Mac vs PC

[nick_l]

Originally Posted by stuckless

my knds don't have a clue what microsoft office is. When they need to write a write a report they just fire up OpenOffice

I'm sorry, I think that might be considered child cruelty. (Just kidding)

Nick

[nick_l]

OS comparisons aside (as, having been IT manager for a design firm with a split of Macs and Windows boxes, I have seen which OS really "Just Works" (although, to be completely fair to Apple, this was several OS versions ago)) it is helpful in your comparison to remember a few things:

1. you cannot (legally) build your own Apple Mac.

2. Apple makes the vast majority of its profits from hardware sales.

3. In most cases you are getting the EXACT SAME hardware in Macs as Dells, HPs, Lenovos, etc. The same processor, the same RAM, the same video chips, the same HDDs, and usually sub-optomized drivers. Apple occasionally will customize a motherboard or proc chip, but mostly it is the stock, off the shelf components you can pick up at any computer store or site. Of course, apple cases are always custom designed, and presentation is important to the Apple experience. their desktop cases are usually VERY well designed (Cube excepted). Their laptop cases have a somewhat more checkerd history. While they are almost always very attractive, they frequently suffer from overheating. Apple likes thin, and they frequently consider thickenss first, airflow second.

4. Like Dell, Apple manufactures NOTHING. They do not own factories. They contract everything out, obviously to the lowest bidder. In my opinion, this is why you can have one person raving about the quality of their Apple product, and another cursing the day they ever let that Mac into their house. When you have multiple products being built by multiple subcontractors, it's very hard to guarantee quality across the entire range of products.


Remember, like I said above, my comments relate only to hardware. I think the OS choice is much more subjective, and many others have made excelent points about deciding which might be right for you.

Just some food for thought,
Nick

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by nick_l

I'm sorry, I think that might be considered child cruelty. (Just kidding)

Nick

What would be cruel would be have them believe that they need to spend their own money to do something trivial, like write a simple book report when there are free and legit alternatives that could suffice. Or, having them learn "Word", but not having them understand how to use a word processor. ie, it bothers me when i see "Word" documents well formatted, but the author has "bolded" and enlarged fonts, instead of using document writing techniques such as, header1, header2, emphasis, etc. When I teach my kids how to use a word processor, i spend more time time teaching them how/why to use things like "headings" instead of simply bolding text. (that's just a gripe that i have about 80% of "word" documents that I see)

Seriously though... Even openoffice is overkill for most people (esp kids). I've recently moved my son to using google docs (instead of openoffice).... and he loves it. He accesses his docs from school, home, and even at daycare (using windows and linux).... it's not for everyone, but it's a great option for kids, and prevents them from being tied to an OS or application, and offers them a lot more freedoms on when they can do their homework. (I was even more impressed when he discovered, on his own, that he could "share" his work with others in a read-only manner... I came to find this out, when i got an email, "hey dad, check out my report so far..." and it contained a link back to where I could view his report as an html page, hosted on google docs )

[sic0048]

I'm a Windows person through and through. But I think Apple is clearly more innovative than the other companies. They come out with the new nice features and then the other companies try to copy them.

That being said, to me it is not worth the extra money. I'd rather buy (or build) a cheaper windows machine. For example, I love the magnetic plug of the Apple laptops. I've even had a windows laptop crap out due to tripping on the plug one too many times. But even after buying a replacement laptop, I've spend well less than the Apple equivalent would have cost originally.

(Actually the "broken" laptop still works, but is very sensitve to movement when plugged in - we've simply retired it to a "desktop" roll and it seems to work OK - but it was too annoying to use as a "laptop").

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by nick_l

OS comparisons aside (as, having been IT manager for a design firm with a split of Macs and Windows boxes, I have seen which OS really "Just Works" (although, to be completely fair to Apple, this was several OS versions ago)) it is helpful in your comparison to remember a few things:

1. you cannot (legally) build your own Apple Mac.

2. Apple makes the vast majority of its profits from hardware sales.

3. In most cases you are getting the EXACT SAME hardware in Macs as Dells, HPs, Lenovos, etc. The same processor, the same RAM, the same video chips, the same HDDs, and usually sub-optomized drivers. Apple occasionally will customize a motherboard or proc chip, but mostly it is the stock, off the shelf components you can pick up at any computer store or site. Of course, apple cases are always custom designed, and presentation is important to the Apple experience. their desktop cases are usually VERY well designed (Cube excepted). Their laptop cases have a somewhat more checkerd history. While they are almost always very attractive, they frequently suffer from overheating. Apple likes thin, and they frequently consider thickenss first, airflow second.

4. Like Dell, Apple manufactures NOTHING. They do not own factories. They contract everything out, obviously to the lowest bidder. In my opinion, this is why you can have one person raving about the quality of their Apple product, and another cursing the day they ever let that Mac into their house. When you have multiple products being built by multiple subcontractors, it's very hard to guarantee quality across the entire range of products.


Remember, like I said above, my comments relate only to hardware. I think the OS choice is much more subjective, and many others have made excelent points about deciding which might be right for you.

Just some food for thought,
Nick

I had a customer bring his brand new imac into my store yesterday because he could not get his firewire interface I sold him to show up as a sound card. After going through the usual steps in troubleshooting I figured out his firewire port on the imac was dead out of the box. I've never had a port be bad out of the box in way too many years working on computers. Just goes to show that every computer company has problems. Of course this is very rare, but still. It was his first mac and did not inspire much confidence. I do like the way macs let you uninstall drivers.

All os's have their flaws. If you are happy. Don't worry about it.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I do like the way macs let you uninstall drivers.

Is it that much different than windows' driver unistallation? (Right click on driver, and choose Uninstall?)

[flavius]

Take a look here:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/...obile-banking/

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Is it that much different than windows' driver unistallation? (Right click on driver, and choose Uninstall?)

if windows actually deleted all of the drivers and their registry entries then yes it is no different. However, I have to use driversweeper to remove sound and video drivers because there is some trace left even though they are "uninstalled". The windows uninstaller still gives me problems when programs fail to install. However, hell would freeze over before I would become a mac user. I like to build my own computers. That and be able to game on them. Windows only for me. Oh well.

[Fuzzy]

true, windows does not delete registry entries, as those are just settings, not the drivers... personally, i prefer that way... so if I reinstall said drivers, the settings i had remain. they do, however, not impact windows operation in any way by simply being in the registry, if the drivers that utilize them are not loaded.

The many 'driver cleaning' tools out there are for older, poorly programmed drivers, that would throw fits if another version had stored settings, and they were still there. This isn't really the case with any modern drivers.

[flavius]

No doubt, that would be the windows registry. If you are talking Mac vs. PC you would want to read up on that one.
HINT: the registry was created to control the installation process whereas /etc was created to control the actual application.