much Starcraft). Personally I'm not concerned about having to replace my motherboard. Furthermore, my G5 is engineered so that the internal arrangement is fairly fixed for reasons of cooling and space convenience, etc. Using someone else's product would almost certainly result in a decrease in performance. Other than the motherboard, most everything else can be *very* easily replaced with the third-party item of your choice. I particularly enjoyed the second drive install that took less than 60 seconds. I suppose that the Mini doesn't have much flexibility... but it's an easy way to get into Macs without investing big bucks.
Happy computing
In response to keymoo:
Multiple users is no problem. OSX does exactly what you're talking about. Individual users can be set to various levels of access. Some software, such as QT and iTunes, have options to allow one user's stuff to continue playing in the background while the other is active. The limitations tend to be memory and bandwidth, if my wife and I have several things runnings simultaneously it can get a bit crowded. This is a relative issue though, not an OSX limitation.
Concerning speed, your first glance of woefully slow is incorrect. If you study some sites like the aforementioned systemshootouts.org, you'll find that at similar *price* levels the Macs often have an edge. Now a Mac Mini isn't going to be terribly powerful... but neither is a $500 Dell really. Moreover, since your stated intent is to use the Mac for apps that generally aren't processor-intensive, I think speed will be a relative non-issue in your case. Now if you get a hankering to start doing video editing, you'll want to head up into G5 territory.
For most of your software needs you shouldn't have any trouble on the Mac. MindManager I'm not entirely certain what the equivalent would be, although Omnigraffle does nice flowcharting and such, and it comes with OSX. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/ VMWare you're porbably not going to find an equivalent for on the Mac, but you did say you're going to keep your Winderz machines around for serious work.
About sharing files between users: It's kind of inconvenient in Panther, but there's some freeware that pretty readily makes it pretty simple. Supposedly Tiger made improvements in this area, but I haven't gotten around to installing it yet.
In response to jeffgtr:
In 15 years of owning a Mac, the only hardware problem I've had (apart from floppy disk errors) was a CD drive that started getting intermittent errors after logging easily a thousand hours of continuous usage (too much Starcraft). Personally I'm not concerned about having to replace my motherboard. Furthermore, my G5 is engineered so that the internal arrangement is fairly fixed for reasons of cooling and space convenience, etc. Using someone else's product would almost certainly result in a decrease in performance. Other than the motherboard, most everything else can be *very* easily replaced with the third-party item of your choice. I particularly enjoyed the second drive install that took less than 60 seconds. I suppose that the Mini doesn't have much flexibility... but it's an easy way to get into Macs without investing big bucks.
Happy computing
In 15 years of owning a Mac, the only hardware problem I've had (apart from floppy disk errors) was a CD drive that started getting intermittent errors after logging easily a thousand hours of continuous usage (too much Starcraft). Personally I'm not concerned about having to replace my motherboard.
Thats great (I have a powermac dual on the way and thats great to know). Yes replacing a motherboard is a huge hassle. 3 of my failures were hard drives. I use Cubase and drives tend to get thrashed around alot. All that aside, it's still comforting to know I can always rebuild the pc if I have to. On the flipside there is always this uncomfortable feeling that things could go south at anytime. 60 sec drive replacement is pretty good, takes me a good 20 minutes to replace the pc drive (the guts of the box are pretty user hostile). I do wish though that it was possible to replace the processors and motherboard on the mac to the latest version instead of buying a whole new system.
One other thing I have to do at least annually, reformat the hard drive, reinstall windows, reinstall all the updates, reinstall all the software, seriously it's AT LEAST an annual event, not to mention reinstalling all the updated drivers for peripherals, just was mentioned in a previousl post. In fact lately it seems it's every 6 months, on my home machine as well as the one at work. Now that I think of it, windows is a necessary evil for me. I just hate it when it gets to the point where the only option is to fdisk and that is with no virus issues, it's just one of those things you just kind of expect with windows
Thats great (I have a powermac dual on the way and thats great to know). Yes replacing a motherboard is a huge hassle. 3 of my failures were hard drives. I use Cubase and drives tend to get thrashed around alot. All that aside, it's still comforting to know I can always rebuild the pc if I have to. On the flipside there is always this uncomfortable feeling that things could go south at anytime. 60 sec drive replacement is pretty good, takes me a good 20 minutes to replace the pc drive (the guts of the box are pretty user hostile). I do wish though that it was possible to replace the processors and motherboard on the mac to the latest version instead of buying a whole new system.
One other thing I have to do at least annually, reformat the hard drive, reinstall windows, reinstall all the updates, reinstall all the software, seriously it's AT LEAST an annual event, not to mention reinstalling all the updated drivers for peripherals, just was mentioned in a previousl post. In fact lately it seems it's every 6 months, on my home machine as well as the one at work. Now that I think of it, windows is a necessary evil for me. I just hate it when it gets to the point where the only option is to fdisk and that is with no virus issues, it's just one of those things you just kind of expect with windows
keymoo said:
Others have already answered your other questions pretty well.
Yes, you can have multiple programs open, by multiple users. This is the purpose of Fast User Switching.
In fact, my wife and I share a dual 500 Mhz G4 with 1.5 GB of Ram. I frequently switch from her running Photoshop, Safari, and MS Word into my environment, where I then run iTunes, Safari, jEdit, and Final Cut Pro. When I'm done, I log out, and when she logs back in, all her apps are exactly where she left them.
As for speed, I was worried that Tiger would be - as you say - "dog slow" on the aforementioned machine - after all, it is almost 5 years old now. But on the contrary, Tiger was actually faster than Panther, which itself was already pretty snappy (and snazzy to boot!). Just get yourself plenty of RAM, and any current Mac will feel very quick.
If you're going to be gaming or video editing, BTW, I'd recommend moving up to at least an iMac G5. Much more kick, better HD, and the graphics card is Core Image/Video capable, so things can really fly.
-rand()
I switched this past December when I bought a 20" iMac G5. I simply couldn't take Windows anymore. I actually threw my Dell laptop in the trash because I became so frustrated. Since I received my iMac it has been smooth sailing. I wouldn't take a new Windows PC for free these days. Actually I would, then I would sell it to some poor sap and buy some more mac gear! My mother-in-law recently was going crazy because she couldn't get anything done with her Windows PC. Same story as usual - viruses, programs shutting down in the middle of something important, etc. I thought perfect time to have her switch. She asked me to find another computer for her. I asked her how much she is willing to spend. She said only as much as I have to. UH, OH That wasn't good. She sees the Dell commercials on TV and sees how she can get them for $400-$500. I tell her that there are big diferences between those Dells and Macs. She goes back and forth in her decision making. I give her all the info on Macs and the reasons why I think that they are better. In the end $$$$$$ made the decision. All over a couple hundred dollars because she would have to buy a couple programs for the Mac that she already has for the PC. I told her when you add in virus software and long term expense the PC would be more expensive but I didn 't change her mind. I probably could have scared her into buying the Mac in the end but I wanted her to make the decision and make her own mistake. So I ordered her a cheap HP desktop. I expected within a few months she would be sick of the computer and voice her regrets over not buying the Mac especially since she sees the ease of use I have with my Mac. Not three days after getting her PC she says what I was expecting, "I wish I would have bought the mac." It seems her windows machine was already crashing and she was back to were she was with her old machine. She is so embarrassed that she doesn't even ask me to help her when she is having problems with it, she asks my wife. In the end I think that the marketing beat her down and made her choose a Windows PC. Apple just doesn't have good marketing or any marketing for that matter, at least where I live. - While I know marketing isn't everything, it does have a large impact.
Sauerkraut said:
I've wanted to throw my mums powermac G4 repeatedly in the trash. It seemed to corrupt itself everytime it shuts down, untill I moved a PCI card to a different slot - kinda random. I've had to install OS X about 7 times in 5 yrs on my imac, it is very unstable, where my win98 pc has a 5yr old installation still chugging along fine.
I'm just using the above examples to say that macs do have problems, just like pc's. The reason I use them is I don't like XP as much.
Long term expense on macs vs pc I've found is lower on the pc, because you don't need to replace propriety componants costing $$$. As for virus software, I use the free stuff anyway (I hate norton etc). I just think the hardware isn't any better, its the software which counts on the mac. Regrettably it forces you to buy apple hardware 🙁
Hmm, I'm still not sure. I spent an hour or so optimising my XP machine and reducing what it loads at startup to the bare minimum and it seems OK now. I used to be able to leave it switched on for weeks before needing a reboot, and hopefully will be able to get it back to that level of stability. It was not XP at fault per se, just lots of other third party apps loading that I didn't need at startup.
I've been reading a lot of websites lately and have been to a few anti-mac sites just to get a flavour of what can go wrong with them. I'll buy a mac mini off ebay to try it out and if my experience is unpleasant, I'll just put it back on ebay. I'll let you know how it goes, in fact why would anyone care anyway. If I remember, I'll post back my experience.
Thanks, keymoo.
I've been reading a lot of websites lately and have been to a few anti-mac sites just to get a flavour of what can go wrong with them. I'll buy a mac mini off ebay to try it out and if my experience is unpleasant, I'll just put it back on ebay. I'll let you know how it goes, in fact why would anyone care anyway. If I remember, I'll post back my experience.
Thanks, keymoo.
Got 2 of my friends to switch
After listening to me for weeks, I got 2 of my friends to Switch To A Mac.
A buddy of mine bought his first Mac ... a new 17" Powerbook. He had to convince his wife to let him do it. We went down to CompUSA over the weekend and when he got it home, I helped him set it up and he's well on his way. He can't seem to keep his hands off of it.
A colleague at work has made the switch as well. He bought a 17" iMac yesterday.
After listening to me for weeks, I got 2 of my friends to Switch To A Mac.
A buddy of mine bought his first Mac ... a new 17" Powerbook. He had to convince his wife to let him do it. We went down to CompUSA over the weekend and when he got it home, I helped him set it up and he's well on his way. He can't seem to keep his hands off of it.
A colleague at work has made the switch as well. He bought a 17" iMac yesterday.
Hi, I will be switching on 30th of July 2005.
Iv been using Windows since windows '95 (ten years ago) for general purpose, mainly games (i WAS hooked on the shareware ver of Doom, hence my love for FPS games). my first pc was a 66mhz intel pentium , 8 mb ram, 500mb. i got a major upgrade maxed my motherboard oout
i got a new pc in september 2003 ( 😱) and finally got connected to the internet. Then i caught a disease, a terminal illness, a disease which many people have, yes....its BSDS (Blue Screen of Death Syndrome). every week while playing my games and other things, including Starting up my computer, crash, please update 😡, this continues to this day.
on october the 14th i picked up a copy of T3, flicking through i saw the iPOD, next day i went out n brought a 3g 20gb ipod + music match.
got home, couldnt belive the technology i had in my hands 😱 , i installed everything inc music match, then i went mad 😡 , i couldnt believe Apple would ship an ipod with Music match. i got some of my song on there and was kicking my self for not having itunes (which was only on mac then). when itunes came out for windows, the ipod was my best friend 😛
eversince that moment i looked in to the world of an alternative OS.
i looked at linux (because it was free). i started off with redhat (which i uninstalled after an hour because it didnt work with my network card (nvidia))
i then looked at suse. this, i am very happy with. no complaints. but everyone else in my family cannot use it.
iv been pondering about the mac ever since. visiting the apple site nearly everyday on tip on how to "switch". i read all the testimonials etc (even though they were slightly biased)
then i saw the imac G4, my jaw dropped
then i saw the G5, i nearly collapsed
i made my decision to "switch" after i saw this site, which has helped me very much (thank you all)
i would have switched on the 1st of june, but i had to sort my finances out 😛 , now im ready to get it on 30th of july
it will be a
20" iMac G5
400gb
wireless KB/M
2gb (from crucial 😱 )
total cost £1400, with my edu discount
i know from reading many posts, this mac WILL last longer that my Windows pc, which is on the way out.
thanks again all macrumours' members 😀 😀
(to show my appreciation, i have contributed 😀 )
Iv been using Windows since windows '95 (ten years ago) for general purpose, mainly games (i WAS hooked on the shareware ver of Doom, hence my love for FPS games). my first pc was a 66mhz intel pentium , 8 mb ram, 500mb. i got a major upgrade maxed my motherboard oout
i got a new pc in september 2003 ( 😱) and finally got connected to the internet. Then i caught a disease, a terminal illness, a disease which many people have, yes....its BSDS (Blue Screen of Death Syndrome). every week while playing my games and other things, including Starting up my computer, crash, please update 😡, this continues to this day.
on october the 14th i picked up a copy of T3, flicking through i saw the iPOD, next day i went out n brought a 3g 20gb ipod + music match.
got home, couldnt belive the technology i had in my hands 😱 , i installed everything inc music match, then i went mad 😡 , i couldnt believe Apple would ship an ipod with Music match. i got some of my song on there and was kicking my self for not having itunes (which was only on mac then). when itunes came out for windows, the ipod was my best friend 😛
eversince that moment i looked in to the world of an alternative OS.
i looked at linux (because it was free). i started off with redhat (which i uninstalled after an hour because it didnt work with my network card (nvidia))
i then looked at suse. this, i am very happy with. no complaints. but everyone else in my family cannot use it.
iv been pondering about the mac ever since. visiting the apple site nearly everyday on tip on how to "switch". i read all the testimonials etc (even though they were slightly biased)
then i saw the imac G4, my jaw dropped
then i saw the G5, i nearly collapsed
i made my decision to "switch" after i saw this site, which has helped me very much (thank you all)
i would have switched on the 1st of june, but i had to sort my finances out 😛 , now im ready to get it on 30th of july
it will be a
20" iMac G5
400gb
wireless KB/M
2gb (from crucial 😱 )
total cost £1400, with my edu discount
i know from reading many posts, this mac WILL last longer that my Windows pc, which is on the way out.
thanks again all macrumours' members 😀 😀
(to show my appreciation, i have contributed 😀 )
Well, here's my switch story...
I guess I'm one of the few here who hasn't had crashes of Windows XP or virus infections. But my laptop (bought in August 2002) was badly outdated - 1.13 Celeron, 128 RAM, 40 hard drive (not enough once I started downloading videos) and no USB 2 port to give an idea, and it started to slow down noticeably after 1 1/2 years of use...just felt like there was a lot of junk in the system. The keyboard was also getting nasty, and I couldn't replace/clean it well in a laptop. Had Longhorn been due to come out within a year I might have stuck it out till then, but I knew I wasn't willing to go over 4 years without a new purchase.
I've had my eye on Apple products since the iPod became popular. But the price kept me from seriously considering Macs, especially with Office 2004 having to be factored in. It was the RevB iMac that finally got me. Good specs, a brand-new OS and a reasonable price. It just seemed time, I honestly think it the best "average consummer" computer out there. 🙂 I love not needing an external drive for storage, it's fast and OSX is super. I love seeing multiple windows at once so easily, and filling the screen seems so archaic now...heh.
I already know what I want to get next - a revC-D G5 Powerbook with Lion. By the time it comes out I can probably justify it. 🙂 But for now I'm really happy with my iMac.
I guess I'm one of the few here who hasn't had crashes of Windows XP or virus infections. But my laptop (bought in August 2002) was badly outdated - 1.13 Celeron, 128 RAM, 40 hard drive (not enough once I started downloading videos) and no USB 2 port to give an idea, and it started to slow down noticeably after 1 1/2 years of use...just felt like there was a lot of junk in the system. The keyboard was also getting nasty, and I couldn't replace/clean it well in a laptop. Had Longhorn been due to come out within a year I might have stuck it out till then, but I knew I wasn't willing to go over 4 years without a new purchase.
I've had my eye on Apple products since the iPod became popular. But the price kept me from seriously considering Macs, especially with Office 2004 having to be factored in. It was the RevB iMac that finally got me. Good specs, a brand-new OS and a reasonable price. It just seemed time, I honestly think it the best "average consummer" computer out there. 🙂 I love not needing an external drive for storage, it's fast and OSX is super. I love seeing multiple windows at once so easily, and filling the screen seems so archaic now...heh.
I already know what I want to get next - a revC-D G5 Powerbook with Lion. By the time it comes out I can probably justify it. 🙂 But for now I'm really happy with my iMac.
Good News ... new switcher in the family
My sister bought her first Mac this past Memorial Day weekend. She bought the 1.5Ghz 12" Powerbook with the SuperDrive. She stopped by yesterday and I helped her set it up.
Hmmm ... now I want one ... I do need a new Laptop. My 4 year old Dell Latitude broke a couple of weeks ago and I've been without a laptop ever since.
My sister bought her first Mac this past Memorial Day weekend. She bought the 1.5Ghz 12" Powerbook with the SuperDrive. She stopped by yesterday and I helped her set it up.
Hmmm ... now I want one ... I do need a new Laptop. My 4 year old Dell Latitude broke a couple of weeks ago and I've been without a laptop ever since.