Bitten by the Mac bug!

[Will]

Erm not really, you don't see him with a laptop plugged in and with a socket set in his hands? Yes he can say "it doesn't seem very positive on the throttle" or "the brakes seem to be pulling the left" or something like that, he can say yes there's a flat spot here or there, but he won't necessarily know how to fix it. Anyway that's a moot point the analogy stands and is solid as far as I'm concerned, my point was clear in what I was trying to say. What makes a good driver great, is being able to react and be at one with the car, have the skill to know how to exploit it, the knowledge of how it does it isn't as important. Besides this is straying from what I was trying to say

[Dr. Z]

Each to their own, I am certainly not going to preach against any choices in this sort of thing - do whatever suits you and your uses best!

Linux is trying hard, its almost there now really. I mean compared to how it used to be its infinitely better. Your only problems come when you have something slightly different to the norm when it comes to hardware and stuff like that. In comparison, Apple have it much easier because they restrict what hardware you can and cant run it on so that they dont have to bother with any drivers. Until the intel macs arrived, getting hardware that actually worked properly with a Mac was a nightmare!

I have Linux on my laptop and that is all I have with me at the moment and I haven't once missed Windows, there is nothing that I want to do at the moment that I can't and I don't have my VirtualBoxed XP VM running at all. EDIT: and that was after maybe 2 hours of setting up, I would spend longer on a Windows box finding / downloading apps!

OSX can be installed on any CPU with SSE3 - certainly give it a go before chucking a perfectly good laptop Not legal but then I don't suppose anyone will mind terribly

I don't know why anyone would hate Windows though, sure its what you are used to etc but hate? No reason to hate what is actually a fantastic OS!

[Will]

I wouldn't be opposed to trying it on my laptop, if I could find out how to install it. Legalities are at my discretion to observe or not - I have mac OS x discs here but they won't boot on a non apple computer I don't think....

Hate is probably too strong a word, I started using microsoft stuff whilst you were still at primary school (just having a friendly poke mate don't get grumpy ) and I've grown up with it and am very competent using it - however I'm getting a little bit jaded and bored of it and just fancy a change.

If I had your savvy and skill I'd choose Linux in a heartbeat - but I'm not interested in learning to be a Linux god - it's just too complicated for me. I've installed and got most of the stuff working on Linux, it's just not THAT simple to do things when you don't know how to hell to do it - I love Linux and I wish I was more of a geek to be able to use it. However I don't care about geeky stuff anymore, I have more important things to worry about in my life, I don't spend hours fiddling with the computer, I just want to use it to do my work.

I just fancy a change that's all - this is not a MS slating thread, this is not a Linux is **** thread either, in fact I love Linux - I'm just not skilled enough to use it - I have an IT helpdesk at work that I can use. As I said, I've been using a mac extensively for 2 months now and it just REALLY works for me. Just like some people like blondes and other brunnettes - each to their own.

I mean Durz, if I had the time you've dedicated to being a bit of a Linux expert I think it would be a no brainer - but it's just not for me unfortunately

[Dr. Z]

Funnily enough, I too started using MS products while I was in primary school

I wouldn't call myself a Linux "expert" either, not by any stretch, Sure I know more than the average Linux newcomer etc and I learn fast but there are people here that know lots more than me, they just perhaps don't look into the darker/newer corners of what it can do. :shrug:

If you fancy a change, have the money and like OSX enough to completely replace any other OS, get a Mac. Personally I would rather spend the same money and get the better-specced Vaio model that is competing with the Air (and I don't particularly like Sony stuff) but there is probably something "pure" about running OSX on a Mac. Their trackpad technology on the new ones is pretty sweet, for a start

[petemc]

Theres numerous blog entries out there showing that Apple kit really isn't that expensive. Sure you can get cheap PC's but there is a reason why you pay for a Mac and thats because its a complete package that, as many will say, just works. Now I have a degree in Sofware Engineering. I've built many computers and been your classic geek since about the age of 6. I was coding on my C64 at 6 and I did that for about 20 years before finding photography. I found that once I gave up computers as a hobby I just didn't care about them. Ugh at the latest driver revision for every tiny bit of hardware. Keeping everything up to date just because I'm *that* geeky and need to be running the latest version. After swapping lifestyles I just stopped caring, and thats why I love the Mac because it does just work. People will say its not that hard keeping a Windows box up to date, and its not. I did it for years. It is, however, really nice not having to do that.

If you use a Mac for a while you'll love the little things. The things that aren't advertised. Quicksilver will change the way you use a computer and you'll hate anyone who doesn't have it, and there is nothing in any way that comes close to it on Windows. It integrates with everything. Growl for event notifications so you can customize how you get told about all those little events like when a download is done, when someone sends you an msn, when someone twitters, all sorts. Skitch for screenshots. I didn't really do screenshots before I got Skitch. Its so quick. Apple + shift + 1, draw a box around whatever then I hit upload and it lastly copy link. Within 30 seconds I've got a link to something I just screenshotted. I can also add text, arrows and whatever. Time Machine for backing up is great. Plug in ext usb drive and it'll perform hourly backups of whatevers updated. It won't popup telling you theres no drive to backup to if you unplug it. As they say, it just works. I love that when I plug in my iPod it copies my new music, music I love, new podcasts, all my photos, contacts, events in iCal (including calendars I've subscribed to online) and stuff is all there. Just by plugging it in. Its that level of design that you get with Apple, and 3rd party developers. They seem to take pride in the OS and make sure that their apps don't just offer good features but also look good.

Now I know a lot of people think "Apple, pfft. Fashionable trend whore computer that fanboys own." I'm hardly fashionable and just to point out that I'm not a fanboy there are issues. Apple's Aperture was a mess. Very sluggish program. I wouldn't say the OS itself is really any faster than my old Windows box. A mate of mine with a Mac Pro and 8gb of ram said that he still finds it beachballs now and then. Beachballing is the classic busy pointer while your app is off chatting up girls. Lightroom isn't any faster. Photoshop isn't. iTunes isn't. I didn't switch for the speed, I switched for the little things. Its the little things that keep people using Linux or Windows. I mean they all basically do the same thing. They're all using a standard WIMP interface. What I love about OSX is the level of customization I get without descending into editing txt files like on Linux. I love that the programs I used daily on Windows, Photoshop and Lightroom, all work fine.

In the 2 years or so that I've been using a Mac I've never had a compatibility issue with Windows. Top OSX apps to get an idea of whats out there. I'd say go for it. If you really need anything on Windows run Parallels. Switch

[leowyatt]

Will, if you want to try before you buy look at osx86.org, that should be a good starting point, oh and welcome to the fold

[Will]

Yeah I'm looking into osx86.org at the moment.

I have a high end laptop already Durz, so I'm not bothered about Vaios which I hate! I will try the "free" Osx installation thingies I've found and see how I get on with it on a more day to day basis. As I said I'm not going to rid myself of my PC as it's a pretty decent box and I love COD4 too much Just the laptop for now. Though the mac mini we've got here is pretty cool too.

PEte - that's EXACTLY how I feel about it. And thanks for some of your input it's really helped.

Durz - you're more of an expert than most people I know, and fortunately you have the time and interest in learning how to be better at it, I don't, I just don't have the patience or the time.

From my experiences of Macs so far it has just been really pleasant. I've even just managed to sync my windows mobile telephone to it! I've got prallels running on a trial period, and boot camp - and it just works so nicely. So far I've been able to do all the things I need to do, edit documents, do emails, customise folders and file locations organise the OS in such a way as to make it more efficient for me, and it's just gets on with it and I don't have to worry about it either. Like Pete says, I just don;'t care about computers enough to worry about what's going on I just want to use it with minimal fiddling.

[Dr. Z]

There is no denying that a lot of Mac users are extremely fanboyish. Its an inescapable trait of an awful lot of the people that talk about them on the internet.

That aside, your point about using them for any length of time - I have one in the Shock studio (G3 iMac) and its awful to use for the things I use a computer for. Its the little things that I want to be able to do that I just cant on a mac, for whatever reason.

An example would be where a DHCP server gives out a lease with no default gateway information. Its unix-based, so I really ought to be able to set it but no, as far as I could tell after about 40 minutes of trying, it cannot be done. If I cannot customise something as basic (to me) as that, its not useful. I suppose it might be possible and I just don't know the OS well enough, but if thats the case why is it so counter-intuitive to do things that are just slightly outside the box?

The Tagline "Think Different" is an interesting one, because in my (comparatively limited) experience of Macs, they force you to learn a new way of doing everything for relatively little gain apart from these tiny customisations - fair enough if thats your thing, but you're not thinking differently - chances are everyone who becomes a Mac "power user" uses exactly the same tools in almost exactly the same way, just like on Windows.

Oh and fwiw, PC and Mac are the same thing bar a chip that tells the OS that its actually a Mac so it doesn't bugger itself x86 ftw

[leowyatt]

I agree with what Pete said here. I bought my iBook because I'm tired of having to play around with the hardware, drivers, etc. I want something that will simply work when I switch it on and do what I need it to do. I have to say though that yes macs are a little more expensive than PCs but with the software I'm happy to pay the extra price. One example of excellent software is iLife, you don't get anything like that with Vista/XP.

My boss at work has always been a PC person. When I bought my iBook, I took it into work to show him. He couldn't get his head round why I'd pay more for something when a normal windows laptop would do exactly the same for less and why you would buy an iMac when a £400 Windows desktop machine would suffice. Christmas last year he went out and bought himself an 20" iMac and is now championing macs to everyone he knows. His favourite statement is "it just works" which is does.

What OS are you running on the G3 iMac? Surely if you look in system preferences and then network everything you need is there? Admittedly if you're using OS9 then things are a little different but if you put anything like Panther on there then the system because so much more useful.

[petemc]

Originally Posted by DRZ

Oh and fwiw, PC and Mac are the same thing bar a chip that tells the OS that its actually a Mac so it doesn't bugger itself x86 ftw

It happened 2 years ago, get over it There was a report once about Vista or XP running faster on a top Macbook Pro than any other laptop. People who buy Mac's buy them because they want a well designed box with an OS that'll just work and let them enjoy using the tool for their job. The brilliantly done backlit keyboard that knows when to come on and goes off when you're not typing. The magnetic power cord so you don't yank your computer off the table. Built-in webcam nicely hidden away so its not intrusive. Oooh quicklook too. Quickly preview any file by hitting space. Quicker than double clicking it. Previews everything from pdfs to mp3s to avis. Anyways, I'm surprised no-ones thrown the right click thing in yet