[Rob Barron]

Yeh but then you only crack what needs cracking

LOL, everyone knows Windows and Macs are different and Mac users always insist their Macs are wonderful but I still haven't heard why other than the 'We don't get viruses' and 'Our graphics are better' stuff.

So come on, I am replacing my computer in the near future. Convince me to consider a Mac.... and forget any kind of technical babbling, just stick to ordinary guy at home wants to use computer for practical purposes. Why get rid of my PC and change to a Mac? Will every program I have got still run as that is vital. Particularly: CS2, Premiere Pro, Office XP, AOL (changing is not an option so don't bother with the 'AOL is rubbish stuff') Flight Sim X Deluxe, Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Fireworks 8.

This isn't being facetious, I am very genuine so all joking aside, I would be very welling to be convinced but it needs to be for better reasons than a bit of internet security.

You might want to do this on antoher thread though as we are off-topic.

Cheers,
Rob

[JMitchell]

Originally Posted by Steve

Not even closely related subjects are they though? I honestly don't see the connection?

You know what I mean though....Windows just seems to leave so many flaws in its software, and macs just....don't.

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

Yeh but then you only crack what needs cracking

LOL, everyone knows Windows and Macs are different and Mac users always insist their Macs are wonderful but I still haven't heard why other than the 'We don't get viruses' and 'Our graphics are better' stuff.

So come on, I am replacing my computer in the near future. Convince me to consider a Mac.... and forget any kind of technical babbling, just stick to ordinary guy at home wants to use computer for practical purposes. Why get rid of my PC and change to a Mac? Will every program I have got still run as that is vital. Particularly: CS2, Premiere Pro, Office XP, AOL (changing is not an option so don't bother with the 'AOL is rubbish stuff') Flight Sim X Deluxe, Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, Fireworks 8.

This isn't being facetious, I am very genuine so all joking aside, I would be very welling to be convinced but it needs to be for better reasons than a bit of internet security.

Cheers,
Rob

Well for starters if you get a mac, although it will be more expensive, it should be more powerful, and run a little faster too. I am pretty sure every program will run except maybe flight sim, but you can get a program to run windows stuff anyway. I use AOL so no comment . Installation and removal is tonnes easier, file access better, organisation simpler. The mac is a computer perfectly suited to dealing with photographs and media, whereas the PC is for word processing and games (as in serious gamers, cos mots games come out on PC).
If only I had one....


[EDIT: Ooops...I'll leave this one as it's a reply, but if it continues I;m sure a mod can move it

[orangepeel]

Originally Posted by JMitchell

You know what I mean though....Windows just seems to leave so many flaws in its software, and macs just....don't.

That is just lies. mac os is riddled with flaws just like every other OS. They do however tend to be unexploited. This isn't because it's hard, it's because it's not worth the effort.

Why write an exploit that affects 2% (at most) of the computer world when you can write one that affects 90%. It's simple logistics.

Also when mac does write popular software, iTunes, it DOES get attacked and does cause user problems.

You know, technically I don't have much of an issue with a mac - it's just an expensive pc after all. my issue is with the users. they seem to live in a self-satisfied spin-secured world. a world created, not by the security of their system but rather, the rank unpopularity of it.

[VikingPhotography]

Originally Posted by JMitchell

Lets just take a look at this:
Windows Vista, released Feb '07: Already cracked
Mac OS'*': Been out for god knows how long; 2 know viruses....
Tsche.

Hehe, a little bit of comic relief to get the point across

Anyways, modern Macs are just about on a par with PC's, spec for spec - especially the ones using Intel Core2 Duo processors. What I take issue with is the cost differential compared to an equally spec'd PC... simply because it has the Mac name and styling??

The key reasons that Macs were dominant in the world of graphic design, photo editing and A/V work is that, for many years, the equivalent software simply wasn't released for the Windows/PC market.

That situation changed in the late 90's but the issue for many large companies was technological investment - they had so many Mac machines and had invested significant sums in software (sometimes bespoke packages) that to make a wholesale transition to the PC platform would be contra to basic fiscal sense. So - Apple, at least in the UK, has a captive legacy userbase to serve.

The issue is reversed when it comes to new businesses or those investing part of their IT budget in hardware and applications. PC's are significantly cheaper to deploy than Macs and easier to support in bulk. Companies whose primary function is something other than media/creative may still wish to keep their design aspect in-house with a dedicated team... and you can bet that they'll go to their existing IT supplier, e.g. Dell, and simply order in PC's capable of meeting the needs of the applications.

Anyways - I don't really want to rain on the Mac parade here; if I thought for one minute that I would benefit in a tangible way from switching to Mac, I would - but in the primary arenas of price AND system perfomance combined, they just can't hold a candle to what you can pick up in terms of modern PC's.

[silkstone]

Mainly @ Rob.....

If you'd like to try something that's even less popular than the Mac, have a go with Ubuntu Linux. (Actually I'm not sure how many Linux users there are, but so far Uncle Bill isn't worried. )

I wanna tell you a story....

A few months ago I bought a new PC - dual-core, bells, whistles, etc - running Win XP. Fine, no problem. I know Windows is bloated and you need a 666GHz quad core machine to run WordStar, but it works. Then Vista came out, and I thought.... no, I don't really want something even less efficient, and anyway I don't know if my current software will run on it.

So... I decided to try moving away from M$ stuff, starting with Firefox, Thunderbird and Lightning for the web and email. Pretty good - and I like Firefox better than IE7. The next move was to Open Office instead of MS Office 2003. No problems. It will read and write MS Word/Excel/etc files and formats, and so far the only glitches I've found have been with some fairly complex Powerpoint files which don't display quite right. But overall it's a good alternative, and it's immune to viruses that affect MS Office.

And all these things are free! No activation codes, no problems with updates if the registry loses some reference, and there are versions for Windows, Mac and..... Linux.

Which took me to stage three. My old PC (Pentium 4, 2.4GHz, on-board sound and graphics, 40GB hard drive ) was sitting there, still with XP installed and running. So I cloned the drive and put in a 200GB one from a spare USB HDD. Then I downloaded the Ubuntu Linux image, burned it to CD and ran it from the CD - that doesn't affect the existing system at all. Decided to take the plunge and install it properly, with dual boot to either XP or Linux.

And you know what? It works a treat. The downside is the limited range of software for Linux so it's OK if what you want is available.

I had Bibble running under XP on both machines. On the new one it runs OK - not lightning, but OK. On the old one it is very slow, taking ages to render image changes. So I installed the Linux version.... and it flies. It's quicker than on the new XP machine, which I guess goes to show just how much Windows slows things down.

So, bearing in mind that Mac OS-X is a unix derivative like Linux, if you want a free alternative - and if what you want to run is available for Linux - then there's nothing to lose by giving it a go. No need for virus checkers or anything like that - it's a secure OS and anyway nobody bothers writing viruses for Linux.

I'm typing this on the Linux machine at the moment, and the only serious side-effect is that it makes me ramble on and on and .....

[Charlotte]

Now that is interesting, silk

[Steve]

I have split the thread to allow both to develop and stay on topic

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Steve

I have split the thread to allow both to develop and stay on topic

Wahaaay! Now all I have to do is remember what I was going to say to diss the Mac!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Rob Barron

Convince me to consider a Mac.... and forget any kind of technical babbling, ....

MACs look cool

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Dave

MACs look cool

Oh yes! Next you'll be telling me how good the iPod is!

Fact is that Apple is a marketing company and they've found the only way to sell their product is through trying to make their products cool! Which seems a pretty good tactic, really!

There was a time, nearly within living memory, when Apple ruled the roost for graphics - but not anymore