<p>I said in a thread that nerds (engineers, programmers, scientists, etc.) aren't really into Macs, because that has been my observation among my fellow nerds, but sakky says otherwise. So I'm asking the people on this board in a very unscientific poll which probably won't prove much, what their opinion of Macs is. Granted a lot more nerds have hopped on the Mac bandwagon since they went UNIX and Intel, making themselves more friendly to people who program a lot or are into PC gaming (the nerdiest and purest form of gaming), but I'd bet that in their working lives most nerds use Windows or some kind of UNIX/Linux, and in their homes lives it's much the same story. As I said, that's been my experience. So how about you peeps? Give some reasons for your opinion too, please. No OS flame wars, that's not the point of this thread (but who am I kidding, this is the Internet....)</p>
<p>I loathe Macs. While I admire their ease of use, I have always found them limiting both in appropriate applications and in flexibility (which are probably related). My current company offers Macs as an option, but I have not seen a single one in the engineering departments. My last company was the same, but one guy actually got one. He left before it arrived, and the company was not able to find anyone else to take it over. It wound up getting sold at a company auction, where my father bought it for $2 (compare to the retail price of $4k!) and donated it to the Boy Scouts.</p>
<p>I will freely admit that it has been some time since I really investigated Macs. I hated them when I first experienced them, and have yet to see an reasons to go back.</p>
<p>When you say $2… I assume you mean $2k!</p>
<p>I don’t particularly like or hate Macs, but everything I use already runs well on PC’s, so I have no incentive to change.</p>
<p>My experience (FWIW) is that among “tech-savvy” people, it’s really the smart-phone-and-app-loving crowd that goes for Macs.</p>
<p>No, I actually meant two dollars. It sounds absurd, but it is true. I didn’t believe it until my father showed up with it in the back of his car - brand new, still in the box, already rejected by every engineer in the company and two of my brothers.</p>
<p>I hate macs but I’m not that much of a nerd.</p>
<p>I think it comes down to what you desire out of your computer. I find it hard to argue with people who say mac is more “intuitive” than windows or linux. And the abundance of graphical design software that is available on mac probably factors into some peoples decision to own one. But if one desires more than intuitive simplicity out of their computer the various operating systems become varying shades of gray. I run Fedora on my laptop and home desktop, but could accomplish my tasks just as easily in windows or OSX, for me it is nothing more than a personal choice to run Fedora. </p>
<p>That being said, a vast majority of my friends throughout the engineering department run Windows 7 or some variation of linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Opensuse, Debain). There was one gal in my physics class awhile back that had an older mac laptop. And I have noticed a rather high rate of mac ownership among professors, if it is not a mac it is almost always a Dell, probably due to University discounts.</p>
<p>What kind of ■■■■■■■ let someone buy a 4k mac for $2 in an auction? Unless it had to be donated or something. Or everyone there was filthy rich. But anyway, Mac is the way to go as far as I’m concerned. Since I bought my MBP I’ve downloaded 100’s of gigs of stuff and have been nonchalantly surfing the internet regularly and it still runs like new. Not a sniff of a tojan/virus/malware/adware/spyware, which for me was the biggest downside to Windows. So for a mac, that’s the biggest plus for me. I also love how simple the design is, no flimsy ass plastic buttons and switches all over the place. The trackpad is pure money. I’ve had zero windows compatibility problems, don’t miss windows one bit. Compatibility issues have been all but wiped out anyway and there’s almost nothing you can do on a PC that you can’t do on a Mac.</p>
<p>Not many people will switch from a PC to a Mac (as in actually buy one and use it, not play with your friends’ for 5mins) and then switch back to PC. So what does that tell you? I think most of the people that flame on Macs have never actually owned and used one. A lot of them probably just sat down at a Mac for five minutes and naturally didn’t instantly understand the OS so concluded that they “hate macs”. But I think the younger crowd is starting to catch on because there are macs everywhere at my school.</p>
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I can’t tell you, since I am apparently one myself! It could just be that no Mac-afficionados were at the auction, although (like I said) it was offered around the company before they put it up for auction, so certainly it was known that it was being sold. The auction was also a “blind silent” auction, so it could also be that everyone else was just unwilling to put in what they thought would take to win, and since they were unable to see the low bid didn’t think to try and beat it. I don’t know. What I know is that at a respectable engineering firm no one else put in any bids over $2. </p>
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I have (used, not owned). I was forced to use one about half time for a couple of months, as I was working on a proposal and had to help with much of the technical graphics - our graphics department uses Macs. I hated it. I will freely acknowledge that for graphics and multimedia it is a superior platform, but that is not what I do (most of the time!).</p>
<p>My wife has similar issues. She was a teacher for a number of years, and all the computers in the schools were Macs. She didn’t have a laptop back then, so all of her work at school was on a Mac, and she has never had anything good to say about them before or since. For her, that is - I think she liked how easy it was for her kindergardner’s to use.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the iPhone is tremendously popular among the younger engineers, but they still eschew the Mac for work. I should say that I can think of at least one FORMER engineer who has a personal Mac, but he moved into the business side.</p>
<p>As an engineering student I have found my mac to be ok. I dual boot with boot camp to run things like autocad. It runs it fine but its annoying to have to restart to get between mac and windows. I have both. Other than autocad and some excel stuff I prefer my mac.</p>
<p>Not necessarily engineers, but the computational biologists I know use Macs I think mostly because they are more intuitive and polished than the average Linux distro but can run *nix software.</p>
<p>[I think most of the people that flame on Macs have never actually owned and used one. ]</p>
<p>I strongly disagree
We’ve had to use Macs in middle school - I hated them compared to Windows. It was so restricting and so few options. Of course, this was the time of the really old Mac OS.
I’ve used the newer Mac OS, whatever it’s called, in recent years, and even received a Macbook for free. I still hate how restrictive they are, limiting everything you do from tweaking the OS to choice of software. And yes, I’ve tried to learn how to use it - after all, a free computer! But I could never go to Macs after using Windows.</p>
<p>The Mac OS can run some photo and audio software that Windows can’t. There are a number of PC’s that can run Mac OS now. Of course, you can run Windows on a Mac. PC’s are cheaper and have better specs than Macs; no one can argue with this. However, people say Macs are “more reliable.” I wouldn’t know that, but companies like HP are making pretty reliable products too. Better selection of “style” with a PC and not just a white book you carry around like others. Unless I really needed a Mac for video editing, my next computer will be a PC. Or just forget about Macs all together and get a high performance PC that can run OSX, for cheaper too.</p>
<p>Among software developers I know, Macs are popular, but not the majority. However, many of the PC users are running some form of Linux on their PCs, as opposed to Microsoft Windows.</p>
<p>Both iPhones and Android phones are popular among the same people.</p>
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If terrorists wanted to blow up a city, they would go after the city of 1 million people instead of the town of 50,000. Same goes for viruses. Why design something that would affect a small percentage of computers out there?</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten a virus in… I don’t even remember how many years. And I use a windows machine. If you’re not an absolute idiot then you won’t get a virus.</p>
<p>Apparently Solid Edge ST2 runs better on macs. Which is just another reason to hate Solid Edge ST2. That program, what a gigantic pile of steaming sh-.</p>
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<p>Computer guys love to say that, but its ********. You’ve gotta stay all over the latest anti virus software and tip toe around the internet being cautious of what sites you visit and what you download in order to not get a virus. I’d prefer to just do whatever I want and still not get a virus. I’m not saying you’re guaranteed a virus if you run windows but let’s be honest, no doubt the vast majority of PC owners have had a virus on their machine at some point, so I guess the vast majority of PC users are idiots?</p>
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I think there is some truth to Hawkwings’ statement - just keep your antivirus to update automatically, and avoid sketchy websites (adult sites, torrents, advertisements). While even a non-idiot can get a virus, avoid viruses and malware is not as hard as so many Mac users make it out to be.</p>
<p>Mac has an elegant OS that “looks” and “feels” nice, but is way too overpriced and has difficulties running many engineering programs without something like Boot Camp. Which then begs the question, why own a Mac if you’re always using Boot Camp? For the look and feel of course… the same reason why you own a iPhone 4 (or to have an app for everything you do).</p>
<p>I believe Linux is probably the OS of choice for the “super nerds” and Windows is probably the default OS for the general public and those who wish to have high accessibility between programs. Personally, I have a dual boot Windows 7/Ubuntu computer. However, I am interested to see what HP does with implementing webOS into their machines, which is a very nice operating system that often gets overlooked.</p>
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<p>At my father’s accounting firm they’ve never had a virus on any of their PCs. That’s because all they use them for is word processing/email/light web browsing. Fact is I along with most college students download music and other torrents and don’t exactly stay away from sketchy websites. The lack of viruses for MacOS may not be much of a benefit for someone who only uses their laptop for work or someone who babies their computer, but for the average college kid I think it’s a huge plus.</p>