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Author Topic: Switching from PC to Mac?  (Read 32723 times)

Theresa

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Switching from PC to Mac?
« Reply #80 on: December 13, 2009, 08:44:50 am »

Quote from: marcmccalmont
You are right of course which is why my last Mac was a Mac 128k bought in 1984! I decided on an all in one because of the simple clean design and a screen suitable for watching movies/TV in a small apartment. As I looked at the available quad core all in ones, figuring in the upgrade cost of ram (they allow you to purchase 2, 4 gig dimms vs 4, 2 gig dimms), the Mac platform actually was not more expensive, a surprise to me. So I first thought I would just run it as a Windows machine then I figured I can migrate the photo apps to the Mac OS. It looks like the most elegant solution is to run it as a Mac and run windows programs with VMware
Marc

High end laptops with OSX are competitive, I won't deny that.  But I prefer to upgrade my machine, saving money, so laptops and all in ones are out.  I built the Win 7 machine for less than half the cost of a Mac Pro.  It has an i7 processor, four cores (eight threads), a Blu-Ray drive, 6 GB of memory, a high end ATI video card, and two and a half terabytes of hard disk space.  The iMac had a maximum of 3GB memory, not even a double layer DVD, no way to expand HD space other than a Firewire or USB one, and a twenty inch screen (I have a 25" monitor on the PC), and was quite slow compared with my current computer.  OSX is a better OS in my opinion but the hardware comes at a great premium.  I'm sticking with windows until Apple has a competitive tower.  I do not play games.
Whether one prefers the Mac or not is a matter of taste these days, not that it is somehow a better platform, unless one is just learning how to use a computer.  At one time I ran a computer lab for a university (as a grad assistant) and was exposed to the original Mac there (not in the lab but in the dean of Social Sciences office) and it was clearly superior to the original IBM PCs I had to work with in the lab.  But that was long ago and now PCs have caught up with a good user interface.  I have friends that have trouble with their PCs and perhaps for them the Mac would be preferable if they could afford one, but they cannot.
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Jonathan Wienke

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« Reply #81 on: December 14, 2009, 07:42:46 am »

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Slobodan Blagojevic

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« Reply #82 on: December 14, 2009, 02:14:15 pm »

Quote from: Jonathan Wienke
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10414356-71.html
Good to know where anti-Apple warriors are drinking their Kool-Aid from.

kjkahn

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« Reply #83 on: December 14, 2009, 04:41:04 pm »

Quote from: slobodan56
Good to know where anti-Apple warriors are drinking their Kool-Aid from.

Why do you think PC users are "anti-Apple warriors"?  Although I've been a PC user since 1981 (PC-DOS 1.0), I've long admired Apple products, particularly the Mac Pro and iPhone.

In fact, I was surprised today when I read that the iPhone's problems are due to poor design and not due to AT&T's network (which turns out to be superior to that of Verizon).  (I did know that Apple sometimes sacrifices function for form).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/business...hone&st=cse

Perhaps you think that the New York Times and Global Wireless Solutions are also "anti-Apple warriors"

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PeterAit

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« Reply #84 on: December 14, 2009, 05:26:48 pm »

Quote from: slobodan56
Good to know where anti-Apple warriors are drinking their Kool-Aid from.

"Anti-Apple warriors?!?!" I knew some Mac users were messianic, but paranoid also? Criminy, people, IT'S JUST A COMPUTER!!
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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« Reply #85 on: December 14, 2009, 07:32:14 pm »

Quote from: kjkahn
Why do you think PC users are "anti-Apple warriors"?...
Your question is a non sequitur (i.e., does not follow) from what I said in the previous post.

Christopher

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« Reply #86 on: December 14, 2009, 07:47:29 pm »

Quote from: slobodan56
Your question is a non sequitur (i.e., does not follow) from what I said in the previous post.


I am really wondering why this topic is still open, I think it is just a waste of bandwidth.
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Christopher Hauser
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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« Reply #87 on: December 14, 2009, 08:26:56 pm »

Quote from: Christopher
I am really wondering why this topic is still open, I think it is just a waste of bandwidth.
Couldn't agree more.

Farmer

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« Reply #88 on: December 14, 2009, 11:28:27 pm »

If you don't think this topic should have more replies, erm, stop replying...
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Phil Brown

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« Reply #89 on: December 15, 2009, 12:45:41 pm »

Quote from: slobodan56
Your question is a non sequitur (i.e., does not follow) from what I said in the previous post.

The same can be said of your implication that I'm an "anti-Apple warrior"...
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Theresa

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« Reply #90 on: December 29, 2009, 07:23:12 am »

Quote from: Jonathan Wienke
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10414356-71.html

Yes I read that article, but I don't see how it pertains to the discussion.  As they said the iphone is a brilliant design, I think the iMac is too as far as appearance and its use of OSX.  I just found the plus of having a beautiful design didn't outweigh the cost.  Windows 7 is quite polished, I never used Vista, I read too many bad things about it so I stuck with XP.
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NigelC

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« Reply #91 on: January 09, 2010, 04:33:23 pm »

Quote from: marcmccalmont
I'm thinking of going from an HP laptop to an iMac all in one computer
The logic is I will probably be living in an apartment in the near future and an all in one will double as a TV
The iMac appears to be the highest performance all in one
Has any one gone through the process of migrating windows programs to a Mac? Is it expensive or no cost? CS4, DxO, C1 etc? I would like to run most of the programs on the Mac OS and the few CAD programs not available for a Mac on windows.
The other option is to purchase a high end laptop (probably HP) and use an external monitor when at home.
Thanks
Marc

I don't want to  get involved in the Mac/PC thing, but I had a good look at the Imac 27" in an Apple Store today and thought the screen just too reflective to use for photo-editing, for my taste. I use a Mac Cinema Display with my PC, which has a matt finish and is much better.
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Plekto

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« Reply #92 on: January 09, 2010, 08:26:14 pm »

Quote from: kjkahn
Why do you think PC users are "anti-Apple warriors"?  Although I've been a PC user since 1981 (PC-DOS 1.0), I've long admired Apple products, particularly the Mac Pro and iPhone.

This is perhaps one of the great snowjobs and bits of trickery that has been foisted off on our generation.  The battle has always been Microsoft versus everyone else.  Not PC versus Apple.  Not Intel vs Apple.   Thankfully Microsoft is run by idiots who can't seem to do things effectively most of the time and so smaller firms are able to beat them to the punch and dodge their attacks.
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Farmer

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« Reply #93 on: January 10, 2010, 06:41:14 am »

Quote from: Plekto
This is perhaps one of the great snowjobs and bits of trickery that has been foisted off on our generation.  The battle has always been Microsoft versus everyone else.  Not PC versus Apple.  Not Intel vs Apple.   Thankfully Microsoft is run by idiots who can't seem to do things effectively most of the time and so smaller firms are able to beat them to the punch and dodge their attacks.

Yeah, the people who run Microsoft are so stupid - the founders would be billionaires if only they had a clue.  Oh, wait...

You might not like them, for whatever reason, but to suggest that they're stupid is just ignorant.
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Phil Brown

Plekto

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« Reply #94 on: January 10, 2010, 12:35:55 pm »

Quote from: Farmer
Yeah, the people who run Microsoft are so stupid - the founders would be billionaires if only they had a clue.  Oh, wait...

You might not like them, for whatever reason, but to suggest that they're stupid is just ignorant.

Don't confuse marketing prowess with skill.  Gates was fantastic at prying open doors and beating the competition to the marketplace.  Combined with an eventual monopoly status and using every quasi-legal tactic in the boo to maintain it, of course they made a ton of money.  But they rarely made something first.  It almost always was copying other people's work, though, and the results were third-best, if that.  Often just good enough to work and not much else(why bother when you own the entire market, effectively?).

But now, with different options available that do work better, there's no reason not to seriously consider these alternatives.  Especially since it all now runs on the same hardware anyways.(or can with a little tweaking)
« Last Edit: January 10, 2010, 11:48:44 pm by Plekto »
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Farmer

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« Reply #95 on: January 10, 2010, 02:47:25 pm »

Quote from: Plekto
Don't confuse marketing prowess with skill.  Gates was fantastic at prying open doors and beating the competition to the marketplace.  Combined with an eventual monopoly status and using every quasi-legal tactic in the boo to maintain it, of course they made a ton of money.  But they rarely made something first.  It almost always was copying other people's work, though, and the results were third-best, if that.  Often just good enough to work and not much else(why bother when you own the entire market, effectively?).

But now, with different options available that do work better, there's no reason not to seriously consider them.  Especially since it all now runs on the same hardware anyways.(or can with a little tweaking)

Don't confuse "prowess" with "skill"?

You do realise how silly that sounds, right?

If you have as specific problem with something (ie Windows) that's fine.  You can discuss it or not as takes your fancy, but to simply waffle on with rhetoric about the evil empire is just nonesense.

By all means you should be seriously considering the alternatives, but you should be doing so based on the merits of the alternatives and not some perception that MS is bad, evil, wrong etc (none of which is objective and none of which will usefully reflect the utility of the software or operating system).
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Phil Brown

Plekto

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« Reply #96 on: January 10, 2010, 11:58:43 pm »

Don't confuse marketing skill with programming skill  

The Apple vs PC argument was what I was concerned with.  It's never really been that, but instead Apple vs Windows (Intel and other hardware makers were truly just caught in the middle)

But since your typical Apple box can run both Windows and OSX at the same time, why not consider it?  As for ease of switching, OSX is so streamlined and the applications are almost identical on both platforms that it takes literally hours to adjust from Windows to OSX.

IME, OSX feels like an appliance or gaming console in that you turn it on and just simply use it.  It's as direct and pragmatic as a console or cell phone or any other device that you use during the day that's built to do one task very well.  Except it does everything like that.  My PC is a lot klunkier and from an aesthetics perspective always feels like it's between me and my work.  Like the difference between wearing glasses and contacts.  One you notice and the other you just don't.  There's a reason people who have the extra money almost always buy contacts.    

And in this age, why NOT have the option for computing that intrudes and holds you back the least from getting your work done?  Work isn't my hobby.  It's crap I gotta get done so I can get back to my real life.  And not much else.  Saving five minutes or one headache during the day is more than worth it.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 12:00:33 am by Plekto »
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John.Murray

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« Reply #97 on: January 11, 2010, 12:49:39 am »

Quote from: Plekto
This is perhaps one of the great snowjobs and bits of trickery that has been foisted off on our generation. ....  everyone   ... Thankfully Microsoft is run by idiots who can't seem to do things effectively most of the time and so smaller firms are able to beat them to the punch and dodge their attacks.

Quote
It almost always was copying other people's work, though, and the results were third-best, if that. Often just good enough to work and not much else

Quote
My PC is a lot klunkier and from an aesthetics perspective always feels like it's between me and my work. Like the difference between wearing glasses and contacts. One you notice and the other you just don't.

hmmm - maybe the one confused by "marketing" might be you.....  I hear your above statements constantly, yet all are completely indefensible.  I'll readilly agree that Apple makes lovely hardware that happens to do a fine job of running both O/S (I have some), but given the simple fact that the vast majority of business application stacks run on the Windows platform, it's a very difficult decision for an application developer faced with a choice to choose against Windows.  It also happens to be a very difficult decision based on price.

The internet is full of anecdotes; consider this:

A - 2% of us are really pissed off at our computer right now for whatever reason.
B - Let's assume Windows has a 10 to 1 market share over OS X.
C - 1000 of us happen to be expressing our displeasure in some forum being watched by you.

I'll let you do the math....



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Farmer

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« Reply #98 on: January 11, 2010, 01:09:27 am »

Quote from: Plekto
Don't confuse marketing skill with programming skill  

The Apple vs PC argument was what I was concerned with.  It's never really been that, but instead Apple vs Windows (Intel and other hardware makers were truly just caught in the middle)

But since your typical Apple box can run both Windows and OSX at the same time, why not consider it?  As for ease of switching, OSX is so streamlined and the applications are almost identical on both platforms that it takes literally hours to adjust from Windows to OSX.

IME, OSX feels like an appliance or gaming console in that you turn it on and just simply use it.  It's as direct and pragmatic as a console or cell phone or any other device that you use during the day that's built to do one task very well.  Except it does everything like that.  My PC is a lot klunkier and from an aesthetics perspective always feels like it's between me and my work.  Like the difference between wearing glasses and contacts.  One you notice and the other you just don't.  There's a reason people who have the extra money almost always buy contacts.    

And in this age, why NOT have the option for computing that intrudes and holds you back the least from getting your work done?  Work isn't my hobby.  It's crap I gotta get done so I can get back to my real life.  And not much else.  Saving five minutes or one headache during the day is more than worth it.

OS X or Win 7 both "just work" or "just don't work" pretty much the same based on the skill level and job intended of the user.  

Different things suit different people - I don't doubt your OS X suits you better and that's cool, but to universally declare Windows as "klunkier" for example, is silly.  It might be to you, but for me it's not (and I use both platforms quite happily at work) and my preference is Windows.  Others like Linux, others OS X, etc etc.

As to running both - many PCs could run OS X if Apple didn't restrict it - I'm sure you're aware of Hackintosh, so because Apple is more restrictive in their licence it's a negative to Windows?  I don't think so, Plekto :-)

It's not like OS X or Apple hardware never fails.  SBBOD is an acronym for a reason, and people pay quite good money for Apple Care programs - because they know the hardware can and will fail (it's the same basic hardware as PCs, same failure rates).  It's pure fantasy to suggest that OS X or Apple Hardware is magically immune to problems.  If you use it because it suits you then it's right.  If you use it because you drank too much kool aid, you're making a poor decision.
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Phil Brown

Plekto

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« Reply #99 on: January 11, 2010, 01:43:25 am »

Quote from: Farmer
As to running both - many PCs could run OS X if Apple didn't restrict it - I'm sure you're aware of Hackintosh, so because Apple is more restrictive in their licence it's a negative to Windows?  I don't think so, Plekto :-)

It's not like OS X or Apple hardware never fails.  SBBOD is an acronym for a reason, and people pay quite good money for Apple Care programs

That used to be a major issue before they switched to Intel boards.  My parents went through four machines in three years until they got an Intel tower as a replacement.  No issues at all after that.

And, yes, it does suck about Apple being that way.  But if you do buy an Apple, you can do both.  My PC cost me about $1300 to build myself and takes about half an hour a week in tweaking and updating and so on to keep running well.  My parents machine takes 5 minutes a week, tops, and is stable virtually all of the time.  I like using it a lot more when I have access to it, though it is completely useless for gaming.
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