Mac or PC

Student Lounge College Life
21

<p>I've had BSODs on PC desktops... it happens, although recently it seems they occur more because of hard disk problems, which are far more common on laptops (because they get moved, jostled while being used...DROPPED!)</p>

<p>One REALLY nice feature of Macs when it comes to fatal crashes that prevent you from starting the computer is that, unlike PCs, you can use another Mac to access your computer via a firewire cable even when the Mac is unbootable. On a PC, it's far more of a hassle (usually involves getting an XP cd, entering recovery mode, entering your admin password and being limited to a command prompt from which you are restricted to copying ONLY the files in the C:\Windows director--i.e., you can't get your documents from your account, etc.)</p>

<p>Additionally, I've noticed that the newer PCs I've had students bring in with Windows Vista are notoriously slow (even without having ANY programs beyond the factory-installed ones installed--they're BRAND NEW computers that students just need help getting onto our campus network with--not a computer problem... just an user problem ;-) ).</p>

22

<p>I hate how much crap is already loaded onto PCs when I get them...do Macs have the same issue with completely useless stuff junking them up? Seriously, my computer has around 90 processes running at all times (no viruses or spyware problems)...and yeah...that just doesn't seem right.</p>

23

<p>


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<p>I had a PC with all of my photographs(over 5000) on it and whenever I'd open photoshop it would crash/burn/die and randomly exit out of vital running programs. I got a mac a couple of weeks ago with the same memory capabilities and so far, no problems. This is just my experience though.</p>

24

<p>so... mac or pc? lol</p>

25

<p>nope, macs come with just the basics pre-installed, and by the basics, I mean my mac came with...</p>

<p>iChat (AOL Instant Messenger-compatible with a bunch of other features), a calculator, a few games (i.e., Chess), a dictionary, a DVD player, Garage Band (a pretty nice music-making package for being free), iCal (calendar program), some utilities (graphics converter program, screen/window/etc.-shot utility, disk utility, etc.), iDVD (for making DVDs), iMovie (for editing movies), Mail (for email), Preview (like Adobe Acrobat Reader, but much faster and compatible with more file-types), TextEdit (like Notepad)--basically a bunch of optional programs you can choose to put on if you want, but nothing that automatically starts up with the computer.</p>

<p>Also, because of OS X's UNIX base, there are a TON of free applications online that can fully replace expensive PC packages. Among these are...</p>

<p>NeoOffice (<a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15797%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15797&lt;/a&gt;) -- a full Microsoft Office clone based on OpenOffice that some even consider better than Microsoft Office. It fully replaces MS-Office Standard ($400)</p>

<p>Audacity (<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac&lt;/a&gt;) -- audio recording application with an excellent assortment of plugins as well as multitrack recording and editing capabilities. It can't compete with Logic Pro or Pro Tools, but for free, this is definitely the best piece of audio software for the price.</p>

<p>GIMP (<a href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/gimpapp.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/gimpapp.html&lt;/a&gt;) -- If you need something good for photo editing, GIMP is comparable to PhotoShop ($600) in features, although perhaps a bit steeper learning curve</p>

<p>Scribus (<a href="http://www.scribus.net/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=3%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.scribus.net/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=3&lt;/a&gt;) -- If you need to do some professional desktop publishing...or perhaps you just like to be able to create cool flyers... this program should work nicely...</p>

<p>Nvu (<a href="http://nvu.com/download.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://nvu.com/download.html&lt;/a&gt;) -- If you like building websites, Nvu is the (free) equivalent to Macromedia's Dreamweaver (FAR better than MS Frontpage...not even comparable)</p>

<p>Freemind (<a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19325%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19325&lt;/a&gt;) -- A piece of notetaking software that creates a database of your notes. I've never used it, but I guess a lot of people swear by it...</p>

<p>Cashbox (<a href="http://www.fadingred.org/cashbox/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fadingred.org/cashbox/&lt;/a&gt;) and Buddi (<a href="http://buddi.sourceforge.net/en/index.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://buddi.sourceforge.net/en/index.php&lt;/a&gt;) -- Free finance management software.</p>

<p>Blender (<a href="http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender.31.0.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender.31.0.html&lt;/a&gt;) -- a VERY cool piece of 3D modeling and animation software. Along the lines of 3D Studio Max ($3500 -- obviously Blender can't compare, but hey...if you're not actually going into 3d gfx editing...)</p>

<p>Additionally, there are a ton of games and other free software available for Macs--and of course, you can buy commercial stuff too, but there's nothing like getting something for nothing!</p>

26

<p>do you think macs will have the right click one day. i heard about the ctrl click and the double click, but that is nothing close to the convenience of the right click.</p>

27

<p>heres one <a href="http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

28

<p>Audacity helps me make beautiful ringtones for my cell phone :) </p>

<p>It's probably slightly sad that that's the only thing I use it for, though.</p>

29

<p>pc .................................</p>

30

<p>if you really want to use a 2- or 3- button, or even a scroll mouse, you can easily get any one that works on a PC and it will work fine with your mac.
honestly, though, you'll find you don't need the right click anyway. it just loses its necessity once you start using a mac.</p>

31

<p>PC PROS
1. Right Click. I'm just too lazy to hold down buttons amd drag ****.
2. Bottom start button.
3. Easier.</p>

<p>PC CONS
1. AOL and other **** that is already on the computer when you get it.
2. Vista.<br>
3. Other **** (spyware, adware, files, programs) that gets acculumated on the computer that I can't ever seem to remove, which eventually leads to it running really slow.</p>

32

<p>What is a BSOD?</p>

<p>Photoshop doesn't work on MACs?</p>

<p>What about Paintshoppro?</p>

<p>That's kind of ridiculous to say MAC is for "artsy" people when it's not even compatible with PS or PSP.... :/</p>

<p>And I wonder if Limewire works on MACs so that you can download it. But then the version available on limewire probably won't work with MAC, will it?</p>

33

<p>Tennis gal, first of all, why is the bottom start button a pro? What's so pro about it? I think you see it as a pro and think the PC is "easier" because you've never even been with a mac. Hey, baby. Once you go mac, you never go back. :P</p>

<p>Yes, the AOL **** is annoying. But Vista? Who the hell says you have to have vista? Screw vista! The spyware is very annoying.</p>

<p>So I could 1 pro and 2 cons. :P</p>

34

<p>BSOD--Blue (i've seen Black too) Screen of Death. When something "goes wrong" and the BSOD pops up and you can't do anything but restart, basically.</p>

<p>You can buy Photoshop and Paintshop for a Mac. Just make sure you get the Mac-ready package and not the PC-ready package. </p>

<p>I use Limewire on my Mac and it works fine. </p>

<p>And for a while I couldn't view online videos formatted to Windows Media Player until I downloaded a free program called Flip4Mac that automatically recreates a WMP file into a Quicktime file. Quicktime came on my Mac.</p>

35

<p>I would strongly disagree with the "easier" part on PCs. I grew up on them, and I must say that from the moment I touched my current Mac, it was FAR easier than any PC I've used. The locations of settings are also more intuitive than on a PC--especially ones that tend to get messed up and in need of being fixed (i.e., setting your current wireless network, USB connections, etc.)</p>

<p>PC Pros:
1. More programs available for it
2. Yahoo Videos STILL won't work on Macs (but it's the only one I know of)
3. Right click</p>

<p>PC Cons:
1. Many new PC trackpads have a roughness that tends to bother a lot of people's fingers after awhile
2. Vista is an extremely slow and cumbersome operating system with few worthwhile new features (and nothing OS X 10.4 didn't have a year and a half ago...)
3. Can't run OS X 10.4
4. VERY vulnerable to viruses, spyware, etc.</p>

<p>Mac Pros:</p>

<ol>
<li>Run faster and multi-task better</li>
<li>More stable</li>
<li>Better security (minimal to no virus/spyware/adware threat)</li>
<li>Tons of free software available for OS X 10.4</li>
<li>OS X is generally a good 1-2 yrs ahead of Windows in terms of new operating system features (10.5 will be out in September... its predecessor already had <em>ALL</em> of the features in 2005 that Vista has in 2007 AND it runs faster!)</li>
<li>Macs can run Windows XP and Vista if you just can't let it go</li>
<li>Most high-end music, graphics, and video software is made exclusively for the Mac</li>
</ol>

<p>Mac Cons:</p>

<ol>
<li>You need to get an external mouse if you want to right-click</li>
<li>Fewer games are available</li>
</ol>

<p>In terms of easy access to programs and files, NOTHING beats Spotlight in OS X 10.4 -- type a couple of words from a document (whether the name of the document or content) and OS X finds it in a matter of seconds.
For example, to find my Late Romantic and 20th Century Music Literature notes, all I need type is "Late Romantic" and Spotlight automatically goes to the file before I'm done with the word Romantic (usually around "Late Ro")!
Try THAT on a PC!</p>

36

<p>Macs DO run PhotoShop--it's just that they also run GIMP, which is a HECK of a lot cheaper than PhotoShop</p>

37

<p>Apumic, yahoo videos won't even work on fire fox. They only work on IE. So I just gave up and said "screw that crap".</p>

<p>Even though I really liked it :( But I don't think I'll have time to sit and watch an hours worth of random videos anymore (or even now).</p>

<p>And also thankyou for telling me about flip4mac. There is this site that only has embedded windows files and I didn't want to get a mac because of it but now that I know about this I am very happy. I am on my way to the apple store.</p>

<p>I just looked at the mighty mouse. Ugh... They even have it for PC. Why would you buy it for PC? Ya know... I just hate buying anything from Apple. The Macbook is the only thing I want to purchase from them.</p>

38

<p>
[quote]
Did you do a lot of file-sharing stuff, download a lot of shady files from shadier websites, and/or not use anti-virus protection and a firewall?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No, no, and no.</p>

<p>But my computer WAS an Acer, a piece of crap that broke down 4 times a year, almost like clockwork.</p>

39

<p>This is crazy. hmm, are there brands of laptops like lenovo or business class PC laptops that could almost equal out to the reliability of a mac? the compatibility issue of a mac still worries me.</p>

40

<p>fastfingers,</p>

<p>I have had my Mac now for about a year, and compatibility has been pretty much a non-issue.</p>