Computer users Please Help

[smidsy]

Hei Martin,
I have got no doubt that the Macs are a half decent machine, and they had the potential to be the dominant force in the PC world. They fell over in a spectacular way because Jobs and Wozniak locked up the source code and would not let other people write software for it - they became expensive because you had to buy the Mac brand software whereas with MS you could buy the generic stuff which was way cheaper.
Look at the history of Mac - the brought out the Newton, it was a great little machine, it shat on everything else around at the time, it sold plenty and they killed it because they decided they only wanted to concentrate on PC's.
The sad fact is that the only reason Mac are still around is because Gates bought in to the company and is propping it up, and Gates does this because it's cheaper and easier than suffering all the anti-trust grief he would suffer if MS was the only system going.

As for stability, I've got a Win2k box that has been stable for two years.

Cheers
Paul

[silentC]

My development machine running Win2K has been on my desk for four years now. I've never rebuilt it. I install patches from time to time as they come up. Never had a virus. Never had a 'blue screen'. Never had to touch the O/S (apart from installing the security patches). It does everything I ask it to (OK, it does say "Are you sure?" a lot). I've had problems with my mouse, with my keyboard (spilt my breakfast on it one morning) and with my ISDN modem but never with the box itself.

My boss recently asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a new machine. I said no - no need, this one is fine and it's a hassle building a new machine.

I think if there ever was an advantage to owning a Mac, the margin is growing ever narrower. I'm not saying they're rubbish. I worked with a guy who did everything on a Powerbook. He was happy, he did good (excellent) work. It's just interesting to me how fanatically anti-PC a lot of Mac users are.

[kiwigeo]

It's just interesting to me how fanatically anti-PC a lot of Mac users are.

Yes Im the first one to admit Im a Mac nut but you cant really blame me......I suffered years of PCs and Windows..hours of time wasted dicking with the OS (and hardware). The bottom line is its saves me time and time is money.

Cheers MFT

[kiwigeo]

Hei Martin,
The sad fact is that the only reason Mac are still around is because Gates bought in to the company and is propping it up, and Gates does this because it's cheaper and easier than suffering all the anti-trust grief he would suffer if MS was the only system going.

As for stability, I've got a Win2k box that has been stable for two years.

Cheers
Paul

All your comments taken on board Smidsy and I agree with 75% of same. All that aside the Mac and OSX do for what Windows and PC's dont....they work and they dont cost me time and money.

Glad to hear youre Winbox has been running stable for 2 years....wish Id had that sort of luck with my last PC laptop (Comcrap) and Win 98. It got to the point where both were costing me money....I had nothing to lose by at least trying the Mac and I havent regretted'the change...I just cant justify going back.

Cheers Martin

[silentC]

hours of time wasted dicking with the OS (and hardware)

This is my point. It's just something that I haven't had to do. I turn on my PC and work at it all day, then turn it off and go home. The same story every day and, with this particular one, has been the same for the last 4 years. Before that I had a different machine. The only reason I changed then was because my boss thinks you need to upgrade every couple of years. I resisted the last offer.

Maybe it's the kind of work I do. I use all the usual office stuff (Word, Excel). I use Adobe Photoshop. I develop in Visual Basic, C++, SQL Server. The only peripherals I have are a Printer and the ISDN modem.

The PC at home has a more checkered history but I put that down to a 3 and a 5 year old in the house. They've managed to find settings I didn't even know existed. Maybe I should buy them a Mac.

Nah

[vsquizz]

The PC at home has a more checkered history but I put that down to a 3 and a 5 year old in the house. They've managed to find settings I didn't even know existed.

AAaahHa, Have they developed the knack of cutting and pasting the desktop to all corners of the harddrive yet?. Mine are professionals at this.

Cheers

[silentC]

AAaahHa, Have they developed the knack of cutting and pasting the desktop to all corners of the harddrive yet?. Mine are professionals at this.

Cheers

Not yet but they managed to find a setting that forced you to physically dial the phone number of the ISP before it would connect. We had to click 'connect' then pick up the phone and dial the number then click OK and hang up when it answered. Took me ages to sort that one out. Do you think I could find the setting? At least it stopped the little darlings from getting on the internet by accident.

[kiwigeo]

This is my point. It's just something that I haven't had to do. I turn on my PC and work at it all day, then turn it off and go home.

(SNIP)

Maybe it's the kind of work I do. I use all the usual office stuff (Word, Excel). I use Adobe Photoshop. I develop in Visual Basic, C++, SQL Server.

(SNIP)

The PC at home has a more checkered history but I put that down to a 3 and a 5 year old in the house. They've managed to find settings I didn't even know existed. Maybe I should buy them a Mac.

Nah

My last 3 PC laptops never turned off 9 times out of ten without me having to rip the battery out. Glad to hear youre having more luck.

Youre obviously someone with more knowledge of computing than the average PC user....you probably have a slight advantage over average dolts like me who have the stupidity to expect a PC to turn on and off properly and do what you want it to do.

3 to 5 year old kids playing with my laptops?....no kids and the wife doesnt come near my computers. My problems were directly related to crap hardware running a crap OS.....plus generally crap back up service from suppliers of same.

Get your kids a Mac??? Definitely....but then they'll be hounding you for an Ipod.

Martin

[silentC]

Youre obviously someone with more knowledge of computing than the average PC user....you probably have a slight advantage over average dolts like me who have the stupidity to expect a PC to turn on and off properly and do what you want it to do.

Don't jump to that conclusion :eek: I assure you my expectations of a PC are every bit as doltish.

We are not comparing apples with Apples though (excuse the pun). You are talking laptops, I am talking servers. Perhaps the Powerbook beats a PC clone laptop hands down. I've heard they are a bit flakey - never owned one and hopefully never will. On the other hand, there aren't too many Macintosh servers around

[kiwigeo]

You are talking laptops, I am talking servers. Perhaps the Powerbook beats a PC clone laptop hands down. I've heard they are a bit flakey - never owned one and hopefully never will. On the other hand, there aren't too many Macintosh servers around

All laptops Ive owned have been major brands (Compaq, Acer, Toshiba, IBM)...Powerbook beats em all hands down.

Not clued up on servers.....I know that Apple does market a G5 Server and server version of OSX but that's all I know. Have a friend in Sydney running his office on same and he loves it.

As an aside......at work here Im running a sad ar...e Dell laptop running Win 2000 and tied into a Citrix server running over a satellite comms link...I hate it. Never seen a system where boot up takes 45 minutes and blocking text in a word document takes 5 minutes. Bloke next to me has just had the IT boys load up XP and its even slower....have told the IT lads to take there XP and shove it.