<p>But if you want to/need to use a command line type interface, the Terminal is there so you can access Darwin and use Unix commands.</p>
<p>Macs= socialist of computer world, little competition for hardware and software design and 1 company dominates their world. More order but at sacrifice of free will. Lenin would buy a Mac</p>
<p>Pc= capitalists of computer world, plenty of competition for hardware and most types of software. Many companies many designs. Ultimately more powerful. Less order but customizable for those with knowledge. Better system of spell checks and balances. McCarthy would buy a pc.</p>
<p>Personally i prefer a pc. i want a computer that fits me, not a computer that the company thinks will fit me. as far as bugs go more are made for windows, but I have had more crashes using Macs then on my windows laptop.</p>
<p>But with third party companies making most of the drivers for PCs, they don't work as well. With Apple making most of their drivers themselves, they work better with the architecture of their machines.</p>
<p>Well, I don't know about any of you guys, but I like playing games. I could care less about stability. Oh no, my Windows XP crashed! Who cares? Reboot! I've never had a full system crash before except when Zone Alarm was conflicting with Warcraft III (which i fixed by uninstalling Zone Alarm, unstable POS...) </p>
<p>Has anyone ever considered that it's not Windows's fault for the crashes, but because sometimes the freeware or stuff you pirate is faulty? They might cause conflicts with the legit software you're running. </p>
<p>If I only installed Microsoft products and trusted software from big companies like Adobe or whatever, I doubt I'd see any crashes. But when I start loading in stuff coded in Germany (CpuIdle) and stuff like that, of course my system risks becoming unstable.</p>
<p>I also don't care about the user friendly aspect. PC's are so easy to use! If you get a virus, you fix it. Big deal. Besides, you'd have to be pretty ignorant to get a virus in the first place. Spyware is a different story, but it's not that bad unless you're surfing up certain sites... you know what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>Windows has a bigger software choice. Mac claims their software can do everything a PC can, but obviously you're not going to have the wide array of software to suit everyone's needs (particularly in games). I like third-party software, it's cheaper than buying stuff made by those large corporations. I'm not going to buy official software for all my needs. And the PC definitely has a greater third-party choice.</p>
<p>Mac is a minority. And some previous post said that smart people are a minority too. That's great. You know who else is a minority? Murderers and Rapists. Is it really that bad to conform to PCs? Maybe you just want to be "cool" or some kind of rebel. Well, then you're looking at the wrong place. Switch to Linux.</p>
<p>The final point I want to make is hardware choices. Why.... buy a comp when you can build one? It's cheaper and you have perfect command over what goes into your system. </p>
<p>I guess your opinion could be drastically different if you're one of those "I'm not a comp genius" people, but there's always plenty of time to learn how to do stuff like not opening suspicious e-mail attachments.</p>
<p>the issue isn't the fact that programs crash. The issue is how the operating system handles crashing programs. As I've said before:
-Mac OS X has protected memory. This means that if an application crashes, ONLY that application crashes, not the whole operating system. That is what happens in Windows. In Mac OS X, you can continue to chat on iChat with someone, while your document in Word is frozen. That is the difference b/w X and XP. Macs can have crashed programs. The difference is how each OS handles a crash.</p>
<p>-There is more than enough software available for Macs. The difference is that there is more software in each category for windows based pcs. This is a matter of capitalism. Every person in existence that wants to make software, down to no-name 2 person company wants to make a profit, even if they can't in reality. So logically you'd cater to the largest audience, which has XP/other Windows OSes. So, it makes sense that there is more software for Windows. However, the vast majority of major programs are available for Macs, and there are always Mac equivalents to programs that don't have exact ports. However, there will always be programs that aren't available for Macs, AND programs that aren't available for PCs. The fact that more software is available for PCs is exaggerated ad nauseum. </p>
<p>That is a simplification of the virus/spyware/adware situation. It's much more complicated than that. You don't only get spyware from looking at certain sites. Spyware can come from basically any site that you visit. It's a similar situation with viruses. Virus protection software doesn't always detect viruses, especially new ones. This is not always a matter of user knowledge, but how the OS protects itself. Once again Mac OS X wins. In OS X, a user needs to put in his/her password(known as authentication) to allow a program to be installed. Thus, a program cannot install itself. You won't see icons mysteriously appearing on your desktop, or programs suddenly appearing in the start menu(though the OS X doesn't have one) like in Windows. The simple fact is that it is relatively easy to get a virus, which is why there are always security updates. Next time you're at your computer, press ctrl-alt-delete and look at the tasks running(i'm not at a windows pc at the moment, but you have to click one of the tabs at the top to see all processes running, so you'll see things like .exe, .dll, etc. See which processes are running that you didn't start, yet it's under your User name. How did that happen?).<br>
-"Mac is a minority" clearly isn't an argument about why you shouldn't switch. It also isn't a valid argument about why you should. And those rapist analogies don't make any sense. People switch to Apple computers for various reasons. I switched b/c I wanted an operating system that handled crashes properly, that protected itself from programs installing themselves, a better user interface, better hardware, etc.) Just because windows based PCs are more numerous doesn't make them better. That argument doesn't work. Apple computers have been in existence since the dawn of personal computing(Apple is typically known as inventing the personal computer with the Apple II computer and the Macintosh).</p>
<p>Opening suspicious attachments isn't all there is to stopping viruses/trojans/etc. lol.</p>
<p>Of course Macs are a little more expensive than baseline PCs. Dell has a $700 laptop, and the cheapest iBook costs $900/$950 education price, but the Mac is a nicer computer. Apple, for the time being, doesn't sell truly underspeced computers. Try customizing a Dell to be actually usable (especially for those games that are supposedly the reason you're buying a computer) and it's going to cost as much as the iBook. My dad recently bought a brand-new Dell Inspiron for $950, and returned it because, out of the box, after I had installed Firefox, OpenOffice, and nothing else, it was sluggish. My year-old iBook has never been sluggish. (I paid $1500, but the model I bought now costs $1,100, or one that's faster than mine but has a 12" screen costs $1000.) Besides, when most people on this forum are paying anywhere from $15,000-$40,000 a year for college, does $200 either way really make a difference?</p>
<p>You're right that building your own desktop is cheaper than buying one, but the select few students who want desktops will, for the most part, buy them from a store, because building a computer is not easy for everybody. I'm fairly experienced with computers (I've built four or five), and it still takes me a few tries to apply thermal compound correctly. Someone who doesn't know what they're doing could easily end up with a fried CPU, and that's $100 out the window. But more importantly, most college students want laptops, which you simply can't build yourself.</p>
<p>My mac currently has installed: Abiword, Acquisition ($15 or nagware filesharing client), Adium (free AIM client), Bibdesk and Bookends (bibliographic software), CyberDuck (free FTP client), GPG (privacy), Mathematica, NewsFire (freeware RSS reader), RadioLover (stream ripper), Reference Miner (bibliographic), Stepmania (DDR), Tomato Torrent (BT), TeXShop (a TeX editor), and Xjournal (an LJ client), in addition to all of the standard software. A few of these programs are coded in Germany. None of them come close to crashing my computer. A couple of times Adium has crashed, but when that happens, my Mac just pops up a dialog box saying that "Adium has crashed." and I reload the program.</p>
<p>Also, this combination of software does everything that I need my computer to do. TextEdit is perfect for simple word processing, TeXShop does everything else, and I even have Word (although I personally never use it). Adium is a much better AIM client than Windows AIM, and Acquisition is the single best program I've ever used - it's far, far better than Limewire or any of the Windows-only programs.</p>
<p>Can you name a specific application, other than games, that you think you can get on Windows but not on Mac, or that you think you can get for free on Windows but have to pay for on Mac? I guarantee I can prove you wrong on every single one. I bet that most of the games you play are available for Mac, too, although I'll admit that some of them might not be.</p>
<p>PCs aren't profoundly hard to use, but Macs are way more intuitive. I've actually had quite a few friends who insist that they don't like Macs because they're harder to use (yes, they all lived under a rock during elementary school), but every time they need to use my computer for some reason, they're amazed at how well everything works. I don't even notice anymore when I use my Mac, but whenever I have to use a PC for a somewhat extended period of time, little things just keep bugging me - the same things, incidentally, that bug my PC-using friends, who just assume that computers aren't supposed to work properly.</p>
<p>I'm also the only one of my friends who doesn't routinely complain about my computer. One of my PC-using friends had to buy a new computer because his old one was virus-infested. Another's laptop spontaneously stopped working for 12 hours. Another can't run a certain piece of software (FirstClass) that he needs for school, and, in fact, his computer often takes half a dozen tries before it will successfully load a game (I saw this happen with Wizardry 8).</p>
<p>Us Mac people aren't prejudiced against PC people, the way you're obviously prejudiced against us. (I mean, c'mon, comparing us to rapists? That's a bit low.) I own stock in AMD, I think Bill Gates is a very cool person for donating as much money as he has, and I don't really like Intel but neither do most PC people I know. :p Obviously, everybody would support a cheap, good computer. I'm willing to pay a little extra for a Mac because good is more important to me than cheap.</p>
<p>how to protect yourself from viruses if you use windows
<a href="http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040916.html%5B/url%5D">http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20040916.html</a></p>
<p><a href="http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20041209.html%5B/url%5D">http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20041209.html</a>
and how to deal with spyware
<a href="http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20041229.html%5B/url%5D">http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20041229.html</a></p>
<p>Btw, socalnick, Apple's spellcheck is a Cocoa service, meaning that I can press Cmd-; right here in Safari and it will spellcheck this message, or I can do the same thing in Notepad, Mail, and any other word processor or typing-based program.</p>
<p>omg emeraldkity, the first article is one that i used in my intro to comp sci class when i did a presentation in lab about viruses and spyware.lol</p>
<p>I don't know about all you, but I've had my PC for 3 years now and Windows (XP) hasn't crashed once, though individual programs have.</p>
<p>One (vitally important) word: games.</p>
<p>Exactly, chalk. I've been running a windows system for about a decade. I can remember when I first switched to Windows 98. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had an OS crash. I switched to XP shortly after it first came out and havn't had a crash yet. Individual programs have crashed, and --gasp!-- I could still use other programs. Word has locked up before, but I'm still chatting on AIM and havn't noticed it, then I just "force quit" the program, start it up again with the document recovered (or saved) and on I go. Apples aren't built better than PCs because PCs aren't a company. Falcon NW is as good or better than any Apple you could compare it to (I'd be willing to say it's better by a fair bit). For every program that is Apple only, there is a equally good PC program. It's the same for the other way around, a good Apple alternative exists for every PC program you'd need (except for maybe specific engineering programs and the like). Apple isn't "better" for audio and video. My PC can handle anything an Apple can and for less $$$. I don't have any viruses that impede system performance. A Unix based operating system is not some holy grail that you can only obtain with an Apple. Get Linux. </p>
<p>And anyone who would buy a new computer because the old one was "virus infested" needs to have his head examined. He should back up his vital documents, etc and then reformat the hard drive. Poof! Viruses are gone.</p>
<p>I havn't found Apples more intuitive. I used Apples for 8 years. The last incarnation I used was the iMac. It crashed much, much more than my windows machine did. Doing nothing but little games and typing programs I would get the little bomb of death message at least once a day. I used a dual 2.5 G5 at the store and launched some apps, played Unreal tournament and in both instances it was slower and had worse performance than the 2.66 Vaio I am running right now.</p>
<p>If you like Apples better, fine. If you like PCs better, fine. Neither is "better" in every instance. Neither one has some infallible feature like "you'll never get a virus" or "it never crashes!." The PC won't automatically give you great game performance. You have to not be a complete idiot to keep it working, but since we're all in college, we aren't complete idiots. If you really need to use an Apple because of it's easy interface, maybe you shouldn't be in college. I've never been stuck on a PC. I've always found what I need in seconds. It isn't hard to use a PC, folks.</p>
<p>I have found that with 10.3 the mac doesn't crash at all.Previous OS did crash, particulary when running high memory programs with low amounts of Ram.
Upgrade Ram, upgrade OS and no more problems</p>
<p>I agree it isn't hard to use a PC but defense against spyware and viruses should be part of OS as it is for Apples</p>
<p>The real situation is found when we look at user experiences as a whole, the way operating systems work, statistics, etc. When we do this, we find that, in general, Windows XP crashes more often than Mac OS X. Sure, there will always be users that say they haven't had a crash, etc. on XP, or users that say that OS X crashes. However, it is clear that overall, XP experiences more crashes than X. </p>
<p>When people say that Apple computers are built better than Windows based PCs(Apple computers are PCs too), we mean that there is more agreement between the hardware and the operating system, because both are built by the same company. Falcon Northwest(great company) specializes in gaming machines, Apple does not. </p>
<p>Unix operating systems are also found for Windows based PCs, however Mac OS X is consistently seen as the best and most advanced Unix based operating system today. </p>
<p>The problem with the situation with Windows and viruses isn't getting rid of them. It's how they get there in the first place. Mac OS X once again handles this better than Windows. As I've said before, OS X works with an authentication system. You MUST put your administrator password in before programs can be installed. Therefore, viruses cannot install themselves. You will not find icons mysteriously appearing on your desktop. Windows does not rely on such a system. Both have firewalls as well. However, the OS X advantage is in the authentication system. Reformating the drive is more work than is necessary. Also, viruses can appear on your computer in subtle ways, and as I said before, even if you go to websites that you trust and open attachments that you know about, you can still get viruses/trojans/spyware. I experience this daily at my job. Poof! Viruses can be gone. But they can come back.</p>
<p>I agree that neither is completely immune to viruses or crashes. The fact is that Mac OS X handles the virus situation better, as well as the crashing. In every crash situation on OS X, due to protected memory, only that program will crash. Yes, this can happen in Windows, but more often than not, the whole OS will crash. OS X is does not have an "easy" interface. It puts its programs, files, etc. in logical places, and the keystrokes you use are also logical(you use command to command an app. to do something(ie. command-s to save) and control to control an aspect of a program. People use Macs because of these reasons. Mac OS X 10.4-Tiger will be released this half of the year, and once again, OS X will prove to be the most advanced operating system in existence today. We will wait until Longhorn is released to see what Microsoft has been up to.</p>
<p>yeah, OS 9 and previous versions of the classic OS were more prone to crashing. OS X is amazingly solid in this aspect.</p>
<p>GJ mac supporters but I chose PC because</p>
<ol>
<li>I'm rich</li>
<li>I got the FASTEST SEXIEST HARDEST NICEST laptop ever and it's a PC</li>
<li>I like games.</li>
<li>I like software</li>
<li>I trust Bill more than Mr.Apple</li>
</ol>
<p>hmm
duke I don't see anything about intelligence in there <g>
Microsoft jumps into spyware fight!
<a href="http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/01/10/microsoft_jumps_into_spyware_fight/%5B/url%5D">http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/01/10/microsoft_jumps_into_spyware_fight/</a></g></p>
<p>i'm just saying when I buy a laptop it will be a PC because I'm rich and I'll just get the fastest and most expensive PC with the most ram/memory/hardware/gigz.</p>
<p>And PC you can play games and I like BIll cuz he's sexy.</p>
<p>Wow, you're rich. Woohoo!</p>
<p>Anyone seen the new MacMini and the new iPodShuffle? The iPod looks terrible, but the computer looks pretty good, if basic.</p>