Why must Apple draw me towards them?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Billfred

The four computers (Anderson, Blanchard, Dillon, and Flair--the Four Horsemen) are all ridiculously solid, particularly on the keyboards that take the brunt of most college students' two-in-the-morning-essay rage.

I had to laugh at this....my keyboard that I use every day is a good old Model M Space Saver from IBM, made July 28, 1992. Works great.


Anyways....I shudder at the though of having to manage computers that others use...I get a taste of it with my kids, who are very smart about this stuff, but still get into a few things that make me wonder (mostly on the programming end).

There are many instances where it would be worth the extra cost to get something better than I can put up with, which is an occasionally upgraded old PC.

[vivek16]

But apple has teh cooties...

I think if apple products came into the same price range, I might consider it but I can live with windows in all it's unstable glory. I've had a good run with it so far and don't see a need to change.

That isn't to say that you shouldn't experiment. Maybe you could try a macbook for a few weeks and see how it feels.

my 2 cents, Vivek

[Boydean]

I have been using my Mac(macbook that is) since last november now, and I have to say that I have turned on my windows comp four or five times since(for gaming purposes).

I can do anything and everything ALOT faster and easier on my mac than I can with windows. And I often find myself straining to use windows computers when I get on them from time to time. I miss the little stuff on mac. Like today I had a thumbdrive in a windows comp and before pulling it out I had to eject it, went through the long windows way of "safely ejecting" the thumbdrive; were as on mac i would just drag the icon down to the trash, or hit the eject button in Finder(or better yet "Command+E"). Things like that ups the frustration level of using the windows computer, after using a mac.

About the hardware. I have seen my macbook run twice as fast as windows computers that have better specs than me. In my head that says that you might not be getting the best hardware for the price, but the software is a whole lot better at running the hardware.

I also have found that there are more useful free apps(lets not go into how easy it is to install something small) that are easy to use than I ever have on a Windows.

If you are looking into using a computer for productivity, than get a Mac no doubt, but if you want games and CAD ether get a high end mac or buy your self a windows computer.

P.S. Someone on my team got the highest possible config for the macbook pro, and that things runs windows like nothing I have ever seen, but he states that he almost never boots up into windows.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Boydean

Like today I had a thumbdrive in a windows comp and before pulling it out I had to eject it, went through the long windows way of "safely ejecting" the thumbdrive; were as on mac i would just drag the icon down to the trash, or hit the eject button in Finder(or better yet "Command+E").

Yeah, just today I went to all the effert to move the mouse down to the little green arrow in the lower right corner, then click on the little one line dialog box that popped up, so I could eject my SD adapter. Took the better part of a second. Although not doing so does not seem to cause any problems, as long as the light on the adapter is not blinking when removing the drive.

I've seen some of the youtube comparisons of macs and PCs booting, and I wonder how people can set up their PCs to work so slowly. Or maybe they don't understand that you can disable all the stuff that comes on them. Mine boots in about 45 seconds. My wife's work computer takes about 5-10 minutes, depending on how the network is feeling at the time....but she works for the government, and they have some really bizarre security stuff.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

@Bill: Deepfreeze. enough said.

State budget. Enough said.

Put me in the zero-viruses column; the occasional security hole is revealed, but there's almost always a workaround published with them (or within the next day or three following). Can't bust 'em.

[MrForbes]

I haven't picked up any viruses either, been on the internet since 1995, never use any AV software, and run Windows. But I don't use MS applications on the internet.

[RyanN]

I must admit, I'm a Apple guy now. Last month I bought a 15" Macbook Pro for about $2600 and got the 3 year warranty ($250?) and a free 8GB iPod Touch and a free printer. I installed Vista on this laptop, as that is what my college prefers, and strangely enough, what I also prefer. I found Vista to be a lot faster than my 3 year old Dell laptop, but that can be expected. What was not to be expected is another friend on Fusion got a huge gaming laptop that was not as fast as the MacBook Pro, but about the same price and much larger. I came up with this conclusion by using the Windows Experience Index.

Processor: 5.4
Memory (RAM): 5.1 <-Lowest one, therefore, my score
Graphics (Windows): 5.9
Graphics (Gaming: 5.4
Hard Drive: 5.3

From Windows Help: "The base scores currently range from 1 to 5.9."

So you can see that it is a very good computer, and an excellent notebook.

My specs:
2.5Ghz Core 2 Duo 6MB L2 Cache
4GB RAM (32 bit Windows sees 4GB, only uses 3GB, lends spare GB to graphics)
200GB Hard Drive @ 7200RPM
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT w/ 512MB Dedicated, 1270MB Shared
Screen Resolution 1440x900
802.11N Wireless
Bluetooth
Gigabit Ethernet


I guess that pretty much covers the specs.

My only complaint is the heat this thing makes. Apple runs the fans at a very low setting, even lower in resource hog Vista according to things I've read. It become unbearable to use on my lap running Windows unless I set the fan to high before I run windows. I use SMC Fan Control, which works great.

PS: I use my MacBook Pro for gaming as well. I can pull about 100fps on a regular Half Life 2 Deathmatch map with all settings at high, same with Portal and Garry's Mod. Of course, on more complicated maps the fps drops, but not to an unplayable level.

[Schnabel]

Wait how is it you are able to run vista on a 5 year old computer while I barely can run Home Basic on a 1 year old computer that was made for vista and came with it preinstalled? The ironic part of it is that OSX runs perfectly fine on it!!!

Originally Posted by NickE

Actually, yes

My mid-range computer that i built in 2003 easily has the specs to run Vista with Aero. However, for even the low-budget or older computers, you could use Vista Basic or just not use Aero

I can use Vista easily on a 5 year old computer, 2 years older than your powerbook running OSX.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Schnabel

Wait how is it you are able to run vista on a 5 year old computer while I barely can run Home Basic on a 1 year old computer that was made for vista and came with it preinstalled?

Probably because it came preinstalled. Try a clean installation....

I've never done the vista thing (I'll wait as long as possible), but I know with XP it's easy to make it zip right along if you do it right. Preinstalled windows is mainly designed to sell stuff, not work well.

[ComradeNikolai]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

[...] As of today, if your primary concern is security, the mac is your choice hands down. If you are more concerned with getting the the most computer for each dollar you put into it, I would personally go with a PC. [...]

Or Linux. There was a study I saw once done (I don't remember the details of it, but I could find it if desired) found that most PCs are compromised within about 3-4 hours if left without a firewall / security software and just doing normal tasks, whereas a PC running Ubuntu, again without firewall / security software, lasted over 4 months, and the "problem" was something negligible. Add to that the default firewall which runs on the latest Ubuntu release and you have a very secure system.

I think Mac OSX was compromised sooner, but I don't remember if it was even in the study.

That being said, with proper precautions, Windows can be just fine (I just have seen the light and left it).

[Boydean]

Originally Posted by ComradeNikolai

Or Linux. There was a study I saw once done (I don't remember the details of it, but I could find it if desired) found that most PCs are compromised within about 3-4 hours if left without a firewall / security software and just doing normal tasks, whereas a PC running Ubuntu, again without firewall / security software, lasted over 4 months, and the "problem" was something negligible. Add to that the default firewall which runs on the latest Ubuntu release and you have a very secure system.

I think Mac OSX was compromised sooner, but I don't remember if it was even in the study.

That being said, with proper precautions, Windows can be just fine (I just have seen the light and left it).

I read something of that nature as well. Three computers(mac os,vista,ubuntu) running right out of the box. Mac OS was the one that dropped first, but it was because of Safari. If anyone on here is using Safari or IE, lets be real get Firefox.

[ComradeNikolai]

Originally Posted by Boydean

If anyone on here is using Safari or IE, lets be real get Firefox.

Or Opera.

[Michael Hill]

Well, I got my new laptop. However, it was not a Mac. I got an HP tx2000 series tablet for about the same price as a macbook. However, this has some pretty cool features (Turion X2 Ultra 2.10 GHz, 3GB RAM, lightscribe burner, Wacom touchscreen and the works). I dunno, I don't think I'm "ready" to go to a mac yet. Thanks for the input though.

[Steve W]

I just got a new computer. My Mac G4 400 with just under a gig of memory couldn't keep up with technology. It worked fine but slow compared to my newer PCs. I now have a dual quad core 2.8 gig Mac Pro with 6 gig memory that just flies. I had no trouble installing Vista (not what I feel is a good system) as it was recommended for the game I want to get.

I have a PC and Mac. I always recommend to new computer users to go with a Mac. I am able to connect easily remotely and help them. I know that is also an option with the PC but I have always had issues.

This past year there have been two die hard PC users that I know that turned to the light and got Macs. After some small helps and a little playing around they both say they wish they had moved over earlier.

[gblake]

Greetings Blake,
I have been using a PC for 22 years and I have only had 3 viruses. All three were caught and cleaned by Norton. Windows XP is secure as long as you take a few precautions: stay on the brighter side of the internet, have a good anti-virus software installed and updated and don't open any file that you don't know where it came from.

Macs have the benefit of being the "white knight" of the computer world. Folks just haven't seen them as target to write viruses for. This had changed changed recently with viruses directly attacking macs coming on the scene.

As of today, if your primary concern is security, the mac is your choice hands down. If you are more concerned with getting the the most computer for each dollar you put into it, I would personally go with a PC.

...

So the theory is that there is no intrinsic security difference Microsoft's various operating systems and those of Apple?

If I'm a hacker and I look with equal attentiveness at both families of operating systems I will find equal numbers of opportunities for new mischief?

Seems a bit out-on-the-fringe; but thanks for the advice. I'll keep my eyes open for corroboration.

Blake