Considering a Mac - how good are they really?

[eventdomain]

I've known about Macs for years, but always had PC's as I guess I followed the crowd and they've never let me down, apart from a short shelf life once or twice.

So need advice on how good Macs are, benefits and why a starting price Mac Pc is £849 compared to the equivalent PC of £370ish.

 

[cjd]

They're very good, but Windows is good now too. Why do you want to change?

 

[Deleted member 137252]

I recently (christmas time) upgraded from my hp laptop running widows vista to the most recent imac and the difference is unbelievable i think! They may be twice the price, but they are 5 times the computer! The risk of viruses is a 5th of that with a pc, the ability to upgrade software and download 'apps' with the click of a button is great, and just the general use of a mac is much more smother and quicker. I could never go back! (Infact i have came away to my second home for the weekend, and had to go back to my hp laptop and it is driving crazy!)

Joseph Brown

 

[mit74]

People who are generally less able on computers will find Macs easier to use and manage. There is also the tendency for Windows users to buy cheap and then moan how crap their laptop is compared to a £900 Mac. But if you can afford it go for it, most agree it's a better operating system but the hardware is slightly over-priced (like any badge) and personally it's not versiatile enough for my line of work.

 

[That Guy]

Love my Mac, switching from Windows was the best thing I ever did

I was a Windows user for over 10 years too!

 

[Deleted member 137252]

the hardware is slightly over-priced (like any badge)

I wouldnt agree. Microsoft word, powerpoint and excel costs around £120 plus for PC i believe? Pages, Keynote and Numbers costs around £45 for all three on the mac. There is also no need for outlook as you have the mail app, and imovie and iphoto are generally pretty good for your basic media storage needs! (These come free with the mac)

 

[mit74]

I wouldnt agree. Microsoft word, powerpoint and excel costs around £120 plus for PC i believe? Pages, Keynote and Numbers costs around £45 for all three on the mac. There is also no need for outlook as you have the mail app, and imovie and iphoto are generally pretty good for your basic media storage needs! (These come free with the mac)

Is Word, powerpoint, excel hardware?

Anyway there's a BIG difference in the quality of Office and pages,keynote and numbers and I'm not sure why you mentioned Outlook. Windows comes from free mail, movie and photo software too and there are also thousands of free alternatives online. With so many cloud options these days software isn't an issue.

 

[Deleted member 137252]

Oh sh*t yeah, My mistake. No wonder i couldnt get my head around the "like any badge" part!

But you do make a good point about the free services online. As for the photo and video software on PC's im not to sure, maybe you have more recent and reliable software to what i had on my pc. Mine would freeze ever five mins, which got rather annoying after an hour or two!

 

[eventdomain]

hmmm, so the Mac is faster - dunno what you mean by smoother though.

Basically, Mac is quicker when in RAM, and using software applications? What about surfing -any benefits?

But is there one thing about the Mac that its famous for, and what makes people switch to Macs?

Cheers...

 

[90DC]

I'm a PC and Windows 7 isn't that bad. In fact, it makes Mac look a bit expensive IMO.

For the techies, I'm running 4GB RAM on a 3GhZ dual core processor and I've never felt this computer is average or slow.

Macs have their problems too. I had one a couple of years ago (It was a 2006 model or something) and I had this spinning wheel or something an awful lot. I ditched it.

Saying that, Apple seem to be more progressive than Windows, I cannot fault my iPad and iPhone for running large applications.

 

[s.marslight]

Mac all the way! If you can afford one

 

[cjd]

Well you don't seem to have a particular reason to buy a Mac, so I guess you're just looking for badge value and style - both of which the iMac have. But you pay for it both in £s and time (having to learn a new operating system.)

 

[startuptrader]

I switched to Macs about 4 years ago, and have not looked back since.
I absolutely love my macs, and everyone I have spoken to says the same.

 

[trebor8]

I've known about Macs for years, but always had PC's as I guess I followed the crowd and they've never let me down, apart from a short shelf life once or twice.

So need advice on how good Macs are, benefits and why a starting price Mac Pc is £849 compared to the equivalent PC of £370ish.

Depends I think, what you intend using it for.

I have both PC and Macs

Macs are great for video and image editing, esp, if it's coupled with a Apple cinema display, the difference between displays and a PC display is vast. Although, you'll need the latest software to take maximum advantage of the Macs available cores

I don't have the macs hooked upto the Internet - I use the PC and I can't fault Windows 7 but editing on it is poor compared to the Mac

 

[Latebloomer]

I've had PC for a while and I found it quite easy to use.
Just use parallel window and you can use Mac and windows at the same time without buying other expensive software.

 

[Tommo]

Was really hoping to see some intellectual reasons not just "it makes me look cool"

 

[cjd]

Was really hoping to see some intellectual reasons not just "it makes me look cool"

The things that Mac do better than the equivalent spec PC are relatively few and if you switch, you'll have to learn a new OS and buy new software.

I use Mac now because it has a superb server and it integrates fully and properly with iPhone and iPad. It's a class act, everything feels finished and slick - but then it should for what it costs.

It does not improve on any standard everyday things like email, browsing and Word, Powerpoint, Excel - in fact, because Office for Mac is always behind Office for PC, you'll normally be a edition behind.

 

[eventdomain]

Wasnt really thinking about buying a Mac for style - more for reliability, as just bought a new PC laptop eg: 4gb RAM, COREi3 Dual, Windows 7 - but was an ex-display model where someone buggered about with its settings and now can't shut certain things off - plus I hate its keyboard! and my cursor has a will of its own, jumping about when it feels like it.

Other laptop was a Compact Presario and I loved it - but its fan died on me and now drives me nuts with a loud noise

 

[360interactive]

OK, I've written a lot on here regarding my experience of switching to MAC. I was a windows user since I can remember, but always admired the smoother look of the MACs. About a year ago i switched from a windows based laptop to a Macbook air, and absolutely love it. It is a pleasure to use, and by use I mean surf the net, play basic games and pull it out in meetings for client testing etc, it looks the part.

I then decided to switch from my PC to an iMac, and spent around 1.6k on it. It is exactly the same in terms of spec to my windows based machine (that a cost me 1k). My thoughts are:

- The MAC is not faster than the comparable windows based machine, in fact for me (large format images and image stitching) the MAC is slower, and really struggles after about 2 hours use. I have to reset the machine to gain any more use from it.

- The MAC is not easy to pick up and run with compared to windows, I still don't like doing things like copy/paste folders, deleting, re-naming files and folders that on a Windows was much more fluid to do. (i.e. a right click gave me nearly everything i needed!)

- Software is often not that reliable on a mac compared to it's windows brethren. For example, Kaspersky for me didn't work. I to this day have no idea why. Apple stores are useless at anything other than the simple stuff. They DO crash, and have slow days. What they do well though is recover from crashes, meaning you don't have to re-start the whole thing like you would with a PC.

- Don't even talk to me about the apple mouse and keyboard, I changed those within 3 months as they are built for looks, not for continued use.

If you have the money to waste on it, then go ahead. If your windows machine is working for you, then why change?

I'm not anti-mac, as I love my iPhone 4s, love my iPad and love my macbook air, but my iMac has been a real let down, and I've learnt to take everything that the fanboys say with a pinch of salt. The shiny silver must cloud their judgement.

 

[360interactive]

Other laptop was a Compact Presario and I loved it - but its fan died on me and now drives me nuts with a loud noise

Funny that, as when I bought my Air the apple staff said it is absolutely silent as it has no moving parts, that appealed to me as my old laptop used to blow a gale from continued use.

After a few days using my Air I thought there was something wrong with the sound, as i kept hearing a humming/white noise at times. Turns out that this is the fan kicking in. So which is it? Is it silent or does it have a fan???

 

[Deleted member 127702]

After a few days using my Air I thought there was something wrong with the sound, as i kept hearing a humming/white noise at times. Turns out that this is the fan kicking in. So which is it? Is it silent or does it have a fan???

My MacBook Air definitely has a fan; it will kick in when the processor is under heavy load.

 

[Tommo]

CJD makes an interesting point. I'd be interested to try the apple server solution, at present I find the Windows offering very good, so will take some beating for me.


Guys here are still comparing River Island to Louis Vuitton, a £300 Acer laptop isn't going to compare to a 1.8k Apple product.

I'm fishing for a reason to try it out but the OMG THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE AND YOU WILL START WEARING STUPID GLASSES culture that seems to suck people in just isn't working.

 

[Deleted member 127702]

- The MAC is not faster than the comparable windows based machine, in fact for me (large format images and image stitching) the MAC is slower, and really struggles after about 2 hours use. I have to reset the machine to gain any more use from it.

That doesn't sound right at all; I had a 2nd gen iMac a few years ago that had a similar symptom - it would suddenly slow right down after as little as 20-30 minutes use.

I'm quite an experienced user and despite throwing everything I knew at it I never got to the bottom of it, until updating to a later version of Mac OSX just made it go away.

 

[Deleted member 127702]

I'm fishing for a reason to try it out but the OMG THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE AND YOU WILL START WEARING STUPID GLASSES culture that seems to suck people in just isn't working.

It's very difficult to quantify the look and feel arguments, but it is the overall user experience - rather than one or two specifications - that make the difference.

As far as the cost difference, when you factor in that you may get around 10,000 hours use out of a computer before changing then a £600 price differential comes down to a mere 6p per hour (yeah, I'm good at justifying these expenses to myself!).

Or hey, why not just nick one, then it's free...

 

[Tommo]

I guess I'll fire up virtualbox.

I really want to hate it ....For my bank account sake....and silly hipster glasses just wouldn't suit me.

 

[360interactive]

My MacBook Air definitely has a fan; it will kick in when the processor is under heavy load.

I thought so, i'm not sure why they told me it had no moving parts then? They must have picked up on the solid state drive feature of 'no moving parts' and it stuck in their minds.

One thing i'm absolutely loving about the macs at the moment (see, its not all bad!) is how it handles video. I've been doing a few short videos recently for some clients and even with 1080 HD content it is absolutely fantastically smooth to edit. iMovie, although simple, is perfect for the editing.

 

[360interactive]

That doesn't sound right at all; I had a 2nd gen iMac a few years ago that had a similar symptom - it would suddenly slow right down after as little as 20-30 minutes use.

I'm quite an experienced user and despite throwing everything I knew at it I never got to the bottom of it, until updating to a later version of Mac OSX just made it go away.

It's usually after around 2-3 hours of heavy image stitching and HDR processing, i'm fairly confident it's nothing to do with any particular 'problem' with the machine. The PC equivalent in terms of specs didn't have this slow down at all.

Funny though, the PC was hopeless with video but as I mentioned above, the MAC feels like it was born to do it. It really does depend what you want the MAC for.

 

[HungryHorse]

I've been trying to sell the iMac to myself for a long time. Can't do it.

I would love an all in one machine, I hate clutter. The iMac looks absolutely lovely, other all in one machines are pretty ugly.

I do web development, so the Mac OS would be perfect. It's kinda like running Linux but with a polished interface I guess. Git etc is all going to be lovely, with some great applications out there such as "Tower" (a Git GUI). Running Apache etc locally is going to be a breeze.

The issue is, just how much benefit would it bring to the table? Will I actually be more productive than I am using Ubuntu or Windows?

The price tag is absolutely ridiculous. However if there is nothing that looks as good and no operating system which is as polished but as functional, then perhaps it's worth it?

Been weighing it up for years, still no switch. The other thing is that I had the iPad/iPhone (more of an Android guy). One of the major points for me with the iMac would be the simple integration with the likes of the iPad, iPhone, Apple TV etc. However, I just couldn't bring myself to like those devices when I know, after using them, that there are much better devices on the market. Ok the answer is simple - get an iMac and stick to Android. In my head I'm missing out on part of the Mac experience though of not having things tightly integrated and "just working".

Sell me folks! Why should I get an iMac (and in future possibly a Mac Book Pro)? I kind of want to be convinced that it's WELL worth the money. I can't convince myself I know it would look sexy sat on this desk right here but it has to be worth the money and I have to be productive using it. It's a huge leap. Every web developer I know goes on about Mac's all the time, how everything has been much better for them since switching. I'm not so sure.

I currently pick up the cheapest Dell laptop there is and hook it up to my 23" monitor and external keyboard/mouse. In other words, I don't need a lot of power. The main thing for me is the looks, screen quality and the operating system. The hardware I couldn't care less about - the lowest end iMac is more than enough for me... editing text files, editing your odd image in Gimp etc.

 

[Deleted member 127702]

The main thing for me is the looks, screen quality and the operating system. The hardware I couldn't care less about - the lowest end iMac is more than enough for me... editing text files, editing your odd image in Gimp etc.

Maybe consider a Mac Mini? You can continue to use your existing monitor (er, probably?) keyboard, mouse etc.

 

[mit74]

got to admit the lenovo ideacentres are pretty good. I wasn't a fan of all-in-one but saw this the other month and was really impressed.

http://shop.lenovo.com/gbweb/gb/en/learn/products/desktops/ideacentre/a-series/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEXLY1UGRrQ&feature=player_embedded

 

[HungryHorse]

Maybe consider a Mac Mini? You can continue to use your existing monitor (er, probably?) keyboard, mouse etc.

I think if I were going Mac, I'd have to go the fully way and get an iMac - they do look ever so pretty!

got to admit the lenovo ideacentres are pretty good. I wasn't a fan of all-in-one but saw this the other month and was really impressed.

Don't like the look of those personally. I like the idea of an all-in-one but the iMac is the only one which tickles my fancy. Is it worth the extraordinary price though?

 

[360interactive]

Is it worth the extraordinary price though?

Only you can decide that. A few years ago when I first started my business there is no way i could have justified the cost. Now that the business is doing fairly well it is a much easier decision to make, and I went for it without the worry of ending up wishing i'd used the extra dough for something else.

 

[lesliedocherty]

I'm a PC and Windows 7 isn't that bad. In fact, it makes Mac look a bit expensive IMO.

For the techies, I'm running 4GB RAM on a 3GhZ dual core processor and I've never felt this computer is average or slow.

Macs have their problems too. I had one a couple of years ago (It was a 2006 model or something) and I had this spinning wheel or something an awful lot. I ditched it.

Saying that, Apple seem to be more progressive than Windows, I cannot fault my iPad and iPhone for running large applications.

I love my macs, but get the spinning wheel all the time on my Imac and macbook, but never on my PC, the spinning wheel does my head in

 

[cjd]

I love my macs, but get the spinning wheel all the time on my Imac and macbook, but never on my PC, the spinning wheel does my head in

You just don't get it do you? The Spinning Beachball of Death is much trendier and cooler that the Blue Screen of Death. Obviously.

 

[eventdomain]

Is it worth the extraordinary price though?

The price is crazy though maybe thats why many never switched to Macs. But I keep hearing the praises so Macs must be darn good or so many wouldnt well, sing.

Macs do look nice though, but for the money - performance must come first. I'd use it for business first, leisure second. I guess my needs are:

No crashes
Great security
Easy transfer of documents (Word, Excel) from PC to Mac
Transfer of applications
General ease of use
PC compatible
Video production quality eg: images background, sound/speech overlay, add wording

 

Was really hoping to see some intellectual reasons not just "it makes me look cool"

Afraid there are no intellectual reasons for buying a Mac in fact quite the reverse.

Bit like the Ipads style is probably the main reason why people by Mac's.

Bit like the British driving on the left.

Earl

 

[andygambles]

look at leasing your iMac. Means you can pay for it over 2/3 years and goes straight onP&L. I got 4 this way.

Get lowest RAM spec then upgrade them to 16GB via crucial. Would have cost me £800 each machine direct with apple. Cost £300 to get 48GB Ram from crucial to upgrade them all.

iMacs love RAM so go max whenever you can.

Best thing is no more 'Java needs to install an update' every hour or 'Installing update 1of 26 ' on shutdown. Majority of updates are quick, background and require no restarts.

 

[garyk]

There are very good reasons for buying a mac but it really comes down to what you need a machine to do and in that respect a PC suits most people fine.

Ive been a dual user since 2003, always keeping windows PCs as I still have to do the odd bit of software development for windows.

What do I like about Macs? First and foremost the whole app installation/removal process is *way* cleaner than on a PC. After 18-24 months most PCs will start to crawl due to getting bogged down with tons of files scattered all over the hard drive and messy uninstalls that do not remove everything. My 2 year old macbook is still extremely useable.

Over that time compatibility and range of apps has increased significantly which is good. I can connect to my windows box, read external drives (even NTFS formatted ones) so no problem.

I do iphone development and for that a mac is essential, you cannot build and deploy to the app store without one, simple as.

Gary

 

[KarlAustin]

Best thing is no more 'Java needs to install an update' every hour

That'd be because Apple rarely bother updating it or take over 2 months to do so - hence why 600k Macs have been exploited so far, plus Apple will no doubt be telling stores to deny any trojan infection (there's a notice to Apple stores floating about somewhere).

 

[FreelanceSoftwareDeveloper]

Never tried a Mac but have to laugh at some of the things those who have switched come out with. It's good that a few people can give a balanced review still.

As a Windows user the only thing I would accept in the list of issues with Windows is the startup time after a few years of installing all sorts of stuff (Programs Menu has around 140 items!). Once it is up and running though I have no issues with it during a full day.

I'm running XP on a P4 3GHz with 2GB RAM, not particularly high spec but I use it because it supports RAID1, something I don't think is an option on a Mac? It also runs very quietly and hasn't crashed for years.