PC or MAC ?

[SCcreampieLvr]

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[longlastingwm]

Don't Care

I'm primarily a PC guy due to my job, but I also have a Mac at home and support Macs at work.

For writing, it really doesn't matter. Word processors of today do way more than they need to on any platform. I could still write on Word 2.0 and not need any other features.

For gaming, I've never been into the whole thing, but from a graphics perspective I've never understood why someone would put two-plus grand into a screaming gaming PC when a 400 dollar XBox or PS3 still gives better graphics performance (hey, guys at MIT are building supercomputers by stringing 5-10 PS3's together).

For graphics applications, I don't understand why anyone would ever want to do Illustrator, QuarkXPress, or video editing etc on anything but a Mac.

I have good friends who do composing/recording on both platforms. Frankly, it is sort of a wash in that arena. I've seen both sides be very happy with adequately-powered machines and I've also seen both sides go through MAJOR headaches when it came to upgrading software like ProTools, or adding software and hardware.

I do find it fascinating that when the Mac advocates have problems with their machines, they blame the applications, not the OS. Yet, they are quick to jump on the PC-bashing bandwagon when problems happen on a Windows machine for pretty much the same reasons.

Macs are not much more secure than Windows machines, I heard a great phrase "Obscurity vs Security". Fact is, if someone is going to write a conficker style virus designed for exploitive profit, they'll write it for 90 percent of the computers out there, not the other 10 percent.

Part of the problem with Windows security is a cultural problem. Some of the biggest complaints about Vista were the way it kept asking for an Admin password in order to install a software or component. That's something that is ingrained as normal in the Mac world.

Long story short, if I had specialty needs and deep pockets I'd buy a Mac. Having worked with both OS's, I have gained an appreciation of how well Windows plays with the rest of the world in terms of business functionality, as well as how much more affordable PCs are.

One last observation, If I were a student on a budget, I'd probably buy a used PC and install either Ubuntu or OpenSUSE. Between OpenOffice, Firefox, GoogleDocs, and a decent media app, I'd have pretty much anything I needed for about 200 bucks.

 

[daintyfemme]

By the way, my laptop is Acer Aspire 5570Z.
I upgrade the RAM into 2GB and I am one happy camper

 

[IrezumiKiss]

I'm a graphic artist who's married to the Mac. Been down with it since it first came out back in '84. Couldn't afford them then, though, so I used to go mess around with the Plus at the electronics store fucking around with MacDraw. I've touched fingers with almost every model they've come out with since then.

Used to own a Power PC Centris in the '90s. Now I use a fully tricked-out and loaded 24" iMac since last July — it is thee sweetness. I also have a sputtering graphite G3 iBook that used to be my main jawn since 2001. Did everything in the world on that fucker and I can't let it go even though it's crippled and not really worth the funding to fix it up again. When I get my rebate I plan on getting a MacBook Pro to maintain my on-the-go ability. I couldn't travel without having my portable studio close to me.

I think I'll request that I be buried with whatever Mac I'll have during my final days. That's true love for you.

 

[SCcreampieLvr]

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[Leto Degeneres]

Got you beat- I actually worked on a LISA. With LisaDraw.
Thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw.

Then the 1st Mac in 84. Worked in MacPaint and hated it. (Didn't understand the difference between bitmap and vector at the time)

Bought one- had one every since. In fact- I have owned several.


-- I appreciate that this thread has had good conversations without the usual name calling bullshit. --"This is better than that therefore you are an idiot " --

For a Mac vs PC thread, you're right - this is extraordinary. Just everyone talking about what they themselves like. Imagine?

First Mac in 1989, a Mac II. Oh, how impressed I was with that machine! That was 20 years ago and I'd still qualify it as magnificent engineering.

 

[Austin8]

When I started this thread, I really didn't think about the name calling, I've always appreciated the engineering that goes into the Macs, from the old G4 to the new macbook pros. I'm really enjoying hearing everyones personal stories. i must say I am a pc convert. Thanks everybody...

 

[NoJo]

My answer: The issue of PC/Mac has evaporated since VMWare Fusion 2.0!

When I bought "Neutrino", my beloved Sony Vaio TR1MP, it coincided with a thrilling and hope-filled life-change for me -- basically I'd decided to become a professional writer. Somehow , the little laptop which I would carry with me everywhere came to symbolize the new "Writer me".

I have taken it apart and performed life-saving surgery on it a number of times. This is a hair-raising experience that calls for such steady hands, a clear head to remember the location of the forty or so different-sized screws you need to remove, and dexterity that it should not be attempted within 72 hours of consuming alcohol.

The only problem is that in the five years since I bought it my eyes have degraded somewhat, and I found that the 10 1/2" screen is a little too small.

So recently I bought a second-hand Macbook Pro, which I love using. I upgraded it to 4Mb of Ram, and used VMWare Fusion to effectively give "Neutrino" immortality.
It's still sstrange to see my familiar Windows desktop background inside a mac window. Actually it makes me appreciate how much better some of the Windows UI design is than the Mac Leopard UI. My five years of getting my Vaio "just right" have not been wasted. My Vaio all still just as I want it, but it's just on my Mac!

So now I still use my little Sony Vaio notebook, only it's running as a virtual PC and uses the Macbook's 15" screen. "Neutrino" runs a lot faster in VMWare than it ever did under the Vaio's 900 MHz Centrino processor!

I drag and drop files between the Virtual Vaio and the Mac's desktop -- I can play my old DOS games on my Mac! The virtual Vaio can use my Mac's camera and microphone, sync with my Windows Mobile based phone, etc. So now I really have the very best of both the PC and Mac worlds.

I never have to fret about certain software being "better on the Mac" or "only available on the PC". Also it's INCOMPARABLY better than using Boot Camp, which doesn't really allow the seamless interoperability I have. I can't recommend this set-up enough.

 

[Austin8]

Joe, without a doubt, your systems probably one of the best set-ups I've heard of. For me though, it's still either/or. Who would have thunk it. Thanks

 

[john-the-author]

I recently got a new notebook computer, (MAC) and it got me to wondering how many of us are PC and how many are MAC? Do writers prefer one type of word processing software more than another? Personally I like the fact that Apple computers and the associated software are proprietary. So which are you, and why.

I'm PC exclusively, but that's as much business reasons as anything. I started writing on an actual IBM PC, with the 8086 chip, and have had PCs ever since. Almost all of the work that I've done has been on or about PC software as have all of my books, so having PCs is the logical thing for me.

I do have an old Mac SE just so I can load it up and play "Mormonoids from the Deep."

 

[Austin8]

You make a valid point John, that has been overlooked in this discussion the, fact that probably 97% of us started with big blue. The compu. business has loyalties like none other. It was somewhat of a big deal for me switching from pc to mac. so far so good Thanks for a very insightful post. Ienjoy hangin out with you guys, Thanx... Does that make me geeky good! the girls love a little geek in um

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Got you beat- I actually worked on a LISA. With LisaDraw.
Thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw.

Then the 1st Mac in 84. Worked in MacPaint and hated it. (Didn't understand the difference between bitmap and vector at the time)

Bought one- had one every since. In fact- I have owned several.


-- I appreciate that this thread has had good conversations without the usual name calling bullshit. --"This is better than that therefore you are an idiot " --

I've "been with" LISA before, also...but just for a short time, though.

An ad/design agency I part-timed as an assistant in while going to school during my sophomore year had one waaaaaaay in the back of their top floor and it was still in use as a word processing station. I had never seen one before and I was flipping out because I had no idea Apple had been making platforms like that. This was around '89-'90, and the joint I was working in had top of the line IIs, IIx's, IIcx's, IIci's and IIfx's for the designers, so the Lisa was a real diner-saur around it's other faster, better, stronger younger siblings.

http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Apple/Apple.Lisa.1983.102634506.fc.jpg

The one they had, though, was the reconfigured Lisa/Macintosh XL with the 3.5" floppy bay. And I remember it having a partial faux woodgrain chassis, which tripped me the fuck out because it looked like a computer a pimp or basement porn producer would have, alongside a few open bottles of cognac.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Macintosh_XL.jpg

I envy you for being able to buy some of the earlier models. Those babies were not cheap at all. I must've spent half my life at the computer center at school, filling up every available period bloc of time after my classes, just to be able to fuck around with them. The Plus and the SE were my surrogate girlfriends at the time, I swear!

I made some real good hustle on those models. But when the IIs came out, with color capability, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. And it kills me that everything that my iMac can do now, would've cost me over $10,000 and some serious real estate on a workstation table back then, not to mention the Upton Sinclair jungle of power cords and overloaded outlets.

I will always have a soft spot for the IIci, though. Before the Quadras and System 7 bum rushed the show and took over the spot, this was the first computer I saw someone doing 3D animation on. It was also the way I thought desktop computers should look, with a small, simple, clean, unencumbering chassis design that would only be surpassed by the G4 Cube and the MacMini waaaaaaaay later.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Macintosh_IIci.png

And on that last note, you're right. It's refreshingly civil up in here. The Mac-Users Only appreciation thread on the GB devolved into a shitfest with a few killjoys just coming into it only to shit on everything Mac 'cuz they don't use them. Go figure.

 

[john-the-author]

I've "been with" LISA before, also...but just for a short time, though.

Gawd, the Good Ol' Bad Ol' Days! Yes, I remember these and before, back into the mid-70s. I went the PC route, as I say, starting with an honest-to-goodness IBM-brand PC and moving my way up from there.

I went to college with Steve Jobs, who was not rich, famous, or anything back then. This casual relationship has never done anything for me beyond being able to say "I went to college with Steve Jobs." I also worked at Microsoft for a number of years, starting before they went public. That did do things for me, but nothing near as financially dazzling as I might've liked. OTOH, my ex-wife would've spent all of that money, too, so it wouldn't have made much difference anyway.

(And while I'm going on about me, I also wrote the online help and registration materials for the first Windows version of AOL. That was fun--I made $3000 and even got to put my name on the reg materials in very small type, knowing it'd be seen by half a million people or more.) Bids for immortality that didn't pan out as big as they might've, all of them.

I've still got a few issues of Kilobaud from the late 70s. They're really strange to read these days, given what's happened since then.

 

[Austin8]

I remember, how cool were those IIci ?

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I've "been with" LISA before, also...but just for a short time, though.

An ad/design agency I part-timed as an assistant in while going to school during my sophomore year had one waaaaaaay in the back of their top floor and it was still in use as a word processing station. I had never seen one before and I was flpping out because I had no idea Apple had been making platforms like that. This was around '89-'90, and the joint I was working in had top of the line IIs, IIx's, IIcx's, IIci's and IIfx's for the designers, so the Lisa was a real diner-saur around it's other faster, better, stronger younger siblings.

I worked in an old hotel with a computer graveyard in the basement and there were some down there. I thought about hooking them back up a time or two, cause our equally ancient IBM crap upstairs was made of fail.

 

[Austin8]

I assume your a mac girl eh? Miss

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I assume your a mac girl eh? Miss

Not really, although I have nothing against them. Anything had to be better than the crappy computers we were using. I haven't worked there in nine years and I still have nightmares about the computers crashing on me in the middle of the night.

 

[Austin8]

Not really, although I have nothing against them. Anything had to be better than the crappy computers we were using. I haven't worked there in nine years and I still have nightmares about the computers crashing on me in the middle of the night.

Oh no not nightmares thanx Miss

 

[Lamagnifique]

It seems like a lot of the artsy types rock Macs and I think they are pretty but I could never justify the price hehe. I have pc (laptop) and it's more than enough for what I do.

 

[Austin8]

It seems like a lot of the artsy types rock Macs and I think they are pretty but I could never justify the price hehe. I have pc (laptop) and it's more than enough for what I do.

I do realize that the cost factor is prohibitive I bought my macbook, factory referb. with 2 ghz. dual core processor 2 gb mem and a super nvidia graphix card for just under a thousand. I'm super pleased with it. although the mac word processor is some what different from word.

Apple Rocks !

 

[SirLicksAalot]

. . .

I am a little surprised at how some people seem to have skipped the area of upgradability. PC users are able to upgrade their hardware as much as they want . . . graphic cards, memory, hard drive space . . . Can't do it with a MAC.

 

[Austin8]

I am a little surprised at how some people seem to have skipped the area of upgradability. PC users are able to upgrade their hardware as much as they want . . . graphic cards, memory, hard drive space . . . Can't do it with a MAC.

Yeah, it's the one thing that I'm really not used to, I need to know more about, why can't you do upgrades with a Mac just like you do pc? good point Sir Lick.

nicegoatiedude

 

[SirLicksAalot]

Yeah, it's the one thing that I'm really not used to, I need to know more about, why can't you do upgrades with a Mac just like you do pc? good point Sir Lick.

nicegoatiedude

Thanks, that's my dream goatie. . . can't really grow a real one. Bad genes I guess he he he.

I think the decision kind of jives with the apple culture - more artistic and not so much hardware saviness when it comes to its users: professors, design people, writers, students (non-engineering Majors).

Almost all, if not all the people I know who uses MAC don't care much about harware specs so long as the computer is realible and able to do its job.

Contrast that to the technically savy people who uses PC that are almost insanely driven by performance and speed benchmarks.

 

[daintyfemme]

who said you can't?

I upgraded my Mac Mini Ram from 512 into 2GB

and I also upgraded the system. When the first time I bought, the system was 10.4.1 then now is 10.5.6 (the latest)

 

[NoJo]

Well laptops in general are harder to upgrade, and have fewer standard parts. The Macbook's memory is standard SIMs -- I upgraded mine from 2 to 4 Gig using very inexpensive PC laptop RAM from a local PC store.

When I replaced the battery on my Macbook, I got it fro a very cheap Chinese online place -- the battery I received IS a MacBook battery. It turns out that they're one of companies that Apple use to build their own machines. This comany are selling Mac parts online at a big discount.

Mac's are getting easier to upgrade, the more like PC's they become.