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I want to switch from PC to mac but these reviews are making me think twice.

Next Tuesday

Next Tuesday

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
682
0
Orlando,FL
These are reviews from customers that own macs on
HTML: 
www.notebookreview.com
Pros: 1. iSight in OSX - very practical. 2. Track-pad scrolling with the two fingers is great. 3. I like typing with that keyboard for some reason... 4. Sleep is reliable and seamless - unlike all my PC laptops. 5. Boot Camp is really marvellous, as is Parrallels Desktops.

CONS: 1. No format painter in Entourage email editor. 2. Office is S L O W - you sometimes type and have to wait for the text to appear... 3. Excel printing is unreliable, columns not lining up with numbers! 4. Can't see the file path anywhere easy. 5. Exiting from a folder and there's no highlight to tell you were you just were. 6. iPhoto crashes when it tries to scan AVI files it can't read. 7. Restarts for no reason sometimes (9 times since 12/9/06) 8. Opening one of the windows that an application has open required multiple steps and is slow. 9. No auto complete in the Entourage email editor. 10. Only way to get text from the dock icons is to put your mouse over it. Hard to find the one you want quickly. 11. If the icons are large, they take up too much space, too small and you can't tell one from another. 12. How do you put a table into an entourage email body? 13. Two hands for everything. 14. Resize windows from only the bottom rhs corner? How frustrating! 15. USB ports don't seem to always have enough power to drive external HDDs. 16. Video Files that you take for granted that you can open on a PC, you need to hunt for a program to play them on the Mac. Used to be the other way around. 17. No SD card slot. In fact, no card slots period. 18. Can't open 50% of the PDFs I get. 19. The underside gets stinking hot, too hot to touch, to hot to put in your lap. 20. Sometimes when you mount a network drive, it mounts in the Finder, other times, it doesn't... Only on the desktop. 21. Sometimes you think you're copying files, but you're just making shortcuts, other times you're copying, it's inconsistent? 22. When you go to close Firefox or Safari down, while you've got multiple tabs open, the dialog box obscures the tabs and as you can't move it, the only thing to do is to dismiss the dialog, look at the tabs, then close it down again confronting the dialog yet again. 23. Font selection in Entourage is tedious
if you like the internet don't buy a mac...great computer for show-offs though.
Submitted by Brock on 6/27/2006 7:00:41 PM

Rating: 5/10

Pros: Metal case looks great. Very light weight, nice and slim...very quiet also. Very nice design overall.

Cons: Many things on the internet do not work on a mac. Take google maps for example. With PC's you can just use the arrows to move the map around...not possible with the macbook pro (well...it's possible but just not as smooth.) I will tell you I'm new to macs and had very high hopes...I was fed up with windows crashing and excel locking up my system. My friends sung the praise for macs...I was very against it at first, but eventually warmed up to the idea and got a new macbook pro. This thing runs hot and slow. Safari is basically a joke and needs to think about every page you wish to visit. Opera is a littile better though it lacks the great looks of Safari. If a friend sends you a link to a video clip forget about it...it's usually a wmv file and the macbook pro won't play those. I chose to get excel and word for mac since I occassionally need them for work...what a joke. Mac products seem to hate microsoft products...they run very slow and like to lock up on occassion. Printing is not the same with these programs either. My biggest frustration is how often OSX just decides to shut down. It will just lock up and turn itself off requiring a total reboot. I know this will all sound like operator error to you mac folk, but I'm fairly together when it comes to computers and I don't surf porn, so blame it on whatever you want. Overall I'm disappointed with the mac at this point...and I got one of the first ones, so I've had it several months.
Pros: Well, lets see, no right click, usb 2 is not supported in windows, the cam doesnt work in windows. if you want windows you got to go out and buy it. Then install it, as if a mac user can install boot camp and windows without the help of a pc technician. The apple os has a cult following they are willing to follow the leader right off a cliff. Its almost like scientology. Its like showing up to a drag race and just because your car is prettier and has for and chevy parts it should win. no theyll laugh at you. Apple should stick with what they are good at. I dont know what that is but it isnt trying to tell an avid pc user that an overpriced computer is what i need. When i can still go online and buy a dell laptop for 599. with windows installed and absolutely no need for mac os. So this is apples way of admitting they dont have a business machine, they have a fisher price toy. Again.

Cons: its a mac. but im dumb and stoopid. and i use a pc, thats why i am the system administrator and my mac users all but wish i would let them enjoy the ease of use with my windows server system . too bad, get your own server mac users. i will never turn on afp or crappletalk on my network. too bad so sad, and hey what am i missing out on by not using a mac? Please enlighten me, my email address is troysusd@yahoo.com. buh bye

these are just some of the rants i read about the mbp. Feel free to give me your own reviews/opinions about the MBP's cd or c2d. Pros and cons would be very helpful.......thanks in advance.
 
Who cares, that is a windows type of person.

If you like OS X and the computer take your own chances, dont worry about bias reviews.

I for one can tell you that safari is NOT a joke and OS X is an amazing OS, just takes some time getting used to.
The person that wrote that was a very closed minded person, prolly in their 40s used to the way windows works.
 
You need more than 512MB RAM otherwise you will have problems with reliability/speed, that is probably the cause of 95% of these issues, especially the speed/office/printing issues, rosetta needs at least 1GB RAM.

Video files you need http://perian.org/

USB 2 is now supported in Bootcamp (I think)

God knows why he has problems with PDF's I have *never* had a problem with them on my Mac.

Entourage isn't good use Apple Mail instead.
 
Completely ignore those reviews. They are at least 50% factually incorrect, the other 50% appears to be agenda driven.

I can't be bothered to address them point by point, but it has been done ad-nauseum in Win vs. Mac threads here and elsewhere.

Take a person with an axe to grind and they will always be able to manufacture points against any product.

The best refutation against these reviews is: millions upon millions of people are using Macs productively, including a bunch of people here. If the OSX/Mac approach is right for you, you will be able to as well.
 
The thing about the Mac is that it will run both Windows and OS X, a choice you do not have with a Dell.

You don't have to run OS X, which makes all the software cons moot.

People have lusted over the PowerBooks for years, but alas they liked Windows and didn't want to switch. Now all they do is nitpick about OS X being slow.
 
half of that second review is ridiculous as soon as he mentions cult, I really can't believe you even posted that as a negative to you're decision making ... if the idea of a cult concerns you the answer is simple don't switch ...
 
Kwyjibo said:
half of that second review is ridiculous as soon as he mentions cult, I really can't believe you even posted that as a negative to you're decision making ... if the idea of a cult concerns you the answer is simple don't switch ...
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's kinds funny. They first guy's problems are largely with a Microsoft app (Office) and the second one is clearly biased.

If you like the Windows version of Office, just run it in Boot Camp or Parallels or VMWare...

B
 
feh...those people mostly don't know what they're talking about.
For example:
1. You can use a 2-button mouse. It just doesn't come with one.
2. I'd be very surprised if most Mac users couldn't install Windows. It ain't hard.
3. OSX will play .wmv files. You just have to get Windows Media Player for Mac. And when you do, you'll see why Quicktime is better.
4. You don't have to run AppleTalk on any network. OSX is TCP/IP compatible, and Windows Server 2003 is fully capable of handling Mac clients.
5. How do you put a table in an Entourage email? Just because that guy doesn't know how doesn't mean it can't be done.
6. I've never had any problem with MSOffice, nor any problems with PDF's.
7. Some features aren't supported in Windows, true. Let me point out that BootCamp is still in Beta. The final version will address these issues.
8. Some internet things aren't supported in Mac. That's true. So what. If google maps doesn't work, use mapquest.

From the tone of these reviews, it seems like these guys were looking for things to criticize. If you look hard enough, you'll find them. Doesn't mean the Mac is bad, just different.
 
pcs are like tampons, every P**** has one

Im going to use a little analogy, that hopefully will clarify things for you, and also maybe help you figure out what kind of computer user you are.

You see people have been arguing for ever about which is better, and the truth is there is no answer. PCs are better for some things, and MACs are better for others. the most important thing for you to figure out is what kind of user YOU are, and what you want your computer to accomplish, then you will know what system to go with.

PCs are like honda civics, there cheap as hell, everyone has them, and there are a ton of 3rd party products to "pimp" them out. You can add totally rad blinking lights, and cool plastic cases, bigger fans, and a ton of other stuff which probably won't actually do anything except impress a group of people who you shouldn't be trying to impress in the first place. If your the kind of person who loves to rebuild your engine on your car every week, then by all means, get a PC.

on the other hand, If the purpose of your machine is to accomplish, lets say, I dunno, WORK, then you will probably want to get a mac. People complain about all this crap like they can't upgrade this, or its not compatible with some zelda emulator from 92, and think macs are a hunk of crap. Point being, is that people who use macs, usually make things, you know, to earn money, and we could give a flying **** if our machines are capable of downloading porno in moms basement in WMV format. When I sit down at my desk, I turn my comp on, and OMG, it works......weird. I think that you will find that most creative people use macs, becuase thats what they want to be, creative, and a mac lets you do that. If your a technical person who loves debugging this or reformating that (some people do) then you should get a PC, just don't expect to ever do anything beyond just keeping it running.

A Pc is like an infant, you gotta constantly monitor it and check it out and make sure it has all the right things or else if will take a big fat dump right in your lap. If you do these things though, a PC can be quite fun sometimes (games)

a Mac is like a adult, it is perfectly capable of self sustaining, and when you ask it to do things, it wil be responsible and go and do them in a timely fashion.

all in all, if you haven't guessed so already, I think you should get a mac. I used a PC once, for about 4 hours, and in that 4 hours it crashed more times then all of my other macs combined for the last 15 years. Those problems the people in that post described, are all about rosetta, and there probably retarded. Of course things run slow in rosetta. Download neo office, its open source, a universal binary, and can do everything office can. (and you dont have to support M$)

most people are used to the crappy ways that things work on a PC, and then when they try and do the same crappy stuff on a mac, they get pissed cause it doesnt work and blame it on the MAC. a mac is setup differently, it thinks differently (pun intended) so all you have to do is get used to how things run over here, and after you do I garantee you will never go back to PC again.

by the way, Windows media player works on MAC, and the dumb*** who said he couldn't watch a WMA, but somehow was a system adminatrator, is full of s***. I used to take a class from Woz, and now am on his joke list, and he sends me WMA movie clips all the time and they play flawlessly. ok enough raving, im done, just get a MAC.
 
No problem

Fact of the matter is, that PC users have hours of downtime between system re-installs, so they hop on the internet and write all these articles about how crappy macs are to make themselves feel better about the 1000 dollar plastic toy they just bought.

mac users are usually too busy, and to classy to waste there time jumping from forum to forum posting threads on how crappy PCs are. besides, PCs crapiness sells itself. I don't normally write this much (trying not to be a hypocrit) but those articles you read were just completely off that I thought someone should stick up for the other end.

bottom line, go with your intuition, don't let a bunch of articles online convince you one way or another, You've used windows, and seen it in action, and the fact that your even at this site shows me that your not 100% satisfied with windows. Try the mac, and be prepared to have a lot of free time, cuase there is going to be a serious paradigm shift in productivity.

ok, so lets say that a mac doesn't work 100% of the time, so what? You can take whatever percentage you want, and compared to windows it will still be higher.

peace

-Ryan
 
Proto Media said:
by the way, Windows media player works on MAC, and the dumb*** who said he couldn't watch a WMA, but somehow was a system adminatrator, is full of s***. I used to take a class from Woz, and now am on his joke list, and he sends me WMA movie clips all the time and they play flawlessly. ok enough raving, im done, just get a MAC.
Click to expand...

Along with your subject that PCs are like tampons in that every "p****" has one makes me feel like the IQ of this board went down a few notches.

And it's not MAC... MAC is a makeup brand. It's a Mac.
 
This is an old arguement, do a search for Mac vs Windows on here, and you'll be reading for days.

FOR ME....Mac OS X changed my life. It was so easy to use that I found myself doing all the things I wanted to do on a PC within days/weeks.

I'm into audio,

Garageband is an incredible piece of software...and it's free.

the iLife suite in general is so great that you have to use it to appreciate it all....and it's free...

I don't know....Macs aren't the cheapest things on earth, but the old concept of "you get what you pay for" really holds true with Macs.

Back to how Macs and OS X changed my life, life on a pc was just so frustrating that I never dove deep into the OS and what Windows was all about, as a result I couldn't care less about computers. When I found OS X I found that I really like computers, and everything about them.

Now I work with computers, and just got a new job and i'm frigging STOKED about it....

This is a sappy post, and I'm sorry about that, i'm a fanboy but I don't push Mac's on people (just iTunes)

Get what you want but if you get a Mac. You won't be sorry.

:)
 
quigleybc said:
I don't know....Macs aren't the cheapest things on earth, but the old concept of "you get what you pay for" really holds true with Macs.
Click to expand...

absolutely :)
I've long thought that comparing a Mac to a PC is rather like comparing a Gibson Les Paul to...sheesh, any number of other guitars. A Les Paul is expensive, and it will never sound like a Fender, and there's a ton of other instruments that will give you that humbucker sound Gibsons are known for. But none of them (IMHO) will ever be quite so nice to play as the Gibson. There's things it can't do, to be sure, but nothing else does what it can do so well.
 
Proto Media said:
PCs are like honda civics, there cheap as hell, everyone has them, and there are a ton of 3rd party products to "pimp" them out. You can add totally rad blinking lights, and cool plastic cases, bigger fans, and a ton of other stuff which probably won't actually do anything except impress a group of people who you shouldn't be trying to impress in the first place. If your the kind of person who loves to rebuild your engine on your car every week, then by all means, get a PC.
Click to expand...

Terrible car analogy! The Honda Civic is not cheap (it's actually more expensive than American equivalents), and they are one of the most reliable cars in the world.
 
1. No format painter in Entourage email editor. --- Complain to Microsoft.
2. Office is S L O W - you sometimes type and have to wait for the text to appear... -- Complain to Microsoft.
3. Excel printing is unreliable, columns not lining up with numbers! --- Complain to Microsoft
4. Can't see the file path anywhere easy. --- Command click on the top of the window, this also lets you go directly to any of the folders in the path.
5. Exiting from a folder and there's no highlight to tell you were you just were. --- Well you bloody well just left the folder?
6. iPhoto crashes when it tries to scan AVI files it can't read.
7. Restarts for no reason sometimes (9 times since 12/9/06) --- Install recent software updates for a fix.
8. Opening one of the windows that an application has open required multiple steps and is slow. --- Never noticed such a thing.
9. No auto complete in the Entourage email editor. --- Complain to Microsoft
10. Only way to get text from the dock icons is to put your mouse over it. Hard to find the one you want quickly. --- What the hell is that supposed to mean?
11. If the icons are large, they take up too much space, too small and you can't tell one from another. -- Is he talking about the Dock? Set it to autohide like everyone else.
12. How do you put a table into an entourage email body? --- Complain to Microsoft.
13. Two hands for everything. --- I mean this literally: Only a w**ker would complain about that.
14. Resize windows from only the bottom rhs corner? How frustrating! --- Use the green button to switch it to the right size.
15. USB ports don't seem to always have enough power to drive external HDDs. --- I bet it has enough power for any external drive that claims that you can run it from USB power. USB is highly standardised and there are exact requirements how much power you have to provide / are allowed to consume. MacBooks meet thos requirements.
16. Video Files that you take for granted that you can open on a PC, you need to hunt for a program to play them on the Mac. Used to be the other way around. --- Complain to Microsoft.
17. No SD card slot. In fact, no card slots period. --- Never understood why people want card slots. Plug your camera into USB and download the photos. Or buy a USB card reader for £5 on eBay.
18. Can't open 50% of the PDFs I get. --- Strangely enough, I haven't found a PDF yet that Preview didn't open (except some broken ones that nobody could open anywhere). Did you know that if you press Cmd-Space, enter a word, Spotlight will get you exactly to the location in any PDF file where that word is?
19. The underside gets stinking hot, too hot to touch, to hot to put in your lap. -- Not with my MacBook.
20. Sometimes when you mount a network drive, it mounts in the Finder, other times, it doesn't... Only on the desktop. --- ???
21. Sometimes you think you're copying files, but you're just making shortcuts, other times you're copying, it's inconsistent? --- That's whats called "Failure between keyboard and chair" (polite way of saying user is an idiot)..
22. When you go to close Firefox or Safari down, while you've got multiple tabs open, the dialog box obscures the tabs and as you can't move it, the only thing to do is to dismiss the dialog, look at the tabs, then close it down again confronting the dialog yet again. --- Never noticed any dialog there.
23. Font selection in Entourage is tedious --- Complain to Microsoft

if you like the internet don't buy a mac...great computer for show-offs though. --- The guy has some attitude problem, it seems.
 
Next Tuesday said:
Cons: its a mac. but im dumb and stoopid. and i use a pc, thats why i am the system administrator and my mac users all but wish i would let them enjoy the ease of use with my windows server system . too bad, get your own server mac users. i will never turn on afp or crappletalk on my network. too bad so sad, and hey what am i missing out on by not using a mac? Please enlighten me, my email address is troysusd@yahoo.com. buh bye
Click to expand...

If he is a system administrator at some company with that kind of attitude, he should be fired immediately. But most likely he is just some Windows user who thinks it is clever to run his machine as "administrator", which means any virus he might catch will do the maximum damage possible.
 
I bet most of these reviews were written by PC-centric people. Take it from us, Mac is the way to go! I have been using PCs since they were running 286 processors, and my job is related to PCs, yet I LOVE my Mac. Ever since I got my MBP, I have not even touched my PCs at home. I actually wish, in a way, that I could change all of our PCs/laptops at work to Apple.
 
Despite the problems i've had with the RSS issue (which now seems to be fixed after the firmware update) I will never go back to using a PC, infact i avoid them. Superior OS, the GUI is 100 times better, more reliable and not to mention beautiful. The list goes on.
 
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