Get a Mac!

[CZ]

Don:

Excellent post.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I have many years with Macs (almost bought a Lisa) and one reason I dropped
the Mac was something missing in your post: that childish evangelism that
many Mac users have. The new Macs are nice, expensive, and OS X is a
winner. Unfortunately, the evangelism is still there.
Vista, not the RTM, or under XP Pro w/SP2.

My experience with an Apple Intel iMac was with a Generation 1 machine. And
Vista was still in Beta when I used it.

As to Screen resolution and color depth: I got the highest resolution my
card (an ATI 7600 Pro) would provide (which was 1680x1050, on a 20" display.
On the built-in display, I got 1440x960, the rated resolution of the display
(17"). Color depth on either display was 32bits. The display had
absolutely no dead pixels out of the box, and all the time I owned it, no
pixel ever died. The display was clear and sharp, with no ghosting at all.

The machine ALWAYS slept properly, and the machine came out of sleep within
10 seconds, with the Desktop ready to use.

I got good sound, even superior sound, on two speakers. But I certainly
have no ear for such distinctions. If it sounds good to me, I like it. It
sounded good to me. In addition, I could have used a tos-link cable
leading to digital speakers. But I did not have digital speakers, so I
can't speak for them.

At the time, our house was using an Apple Airport base station with
Satellite service, and I connected to the house network via wireless (built
in the iMac). It always worked. With Beta 1 I had no connectivity in
Vista, and I had to download the driver from the Web on another machine
before I could get wireless working, but the Broadcom drivers were present
on Beta 2 and the Release Candidate, and wireless was up within 5 seconds
of the Desktop coming up.

USB ports: They were both USB 2.x ports. In addition, there were two USB
2.x ports on the provided Apple Pro Keyboard (I didn't like the keyboard,
and soon replaced it with one of my wireless Microsoft keyboards. It worked
just as it would on a PC.

Firewire: 2 Firewire 480 ports. Always worked well.

The machine had a mini-DVI connector on the back of display, to which I
connected a secondary 20" Apple Cinema Display. But the DVI-to-MiniDVI
adapter kept falling out when I turned the system unit even a small amount.


Using Boot Camp software, Vista installed as a dual-boot with OS X with no
trouble at all.

However, there were a few features which did not work under Vista:
1) The Apple Remote did not work in Vista. Apple did not provide a driver.
2) The Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP disk did not work under Vista, so I
had to install the drivers which were supplied manually by extracting the
drivers to a folder on my HD and starting the installers individually.
3) The CD-Eject key did not work at all during installation, since the Apple
keyboard driver cannot be installed until the installation of Vista was
finished. Once on the Vista Desktop, with the drivers installed, the
CD-Eject key worked well.
Because this key does not work in the XP installer, it is not possible to
use Upgrade media to install XP. It would be different with Vista, however,
since there is no need to eject the installation media once the Vista
installer starts.
4) The built-in iSight camera did not work, since the provided driver only
worked under XP. Nevertheless, Vista still recognized the camera, yet the
camera did not work.

I felt it necessary to download the ATI Catalyst Vista drivers (beta at the
time) for my card and install it, but soon rolled back to the Boot Camp
provided ATI drivers, since the ATI Catalyst beta was very shaky, and made
the machine unstable. By the way, the reason the Macintosh Drivers for XP
disk would not install the drivers was because each time the driver
installer came to the Catalyst Control Center, the installer crapped out,
and refused to run any more.

All-in-all, Vista, even in its beta state, ran well and stable on my Intel
iMac.

As to installing Vista as the exclusive OS, and removing OS X:

1) This was much simpler than people were making it to be.
2) It was not possible until the release of Beta 2 of Vista.
3) The Apple firmware updates necessary to dual-boot with XP or Vista
provide a BIOS emulator in the EFI chip on the motherboard. This means that
ANY Intel-based OS using a BIOS can be installed on an Apple Intel machine
as the exclusive OS.
4) It is now even possible to delete the EFI partition, and completely wipe
the HD, and start the Vista installer normally, as you would if you were
installing it on a totally wiped drive in a Wintel machine, since the Apple
Boot menu is in hardware, not software, as it is in Windows.
5) The necessary firmware updates have been installed at the factory on the
second generation Apple Intel PCs, so its not necessary to install OS X in
order to install them. However, it is necessary to run Boot Camp under OS
X, for ONE reason: To create the Macintosh Drivers for XP disk. Once it is
created, the HD can be completely wiped, and ANY Intel-based OS can be
installed normally (such as various distros of Linux, MSDOS, Windows, etc).
There is probably a good chance that with the release of Leopard, the
Macintosh Drivers Disk for Windows will include native drivers for Vista,
instead of having to make do with the XP drivers. They work, (most of
them), but it really is a lot of trouble to get them extracted and then
manually installed one by one when installing them in Vista. Its also
possible that the RTM of Vista broke one or more of them which worked
passably well in the Betas.

Anyway, I give the Apple Intel PCs high marks. As Apple says, "They just
work". But I would change that a bit:
"They just work (mostly), if you can find the right drivers." But of
course, the same is true in the Windows world. Its all about finding the
right drivers nowadays..

There is a caveat with running XP or Vista on an Apple Intel PC, however,
especially on the Intel iMacs, Mac Books, and the Mac Minis:

The Intel iMacs are NOT user-upgradeable, other than external devices and
memory. This means it is dangerous to change out the stock internal HD for
a larger one. Personally, I would take such a machine to an Apple
Authorized technician to have it done. Their hardrives are not easily
replaceable, since the case is very difficult to open. Unless a layman
knows what he is doing, he can easily screw it up, and void his warranty.
You have to pretty much take the machine apart to swap the HD out. I took
mine to the local CompUSA to have it done. They charged me a total of $35
(plus the HD) to change it to a larger one. Taking it to Apple directly
would probably have cost a minimum of $100+the HD, plus your time spent
waiting for it to be returned. Changing my stock 160GB SATA drive for a
300GB SATA II drive did cause the case to get warmer, however. But NOT "hot
to the touch". So I suggest that anyone order their machine with a larger
HD (Apple currently offers either a 160GB SATA drive, or a 250GB SATA HD in
the Intel iMacs.) Ask for the 250GB drive to be installed at the factory
rather than a 160 if you buy the low-end Intel iMac.

If you can afford it, purchase a top-of-the-line Mac Pro. They are truly
professional machines, easily upgradeable, and tough as nails. In addition,
they are beautiful, and its very easy to work on the interior hardware. The
HDs are easily replaceable, and have no cables to fill up the interior of
the case. Just snap them in, and snap them out if you want to change one
out. If you've ever seen the interior of a Mac Pro's heavy-duty case (no
thin-walled steel case, these: the cases are solid and have substance to
them, and easy to open and close, without getting cuts on your fingers from
sharp edges, as is common with PC cases), you will have to say, "Well done,
Apple!!!" They are like Ferraris in quality. I can easily say that they
are superbly engineered, at the very least. I would suspect that the case
walls are at least 1/8" thick.

Vista on a Mac Pro would be the best of the best of all Personal computer
environments.

I could go on and on about the Apple Mac Pro, but its getting rather late,
and I need sleep.

Hopefully, I have not drowned you with words..

 

[Adam Albright]

Don:

Excellent post.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I have many years with Macs (almost bought a Lisa) and one reason I dropped
the Mac was something missing in your post: that childish evangelism that
many Mac users have. The new Macs are nice, expensive, and OS X is a
winner. Unfortunately, the evangelism is still there.

Which is SO TYPICAL of Mac users. To them, using a Mac is almost a
religious experience. <snicker>

As far as buying a PC, I don't recommend anybody's box. I build my own
from scratch and have for at least 15 years. You always get the best
of what you need BECAUSE you assembly it with the best parts you want
and need, not what some pimpled faced bozo decides is best for you.

In case somebody is here that don't get it, ALL the box makers cut
corners. They have to, to keep prices down. So even if they claim they
give you X card features's, chances are it is watered down version Y,
not the retail version. So if you must go that route, go as a informed
consumer and research carefully what you're actually getting BEFORE
you buy.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

Which is SO TYPICAL of Mac users. To them, using a Mac is almost a
religious experience. <snicker>

To see them in action, go to comp.sys.macintosh.advocacy.
Even mention Apple in a bad light (or Windows in a good light), and they go
balistic on you.
Mention Dell and their heads blow off their shoulders.

And they do exhibit the fanatic "religious" fervor of Far-Right
Tele-Evangelism of the worst sort.

As far as buying a PC, I don't recommend anybody's box. I build my own
from scratch and have for at least 15 years.

You always get the best
of what you need BECAUSE you assembly it with the best parts you want
and need, not what some pimpled faced bozo decides is best for you.

One thing you DON'T get when building your own machine is very important to
those of us who are financially cramped: A guarantee.

In case somebody is here that don't get it, ALL the box makers cut
corners.

One thing I can say in Apple's favor is that they do NOT "cut corners", as
many major manufacturers do.
This is especially true in their high-end boxes. You always get exactly
what you pay for with them. And their boxes ALWAYS work as they should.
They can do this because they charge a higher markup for them, so they don't
have to make their profit by ripping their customers off.

I don't use a Mac for a few simple reasons:
1) I can't stand the look-and-feel of OS X.
2) I don't like their worthless Usenet clients.
3) I don't like the fact that they charge $129 each time they release what a
Windows user would consider a "service pack" (Apple calls them "New
versions"). At least Microsoft calls them what they are, and does not
charge for them.
4) Their replacement parts are over-priced.
5) It's not easy for laymen to upgrade or replace faulty parts inside the
cases of the iMacs without breaking their warranties.
6) Their cpus are welded in, making it a complete necessity to send the
computer back to Appple for CPU replacement or upgrading.
7) Their memory is extremely expensive.

They have to, to keep prices down. So even if they claim they
give you X card features's, chances are it is watered down version Y,

This is certainly true for Dell. I ordered a my Dimension E520 with an
nVidia card, because it claimed to have 256MB of VRAM. When I got it home,
I found out that this 256MB of "VRAM" was taken from the shared memory pool,
not the card itself.

However, I will give them one thing: When I called Dell support and
complained about it, they sent me an ATI x1300Pro, which DOES have an actual
256MB of on-board VRAM, and it arrived within 2 days. They did this even
before I sent the nVidia card back. It was still a "white-box" version,
though, so I don't know whether it's been used for a day or a year, or
whether is actually new.

One thing about outsourcing their support to India is that the Indian
support personnel understand about paying high prices, and do their best to
actually help the customers out. Of course, Dell won't give them access to
any information except a book of canned information, which doesn't always
fit the situation, so they are unable to actually help the customers when
they need it. They don't seem to have access to Dell's Home office here in
the States. All they can usually do is say "call this number". Of course,
Murphy's Law tells us that this always happens on the weekend, when true
"support" is not available.

not the retail version. So if you must go that route, go as a informed
consumer and research carefully what you're actually getting BEFORE
you buy.

Excellent advice. Too bad most users are not informed enough about
computers to actually follow it.
Maybe if they informed themselves, those support personnel wouldn't have to
try to figure out what customers were saying, and would stop treating them
all like babies.

You know, "This thing here", or "the thingie that puts the picture on the
screen" and such like.

For many years, most users didn't know the difference between System RAM and
a Hard drive, and usually confused the two when trying to explain their
problems to support people. They usually confused tapes (you know, as in
"Commodore 64 storage") with disks for many years, and called disks "tapes".
This is still true, especially in Hollywood films.

 

[Diamontina Cocktail]

Which is SO TYPICAL of Mac users. To them, using a Mac is almost a
religious experience. <snicker>

You have to have lived it to understand it. Amiga was doing what Macs came
to do 3 years before Macs did it. Eg, Amiga did it in 1984. Macs copied that
and PCs eventually copied it too. The Amiga I had was brilliant, did more
than the beeps and boops that the PCs of the day could do and did it while
multitasking which those PCs couldnt. In 1987 the Mac came out with a B&W
version of what it would later have and Amiga still dropped foul stuff from
on high all over that. As we know, Commodore made bad decisions and went
under and with it the Amiga but still I couldnt bare to part with that
wonderful machine until the day that innovations just left me no other
choice. It was heart wrenching.

Now I am on a PC that isnt top of the line at 3.0Ghz but is still no slouch
and it does anything a Mac can do (I dont include running Mac OS because I
have never looked into that) better than Mac does, was more stable on XPSP2
though on Vista I am not so sure though I have only had one crash since
installing it and the screen was blank so I never DID find out why. It is
also cheaper than Mac to build and upgrade and more people supply more 3rd
party hardware and software for it than Mac world gets. The MAC, OTOH, has
what I now dont have and DID have when I had an Amiga. It gives the user the
ability to say "I am not like everyone else" but to do that they pay more
and get less. Do they win? If they want to be different and that is all that
matters to them, yes they win. Do we really care? In the end I guess not. I
like to try and point out the inconsistencies in Mac claims (no viruses, no
spyware) with the obvious (go to proper computer security web sites run by
the white hats and see what there is that affects you then realise they dont
know it all as yet at those web sites) to show them that being different
doesnt make you unreachable by someone who wants in on your machine. All in
all, though, it is a hopeless task doing it in newsgroups though I do
sometimes still bite like in this thread. You wont convince someone who
doesnt want to be convinced so it is much easier to leave them as you found
them - ignorant. In the meantime, when I am asked for an opinion by
customers, I supply web site URLs and tell them to go search using Google
and see what they can find for themselves, etc. I tend to find that a person
who is willing to think wont be told black is black but if you let them find
out that white is NOT black for themselves, they will agree with you. In
this way, I have not done anything other than tell customers that I have a
bias against Macs, here are some truths and find the rest out for yourselves
to be convinced. If they are convinced, they change and if they are not,
they remain as they were - ignorant. You cannot make a person knowledgeable
who refuses to be so and thus that is the end of it.

 

[Diamontina Cocktail]

To see them in action, go to comp.sys.macintosh.advocacy.
Even mention Apple in a bad light (or Windows in a good light), and they
go balistic on you.
Mention Dell and their heads blow off their shoulders.

I havent looked in there but I have to tell you if they are crapping on
Dell, they are right. The only GOOD Dell is the one you didnt buy!

One thing I can say in Apple's favor is that they do NOT "cut corners", as
many major manufacturers do.

Perhaps but they have it done TO them in many ways. Thirs party programs
arent always written the best.

This is especially true in their high-end boxes. You always get exactly
what you pay for with them. And their boxes ALWAYS work as they should.
They can do this because they charge a higher markup for them, so they
don't have to make their profit by ripping their customers off.

I build machines for customers depending on what it is they wish to have out
of the machine. The people who want high end for whatever reason (and that
includes people in the music industry) have machines that are stable, work
well and I see maybe once in 18 months just because they want to make sure
nothing is wrong before warranty runs out. The people who run on machines
they tell me to build as cheaply as possible are the same. All machines, to
date, have been built using XP (or since upgraded to it) and they all run
well. XPSP2 was quite a "sit back and relax" ride that I never got out of
Windows prior to XPSP1. Vista is "hold onto your sadle" right now but so was
XP when it first came out. It's a rude shock with Vista after so long being
happy with XPSP2. So, this is one of the major reasons my customers have
reliable machines. Though I build with quality parts even when told to do it
cheaply and I putin a reasonable markup for myself, XPSP2 made life easier
for them. They get what they wanted and they get more than that with XPSP2.
I am dreading the delivery of my first Vista machine at this moment. I have
warned customers that they should wait - at my expense BTW - but some cant
so the time is fast approaching. I am expecting the WOW that Microsoft says
Vista is to happen. WOW is an acronym for World Of Woe.

I don't use a Mac for a few simple reasons:
1) I can't stand the look-and-feel of OS X.

Then you mightnt like Aero style Vista.

6) Their cpus are welded in, making it a complete necessity to send the
computer back to Appple for CPU replacement or upgrading.

That BITES big time!

However, ti finish this off a little more positively for Mac people, they
are right to badmouth Dell. The only good thing Dell has is the ability to
order online or on the phone and in 4 working days have the boxes delivered
to your door. Nothing else about Dell is worth the money.

 

[Guest]

theres nothing that good about macs and the reason the only hardware that
works on them is there own is because back in the early day when windows was
made microsoft signed a deal that allowed other companies to use there OS on
there computers, whereas apple did not. thats why all the windows software
works on macs but none of the apple software works on windows.
and by the way ive had my computer for about 2 years now and have never
gotten a virus.

 

[Guest]

Donna

I had a look at this and the forum site you posted a link to earlier and
basically my Windows life has been trouble free in compoarrison

 

[Guest]

I have not had a virus in 14 years, I started with Windows 3.1, it's called
being careful.

cheers

 

[Donald McDaniel]

I have not had a virus in 14 years, I started with Windows 3.1, it's called
being careful.

The "virus-filled-PC-versus-the-perfect-Mac" is the Mac-Bois' favorite piece
of FUD. They use it to scare unknowledgable users into buying expensive
computers with OS X on the Desktop. They've been told countless times that
it is a straw-man, yet they keep bringing it up, over and over. They
actually think it will persuade a person who knows how to take care of his
PC into abandoning it.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

Donna

I had a look at this and the forum site you posted a link to earlier and
basically my Windows life has been trouble free in compoarrison

Among the countless millions of Windows users, there are always going to be
a certain percentage who don't realize that a user has to maintain his own
computer (or pay someone else to do it). They are so afraid of technology
(yet can't get along without it) that they never get close enough to their
computers to see what's happening outside of their few programs they use.

They've heard over and over from knowledgeable users that they need to
install a high-quality security package, but their religious-like awe of
technology tells them instead that their computers and OS will take care of
themselves magically magically. As a result, 90% of the spam mail
circulating around the world is coming from zombie computers like their own.
Yet they fail to assign blame to themselves for letting some hacker half-way
around the world take control of it. Even worse, when they do realize they
are part of the problem, they STILL do nothing about it, for fear of losing
their collected porn and stolen music and movies when they are told that
they have to do a total wipe of their hard drives.

If they fail to realize they are part of the problem, they instead worry
support people to death with calls asking why their download speeds are so
slow ("Damn this Internet company!!! WHY am I only getting 48kbps, when I
have a 1.5mbps connection?"), or why their computers run so slowly (Damn
this computer!!! I paid for a 40GB processor and mondo-gonzo graphics
card!!! WHY is it so sluggish all the time??"). Of course, this is
hyperbole, as any reasonable person can tell. Nevertheless, this is how
ignorant many users are.

Because of them, I'm really coming to the point of advocating a government
license to use a computer, issued only to those who take actual sit-down
classes on personal computer management and care, with testing before the
license is issued. Until they pass those classes, they would not be able to
purchase a computer.

Of course, all Mac-Bois would have to be de-programmed extensively before
they could even take the classes.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

I havent looked in there but I have to tell you if they are crapping on
Dell, they are right. The only GOOD Dell is the one you didnt buy!


Perhaps but they have it done TO them in many ways. Thirs party programs
arent always written the best.


I build machines for customers depending on what it is they wish to have
out of the machine. The people who want high end for whatever reason (and
that includes people in the music industry) have machines that are stable,
work well and I see maybe once in 18 months just because they want to make
sure nothing is wrong before warranty runs out. The people who run on
machines they tell me to build as cheaply as possible are the same. All
machines, to date, have been built using XP (or since upgraded to it) and
they all run well. XPSP2 was quite a "sit back and relax" ride that I
never got out of Windows prior to XPSP1. Vista is "hold onto your sadle"
right now but so was XP when it first came out. It's a rude shock with
Vista after so long being happy with XPSP2. So, this is one of the major
reasons my customers have reliable machines. Though I build with quality
parts even when told to do it cheaply and I putin a reasonable markup for
myself, XPSP2 made life easier for them. They get what they wanted and
they get more than that with XPSP2. I am dreading the delivery of my first
Vista machine at this moment. I have warned customers that they should
wait - at my expense BTW - but some cant so the time is fast approaching.
I am expecting the WOW that Microsoft says Vista is to happen. WOW is an
acronym for World Of Woe.

It's also an acronym for World of Warcraft, which works great under Vista,
by the way.

Then you mightnt like Aero style Vista.

I love Vista. I especially love Aero. The ONLY thing I don't like so far
is a complete inability to take control of my entire file structure at once.
So far, I've had to do it folder by folder. Why should I not be able to
access my OWN user folders? It just makes no sense that I had no access to
my Documents folder out of the box.

Even as the Computer Administrator, as well as having Owners Rights set on
my account, I am still unable to set special permissions for my account.

I guess Microsoft got so harrassed by the press and users to increase
security, that they went the OPPOSITE direction than formerly. Instead of
making it easier as well as safer for a user to manage his computer, they
made it almost impossible in Vista. Instead of taking a middle road between
ease of management and safe operation, they left out the ease of management
part.

Let's face it, Microsoft should leave the security management of their OS to
third-parties forever, and damn the Press's response. Why should Microsoft
allow Mac-Bois to decide the direction their company takes? Instead, they
should listen to their users.

That BITES big time!

However, ti finish this off a little more positively for Mac people, they
are right to badmouth Dell. The only good thing Dell has is the ability to
order online or on the phone and in 4 working days have the boxes
delivered to your door. Nothing else about Dell is worth the money.

I'm sorry, my friend. But I disagree with your personal opinion about
Dells. I just bought my first Dell, and am quite happy with it. But I
researched what I would need carefully before ordering it. I also
researched carefully what I would need to run Vista the way I wanted to.
Because of my research, I got a decent machine from Dell, at a reasonable
price.

I assure you, I didn't just come down the Pike when it comes to computers.
I've been using them since the 70s. I went to school for 2.5 years to get
formal training in Computers and Programming. While I am not a hardware
guru, I do know what I am doing.

 

[Donald McDaniel]

theres nothing that good about macs and the reason the only hardware that
works on them is there own is because back in the early day when windows
was
made microsoft signed a deal that allowed other companies to use there OS
on
there computers, whereas apple did not. thats why all the windows software
works on macs but none of the apple software works on windows.
and by the way ive had my computer for about 2 years now and have never
gotten a virus.

Actually, Jonny, your post is a little off-target, and probably a result of
misinformation.

Here's why:

1) the ONLY hardware in a Macintosh which is "made by Apple" is the logic
board, and even it is jobbed out to China.
2) ALL other hardware in a Mac is off-the-shelf stuff, which PC users can
purchase without the Apple mark-up anytime they want to.
3) Actually, NONE of the Windows software works on an off-the-shelf
Macintosh, since they all run OS X. Windows software won't run in OS X, nor
will Apple software run in Windows. Since Apple released Boot Camp
software, it has been possible to dual-boot with Windows on a Macintosh, but
Windows software in that case is NOT working on a Mac, is is working on a
PC, since once XP or Vista are booted, for all intents and purposes the Mac
IS a Windows-based PC. Additionally, it is possible to remove OS X
completely from the HD of an Apple Intel PC, and easily install almost ANY
BIOS-using Intel-based OS, including most versions of Windows or Linux.
From my perspective, that machine is no longer a "Macintosh", since Apple
and its fan-bois claim that to be a Macintosh, OS X must be running on it.

Apparently, you are one of the ones who are becoming part of the solution,
rather than part of the problem, and I certainly commend you for that. To
be free from viruses for 2 years is a great accomplishment, and shows your
care for your machine.

I wish all other users had the same attitude. But more than 90% of all spam
and viruses in the wild are coming from zombie computers belonging to
unsuspecting owners who refuse to educate themselves in matters of computer
security.

 

[MeNotKnow]

Tried the Mac OS (and Linux). But they wouldn't run any of the apps I need
for my work, and I couldn't find drivers for all my hardware.

 

[Guest]

After dealing with Vista Business 64 all day I would have to agree. It's
amazing that my Mac running OS X Tiger will see and talk to my Vista
computer, but Vista sure as hell won't let me log on to my Mac. I have my
laser printer hooked to my Mac and I'm trying to get Vista to use it. Ha Ha.
Vista won't even accept my user/password for the Mac, much less let me use
my printer. The sad part is that XP Pro x64 didn't have a problem at all
with chatting with the Mac. Nothing like things that are supposed to make
our life better.

I've only had this Mac for about 4 months, old G4/450 system, bought used on
ebay for a hundred bucks. Flawless operation so far. Now here I sit with
this state of the art, dual core 64 bit PC trying to run Vista; knowing that
my next new computer purchase will be a quad core Powermac running OS X.
I've been a PC user for 20 years, but it's only taken me 4 months to see all
the great things about Mac. Sorry Mr. Gates, but I've seen the light, and
it's shining over in Cuppertino.

 

[Drew]

Gee...Running Windows Vista Business and am having no problems WHATSOEVER
!!.....AMD 64,2gigs ddr400 matched,,Pny 7900gs 256mg video card Creative's
X-fi extreme gamer sound card. and Twin 160gig sata hard drives in
Raid0....running all kinds of games with DX9 and I am ready for DX10 games
and do not foresee a problem..Built this system from scratch and works
flawlessly maybe you need to do the same ...
I am really very tired of people bitchin about Vista when it works fine and
is faster than my xp ever was..!!.. I will put my rig up against any frickin
Mac..Oh yeah..Mac's suck !! and Vista rocks !!

 

[Guest]

I see no point in putting gamer hardware in my system, seeing as how it's not
a gamer's system because I don't own any video games. I use my computer for
my home business, which is database management using Access and creating
user's manuals for said databases using Visio and Word. I've never had any
problems with the box running XP x64 with an AMD X2 4200+, 2 gigs RAM, (2)
250GB drives (dual booting with XP x64) and 128 Meg PCI-E video. I did find
the solution for the communications problems, and PC and Mac are on speaking
terms.

I will never quit using my Windows box, but I do see the advantages of OS X.
Up until 4 months ago I too would have fought tooth & nail about Windows
being better than Mac, and the Mac religion that goes with it. Since owning
my Mac however I do see how SOME things are just easer, better, whatever with
OS X. I do not now and never will subscribe to the whole Mac religion/tree
hugging mentality; but am willing to give credit where credit is due to OS X.

I've been running Windows since 3.1, and actually still have an old Dell
P450 running WFWG 3.11, and have never had a virus or the blue screen of
death, or any of the other maladies people report using Windows. I've
crashed a few databases, but that was user error, not OS problems.

I think if you're using/upgrading to an OS that says it's a "business"
version, then the ability to happily communicate over multiple platforms, be
it Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, Solaris, should be out of the box, and not have
to go in and tweak security protocols to make it happen. Well, protocols
have been tweaked, Vista running happily and smoothly and my $300 was well
spent, so far. My next new box will still be a Powermac, though I will still
use my Windows box because Access isn't available for the Mac.

 

[Don]

...Since owning
my Mac however I do see how SOME things are just easer, better, whatever with
OS X. I do not now and never will subscribe to the whole Mac religion/tree
hugging mentality; but am willing to give credit where credit is due to OS X.

Every user interface ever invented for *every* OS is still crap, IMHO.
Some are a bit more intuitive than others, of course, but they are all
crying out for improvement. That's a whole different ball of flame-bait,
though.

Ninety-five percent of the reason I've been ranting and railing against
Windows for decades has just been FIXED! By these two guys, who are
just using a little common sense for a change:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=288259

This is by far the most important thing to come out of MS in twenty
years, and the reason I hope that Vista is a great success. Every
Windows user should watch this video. Please! If it doesn't make
sense you should watch it again once a week until it does.

 

[Dennis_N]

Ninety-five percent of the reason I've been ranting and railing against
Windows for decades has just been FIXED! By these two guys, who are
just using a little common sense for a change:

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=288259

This is by far the most important thing to come out of MS in twenty
years, and the reason I hope that Vista is a great success. Every
Windows user should watch this video. Please! If it doesn't make
sense you should watch it again once a week until it does.

I totally agree !

I think Windows just took a major leap toward a 'real' OS.

IMHO, System / User separation are key in EVERY serious OS.

Windows users just haven't been used to this, and i will take some
adjusting to get there, but it's the only way to go.


Regards

 

[Guest]

yeah but not as many problems as windows

You ought to look at Security web pages (computer security) to see that Macs
have more problems than you think.

 

[Guest]

DON'T GET A MAC GET A BIGMAC TASTE BETTER,MACS ARE FOR SAD PEOPLE

IQON