There's not really a trade-off when you buy a quality Windows machine and use a good OS. I liked XP, hate Vista, and so far love Win7 64.
A T series Thinkpad and Windows 7 is a nice setup.
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Microsoft Remains on Offensive with 'Apple Tax' Report and Latest Laptop Ad
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There's not really a trade-off when you buy a quality Windows machine and use a good OS. I liked XP, hate Vista, and so far love Win7 64.
A T series Thinkpad and Windows 7 is a nice setup.
Yeah if it's true I'll be friggin' happy. I've had issues with XP with differences as small as going from Thinkpad R61 to Thinkpad R400, HP 6320 to 6510b.
This should solve that issue.
Configuring is not that much of a hassle. I removed the trial Office application on both machines an installed firefox; took about the same time on both. On the Mac I removed Opera and iWork as well, and installed a free antivirus software on the PC.
Updates are about the same on a Mac and a PC nowadays, a few times each month.
iTunes and Safari update on both machines at the same time and just as often.
Not much of a difference, I believe.
Considering the problems with vista, will w7 upgrade be priced sympathetically?
I heard people needed to get new machines to run vista.
I think the osx leopard upgrade was about £70
I heard people needed to get new machines to run vista.
I think the osx leopard upgrade was about £70
no prob
As far as your bluescreen problems on multiple computers, you can send me a private message if you want. As far as your particular online game, eh, that may be tougher to solve since you now have to factor in how that game is working in a web browser environment (Active X controls, Java/javascript, browser, Flash, etc)...that's totally different than a game developer like ID who writes code that only needs to work with the operating system's API and hence access to the hardware. And also that the game's software is accessing the network card, TCP/IP stack, etc. which, if your internet connection dies for 2 seconds, may cause your game to freakout because the developer didn't code it well to handle exceptions like that.
Once you throw in the browser layer, all bets are off and it's harder to deduce. Why don't you remove the card and use the built-in card for testing purposes?...if it works, you know it's the video card. If it fails, well now you know that in theory it's very likely not the hardware but rather a list of software issues that may be the problem (OS version/patch, browser, plugins, Flash, etc.) and that really should be supported by the game manufacturer or the video card manufacturer. There is a small chance that whatever software the game is using is incompatible with the motherboard. Again, these are shots in the dark.
Overall video cards can be extremely picky...believe it or not the motherboard and its firmware are usually the 1st suspects I look at if I get a BSOD.
If you are not a game freak then I would just buy a pc with the plain old vid card that is soldered onto the motherboard. You're still gonna get VGA and Digital outputs these days. The resolution is likely to hit 1600x1200 (what I run at). You can find great Dell desktops for $450 these days...quad core 2.66GHz, 4-6gig ram, 500gig hard drive, 128MB vid card, dvd/cd burner. Although I am not impressed by Dell's Tech Support, parts is parts in PC land...I hate HP...hence I buy Dell. Personally I buy a new pc every 3-4 years just because it's easier/cheaper to do so rather than add more drives (or whatever) to my older...and I get a warranty with the new pc. The other reason I upgrade is because I run scientific software which number crunches all day...3-4 years gets me a much faster chip that it can use. I then sell my old pc online for about $125 and POOF!...a new pc in my hands for basically $300 after selling my old one. If I still had a need to have numerous pcs at my house, I'd just keep the older ones as file servers or media centers or whatever.
Most of my friends and family keep their computers much longer...7-8 years until, like my mom's Win98 machine from the year 1999, was no longer supported by hardware peripheral companies (printers, digital cameras, etc).
-Eric
Several times when I've seen it "crawl" - really, really slow to boot and log in - it's memory.
On a system without much memory (I'd put 1 GiB as the real minimum for XP), when it's fresh it has an adequate pool of spare ram to run applications.
As the user, year after year, continues to download crapware and toolbars and bloated applications that insist on running services and update services and system tray icons (I looking at you, Itunes), and other stuff - the "free" memory just disappears.
So, if a see a system that takes a long time to boot and log in, and the disk is chattering away the whole time - I'll put $20 worth of memory in it first.
Cool. But how big a company are we talking about? A client of mine has a machine park that's partly made up of some 35-40 Macs, and since they started operations in 1995 they must have bought maybe 400 of them. They get no discount whatsoever. So my gut feeling tells me that my one-man-company is at least 397 Macs away from a discount. The odd thing about Dell was that I got the business customer discount even though these were my first two business machines...
BTW, AidenShaw, the T3500 price I mentioned wasn't a quote I got on the phone, it was just a configuration I did online. I can probably get it down from 28k SEK to 25k SEK (10% off), minus Swedish sales tax since I run a business, so that's 20000 SEK = $2420. The Mac Pro would cost 38000 SEK + 3000 SEK for the AppleCare plan = 41000 SEK, minus 25% sales tax (yeah I know, ouch) = 32800 SEK = $3970. So... $2420 vs $3970. Of course I shouldn't buy the 2nd hard disk and the 3 GB additional RAM directly from Apple, so I could go with the default config 2.93 quad + AppleCare for $3630 and buy the rest elsewhere. But it will still end up costing about $1500 more.
We've bought 7 so far, and have gotten significant discounts. We're primarily a Windows/Linux shop. Maybe we got a nice Apple Corporate Sales guy. Maybe you being in Europe means you're getting screwed, which unfortunately happens with Apple, and a lot of other American companies. I'm a guitar player too, and I know you guys get shafted on Mesa Boogie amps too.
Well, it goes both ways. When the $ was down the crapper circa 2004-early 2008 (it's worth 8.26 SEK today, it was up to 13 SEK in Clinton's days, and below 5 SEK about a year ago), some European stuff was ludicrously expensive in the US. But Apple still didn't lower their prices over here. They did however jack up their EU prices the second the dollar started climbing out of the toilet.
Then again Dell is a US based company too, so I don't know why they didn't raise their prices in the EU when Apple did. Could it have something to do with Dell assembling their machines in Ireland? *shrug*I'm not a PC!
I'm 11 and I'm a PC! Then the parent say "I'm NOT"!This is exactly how we parents do it we don't want our 11 year old to have a Mac. For them to have a regular computer for browsing and homework that is compatible with schools is good enough. As they grow older and become more caring with their stuff and more creative. Then Mac is worth giving it to them because we value the amount of money we spend. If it's just a PC who cares if it breaks then I buy him a netbook & PS3 for gaming. At least he still has the windows that is compatible with elementary school projects. P.S. if somebody wants to give me a money to buy PC I will even though I'm a macuser. Free computer who don't want it?
I'm 11 and I'm a PC! Then the parent say "I'm NOT"!This is exactly how we parents do it we don't want our 11 year old to have a Mac. For them to have a regular computer for browsing and homework that is compatible with schools is good enough. As they grow older and become more caring with their stuff and more creative. Then Mac is worth giving it to them because we value the amount of money we spend. If it's just a PC who cares if it breaks then I buy him a netbook & PS3 for gaming. At least he still has the windows that is compatible with elementary school projects. P.S. if somebody wants to give me a money to buy PC I will even though I'm a macuser. Free computer who don't want it?
As I said, depends on the configuration. I'm looking forward to seeing how W7 is when the release version ships.
As I said, depends on what specifically you are running.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to request more ram for my work machine.
How does a company get access to those discounts? I wasn't even aware that such a thing existed.
Value added software that doesn't add any value for me.
I haven't opened iPhoto since 2008.
iMovie, well 2007...Thank you, Microsoft!
For the free advertising for the Mac!
Your ads confirm that Macs are cool, that kids like em, and that they are beautiful.
Microsoft, I think that, in the end, you will regret this campaign because you are actually reinforcing the public consciousness that Macs are a worthy competitor - even though they actually represent a small (no matter how you slice it) portion of the personal computer market.
I hope that at some point apple finds a polite way of saying that mac users are aware that they pay a bit more for the hardware, but it is not the "Apple tax", but rather, it is the "user experience fee!" More fun always costs more.
I pity people who compare/purchase computers by the pound or screen size... yuk.
Mom is definitely an informed shopper... "lets try this brand..."
For the free advertising for the Mac!
Your ads confirm that Macs are cool, that kids like em, and that they are beautiful.
Microsoft, I think that, in the end, you will regret this campaign because you are actually reinforcing the public consciousness that Macs are a worthy competitor - even though they actually represent a small (no matter how you slice it) portion of the personal computer market.
I hope that at some point apple finds a polite way of saying that mac users are aware that they pay a bit more for the hardware, but it is not the "Apple tax", but rather, it is the "user experience fee!" More fun always costs more.
I pity people who compare/purchase computers by the pound or screen size... yuk.
Mom is definitely an informed shopper... "lets try this brand..."
Apple Store, corporate sales, left hand side I believe. Give them a call. Pain in the ass to set up an account, but obviously worth it.
Well, when I bought my first MacBook 2 years ago (other 2 have been replacements provided by Apple due to poor build and repair quality), I had bought into all of the hype about how great OS X is. And how OS X itself will change your life and is so much better than Windows and all of that nonsense.
It wasn't until the honeymoon period was over and OS X had crashed a couple of times did I realize the truth. By then it was well passed the return date.
Not everyone is a student. In fact, few are.
Sorry, but food comparisons always fail. Why? McDonalds became the largest food chain in the world because of quick and cheap food. The majority of food they sell is off their $1 or equivalent menu.
Microsoft's Windows became the dominant OS on products that used to cost $1,000+ and now have an average price of around $650. Comparisons to quality can't be drawn.
I was talking about Apple's LED Cinema Display.
But even with the MacBook, you pay a hefty premium so you deserve something that is at least as good as what you can get on an equally priced PC.
Not really. The Japanese market share doesn't reflect the rest of the world, as Japanese taste in games differs greatly from NA, EU, and other regions taste in games. With the exception of rehashed series like FF (used to be an FF fan.. until FFX), GT5, Resident Evil (let it die already!), games that are popular in Japan rarely see any sort of success outside of Japan these days. Whats popular there doesn't mean squat in the US (largest market) or EU (second largest market).
Again, the point is that Sony removed the feature AFTER proclaiming that the past consoles would live on forever and that backwards compatibility was paramount to their strategy.
And whats wrong with me wanting to play old games a few years down the road? Why shouldn't I be able to pop in my old FF8 disc or Ratchet and Clank Going Commando? Theres no reason I should have to have multiple hardware units around. I should be able to do what Sony said I could do, play old games on new hardware.
All of them. Especially multi-platform games.
Sorry, but I own a Mac and a PC. Getting drivers is much simpler than dealing with a kernel panic in OS X.
Functionality over form and vanity any day.
It's funny how Apple fanboys go on and on about how time is money, then they praise Apple's repair service and how you're "only" without your system for a week or so.
Sorry, but time is money. With a PC you can be up and running the very same day it breaks down
Because, again, Blu-Ray's benefits are visible on ANY high def display. And if you hadn't noticed, people LOVE their movies and want to be able to watch the highest quality ANYWHERE. In fact, if you go over to audio video forums and see people asking what the best portable DVD players are, people say "laptops". I would bet a good amount of money that several million notebook PCs are sold every year just to serve as glorified portable DVD players.
Like I said, I had bought into all the Apple Hype nonsense. That was years ago. That mistake has made me a better and more informed person
But the OS isn't half as good as Vista. I love my iPhone but it gets annoying how it seems like it needs restored every 3 months because the OS becomes unstable. I've had a couple of times lately where the phone app crashes when you try to answer a call. One time I answered a call, the phone app crashed, but I was still able to hold a conversation with the person. But more recently its started crashing while trying to answer calls. It's happened before. A restore will take care of it. But it's annoying how my previous phones, all cheap $40 phones, never had these kinds of issues. Yet the iPhone does.
A unit that previously sold for $1,000.
Sorry, but OS X does not feature full hardware acceleration for video playback. It has a small amount of hardware support for certain features. But it doesn't offer full bitstream decoding like Windows does. Full bitstream decoding is REQUIRED for blu-ray playback. Even the Core 2 Duo in your MacBook Pro would choke on the highest quality video blu-ray has to offer.
Because the material used to make the MagSafe cords breaks down with time. It causes the cords to fray and eventually the exposed wire becomes a fire hazard.
The final nail in my own coffin? Comments like that come from people who know they've lost the debate (just like those "multi-quote posts get ignored) and are trying to look for any way to "win".
Oh and if you think the PS3 doesn't have a high failure rate, I invite you to look over at the official Playstation forums. You'll see that the PS3 has a decent failure rate itself.
But unlike Sony, Microsoft tackled the problem properly. What did Sony do? With the PS1 and PS2 problems, they had to lose MULTIPLE class action lawsuits before they finally started addressing the build quality issues with those units.
Yes, we know it wasn't like that at launch. But again, look how things have changed. Now the Xbox360 supports nearly every original Xbox game. The PS3 currently supports no older games.
Well, if you kept up the way you claim you do, you'd know that MS and Epic made those comments in the sense that it was "only the beginning" of significantly improved visuals for the Xbox360.
Don't forget that Square recently stated that Final Fantasy 13 will use "100%" of the PS3's power.
So we have the PS3 peaking already with a game that looks like a higher resolution version of the previous game, yet the Xbox360 has yet to peak. Again, thats all fine and dandy. But you miss the point that the PS3 DOES NOT support high resolution formats IN REAL TIME.
And only a couple of games on the system support multi-channel audio.
The Xbox360, on the other hand, supports real time Dolby Digital 5.1 on ALL games.
Again, only a very very very small amount of PS3 games actually support multi-channel audio.
Actually, DTS is 1.5Mbps. Dolby Digital and DTS being 24/96 are not part of the standard codecs, but an enhancement.
The PS3 does NOT support Dolby Digital or DTS at 24/96.
And like I said, this is all fine, but the PS3 DOES NOT SUPPORT THESE CODECS IN REAL TIME GAMING. That is the whole POINT. Sure it supports Dolby Digital Plus, DTS, DTS Master HD, and Dolby TruHD, as well as LPCM in blu-ray playback, but NOT in real time gaming.
Theres not even a dozen games on the PS3 that support multi-channel audio.
Real game audio is 16/44.1. The Xbox360 resamples the audio to 16/48 and encodes it in Dolby Digital in real time, for EVERY game, and sends it out to your receiver.
1.5Mbps
And, again, the Xbox360 supports multi-channel audio for EVERY game. Not just a handful.
Which is why I own a proper blu-ray player and proper audio setup. Not a weak game console that doubles as a movie player that has to have standard features added over the course of 3 years to bring it up to par with a standard blu-ray player.
One last thing that any audiophile will tell you:
The master and MIX of the audio matter even more than the playback format. I recently had Starship Troopers on blu-ray sent out to me from Netflix. I own the Superbit DVD. While the video was a bit better (the blu-ray was actually grainier than the DVD), the Dolby TruHD track fell flat compared to the full-rate 1.5Mbps DTS track on the Superbit DVD. The explosions had little bass and there was very little activity in channels other than the center channel. But the full rate DTS track on the Superbit DVD sounds exactly how I remember seeing it in theaters. Explosions that rock the room, full activity out of all speakers, etc.
But thats enough of you two taking this thread off topic
On to the real point. The fact that Apple's computers are overpriced, you don't get what you pay for, and OS X isn't as good as Vista.
Downloaded movies are not Full HD, they are infested with DRM, they take an AGE to download, and damnit, they're expensive given that they have no extras, and these shortcomings - outragously priced for TV series. For many, a couple of HD movies will bust through a monthly download limit from their ISP.
I'd rather have a BR disk ( and lets face it - a disk is not going to bulk out a laptop bag) that I can use in a laptop, then take home and put in a PS3, and then take to a friends place to put in their BR player for their home theatre, enjoy the extras.
Mac's - ESPECIALLY Mac Pros - can no longer pretend to be content creativity platforms without BR drives.
So, it's free but corporations have to pay?
Well, then, guess what? It ain't free.
Thanks, Capt. Obvious, but that's Apple's business model. It makes no sense to critique Apple for things they do differently when it comes from a business model that differs from the rest of the PC world. That's just a circular argument. It's wrong because Apple does it that way and nobody else does. Umm... okay. But explain how it's inherently worse.
And I didn't say anything about MS or Apple being allowed to do anything. They can do what they want. What I said was that it looks bad for the leader in a given market to bash the smaller competitors, and MS is, by far, the leader in the desktop OS market. Don't you think it looks weird for the company with >85% of that market to take shots at a company with less than 10%? I would have the same criticism if Apple started bashing the Zune or the Amazon Music Store or CD sales at WalMart. Likewise, I don't see any issue with MS going after the iPod and iTunes. It just seems whiny and reactionary to me.
i agree on the free mac advertising part.
step one. was the seinfeld one. public ridicule of one of their founders
step two. not understanding the mac ads (in which symbolized computers talk) and making people say i´m a pc (heck i´m neither. but i do use macs)
and step 3 making a sitcom out of people buying computers.
"On to the real point. The fact that Apple's computers are overpriced, you don't get what you pay for, and OS X isn't as good as Vista." i lol´d on that one though have fun with it
step one. was the seinfeld one. public ridicule of one of their founders
step two. not understanding the mac ads (in which symbolized computers talk) and making people say i´m a pc (heck i´m neither. but i do use macs)
and step 3 making a sitcom out of people buying computers.
"On to the real point. The fact that Apple's computers are overpriced, you don't get what you pay for, and OS X isn't as good as Vista." i lol´d on that one though
have fun with it