apple macs

[Toolin Around]

Decades ago I declared to the mac user group I belonged to I was ditching the mac and buying a pc (I would buy a mac again now that I know it will run windows). The reaction I got, you'd think I had just declared that all their kids looked like they had down syndrome (and NO I have no problems with people with downs syndrome but I bet you would if I said your kid looked like they had it).

Why do many mac users act like that? I'll let you in on a little secret that all the pc users have known for donkey's years... It's a machine, it's completely in-animate. It's not part of your family, talking nicely to it won't do anything. Don't take it personally. So calm down.

Not quite so, Honorary Bloke.

Most newspapers moved over to Windows based systems ages ago. All the major page layout, drawing and photo software programs are cross platform and have the same level of difficulty no matter which platform you use. Therefore, what smidsy said (‘only for the experienced’) is garbage.

The vast majority of advertising agencies, graphic design studios, and photo studios stayed with Apple. The number of ad agencies, design studios, and photo studios far out weighs the number of newspaper publishers out there at the rate of several thousands:1 (content creators verses media providers) which is why newspaper change over had little to no effect on Apple. 100’s of 1000’s of designers and photographers graduate each year around the world and are using Macs. There are next to no new newspaper publishers being set up each year.

I wouldn’t take much notice of smidsy. He is talking out his ????, he is simply spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) to justify his purchase and continued use of microsoft crap. I suspect he is suffering from what Mac users regard as a combination of "Stockholm Syndrome" and "cognitive dissonance" (use Google to find out what they are if you don’t know).

I agree with you completely Geoff Dean.

I would also like to thank microsoft for ALL the viruses, trojans, spywear, spam and all other mallwear out there. Thanks a lot microsoft. Fortunately almost none affect Apple Macs (except for spam) - one or two viruses, maybe, out of about 140,000 for microsoft PCs.

I read this just this morning -

Microsoft CEO Ballmer on why Apple is thriving: http://www.cnbc.com/id/25831319/site/14081545

Other content provider industries I have not mentioned that are Apple dominated are film/video and music.

[horse]

Sorry Tooln Around, it’s donkey's ears, not donkey's years (he he he). I know everyone says donkey's years but it is actually ears. Donkey‘s ears are long, meaning long years (rhyming slang).

[Toolin Around]

Sorry Tooln Around, it’s donkey's ears, not donkey's years (he he he). I know everyone says donkey's years but it is actually ears. Donkey‘s ears are long, meaning long years (rhyming slang).

They also live for a long time...

[Wildman]

OK, This is not an anti mac flame. From an end user perspective, it makes no difference what they use.

I am the national IT infrastructure manager for a sizable company and have a couple of fundamental issues with using Mac in the enterprise.

1: Pathetic warranty and service support. When things break (Mac hardware is no more reliable than PC, the components are the same), I want a vendor tech onsite no later than next business day to fix it. I do not want to take it to a mac service centre and/or pay more for business grade support.
2: Nightmare hardware to fix yourself. Try replacing the hard drive or optical drive on a macbook yourself. Put aside a couple of hours and get ready to void your warranty. We carry spare optical drives, hard drives and keyboards for our PC's (the most common failures) and replace them ourselves on the spot then call the Dell warranty department to get replacement components. A Dell latitude laptop hard drive takes 2 mins to swap, optical drive, 10 seconds, keyboard 2-3 mins.
3: MS Exchange. IMHO, this is the single server application that has given MS a very strong position in the business market. Nothing else comes close. Mac interoperability with Exchange is rubbish compared to Outlook.
4:Group Policy in Windows Server environment. When making system wide changes and upgrades to infrastructure, these settings can be pushed to Windows PC's automatically.
5: Hardware drivers. While proper digital multi functions like Canon and Xerox have Mac drivers, the functionality is far more limited than is available to Windows clients.
6:Single hardware vendor. From a business perspective, I refuse to be forced to be tied to a single hardware vendor. I have a good choice with PC's, Dell, HP, Lenovo/IBM just to begin with proper business grade desktops, laptops, servers and support.

PS: I am still waiting for a reason to use Vista in the enterprise too btw...will be sticking with XP for a while yet.

PPS: You will notice that none of my reasons listed above are to do with end user issues, all are related to issues an IT department has to deal with.

Cheers
Ben

[Waldo]

1: Pathetic warranty and service support.

Carp.

An example, I've always bought extended warranties with all my Macs, If I have an issue it's fixed promptly and within 3 days, if it's more - no issue as I run continuous backups to an external drive and have a PowerBook on hand in reserve.

If an agency or studio is linked to a colour copier, then it'll be to a Xerox copier with Firey. No problem.

[Wildman]

But you had to "buy" an extended warranty (note that I said I dont want to take it somewhere to get fixed or pay extra for business grade support). Also, you seem to think that 3 days is an acceptable turnaround, I dont, neither do our users which i why I need to be able to fix quickly in house without voiding the warranty. Next business day is the minimum acceptable in large businesses, critical systems are 24x7 4hr onsite response. Try getting that with a mac.

With the Multi Functions, I am talking about a general office usage, not media studio's. Macs have specialist uses where they do work well, however a general/common business network with Windows servers is not one of them.

[Waldo]

So? I had to buy an extended warranty. It gives me piece of mind that if anything farks up it's replaced or fixed. And if I want it fixed that day I pay a fee for that.

The extended warranty works out a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $100 per hour for someone to come to my business and that's excluding replacement parts charged by the tech bloke. Can you give me 3 years warranty for repairs and parts for about $350?

I miss the point. And if a person or business (typically agency/design studio) choose to use Macs then choice of one type of hardware is of no issue. How often does any Mac user have to replace hardware over the person with a PC?

But at the end of the day every one has a choice and preference. But to try and argue parts, OS stability of a Mac to PC it's wasting time.

[Wildman]

OK, I probably should have pointed out that Dell, for example, have 3 yr NBD onsite parts and labour warranty as standard on all their proper business grade machines (latitude laptops, Optiplex desktops), it doesnt cost any more.

Other people may have a different experience than I have had, I am merely expressing my opinion on things I deal with on a daily basis (which includes about 10 macs in a 140 person network)

[Waldo]

:insertshakinghandssmilie: , I'm too lazy to find it.

[smidsy]

One of the big issues with a Mac is the cost - I just spent $700 on parts and got a duel core 3.0ghz CPU, 500gig HD, a good graphics card and 4gig of high end ram - add to that $500 for the case and monitor I already had.
Similiar spec mac with a lower end graphics card and half the ram is $3k.

Plus, I am like Wildman, if this PC breaks I want to be able to crack the box and have it running again within an hour - not wait 3 days for some guy who is probably less qualified than me to fix it.

Back in the day, macs were the gun machine but they've had their day, they're over rated and their only useful purpose now is to keep the anti-trust lawyers off Bills back.

As for Vista, I've used it at Uni and it looks ok but it is full of anti file sharing trickery - ATM I use Win2k, when I can't get drivers for that I'll go XP and after that I'm Linux bound.
Cheers

[Waldo]

Back in the day, macs were the gun machine...

They still are, need to look no further than an 8 Quad Core Mac. Off the shelf PCs might have some of the Intel chips that Macs do, but not the top end.