Mac OS X good and bad vs. Windows

Now that is definitely something that I agree with. I think I was biased when I wrote that. Viruses are but one of the many reasons that I am switching to Mac. The iLife suite, compatibility, and general cohesiveness of the infrastructure of Macs are basically why I'm buying that machine. As someone who has used both, though, I just plain like the way Macs run better than windows.

You seem to have made the switch quite well and, judging by your post, are enjoying life with your Mac.

I think we would all be happy with that 65" Sony hanging on the wall of the office or the den.

Just a quick point, the computer you have is a Mac, short for Macintosh.

MAC stands for Media Access Control. Those unique (almost) numbers that an Ethernet card or Wireless card are allocated.

Have fun

P

Lol

Hi All,

Let me start by saying I am not a computer novice, so some of my points may be biased, so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
I use, very efficiently, Windows XP, VISTA, MAC OSX, Linux, and UNIX.

The discussions about the "better system - MAC or PC" I think has NEVER really been addressed in any proper way. I read a review recently, and the author made mention that he was tired of stupid fanboy reviews/discussions about the better OS - but then mentions in his review about the amount of lights on PC's versus MAC's - what the hell????

I think people who are trying to decide on purchasing one or the other are not really been given the truth and what makes one better than the other - in some circumstances. Let me state NO SYSTEM IS BETTER!!!

There are things that each system offers that should be the deciding factor on choosing your next system, here are a few points, my thoughs on using them as criteria, and hopefully some proper guidance for that newbie (or want to be newbie!:))

1. Windows has more programs available - yes it does, but NO person runs them all, try to figure out what you need to do, and see which OS offer's that - if both do, then you are off to a great start (more than likely they do). The exception comes to games, where the PC kills! But you can normally find more than enough programs to practically do anything on both systems.

2. MAC is more stable - really? I have read posts where people state that they have problems with their PC's and never had a problem with their MAC - REALLY? I have had my PC's for quite awhile - yes I run my antivirus software (don't on my MAC), and don't go to sites that ANYONE can tell they will get infected - and I NEVER had a problem - I saw another post where the author indicated that you only need to restart a MAC once a month or so - really of an OS update - I have done that on my PC - I did not restart it for a YEAR!!! PC's are more vunerable to viruses - but have you read one of the MAJOR reasons for the MAC OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) release - read it properly - the possibility of virus attacks means that Apple must make it more secure. It is the world we live in, and PC's are the target - they are the world dominator.

3. Ease of use - many people state that Apple is more intutive, easier to use etc etc, and I disagree, the both systems are easy to use, they have their own ways of doing things and both ways have their good and bad - it is a personal choice - one major plus of Windows is its configurability - you can practically theme the crap out of Windows to resemble anything you want - like the MAC OSX dock, but have XP/VISTA? - theme it, and you are practicaly running on a MAC. This is where MAC falls shy - it does not allow the user to have that flexibility in configuration - think about Firefox vs IE.

4. Cost. It is true that MAC's generally cost more than PC's - but if you get a good quality PC - the costs are about the same - the real issue is the budget purchaser - s/he will find a PC closer to their budget faster than they will find a MAC. Sub $500 PC's are common place - not on the MAC side.

5. Hardware. MAC fanboys have also used the arguement that Apple makes the hardware and the OS - so it will work better together - what? So they don't use (used to use Motorolla) Intel chips? Ahat about the high end video cards, sound cards, etc, etc - Apple makes them all? NOPE. No company can be the answer to everything - and because you design the OS does not mean you would make the best printer/sound card/video card - so really dumb argument. The problem has been that Windows tries to satisfy every suer out there, and sometimes leaves things a bit too "open" - hence the problems that they are faced with. MAC/Apple on the other hand has not been open with their OS - and this is one of the main reasons why it lags behind in its marketshare. But this is their strategy - and I will not say with business strategy is better.

Well I hope this helps at least 1 reader to make the proper choice - no system is better, and because your best friend uses PC or MAC does not mean it is the best solution for you. Do you research - know what you want to do - a PC?MAC (Computer) really is only good for 3-5 years - after that the number of changes in technology may substantiate a new purchase - this is not always true (let's say all you do is check your emails, probably write some letter's etc - you computer will last longer), for those who wants to edit/create movies, audio editing, graphic designing etc, a PC every 3 years is not unheard of. Don't buy a PC that will last you for the next 15 years is what I am saying, if you are unsure where and what you want to do, no need to to buy the Ferrari to pick up the kids - buy the Civic, and then in a few years make a more informed purchase.

Good luck.

Sam.

I guess the Mac Pro 2009 is an i7 based W3500 sequence Xeon? What is your PC that outruns it?

I would suggest monitoring the memory utilization on your system while running your Photoshop tasks. You may be running into memory swaps causing the system to bog down.

The crashes you report are likely caused by Adobe not porting Photoshop to 64 bit or possibly with the filters you are using. I am a little surprised that you did not opt for the 8 core system, but it still should be able to process the workflow although slower.

If you are running into memory issues (page outs/swap used), you can easily add memory via third party suppliers such as macsales.com much cheaper than Apple. I have 16GB installed on my system and have yet to run into any memory issues.

As for the cursor, you might want to check out http://www.macchampion.com as they have some beta software that looks like it would work for you.

Check the Service Order under Networking and ensure that Ethernet is at the top of the list. Next check under the Advanced Tab that everything looks alright. You may need to set it manually and possibly change the MTU setting other than 1500 for your specific network.

If you have a Network Team (or person) they should be able to know what is the correct setting.

Also, try moving the system to another port and or swapping out the patch cable to the port. I have seen bad ports and/or bad patch cables cause systems to drop off the network in the past.

If you have a managed switch, you can have your Network Team (person) check the port for errors too.

Brian:

Have you tried iWork? It contains truly a truly elegant word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program, which are not nearly as bloated as those in Microsoft Office. If you have not tried this suite, I think you might be pleasantly surprised. It is quite reasonably priced, too. I have not used contact managers, other than Address Book on the Mac, so do not know which option might suit you there.

The move from Motorola happened a few years before OS X was a developed system.
Apple left the Motorola '030 and '040 processors behind when they went with the IBM G3 processor and through to the G4 and G5 processors. (Some were built by Motorola, but not many)
The move to OS X happened in 1999 with the OS X server and 2000 with the release of the public beta of 10.0
In 2002 there were rumors of a Mac capable of running OS X with an x86 processor but it wasn't until 2005 that Steve Jobs announced the move to Intel processors. OS X, by this time, was 5 years old and on version 10.4.x

Apart from that, I agree with you

P

No you're wrong the move from motorola to intel happened in 2005 with computers shipping in 2006 if you don't believe me here it is from Apple.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html

Let me clarify, you are right in that IBM was PowerPC actually it was a joint motorola-IBM-Apple venture. When I refer to the move to Intel from motorola I was referring to the Power PC chip so, my bad.

No you're wrong the move from motorola to intel happened in 2005 with computers shipping in 2006 if you don't believe me here it is from Apple.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html

You will note that I said that the announcement was made in 2005 and made no mention of the actual shipping date.

Don't see how that is different from your statement "No you're wrong the move from motorola to intel happened in 2005"

P

Sorry but your experience is likely user error more than the Mac OS. First off, it's not the computer as much as the OS driving it. Mac's are overpriced. The equipment they offer is not better than anyone else despite Apple's claims. What you are paying for is the development costs of their OS and the large volume of support personnel. Keep in mind that relatively speaking Apple has a low market share and yet has a large support staff for that share. I myself have experience 3 major hardware failures within 3 years on my iMac. Check that against 3 other brand, HP, Compaq (pre HP), and Dell. I can't seem to break these other machines. The Compaq is a basic notebook that has flown off my wife's Suburban roof more times than I can count. Other than scratches the thing has survived.
Now on to OS's. I have used everything from VAX to Unix/Linux, NeXT, BeOS, basically every Microsoft flavor (pre-Win up to current Win), Dr-DOS, and every flavor of Apple OS. Every OS has pro's and con's. Frankly Win 7 has been the best hands down. I have little or no restrictions on software availability or Web add-on access. Unix/linux is right in there with Windows. For the occasional bad guy that tricks the system with a addware I can generally eliminate the intruder very easily without authoring scripts. However, on the MAC OSX life is a different story. For instance I have a simple case for you. Go to the WTTW or some other public station and load in the add-on for the Why Flyer game for kids. Now reboot your mac and open up Safari. Within a few minutes you will get a nice little audio surprise that, depending upon your speaker volume, will make your kid wet themselves. Now go in and try to eliminate that add-on. Can't do it without a complete system reload. Sure Apple blame's Adobe for the Flash add-on, but frankly it's Apple's restrictive practices that led to the issue! Furthermore, for the security minded individual, on an install script all a bad guy has to do to is set the "require permissions" to false and wait for the typical Mac user to say install me. Bingo, they can install a program to control your system. I did a nice demo at a Apple store to teach the 11th grade salesperson a lesson in this. His manager doesn't like me in the store now thanks to my demo being shown on the multiple flat panels along the store wall.
Finally, OSX is definitely less intuitive than Windows. Most people can blindly do what they need to do on a Win driven PC. Mac's on the other hand are trying so hard to be easy that they become difficult to use. The exception is the iPhone which I find to be the best and easiest portable OS to use. The only exception there is a lack of flash and WMA support. That irks me, but because it is Apple I know I have no choice.

Frankly my iMac is an overpriced Web email reader. It's kinda like an iPad. If you want to do real work get a Win, Unix, or linux driven PC.

And after all that "experience" you still go off on a rant that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the post you responded to.

Most of your rant, the coherent parts anyway, seems to be a case of you just not knowing how to do a particular thing and being too lazy to google it.

Couple of things to keep in mind:

1: No one cares how many different operating systems you can rattle off, because there's always someone who can rattle off more
2: If you're going to reply to someone's post, try and keep it related to something said in that post
3: Repeat after me: My experiences do not represent the sum total of everyone else's
4: Whatever yours or my opinion of Apple's practices (I tend to agree to some degree) you can't argue with the fact that they've gone from being 6 months away from going out of business to being one of the single most profitable companies in the world, so they must be doing SOMETHING right. In that same time period, Microsoft has seen its fortunes reverse, going from a major powerhouse to a former superpower desperately trying to hold on as its empire slowly slips through its fingers
5: Can't imagine why a store manager wouldn't want you in their store when they're trying to run a business and you're just trying to stroke your ego proving that you're smarter than an 11th grader. Why you feel the need to prove that is something you may want to ask yourself. If I were the store manager, I'd boot your sorry **** out too

Use whatever you like, it's nothing to me, but ask yourself why it matters to you what other people use? Who exactly are you trying to convince you're right, everyone else, or yourself? Who uses what operating system isn't the usual zero sum game. My using a Mac in no way means that you are unable to use Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, or whatever else. So go right ahead and use Windows if that's what works for you... Except that clearly you're exaggerating the situation significantly or you wouldn't feel the need to be an overbearing smug sod about it. You're seeking validation in convincing others that yours is the "correct" way, which says that your own convictions in your beliefs are not very strong. However, if others come to think the same way as you, then surely you must be right. Well, no, it doesn't as a matter of fact. I don't care how many people are members of the Flat Earth Society, it doesn't make them any less wrong.

Next time you feel the need to post something like you did, you should maybe instead devote that time and energy to a little introspection evaluating the motivations behind your actions. Your post is literally dripping with insecurity right from the very beginning and continuing all the way to the end. Maybe you should seek to figure out why you're so insecure on this subject and maybe seek to eliminate that insecurity rather than reinforce it.