Mac or not

the-master-man

Hi
I am after getting a new laptop, as the one I have is getting a little old.
I am used to using windows and feel comfortable using it.
I just do the usual stuff, surfing, music, poker, matched betting, games and so on.

I have £500 to spend now I know that will not usually buy me a mac, but I know a man who knows a man;) who can get me any apple product for 50% off retail price. I have used him before for an ipod, so I know he is genuine. He works promoting apple products.

So with the mac now in my price range, should I go with the mac, or look for anouther regular laptop running windows.

cheers:beer:

calen1979

Evening, it entirely depends on what you want to do with the laptop.

With the Apple Macs the operating system is fantastic, though there's a little bit of a learning curve while you get used to doing some of the more simple of things (Copy and Pasting etc), but once you get past that initial phase you find your enjoyment and productivity increase dramatically.

The Mac is more user friendly, in general, and as everything is 'Tuned' then mostly your experience will be seamless, there's also a plethora of free software available out there to make your online experience even better than it already is.

If, however, you use any specific software on the PC, then you have just a few options:

• Install Windows XP on the mac as well as the Mac Operating system and Dual boot (Reboot and choose which operating system you go into)
• Buy Parallels or VMWare Fusion (the latter I have heard better things about) and install XP as a virtual machine (you run XP in a window at a reasonable speed)

If you wanr to play games, then unfortunately XP/Vista is the only way to go, still, but for almost anything else, the Mac will be better. If you have the added bonus of getting 50% off, then definitely go for the Mac. The only reason why I don't have one at the moment is simply because of the initial outlay of £600+ for the hardware - I've never paid more than £400 for a computer, ever.

Essentially almost everyone that uses them loves them, I had a second hand ibook before, and I could see why, everything about it just oozed quality.

Software that's recommended:

Web Browser: Opera, Firefox, Safari
E-Mail: Camino (Thunderbird), or Apples Mail is rather good
Instant Messaging: Adium (It supports all formats)

The number of free tools is staggering, and most are of extremely high quality...

In short, if you're not playing games and don't have lots of software programs that are XP only, then it's worth going for. There are some compatibility issues with some printers, so look those up on google first before you make the leap. Most hardware works, and if you have a friend with a mac, ask to try your hardware first, just to be sure.

Now, only one question remains.... can you get me a Mac Mini, or a macbook? ;-)

Daz

P.S. Sorry I didn't quite read your post (I have the flu, so i'm not quite with it...) - as for your gameplaying, it depends on what type of games. If you play online games such as yahoo games, etc then you shouldn't have a problem; If you play games such as halflife2, or the plethora of other graphically intensive games, then be aware that the macs don't have high powered graphics cards in them that PC laptops do, so factor that into your equations. I've just checked and it's an Intel Internal Graphics card, which shares your system memory... so rather slow.

So for high powered games, it's not going to be really feasible, but your online experience will be better. I also can't see much benefit of having the black macbook though, it's just slightly more hard disk space and a cooler colour. I'd recommend getting the white one and upping the RAM on it with any excess money.

Blacksheep1979

If you can get 50% off and it's new and full waranty etc then I'd say go for it.

wolfman

At 50% off, there's no contest. Get a MacBook.

Mac's are great. The MacBooks are actually quite well priced despite what many say about Apple's. To get one 50% off would be an absolute bargain, you won't find anything better for your money.

Worst case, as you like Windows, you could still buy a license for XP or Vista, both of which will run fine on a MacBook. Linux too if you fancy giving it a try.

You're probably best off sticking with OSX (Apple's operating system). It's very good and works out of the box well. It'll just run and run, and not require too much attention (like Windows often needs).

isofa

50% off it's a complete steal, I wouldn't even hesitate. If he can get me a MacBook Pro for that deal, PM me!

You'll not be able to find a comparable PC laptop, made so well, or with such a decent set of components for anything like such a similar price. Build in the fact that you can also install Windows if you need to (or if you don't like Mac OS, wipe it and just run it as a Windows laptop), and really there isn't any competition at that price point.

Happy Christmas

lindsaygalaxy

I have a macbook, but im a graphic designer and couldnt be without it!

If you only use it for windows based stuff, then i wouldnt get one, as not only do you have to get used to them, soe programmes wont work on them, including some internet packages.

The one thing I would say about the mac is that not only do they look gorgous, when you compare spec for spec against a PC based one, the PC one may look better, but thats cause on a mac it doesnt need all the stuff that a PC based one does, it wont crash like a PC one does, and if you like editing photos or videos a PC one will never compare.

masterthief

I'm a mac user in the main now, but still have to use PCs at work and stuff - I'd echo calen1979's post, it depends what you're gonna do with the comp.

I find Macs way more reliable and, while there is a slight learning curve for things like copy&paste on Macs, the new operating system is easy to learn (without wanting to get into a huge mac/microsoft argument on here, it is pretty accurate to say that windows os udpgrades basically follow mac os upgrades at a later date, so learning the new os would be a bit like learning xp after using windows 95 for ages - i.e. not that hard).

I also find using iPods and other mac hardware (e.g. the iPhone) much easier on a mac than on a PC, and the same with blackberry.

also, go to ww.mac.com and check out what the .mac online accounts can do - if you wanna set up a merged work/play calender, or a persoal website, or share photos and stuff like that, then its worth looking into - you can access .mac accounts on PCs, but again its much easier to troubleshoot on a Mac than a PC.

also, the mac iLife software and freeware is pretty top notch, so if you wanna use a computer to store and do basic edits on photos, mac is a good option. its also much safer plugged into the net than a PC - you SHOULD still get some security software, but a mac with no added security programmes is gonna be safer than a PC with no added security programmes.

they also look really pretty

isofa

If you are just going to use it as a PC, it's still a bargain. PC Pro (a well respected PC / Windows magazine), often test MacBooks/MacBook Pros in their comparative PC laptop tests, completely set-up as a Windows machine (which you can do). In fact, in the last set of tests pitting the MacBook Pro against top end other laptops, they conceded it was the fastest current laptop to run Windows Vista (as have many other magazines, and online tests: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136649-page,3-c,notebooks/article.html).

OK this is a little more powerful than a MacBook, but the principle is the same.

However for the best of both worlds, leave it set-up as is, and install a virtualisation package such as Parallels desktop or VMWare Fusion, and then you can run any Windows app on the desktop with Mac apps - it's seamless.
Note you do need a legal copy of Windows XP or the versions of Vista which permit virtualisation to install, obviously Apple doesn't supply a competing OS!

Nearly all common packages are available as Mac or PC versions, MS Office, Adobe CS3, FileMaker, etc. Some specialist PC apps aren't - so for those you can use Windows options on the MacBook, either setting it up as a dual boot, or virtualisation. File formats are the same so you can move files from Windows to the Mac on these common packages will little problem.

I own and use both Macs and PCs day to day, so this isn't a biased response - I couldn't manage without either. But at 50% discount, it's a no-brainer!

markandrich

I can't get 50% discount.

I also like the odd game.

What are my best PC laptop options for £500 or under? Dell? Acer?

Miss_Cocoa

PM me too! My dell laptop has died

isofa

markandrich wrote: »

I can't get 50% discount.
I also like the odd game.
What are my best PC laptop options for £500 or under? Dell? Acer?

Dell would probably be a good bet, especially if they have January sales
The deals are well listed on this site: http://www.dmxdimension.com/