Someone sell me on a MAC!!!

[Moondew]

There will always be a lot of debate Windoz vs Mac. Learning the computer? After dealing with a number of operating systems, I guess I'm just interested in using it for its intended purpose not trying to make it work these days.

Personally I have both but the MACs are the computers used mostly. I seem to have a longer useful life out of them than the PCs. Most of the remaining PCs at home are now little more than doorstops looking for a place in the recycle bin or landfill.......

 

[bigoo7e]

This is getting interesting.

Yes is it... I would recommend buying one used for your first MacBook Pro. I would advise not buying "any" first run of any Apple product period! The bulk of the $1,800 you are spending on the SSD, Ram, and that i7 cpu. If you don't need a i7 a 128gb SSD and 8gig's of ram, don't throw your money away. You can get a good clean used 13" MacBook Pro anywhere from $800-1,000. The ram and hard drive are easy upgrades, if you get a lower end model you can swap that stuff out just as easy as with a PC, and you could save yourself some cash. Unless you need the SSD it's not worth it IMO, I just bought a 500gb Seagate XT hybrid hard drive, it's the best of both worlds with capacity and speed. I went from having a one minute and five second bootup time and with the new drive it's cut down to thirty-nine seconds! All programs load and close faster and it also shuts down faster too, which is cool.

Happy hunting, I hope you find what you are looking for... I personally don't pay full price for something unless I have to and as you know with Apple you will pay a premium.

Peace,
Evan

 

[returningliberty]

I've used Linux, Windows ( from 3.1 to 7 lol), and MacOS. Windows, IMO, is far easier than the others to do what you need to, mostly due to software. Getting python to run on windows was kind of a pain though (I needed it for physics class), it's easier to run on Linux.
As for hardware: unless you're a total computer geek, graphics designer (or a gamer!) it hardly matters. Yes, I have a quad core (a little old by now) CPU, SSD, 6gb ram, and Nvidia GeForce GT 430 etc... But you don't really need powerful hardware unless you have thousands of cells formatted in Excel. I use it for running Starcraft 2 on ultra setting on my 42" HD tv lol.

I can't believe no one has said this yet, so I guess I will...
It's WAY easier to be a pirate on Windows PCs compared to Macs.

 

[aard3]

Just a couple of thoughts...

-It's hard to compare similarly built PC's to a Mac... not only are there the normal differences in hardware a consumer usually knows about (500gb vs 1TB, etc)... but there are A LOT of stats on different parts that most people don't know about... Cache sizes, bus speeds, etc. I'll admit there is a slight premium on apple hardware, but if you compare EQUAL hardware, it's really not much.

- I don't think it's fair to just compare hardware prices, Apple provides a lot of software and other resources...

- I find OSX has more functionality out-of-the-box than Windows. Time Machine, Garageband, iMovie, iPhoto, etc. Might not matter to you, but to some people it might.

- I find that OSX is MUCH more stable than Windows. I literally never reboot my Macs, where I find I need to reboot my Work PC every week or two.

- The only software I use that I don't have a Mac compatible replacement for is Visual Studio (there are actually some open source stuff out there, I just haven't tried it)... so I use Parallels to virtualize a Win7 machine... works perfectly.

- My mac just seems to work better. Example. I just received a BRAND new Windows 7 box for work... I've been trying to get a networked HP printer driver installed on it... Windows 7 keeps wanting to install a PCL 6 driver, but HP hasn't released one for this printer... and it won't give me the option to install a PCL 5 driver... ARG! My Mac found it on the network and installed everything, no problem.

- My work Mac has Microsoft Office for Mac... it works, same as the windows version... at home I just use OpenOffice for mac, great software.

- Viruses on Macs are virtually non-existent... their browser doesn't let software just install it self on your computer... no crazy ActiveX crap, etc. No stupid Browser toolbars, etc. Just a browser.

- Might not matter to you, but Apple gives away Xcode, where Microsoft charges for theirs...Most of Apple's other software is VERY reasonable.

 

[Renegade]

 

[Renegade]

 

[Suburbazine]

Apple is the only company I know of that considers memory leaks in their software permissible. Queue the OS X Smart Contact bug.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cochise]

I can't believe no one has said this yet, so I guess I will...
It's WAY easier to be a pirate on Windows PCs compared to Macs.

It is way easier, and way WAY safer, to do it with Linux. I've never pirated on all three systems, I would never do that as it is illegal, so I don't know that windows and mac can use many of the same torrent downloading software, and both work exactly the same in this regard. The only difference is (cough) as far as I have heard (cough) is that all the viruses that piggyback on pirated torrents only harm windows.

 

[rrussotwo]

What the hell are you smoking? We have about 2 dozen macs in the company I work for and at least half of them have failed within the first year of usage. What fantasy world do you live in where a mac will never break or give an error message? It's easier to go to stupid websites and infect a PC with malware/viruses that's really about the only thing Mac has over PC. But not because Mac is a better operating system, just because Mac holds such a small percentage of computer sales there's no point coding malware/viruses to attack them.

This is MY FAVORITE bit of misinformation people like to quote.

As an example, let's look at Apache vs IIS in the Web Server market in the last 10 years.

Apache was at 90+% usage in the early 2000s and had less than 1% of the exploits/hacks.
IIS was at 5-8% usage and had 90+% of the active exploits/hacks.

So...tell me again how a well developed piece of software is just as easy a target as crap? Market share is not why there are NO/ZERO/NADA viruses (in the traditional sense, not stupid people installing a spam-bot because they downloaded it and thought it was Adobe Photoshop). It's the design.

The two single biggest issues with Windows are the Registry and DLLs. The idea behind DLLs and the Registry was born of a time when HDD space was at a premium. This time has past and the security and usability risk is not worth it.

I currently am using the same desktop my office bought for me five years ago and recently upgraded it to 16GB of ram and have no issues using it, whereas the Windows users get upgraded every two years and even their new computers are significantly crappier than my old one.

I routinely keep my Mac notebooks for 5 years before upgrading. Compare this to most Windows users who buy cheap upgrading every 12-18 months.

I'm also a huge Linux user and open source advocate. I love Linux for the server market and have dozens of Linux servers at work and one at home. The only Windows machine I own is for my four year old son due to the availability of children's games. Once he can read well enough and type, he will run Linux.

 

[kajuntriton]

Ok, let's say I am in the market for a new laptop, why should it be a MAC? Is it really worth the extra money? Is it really all that much faster?

I want someone that knows enough about them to sell me, please. I have been considering them for awhile now and just have never pulled the trigger. I also need to be able to use Microsoft Office everyday, is that possible and affordable?

Better yet....Do what I did! Go to a MAC store, tell them what youa er doing and why.....if anything like the guys in Baton Rouge, they will let you bang and play with the computer of your choice as long as you wish!

I will be willing to bet.....in LESS than an hour you will be walking out with a MAC (If you truly are shopping for one)
Yes you can buy the Office for mac for $149, Don't quote me on that exact price, I think that is what I paid for it!

Once you go MAC, YOU won't go BACK!! LOL yeah that sorta sucked BUT thats ok!

I am NO pro, and still learning a few tricks BUT I wish I had bought mine many years ago!!!!

KT

OH and I have the desktop MAC, we will be purchashing a notebook pro in the next few weeks/months for our daughter who starts LSU this fall!

KT

 

[rrussotwo]

1: People who buy RAM from Apple are mildly retarded.

2: The raid card thing made me laugh. The one in the mac is a high end SAS/SATA raid card that does offloaded Raid 5 and would commonly be found in a high end server (not a dell POS). The $300.00 card at Newegg is a consumer level piece of crap that is just...crap.

3: Name me a PC that can run eight (8) 24" monitors with FULL 3D acceleration? I'm running four (4) right now on a 5 year old machine.

4: If you're a student at LSU, go to http://tigerware.lsu.edu and download MS Office for Mac (or Windows) for FREE!!!!

 

[chad]

Speaking of LSU, I love it. I download stuff for free all the time. Like Windows 7 that I just got!

 

[Bosco]

This is MY FAVORITE bit of misinformation people like to quote.

As an example, let's look at Apache vs IIS in the Web Server market in the last 10 years.

Apache was at 90+% usage in the early 2000s and had less than 1% of the exploits/hacks.
IIS was at 5-8% usage and had 90+% of the active exploits/hacks.

So...tell me again how a well developed piece of software is just as easy a target as crap? Market share is not why there are NO/ZERO/NADA viruses (in the traditional sense, not stupid people installing a spam-bot because they downloaded it and thought it was Adobe Photoshop). It's the design.

The two single biggest issues with Windows are the Registry and DLLs. The idea behind DLLs and the Registry was born of a time when HDD space was at a premium. This time has past and the security and usability risk is not worth it.

I currently am using the same desktop my office bought for me five years ago and recently upgraded it to 16GB of ram and have no issues using it, whereas the Windows users get upgraded every two years and even their new computers are significantly crappier than my old one.

I routinely keep my Mac notebooks for 5 years before upgrading. Compare this to most Windows users who buy cheap upgrading every 12-18 months.

I'm also a huge Linux user and open source advocate. I love Linux for the server market and have dozens of Linux servers at work and one at home. The only Windows machine I own is for my four year old son due to the availability of children's games. Once he can read well enough and type, he will run Linux.

Are we talking about Apache or IIS in this thread? Hmmmm.

Back on topic, if you're going to type a few paragraphs of unrelated garbage, please tell me then why people don't bother coding viruses/malware for Mac then?

It's possible as it's been done numerous times in the past (most recent I know of being this - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_...nfected-with-flashback-botnet-patch-released/) so why don't people do it as often as they do for Windows? What does one have to gain if he spends several weeks coding malware that will only scam 5% of computer owners' credit cards? Common sense man, you were blessed with it when born.

If you don't agree state why not don't go off on comparing other software's statistics we're talking PC and Mac right now.

 

[aard3]

Are we talking about Apache or IIS in this thread? Hmmmm.

Back on topic, if you're going to type a few paragraphs of unrelated garbage, please tell me then why people don't bother coding viruses/malware for Mac then?

It's possible as it's been done numerous times in the past (most recent I know of being this - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_...nfected-with-flashback-botnet-patch-released/) so why don't people do it as often as they do for Windows? What does one have to gain if he spends several weeks coding malware that will only scam 5% of computer owners' credit cards? Common sense man, you were blessed with it when born.

If you don't agree state why not don't go off on comparing other software's statistics we're talking PC and Mac right now.

Just for the record, the "virus" you are referring to in the link really isn't a "virus" by most standards, in that it doesn't infect the machine because of a flaw in the OS... it is made to look like an installer for Flash, and actually installs itself AFTER the user has to type in the ADMIN password. That's a little different than Microsoft where just visiting a webpage can get your system infected. (malware, spyware, etc). If you tell the OS to run an application, and you type in your Admin password, how is the OS supposed to know that's it's "bad" software vs "good" software?

Of course Microsoft has a much larger marketshare, and that is A reason why there aren't as many viruses, but you can't also discount the fact that it is MUCH more difficult to write a virus for OSX because of the architecture of the OS, how permissions are handled, etc.

Just look at Android vs Apple... you don't hear about malware and viruses in iPhone apps like you hear about them in Android... and they both have large market shares.

Aaron

 

[Bosco]

Just for the record, the "virus" you are referring to in the link really isn't a "virus" by most standards, in that it doesn't infect the machine because of a flaw in the OS... it is made to look like an installer for Flash, and actually installs itself AFTER the user has to type in the ADMIN password. That's a little different than Microsoft where just visiting a webpage can get your system infected. (malware, spyware, etc). If you tell the OS to run an application, and you type in your Admin password, how is the OS supposed to know that's it's "bad" software vs "good" software?

Of course Microsoft has a much larger marketshare, and that is A reason why there aren't as many viruses, but you can't also discount the fact that it is MUCH more difficult to write a virus for OSX because of the architecture of the OS, how permissions are handled, etc.

Just look at Android vs Apple... you don't hear about malware and viruses in iPhone apps like you hear about them in Android... and they both have large market shares.

Aaron

Macs are not immune to browser hijacks. I never called the link I posted a "virus". You did. It's obviously harmful code written for Macs which was my point. It can be done for both operating systems.

You need to type the ADMIN password in Windows to install anything truly malicious. See User Account Control which existed since Vista. So I'm not sure why you think that something can get installed on a Windows box easier than a Mac when they use the same technology (Guest privileges requiring an admin password to do anything administrative).

I'm pretty sure the architecture of the OS was stolen from UNIX so if you're going to give props give them where they are due.

I don't know what Android vs Apple has to do with the current subject but I'll humor you. Android doesn't really care what people put in their app store. Apple requires source code to be checked and has a pretty heavy filtering process to allow an app in their store. If you jailbreak your iPhone and start installing crap from shady repositories you'll get infected just as quickly as an Android phone. That's the difference between charging a premium and free. Pay $500 for an apple phone and you get the extra manpower to filter the store. Pay $100 for an android phone and you have to have some common sense before you go out and install a bunch of crap.

The risk exists no matter what company you go with. Apple does take away some risk by removing your abilities on the device. Such as the government saving you from yourself by banning crap. It's for the greater good right? Protecting stupid people from themselves?

Never understood why die hard Mac fans were so dedicated to their consumer choice. It's almost pointless arguing with them. In fact I think I'm going to stop wasting my time trying to explain that every Operating System will have its pros and cons. Go on believing OSX is the perfect gift given by Steve Jobs who ascended into Heaven for blessing us with such a glorious gift. All hail hypnotoad.

 

[Moondew]

Better yet....Do what I did! Go to a MAC store, tell them what youa er doing and why.....if anything like the guys in Baton Rouge, they will let you bang and play with the computer of your choice as long as you wish!

I will be willing to bet.....in LESS than an hour you will be walking out with a MAC (If you truly are shopping for one)
Yes you can buy the Office for mac for $149, Don't quote me on that exact price, I think that is what I paid for it!

Once you go MAC, YOU won't go BACK!! LOL yeah that sorta sucked BUT thats ok!

I am NO pro, and still learning a few tricks BUT I wish I had bought mine many years ago!!!!


KT

I got a laugh when I went to an out of state mall, w/ my PC loving bud, that had both an Apple store & a MS (PC) designer store during the holiday season.
Apple store: Packed...tons of people buying stuff and hanging around operating all the hardware from "kids to "Q-tips".
MS store: a few people some playing X-Box or DDR games and a few apparently asking some sort of question about a laptop. The sales nerd didn't look to enthused.

Needless to say it was quite a bit difference between the two stores... .02


http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/mac-vs-pc-myth-busting-consumer-guide/
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/tests/4258725
http://blog.hunch.com/?p=45344

 

[aard3]

Macs are not immune to browser hijacks. I never called the link I posted a "virus". You did. It's obviously harmful code written for Macs which was my point. It can be done for both operating systems.

#1. I didn't say "macs where immune" to anything

#2. Yes, you did call it a virus.

"please tell me then why people don't bother coding viruses/malware for Mac then?

It's possible as it's been done numerous times in the past (most recent I know of being this - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_1...atch-released/) "

You need to type the ADMIN password in Windows to install anything truly malicious. See User Account Control which existed since Vista. So I'm not sure why you think that something can get installed on a Windows box easier than a Mac when they use the same technology (Guest privileges requiring an admin password to do anything administrative).

This is incorrect, there are plenty of ways and exploits to be able to install "truly malicious" code on a Windows box. Do you read those Windows Updates and security fixes that come through? Some are downright scary!

I'm pretty sure the architecture of the OS was stolen from UNIX so if you're going to give props give them where they are due.

I'm not talking about having to type in an administrator password. I was referring to the underlying architecture of Operating system, how it handles permissions, etc. Microsoft is trying to put the cat back in the bag now by implementing UAC...but they can't effectively implement anything without breaking backwards compatibility with legacy applications.

And I wouldn't say it was "stolen"... OSX is based on a *nix variant... they didn't steal it, it is *nix.

I don't know what Android vs Apple has to do with the current subject but I'll humor you. Android doesn't really care what people put in their app store. Apple requires source code to be checked and has a pretty heavy filtering process to allow an app in their store. If you jailbreak your iPhone and start installing crap from shady repositories you'll get infected just as quickly as an Android phone. That's the difference between charging a premium and free. Pay $500 for an apple phone and you get the extra manpower to filter the store. Pay $100 for an android phone and you have to have some common sense before you go out and install a bunch of crap.

I was just pointing out an example of two products that have roughly the same market share... so there is equal incentive for hackers to attempt to write malware for each... yet there is drastically less on the iOS. Why? Because it's a lot easier to infect Android phones... Of course if you jail break an iPhone it would be more prone to becoming infected, but that would be expected since you disabling all the protections in place (app store, os/app sandboxing, not allowing certain function calls, etc).

The risk exists no matter what company you go with. Apple does take away some risk by removing your abilities on the device. Such as the government saving you from yourself by banning crap. It's for the greater good right? Protecting stupid people from themselves?

I agree there is a risk no matter what, but statistically the risk is much lower with OSX.

If you don't like the product, don't buy it. The government has nothing to do with it... they haven't banned you from Android and PC's and made you buy all Apple products ;-)

Never understood why die hard Mac fans were so dedicated to their consumer choice. It's almost pointless arguing with them. In fact I think I'm going to stop wasting my time trying to explain that every Operating System will have its pros and cons. Go on believing OSX is the perfect gift given by Steve Jobs who ascended into Heaven for blessing us with such a glorious gift. All hail hypnotoad.

You're so full of it... I never said anything of the sort... I was just pointing out that there are reasons other than market share why Windows has more viruses... sheesh. I'll never understand why people feel the need to act like every Mac user is a brainwashed Steve Jobs follower!

 

[Cochise]

Bosco, dude, you're in over your head here. If you don't know how the OS's are built and how they actually work inside, then you don't know. And if you think that anything from unix can be "stolen" then you don't know how OS's are built, because Unix is the grandfather of all free software. I'm not the most knowledgeable guy in the world, but.......

 

[Bosco]

So by living in Ruston am I safe to assume you're a student of LA Tech?

 

[Cochise]

So by living in Ruston am I safe to assume you're a student of LA Tech?

Aviation major, yep.