Can you remove my hesitation?
Archives Forums/MacOS X Discussion/Can you remove my hesitation?
| ||
| Hi there; Until now I've always been using Windows. And not that I'm happy with it. Far from it. I've tried Linux as an alternative, but, that really didn't work out for me. What tied me most to Windows is only the fact that I need a windows based programming language to be sure I can get a lot of people to use my stuff, and the fact that buying a new computer costs me more than I can afford, so if I buy one I must be sure I make a good purchase. For years I've been considering to buy a Mac, but the two reasons above always kept me from doing it. Now that BlitzMax appears to take one of those reasons away (if I understood all the info well), but now the costs. My most irritating point is the speed. Windows computers are extremely fast when just out of the store, but get slower and slower as you use them more and more. When I turn on my PC I can always eat lunch before I can actually get on my work, and shutting Windows down takes even longer. Is that also a problem on the Mac or will buying a Mac get me rid of that problem? Another point is, I've a few external devices (USB connection). If I understood it well, I can still use them on the Mac. And last but not least. XP didn't crash on me as much as 95 or 98, but still it crashes a lot. Does the Mac really do a better job, as much people always say. See, all the people I know having a Mac are not exactly "experts". Far from it, so I need judgement from people who know what they are talking about. |
| ||
| One thing you should do with a Windows installation is reinstall often for an optimal system. I do it every 3 months and it runs extremely well. Before you decide, you can at least try that. I just made a webserver from a 800mhz intel board with 400mb ram and even that runs fast on a newly installed system ^^ |
| ||
| Yeah, I know that trick, but in my country computers with Windows XP installed do not come with a Windows-CD-ROM, so re-installing is out of the question, unless I spend my money on a Windows XP-CD-ROM (I'm not fond to get that kind of stuff through the illegal channels, I've seen too much misary coming from that on other people's machines). So if I had a CD-ROM I would definately try that. Thanks for the advice anyway... |
| ||
| Well Mac's don't get slow if you treat them well ;). Mac OS X doesn't crash often. In fact I'm working with Mac OS X for about four years now and I don't know what the Mac equivalent is for a Blue screen. Sure, the Finder crashed once and Safari a couple of times but that's it. It doesn't occur much and it never affected the OS or any other applications. Nicolas. |
| ||
| I recently switched from Windows to a Mac Mini and I love it. The machine is dirt cheap. It is not a speed demon but it has handled everything I've needed it to do so far. I love the OS, except I'm so used to the Windows Explorer that the finder window gets a bit annoying now and then. |
| ||
| I am a Windows person and dislike Macs so my views are biased, but we do use Macs at work alongside PCs and a PC based network. Professionally speaking, Macs on a PC based network are not up to the task. They are uncooperative out of the box and tweaking them to work (particularly wireless networking on powerbooks) generally requires configuring the network to not use encryption, ie just plain text - so in short, Macs on a PC based network generally requires the network to be unsecure. OSX is completely incompatible with Active Directory (whereas OS9 was!). Silly off topic networking issues aside, my experience with Macs in general use (which includes very old G3s up to high powered G5s), is that they are slow, glitchy and when doing anything remotely network or internet related (mostly in the Finder and some System Panel apps) completely unresponsive. My experience is with OS 10.3.8, as 10.3.9 and 10.4 break most of the programs we use at work. But there have been too many times where for no reason at all an app becomes unresponsive or stalls with the rainbow pointer for an unreasable amount of time - and depending on the program a force quit will render the rest of the OS unstable until a reboot. |
| ||
| I see... Thank you for your quick responses, everyone. Mac OS X doesn't crash often. In fact I'm working with Mac OS X for about four years now and I don't know what the Mac equivalent is for a Blue screen. Really... After having used Windows for 10 years, such a thing is hard to believe. And on Hotcakes comment: I guess not everybody has the same experiences with stuff. When it comes to networks. On the place where I live I have no own phone lines or cable connections. All private computers are connected to a router which gives the internet, and that's all I know about it. So I do not know how a Mac would fit in that. There's a lot I know about computers and programming in general, but I'm a dummy when it comes to the network part of it. A section that never got my full understanding  About the general comments. I've had those problems alot myself in Windows, and heard a lot of people saying that stuff about Windows. It's the first time I hear somebody say that about a Mac. I guess it's not as perfect as people always suggested then. Of course, I trust that those are really your experiences, and I'll take that into consideration. I still have time before I make a decission. First I need to figure out how much a Mac costs in the Netherlands, because I don't have a clue about that. And then I've to save up some money I guess, so I still have time before I make the final decission. I've hopped to the Mac site a few minutes ago. Of course what they say there is only the goods an never the bads, but I was hoping to get some general view. One thing I'm curious about. I have a portable harddisk I often use as well at home as at work. At work it uses Windows. If I understood it well, it should be no problem if I buy a Mac and keep using that harddisk on as well my work Windows PC and on my Mac. Right? (It's a 80 gig, USB/Firewire harddisk box, Windows formatted if you need that info for your answer). |
| ||
| ...Networking, Active Directory and a Mac is no problem at all... I don't know why you said that Hotcakes. I can't say for sure but your hard drive will probably work. So you are from the Netherlands eh? Je zult er van houden om met een Mac te werken! Nicolas. |
| ||
| When I right click on my Mac, it takes about a half a minute to bring up the context menu. Needless to say, I won't be using it for a desktop system. |
| ||
| How much memory's it got, Noel? Popular consensus is that you need 512MB minimum for OS X. |
| ||
| I own three computers - the first two I built myself. Machine 1 is a Pentium 4 beast with X800 graphics and the works, based on Windows XP PRO it works well, never seen the blue screen on this one yet but various programs crash occasionally. Machine 2 is a Sempron based general purpose box using Ubuntu Linux which is great and FREE! Ubuntu never crashes but I dont fully understand the Linux OS and when things dont work as they should I get really frustrated trying to sort them out. Machine 3 is a MAC Powerbook 15" with OS X Tiger, the powerbook is by far my favourite machine, well designed and built to last it screams quality. OS X is foolproof and so far has been fail proof too, it does everything I want and is quite snappy. All machines access the net via a wireless connection and share a printer and files without problems. So to anyone thinking of buying a mac I would definitely recommend it but buy the best one you can afford becuase upgrading the machines later can be expensive. |
| ||
| I own a mac mini now and I'm happy with it. Crashs are very rare and it does all things as fast as I need it to be. I noticed a minor slowdown after I installed and deleted a lot of files, but it works well again after I optimize my harddisk. I got 512 Mb of RAM, and my context-menus pop up in no time... I don't know what Noel's problem may be. I also love Exposé, it's a great feature to work efficient. I get no problems when I copy things from my usb stick between the windows PC and the mac, and the mac also reads pc-cds without problems. I assume that a harddisk should work fine, too. :-) I'm using a router to connect 2 macs and one pc to the internet, and everything works fine. (yes, the mac is a pc too, but most people think of windows when they hear pc ;-) Blitzmax runs fast on my system, and I even can play new games with this machine (like sims 2, for example, although the graphic details aren't set very high). I hope I could help you. -ibd |
| ||
| 1.5gb, James. |
| ||
| I've finally found a store that sells Macs in my environment (man, they are rare), but that store did take a lot of time to show me the Mac system. I found out that the system works diffrent than Windows (more than I expected), but overall not bad. In fact a few things did really amaze me (like the extremely fast way of finding files). The storekeeper told me that a possibility is to buy a Mini Mac first to get used to the new OS and find out if it's really the system for me, and to switch to a bigger system if it appears to work out. Tell me guys, would that be wise? |
| ||
| If you are serious to switch to a Mac I think you should consider an iMac. Yes the OS is very different but hey that's what it makes it so great. Sure you have to get used to it but Exposé, Dashboard, Spotlight,... are just so fun to work with. Nicolas. |
| ||
| iMac, eh? That was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. I once had to buy the cheapest computer out of the fact that my ex-girl-friend stole a lot of money from me, and I got nothing but trouble with it (but now I wonder where the true problem lies. Is it the fact that it was a low-budget-PC of the fact that it was run by Windows?) Of course I won't say that mini-Mac would come up with the same concequences, but I've always been skeptic about cheap stuff. A few bad experiences with cheap devices in general will do that. That's why I asked if the step to mini Mac in order to try things out and switch over to a iMac would be a good idea. I mean trying things out you're unfamiliar with for a low price is great, but paying twice while you could do it once is in the end a lot more expensive. I hope you understand why this is a hard decision for me. Giving up an OS you're used to for something unknown does come with doubts, even when the familiar OS is nothing but trouble. But I think my mind is most of all clear. Oh yeah, the shopkeeper told me that lots of times very old Macs can even run the neweswt software (which is in Windows totally out of the question). Is that true? |
| ||
| "Oh yeah, the shopkeeper told me that lots of times very old Macs can even run the neweswt software (which is in Windows totally out of the question). Is that true?" It depends what you mean with "very old" and "newest software". A macintosh computer from 2001-2002 should run the newest OS (10.4, also called "tiger") without problems, but don't expect wonders in performance. Most new software runs on old computers, but the most important part is that you need a new Mac OS, which generally runs fine on older hardware. But it also works vice-versa, and I even can play a 13 years old tetris game on the newest mac os! A mac mini is a good decision if you already got a usb keyboard and mouse (and yes, the mac works perfectly with a 2-button mouse ;-). An iMac is not bad but a bit too much for "just trying", IMHO. |
| ||
| Oh, it's not that I'm about to buy a used one. I never buy used computers, so I wasn't planning to do this time. But it could be interesting. They told me that a Mac wouldn't require to buy a new machine every 2 or 3 years (like a Windows system does). So that was what I was curious about. A mac mini is a good decision if you already got a usb keyboard and mouse (and yes, the mac works perfectly with a 2-button mouse ;-). An iMac is not bad but a bit too much for "just trying", IMHO. I see. Well, I'll think the choice between Mini or iMac over. I do not have a USB keyboard, and my mouse also doesn't appear to be USB (I bought it before I bought my first USB compatible machine, and when I bought a USB system, I didn't buy new stuff since I didn't need it back then). Well... keyboard and mouse do not need to be very expensive, but I also have the purchase of a new monitor in consideration (my current one sucks), but as far as I know my Windows Monitor (even though it sucks) can be connected to a Mac Mini without trouble (at least not more than I already have), so maybe that's not the big hurry, but you can understand, if I already have to throw away a lot of money, I want to do it right. A new monitor and a Mac Mini cost almost as much as buying an iMac (which is already a monitor by itself). Hard choice. (I hope I'm not getting annoying). |
| ||
| i'd say hold off with the mini, they are a little underpowered in the graphics area for tiger, and as such the mini cant cope with all of the new core image stuff that tiger does. the new imacs are class machines, and not over priced especially considering the software that is bundled free with the computer. cheers charlie |
| ||
| You said it yourself. A Mac Mini + monitor, keyboard and mouse cost the same as an iMac. I would go for the iMac. Nicolas. |
| ||
| i'd say hold off with the mini, they are a little underpowered in the graphics area for tiger, and as such the mini cant cope with all of the new core image stuff that tiger does. the new imacs are class machines, and not over priced especially considering the software that is bundled free with the computer. The term "Tiger" doesn't make much sense to me. I were to understand that it's a successor of an older system named "Panther", and that's all I know about that. That a mini would be underpowered was my expection already, they had to be so cheap for a reason, but I simply had to put everything in order, because I'm not blessed with a large budget, so I had to take this recommendation in consideration. You said it yourself. A Mac Mini + monitor, keyboard and mouse cost the same as an iMac. I would go for the iMac. My thought exactly. And with that I think my mind is made up. Now I first need to get rid of some high bills (some official stuff, so I really can't refuse to pay), and then check how much I have. Thank you all very much for your advises. They were all pretty helpful. I've also been checking for good software alternatives (Not all my windows software has a Mac equivelent), and fortunately of most of it had pages full of Mac alternatives, so nothing to worry about there. |
| ||
| Yes Tiger (10.4) is the successor to Panther (10.3). Every year/year an a half Apple releases a mayor update to it's OS. Sometimes it's frightening to see how much is changed. If you have trouble finding a Mac equivalent of any application, just ask. Nicolas. |
| ||
| Well, finding equivalents is one. But which are the good ones? GoldWave is only for Windows. Which program can I use best as a Mac equivalent? I got a list of over hundreds of programs. Which do you recommend. (I think that you already guessed that GoldWave is for recording and processing WAVE files). And Graphic WorkShop. Hard to find alternatives for that. At least I found a program to convert graphic formats (like .PCX to .PNG for example), and that's the feature of GWS I use most. Well, I use CuteFTP to update my [a href=http://www.tbbs.nl]TBBS site[/a], but I found out that there's a Mac version of that, so no problem there. Something I have not been looking for yet, but will do soon (but goddamn hard to find). Are there good MOD Editors and players, you know FastTracker, UltraTracker and that sort of stuff? |
| ||
| Never heard of ColdWave but when I need something to record an edit wave files I use Audacity. It's a free and open-source. To convert my graphic files I use Graphic Converter or I just use the Preview application in Mac OS X. To upload my files I use Cyberduck. Nicolas. |
| ||
| Thanks a lot. Now I still need to look for a good MODplayer/Editor. Oh well, there must be some around |
| ||
| TRICK- My 2p is..... STICK WITH PC/WINDOWS - I've tried Linux and own a Mac with OSX, and they have some nice features, but for support (especially on the net) and compatibility, it has to be Windows/PC. A lot of USB stuff works with the MAC, but I couldn't get joysticks working in OSX and a lot of wireless routers don't have software support on the Mac. |
| ||
| I see. Compatibility? Point is that MicroSoft disobbeyed the rules, but since they are the one with the biggest markets, others took over their rules. It is indeed really a problem. But overall, I won't stick with Windows if I don't need to. Nothing but trouble came to me since the first day it was used. I'm just dead sick of that. I know that since MicroSoft made their own rules (which other companies followed without question) compatibility problems can occur. Personally, I don't see much problem for the things I need to deal with, but thanks for the warning anyway. No OS is perfect I suppose! |
| ||
| ...Networking, Active Directory and a Mac is no problem at all... I don't know why you said that Hotcakes. Because like I said, that has been my experience =] Altho if you can tell us the name of some software that can get OSX to connect to a domain, that would be greatly appreciated. We know of no such stuff... Windows XP PRO it works well, never seen the blue screen Ever had your computer reset for no reason? That's very likely to have been a blue screen - they are switched off by default in WXP... System Preferences-->Advanced-->Startup and Recovery-->Uncheck Automatically restart ;] In fact I'm working with Mac OS X for about four years now and I don't know what the Mac equivalent is for a Blue screen. Now I think of it, I believe reading that the kernel panic for OSX is boring black with white text screen. They got rid of the bomb... and yes, kernel panics are rare, due in no small part to the small range of available hardware... No OS is perfect I suppose! It's a question of the lesser of evils ;] |
| ||
| Falken. Be sure to get a router that is WiFi certified (most of them are). As for joysticks... yes this is a problem. Hotcakes. Check the bottom of this page. Then select Help from the Finder and search for Active Directory. Also when you are searching for Mac software be sure to look at the right places. For example I want The Sims 2 for Mac. Don't look at the EA website because they don't mention anything about a Mac version! Look at the Aspyr website. Nicolas. |
| ||
| I just picked up a Mac Mini for my wife as her XP machine always seems to be broken. The Mac Mini was a disaster out fo the box... constant crashing and slow performance, even being unable to play a simple solitaire game I downloaded for her off the Internet. The problem is that it only comes with 256MB which is not even close to being adequate to run OSX 10.4 and if you don't have enough RAM, OSX is a swap-file pig. You couple that with the Mini's slow hard drive and you've got real problems. The first thing you have to do is upgrade to 512MB which will involved using a couple of putty knives to pry the "tamper-proof" case apart. It can be done but takes patience. Once you do the upgrade, the machine runs like a champ. I have the 1.42GHz version and it really is a great machine... that is after it has been upgraded. Keep in mind that the Mini is picky about the type of RAM you use, so be sure it will work otherwise you may only get 512MB usable from a 1GB stick... another lesson I learned the hard way. Another problem was with Wi-Fi and nto being able to find a USB Wi-Fi card with Mac drivers. I finally ended up going with one of those Game console Wi-Fi adapters and just plugging the Ethernet out of the mini directly into that. It works pretty well and supports B/G, WEP, etc. OSX is a sweet OS.. no doubt. Software availability will keep me from switching over but the OS itself is pretty nice. Good Luck! |
| ||
| "Now I still need to look for a good MODplayer/Editor. Oh well, there must be some around." The only good MODplayer/editor is PlayerPRO: http://epix.mac.tucows.com/files/playerpro.sit Unfortanely, I'm not sure if it is compatible with Tiger (Mac OS 10.4, the one that ships with every new mac). It only says "OS X" and has not been supported for a while. I understand that some of you have crashes with their brand new mac, and that is most likely because of the brand new OS. It's a bit annoying but Apple tends to release new versions too early. I'm using the last update of 10.3 (10.3.9), and it works perfectly fine without any crashes. edit: Some good software sites: www.versiontracker.com (I prefer macupdate) www.macupdate.com www.pure-mac.com (not a lot software, but well organised and also for older macs) |
| ||
| It's a bit annoying but Apple tends to release new versions too early. Wow, and I always thought that MicroSoft and Intel had patent to that error.  Well, as far as I can read, Apple at least knows not to let that crush the entire future of the system (Something I cannot say about MicroSoft. How many "impurities" is has from wounds from the past, is hard to count).  As for the Mini, I've already decided not to buy a mini, but to go for iMac instead. And thanks for the links.  |
| ||
| ... but to go for an iMac instead. Good decision! Nicolas. |
| ||
| Okay, the decission has been made, as well as the order. I was hoping I could use a Mac to type this message, but it'll take awhile to get the Mac into my work-room. According to my dealer, Apple is a bit backlogged in orders, which could mean it can take awhile before I can come and get my Mac, but when I'm lucky I may have next week. Anyway, my machine is on the way. Thank you very much for your helpful posts. |
| ||
| Yeah, I know that trick, but in my country computers with Windows XP installed do not come with a Windows-CD-ROM Eh, Tri, I'm from the Netherlands too, and running XP on two machines (a Highscreen pc and a Dell laptop). The Highscreen pc has a Recovery-CD to reinstall XP (on that machine only, not on others) and the Dell laptop has an option to burn a XP Recovery-CD (again, for that machine only). |
| ||
| I recently switched from a PC to a Mac (spec below) and I've been VERY happy with my decision. Without a doubt the best "out of the box" experience I've ever had with new tech. Up an running, including net connection and networking (3 home PCs) in less that 5 minutes. It took a couple of days to find my way around a slightly different keyboard layout and different keyboard shortcuts but I've not regretted a single penny of the money I spent. |
| ||
| Toby Zuydveld, I have exactly the opposite experience. Connecting to PC networks is painless and worked out of the box. Also, I think Macs are not slow at all, although I think a G5 is the minimal if you want a new Mac. Unresponsive Internet? Huh? Works like a charm! |
| ||
| @GitTech Raar! That's the only word I can say about it, but since you're Dutch like me, I guess you understand. I don't have such a CD, and burning CD-ROMs is out of the question for me. My CD-burner never worked. It was broken when I bought it, and my dealer refused to fix it, because it was a "software problem in windows" and they don't fix that. Later on, I discovered that it was really the device itself and not windows, but then the guarantee period was expired. Maybe it's obvious that I'm not really tempted to buy anything from that store again. I'll search for such an option in my system, but I've bad hope.... @RiK Well, I'll see for myself, but I've good hopes. I think the first days I'll also have a little trouble with the new keyboard, shortcuts and a few system changes, but as I've seen the basics demonstrated already I don't expect real trouble in that. Toby Zuydveld, I have exactly the opposite experience. Connecting to PC networks is painless and worked out of the box. My Mac dealer told me that if MACs appear to be a pain in a Windows Network, that it's mostly not the MAC itself but Windows rejecting the MAC, not the other way around. But who am I to be sure about that. I know very little about networking (that's my biggest flaw when it comes to operating computers) |
| ||
| that it's mostly not the MAC itself but Windows rejecting the MAC, not the other way around. That's been my experience. Usually have to lower or remove security protocols on the windows-based network in order to get Macs to connect, esp to our wireless network. This is because the Macs don't support the level of encryption we had set up, or it did 'support' it but didn't actually work. That AD stuff in Tiger look promising. But it hasn't been there since 10.0... havn't been checking with every new release. btw, thanks, Nicolas. Unresponsive Internet? Not just internet. Net in general. iDisk springs to mind. Try accessing it under the Finder and then trying to stop it before it connects. I've also tried salvaging a number of old powerbooks via firewire/targetted (is that what it's called?) mode... An unresponsive/slow/problematic powerbook can clog up Disk Utility on the host machine pretty easily. Anyways, none of this has to do with anything Tric will ever be using it for =] |
| ||
| I've taken my mac in use today. I still gotta get used to the new keyboard layout, but my first experiences were fine :) Anyways, none of this has to do with anything Tric will ever be using it for =] I guess so ^_^ |
| ||
| Good to hear. Could you get Blitzmax to work already? :-) Oh, and if you're using the apple one-button mouse: ctrl+click simulates the right mouse click! ;-) |
| ||
| Yup, I've even continued a project I started on Windows in there. Got only one problem with BMX because I didn't know about the LittleEndian thing, but that's solved. The only serious problem is that the Mac deems my portable Hard Drive as Read-Only, and I cannot change that. As long as my projects are small that's not the biggest of problems, but when the projects get big (like my Fairy Tale Project of which the developer version is over 1GB, the user version is a lot smaller) you can understand that it may become a problem. That's the only true thing I need to find a solution for. |
| ||
| The only serious problem is that the Mac deems my portable Hard Drive as Read-Only, and I cannot change that. Most likely this is because your drive is formatted as "NTFS", the default file system for Windows 2000 and XP. Mac OS X can only read from NTFS-formatted drives. The only way to fix it (without losing all of your data!) would be to copy everything over to another disk, format the external disk using HFS+ (or FAT32 if you want to use it in Windows), then move everything back over. The "Disk Utility" application should come in handy for this. |
| ||
| Yeah, somebody else also gave me that advise, and it's already done. I must say that I found it pretty ironical that I couldn't use windows to create a FAT32 partition. I needed my mac to create that partition. (In my Windows XP version the good old FDISK wasn't included). Anyway, I can now read-write on that thing on my Mac. And I could also finally get the internet working (this is my first post here using a mac), but that it didn't work wasn't a flaw in the mac, but in the router connection. (It still doesn't work, I'm now using the connnection of my GF's laptop). |
| ||
| To upload my files I use Cyberduck. About Cyberduck. I've been willing to try that stuff, but I'm not quite sure if I got the utils to compile it. |
| ||
| You don't have to compile it! Use a binary instead. Cyberduck on VersionTracker.com Nicolas. |
| ||
| (In my Windows XP version the good old FDISK wasn't included). Umm... the standard Format right-click command gives you the option. |
| ||
| Did anyone happen to mention that Apple is switching to Intel processors next year, and that that could have a significant impact on things such as compatibility, software availability and speed? As far as reliability is concerned, I'll say that WinXP is the best of MS's OSes yet...but still not that great. I'm amazed at how we accept the fact that we should 're-install the OS every three months or so'...as though this is a normal thing. Unless you've really screwed something up, there should NEVER be a reason to re-install Windows. That's simply ridiculous, and MS should be EMBARRASSED about it, as well as actually making it possible for a 3 ghz system to take 30 seconds or longer to START loading a program, even when there's plenty of ram, hd space, etc (and the fact that the HD access light is not even blinking makes me wonder what XP could POSSIBLY be doing for all that time!). I hear that the registry is to blame, but that sounds pretty lame. At 3 billion cycles\second, it should not take more than a millisec to sort things out and continue (indeed, a millisecond is like a hundred years to such a system). So, MS, get your s**t together before you embarrass yourself some more! Even my (admittedly slow by today's standards) 33mhz Amiga didn't have many of XP's problems. I don't recall AmigaDos ever coming to a crawl like this. And installation of driver software just simply worked (XP is about 30%-50% in my experience) Russell |
| ||
| I recently upgraded by Powerbook G4 1.5ghz (12"). Now it has 1.25gb instead of 512mb. The difference is huge. MacOS is not really memory hungry perse, but it does use all the memory it can access to speed up things. So, I recommend 1gb at least for your Mac. Besides that, I am really happy with the Mac platform. The only thing that sucks is the fact I also have a PC, and I have to sync data all the time (for web development). But then again, I also would have that problem with a second PC (but not the reconfiguring of PHP scripts). Windows Vista rips off MacOSX on a lot of fronts. A shame that this company doesnt innovate but uses Apple as a cheap Research & Development company! |
| ||
| I've been using my Mac for quite awhile now. Can't get on the internet (but that is not my Mac in error but the fact that I'm connected to a central router which crashes all the time until it completely gave up. Since that router is not mine and the only way for me to get internet in the place where I live that problem is beyond me, oh, and I'm using my dad's pc to type this message). So since the only problem is beyond my Mac (if I were using Windows or Linux I'd have the same problem), I can't take that in my judgement. For the rest. There's a list of 10 reasons to buy a mac. Reason #1 was "It just works". (It's really put on Apple's homepage). Shouldn't go without saying. Shouldn't that be normal. Thanks to Bill Gates that would make a Mac really exceptional. But until now it's true. My Mac does "just work". And fast. I mean, with Windows I could get out of bed, not dressed pressing the damn thing on. Take a shower. Fix myself a can o' coffee, have a breakfast. Read the paper and after that if I'm really lucky (which seldom happens) I can start working. Turing the damn thing off took even longer. My Mac one or two minutes (if not less) to start up and only a few seconds to turn off. And so I can continue about a lot of bad things I experienced in Windows which I do not experience on the Mac. If it keeps that way, I don't think I'm gonna regret my decission ;) |
| ||
| Reason #1 was "It just works". Oh yes. Macs are lovely when this is actually true... Thanks to Bill Gates that would make a Mac really exceptional. Actually Windows does a pretty good job trying to run on the antiquated piece of crap architecture (by todays standards) that is a PC. Compare to Linux. Have a look at some of the Max related threads in the Linux forum. I assume this is standard affair for Linux users. Mac benefits greatly by the fact that Apple controls the hardware, therefore Apple does not have to provide reliability drivers for 99% of unknown hardware combinations in existance. When Apple hits Intel and people have hacked/cracked OSX to get it to run on a normal PC box (not an Apple modified PC box) the same problems will pop up (or, more likely, unsupported hardware). My Mac one or two minutes (if not less) to start up and only a few seconds to turn off. More likely that it takes 1 or 2 seconds to Sleep. Apple do not believe in turning off. Having a blackout/turning off mains in your standard 'oh, it's apparently off, it says it is' mode can be disastrous in a vmem managed environment. |
| ||
| Maybe you haven't noticed but Mac OS X is FreeBSD and not Linux. FreeBSD does an excellent job running on almost every hardware combination. And a small note, hackers have already got Mac OS X running on a standard computer. O and it's 1 to 2 seconds to turn off (but who cares anyway?). Nicolas. |
| ||
| I never said that, I doubt but I guess time will tell, I know and you're wrong. =] |
   |