Apple and PC: the discussion continues. (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Mac users have a deeper understanding of the human condition and a mind open to the endless possibilities that lie ahead.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Mac users have a deeper understanding of the human condition and a mind open to the endless possibilities that lie ahead.

Ah, but which is cause and which is effect? Does buying a Mac make you wiser, or do wise people gravitate toward Apple's machines? Or is there actually a test for prospective Mac owners? Perhaps you actually have to define "human condition" in such a way that it sounds like a useful phrase rather than simply sounding pretentious (or vice versa).

 

[MickeS]

Oh come on. If PC's had a 5% market share, Mac users would be using them instead. It's all about trying to be different.
/Mike

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Does buying a Mac make you wiser, or do wise people gravitate toward Apple's machines?

Yes.

- Steve

 

[Paul Jenkins]

Mac users have a deeper understanding of the human condition and a mind open to the endless possibilities that lie ahead.

oh my, what a wonderful fantasy world you all live in

 

[Derek Miner]

News flash: if you insist on using the road less travelled, you shouldn't complain about bumps and potholes.

Fair enough.

 

[Joseph S]

What is the default disk drive for a Mac?

If you know my OpenFirmware password you can boot from whatever you want.

IDE, SCSI, USB, USB2, Firewire, Floppy, DVD-RAM, DVD, PCMCIA, CD, iPod, and whatever other thing you can stick an OS on.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Also of note is the claim that Mac users don't suffer from viruses. Very true.

True, since none of the evil virus writing people bother targeting the Mac, since it's got such small market penetration. If the market was 95% Mac, and 5% PC, for example, there'd be tons of Mac viruses, and M$ would be claiming how much better they were as they are virus free.

Martin.

 

[Dave Morton]

It always astounds me as why people get their undies in a bunch over a machine. I use a PC at work. I owned a PC at home up until 5 years ago. Then I bought a mac because I was tired of F'ing around with win95, especially when upgrading or adding new hardware. My G3 mac works fine. I don't need super gigahertz to run anything. I use it for word processing, e-mail, internet, excel, quicken. So far it has been very easy to use in comparison to my old PC. It hardly crashes and has been quite dependable for me.

I will say that my PC running win2K works pretty good and I don't have too many problems. But when dvd writers get cheap I will probably buy a mac again. Just because I've had good service/reliability with them. To me, the extra money is worth it because I think they have more longevity. But that is my opinion.

 

[Joseph S]

If the market was 95% Mac, and 5% PC, for example, there'd be tons of Mac viruses, and M$ would be claiming how much better they were as they are virus free.

However, due to Mac's use of hardware they still wouldn't be much of an issue. Since you can boot into OS 7,8,9, X from anything, included write-protected media, viruses could be removed with ease. If the machine is your own and you have access to the internals, you could also hardware reset the OpenFirmware or re-write it if need be without probs.

The case is bullet proof so make sure to get the appropriate matching Masterlock .

 

[MickeS]

That's nice, but not what I asked. I really wanted to know what the default disk drive is for a Mac, if it's not a floppy? I don't own one myself.

 

[MickeS]

What would be the equivalent of this in the PC world?

/Mike

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Most Macs come with CD-RW at a minimum. If you want to label that the "default drive" you may.

- Steve

 

[MickeS]

Steve, OK. Just like PC's in other words. well, except that they don't have a floppy.

 

[Shawn C]

Here's an opinion from a computer programmer:

Microsoft needs to be commended on the work they have accomplished with their operating systems. Most of the software problems that people had over the years had to do with the old 16-bit code hanging around for so long. You should see the hoops that Microsoft had to jump through to make your old 16-bit programs work in Windows 95/98. It was a nightmare. That's why Windows was such a mess for a while. They had to accomodate all kinds of legacy code and drivers for people that couldn't or wouldn't switch from their stone-age software/hardware.

Apple has the luxury of being able to write the software and build the hardware. This is ALOT easier than what Microsoft has to do. Microsoft have to be compatible with 1000's of configurations. They have done a good job with their driver program. If you have a halfway-brand-name component in your computer with a decent set of drivers, it IS going to work.

Speaking of drivers, the first versions of plug and 'pray' failing was not really Microsoft's fault. It was the fault of the third-party vendors. They had been writing drivers their own way, without regard for anybody elses hardware or drivers for years. They needed time to adjust to the new architecture and Microsoft needed to constantly update their standards. Remember "DLL Hell"? It doesn't happen anymore.

I have been using PC's since '92 and the only time I really had any sort of major problem was when I installed some sub-standard piece of hardware or software. 99% of Microsoft software has worked pretty well for me.

I run a Windows 2000 server and an XP Professional machine at home. Both of them are rock-solid and work perfectly.

MAC's are for people who can't make decisions. They are built for people that don't care what kind of components are in their system. They would rather buy a whole new computer when they want to upgrage something (well, they HAVE to since those new Mac's have basically zero upgradeability). You make make your PC last for years with incremental upgrades over time. If you want a new video card in the IMac or a new processor you have to buy an entirely new computer.

I like how they are basically bashing Microsoft in their ads, while at the same their #8 reason for switching to a Mac is the fact the Microsoft Office is available!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

MAC's are for people who can't make decisions. They are built for people that don't care what kind of components are in their system. They would rather buy a whole new computer when they want to upgrage something (well, they HAVE to since those new Mac's have basically zero upgradeability). You make make your PC last for years with incremental upgrades over time. If you want a new video card in the IMac or a new processor you have to buy an entirely new computer.

That's the funniest piece of nonsense I've read all week!
- Steve

 

[Mark Larson]

I've also found that Mac users are better endowed than most people, if you know what I mean.

I don't want to know how you found that out!

 

[Derek Williams]

From my point of view Macs are better. I have to deal with 600+ Macs at a middle school of 1800 students. The first two months I worked there I used Disk Copy (a Ghost like program but free from apple) and re-imaged every computer on campus based off of two different images. In two years not one computer has crashed from the OS. All my problems are users (not knowing how to use a computer Mac or PC) or something unplugged. The computers range form LCIII (1992 OS7.6) to iBooks (OS9.2).

The LCIIIÕs are still used for word processing and Internet access. What did Windows look like in 1992 and how many PCÕs from 92 are even usable? The GUI is almost the same as on an iMac.

DonÕt need a floppy disk to reinstall the OS I just boot off a CD with a fully functional GUI with full network access with no special configurations needed. The rest is just point and click. I teach a computer class and it take me an hour to teach the how to do a clean install on a Mac while it take me three 4-hour class to go through all the different ways to install Windows. Plus Mac donÕt have DLLÕs. Networking Macs is far easier than with Windows.

With a Mac I have 3 cords: power, keyboard and network. With a PC I also have a monitor, mouse on the tower, speaker, mic. I have one power cord with a Mac. I have 3 with a PC (Tower, monitor, speaker). The power cords are a issue with 4 Ð10 computers in a room in addition to all those cords tangling up. I can also exchange hardware from different models without loading drivers on any configuration.

PC and be upgraded cheaper but the average person upgrades about every 4 years. In the class I teach students bring in 3+ year old computers and it ends up it cheaper or the same price to buy a pre-built one from a local shop that has a warranty then to upgrade. OSX and 9.2 cost $99 of the complete OS vs. 200+ for Windows.

 

[RobertR]

Month after month, year after year, my PC hardly ever crashes. The computer doesn't get in the way of what I want to do. So purely on a functional level, there's no reason to switch to a Mac. I see people going into overheated subjective Ad-copy mode, which means they're abandoning the function argument . It reminds me of the subjectively based ad copy for buying a Rolex, when a Citizen will give you far greater accuracy and functionality at a much lower cost. Costwise, there's no comparison--you get MUCH more power and functionality per dollar for PC than for Mac (it seems like Mac has FINALLY abandoned the "Mac is faster" claim). In particular, I was able to build an HTPC quite cheaply (which has functionality that you CAN'T achieve with a Mac), and it's been as stable as my set top DVD player. Mac has nothing of interest to say to me on a functional or cost level.

 

[Derek Williams]

I saw this at another board. pretty funny. download the video.
http://www.lickmysweaty.com/truth/