Why must Apple draw me towards them?

[Michael Hill]

I've always been a PC user and actually teased mac owners for owning a Fisher Price...Anyway, I accidentally broke my last laptop and ended up returning it for full price. So now, I've got an extra $1000 but no laptop. I see Apple sells a Macbook for $999 and gives a free iPod Touch. I don't know why it's pulling me towards it. I see engineers use macs all the time, is there any reason why? I'm really torn on buying on...I know my friends will never stop teasing me since they all know I've been anti-mac for years.

[wilsonmw04]

I'm a PC user at home and a Mac user professionally. As laptops go i'm using a Intel based MacBook with 1GB of ram. I'm rather happy with it. The design is really nice for the most part. The magnetic power adapter is a great idea and keeps you from damaging the computer when someone accidentally trips over your cord. The only problem with the design is that top of the keyboard cover, right next to the touch pad, cracks do to too much pressure applied when closed quickly (My school has been getting free replacement for these).

The roughest part about the transition to a Mac is the lack of a right click. You can use the Apple key + click to do it, but I found it easier set a preference to use a "two finger" click as a right click (leave two fingers on the trackpad while clicking).

On the whole a mac is a great little laptop. If you are planning on using your laptop for specialized software, CAD for example, mac aren't the best thing for you. You can set up a duel boot rig but i've had limited success with them during robotics season. Windows runs rather slow.

[Josh Hambright]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

The roughest part about the transition to a Mac is the lack of a right click. You can use the Apple key + click to do it, but I found it easier set a preference to use a "two finger" click as a right click (leave two fingers on the trackpad while clicking). .

Behold the Mighty Mouse!

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Josh Hambright

Behold the Mighty Mouse!

But my lap doesn't have room for a mouse ;-)

[Josh Hambright]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

But my lap doesn't have room for a mouse ;-)

On a completely off topic note. Apples portable computers are actualy refered to as "Notebooks" not laptops due to the heat produced by their batteries, the weight and other reasons. Most portable computers anymore are not actualy marketed as a laptop due to these reasons, as a matter of fact it actualy said somewhere in my ibook G4's manual not to place the computer on your lap as you could get burned.

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Josh Hambright

On a completely off topic note. Apples portable computers are actualy refered to as "Notebooks" not laptops due to the heat produced by their batteries, the weight and other reasons. Most portable computers anymore are not actualy marketed as a laptop due to these reasons, as a matter of fact it actualy said somewhere in my ibook G4's manual not to place the computer on your lap as you could get burned.

And sterile. I want kids some day...

[artdutra04]

I've generally preferred Macs. It's hard to quantify why, unless one has used a Mac for several weeks. After using them for a while, there's a lot of things about them seems less stressful than Windows. I hate sounding trite when I say they just work, but the level of "maintenance" they need as compared to Windows is like night and day.

And one of the best things I like is that Apple has great customer service. If you go to an Apple store, they treat you well, as any decent company should. It's the exact opposite of many other PC companies, like Microsoft or Dell, where if you try calling their tech support you get transferred to India or Taiwan or who-knows-where, just to sit on hold for twenty minutes because you are just a person and not a corporate customer. If I pay $300 for your operating system, I hate being treated as a second class customer because I'm not a huge corporation.

But don't get me wrong, when my new iMac gets in later this week one of the first things I'll be doing is using Boot Camp to install Windows Vista 64-bit. While I expect to stay in OSX like 90% of the time, I still need Windows for SolidWorks, CAM, and some gaming (though I'm by no means what one would consider a hardcore gamer).

[Michael Hill]

I am a pretty hardcore gamer. However, being a hardcore gamer, I already have a desktop gaming rig for that.

[Renee Becker-Blau]

I've used Apple for about three years now and I like them a lot more then PCs. I use I-movie to make videos and I-photos to store the pictures. I like the layout it had and to get rid of that annoying no right click problem, just plug in a normal USB mouse if you can. Apple seems very clean cut and there arn't many viruses for them (my team tells me that's because no one would want to even touch a Mac because people don't like them that much...)

I'm not sure if I helped but I'm all for Apple!

Renee

[ComradeNikolai]

Well, Macs have the advantage of stability, something almost no PC can say, and, as mentioned, they just work. Our coach / CS teacher uses a mac for these reasons.

What I recommend, however, is to get a PC and install a linux distro, Ubuntu works pretty easily. But that's just me...

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by ComradeNikolai

Well, Macs have the advantage of stability, something almost no PC can say, and, as mentioned, they just work.

Let's not be over dramatic here. Like i said before, I use both a Mac and a PC (my own build) everyday. The stability of the two systems are equally good.

[Michael Hill]

I actually am rather well versed in most other major operating systems including Windows, RHEL, Solaris, Ubuntu (and other distros of linux). I do have Ubuntu dual booted on my gaming rig. Actually, I decided to go the cheap route of using Wubi. Not exactly dual booting, but good enough, though there are SOME minor annoyances. Funny thing, I'm typing this on a Mac right now in one of Purdue's computer labs. As far as stability goes, I don't really have any problems on any of my operating systems. I can't even remember last time I had Windows crash. In fact, I've had to restart X so many times due to Ubuntu hanging. From my experience, Ubuntu has more lockups than XP has had for me.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by ComradeNikolai

Well, Macs have the advantage of stability, something almost no PC can say, and, as mentioned, they just work. Our coach / CS teacher uses a mac for these reasons.

What I recommend, however, is to get a PC and install a linux distro, Ubuntu works pretty easily. But that's just me...

Well when Mac comes out with a new OS they simply say if your old equipment doesn't work too bad buy new stuff. It's easy to keep things stable that way.

When you are a small player you can get away with that, Microsoft doesn't have that option.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

From my experience, Ubuntu has more lockups than XP has had for me.

Me too.

I don't have enough experience with modern Macs to have any opinions about them....

Apple has finally figured out what they need to do to be competitive with the rest of the computer industry, it's nice to see they're giving people like you a serious choice now!

I'm low budget, so until they make that offer at $499 I'll stick to the cheap windows based machines...mostly building my own.

[ComradeNikolai]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Let's not be over dramatic here. Like i said before, I use both a Mac and a PC (my own build) everyday. The stability of the two systems are equally good.

Eh, when set up well, Windows can and usually is fairly stable, but there are a lot of holes in the security which can be exploited if you don't install all the service packs and security updates (which is probably why they're security updates, then). That having been said, I've never had a crash or a problem with my Ubuntu computer, but I have had a whole array of problems with all my PCs. Maybe it's because I've had the PCs running on Windows longer, but still... Additionally, as someone said, they control all the hardware in it, so it's going to be more stable because they can make sure everything interfaces perfectly.