PC user converted to Mac

[Porsche]

Steve Jobs is brilliant but he can also be ruthless:

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1981815,00.html

Yet it's an amazing experience to take part in a briefing with Steve. Stories about him reprimanding customers are true. Once, when renegotiating a Pixar distribution deal with Disney, he humiliated Disney's chief information officer in front of his staff. Steve pointed to a couple of recent Disney flops, and told the attendees that they could expect more of the same as long as the CIO was stupid enough to keep Macs out of the creative process.

An executive briefing always looks, on paper, like a clash of titanic egos. From what I saw, most wilt quickly in Steve's presence. And customers' reverence for him usually overwhelms any hostility.

In fact, it doesn't really matter who is presenting or what is being discussed. When Steve enters a room, everything stops and attention turns to him. When he walks in you get the feeling that he has sucked all the other thoughts out of the room. As for quoting him precisely - you don't take notes if you want to live. (At Apple's most recent sales briefing, nobody was allowed to have a notebook, phone or computer out while Steve spoke.)

Interesting man. Rich too.

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Porsche
Steve Jobs is brilliant but he can also be ruthless:

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1981815,00.html



Interesting man. Rich too.

Yer point is?

[Shuie]

I tried to convert. I wanted to like these machines. I really did. I've replaced 3 Mac keyboards and a 1GB memory chip in 2 years of owning my Mini. Also smoked a Mac USB hub. Very slick OS, but the machine is an unreliable pig that doesnt play well with anything I plug into its USB ports. I wont buy another one of these.

[Shuie]

I may buy an iPhone, tho.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by fastpat
dmoolenaar, it's much as Nostatic says. The Mac is miles ahead PC mac's interface.

So, for the most part, there are NO creative people in the corporate world. Ooookey...And for the record I never said that Mac's suck. I think OSX is their first real OS that even us "corporate" guys who can't play guitar (yes I freely admit I'm bitter about that) can work with and not get a snicker from the tech guys.

Mac, PC, Solaris, Linux. They all do the same thing in much the same way. The Mac just does it with a more polished look - I admitted that. Of course you're gonna pay extra for that Apple HW but what the heck. Right? If you're just concerned with how things *look* then I guess we aren't talking about the same thing.

[SlowToady]

I wonder why people who build their own PCs seem to have problems with them? Probably skimp somewhere on componets. Spend lots of $$$ on a fast CPU and maybe a decent mobo, a killer graphics card, and then put **** RAM in it.

I have an Intel DK440LX motherboard with dual 300Mhz PIIs, 512MB of Crucial PC133 RAM, Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller, 2x 9.1GB Atlas IV drives, VooDoo3 3000 graphics card and a Thermaltake PSU. It's been running the same install of Windows 2000 Pro for YEARS, with nary so much as a problem. The only problems I *did* have, is when I forgot to connect the fan on the 2nd CPU so it overheated. My fault. Windows never crashed on it, despite having the CPU pegged at 100% 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. My longest uptime on it was just under 300 days, and then I only shut it down because my room flooded.

Same deal with the Windows 2003 box sitting next to me or the NT4 SP6a machine I used to run as a file server/test web dev. bed and RC5 client. That thing was 133Mhz with 128MB of RAM and you couldn't get it to crash for anything.

Buy good stuff and you likely won't have problems.

I tried using a Mac running OSX, and it was pretty alright, but just didn't do it for me. I found the UI to be hard to navigate and I felt hampered by it. It could just be because I'm used to Windows, but then I know my way around Solaris pretty well.

And, no, OSX isn't based on UNIX. The OSX kernel is based on a modified BSD kernel which isn't UNIX(tm) certified. However, Apple is applying to The Open Group for UNIX certification.

The Macs do throw out awesome performance though, the G5 with that PowerPC 970 CPU made by IBM. In RC5-72, they stomp x86 based machines at less clockspeed. Kudos to IBM I guess.

Me? I'll stick with SUN gear and quality x86 stuff, although I'd like to move completely to SUN (but can't afford it).

[gprsh924]

for me it was really simple last summer when I went to buy a laptop for school. Specs were nearly identical on the dell i bought versus the brand new ibooks that three of my friends bought. the major difference- $900 for my pc, roughly $1300 for the iBook.

to date the only thing i have really done with my computer is watch dvd's, burn dvd's, surf the web, and write papers. I do not need a to spend $400 extra dollars to do that. and the dvd burning software I have could not be easier. the process is rip dvd to harddrive, insert blank disc, burn

[MichiganMat]

Mac must haves:
- Quicksilver
- Omni Graffle
- Omni Outliner
- Growl

Check out http://www.versiontracker.com to search/find good Mac apps.

I wonder sometimes if you PC guys know what you're missing. From fully usable drag-n-drop, to simple and unobtrusive work flow (no needless dialogs, etc), no reboots for reconfigurations, intuitive interfaces, and powerful features, the differences could not be more stark. The filesystem is cleaner, no mystery file extensions floating around all over the place, the apps are compact and rarely require installing and rarely if ever require uninstalling. And on and on.... It is truely the finest and most powerful operating system on the planet.

[RickM]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Gotta love the PC-elitism...

Guess what, since 1987 I've built my own computers. I started with an 8088, moved on to a 386 (DX, none of that SX BS),

I think you mean a 486DX. DX2 would be better but agree with the SX sucking wind.


EDIT: I stand corrected, there was a 386DX. I must've skipped that processor during my building days.

[Porsche]

Thanks for the input - I didn't start this thread to start a Mac vs PC debate - I was really looking for suggestions in relation to software and tips for my new Macs from Mac users on the forum. Thanks to all who have suggested tips - I'm busy burning my video tapes into DVDs at the moment and it's never been this easy!

[stomachmonkey]

Originally posted by dmoolenaar
Of course you're gonna pay extra for that Apple HW but what the heck. Right? If you're just concerned with how things *look* then I guess we aren't talking about the same thing.

Apple hardware does not cost more than a comparable box from anyone else.

When you compare boxes with the same spec they are at the same price.

Yes you can get a PC for a lot less but you are buying less features. You can also pay a lot more for a PC.

I never advocate someone spending $1000 when $500 gets them where they need to be.

It's not all about looks, it's about build quality. Apples industrial design and attention to detail is leaps and bounds ahead of any other PC manufacturer.

The resale value of your average PC is equal to that of used chewing gum. Macs hold their value for years. I have sold 5 year old boxes for 50-60 cents on the dollar. There is a reason for that.

Saying Macs are more expensive is like going to a Lexus dealer and complaining about the price because Nissans are cheaper.

Apple simply does not make lower end boxes. It's not where their market is.

[Shuie]

My favorite thing about OSX is Grab

Here's my latest USB debacle, encountered literally minutes ago as I plugged my memory card reader into the USB port on my 3rd new Apple keyboard (all purchased in the last 2 years).



Thankfully the USB port on the back of this POS still works. I just unplug my printer and plug the card reader into there since I need to transfer pictures to the machine.

Yeah, Apples are swell. Real industrial grade hardware.

[Nathans_Dad]

Originally posted by rcecale
I'm kinda sensing a theme here, fellas.

Do you also build your own Mac machines? Hmmmmm...

Randy

I don't think the issue is building your own system, the issue is the OS, which is Microsoft. Now, perhaps if you want to run a PC with Linux it would work great, but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to make Linux work with all my software that is written for Windows.

My father-in-law bought a Dell PC and has had the same problems I did. Perhaps the issue isn't PC vs Mac, more like Windows vs Mac OS X.

[SlowToady]

It is truely the finest and most powerful operating system on the planet.

Are you kidding? Let's start a list of OSes MacOS can't step to.

OpenVMS
Solaris (UltraSPARC)
AIX
IRIX
OSF/1 aka Digital UNIX aka Tru-64
zOS
UNICOS

I'm sure I know what you're going for, the "finest" and "most powerful" desktop operating system on the planet, but you threw out a pretty wide blanket.

[SlowToady]

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
I don't think the issue is building your own system, the issue is the OS, which is Microsoft. Now, perhaps if you want to run a PC with Linux it would work great, but I'm not smart enough to figure out how to make Linux work with all my software that is written for Windows.

My father-in-law bought a Dell PC and has had the same problems I did. Perhaps the issue isn't PC vs Mac, more like Windows vs Mac OS X.

I don't buy that. Several large (very large) hosting companies run Windows 2000 or Windows 2003. Check out NetCraft.com. I realize it's a different environment, but if the issue really was that Windows just crashes randomly and breaks itself for no reason, wouldn't that happen on these web servers also? Running IIS, Exchange, MySQL (or MS-SQL), for months on end with heavy loads...

I'm leaning more towards crappy componets and users that cause *most* problems with Windows. And, yes, I consider run of the mill Dell stuff to be crap. There is much, much better out there.

Also, IMO, Alienware matches Apple for build quality.

[motion]

Originally posted by Shuie
My favorite thing about OSX is Grab

Here's my latest USB debacle, encountered literally minutes ago as I plugged my memory card reader into the USB port on my 3rd new Apple keyboard (all purchased in the last 2 years).



Thankfully the USB port on the back of this POS still works. I just unplug my printer and plug the card reader into there since I need to transfer pictures to the machine.

Yeah, Apples are swell. Real industrial grade hardware.

Shuie,

The USB ports on the keyboard do not provide max power. Only the ports on the front or back of the actual machine provide enough power to power certain devices. The keyboard ports are fine for some devices, but not all. You need a powered USB hub. Don't skimp on a cheap one. Buy a good one for $40 or so. They are available everywhere. It will solve your problems. Not fair to blame this on the Mac.... this is common knowledge and has been well known for years. Sounds like you haven't done much reading or research

[Shuie]

Originally posted by SlowToady

Schuie, you must be wrong. Mac's never have problems.

Yeah, what do I know. Im just one of those uncreative corporate people. iWork

Any of you creative elitist Mac snobs figure out how to install a database server, web server, application server, and a fully functional instance of Oracle, SAP, or PeopleSoft on your powerbook yet? I can do it on an XP laptop and I've heard it can be done on Linux. Oh well, at least you have a slick utility that would allow you to remote desktop into a Windows box if you ever needed to do something uncreative like administer one of these systems. I guess thats kinda the same, or maybe even better

[fastpat]

Originally posted by Shuie
I tried to convert. I wanted to like these machines. I really did. I've replaced 3 Mac keyboards and a 1GB memory chip in 2 years of owning my Mini. Also smoked a Mac USB hub. Very slick OS, but the machine is an unreliable pig that doesnt play well with anything I plug into its USB ports. I wont buy another one of these.

I bought a Mac 7500 in 1996, used it with no failures of any kind for 7 years, it finally had a bum power supply. I'm now using a Mac MDD dual 1.4ghz processors, built in 2002 I think, also with no problems so far. I have some PC's here, but the Mac gets the most use.

[Shuie]

Originally posted by motion
Shuie,

The USB ports on the keyboard do not provide max power. Only the ports on the front or back of the actual machine provide enough power to power certain devices. The keyboard ports are fine for some devices, but not all. You need a powered USB hub. Don't skimp on a cheap one. Buy a good one for $40 or so. They are available everywhere. It will solve your problems. Not fair to blame this on the Mac.... this is common knowledge and has been well known for years. Sounds like you haven't done much reading or research

I guess I need the Mac made memory card reader then? Please help me do some research, or if you think I can handle it, give me something to read. This is not an externally powered device. Its designed to work off of the power supplied from the USB port. Why does Apple get to take the 'Universal' out of USB? Thats always been the best thing about it, IMO.

I bought the Mac USB hub after my Mac-compatible logitech hub stopped working. The Mac hub stopped working in short order also. I was given the same lecture about the memory chip when it failed. It was the latest and greatest Mac specified and recommended piece!

[fastpat]

The keyboard USB's are for the mouse, or in my case trackball because I don't like a mouse, and other low power devices.

I installed a USB 2.0 card with four ports in my Mac, really speeds things up, particularly graphic file transfers. My current monitor has a card reader built in, it's a Dell 2405FPW.