Mac Virgin

[Pyrotechnic]

After over 13 years on a PC, I have been looking at purchasing a Mac. I spent a while in the Apple Store and have decided that I will replace my Desktop, as this is the one I use most with an iMac.

However, I now sit here as looking at this forum, it appears a new model is due out, which is dissapointing as I am eager to get one now and get all set up. I am not sure I can wait too long, in fact I feel I am burdened by using my PCs and a M$ product.

Im still waiting for someone to tell me something bad about getting a Mac. The more I see things such as being able to delete applications without leaving all sorts of files lurking in other folders, the more I just want to go and get one now.

I am also amazed that I have not seen very many who want to switch back to PC, again making me very eager.

Someone, please tell me something bad about Macs, just so it slows me down.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

>.>

How long have you been on the boards? Most people on here are complaining about their machine and looking for a fix, mostly with RTFM or googlable answers. Praise comes every now and again.

Uhh..i don't know.

Apple machines are expensive? Thats the best I can do.

 

[EricNau]

First of all, welcome to MacRumors. I hope you enjoy your stay!

It's true, you'll find plenty of whining and complaining around here: we're mac users, it's what we do best. Despite that fact, most if not all of us would buy another in a heartbeat. They're great machines and (usually) a joy to use.

In case you haven't already stumbled upon it, the MacRumors Buyer's Guide may be of great use to you in helping you decide when to buy. As you can see, it is recommended that you wait before you purchase an iMac; there should be an update any time now.

 

[Pyrotechnic]

>.>
How long have you been on the boards?.

10 Mins.

Having never used one, other than in the store I cant comment. However, the one in the shop performed very well and I was hooked, converted, whatever they call people who move from PC to Mac.

I dont want my enthusiasm run out whilst waiting for a new model. I also do not want to purchase an existing one only to see it reduced in price and spec a few weeks down the line.

Perhaps I need to browse all the problems before I buy ?

 

[MacDawg]

The next 'latest and greatest' will always be just around the corner
The rule of thumb is "buy when you need it" and don't look back

If you are ready to buy... then go for it
You can use the buyer's guide to help gauge the life cycle

Edit: too slow

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Pyrotechnic]

After spending years trying to get a windows machine to run nice and smooth without the need to reformat every 2 months I think a Mac is the way to go.

 

[MacDawg]

After spending years trying to get a windows machine to run nice and smooth without the need to reformat every 2 months I think a Mac is the way to go.

You know what they say... "once you go Mac, you never go back"

Jump on in, the water's fine

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[hudsonCrossing]

hey, were on the same boat even posted similar qs few days ago....

im still waiting tho

hope some of their insights can help.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/657723/

 

[macagain]

A very bad thing about the Mac/being a Mac user

You will love it so much, and want to talk about it, and lots of very silly people will brand you a "fanboy"!

I have to say that Mac fanboys are some of the most opinionated, biased people around. The only people worse are the Windoze folks!

-----------------------------
"I'm a PC, and I'm 9 years old." (yes, XP is a "proven" OS)

 

[skaertus]

After over 13 years on a PC, I have been looking at purchasing a Mac. I spent a while in the Apple Store and have decided that I will replace my Desktop, as this is the one I use most with an iMac.

However, I now sit here as looking at this forum, it appears a new model is due out, which is dissapointing as I am eager to get one now and get all set up. I am not sure I can wait too long, in fact I feel I am burdened by using my PCs and a M$ product.

Im still waiting for someone to tell me something bad about getting a Mac. The more I see things such as being able to delete applications without leaving all sorts of files lurking in other folders, the more I just want to go and get one now.

I am also amazed that I have not seen very many who want to switch back to PC, again making me very eager.

Someone, please tell me something bad about Macs, just so it slows me down.

Let's see. You should wait a little before buying a Mac. Why? iMac is going to be replaced very, very soon. Wait at least a month, otherwise you'll be sorry. A shiny brand-new iMac will be available for the same price.

And why are you so sure you want an iMac? The iMac uses a laptop processor, which uses less power, delivers less performance and are more expensive than a desktop processor. You may get a faster PC for a cheaper price. Why not a MacBook Pro instead? Or a Mac Pro? Or a PC? Or anything else?

Here are a few reasons why the PC may be better than a Mac:

- Do you use your computer to play games? Forget the iMac or any machine running MacOS then. Use Windows.
- Windows use ClearType, a Microsoft technology, to put fonts on the screen which are much sharper and easy on the eyes than MacOS anti-aliasing technology (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of not distorting fonts on the screen).
- Windows has much more software to run. MacOS does not have Nero Burning ROM.
- Software which is translated from Windows is much slower and sluggish than the Windows counterparts. See Firefox or uTorrent.
- Don't expect too much of Microsoft products. Wanna run Internet Explorer? You've got version 5.0, from 2001 (I guess), for PowerPC only. Wanna run Messenger? You've got the brand-new version 7, from 2008, which still doesn't support webcam. Wanna run Microsoft Office? Well, you've got Office 2008, whose Word hogs 150-200 MB of RAM when opened (against 30 MB of Word 2007 for Windows). In addition, Office 2008 does not work well with Spaces - in a very irritating way.
- Macs are more expensive despite all those disadvantages!

Think a lot before exchanging to MacOS. Then, after the new iMac is released, look at this list of advantages:

- MacOS is much, much, much faster - a really lot faster - to boot and to exit than Windows.
- Windows 7 will make the Windows experience better - but MacOS Snow Leopard will be so much faster, and it will bring so many new exciting technologies!
- MacOS does not have Windows registry nor DLLs. The system itself never crashes and it still fast after a year of use.
- MacOS is a pleasure to use. Spaces and Expose are just fantastic and much better than a lot of Windows on the screen (as in Windows).
- MacOS has great apps developed by independent developers - more than Windows does in this respect.
- Apple had 81% of consumer satisfaction in January 2009 - much more than any other computer vendor.

 

[Pyrotechnic]

I am actually quite an expert when it comes to sorting the PCs out for friend, whether its building them or sorting problems. I am quite looking forward to getting mone and then convincing them all that a Mac is the way to go.

Do you all realise how hard it is for me to type all this through IE and Vista.

I have already downloaded Safari to use on the PC.

There are also a lot of options vailable such as Mobile Me and taking advantage of iWork which I am thinking on getting.

I also have the option of adding the M$ Office but to be honest, I dont want to put it on as I want to start a whole new fresh without contaminating my Mac.

I feel like a kid waiting for christmas.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Here are a few reasons why the PC may be better than a Mac:

- Do you use your computer to play games? Forget the iMac or any machine running MacOS then. Use Windows.

So buy a Mac and use Boot Camp.

- Windows use ClearType, a Microsoft technology, to put fonts on the screen which are much sharper and easy on the eyes than MacOS anti-aliasing technology (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of not distorting fonts on the screen).

No, ClearType is a defect, not a feature. Smoother fonts look better.

- Windows has much more software to run. MacOS does not have Nero Burning ROM.

... Of all the software that "doesn't work" on a Mac, you pick THAT?

- Software which is translated from Windows is much slower and sluggish than the Windows counterparts. See Firefox or uTorrent.

μTorrent is probably the fastest Mac client out there.

- Don't expect too much of Microsoft products. Wanna run Internet Explorer? You've got version 5.0, from 2001 (I guess), for PowerPC only. Wanna run Messenger? You've got the brand-new version 7, from 2008, which still doesn't support webcam. Wanna run Microsoft Office? Well, you've got Office 2008, whose Word hogs 150-200 MB of RAM when opened (against 30 MB of Word 2007 for Windows). In addition, Office 2008 does not work well with Spaces - in a very irritating way.

Screw Explorer. Have you even SEEN Safari? Fastest browser on the planet right now. Screw Messenger. Just rout your contacts into iChat. Screw Office. Use iWork and convert files for your Office-using friends.

- Macs are more expensive despite all those disadvantages!

Beaten. To. Death. And hasn't been true since the '90s.

- MacOS is much, much, much faster - a really lot faster - to boot and to exit than Windows.

True.

- Windows 7 will make the Windows experience better - but MacOS Snow Leopard will be so much faster, and it will bring so many new exciting technologies!

What "many" new technologies? It's not about a bunch of new. Having said that, Grand Central and OpenGL are promising.

- MacOS does not have Windows registry nor DLLs. The system itself never crashes and it still fast after a year of use.

First sentence is true. First half of second sentence is a lie, second half is true. It is still fast after six years.

- MacOS is a pleasure to use. Spaces and Expose are just fantastic and much better than a lot of Windows on the screen (as in Windows).
- MacOS has great apps developed by independent developers - more than Windows does in this respect.
- Apple had 81% of consumer satisfaction in January 2009 - much more than any other computer vendor.

All true.

 

[Pyrotechnic]

I dont play games at all, and have no intention of doing so.

I do not intent to run Boot Camp and have a Windows install, I feel I will not need it.

I fell out with Nero a year ago and installed Roxio.


I did like the look of iWork and loved the way you can export as PDF, fantastic.

In terms of cost, I dont see this as an issue. I am more than willing to spend on a product that works.

 

[FightTheFuture]

something bad on a mac... well the flash plug-in comes to mind. you can browse all day and suddenly your performance will crawl when you load a flash page on any mac. from my experience at least

other than that, the lack of autodesk applications does not help.

 

[Pyrotechnic]

Where has my thread gone

 

[ditzy]

As a recent convert I can say that I've only have two minor complaints.
1. not enough USB slots. Buying a USB hub takes away from the elegance but I have had to do that.
2. As I don't like the mighty mouse, I started using my old Microsoft mouse, which works much better, but only the left, right and scroll buttons work. The additional two buttons do not which is very frustrating.
But both of these issues I can happily live with, when I think about the alternative.

 

[skaertus]

So buy a Mac and use Boot Camp.

Well, if you're gonna use only Windows, you should buy a PC. You've got plenty of options out there. If you want to use both, you should buy a Mac. But, if you have a Mac, why use Windows? Seems like a paradox to me... just joking.

No, ClearType is a defect, not a feature. Smoother fonts look better.

Not really, c'mon. ClearType is a technology. You may not like it, but it is still a feature of Windows (you can turn it off if you want). MacOS could have this as an option, it wouldn't hurt. I confess I would use it for writing long texts.

... Of all the software that "doesn't work" on a Mac, you pick THAT?

That was what I had in mind when I was writing. There are plenty of others. Maybe FrameMaker, which doesn't run on MacOS anymore?

μTorrent is probably the fastest Mac client out there.

Yes, it is light and fast, but I still found it a little slower than the Windows version. May be just my imagination, though.

Screw Explorer. Have you even SEEN Safari? Fastest browser on the planet right now. Screw Messenger. Just rout your contacts into iChat. Screw Office. Use iWork and convert files for your Office-using friends.

Yes, Safari is much better than IE Explorer (I haven't tested the 4.0 version yet, but I've heard great things about it). And so is Firefox, and Google Chrome, and Opera, and everything else. I particularly like Google Chrome, and I hope the Mac version is as good as the Windows counterpart. I never really liked IE Explorer, and always preferred Netscape in the 90s. Anyway, there are some (very few) websites which will only run on IE Explorer. This is very annoying.

Beaten. To. Death. And hasn't been true since the '90s.

Yes, Macs are more expensive. Macs are better products, and that's why they cost more. Macs may be a better value - and I think they are - but they are still more expensive. If you're on a tight budget, you'll not find a US$ 600 or 700 Mac notebook.

True.

This is undeniable...

What "many" new technologies? It's not about a bunch of new. Having said that, Grand Central and OpenGL are promising.

Not too many, indeed. But OpenCL (not OpenGL, which Macs already support - you've made a typo) and Grand Central are very, very promising.

First sentence is true. First half of second sentence is a lie, second half is true. It is still fast after six years.

Not a lie, just a hyperbole. MacOS crashes much less frequently than Windows does - Windows XP was indeed a lot better, but Vista is worse than XP (not to the levels of Windows 95/98/Millenium, though - very crashy times were those).

All true.

Yes, and that's why I'm never switching back to a PC. However, the author of the topic wanted some bad stuff about Macs, and I gave him some.

 

[Pyrotechnic]

As a recent convert I can say that I've only have
2. As I don't like the mighty mouse, I started using my old Microsoft mouse, which works much better, but only the left, right and scroll buttons work. The additional two buttons do not which is very frustrating.
But both of these issues I can happily live with, when I think about the alternative.

I doubt you will see this amongst the thread, but if you do, what was it you did not like about the mouse. I have heard they are very different and I am concerned I will not take to it.

In terms of USB slots, It looks like I will have to get a card reader also.

 

[kastenbrust]

Not really, c'mon. ClearType is a technology. You may not like it, but it is still a feature of Windows (you can turn it off if you want). MacOS could have this as an option, it wouldn't hurt. I confess I would use it for writing long texts.

You obviously don't know much about fonts and how they work.

ClearType is Microsofts' excuse for 40 years of neglecting fonts, Apple and OS X dont need it because they've been lightyears ahead of Microsoft in terms of fonts for decades.

Basically Microsoft likes all Fonts to look uniform and fit into the pixels, and as a result for decades their fonts have looked pixelated and 'square' and not how they were designed to look, which is why for a long time graphic designers have used Mac fonts. Microsoft introduced Cleartype to make their fonts a bit less square and more smooth and realistic to what the font creator intended the font to look like, however it doesn't work 100% of the time, and tends to end up straining your eyes, because the fonts look blurry.

Mac on the other hand has always shown fonts as they were intended to look, smooth and clear, and it always works 100% of the time, however this can be slightly more graphically intensive, but hardly anything compared to running a game etc.

 

[clevin]

fonts again.

i bet most apple people like apple fonts, and most windows people like windows font, that makes what..

95% likes windows fonts?

how about just stop that subjective statement altogether.

 

[ditzy]

I doubt you will see this amongst the thread, but if you do, what was it you did not like about the mouse. I have heard they are very different and I am concerned I will not take to it.

In terms of USB slots, It looks like I will have to get a card reader also.

To me they just didn't feel right. I didn't like the way it felt in your hand they felt cheap, I also did not like the little scrolling ball that came with it, that too felt uncomfortable. I also found that it was not responsive. In truth I hated almost everything about it. The keyboard is wonderful though.

 

[kastenbrust]

fonts again.

i bet most apple people like apple fonts, and most windows people like windows font, that makes what..

95% likes windows fonts?

how about just stop that subjective statement altogether.

Theres no such thing as 'Windows' and 'Mac' fonts, Fonts are the same for both operating systems, they are just displayed differently on each, and thats the point, Windows displays them less accurately, which means you cant prefer Windows fonts, because then your preferring something fake...

Thats the objective reality.

 

[skaertus]

You obviously don't know much about fonts and how they work.

Perhaps I don't. But I know how fonts look on the screen.

ClearType is Microsofts' excuse for 40 years of neglecting fonts, Apple and OS X dont need it because they've been lightyears ahead of Microsoft in terms of fonts for decades.

Microsoft doesn't even have 40 years.

Basically Microsoft likes all Fonts to look uniform and fit into the pixels, and as a result for decades their fonts have looked pixelated and 'square' and not how they were designed to look, which is why for a long time graphic designers have used Mac fonts. Microsoft introduced Cleartype to make their fonts a bit less square and more smooth and realistic to what the font creator intended the font to look like, however it doesn't work 100% of the time, and tends to end up straining your eyes, because the fonts look blurry.

ClearType is a subpixel rendering technology. I understood that ClearType forces fonts into the grid. As a result, they are sharper and more readable on the screen. However, ClearType fonts are distorted and they do look different from what they would look in print. This may be a big concern to graphic designers, but to the average user it may not matter.

Mac on the other hand has always shown fonts as they were intended to look, smooth and clear, and it always works 100% of the time, however this can be slightly more graphically intensive, but hardly anything compared to running a game etc.

Yes, Macs shows fonts as they are intended to look - and that is much better for the graphic designer. However, fonts look a little blurrier on a Mac than they do on a PC. Apple and Microsoft seem to have divergent opinions on how to render fonts on the screen.

 

[striatedglutes]

I doubt you will see this amongst the thread, but if you do, what was it you did not like about the mouse. I have heard they are very different and I am concerned I will not take to it.

In terms of USB slots, It looks like I will have to get a card reader also.

I've used PC mice all my life, and when I worked at the school paper and edited photos on their mac pro, I used a mighty mouse. I thought it was great, especially the ball scroll that lets you "360" scroll wherever you want with much more ease than a typical scroll wheel. (Think of that utility while zoomed in on a photo)

Once you get used to where to press for right/left/middle click, I think you might actually like it better than a PC mouse.

The only bad part about them is that the scroll ball gets dirty easily (makes it not scroll as well), and you have to clean it with alcohol. Can't remember the last time I cleaned a PC mouse. Go check the reviews at apple.com and see what users are saying.

Also,

I am more than willing to spend on a product that works.

is why apple is successful as a company imo. People willing to pay the "apple premium" realize that you get what you pay for. Buyers get great computers, great customer service, and keep coming back, while gets a fat margin %.

 

[clevin]

Theres no such thing as 'Windows' and 'Mac' fonts, Fonts are the same for both operating systems, they are just displayed differently on each, and thats the point, Windows displays them less accurately, which means you cant prefer Windows fonts, because then your preferring something fake...

Thats the objective reality.

lol, thats your bias right there, less accurate? less accurate than on paper? WHO CARES?

you just pick the good side of OSX font rendering "more accurate as you see on paper!"

how about good side of windows font rendering? "windows display fonts on screen better, more crispier, more clear, easier to read on screen!"

reality only worth mentioning when you define the situation. when I read on screen all day, sorry, I can care less about how each letters printed slightly different on paper.