PC or Mac

timbim_2

I think that for basic users, linux has a marginally easier learning curve than PC's, can't comment on macs. To get to really use linux can be quite a strugle, though. Some things fall into place very nicely. The add/remove programs feature is really brilliant, and ubuntu certainly connects to IEEE 802.1X nteworks much better than windows. Shame it can't connect to windows shares without a few heafty workarounds.

Marty_J

timbim wrote: »

Some things fall into place very nicely. The add/remove programs feature is really brilliant

Well on a Mac, you generally install something by just copying it to your applications folder (or wherever), and you uninstall it by deleting it.

asininity

What as in samba? I found it rather easy, there loads of guides on the internet. Linux to linux networking is the easiest thing I've ever come across.

I might be cynical but I tend to think apples products are over priced and over hyped. The iphone imo being the obvious example. I've always thought dells to be over priced as well for what you get. I'll never be an apple customer simply due to the price factor, everything I need to do can be done on a cheap PC I can't justify the extra price because macs might be able to edit video etc better.

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

I might be cynical but I tend to think apples products are over priced and over hyped. The iphone imo being the obvious example. I've always thought dells to be over priced as well for what you get.

iPhones may be over-hyped to a degree, but that doesn't detract from them being a fantastic piece of kit. They have their limitations sure, but so does everything. iPhone OS 3 should be with us in a few months, and it'll hopefully address a some of the outstanding issues. Apple are really forging ahead with their updates, which is more than can be said for a lot of phone manufacturers. By contrast, Windows Mobile users can look forward to using IE 6 by the end of the year. Cutting edge stuff.

I'll never be an apple customer simply due to the price factor, everything I need to do can be done on a cheap PC I can't justify the extra price because macs might be able to edit video etc better.

And conversely, music is my thing, and I use software and hardware which will only work on a Mac. So as things stand, I would never consider not owning one.

asininity

Marty_J wrote: »

iPhones may be over-hyped to a degree, but that doesn't detract from them being a fantastic piece of kit. They have their limitations sure, but so does everything. iPhone OS 3 should be with us in a few months, and it'll hopefully address a some of the outstanding issues. Apple are really forging ahead with their updates, which is more than can be said for a lot of phone manufacturers. By contrast, Windows Mobile users can look forward to using IE 6 by the end of the year. Cutting edge stuff.

They'll need to do something good especially with google android (which just needs a decent hand set) and nokia releasing symbian soon as opensource - what with it already being an extremely reliable and tried and tested os. Then you have the much hyped palm webOS and blackberry trying to muscle in. I'd never buy a phone/pda with windows mobile on it.

And conversely, music is my thing, and I use software and hardware which will only work on a Mac. So as things stand, I would never consider not owning one.

The only music editing I do can be done on audacity which I'm told is very good and certainly does the job for me but I'm not a power user by a long shot.

Marty_J

asininity wrote: »

They'll need to do something good especially with google android (which just needs a decent hand set) and nokia releasing symbian soon as opensource - what with it already being an extremely reliable and tried and tested os. Then you have the much hyped palm webOS and blackberry trying to muscle in. I'd never buy a phone/pda with windows mobile on it.

Android and Symbian are certainly ones to watch; competition can only be a good thing for us consumers.

Blackberry's much touted "iPhone killer" turned out to be something of a flop though, and Palm's attorneys had to hastily take back one of their investor's words recently with regards to how the Palm Pre would blow everything else away. Palm seem to be really struggling at the minute.

The only music editing I do can be done on audacity which I'm told is very good and certainly does the job for me but I'm not a power user by a long shot.

Audacity is a nice piece of software; I've used it myself on occasion.

asininity

Marty_J wrote: »

Android and Symbian are certainly ones to watch; competition can only be a good thing for us consumers.

Blackberry's much touted "iPhone killer" turned out to be something of a flop though, and Palm's attorneys had to hastily take back one of their investor's words recently with regards to how the Palm Pre would blow everything else away. Palm seem to be really struggling at the minute.

True true competition is always good for consumers. Just look at the PC hardware market. I mentioned blackberry last for a reason. Palm used to be top of the pda manufacturers and like you say struggled recently but if the palm pre is as good as its meant to be that could be all they need.

Hardware wise nokia make better phones than apple, all they need is a decent touch screen phone.

Software wise symbian is arguably superior and once they open it up will have vastly more developers, which could have the effect of killing off android. But they are definitely worth watching. I personally dont think anything they do will kill the iphone because of you diehard apple fans but they will make it difficult for apple and that might mean dropping the price.

I'm currently on an N85 but when the contracts up might get O2 to offer a decent deal on the iphone to keep me as a customer, I'm open to everything as long as its cheap enough.

macman

No I would strongly deter anyone from buying a Mac. Why?
Because with less than 10% of the home computer market, not many people bother creating viruses or spyware for the Mac OS. If Mac took maybe 30%+ of the market, that would surely change.
And people like Marty and I would be less smug and sleep less well. Which would be a bad thing.

Sput2001

Dell's XPS range for instance, is roughly a similar spec to many of Apple's computers, and is about the same price, or even more expensive.

I think that only really applies to the XPS One. My XPS 420 cost about half the price of the equivalently specced Mac.

RobertoMoir

Middlers wrote: »

Having had Windows based PCs for years, I am now contemplating going for an Apple Macbook (not very moneysaving I know). Apple claim to not need anti-virus etc. The trade off appears to be the price which is extortionate when compared to other options. Reading this board it appears that most of the problems encountered by people are on Windows based PCs. Is this true? Other people's thoughts and opinions would be welcome.

One reason you probably hear more about PC problems is that a lot more people have PCs than they do Macs.

I own both PCs and Macs - just purchased a Mac Mini this morning in fact and very nice it is too. I think they're great at what they do well but they're not magic... they do go wrong sometimes. However, the Mac "experience" is a very good one. They control the hardware and the software, which means that things tend to work together very well without any of the odd conflicts you sometimes see on PCs... and another very real advantage (and the reason Apple keep winning awards for support) is that because they control both parts, you only have to ring one number and speak to one set of people for support.

You never get the "Microsoft said it's hardware and to ring Dell, Dell say it's software and down to Microsoft" thing... If you do have a problem then regardless of whether it's the hardware or the OS, it's Apple's problem to figure out which one and fix it.

As for security... Well you can get decent enough antivirus for a PC freely now so I'm not sure this (not needing AV on the Mac I mean) is much of a money saver. Could be a very important time and hassle saver though. Having said that, while there are currently no Mac viruses in the wild, you do need to understand that Macs are not magically immune to malware... that situation could change tomorrow. And in any case, you can still delete important work by accident, hard drives can still fail, etc. so you need to do backups (having said that, Time Machine is very nice... advantage Apple for sure).

At the end of the day a lot of the "virus problem" is down to the user... I've had as many viruses on my Windows machines as I've had on my Macs. And no I don't mean I've had a virus on my Apple Mac. If you think of a virus scanner on a PC as being like a seatbelt in a car, then it doesn't matter how good your seatbelt is, it's still not a very good idea to go driving into walls at high speeds on purpose, just as regardless of how good your virus scanner is, you still need to "safe surf" and be careful about what sort of stuff you download and trust to run on your computer.

At the end of the day, find an Apple store and try one. Get one of the sales people to go through it with you and try it to see if it feels right for you and if it does then do it. That's the only way you'll know if you want one or not. You can actually book a personal shopping session in your nearest Apple store, where you get a no obligation one to one session with an Apple salesman who can take you through the high points of their computers and help you figure out if and how they can do what you want.

Macs do tend to hold their re-sale value far better than PCs in the 2nd hand market by the way, that is certainly true... but I'm still not sure that means a Mac is an investment.

I can only echo the advice I've seen elsewhere in the thread about buying and fitting memory yourself... Apple do charge over the odds for things like this.