New Apple Computers!!! (1 Viewer)

[Michael_K_Sr]

And yet you went and got yourself a Windows box.

 

[Citizen87645]

 

[Ed Moxley]

I got a windows box because the stuff I wanted to learn and get into, was easier on a pc. I wanted to learn the pc, better than I already knew it. I really think everyone should have a mac AND a pc. Everyone should know how to use both. A lot of internet stuff is pc only. I'm still learning the pc.............

One day my wife will need a new mac, to do the work out of home that she does. Then I'll spend some time learning the new mac. I'm sure I won't like it as much, as the old macs.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Maybe he's running it on an AMD

Pretty interesting stuff. I've always admired Apple's style. MacOS has always been unbearable to use for me, though, and OSX didn't help matters any. The lack of a Start Bar is a fatal omission for me, and I find that the little bouncy icons aren't a sufficient substitute. Alt+Tabing (or is it Apple+Tab on Macs?) Switches by program rather than window, which I find very irritating. The most agregeous design fault for me is their menu bar. I often get confused which program I'm in because the menu bar isn't inside the program window. Windows Vista is moving in a MacOSX direction, and I don't really like it. I had to uninstall IE7 because the GUI was so problematic.

The long and short of it is, getting on the Intel bandwagon means that Apple is no longer sitting outside the fence.

EDIT: Just for kicks I made a mock-up of how Windows XP would look on the iMac:
[url=http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/3782/imacwindowsxp9de.gif] [/url]

 

[JeremyErwin]

It's apple-tab. And it's very crude by the standards of Exposé. I mean, throw your mouse into the upper right hand corner. Point to the one you want.

OK-- for you keyboard fans:

Press F9. Use the arrow keys to select which window you want.

The menu bar is at the top because it's easier to aim the mouse cursor at. Seriously.

 

[Ed Moxley]

Adam..............
You're right. I'm running the AMD 2400.........

 

[Christ Reynolds]

while some of those problems may arise, those types of problems come from a different operating system, not hardware.

i hate macOS with a passion, but apple knows what they are doing. they pride themselves on their computers being simple, easy to use, and stable. if they introduce a new architecture, they dont just jump in and make a lot of guesses. you can bet they did exhaustive tests before they even seriously thought about switching, nevermind making any announcement, or actually releasing a product. apple is a very smart company, and would never jeopardize their computing philosophy just for kicks. i'd bet that the switch will be excellent for the company, and will have few hiccups, if any.

CJ

 

[Sam Posten]

Aaaaand, in this corner is an article saying they wont be able to run:

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1003637

Either way I'm gonna have fun with my new box.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Interesting ideas here, but I'm sure we'll know in a week or so just how simple/possible it is to multiboot one of the new macs. From an apple point of view, official support for a multiboot configuration would be ideal, and help to make their machines a great gateway drug. Hell, selling a machine with a dual boot would be a great way to entice new users to the dark side...

 

[SethH]

Good article. The good news is that Vista should be able to run on the new Macs. I'm personally glad to hear that they have revamped the BIOS system. I was unaware that such major changes were being made and I think that will be a huge improvement for all concerned once Vista is released.

 

[Shaughan]

That a Stein of Maggok you have there, Posten or you just happy to see us?

 

[Ken Chan]

They only bounce when they need your attention. I would guess most users can fit their most commonly used apps on the Dock. It doesn't work as well with dozens and dozens of apps. If you're old school, you can always use the Finder and to the /Applications folder and launch them from there. One benefit of the way apps are packaged on the Mac is you don't have to drill down into folders to find the .exe; the icon "is" the app.

Other things under the Start menu can be found under the Apple menu, including (the often mentioned as contradictory on Windows) Shut Down.

 

[JeremyErwin]

To be perfectly honest, many applications still insist on putting little folders in the /Applications folder. I suppose that makes them easier to write for that other operating system.

I think the MacOSx system is at its best when the designers start from scratch and think-- "instead of copying cruder, less refined operating systems, let's find the best way."

Expose may be flashy, but it is also so very much superior to alt tabbing. It does require a modern graphics card, though. The little millisecond delay before it kicks in on cruder, more obsolete systems is irritating.

"Milliseconds? what's he talking about?" you might ask...

When there's any performance penalty, at all, the user has to think about using it--"eye candy or real work... eye candy or real work" With no performance penalty, it becomes second nature.

 

[Citizen87645]

I've been meaning to figure out the keystroke for doing that so thanks! I kind of feel dumb for not knowing sooner, but you go with what you know even though it may be slow!

 

[DaveF]

Christ: At the risk of derailing this thread, I'm really curious why you not just dislike OSX, but hate it passtionately.

I need a new computer, and the iMac 20" is so tempting. My girlfriend has a G5 and there's much to like about it. In particular, the Mac (generally) just works. The software I need is there. There's no need to chase after secondary apps to do what I want. It's all rolled up in the OS, iLife, and Office.

But I'm still a cheapskate, and the ~30% Mac price premium keeps me admiring from afar.

 

[Sam Posten]

Stein of Moggok and Solists Icy Wand from about 6 years ago if I remember right. I still play EQ1 and I think its a better game than EQ2, WOW or anything else out there and I've tried em all.

Current profile here:
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/ch...d=597000458937

Back to the matter at hand, any guesses whether the February ship date means January 25th, Feb 1, Feb 15, late feb, or later? =)

Sam

 

[Christ Reynolds]

then i'll be fair

ive been forced to use osx for school a few times. once was a course where we used mathematica, and a few times for some photoshop classes i took. not only would these computers lock up at random times, but i absolutely hated the user interface. ive heard great things about the stability, so maybe i got some bad machines, but they were at two different schools, and i probably tried a total of 10 machines. it was the user interface that really annoyed me. i cant name any specifics, as my last exposure was over a year ago.

i liked windows xp, but i got a REALLY nasty spyware infection, and said "f this". ive been running linux for about a year now. started off with ubuntu and disliked that, then went to fedora, now i'm running suse 10, which i anticipate staying with. i know that osx is based upon (or used to be?) unix on some level, so i'm aware of its technical superiority to windows. i havent even thought about spyware or virii in a year, nevermind trying to scan. sadly, there are one or two applications i need to go to windows for, but linux feels especially solid to me. if *I* liked the user interface better, and you could build your own machines, i'd probably be an apple fan. as soon as you can build your own mac (maybe with this new deal, you can), THEN apple will really see some success.

CJ

 

[JeremyErwin]

The early builds of MacOSX (10.0, 10.1) were less than stable. Apple really increased speed (Quartz Extreme) and stability with 10.2. Expose came along in 10.3, as (IIRC) did Safari. I'm not sure what 10.4 brought to the table, though if I moved back to 10.3, I'd probably miss it.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's not the bouncing that bothers me; I actually like that in that it serves the same function as when windows go orange in the XP start bar. It's that it doesn't always tie directly to which programs are open and forces me to click on the icon to go through which windows are open. It also that it overlays on top of my open windows. The nice thing about the start bar is that when windows are maximized, they are able to truly take up the entire screen, with the start bar just stealing a bit of the screen space. I find Photoshop on Apple to be a bastard to use because it doesn't have the grey background. If I click the wrong place I end up in a whole different program. The start bar, the menu bar being out of the program window, and the inability to make a window truly fill the screen are my three main problems with Mac OS X... problems I also had with Solaris back when I was a CS major. Take iTunes. Absolutely love it; my jukebox of choice. Having the menu bar unobtrusively in the window at the top makes it much east to use, as does the ability to truly maximize it. I also enjoy playing with the "guts" of my OS, and OS X makes it far more difficult to get to them.
While I share CJ's performance issues (I remember once in the dorm-side computer lab back at RIT the whole iMac side of the room slowly went down over a week and a half at one point, while none of the Dells had a problem. Even when the problem was less of an issue, a few would be down at any given time. But I don't hate the OS like CJ does. I just find it easier to work inside Windows. Maybe that's the fact that I've been working inside it in one form or another for well over a decade, but it just feels more natural to me. I also like the variety of software out there for it. I use a lot of programs I find on the internet while the best (VLC Media Player, Azureus) are multi-platform, many of the others aren't.

(I do a podcast, however, and we record in Garage Band on one of the other guys' Mac. Everything we do I could do on my laptop, but it would be a lot more difficult. So don't think I'm a blind Mac hater!)

 

[Citizen87645]

Pushing "f" toggles between various view modes, one of which is a full screen with grey background.