Mac computers

[sofy60]

Mac computers


What are the disadvantages to having a mac these days.. besides that intel processor that is being added this year.

[Coding Monkey]

Why are Intel processors that are faster than G5's a disadvantage?

The disadvantages will depend on what you want. Want games? Buy an XBox. Already have lots of legit PC software? Buy a PC.

[cjd]

Apart from fashion statement, the only advantage of owning a Mac these days is if that's what you, your staff and you customers and suppliers are trained in and use.

PC's are now faster, cheaper and do more.

(I suppose I should add that Macs are supposed to be virus free)

[BurntNjal]

(unlurk)

I'm a person who used PCs for many years, then switched over to Macs last year. I definitely wouldn't go back. My WindowsXP laptop is now only used for testing in IE.

Pros:
. Apache/perl/php/python etc etc all built in, and the whole operating sytem being based on Unix core, which for web people means if you buy a powerbook you can basically be carrying your entire dev server around with you.

. I've found that the way the User Interface works means that after a short while getting used to it I now get far more done on macs in a much shorter time than I ever did on PCs.

. The low cost shareware software that's available (usually by small developers) usually seems to be of a higher standard and more innovative than on PCs. And because they are small developers the customer service is usually better too.

. Excellent developer tools supplied with the OS, if that's your thing.

. The build quality of the machines is just amazing.

. They look very very pretty .... well they do!

. If like me, you're the kind of person who likes to tinker around 'under the bonnet' of your computer... Macs are great for that.

. Loads of Linux/Open Source software has either already been ported, or is easily portable.

. Software is stupidly easy to install/uninstall (just drag the icon), installing something doesn't leave tons of DLLs and other crap on your system that only a complete re-install every 6 months or so will get rid of.

. I've had my mac for a year, and the system performance hasn't degraded at all, PC's I've owned seem to start degrading in performance from the moment they are first used.

. There is *currently* no adware, spyware or malicious software to mess things up


Cons:
. Not very many games, and the ones that there are are usually a little while behind what's available on PC - but that's why I have an XBox ;) ... Having the new Intel CPU may make a difference in this in the future

. More expensive compared to similarly specced PCs is has to be said, but like I said, the build quality is excellent.

. Macromedia software runs a bit slow on my Mac Mini. This is probably just because it's a G4, and Macromedia Studio hasn't been coded particularly well. Which leads me on to.....

. Support from very large developers/publishers could be a bit better, there are alternatives available for most things though.

. The time taken for Apple to ship a product to customers is shockingly bad, with no option to pay for express shipping. I've had a Macbook Pro on order since January, they shipped it out to me two weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived. I recall the delivery for the Mac Mini being similarly as bad.

sort of pro and con:

. No viruses... at least not so far, there's been a couple of proof-of-concept trojans going around lately, so it's likely that Macs will become more of a target from now on. No matter what machine you're using, it's still worth taking precautions to protect your machine, like not using the administrator account for day-to-day use.


Well... uhhh... that's my impressions... a bit too pricey in terms of oomph.... but in my opinion the increased productivity and quality is worth the price of admission alone.

Apologies for the long rambling post :)

[BlackBerryUK]

I heard that getting the product fixed is where the difficulty lie. you will need to send it off to apple to get it fixed and its not cheap. but in terms of quality its good and it doesnt crash as much as Microsoft.

[Coding Monkey]

You do need to send it off to Apple, but it's free if it's within the 1 year warranty, or you can buy additional AppleCare Plans for 3 years. I've never had to send a computer off and I've got a 4 year old iBook here.

[dcraigdc]

One product. Final Cut Pro. I do amateur film making and I have to say it's the best software on the market. Period. Unfortunately you cant get it for the PC and to make it worthwhile you need a £2k Mac so I'm stuck with Premiere Pro (which I have to say is also excellent.)

Unless somebody has a £20k AVID system they wish to donate to me :D

[dancemix]

Mac is the stress free way forward, no virii, no noise (they run really quiet), even the Mrs likes the look of this computer! They run most things PCs do, and do so without crashing. I have had hardware failure which was dealt with efficiently by local Apple resellers.

You pay a little more for them - but that's life - you pay for what you get.

I have converted 4 friends to Apple Macs since OSx has appeared (the new OS), and all wish they had taken these steps earlier.

Did I say I used to be a PC and Mac hardware engineer years ago?

[Eagle]

I used Macs for several years in the capacity of a pro PR/Press Photographer.

Never again... :x

Style over substance. Nothing they can do that a (usually) cheaper PC can't.

Parting shot: It's stupid users who cause problems with PCs, not the systems themselves. My PC/WinXP installation is rock solid, fast and reliable :)


...Uh-oh, here come the Mac Zealots!!! :twisted:

[Coding Monkey]

Parting shot: It's stupid users who cause problems with PCs, not the systems themselves. My PC/WinXP installation is rock solid, fast and reliable :)


Although I don't agree, because I've had so many problems with Windows and I'd certainly not consider myself stupid, couldn't the same logic be taken toward anything? If the user doesn't turn the computer on, there's no problem. If the user doesn't get into a car, they can't crash, even if the car was badly built and has no brakes?

[crus]

Hi all,

Its as always a question of tasking.

Apple have done a good job on UI and this has paid dividends to new and low level users.

On the flip side Xcode has recently moved me away from CW which I used to run in a Windows environment. However I still find windows essential for testing and accounts.

I have heard that a couple of 'big' DTP apps have leant towards the Windows environment recently, however the Mac implementations of 3d and graphics packages can rarely be touched by the windows versions.

On the speed issue, many people confuse the raw processor speeds of PCs and think they are faster, but in real world testing this is rarely the case.

XP is a poorly written OS, IMHO, as running multiple machines side by side, the PC crashes more often with a lighter workload.

At the end of the day iys a case of whatever works for you, but if you haven't tried to do what you do on a Mac yet, do it you might be amazed!

D