Posted on 01/30/2008 8:29:57 AM PST by Scoutmaster
Please excuse the vanity, but I know many of you have very definite (and often informed) opinions about PC v. MAC.
I have an opportunity to upgrade my home desktop and laptop with designated funds from work. In other words, somebody else’s money, enough to seriously soup up a Mac Pro desktop and a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. If I choose PC, then I'll upgrade only my laptop. No need to upgrade my PC desktop - the drudgery of re-installing software far outweighs the little jump I'd make in PC desktop technology.
If knowing about my PC use is helpful, read on. If not, then just skip to the asterisks below.
Me? PC user since I bought my first desktop in 1991 but have since built about a dozen PCs for my family, the last couple with fairly high-end Core 2 Duo-type specs. I have a better working knowledge of the Windows XP Pro OS and PC hardware than most computer users, but in a room of IT people I’m a lightweight. My kids can call from college with a Windows OS or software problem and I can usually talk them through the fix or the installation of new or replacement hardware. No real Windows OS problems, perhaps because I’m finicky about regular maintenance of the OS, cleaning unnecessary files, fixing minor registry errors, defragging, optimizing the start-up processes, removing all remnants of programs I no longer use, etc. Feel as though I would be starting from knowledge point zero if I switch to a Mac.
Job involves lots of writing, so for work purposes my PC is a basically a word processor/research tool which I use for hours each day.
At play, I’m a heavy Internet user, a moderately heavy web design/video/graphics/Flash animation user, with a developing knowledge of 3d graphics/3d animation.
Often use my laptop for graphics, video, and animation play when on the road.
When I start to think Mac, my practical side reminds me that I have a metric Peruvian buttload of Windows software to support my graphics/animation addiction (software acquired at educational prices, a minor blessing) – such as most of Adobe’s current web design, graphics, photo, and video/DVD production software; and Maxon, Maya, SoftImage, and Z-Brush 3d graphics/3d animation software. I’m a sucker for 'superior' after-market (Open Source, if possible) administrative/maintenance software alternatives to the standard Windows programs - Diskeeper Pro, Firefox, Opera, GetRight downloader, etc.
Our family operates on a pass-down hierarchy of computer technology, so my switching to Mac would eventually result in Macs for three PC-savvy kids and for a please-just-do-it-and-don’t-make-me-learn-that-computer-stuff spousal unit whose computer use is frequent but involves little more than Office Word, Quicken, and the Internet.
* * * * *
I’ve read what I can find from technical pros and everyday geeks who tried and documented a test-run switch to Mac – some of whom drank the Mac Kool-Aid and some of whom stayed with a PC.
Spoke with several of our IT people. Mac would be compatible to network with work, but they warn that they are notably unsuited to assist with any Mac-related compatibility issues.
* * * *
I realize I could acquire the Mac versions of the video production, animation, and graphics software I use most often. I realize a Mac would run Final Cut Pro and other respected Mac-specific software titles. I also realize that in a pinch I can set up the Mac for dual OS and keep running the Windows version of that software.
What practical advice would you give to help me make an informed PC v. Mac decision?
got my girl a mac book last xmas and myself one this xmas. could not be happier. ichat is amazing. you might have to buy word. dont think macs come with it. i am sure you know all this already, but just saying that i am very happy. i had a dell before this. macs are much more user friendly and can do some really cool stuff that isnt really necessary, but it is cooool!
Team Fortress 2 is better.
I thought you might be.
“For running a single-threaded application (which most are), YES, a 3.2GHz Core 2 Duo will be faster than 8 Xeons. And for right now, your applications like a word processor or a web browser are...you guessed it, single threaded.”
A Core 2 Duo at 3.2 gHz is not faster than a Xeon at 3.2gHz.
“#3: IO, the hard drive is usually the speed bottleneck, not the CPU. Apple has the standard drives or the expensive SCSI option. I have 10k RPM SATA drives. They’re noticably faster than the standard; sometimes just as fast as the SCSI options. But certainly cheaper.”
Outdated info, as is to be expected from a PC user, I suppose... Apple uses SATA in all currently shipping products, with the exception of the MacBook Air. In addition, the Mac Pro and the servers have the option of SAS 3GB drives at *15,000* RPM, which makes your 10K drives look, well, slow.
Correction: That should be 3GB/sec drives, not 3GB *capacity*.
Boot camp did it nicely in 10.5.1 - they both seem to be working very well. (new partition, and you need the BIG HD to do it and end up with enough space left over)
Drag and drop holding Cmd and Option to create an alias, just like a bookmark. Or right-click and select to create an alias. These are live, and will follow the original file wherever you move it on the computer.
Additionally, OS X gets symbolic links from UNIX. For all intents and purposes, the symbolic link is the original file (UNIX folders are files), not a shortcut. And it gets hard links, a level lower, which are in the file system as another name for the file's data. A system of multiple hard links is used to run Time Machine's backup.
Windows can do these too, but it's pretty difficult and dangerous unless you know what you're doing. A program called ntfslink can smooth things a little.
If the company is paying for everything, including software upgrade costs, etc, go with a Mac. Just make sure they know how to network the thing!
I don’t advise you to vote for McCain, no matter how much they pay.
Not if you value your sanity. My wife and I made that mistake in October and now the $1300 computer is pretty much collecting dust. It is totally unintuitive, doesn’t run office programs well, won’t run any of the online music services except iTunes, renames all the normal functions with cutesy names, and everything is backwards. Other than that is a pretty little thing. So if you want style and hipness go for it, if you want functionality buy a PC.
Swordmaker,
Simply put you are wrong about the security flaws. A simple search on CERT, SANS or any other popular security website will yield a TON of OS-X advisories, not just trojans but buffer overflows too.... including Zero Day Exploits.... it’s just the way it is...
And any serious security proffesional with thier eyes open knows it.
Furthermore, if you know much about the motivation of malware writers/blackhats. It really is largely about numbers. The more zombies you get the bigger the DDS attack you can stage. The more computers you compromise...the more SS numbers, credit card numbers, etc you have a chance to snag and sell. The more sites you deface.... the bigger the street cred you get. That’s just the way it is with these guys.
They can choose to put out a hack that only has the potential to hit 10% of the possible target pool....or they can choose to put out a hack that has the potential to hit 90% of the potential target pool. It’s a no brainer which they are going to choose... it’s as simple as that.
Not real familiar with Leopard... I’ve already granted that. However POSIX compliance isn’t that big of a deal.... Windows is mostly POSIX compliant.... you just have to enable the shell/services for it. MS needed to do that in order to meet Fed purchasing requirements. Heck many flavours of Unix (including most Linux distros and FreeBSD) don’t really do any better then that.
The thing about most of the Unix distros I’ve seen is not that they are bullet proof or anything like that.... it’s that they tend to let you dig down to alot more granualar level of how the OS functions then MS... and they often tend to install with only minimal functionality/services enabled. That is good from a security standpoint but comes with a real trade off from the administrative overhead aspect....especialy for home users. Admitedly the last time I worked with Mac was only very early OS X... but it certainly didn’t seem to follow that design philosophy....and I can’t imagine later versions would have changed that radicaly.
Frankly a good Windows admin can achieve much the same results as you would see on a Unix box....although it sometimes takes outside tools/kits to achieve. ( The Windows Servers I administer... which are commercial servers hosted on the internet for Fortune 1000 companies haven’t had one successfull penetration in over 7 years of operation.... and we get dozens of attempts every hour).
Plus, it’s REALLY, REALLY dumb advice for anyone to run naked on the internet without some sort of FW (hardware or software) on the point of entry to thier home network....regardless of the OS they run on thier machines.
Especialy a home user. There are alot of even HW level vulnerabilties out there. Plug a printer or multi-function machine into your home network and it may well try to grab a publicaly exposed IP from your internet point of access and if it’s setup with SMNP functionality.... as many of those are these days... you’ve got a built in vulnerability without even having to turn your computer on.
Look, I’m not trying to argue thst MS is God and Mac crap.... just that for most home users it ends up being a choice between Coke and Pepsi.
3 GB/s describes the interface, not the drives. A good 1 TB 7200 rpm SATA drive may get you around 80-90 MB/s average transfer rate. 10K and 15K hard drives should up this for a similar-sized drive and give much better seek times.
I have both, use my PC for everyday computing, and my Mac for audio, video, and graphics. I tend to agree with Turbopilot, with software for all the functions you use now available on both platforms, and with your current investment in PC software, it’s probably not worth starting over. The audio, graphics, and video tools are about the same, now.
Love my Mac, enjoy the more accessable way of working that it offers, and the dependability, but haven’t had any overwhelming desire to move everything I have to Mac.
You lost me at “alias”...I hope users don’t have to know anything about UNIX file systems to create shortcuts or back up :-p I sure don’t know anything about them.
On a side note, do you know anything about iTunes? I got an iTunes gift card for Christmas ‘06 and it’s just been sitting on my desk. I thought I’d seen somewhere that they expire after six months, but I can’t find anything on the Apple web site or by a Google search. I’d like to know one way or another if the card is still good.
Interestingly I have found just the opposite to be true. Everything we try to do on the Mac takes at least twice as many clicks than on the PC. And that doesn’t count all the stuff that doesn’t work at all.
The way I deal with this is that I just plug my old USB Windows mouse into any one of the USB ports on my Mac, and it just works. End of problem. Left click, right click, scroll wheel, it all just works.
Years ago, I splurged on a shareware application called USB Overdrive. This adds all sorts of extra control to your mouse, trackball, etc. In about 3 minutes the old Windows mouse was able to do some amazing tricks. $20 today. And you try before you buy, so if you don't like it, you don't pay.
If you don't have an old USB mouse, go get a new one for about $20.
I used PCs for ~20 years and made the switch a little over a month ago. Best thing I ever did (computerwise)!
And I can confirm everything Maneesh said.
Also, Scoutmaster, if you want to run Windows software, I recommend using VM Ware Fusion, to allow you to boot Windows. You can download a 30-day free trial, to see if you like it before plunking down the $79.
Do you have that one?
I will buy a new computer early next year. Returning to MAC.
No, Just a poor PC user. It’s on my “wish list” for when I win the lottery..........along with my Jag........
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