OT - Getting a Mac

tommyk · Post by **tommyk** » Wed Jun 09, 2004 10:43 pm

Most excellent congratulations your way, Jessie!

I've used both extensively in business and academia; nothin' beats a Mac.

There won't be a learning curve.

Tommy

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 12:59 am

Just celebrating my 20th anniversary on Macs... starting with the original, aka "128", aka poor man's Lisa, with the free software.

Got burnt first with the original MS-Word, last time I ever purchased something from them, and still resisting the "industry standard" for office applications. Shareware doest it fine.

On the way, whatever will eat data, from Vax/VMS, CP/M, Tandems... PC.

The only PC I miss are the plasma screens, with DOS, Lotus 123, WordPerfect... Never found anything more stable, comfortable to write, plan or crunch numbers with.
Still the legal owner of a Compaq Portable III (complete with its backpack and cyrillic Framework

) stranded somewhere in Crimea. One more proof Crimea doesn't pay. Would buy such an old Toshiba "red-face black-body" gladly if I found one.

But since my life is in graphics, the backbone remains Mac. Now OS 9.x : can't afford dumping the old trusty applications, or the "Classic" scanner and printer drivers or RIPs. Would go eMac and OS-X otherwise. Or even iMac eventhough I prefer CRT to TFT screens (photography, again).

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:36 am

Ron - you're not the only dissenter. I've used both, and 10 years ago, or even just a couple of years ago, I would have agreed that Macs were superior.

Now, with Windows XP, I find my PC to be every bit as stable and simple as a Mac (about one year here and never a crash, ever). Maybe Macs do graphics better, but my XP machine does a dandy job on my digital photographs...it all depends on the programs you have, and perhaps the newer Macs come out of the factory with better graphics programs on hand BUT that doesn't mean you can't add them to a PC.

Now as for security...I do wish microsoft would get responsible and get their stuff secure all at one time instead of these little, tiny patches one after the other!

Eric

chas · Post by **chas** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:41 am

JMcCYoung wrote: I'm surprised no one's commented on the Mac's lack of vulnerability to all the currently circulating malware.

That had occurred to me right after I sent in my response last night. At work there have been periods when we've gotten email every day about another vulnerability in windoze or another virus circulating. I just file all those messages while all the PC users install the patches and download the latest virus defs. I also get quite a few virus-containing messages a day between home and work.

I'm not casual about it; I have downloaded the (I think it's two) patches for the Mac OS, keep my virus defs up to date, and have a firewall at home, but I never worry about it.

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:27 am

Ok...now I am confused...does this mean that I won't be using Norton Antivirus? Or is that on both? Does it some with it or do I have to download it an pay for it?

I ordered a 17" flat-screen IMac, by the way. I can have the screen on my coffee table and sit on the couch with the keyboard on my lap and the mouse on one side and kid on the other.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 8:30 am

Comfort is everything

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:01 am

JessieK wrote:Ok...now I am confused...does this mean that I won't be using Norton Antivirus? Or is that on both? Does it some with it or do I have to download it an pay for it?

We went over to Mac this winter, and I'll never go back to PCs (except at work, where I have no choice). We ended up getting a 14" iBook (laptop). We also put an Airport Extreme wireless card in it, and hooked a wireless router up to our cable modem. It's great to be able to take the laptop anywhere in the house and still have internet access.

As for Macs and viruses (virii?): That's a huge debate in the Mac world. I've never heard of any actual Mac viruses (for OS X, anyway) circulating around, but there are a few possible exploits which cause some people to keep anti-virus sw on their Macs. (Most of these exploits seem to be found and advertised by the companies trying to sell anti-virus sw for Macs...) Personally, I don't worry about it. I have a firewall, and I'm cautious about what I download (habit from years of PC use). The biggest worry is if you exchange a lot of files with PC folks. A file that has no effect on your Mac might completely trash a PC.

Cheers,
John

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 9:15 am

Thanks, John.

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 10:45 am

I have 2 Macs at home, and have used them for years. My husband uses PCs, and I have all the computers on a network. Internet and file sharing is really easy, using OS X and Windows XP, although OS X is definitely the most elegant to set up.

I use Norton antivirus, although I've never had a virus, and I'm not terribly consistent at scanning for viruses. I've also never had a security breach (that I know of, at least

).

I use Microsoft Office for the Mac, which is now supposed to be nicer than the PC version, according to a blurb I read in PC magazine. All the office files are interchangable between Mac and PC.

After being acquainted with both operating systems, IMHO the Mac is more easily customized, more friendly, and more intuitive. (Easier to fix problems, too).

Dana

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:18 am

Dana, that is very encouraging. I hope I'll be able to figure out how to connect everything. I has them install an airport thingie, because we do have wireless in the house. According to the guy on the phone, it will recognize our network and walk me through configuration. Sounds good.

fiddling_tenor · Post by **fiddling_tenor** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 11:21 am

I've used both fairly equally for years. I enjoy the Mac because it's OS is frankly the simplest to use. Macs were originally designed for high-end publishing and graphics. IMHO they still are the way to go for that.

However, I also recently purchases a Dell 8300 workstation running Windows XP Home edition and I love it. Granted it is NOT connected to the internet and I'm still debating whether I even want to do so.

Regarding security, I DO run Norton AV on my Mac as well as a firewall. I figure a little overkill can't hurt.

Bottom line: get what you need when you need it for what you must do. Mac or PC hardly matters anymore.

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:22 pm

BTW the company I worked for was a publishing company. They produced multilingual advertising, instructional material, and training programs. Some of the training programs were CD based and some web based and some both. Since I worked there they have gone to all PCs for there publishing and audio. They use Macs for movie and graphics work.

I used to use Norton and I tried Avast. It found several viruses that Norton did not pick up. It is also a very good price, free with no annual fees.

Ron

Montana · Post by **Montana** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 1:37 pm

fiddling_tenor wrote:Bottom line: get what you need when you need it for what you must do. Mac or PC hardly matters anymore.

I imagine this is true. I am a PC user and don't necessarily agree with the "go Mac for graphics" mantra. I take digital photos and use Photoshop to modify them for websites and other applications - it does a great job. I don't know much about the software in the video arena. But I imagine that unless you're doing video manipulation for the CIA, there's PC video software that can easily handle the requirements of home movies. But a friend of mine does audio recording and editing, and swears by Macs and the ProTools audio software. But again, he is going far beyond the recording requirements of most people.
At the computer level of the average computer user, there probably isn't too much difference between the two - it's just a matter of preference (except for maybe the email aspect).

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 2:00 pm

Montana wrote:I am a PC user and don't necessarily agree with the "go Mac for graphics" mantra. I take digital photos and use Photoshop to modify them for websites and other applications - it does a great job.

Professional graphics, heavy duty, i.e. printing industry. It's like a lingering industry standard, at least here in "old" Europe.
Also, the old motto : if it works, don't change it.
Some will run PC's, yet use Mac as an interface for the peripherals, notably scanners. Just try and run two Twain scanners from different makers on the same PC...
Here, it's a couple Firewire (IEEE etc.) scanners, digital camera and a Firewire card reader, a couple Firewire printers (one with a Postscript "soft" RIP), a few major applications -- beside Photoshop -- like Illustrator and XPress. Both six years old, because you don't want to repay $2000 worth of licenses every time MS decides to make the new system uncompatible...
Last time the system got unstable, it happened to be because of a weak $5 PRAM battery :roll: weak point on the G4, is all.
When the setup above runs fine and for years, you know the system is darn stable.

Of course, everything IS doable with a PC, it just happens to be a tad more complicated, NOT plug and work.

I had a word for setting up PCs : CAC.
For Computer-Assisted Computing...

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:08 pm

I thought a Mac was a personal computer (PC)

Am I incorrect?

I use a PC (well, 3 of them one which is a quadruple boot, two boxes use the Celeron CPU, one Duron CPU), but my choice of operating system is the rock solid Linux, not Windows (of which I have Windows 98 and Windows 2000 professional flavors installed, but only use to play a couple of games and "tech support" for friends uninformed enough to use Microsoft products).

A 21" monitor rules! No 17" for these old eyes..

Chiff and Fipple Forums

OT - Getting a Mac

Mac or PC?