iMac or PC?

[Cobster]

I must say, I played with a Mac a few days ago at a store.
It just feels and oozes quality.
I've been a PC user for 11 years, but something about the Mac feels right.
I might just get it on my next computer purchase.

 

[Cobster]

I love this video, it's an oldie but goodie.
The guy is good.

"...the update manager is bouncing up and down like a Jack Russell fucking TERRIER!!!"

 

[shakenbake]

LOL, know what you mean.
Got my 'screamin' Pent II 400 Mhx PC, in 1997 and paid $3000 for it. Added a printer & scanner and the total went to $3500! Back then it was state of the art, just came out and was considered dated 6 months later.
Went with a PC because all the guys at work had them and felt Mac was bound to go the way the Betamax VCR machines did when the VHS came out and took over. Well that was their general consensus back them.

This looks like another one of them never ending debates with good points being made on both sides. Let the research continue. Very informative.

Agreed!

 

[shakenbake]

Yes, that's true, but I am not talking about putting an advertisement or magazine layout together. The industry standards for product/machinery and tool design are programmes like Catia, Pro/E, Solidworks, Autodesk...
Most likely your car, toaster, big screen tv... was designed on PC.
This is a huge part of the development and manufacturing industry with no Apple in sight. This will probably not change for a long time because these industries are global and the last thing you need is compatibility issues between the design house in California and the manufacturing house in China.

I'm not saying Apple is bad, just establish your applications first.

Interesting story. Seymore Cray admitted that he used a Mac to design his latest (at the time) Cray super computer. As I said earlier in my post, the US government labs use Macs, which means high level scientific and engineering applications. maybe, not your average household gaming and other entertainment. Maybe, there is no current version of AutoCAD for the Mac. But, there is probably a program that does the same thing in the end. Just because the software developers want only to cater to the masses (market share), doesn't mean that the minority is inferior. If that were the case, we would only have Chevys and no Jaguars

 

[shakenbake]

How cum imac lovers are always so anal about their apple stuff. Theres a guy at work that does not matter what conversation you have with him it always ends up "Apple this and apple that"..

Isn't technology just that. It's like putting a tool belt on and just loading it with a hammer forgetting about the pliers, screw drivers and cutting tools.

Anyways, just wondered why a technology that has only 10% of the market share is deemed as so great. I guess 90% of us are wrong?

Beta versus VHS. Enough said.

 

[shakenbake]

Not really. While it's true that processor changes are probably the main reason that computers get outdated, the reality is that old Macs tend to fare quite well on their own. New software actually tends to run on old Macs, albeit somewhat slowly depending on the system. On the other hand, new Windows applications tend not to run on equivalent (old) hardware. You could probably install OSX on an old G3 Mac. I doubt you could install Windows XP on an original Pentium I.

Anyhow, to get back to the original post, learning the OS is not difficult if you approach it with an open mind. It's not Windows and you shouldn't expect everything to be the same. As for replacing the flat panel, I suppose it's possible for it to die but I would think it's very rare. As others have pointed out, AppleCare will take care of replacement of anything. My current 23" flat panel at home was purchased used about 3 - 4 years ago and it's still going fine. At work we've had to replace a few screens on laptops but that's more because the laptops are being slightly abused - moved when they're still warm, crushed in bags, exposed to temperature extremes etc. A home machine basically sits on your desk and doesn't move so I think it should last you a long time.

Up to OS X 10.3 at least, or 10.4 I believe, on my G3 iMac of 1999, still running strong!

 

[shakenbake]

My Bluetooth mouse was/is a battery hog. You know how batteries in these Bluetooth mice last about a month. Apple estimates it at about that, anyway. Well, the Bluetooth mouse shipped with my iMac ate through its batteries in a week, and sometimes in just a few days. It took over six months to get Apple Support to believe me and ship me out a new one. The new one seems to take about two or three weeks to go through its batteries, but I'm not going to waste my time calling Apple again. Yes, I have the Three-Year Apple Care Plan, but I guess Apple just wants me to pay for it and not use it, because they balk at replacing defective parts every time I call.

The Shared folder — you know, the one where you're supposed to be able to "share" files among the users on a computer — just doesn't work as it's supposed to. You see, it keeps the user permissions on the file when you move stuff into it, so when my wife wants to re-name or move or delete a file I've shared with her, even though she should be perfectly able to do this, she can't, because that file belongs to me. She has to authenticate herself, as an Admin (if she weren't an Admin, she couldn't do anything at all), and only then can she do something with that file. And she has to authenticate for each file she wants to work with. This is an absolute hassle, and it's not the way a Shared folder should work. Apple, this is one time when you need to copy Microsoft. The Shared Documents folder on PCs works great, and just as expected. When you move a file into it, it inherits the permissions on the Shared folder, which means all users can work with that file and do whatever they need to do with it. This is logical. Apple's way isn't, and needs to change.

Hey, did you notice there's no easy way to have common iPhoto and iTunes libraries for the accounts on one computer? You just can't do it with a few clicks of the mouse. You have to hack things. Seems to me that a husband and wife who have two accounts on the same computer ought to be able to share their photos and music libraries, and have single copies of each, not duplicates. There's no "official solution" for this on the Mac. You have to find your own, which is what we did. We went into the prefs for iTunes for each account, and pointed it to a common location in the Shared folder. Of course, we had to call Apple Support to get the privileges reset, because there was no way to figure out what in the world the user groups were, but that's another story. With iPhoto, it was harder. There's no way to change the library location, iPhoto won't let you. But you can hack it by using shortcuts in the expected location in each user account that point to a common location. We chose the Shared folder again, and again we had to reset privileges. But this should be easier, much easier! With a few clicks of the mouse, we should be able to say what libraries we want to share among user accounts, get them re-located on the fly, and also specify which user accounts have permissions to what.

What sorts of user groups are there in Mac OS X? You have to be a UNIX geek to figure them out. When we needed to adjust privileges on folders and files (see bullet point above) we were at a loss. What in the world is "wheel", and so on and so forth? Why not something intuitive, like "Administrators" and "Users"? Windows has Apple beat on this one.

Why is FTP mode set to Passive by default? And why can't it be changed from within FTP program settings (you know, apps like Fetch or Cyberduck)? Because it can't. You have to go into Terminal to change it, and you have to know what to type in there. This was confirmed with Apple Support, who also couldn't help me and had to transfer me to Advanced Support so I could find out what to do in Terminal

Buddy, you HAVE had a lot of unexpected problems and issues. I suspect it could be a hardware problem. Also, I wonder why the G5 was so short-lived, and the Intel stuff started to come out. G5 were somewhat notorious for incompatability issues, I was told.

 

[WoodPeckr]

A few things to ponder about mac:

I've had an iMac G5 for just about a year now. I've been patient, and I gave it time. I considered extenuating circumstances as well. But after a year of experiencing the same problems, over and over again, something needed to be done. Having also experienced some of these problems on other Macs I've used, I can fairly safely say they're not limited to my iMac, and furthermore, they're the sort of problems that could be easily fixed by Apple engineers. I sat down to write this list in the hope they'll read it and act on it for the sake of future Apple users.

Indeed that is quite a laundry list of things to ponder about Mac.
Makes me think perhaps Linux is the way to go and forget about both Mac and Windows.

One thing Mac fans brag the most about is how stable Mac is compared to PCs but your interesting three part report raises serious question about even those Mac stability claims.

Your report and that hilarious Mac parody clip posted above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axC-7O4Yq-w
makes one wonder about Mac.

 

[ray liotta]

mmmm-go certainly has had a lot of problems, I have used Macs for years and never have the problems he describes. I use various digital cameras and transfer shots to iPhoto with no problem. I also burn quite a few DVD's-never had one kick out.

Something is very odd with that G5 of his.