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Posted on 03/17/2007 6:09:41 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Well, my experiences of both types of laptop this week has left me reeling. Where do I start?
Let’s start with the Mac, a MacBook with OSX preloaded.
The MacBook was a joy to look at, very well finished with a glossy white sheen that looked and felt good in the hand. And light.
On opening the thing had obviously been placed in suspension, and it just started. It found my network and was ready to use. The interface, OSX, with its one button for the mouse, threw me for a few minutes as I am VERY used to Windows with a two button mouse with a scroll wheel. But within a few minutes it was ok and I was off and running.
If you thought Windows was intuitive then you haven’t used a Mac lately. Everything worked as you think it should. From the perfectly designed email client to the built in iLife apps. Want a picture from here over there in that app? Drag it and drop it. And it’s there. It has been well thought out, and designed to be easy to use for a person. Not a USER, but a PERSON.
All of the “dialogue” boxes are made to explain everything in plain English, or close enough. It’s as though this machine has been carefully planned at thought about, and you can tell. A real pleasure to use, and the kids liked it too.
Now the Vista Laptop, an HP Compaq nc8430.
When I say Vista it had Windows XP on it so I had to load on Vista first. After picking this laptop up once and carrying it somewhere once I would have to say that I will not move it too often again. Man this thing is heavy. A beast. The case that came with it is HEAVIER that the MacBook. Think about that for a second, the case is heavier on its own than the entire MacBook. With the HP laptop inside it was heavy, and the strap dug into my neck. I couldn’t carry it very far. And its black, not a nice black, but that aggressive corporate laptop black.
So – I have to set up Vista. I will spare you that, but it’s been the last 24 hours or so of configuration after the Vista install that has been frustrating and well, just plain annoying. I wanted to thump the laptop, and I never got cross once with the Mac.
What’s with the keyboard? I’m typing, and suddenly the cursor jumps to another part of my document and starts typing there. Why? Who knows. It’s happened twice since I started typing this. And the dialogue boxes that pop up when you click on anything (the keyboard thingy just happened a third time!) not just once but two or three times. What is with that? Please – go away. And take the HP laptop with you.
The HP laptop is just not designed for people, it’s designed for USERS. And corporate users at that, so it comes with everything that corporate customers have wanted, ever. There’s a fingerprint scanner on the front, so that I can be checked. Whats wrong with a password, you asked me enough times for it. And Vista just isn’t designed for ordinary people, it’s designed for USERS, those mythical people who will won’t mind sitting down for 24 hours configuring a PC so that they can start to use it. HP, Microsoft, hire some designers!
A little on the biased side no?
Obviously HP makes smaller, more light weight laptops that are more consumer friendly. He's right that the one he has means business, that's why I own an nc8430!
Windows Vista can obviously come preloaded but I installed my from a network file share. It was a breeze!
I especially like the automatic resolution changes when I'm connected to an external monitor or projector.
I guess Macs really are for people who waste time with computers.
Vista sucks. I re-installed XP professional.
Prepare to be roasted and toasted by the MAC heads here, NO negativity about Apple is allowed with out the poster being attacked
This is my first post from my new laptop, an HP Pavilion, running Vista. I have to say that Vista is great. I listened to all the doomsayers who bragged about Mac and trashed Vista so looked for problems all afternoon. Found none; everything has been a breeze. My LAN in the house worked fine and with a few clicks I was accessing other shared drives on computers in the house. Setting up the wireless couldn't have been easier. The printer worked and even iTunes 7.1.1 is okay. This laptop isn't heavy, has a builtin microphone and camera (no masking tape required like in that stupid commercial). There are lots of nice features that might be "Mac like" but who cares, I like them. I only have one issue with my wireless internet and I think that's because of my ancient router. I'll Cat5 directly to the DSL modem to troubleshoot that.
I hope all MAC lovers love their MACS and all Vista lovers love their PCs. Can't we all just get along?
This statement made me question both the sanity and the judgement of the reviewer.
The choice of Vista or Mac is like being asked which way of torture you prefer... not much of a choice.
If those were the only two choices, I might consider an abacus or a slide rule.
Of course the author wanted to make it a non choice.
A laptop with a mature WindowsXP would be my choice.
Really, the difference between business and consumer computers is a bit blurry nowadays. It used to be that something like a Commodore 64 was a toy, while an IBM PC was a real business machine, and genuinely substantial differences backed that up.
But really you can run Office and web-based software just as well on the MacBook as you can on a HP, so I wouldn't say one of them is better or worse than the other on that basis.
Macs are for people who want a great computer and don't mind paying a bit more for it and having fewer software choices because of it. Of course if you like open source software, the Mac is the better platform by far, and has the great advantage over Linux that you can run the best of the proprietary software and free software worlds smoothly on the same machine.
I'm glad for your sake that you like Vista. When I visited Best Buy to see what it was like, the sales reps were clearly unenthusiastic. Nobody tried to show me any sort of "wow", and I thought it was an aesthetic disaster compared to MacOS X.
If you like your machine, I'm happy for you and hope you continue enjoying it. If you have an open mind, you might enjoy visiting the Apple store and checking out a Mac next time you're in the market for a computer. You might find it an interesting experience.
D
(David Dennis owns a 17" PowerBook G4 and other Macs).
The Mac OS is years ahead of Windows. Really, this OS makes Windows look like something made by Fisher Price. However, you can't really compare a Windows laptop against a MacBook in terms of hardware. While a MacBook is tiny, small, and financially reasonable, the max video card on a MacBook is 64M, the max available RAM is 1G, hard drive size is limited, and screen size is tiny. If you want a 128M Video card, a 15" screen, or the ability to upgrade your RAM or hard drive, you have to buy a MacBook Pro for $1500. Want a 17" screen or 256M video card? How's about a MacBook Pro with a minimum price tag of $2G. You absolutely have to go out of your way to buy a windows laptop for $2G's these days.
I opted for the bottom run MacBook Pro and am ecstatic. You push the "on" button, and this thing is ready to go in less than 30 seconds. No joke. To run any of the new programs I have downloaded, simply drag the file to the application folder. The only problem I can think of with the new machine is the newly generated frustration with my Dell.
Another note is tech support. Apple tech support is in America and staffed by Americans. I called in with a problem and told them where I was and how I got there, and instead of listening to Parmindher Sing tell me to reboot and then follow his retarded troubleshooting tree, they took my problem seriously and solved it from the exact point wher eI was hung up. After the phone call, the tech rep emailed me from his real email address (that I could reply to) to follow up. That phone call alone was worth the extra dough.
Lol...what an unbiased piece of writing.
Here's a Manszier bra for the effete.
helps prevent damage to your Mac’s finish.
For the 3%ers where productivity takes a back seat to style?
Peter Haus is a PC Windows user... so no, not biased. In a reply in the comments after the blog, he says:
"Matt, I liked it (the MacBook) and although it was only a relatively short loan, I think it was enough to infect me with enthusiasm. Needless to say I will be getting a Mac at the earliest opportunity. Talking about the one mouse thing, I have also been told that two button mice work just fine too if you plug them in. So now it’s just a question of when I switch and not if."
You mist not come around here often. :-)
I'm glad MS-Vista is working for you.
I'm also glad I left the Microsoft plantation long ago.
i have apparently mis-attributed the article to Peter Haus when that is actually just the name of the blog... the author is Peter Gilbert.
Peter works for the University of the West of England in the IT Services department on Coldharbour Lane at Frenchay which is on the outskirts of Bristol.
Sorry about that.
In the interests of validating PC user's impressions of people who like Macs, Peter Gilbert also lists himself as an "artist."
Was a beta tester for Windos 3.0, 3.1. Have used Windos 95, 98. Experienced with all versions of NT including XP. Every time a new version of Windows comes out, the general hew and cry was how bad it sucked; yet we (for the most part) use it and become comfortable with it.
Takes time to accept anything new.
Not that I’m promoting MS, I think it sucks in the biggest way, however it is the product that we are stuck with and it beats DOS.
Having said all this … my next ‘puter will be a Mac.
Wimp.
It sorta depends on the type of "negativity".
Is there a reason the blog of some guy who works in tech support for a college in England should be considered an authoritative source in a Vista vs. Mac discussion? Especially when the comparison given is as biased, uninformative, or unscientific as this one?
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