I'm new to Mac's and I'm thinking of buying a Macbook. I've been using my firends Mac off and on, and the operating system suites me. I've also noticed that the price of the macbook setup that I want is not that much more than a Dell or HP. What are the downsides if any to having a Mac, I know that compatibility is not as big of an issue as it used to be.

7/20/2006 2:32:03 PM

well now that they run on intel based hardware there really arent any disadvantages now

7/20/2006 2:35:35 PM

If you run windows on it, then there are none

[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 3:07 PM. Reason : ]

7/20/2006 2:50:21 PM

most of the historic disadvantages have been nullified with the Intel Mac.

In addition, many of the so-called disadvantages that PC Fanboys have spouted for years are simply not true, and haven't been for a long time, even before Intel Macs. for example, "you can't run all the programs you need". I've been using a mac for the past year (original mac mini), and i discovered it's not so much that you can't run the same programs you can on Windows, it's just that there are different programs you use on Mac that accomplish the same task, often better than their Windows counterpart.

The only thing i havne't been able to do for the past year is run MS Money natively. I've been using Virtual PC 7, which admitadly sucks. I installed Parallels on my wifes new MacBook, though, and MS Money blazes on it.

only disadvantages with the Macbooks are 1) you might start feeling superior to other people when you pull it out at the coffee shop, 2) you will be dissapointed that it will never be as pretty as it was the day you pulled it out of the box, and 3) you might burn the hair off your upper thigh from the excessive heat on the bottom of the case.

[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 2:52 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2006 2:50:55 PM

Quote :

"1) you might start feeling superior to other people when you pull it out at the coffee shop"

or like you're part of a cult

i pulled out my ibook at a coffee shop earlier and had a guy with one nod at me.

7/20/2006 3:00:53 PM

So , no disadvantages at all? I heard that you can run windows xp on a mac. Is that true?

7/20/2006 3:04:53 PM

owning a Mac

7/20/2006 3:08:01 PM

are you being serious or not? i really can't tell....

but Yes, with the new Intel Macs, you can run Windows (or any OS based on x86) on Mac. There are 2 ways.
1) Using Apple's free download Boot Camp, you can create a new partition and install Windows XP (and windows XP only) on the partition. Then you have to reboot to boot into Windows, and the Mac drive and Windows drive are, for all intents and purposes, isolated from each other.

or 2) Buy and install Parallels (for $50, soon to be $80). It is a virtualization engine where you can install any number of OSs, from Windows 3.1 to XP, Linux, etc. It allows you to run Windows "inside" Mac OS X. They share the same drives (i.e. you can access all files on your cmoputer from either OS), share a clipboard, and runs very very fast. At the moment, Parallels is the single best way (or the only possible way?) to run Windows, Linux and Mac OS X on the same machine.

7/20/2006 3:10:10 PM

style over functionality

7/20/2006 3:10:10 PM

I would buy a Mac and install Ubuntu Linux on it, just to spite other Mac users.

7/20/2006 3:11:19 PM

what the fuck good would that do. You already gave Steve Jobs your $1500. what does he care what you run on it after that?

7/20/2006 3:17:26 PM

Aside from third degree burns on your bikini area, there are none.

7/20/2006 3:24:55 PM

Quote :

"are you being serious or not? i really can't tell...."

I don't know if you mean am I serious about owning a Mac or my previous question. I am serious about both. Not that I care much for using windows on the Mac, I was just curious

[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 3:30 PM. Reason : ***]

7/20/2006 3:29:42 PM

People will assume you prefer trendiness over value

Justifiably.

7/20/2006 3:44:32 PM

^^ i was wondering about the running windows on a mac question.
i just thought it had been sufficiently covered in the press and certainly in Tech Talk that this has been possible for several months now.
.... i guess it just goes to show that people really only pay attention to the news they're interested in. so, no prob, just a bad assumption on my part

7/20/2006 3:49:35 PM

Quote :

"just that there are different programs you use on Mac that accomplish the same task, often better than their Windows counterpart"

i will bet $100 right now that i have programs at this moment that have NO equivalent for the mac OS...as i use every single program on my computer, the disadvantage is that i must give up some of my functional programs for the sake of having a "prettier" computer

as for your claim that mac OS progs are often better than the windows progs - start listing them (i am NOT saying it's not true, but i have never experienced or heard of a fairly new program being better on a mac than on a windows box)

7/20/2006 4:31:18 PM

Someone find me an SVN client for OS X that isn't complete shit (like that ZigVersion shit). Please.

[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 4:36 PM. Reason : doh]

7/20/2006 4:36:14 PM

^^ i made a comparison of PC vs. Mac programs here - http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=390157&page=1#8364637

for programs that I think are better on Mac than PC:
AudimX > any Windows IM client
Transmit > any Windows FTP client
Quicksilver > any Windows launcher
iPhoto > Picasa
Delicious Library > *
StuffIt > Winzip

and part of the OS:
Expose > Alt-Tab or any Windows application switcher
PathFinder (Finder replacement) > Windows Explorer - (I like Windows Explorer bettern than the default Finder)
System Preferences > Control Panel

that's off the top of my head. When i get home on my Mac i can probably find several other little programs or utilities that I like better than the mac than PC.

so.... your turn. what are some "programs at this moment that have NO equivalent for the mac OS."


^ don't know. I use TortoiseSVN on PC, but have never used SVN on my Mac. I would be interested if maybe there is a PathFinder (http://www.cocoatech.com/) plugin or something.

7/20/2006 5:00:32 PM

- lack of expandability
- PCs much more practical and common in most businesses
- have to drag disk icon to trash can to eject disk

7/20/2006 5:10:43 PM

- for most models, yes. For the upcoming Mac Pro, there will be plenty of expansion capabilities. For the iMac and macbooks, most functionality is built in
- we're not talking about businesses. I assume most people here are talking about personal use. It's very common for people to use Macs at home and use PCs at work like everyone else in their office.
- use the button on the keyboard, or right click on the icon

7/20/2006 5:15:08 PM

I traded a thinkpad and sun workstation at work for a mac, so I could have all of the applications that I use on both windows and unix on one device. I had always been like the anti-Mac people in this thread, but at the time the main reason I made the switch was so I wouldn't have a computer that was admin-locked by IT.

In a lot of ways, you trade one set of annoyances for another, but overall, my powerbook has been way more stable than the various (work) PCs I've had over the years. That might have more to do with our shitty IT images than anything inherent in windows, but I digress.

Disadvantages that I can think of:

1) Powerpoint really really really sucks on the Mac. Anytime I open a presentation that was made on a PC, every slide has to be reformatted, and it takes forever

2) copy and paste is erratic. Often I'll highlight some text, copy it, and when i paste it, either i'll get nothing, or whatever the last thing I copied was. It's intermittent, but very annoying.

3) No Visio. This is one of the biggest ones for me, since I have customers send me visios every day. Most people would not care about this though.

4) Generally, whenever Safari is loading a page, the entire application locks up until the page is done loading. In other words, I can't go look at other shit while i'm waiting for some web app to do its thing. Firefox is somewhat better, but I don't like it as much. Also, allowing firefox to use the JVM installed on the machine is a pain in the ass... to the point where i still haven't gotten around to doing it.

5) hundreds of other minor annoyances that are easy to work around... just like windows.

7/20/2006 5:41:41 PM

Price.

but if you find a deal, go for it.

7/20/2006 5:46:46 PM

If you aren't a gamer, Macs for personal use can pretty much do everything you'll want it to do. Only thing that may cause some issues if you colloborate with PC Users on a project.

7/20/2006 5:49:27 PM

Quote :

"2) copy and paste is erratic. Often I'll highlight some text, copy it, and when i paste it, either i'll get nothing, or whatever the last thing I copied was. It's intermittent, but very annoying."

You've said this before, but I've been using Macs for more than 10 years now, and i've never noticed this behavior.

7/20/2006 7:07:53 PM

Quote :

"third degree burns on your bikini area"

Seriously...they are frikkin HOT.

I think the only good thing about the Macs is eye candy. If you're into any sort of development/gaming/serious mission sensitive work, you'll never get a Mac.

7/20/2006 7:26:49 PM

Seeing as you've never done any "serious mission sensitive work" how would you know?

7/20/2006 7:29:25 PM

His gay lover Bill Gates told him.

7/20/2006 7:34:11 PM

bobby, something i do to help rid the annoyance of all the 'image conversion' shit in powerpoint is to do the conversion process for the entire presentation than slide by slide when you navigate through it

i just go up to file | print, and it goes through and converts the images for the entire presentation. during this process i'll go do something else, and when done just hit cancel.

it still takes the same amount of time as a whole, but keeps me more sane. nothing pisses me off more than going to the next slide and seeing that damn window pop up.

7/20/2006 7:34:25 PM

You often hear people say that macs are the "BMWs of computers" but I would classify them closer to a cadillac. Sure it costs a bit more and looks pretty, but it's still the same old GM shit on the inside. They really aren't very different from each other, you buy the thing that does the stuff that you are wanting to do.

7/20/2006 8:44:49 PM

I see no point in paying more for a Mac. The software argument is null and void; there are freeware alternatives to all those apps that dude mentioned. And since Windows is more widely accepted, I don't have to worry about my games not working. As far as security, people who get exploited 9 times out of 10 didn't bother to update their OS.

7/20/2006 9:01:19 PM

Quote :

"PC Fanboys"

haha

7/20/2006 9:53:46 PM

PC #1 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

7/20/2006 10:08:53 PM

Quote :

"PC Fanboys"

7/20/2006 10:21:18 PM

I'd buy another Mac just for TextMate

7/20/2006 10:24:38 PM

Quote :

"Seeing as you've never done any "serious mission sensitive work" how would you know?"

Funny

but yeah, even the eye candy is not a differentiator after Windows Vista.


[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 10:43 PM. Reason : .]

7/20/2006 10:29:58 PM

Quote :

"but yeah, even the eye candy is not a differentiator after Windows Vista."

Yeah it is. OS X will run on my 1GHz eMac with 1GB RAM and 32MB of VRAM in all its full graphical glory. WIll Windows Vista be able to do the same with the same specs? I think not. not to mention the security holes.

7/20/2006 10:56:56 PM

well, I am sure security holes have been covered before, but yes, Vista can run in that configuration. Heck, I was able to run it in a virtual machine on my year old 1.6Ghz single core laptop with all the eye candy on an emulated 8MB video card.

7/20/2006 11:03:03 PM

Quote :

"4) Generally, whenever Safari is loading a page, the entire application locks up until the page is done loading. In other words, I can't go look at other shit while i'm waiting for some web app to do its thing. Firefox is somewhat better, but I don't like it as much. Also, allowing firefox to use the JVM installed on the machine is a pain in the ass... to the point where i still haven't gotten around to doing it."

Firefox >> Safari, haven't had problems with it on the iBook i've been borrowing, only thing it doesn't do is Windows Media, but i got the fix for that the other day for good ole M$.com...

i'm planning to get an MBPro soon

i think OS X looks more pleasing to the eye, especially when you play with ThemePark(?) and ShapeShifter, which are the Mac equivalent of WindowBlinds (and etc.) , just IMO tho

[Edited on July 20, 2006 at 11:20 PM. Reason : ]

7/20/2006 11:17:48 PM

i don't like open-apple keys

7/20/2006 11:50:31 PM

comeback?

7/21/2006 12:17:41 AM

I came within an inch of buying a macbook pro. What turned me away was a two fold problem. The big problem is heat. The fucking thing cannot be used on your lap, it gets hot enough to literally fry a damn egg on.

The second is that they didnt really redesign the chassis, which will come in the next release of the macbook pro, which should remedy the heat problems and drastically increase the battery life.

7/21/2006 12:19:53 AM

anybody know when the new releases might be? macrumors.com hasnt said much and apple def hasnt

7/21/2006 12:23:53 AM

I don't really like how some of the key combos aren't very logical

i mean, on windows to open a file/folder/whatever you push enter

on an apple, enter opens up the rename (which is kinda nice sometimes), but to execute/open an item you have to hit command + down

WTF

7/21/2006 1:10:30 AM

or command O for Open

7/21/2006 1:22:19 AM

or command q to quit
or command w to close the window

7/21/2006 2:27:48 AM

^ i like them... some are easier than windows shorties IMO

7/21/2006 3:08:21 AM

Quote :

"well, I am sure security holes have been covered before, but yes, Vista can run in that configuration. Heck, I was able to run it in a virtual machine on my year old 1.6Ghz single core laptop with all the eye candy on an emulated 8MB video card."

Interesting, because with all graphical options turned on, my older desktop with a radeon 9800 pro, 2gb ram, and 2.4ghz p4 ran slower than balls. I mean sure it "ran" but not in any way I would consider useable.

[Edited on July 21, 2006 at 7:24 AM. Reason : ]

7/21/2006 7:24:28 AM

This thread reminds me of a conversation I overheard between a BestBuy employee and some customer or other when I was there to buy Oblivion (which works on a mac). The BestBuy guy was commenting to the customer something along the lines of... "once you play a game on a mac (no specific game referenced) you will never want to go back to playing them on a PC"

I must be out of touch these days

7/21/2006 10:12:09 AM

What's the core difference between a Macbook and a Macbook Pro apart from the video circuitry?

I don't care about illuminated keyboards and such.

7/21/2006 11:06:47 AM

A lot.

7/21/2006 11:17:13 AM