The Mac Mystique

[MorganX]

Despite some shortcomings, the Mac and OS X are growing on me. So much so, I no longer have a PC at home.

This will be the first time in over 13 years I have not had an Intel-PC in my home.

I'm still analyzing how it's managing to grow on me with all the little things I am missing, but once I got a two-button mouse, I find computing much more enjoyable on the Mac. There are times when I miss the speed, such as when iTunes starts to slow down (450) songs, but the usability iTunes and the iMac have added to my iPod far outweigh it. Managing playlists and smart playlists are almost like having a new iPod.

Jury is still out on the Mac-only software I'm giving a shot, but it looks real promising.

Since I haven't held back on bitching, I thought I'd post a little well deserved praise.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

I take it you have a 1 gig imac how does it compare with a 2.4 p4 ? And yes Mac software rules but we all new that!

 

[nuckinfutz]

MorganX

We've all cursed our Macs before. But I think most of us here realize that Apple really is trying to make a computer for "the rest of us".

I have PC's and I have my Macs and I will remain cross platform for some time to come but I will always look to do my creative stuff on the Mac. At times I feel like the control of my PC is taken a bit too often.

Apple has some good stuff coming. Now is a great time to be checking out Apple and the Mac.

 

[DHagan4755]

I have had fleeting moments of frustration with the Mac.

In an effort to be totally cross platform, I added a Dell to my roster to go along with my PowerBook G4. I had the Dell this time a year ago -- a Dimension 4300 Pentium 4 1.5 GHz. While I would be remiss in saying it was a great computer, it just wasn't "me." Windows XP was the proverbal snappy OS that everyone says it is, but it was just a cold mechanical experience compared to the Mac side of things. I confess I liked XP. But the Mac just worked better for me. So I sold the Dell.

I may go back to a Dell tower or laptop in the future, but for now I'm staying put in complete and unadulterated Mac-land. As I say to my co-workers from time-to-time, the Dell/Windows XP would be a great computer if the Mac and OS X wasn't so much better.

 

[macphoria]

Apple products simply makes it easier for you to do things on a computer. PCs might give you broader options but at the end of the day, it is efficiency and ease of use that matters when it comes to using a machine.

 

[RandomDeadHead]

iTunes

There are times when I miss the speed, such as when iTunes starts to slow down (450) songs

iTunes slows down on a new 1ghz iMac? With ONLY 450 songs? That sounds very strange. I Have been trying to convert my GIANT collection of Grateful Dead to mp3 for over 2 years. I have somehow managed to get about a tenth converted in that time. I've got around 32 gigs (3409 songs) on my 700 mhz fp iMac at home, and iTunes does not slow down at all for me. It just seams strange that your 1ghz iMac chokes on 450 songs and my 700mhz iMac handles 3400 with ease.

Mabe my iMac likes the Dead as much as I do.

 

[MorganX]

Re: iTunes

Originally posted by RandomDeadHead
iTunes slows down on a new 1ghz iMac? With ONLY 450 songs? That sounds very strange. I Have been trying to convert my GIANT collection of Grateful Dead to mp3 for over 2 years. I have somehow managed to get about a tenth converted in that time. I've got around 32 gigs (3409 songs) on my 700 mhz fp iMac at home, and iTunes does not slow down at all for me. It just seams strange that your 1ghz iMac chokes on 450 songs and my 700mhz iMac handles 3400 with ease.

Mabe my iMac likes the Dead as much as I do.

I can't imagine what would happen if I used that many. I'm not running much third-party background stuff, the only thing I've added is Norton Antivirus.

Scrolling is very slow, and it can take up to two seconds for a cursor when I click in a column to edit. This is of course with a song playing. Now, ripping is as fast as any PC, maybe a tad faster.

Aside fromt that it's great. Makes playlists much more functional and meaningful.

 

[MorganX]

Originally posted by Dont Hurt Me
I take it you have a 1 gig imac how does it compare with a 2.4 p4 ? And yes Mac software rules but we all new that!

I'm not going to make a direct comparison of the CPUs other than to say PCs are faster, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. In defense of the G4 I will say it is consistent and has great stamina, maintaining constant performance while multitasking more often than the PC.

But for what I'm doing on my home PC, I can say I'm being more productive the majority of the time.

The only time I'd say I've noticed the performance difference is editing some 100MB MPEGs I have and converting video. Here my PC was about twice as fast. But that's OK, that's not what this machine is for. I do miss some shortcuts. I still hit WindowsKey-R when I want to type and jump to a web site address, only to hear the Funk sound and have to switch to Safari and then go to the address bar or find the bookmark.

I'd give both Windows XP and OS X an 8/10 with XP maxed out without major change. OS X with some minor updates and applicaiton optimizations could easily be a 10. I would give it a 9 now if not for the font aliasing issues and if Safari was not still in beta.

 

[RandomDeadHead]

I just thought of something, I have my iTunes collection on an external 7200 rpm firewire hard drive that is faster than the ones in the iMac's. I bet that is why mine handles them better. I dont have any mp3 on my PM's at the office so I cant test how well they do. But I bet you a nickle thats the difference.

 

[MorganX]

Originally posted by RandomDeadHead
I just thought of something, I have my iTunes collection on an external 7200 rpm firewire hard drive that is faster than the ones in the iMac's. I bet that is why mine handles them better. I dont have any mp3 on my PM's at the office so I cant test how well they do. But I bet you a nickle thats the difference.

Even with Windows I prefer to have a separate data/application drive. I'm looking at the ICE Warrior firewire external.

 

[khollister]

First, I would get Norton Antivirus off of your machine ASAP. The Norton utilities for OS X are nothing but trouble. In fact, I would bet that it may be the issue with iTunes.

Second, I had over 1500 songs on my 700MHz FP iMac with no performance issues at all (using the internal 5400 RPM drive). I currently have about 4700 on my 1.25 PM - absolutely no problems. You have something seriously pranged there. Get Norton off & repair permissions via Disk Utility.

 

[hacurio1]

Originally posted by MorganX
Even with Windows I prefer to have a separate data/application drive. I'm looking at the ICE Warrior firewire external.

I agree......The HD can't be your problem, but there is something wrong with your machine. I have a huge libary and my old DP 500 hadles it like a charm. I have 4 Drives, 2 are in a Ultra ATA 133 RAID, and the other two are conected to the old and slow Ultra ATA 66 Bus. My 30+ Gb libary is on one of the drives conected to the slow ATA 66 bus, and it's a 5400 Rpm 40Gb HD. I have no idea what is your problem, but there has to be an explenation!