<p>Most of the time it is operator error. Sometimes file corruption can be the result of power fluctuations or hardware issues, but an absurdly high percentage of said issues can be fixed with an uninterruptable power supply unit. If you have ever done screwy things to your computer that you're not supposed to like reboot during an important system process or shut down the system incorrectly, or tamper with sensitive files, etc, it can lead to corruption. It doesn't just happen on its own.</p>
<p>FYI corruption can happen on Macs too. Your occurrence does not mean PCs are worse than Macs in this regard.</p>
<p>I think by "more powerful" you meant that they are more open sourced and customizable, and hence, if you know what you're doing, you can make it do a lot of things for you. But if you're a general user, and know nothing about how computers work/programming (like me) I think macs are great! </p>
<p>And anyway, all I really cared about was the fact that it works and looks pretty. </p>
<p>btw legend, do you think my vaio broke because of an "operator error"?</p>
<p>Well it happened right after you tried some weird-ass harddrive/USB thing so I have no idea. I wasn't there when it happened. But since so many people had the same issue I'd attribute it to crap hardware. It could very well be, on the other hand, a problem that is easily run into (and yet avoidable). Can't say for sure.</p>
<p>Just because OSX is closed source doesnt mean theres plenty of stuff you can do with it. If there wasnt, people (programmers) wouldnt invest in developing software for it. If youve had a good experience with Windows, then all the more power to you, but Macs arent the underpowered "kiddie" computers people make them out to be. For the average user, theyre great because things are intuitive and things just work the way you would want them to. For the more advanced user, there are plenty of resources for programming.</p>
<p>Apple came before the IBM PC (1977 Apple vs. 1981 IBM PC). However, in 1977, the big seller was the Radio Shack TRS-80 (the Trash 80, a CP/M machine for us Boomers). By 1983, IBM and IBM clones (1.3 million units sold) surpassed Apples I and IIs (420,000). And Apple never caught up...</p>
<p>Apples best year as a percentage of the world computer market was 1992: 12%. By the end of 2004, Apple went down to 1.98%. For 2005, Apple looks to improve to 2.5% of the world market. US market share for 2005 may hit 5%. </p>
<p>Yeah people knock em for not having the latest hardware, and i dont really understand why. And as far as photostitching (in PS its photomerge w/e) i dont know that youll find a better tool at your disposal. Im not sure if youve used it, but it really does do a good job, again however, it only goes so far. Youll need a good tripod and youll need to keep it stable and level, if the tripod actually changes position, and theres objects in the FOV that are in close, the difference will be noticable. If youre good at taking em, PS does a good job of putting em together.</p>
<p>yeah depending on how fast the internet is at your school you might be able to use it. gigabit ethernet has a maximum throughput 10 times that of typical ethernet, but chances are your school wont support it, its not really necessary.</p>
<p>Yea I have USB/Firewire/gigabit ethernet on my new computer, but I didn't have firewire or ethernet on my old one so it didn't help transfer files faster.</p>
<p>Ok just lemme get this off my chest here: the switch has been nothing short of fantastic. This thing runs like a DREAM. So that's what they mean by "the most ardent fans are those who switched"...</p>
<p>What software does the iBook come with? I won't have Word if I purchase it, right? </p>
<p>.. this is exactly what's bothering me. My CD drive on my current computer is broken, and I can't--or can I?--transfer anything. It sucks. I don't think it has a CD-RW anyway. Ugh. What can I do?</p>
<p>One other question: How good is an iBook for a physics major, that is, somebody who will be taking programming courses? Will it be fine? Also, will it last me four years? Thanks.</p>
<p>(Sorry for bumping up this dead post; I was browsing my searched threads, and didn't know.)</p>
<p>My iBook came with Word, Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop CS among other things (although I requested them to install that last one for me so it's probably not by default). I think the Mac guys try to make their comps as compatible with other systems as possible and so far I haven't experienced any "unrecognised file format-- unable to open" problems. In fact, my brother's Word document refused to open on the PC where he typed it but worked just fine when transfered to my iBook!</p>
<p>As for transfering your stuff from the PC to the Mac, Why not use a USB stick instead? It's so much faster because you skip the burning process and you can delete the files easily to transfer more files. That's how I did it at least. </p>
<p>Sorry I'm clueless about your last question so can't help with that.</p>