Mac or Windows? :p

[Danniboy]

hi all, was just wanting some of your opinions and views on both sides of that age old question...
which is better, mac or windows? :rolleyes:
most ppl would say wotever u prefer, but i wonder what you would say the advantages and disadvantages of each one are?

Danniboy ;)

[lasher511]

having just switched to mac after being a PC fanboy for years i would have to say i would almost never go back to a PC/windows. It has not crashed once although a few of the programs have ironically the ones made by windows for mac(msn,office, etc.).

One disadvantage to the Mac however is the lack of games that will run on it which really kept me on Windows for so long, however with the newer intel based macs you can have a seperate windows partition for this. I chose to have a 10gb partition and i run all of my games off an external hard drive. Im not really sure as to wether or not this is my imagination or not but since using windows on a mac it seems to run smoother then it ever did for me on a PC.

So in my opinion I would have to say a Mac with Tiger and windows installed on it if the best way to go and that way you end up getting the best of both worlds.

Macbook Pro:
2.33ghz core duo 2
2gb RAM
120GB HDD

[John A]

I'm running an Apple, too, although it's a MacBook, not a MacBook Pro. Have to say I've been pretty happy with it so far, although the lack of games does limit you, and running Windows requires you to buy a seperate copy of Windows XP. But it's been pretty much bug free, and very easy to use.

PCs strengths are in business, gaming, and fairly cheap. There is basically no such thing as a low-end Mac, PCs on the other hand, can be bought for just about any budget. They also tend to be more business-oriented, especially since Windows XP was written with the corporate crowd in mind.

['Stein]

Just to add on to what everybody else said (I also am an Apple user):

1) I agree with waht everyone else upstairs has said. I'm using a 15" Macbook Pro and it's been wonderful the entire time. It's never crashed. Also, I'm not too much of a gamer, but it is true, there arn't as many games for Mac, and overall, games will run better on a PC.

One of the downsides to Apple, IMO, is the lack of diverse software. I recall (back when I had a PC), I could usually find 15 different programs to do the same obscure job. At the same time, there might be only 1 or 2 for Apple to do the same thing. At the same time, though, the programs written for Apple are expertly done, usually.

One of strengths of Apples are that they are top notch for music, pictures, and videos. In other words, if it involves any media, Apple's youre choice.

At the same time, Microsoft is youre choice for most things work-related. I cant lie...if I'm writing a big paper or something that is work-related, I'll switch back and use my old PC for a bit.

Another plus about Macs is that they are virutally immune to virus/spyware/etc. Yes, there are many reasons...but let's not start that argument now. ;)

A well build PC will generally be more powerful then an Apple one. For me, at least, a big downside to Apple was that you have to put it on an Apple machine. In other words, you can't legally install it on a PC, or anything that you build.

Finally (sorry, this is wayyy too long), I would reccomend (if you buy an Apple) to use BootCamp and either dual boot (use both OSs) or buy Virtual PC. This allows you to run Windows inside youre Apple.

Thanks.

[Danniboy]

hmmm, yea i defo agree with all comments,
i love the fact that u can have windows too on a mac should u need to and it certainly solves the gamers problem too!
one thing i would like to chuck in the discussion tho is a question i get asked alot by friends of mine who are soo anti mac like u wouldnt believe..
"why is there only one mouse button!"
to which i reply, u can buy one with 2 buttons if u wanted to, but they always ask, why does apple not just have their mice with 2 buttons in the first place?
i wonder what your opinions are on this issue?

[John A]

one thing i would like to chuck in the discussion tho is a question i get asked alot by friends of mine who are soo anti mac like u wouldnt believe.. "why is there only one mouse button!" to which i reply, u can buy one with 2 buttons if u wanted to, but they always ask, why does apple not just have their mice with 2 buttons in the first place? i wonder what your opinions are on this issue?

Apple designed their interface so it could be used almost entirely with one mouse button. They wanted to make operating their computers as simple as possible. While many manufacturers try to cram on as many buttons onto their devices as possible, Apple tries to simplify things by providing as few buttons as possible. Just look at the iPod for a good example.

For me as power user, I find it an inconvenience that I have to go out and buy a 2-button mouse. However, I agree with Apple, if I were trying to teach my grandmother to use a computer, I would most certainly choose a 1-button mouse to avoid confusion.

['Stein]

For me as power user, I find it an inconvenience that I have to go out and buy a 2-button mouse.

Waiit, if you plug a 2-button mouse into a mac, it works?

I might have to check into this...

[jbennet]

i would definately get a macbook (they look so cool) but thier pricey. Main thing that put me off was compatibilty but am i right in believeng that if i sue my full copy of XP and bootcamp i can boot into a full windows environment?

[John A]

Waiit, if you plug a 2-button mouse into a mac, it works?

I might have to check into this...

Yes, that is correct. Apple even sells a 2-button mouse (well, actually a bit more) dubbed the " Mighty Mouse ". It's now wireless thanks to Apple. You can actually emulate a right-click in Mac OS X by holding down the Control key while you click, which will bring up a contextual menu in most applications, including the Finder. First Person Shooter games also take advantage of a 2-button mouse on Mac OS X.

but am i right in believeng that if i sue my full copy of XP and bootcamp i can boot into a full windows environment?

Yes, as long as your copy of Windows XP is Service Pack 2 or later, and to do it legally, you must have a license to install the copy of XP on more than 1 computer.

[jbennet]

does server 2003 or 2000 run?
there the only full version (non oem/upgrade) software i got a copy of

[John A]

does server 2003 or 2000 run? there the only full version (non oem/upgrade) software i got a copy of

Nope, as far as I know, the only versions of Windows that can be installed on a Mac are Windows XP and the upcoming Windows Vista.

[Danniboy]

im suuuure ive seen windows 2000 working on a macbook pro... and it wasnt the bere minimums of xp either...tho im only sayin tht cos of the "my computer" icon being the same one in 2000 and not the xp icon style...
besides. windows 2000 does bere SOME similarity to xp, so mabe it kinda makes sense :s
oh and by the way...
is there a way of recovering lost or deleted files on a mac... another question i have been asked, but this one i dont have an answer for...as yet... lol :)

[John A]

im suuuure ive seen windows 2000 working on a macbook pro... and it wasnt the bere minimums of xp either...tho im only sayin tht cos of the "my computer" icon being the same one in 2000 and not the xp icon style... besides. windows 2000 does bere SOME similarity to xp, so mabe it kinda makes sense :s

As far as I know, it isn't possible. Older versions of Windows don't quite have the support needed to be able to boot from an EFI-based firmware, which is what exists in Intel-Macintosh hardware. You may have seen either a modded Windows XP, or seen it being emulated fullscreen in a virtual machine, such as Parallels.oh and by the way...
is there a way of recovering lost or deleted files on a mac... another question i have been asked, but this one i dont have an answer for...as yet... lol :) Deleting a file on a hard drive by no means erases it; in most cases a charecter is placed in front of a sector to show that it can be used. I don't know of any utilities offhand that recover files, but there are some disk recovery programs such as Stellar Phoenix .

[Davelray]

Well I have been using a PC since I started in computers. I stopped and used a mac mini while I was getting my Apple certifications. I guess it really depends on what you do the most. The mac was great for authoring dvd's and doing pictures and such. But I switched back to a pc with WinXP Pro because I play alot of games. Of course, now that the intel macs can run Windows as well, this is all becoming moot point.

[Junyah]

I use OS and and 98 - XP ... I have Macs and PC's in the arsenal. I exclusively use the mac on the creative and education side ... but alot of the government/corporate custom or contract software is written for windows only ... so even at home I still have a windwos machine KVM'd with my odl mac mini. I use GIS applications at work and they just don't wirte software for OS X ...they have tried tried with route 66 and TOPO but there is just a few GIS Packages out there .. an none of them fit contract spec. I really like the mac .. but I'm realistic some vendors will not write two versions of software.

[jbennet]

yeah its a pain as i want to switch 100% either to linux/mac but need to be able to sync my pda and use vb6, microsostf acess and my colleges custom VPN software.

[KalebG]

I've used Windows as an OS for years now ever since it came out. Windows has always had a nice look and feel for me. I'm a major gamer so having windows is a big advantage for me. I can see why more and more people are switching to linux/mac though. One of the advantages Windows will never achieve is the fact of how linux and maybe mac not sure, are un affected by most viruses. My brother who's in the same boat as me being on the comp since DOS, recently went full ubuntu. Whenever he does wanna game he uses sedega or something simmiler. But like I said, i havent seen a program that can fully emulate the Window's PC gaming potentials. I'm mostly likely wrong but from what ive seen, PC/Windows just makes hte better gaming machine. Now gaming isnt everything. Ive seen a ton of machines running either mac/linux used strictly for coding/bussiness that work great, if not better than PC/Windows. Like i said earlier, I don't see myself switching anytime soon to a max/linux system when im perfectly happy with xp.

-Kaleb

[hammerhead]

The worst part about using mac is that one has to get a seperate machine. I would use XP/ubuntu, install all the patches and an anti virus, rather than spending 3 times that amount on an Apple machine.

[lasher511]

The worst part about using mac is that one has to get a seperate machine. I would use XP/ubuntu, install all the patches and an anti virus, rather than spending 3 times that amount on an Apple machine.

As discussed in this post already you dont acctually have to buy a seperate machine to install windows now with the intel based macs using either parallels or boot camp.

[John A]

As discussed in this post already you dont acctually have to buy a seperate machine to install windows now with the intel based macs using either parallels or boot camp.

Linux has been able to run on Macs for years (it can pretty well run on the very first Macs that came out), so I think he meant the other way around: running OS X on a regular PC, which currently cannot be done legally. This method is very similar to the way Apple restricts content purchased from the iTunes store to its iPod. Interestingly enough, iPods can also run Linux. ;)