Do Macs suck?

[Leon]

i dig my Linux. i doubt i will ever go back to Windows or Mac. like John said, they're just logical

(of course, i think most all physicists end up running unix/linux systems )

 

[Ken]

I meant up-keep as in deletion of viruses and spyware, along with spending $$ on new anti-virus and anti-spyware to detect and delete said programs.

There are resources such as housecall.antivirus.com that provide free virus/spyware detection and deletion. Adaware also is free.

Anything that crashes as much as windows sucks. I'm not saying mac is much better. It costs more money, but you don't have to worry so much about picking up hijackers and crap. Windows certainly crushes mac for compatibility, but if there waqs no advantage in mac, it certainly wouldn't exist to this day.

How often does Windows crash? Mine? Never. It may be bogged-down by too many things running, but that's a system resource issue, not an O/S problem.

Users are more to blame for their problems than Windows is. They want to have P2P filesharing, download games, view porn, and watch funny little executables. And they want it ALL for free and they want it RIGHT NOW.

Trouble is, they don't think. They just keep clicking "OK" when Windows is trying to warn them they're making a mistake. Is that Windows problem? No. Windows will give you as much rope as you want to hang yourself because it's trying to make your life easier.

As an aside, I don't think Macs suck.

 

[Jesse]

Im buying a mac for recording, their shit for anything else.

 

[DSS3]

I didn't read every post; I don't need to.

Mac vs. PC boils down to personal preference, just like Mesa vs. Marshall.


If it weren't for the cost factor, though, I'd be using a MacBook and Digital Performer.

 

[bostjan]

i dig my Linux. i doubt i will ever go back to Windows or Mac. like John said, they're just logical

(of course, i think most all physicists end up running unix/linux systems )

Most Theorists seem to stick to unix so they can share their FORTRAN codes more easily. Every experimentalist I know uses either PC or mac. Linux seems popular with Math people.

I think they all have their share of strengths/weakness (price notwithstanding)

 

[Vegetta]

Keychain Manager has nothing to do with allowing or not allowing people to use software... it just manages permissions and passwords.

Fonts can be installed per-user or system-wide. It all just depends on if you put them in the user's font directory or the system font directory.

GarageBand is pretty great considering it's FREE with the computer. And the samples that come with it are also pretty great considering they're FREE. Lots of other loops can be downloaded for FREE as well.

Nothing drives me nuts more than people talking shit without getting their facts straight.

the keychain manager continually asks for passwords If I am loggin in as a user with admin access it should never ask me for a password

Installing fonts on a user basis vs system

if You install fonts per user it Totally fucks up Photoshop, In Design and Illustrator (not to mention MS Word 2003) font errors are no fun/ It especially fucks up in design - when you export a job and the printers cannot use a file because the fonts are all fucked up then yes that is a serious problem.

I didnt really bust on garage band It is ok considering it is free - it does not have the functionality of Sonic or cubase but it works (Or I would not be able to use it for Video BG music)

I am not talking shit, simply stating how a mac has treated me- I am no computer nub Like i said in my post BOTH systems have their problems (There are things in windows that drive me batshit as well)

There are things about the mac i like (Final cut HD FTW) But goging a a strict price basis I will pick a PC every time (low Price FTW)

 

[Vegetta]

I'm not a mac guy at all, but I'd love a mac recording rig.

Lol- it has its good days and its bad- none of the music I've done has been anything spectacular but sometimes it can be fun- usually tho I have to churn out stuff asap so I can't really get too crazy.

 

[Mastodon]

Who the hell cares? The mac is safer.

If I were a recording artist, I would own a mac. I am not however, so I dual boot Linux and XP. XP for gaming, linux for everything else.

GOOOOOOOO RED HAT! WHOO!

 

[gojira]

I have been a die-hard PC guy my whole life. Everyone has always said "Macs are better for music and art" but I just never bought into it.

However, I am at the point now, where I wouldn't mind having a Mac IN ADDITION to my PC. In addition to playing guitar, I also like to delve into electronic music production, and even some rap. I use alot of Propellerheads software, which is available for both PC and OSX, but I've used both, and OSX beats it hands down. Also, Logic (the program) is now exclusive to OSX.

I'll continue to use my PC for web/games/misc while the Mac is going to be dedicated for music and such. I won't have to worry about deleting funny videos that I want to keep, so that I can make room on my harddrive to store my new song idea.

DONT buy into the whole "macs are better for creative people" bullshit - they became the industry standard in the eightees and since then have fallen way behind the pc platform for graphics by miles - I haven't worked in an fx house that uses macs for the last ten years.

Logic has now returned to the PC BTW - it's once again cross platform.

OSX is a nicer platform in my opinion, but the audio performance of mac and pc depends entirely on the card in the machine - I've seen nothing that proves one is better than the other - although you certainly get twicew the speed out of the PC for the same money......

dont be so eager to own one of those bloody cheese-graters.

 

[darren]

Logic is not available for Windows. Apple has just released a "Universal binary" version that will run on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

When ProTools first came out for Windows (after being a Mac-exclusive for years), tons of recording studios went out and bought Windows machines for their ProTools rigs. Many of them have since switched back.

You have to be very specific when you're talking about "graphics". In 2D design, they still pretty much rule the roost. Mac OS has always handled typography better than Windows, and continues to. Having used Illustrator and Photoshop on both platforms, i find they perform equally well, but to get the best performance out of Photoshop under Windows, you MUST partition your drive and put your Photoshop scratch on a different partition than your OS, otherwise the Windows scratch disk and Photoshop end up tripping over each other. From a usability perspective, i prefer the Mac... the interfaces from one application to the next are more consistent.

In 3D, you're right... Windows is far more common, and there are more choices available, from CAD through 3D modeling and rendering. Some high-end options are available on OS X now, but it's rare to find a 3D artist that works on a Mac.

 

[noodles]

In 3D, you're right... Windows is far more common, and there are more choices available, from CAD through 3D modeling and rendering. Some high-end options are available on OS X now, but it's rare to find a 3D artist that works on a Mac.

Unless you have bottomless pockets, and you step up to a real platform, like SGI.

 

[darren]

Yeah, but we're talking about desktop computers here. SGI had such potential, but now they're pretty much a tiny niche player. Even the high-end studios don't use SGI any more. Pixar runs off proprietary software, and their render farms are full of Suns. (Or they used to be.)

 

[Rev2010]

ILM moved over to using Linux on PC systems ever since Maya came out for Linux


Rev.

 

[Jeff]

Unless you have bottomless pockets, and you step up to a real platform, like SGI.

SGI is obsolete and failed to keep up with the times. Now they're struggling and people can care less about their fancy crap, when they can throw a ton of commodity Linux machines together and render.

See Yoda or the battle scene from Lord of the Rings: A Two Towers for examples.

 

[gojira]

Logic is not available for Windows. Apple has just released a "Universal binary" version that will run on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

When ProTools first came out for Windows (after being a Mac-exclusive for years), tons of recording studios went out and bought Windows machines for their ProTools rigs. Many of them have since switched back.

You have to be very specific when you're talking about "graphics". In 2D design, they still pretty much rule the roost. Mac OS has always handled typography better than Windows, and continues to. Having used Illustrator and Photoshop on both platforms, i find they perform equally well, but to get the best performance out of Photoshop under Windows, you MUST partition your drive and put your Photoshop scratch on a different partition than your OS, otherwise the Windows scratch disk and Photoshop end up tripping over each other. From a usability perspective, i prefer the Mac... the interfaces from one application to the next are more consistent.

In 3D, you're right... Windows is far more common, and there are more choices available, from CAD through 3D modeling and rendering. Some high-end options are available on OS X now, but it's rare to find a 3D artist that works on a Mac.

thanks for clearing that up about logic -

let me ask you though - if I go out and spend 5000 dollars on a mac and 4000 dollars on a PC, which one is going to perform better for any of the tasks you have mentioned - I wouldn't put my money on the mac, and thats the one and only reason why I'll never buy one, I use one for a few clients i work for, but those are their machines. The old eightees dinosaurs still love there macs - and I'm yet to be given a reason why - aside from the fact that old habits die hard - the performance on them is ordinary. It's not really a question of what, but why - and i simply dont get it.

I have not in a single instance been convinced or even been hinted to why the mac is "better" for anything - and as they are considerably slower machines (again) i cant figure it out -

 

[gojira]

SGI is obsolete and failed to keep up with the times. Now they're struggling and people can care less about their fancy crap, when they can throw a ton of commodity Linux machines together and render.

See Yoda or the battle scene from Lord of the Rings: A Two Towers for examples.

SGI went fucking stupid - there machines still cost a fortune, and the performance is lacklustre for anything but tasks requiring massive amounts of cache - and even then they are pretty ordinary. I dont even know if they are still around.

 

[darren]

You use best what you use most. I've been using Macs as a professional graphic designer for more than a decade. I know from experience that i'm MUCH more productive using OS X than i am using Windows or (shudder) Mac OS 9, and that goes beyond the CPU and graphics card speed, the hard drive and RAM configuration. It's about actually getting the work done.

And for me, getting the work done means i earn more money in less time with less headaches, no downtime and i don't have to pay some IT guy with Microsoft qualifications up the yin-yang just to keep my machine from imploding.

Using a Mac is a business decision for me, not because i'm "some eighties dinosaur" too stuck in my ways to change. Macs also have a longer useful life and a higher resale value than a Windows machine.

 

[Jeff]

I think it's best summed up by what I did Monday night. 3 hours, $300 to set up a small business network, including locking down wireless, setting up VPN, and making sure there was a myriad of virus and spyware protection, along with a checklist of maintenence items to go through weekly/monthly.

All because Windows is too convoluted for the average user to secure easily. I don't think it's ease of use. Windows is easy to use. It's how easy something is to secure that is the key issue with OS's these days.

 

[Metal Ken]

And for me, getting the work done means i earn more money in less time with less headaches, no downtime and i don't have to pay some IT guy with Microsoft qualifications up the yin-yang just to keep my machine from imploding.

I've never read a single MSCE book or anything and for the most part, i've never needed any 3rd party help(except that thread i started.. then i realized i needed to format my drive for FAT32 instead of NTFS). I've built every computer i've ever owned, as well. Anyone with a little common sense can work on a PC without worrying about it too much. I'm glad i dont have a computer i have to take to a 'registered resale/repair center" whenever i have a problem, and that if i DO have a problem i can go to any store that carries computer parts and get what i need for cheap.

As far as resale value, i actually think that its irrelevant. Cause i never have sold a computer i've owned. the main box i had for years just kept getting upgraded over time, to the point where there were no original parts.
On top of that, i could built a very solid machine from the ground up for less than 700-800$.. which is a LOT less than 1200$ for the cheapest mac

 

[gojira]

You use best what you use most. I've been using Macs as a professional graphic designer for more than a decade. I know from experience that i'm MUCH more productive using OS X than i am using Windows or (shudder) Mac OS 9, and that goes beyond the CPU and graphics card speed, the hard drive and RAM configuration. It's about actually getting the work done.

And for me, getting the work done means i earn more money in less time with less headaches, no downtime and i don't have to pay some IT guy with Microsoft qualifications up the yin-yang just to keep my machine from imploding.

Using a Mac is a business decision for me, not because i'm "some eighties dinosaur" too stuck in my ways to change. Macs also have a longer useful life and a higher resale value than a Windows machine.

Sorry man but i have to laugh! - this is exactly what i mean - you use mac because you always have - "they have a longer useful life" - what on earth does that mean?

To be perfectly honest I vastly preffer OSX to windows from an end user perspective, however operating system has never impeded the speed of my productivity much. I'm currently typing this on a PC - in a few hours i need to go work on a g5 - neither machine bothers - but my only point is/was - one of these machines is faster than the other and it was half the price.

What i would like to see is mac dispose of their hardware completely - which in a way they have already done, and start to push macosx as a real alternative to wondows - that would be nice.