yea true, it doesnt depend on hardware any more. its all software. eventually hardware will reach a limit and software will become more and more important. just look at the Megahertz myth!
its all about the OS, leopard is the best
yays
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Things you HATE about Macs...
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yea true, it doesnt depend on hardware any more. its all software. eventually hardware will reach a limit and software will become more and more important. just look at the Megahertz myth!
its all about the OS, leopard is the best
yays
Definitely true. However, the registry tends to slow down Windows computers. In 6 months a Mac runs at the same speed that it did when new. In 6 months a PC that has had software installed and removed tends to be sluggish.
I disagree partly. It's definitely true an inexperienced user can make a Windows machine work much slower in a short period of time, especially by installing strange semi-malware websearch plugins, MSN addons and the like. On OS X, chances for this are smaller.
However, purely blaming it on "registry", the OS itself and saying it's unavoidable is incorrect. It mostly depends on the user.
I can say I am an advanced user and if I am careful about a Windows machine, it can stay in pretty good shape. On the other hand, when I got my first Mac a couple of years ago, I was very inexperienced in OS X and managed to bring quite a few problems on me. When I did an erase & install a year after I bought the machine, the speed difference was very noticable.
I'll give you that, but I must point out that it is easier for an advanced user to keep their Mac running quickly than their Windows box. It doesn't take much to muck up a registry. And it certainly doesn't require malware or external search add-ons. It can be something simple like installing a program and then 6 months down the line deleting it because you thought it was too simple to be in the registry and you don't recall it having an installer.
You have to reboot for everything! I have a linux box that's been running almost a year, and I don't have to reboot that every time I install something or update software!!! This is BSD, and there is no good excuse for this bad behavior.
It's that damn quicktime and webkit that is built into everything. I agree it's very annoying that any update that changes anything in quicktime requires a reboot.
Yeah, that's been annoying. They only started requiring the reboots as of Leopard, if I recall correctly.
I just thought of a new one. It's not a beef with Macs themselves, but Safari. When you download something in Safari it goes in the downloads window. If you cancel it and then delete the download from the queue is should delete the little placeholder file that it uses to hold the download information and the temporary data. If I've cleared it from the queue I probably don't want to restart the download so trash the file. If I really want to restart the download (which is never) I'll get it out of the trash.
Also, it would be a nice feature that when I'm option-clicking on a file to download, Safari would at least check the type of file the server is returning, and at most also check the file name. A lot of times a server-side file or javascript will interfere and what I end up downloading is not the same thing I get if I click straight through. If Safari could pop-up a warning about that, I could save myself tons of time when trying to download multiple items from a web page.
And if developers would stop doing that I'd also appreciate it. Downloading a file is not the same thing as hotlinking, and I wonder what configuration would cause a site to think that clicking through to an image is different than downloading the image. If anyone knows anything about that let me know. It seems like it'd be a browser issue moreso than a server-side configuration, though apache is a wonderful and highly feature-ladden webserver. I'd imagine it'd have something to do with a user-agent issue—i.e. clicking through is a real user but downloading through is like a server user. I could be way off. Any help would be appreciated! My web knowledge is pretty deep, but not that deep.
Also, it would be a nice feature that when I'm option-clicking on a file to download, Safari would at least check the type of file the server is returning, and at most also check the file name. A lot of times a server-side file or javascript will interfere and what I end up downloading is not the same thing I get if I click straight through. If Safari could pop-up a warning about that, I could save myself tons of time when trying to download multiple items from a web page.
And if developers would stop doing that I'd also appreciate it. Downloading a file is not the same thing as hotlinking, and I wonder what configuration would cause a site to think that clicking through to an image is different than downloading the image. If anyone knows anything about that let me know. It seems like it'd be a browser issue moreso than a server-side configuration, though apache is a wonderful and highly feature-ladden webserver. I'd imagine it'd have something to do with a user-agent issue—i.e. clicking through is a real user but downloading through is like a server user. I could be way off. Any help would be appreciated! My web knowledge is pretty deep, but not that deep.
I agree with you but at the same time I don't agree with you. Times have changed, computers are NOT only for experienced users to use in secret labs, they are now our everyday appliances. Computers are so common now that it's weird when you run into someone without an email address.
I just hate it when people say, "IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING" Windows can run just fine. If after all these years of advancement in computers that you still have to be an experienced user to maintain the Registry and that complicated Device Manager and all those retarded .DLL files then Microsoft needs to fix Windows.
The majority of todays computer users are NOT experienced computer users and they should not have to know how to do all the required maintenance on Windows and avoid all the nasties on the web because Internet Explorer will catch a worm.
Do you expect your parents or grandparents to do all of this? Would you spend the time teaching them all of this? Probably not.
A Macintosh runs the way a computer SHOULD run. It works for it's user.
Yep, I have 6 monitors, 9920 x 1600. For my workflow, the single menubar isn't too bad--but if the menubar was replicated on every screen, that would be a lot better. Even if it was just part of the menubar. I think there used to be (Mac OS 8/9) a utility that looked at the menubar using the accessibility APIs and did this. Haven't looked for an equivalent.
A single menu bar definitely made sense in the 512 x 384 days.
p.s. I feel that I should add I don't "HATE" this about Macs... it's a little annoying but not the end of the world for me. But only because my main apps are: Terminal, xterm, gvim, Eclipse, and VMware.
If a Macintosh runs the way a computer should and works for its user, then why are there thousands of threads around the Internet about all sorts of Macintosh-related problems?
Don't get blinded by the RDF. Neither Windows or Mac OS X are perfect, and can and do fail to work properly at times.
Kernal panics and login screen loops after software updates.... waiting for my firewire cable to come in so I can do target disk mode to retrieve my data and reinstall everything.
Agreed.
Yes, they both have problems and countless threads devoted to each, but Macs have far less threads and far less problems and it's not due to installed base. A problem on a Mac is rarely the norm. And when considering the original topic of the registry and its effect on speed, the Mac doesn't suffer from that ailment no matter the user.
Agreed. Windows is a nightmare for general users. What usually happens is that owners of Windows laptops and notebooks notice the slowdown and think that it means that it is time to buy a new computer. They don't even realise that the slowdown is caused by all the crap that they install onto it.
A few months ago one of my friends booted up his Windows laptop and it took 7 minutes to boot!
The Mac isn't immune though. I constantly have to sort things out still for my parents. My dad has Parkinsons disease which causes havoc. Despite me disabling the right click on his trackball he still manages to keep telling programs to load at login, so I have to keep clearing out the program startup list. Apple Mail is also causing problems. He keeps accidentally draggin all his different mail folders within one another, or making duplicates of mail boxes etc.
If Apple merely added a 'lock mail box' so that it couldn't be dragged anywhere it would solve a whole load of issues. Therefore usability for people with disabilities still has a long way to go, even though the Mac is a lot better than Windows in this regard.
The Dock is also confusing for some older people and non experienced computer users. It isn't totally clear what minimised windows are for example. To us it is simple, but my dad for example will accidentally minimise a window when he is composing an email. It doesn't occur to him that it is available from the Dock. Instead he starts composing a new email, and so the cycle goes on. I sometimes find a ridiculous number of windows open on his desktop, and he just ends up completely lost as a result.
Simple Mode is a good idea, but it still needs a few tweaks before it is truly 'simple'.
The user does NOT need to maintain their registry and .dll files. Really, even the most advanced users don't touch these any more often than you manually edit .plist files in Mac OS X. As far as the device manager is concerned, it's really come down to being a pretty user-friendly tool for hardware management. It's just a list where you can remove or install drivers for a certain device in your machine...
Anyway, I wasn't talking about this kind of "knowing what you're doing". When I go fix my friends' Windows boxes, most of the time they have problems with malware, adware and similar bad stuff that slows their machines down. Unfortunately it takes a smart user to avoid this kind of software - this is the "know what you're doing" I meant.
There is very little of this kind of software on Macs, but the fact is it's because of their numbers (here in Europe, they're miniscule). I'm not trying to get into the "OS X isn't more secure, it's less popular" argument, it's true a Windows worm that requires no user interaction comes by every now and then, but these don't cause most of the problems. In my experience people install stuff they shouldn't by themselves 90% of the time. You download a piece of software and install it - whoops, it came with bundled adware. A friend gives you a link on MSN, you click it, download an executable and run it - you get malware. You download a COOL smiley pack for your IM client - it gives you a trojan.
There is absolutely no way this can be prevented by OS creators - you can't prevent the user from executing something if he wants to. UAC in Vista dims your screen and pops up a warning "This might be bad, you sure you want to run it?" - people still say YES.
So yeah, if you took 100 dumb users, gave half of them Macs and half PCs, the PC ones would end up with MUCH more problems and slowdowns after some time - not because of poor security, but because they are all PEBKAC cases. If OS X would be as dominating as Windows, I am convinced it would be the other way around.
The Things I hate about Apple Products
Honestly the price's
Biggest thing I HATE is all the whiners and cry babys that come on here and bitch and moan about this and that and there brand new this and that.
If its brand new and you have a problem, TAKE IT BACK TO THE STORE and bitch and moan to them. For the life of me why someone would spend thousands of dollars and come here and bash the product and service has me awestruck at times.
Do not get me wrong asking questions and a vent or two is great, but some people do NOT know when to give it a rest.
Have a great weekend to all
Honestly the price's
Biggest thing I HATE is all the whiners and cry babys that come on here and bitch and moan about this and that and there brand new this and that.
If its brand new and you have a problem, TAKE IT BACK TO THE STORE and bitch and moan to them. For the life of me why someone would spend thousands of dollars and come here and bash the product and service has me awestruck at times.
Do not get me wrong asking questions and a vent or two is great, but some people do NOT know when to give it a rest.
Have a great weekend to all
Msn
I LOVE macs, I really do and I have a lot of reasons, but what really bothers me is that there is no true windows live messenger!!! I use Messenger a lot, and mac version is truly disappointing! No video, no tabbed conversations, not the same GUI, no offline messages, no nothing!! I know there are other chat clients, but to be honest, none as good. I just wish they'd gave us windows live msn for mac
I LOVE macs, I really do and I have a lot of reasons, but what really bothers me is that there is no true windows live messenger!!! I use Messenger a lot, and mac version is truly disappointing! No video, no tabbed conversations, not the same GUI, no offline messages, no nothing!! I know there are other chat clients, but to be honest, none as good. I just wish they'd gave us windows live msn for mac
I LOVE macs, I really do and I have a lot of reasons, but what really bothers me is that there is no true windows live messenger!!! I use Messenger a lot, and mac version is truly disappointing! No video, no tabbed conversations, not the same GUI, no offline messages, no nothing!! I know there are other chat clients, but to be honest, none as good. I just wish they'd gave us windows live msn for mac
this "they" you speak of is Microsoft. This isn't a Mac issue...
I believe this will change in 2009. Microsoft is going to bring Video and audio chat on Windows Messenger for Mac. Of course I do not expect them to make the Mac version on par with the windows one...This won't happen.
That's because Vista asks a similar question for everything when you first start using it (one of my old work computers came installed with that crap) so you eventually stop reading it's message and click through as fast as you can.
I'm mostly joking here.That may be, but I have my doubts. OS X is still based on UNIX, and so are all of the variants of Linux. Most virus programmers use Linux. Even though the systems are different, it would be unwise to write viruses for operating systems so similar to your ownat least that's my opinion.
I'm not sure why anyone uses Messenger anyway. I never liked it, so I don't see what's so special about it. I always used AIM, because most programs on most systems could use AIM. To me, it was the most universal.
But then again, I've stopped using IM software anyway. It really kills productivity—although it did make me a much faster typist! I have enough things drawing my attention every which way while I sit at the computer—like this forum for example.
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