MAC help needed:

[Lorenfb]

"Any idea what file types are giving you trouble (.avi, .mpg, .wmv, .asf?) they all run fine on my Mac." - techweenie -

Not true! Unless some ".asf" file types are converted to ".wmv", they won't run on a
Mac, especially using Quicktime (OS X or earlier).

Furthermore:

"PC's are NOT cheaper than Macs. At best the cost is comparable for models of similar performance/configuration. " - techweenie -

Which imlpies that the typical consumer is naive, and it's because of their ignorance
that the PCs sell 10:1 over Macs. If they are equal, how has Apple failed in its' marketing?

"PCs have come a long way -- now they're only about 3 years and 100,000 viruses short of being Mac-like."
- techweenie -

It's not the OS that's less vunerable, it's the potential effect, i.e. >10X the number of machines.

Avoid making generalized incorrect statements!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally posted by Lorenfb

Avoid making generalized incorrect statements!

Kind of like about motronic FI and Steve Wong chips?

[motion]

Len - The iMac has the latest G5 processor in it.. the same one used in the $3,000 full-sized Macs. Not some crappy Celeron-type processor.

[lendaddy]

Perhaps I am ignorant here. When we were looking for my wife the iMac was a toy, pretty much for surfing and college students. Has this changed? If I remember right they didn't even have drive bays?????

Like I said its been a while.

[motion]

They have very limited upgradability, true, due to the form factor. Have you seen the latest iMac? Its an incredible piece of engineering. I got one for my gf for Christmas this year. It runs completely silently, is fast and has an absolutely gorgeous screen. Sure, there are only 2 RAM SIMM slots (ok, so that limits you to what, 2GB memory?), and only one drive bay... you can pull the stock drive out and replace with a 250GB SATA for $130 these days. Or, go external firewire. No floppy drive.. Mac's haven't had them for years. The only negative I can think of is that the display graphics probably aren't up to snuff with the latest 3D games.

And let's just add... no viruses, trojan horses or popups. That alone is worth the price premium to me.

http://www.apple.com/imac

[lendaddy]

All good points. But God help you guys if hackers ever decide the dozen or so of ya are worth their time to F*** with.

The Mac definitely does have it's upside, I admit that. I just can't use that bastard. It makes no sense to me. Oh well, my wife loves it and you should hear us go at it about this

[Lorenfb]

"Kind of like about motronic FI and Steve Wong chips?" - Shaun 84 Targa -

Another lemming who can't address the issues! Who also thinks modifying a Motronic EPROM is like
using the MS OS "tweakUI" or something else, e.g. "There's always more performance to be gained."

By the way, I use both PCs (4) and Macs (3). Kinda like motorcyles, each has its' finer points.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally posted by lendaddy
All good points. But God help you guys if hackers ever decide the dozen or so of ya are worth their time to F*** with.

The Mac definitely does have it's upside, I admit that. I just can't use that bastard. It makes no sense to me. Oh well, my wife loves it and you should hear us go at it about this

It is fun seeing web sites trying to do the same thing as they do to PCs. EXEs autodownload to my desktop and just sit there, windows pop-up and then try to shrink down to 1 pixel but Camino won't let them, odd files appear here and there, but nothing ever happens.

Even behind an off-the-shelf firewall, I'd now and again find a text file on my PC that would read something like "If I want to download all your files and then erase your computer, I can. : ) and other stuff like that.

[nostatic]

sorry, but it is not only a numbers game. The underlying guts of BSD unix are less vulnerable than the mess that is the MS OS. As for cost, if you compare apples to apples, and you know what you want to do with your machine, you can make a proper comparison. Most people know neither. One of the few areas where Macs are behind the curve is hardcore gaming due to the drivers for the latest/greatest cards/chipsets. But a "typical" user is better served by an iMac than a Dell imho. And if you want to do anything creative (video, audio, etc), Mac still wins. Just look at the issues invovled in setting up a digital audio workstation on the two platforms. If you go wintel, you need to pay close attention to the chipset and other hardware. You get a Mac, and it is just going to work. btdt.

[MichiganMat]

More pro-mac raving:

You pay a lot, but you get some amazing tools for free:

- iCal - great way to organize, free
- TextEdit - a simple editor that works really really well on all kinds of documents (even .doc!), free
- Preview - A great little media viewer (pdf, jpg, etc) that has just enough features (zoom, crop, rotate) to be really useful, free
- iTunes - it speaks for itself.
- AddressBook - Store your contacts, completely integrated with other apps (Mail, Safari, etc)
- Mail - my god, its free and it works too!
- iPhoto - no drivers needed, ever. Works with every camera out there
- Sherlock - the best and fastest way to find movies, phone numbers, flight information, all free.
- Finder - the files and folders and applications are stuctured so well and so discretely that you forget about all the .dll's and .vxw's and the effing C: and A: drives and wonder how anyone could ever think it was a good idea to ever have any of that stuff to begin with.
- SystemPreferences - make as many changes as you like to every part of the system and never reboot, not even once. The instructions _actually_make_sense_!!!

I have to say, these are the little things that I've come to depend on as a computer user and my life gets really complicated when I don't have them around. Its amazing what you have to go to on a fresh windows install just to view a Jpeg, much less convert it to pdf, or set your network address, or try to get pictures off a digital camera.

Im atleast %200 more productive on a Mac because of these things and I pray I never have to go back. You PC guys don't know what you're missing...

[DonDavis]

I'm an old PC guy. However, it has become very apparent to me that for my uses Mac is the way I should be going. That new IMac is darn impressive. And when my daughter goes to college in 2 years, I think I would have many less headaches from "troubleshooting calls' if she had a Mac notebook. A co-worker has 3 PCs and 1 Mac at his home and during the last 3 plus years he has NEVER had an issue with it's reliability. He speaks of CONSTANT hitches with the PCs.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I used to love my PC/Win box. Until I realized I was spending more time trying to get things set up the way I wanted than actually getting work done.

Now I spend that time fixing botched emerges on my Gentoo box. But at least I'm learning something worth bragging about. And when I need to get work done, I turn to the Mac.

[Moses]

Originally posted by MichiganMat
More pro-mac raving:

You pay a lot, but you get some amazing tools for free:

- iCal - great way to organize, free
- TextEdit - a simple editor that works really really well on all kinds of documents (even .doc!), free
- Preview - A great little media viewer (pdf, jpg, etc) that has just enough features (zoom, crop, rotate) to be really useful, free
- iTunes - it speaks for itself.
- AddressBook - Store your contacts, completely integrated with other apps (Mail, Safari, etc)
- Mail - my god, its free and it works too!
- iPhoto - no drivers needed, ever. Works with every camera out there
- Sherlock - the best and fastest way to find movies, phone numbers, flight information, all free.
- Finder - the files and folders and applications are stuctured so well and so discretely that you forget about all the .dll's and .vxw's and the effing C: and A: drives and wonder how anyone could ever think it was a good idea to ever have any of that stuff to begin with.
- SystemPreferences - make as many changes as you like to every part of the system and never reboot, not even once. The instructions _actually_make_sense_!!!

I have to say, these are the little things that I've come to depend on as a computer user and my life gets really complicated when I don't have them around. Its amazing what you have to go to on a fresh windows install just to view a Jpeg, much less convert it to pdf, or set your network address, or try to get pictures off a digital camera.

Im atleast %200 more productive on a Mac because of these things and I pray I never have to go back. You PC guys don't know what you're missing...

Great list, but you forgot my favorite;

iMovie Incredible intuitive, simple and powerful video editing software. Truly elegant design. Free.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Another vote for iMovie here...what a great little app!