rocketman Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Let me tell you why. When I was in graduate school from 1989 to 1993 my professor had a Sun Spark Workstation (Unix-based). Yes I had to learn Unix but I got pretty good at it. In the 4 years the machine was in our lab it NEVER crashed, even with several intense simulations running on it sometimes 24 hours a day. Mind you this was 20 years ago!! When I went to NASA I got forced into using PCs. Yes I got sucked in. I hated those machines from the beginning but I just buying them even to this day. So I recently bought a Dell M6600 laptop (at a price of $7,000), which I need when I travel to various labs for extensive periods of time (need some serious horsepower). But for short trips I decided to buy a Mac Pro too (much lighter than the Dell). The Dell has several problems. I had it checked out but nothing really seemed to fix it. The latest is that my wireless mouse keeps crapping out. I just got done with Tech Support who did nothing to help me. I have two wireless mouses: a Dell and a Microsoft. Both of them don't work! So a Dell mouse won't work on a Dell computer and a Microsoft mouse won't work with a Microsoft operating system! Meanwhile my Mac has been nothing but great. I left it in sleep mode for several weeks and it still had about half of its battery life. The Mac never crashes, it's easy to work with, and I never had capability issues. My wife also has a Mac. After about 3 months of using it she called me and asked me the password because she turned it off. I told her the only "good" thing about PCs is they crash so often that you never forget your password!! I'm done. From now on it's Macs all the way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 can i give you a hug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted November 19, 2011 Author Share Posted November 19, 2011 No but you can help me toss it out of a 20 story building... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 No but you can help me toss it out of a 20 story building... same thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane v Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 My PC's either work or dont work....... There's never a warning, they all just up and die, and I get another I'm happy if I get three years out of them Nobody in top Laboratories use Mac systems, so there would be no way I could get any of my work started... Plus any time I go to a Lab, let say for example Oak Ridge (ORNL) and the Y-12 area. I'm forced to send my laptop prior to my arrival two weeks in advance to their IT department, so that it can be "processed." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duende Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Apple have pretty much colonised our house - The mini mac in the music room has only ever been turned off twice in about four years (once a power cut and once when something on the recording programme Logic was running slow so I re started) It just goes to sleep when you don't use it and then wakes up when click the mouse - a nice easy life with no stress Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Yep I have a MIS degree (Master Information Systems) and was a CIO for a large city for 14 years so heavy into PC's, Unix, AS400, Prime's hell even Mainframe's and at home. I use Only Mac for personal use. I have a really high end AlienWare laptop also that I use for some mathematic programs as well as auto cad and a couple of 3D design programs for my CNC mill that are not supported on the Mac. I also have a great Panasonic ToughBook 34 with a 8 inch screen that runs the CNC machines. The Alienware and the Panasonic are both very fast and robust machine and have been running great for two years without problems only because it isn't used for anything online period. I can understand the gamers and the builders staying in the PC world but that's about it. While it's probably possible unless your running behind dedicated hardware based virus protection and separate hardware firewalls it's not if your gonna have issue it's more just a when. I know there a lot of apple haters out there on this forum and I'm happy for them if they like there machines. But I'm not a gamer or someone who is impressed by building a fancy box for myself I just want a notebook that works and right now that's a powerbook for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 No but you can help me toss it out of a 20 story building... Don't throw that big dollar laptop out a window just load it with a UNIX derivative and run all open source stuff you'll be impressed and that machine will be a real workhorse once you get all the bloat wear and that over bloated OS gone. You'd be happy with it again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
overtherainbo Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Hello, Fellow Babies, I feel your pain, rocketman. But.... I'd be lyin' if I didn't say there're still hurdles with a Mac, but crashing all the time isn't part of it. I'm particularly annoyed that Apple seems to have abandoned a promise that modern Macs would always maintain a "backward" capability to work with older OS machines and their applications. And this wouldn't be a hassle except that I am a Luddite Hobbit, where my brother is still active in animation and teaches animation at a local university. He has to stay current with soft wear developments. To that end he keep buying bigger and fancier Macs (dual core G5, Lion OS). I am still happy with My G3 and OS 8.6; more to the point, I still have a bank of 3 G3s from which I can do my computer art. I'm totally familiar and happy with PhotoShop 5 - got my keyboard commands memorized. Well, I've got problems with the latest CS3 PhotoShop: it's foot print used to be small enough that it fitted into a modest hard drive. With the inclusion of HTML the program is so large that you cant open and use it simultaneously with Illustrator CS3 unless your working in a G4 or G5. And -- remember I have my keyboard shortcuts memorized for Photoshop 5 ---- CS3 doesn't use those keyboard commands anymore. Aiiiiiiighhhhhhhh Oh well. Anyway I'll let you guys off easy tonight. I already wrote a whole bunch about Macs and my problems with PCs on my member site ---- assuming you care enough to read it. Anyway welcome to a greater sphere of happiness. You just keep following that intense white light... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Been using Macs since the early 80's... I've had a Mac Plus, Mac 7200, Mac 7600, Mac 9600, PowerBook G4, MacBook Air and i have an ipad and an iphone. I still have all of them and they still all work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 my freshman yr in high school, a new class was offered and I took it. My school was the first in the state to offer "Computer Science" as a seperate class. the computer was a pair of Coke machine sized "rams" that fed 4x paperfed teletype keyboards as this was years before visual monitors, and the study course was basic/fortran/cobol using old "floppy" discs that overheated about every 10-15 minutes, and had to be removed and waved out an open window until it cooled. The mainframes went out once and the class was cancelled for a MONTH until a tech could fly in from Europe to gut and repair it. oh, and "internet" was about 15 years away unless you were the govt. my PC is old(9 yrs) slow, and the memory is packed. i'm glad to have it. we need a new system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I just retired my last home build PC. It was 7 years old when the flood caused the USB ports to crap out on the mother board. I replaced it with a $399 HP and loving it so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest farnsbarns Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Don't throw it out the window. Throw it at me, I can catch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G McBride Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I have had Macs since their screens were just a little bigger than my iphone screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Macs suck. Well their pretty much the same now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I love my I-Mac. I've never had any significant problems with it. In fact, I'm sure I've never really had any problems with it. It's a super computer built for the home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Been a Mac man since 1991. I have to use a PC at work but Mac all the way at home - for all those reasons Rocketman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krock Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I hate everything apple Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aster1 Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I seem to get years out of ALL my PC's. Run them into the ground. Only times I've had problems with them is with viruses & websites. Mac's aren't used much for programming in my world (Home Technology & Custom Installers) with remotes, automation systems, lighting control etc. I'm sure Mac's are just fine, but I have found the hardware (past & present) to be grossly overpriced and more limited on the software side for business for sure. Like my ITouch if that counts for anything? Just won't pay for a Mac or esp. Mac laptop. Rather put the $$ diff. into a nice Guitar or equip. Just my 35 cent worth. Aster P.S. FOREVER is a Dang long time I always say!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantha Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Unix.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman5293 Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 Macs suck. Well their pretty much the same now... I hate everything apple Unix.. I second all of these motions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I built my first PC compatible like in 81 or 82 - I'd previously put together 8-bit machines. Luckily for me DOS 2.1 was available. Beat the heck out even of CPM, let alone other OS systems. I'd been using computers since the late 1970s for publications work. Oddly when the Mac came out, I could see some advantages, not so much with the OS, but with the memory access from the Motorola chips they used. Equally strange, I ended up teaching Mac people how to use their Macs because they couldn't figure out things like file systems, let alone how to run a word processor or spreadsheet. And they had far more cash invested than I did in my constantly upgrading PCs for which I had access to far more software at far lower prices. For those who crash, either Mac or PC, I've a hunch they are asking the machines to use software not well written, or set up differently for the resources of a given machine. Unix in theory should by its nature be more crash resistant, but I have over 25 years of programs I still use. For example, PhotoShop 2 has some ease of use in some things that version 6 does, but not as easily; my ver. 6 at home is much less of a hog than the CS version I use at work. I've always figured Apple overpriced for the hardware and software. The shift to Intel chips regardless of an OS switch to a variety of Unix hasn't convinced me otherwise, although Apple does have some really neat gadgets. At this point, unless there's some "killer ap" out there I absolutely must have, I see no need whatsoever to change platform or OS from XP until a couple machines burn out literally. I've also noticed that in a sense, this argument over brands and OS is rapidly becoming outmoded. The real challenge for an OS will be to function with all sorts of "devices," and that's making significant changes so one can use a nice big desktop screen or a relatively tiny "smartphone" screen. Issues of storage, etc., also are finding solutions behind the scenes we may not care for when they fully arrive, such as no more real storage on our home or portable "devices" as we rely almost totally on Internet access for our files. Since we would merely lease storage for our own files, with little or no option for local storage, we'd no longer truly "own" them. We can argue brands of hardware, and OS in terms of human interface even as photographers argue control sets on Nikon vs. Canon, but I think functionally we're going through a change that makes the "Apple vs. PC vs. Unix" battles increasingly an anachronism. E.g., "we" argue over Fender vs. Gibson because the human interface and gadgetry is somewhat different, but the "classical guitar only" guys kinda look at this as an odd argument - and we're all using the same brands of strings and variations of the same tunings and... they're all just guitars, some with better materials, some variations in construction, some with different fingerboard radius we could call "user interface." m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 We've been a PC/Windows free household for about 6 years now and couldn't be happier. I sold our last Windows box (one I assembled myself) to our elderly neighbor across the street. He still uses it for email, word-processing, and internet, but he complains about it all the time. We replaced it with a Mac Mini in the kids room. We also have an iMac in the studio/office and a total of 4 Apple laptops. I'll spare you the iPod, iPhone, and iPad count! As for the laptops, I used my last laptop (PowerBook G4) for over 6 years, and it still earns its keep every day in my classroom with my students. Never crashed once. In fact I have a whole fleet of 10 year old Apple iBooks that get "rode hard and put up wet" by 100 middle school kids every day. Meanwhile our IT guy can't keep the new Dell and HP laptops in the school running. I have a school-issued HP laptop that I am supposed to use for teacher stuff (Oracle based attendance and grade book applications) but I usually just use my own MacBook Pro - even though the IT guys say it won't interface due the flux capacitor or some sh*t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantha Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 I use both daily. I like both equally. Both crash from time to time. I've even seen my fair share of kernel panics on the venerable Unix. Use what you like, but don't condemn others that prefer something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted November 19, 2011 Author Share Posted November 19, 2011 Well I guess I should rephrase my original statement. Boy, I was really peeved yesterday (long day). I guess PCs are OK, but Microsoft's OS can't compare to Mac's OS. Many of friends run Linux and they love it. I don't have the time to get into that. I guess PCs may be fine for some, but I do a lot of different things with my PC in terms of computations and programming. For me, I'm finding out that Mac's work better for what I want to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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