Non MS Computer Operating Systems.
- Thread starter madmedic
- Start date
Perfect!
Get a Mac and don't look back...
AVB,
I have a switch to Mac in mind over the next two years once I feel that all quircks are resolved within the new architecture that Apple is using. I will most likely await the next generation of Apple notebooks and buy one of those as a first attempt to try out the MacOSX system for my personal computing needs and based on that decide whether it's worth the final switch to ditch my PC's.
I have always been very interested in MacOSX because I very much like the innovative design and GUI but never got the chance to work on one for a few days in a row. The majority of my friends and relatives have PC based computers and the ones that use a Mac use it mostly for professional purposes.
That said: I am keeping my eyes open and follow the Apple world very closely to make a small jump on the train and evaluate from there how I want to move forward.
Thank you also for the proposal to help me out if necessary, this is highly appreciated!
I have a switch to Mac in mind over the next two years once I feel that all quircks are resolved within the new architecture that Apple is using. I will most likely await the next generation of Apple notebooks and buy one of those as a first attempt to try out the MacOSX system for my personal computing needs and based on that decide whether it's worth the final switch to ditch my PC's.
I have always been very interested in MacOSX because I very much like the innovative design and GUI but never got the chance to work on one for a few days in a row. The majority of my friends and relatives have PC based computers and the ones that use a Mac use it mostly for professional purposes.
That said: I am keeping my eyes open and follow the Apple world very closely to make a small jump on the train and evaluate from there how I want to move forward.
Thank you also for the proposal to help me out if necessary, this is highly appreciated!
So, I just needed to jump into the fray here, I think we may have slid slightly sideways from the original topic.
Clearly, we are a fairly computer literate crowd, this makes me happy as I am more than just a starter geek.
Firstly, my take on Apple. I have a Mac Mini at home that I bought for my wife and I think the OS/X 10.4 or higher is the first really important advance for Apple in a long time. Someone mentioned Time Machine earlier (Ashe I think), and it's stuff like this that is making them cutting edge. On top of that, check out a piece of software called Parallels to really blow your mind. Not an emulator, it will allow your dual core Intel based Mac to run virtual machines of any OS, including Windows. And, get this, benchmark tests have shown that some apps, Photoshop being one of them, actually run faster in a Windows virtual machine on a MacBook Pro than on a 64-bit intel processor running windows natively. Amazing.
Now, as far as my computing goes, almost everything I do I run on my Ubuntu dedicated machine as there is no reason for me to go to anything else. Can't comment on Suse that someone else mentioned, but a friend of mine runs it and has become a bit of an evangelist about it. Still, Debian-based distros with the apt-get functionality just make life so damn simple, why would I switch from Ubuntu?
I also have an older box with XP on it because, from time to time, I need to do some work in RoboHelp, and it simply does not run properly in emulation.
Maybe what I need is a really powerful MacBook Pro, and run both Ubuntu and Windows in emulation and streamline my operation. Hmmm...
Peace,
Pierre
Clearly, we are a fairly computer literate crowd, this makes me happy as I am more than just a starter geek.
Firstly, my take on Apple. I have a Mac Mini at home that I bought for my wife and I think the OS/X 10.4 or higher is the first really important advance for Apple in a long time. Someone mentioned Time Machine earlier (Ashe I think), and it's stuff like this that is making them cutting edge. On top of that, check out a piece of software called Parallels to really blow your mind. Not an emulator, it will allow your dual core Intel based Mac to run virtual machines of any OS, including Windows. And, get this, benchmark tests have shown that some apps, Photoshop being one of them, actually run faster in a Windows virtual machine on a MacBook Pro than on a 64-bit intel processor running windows natively. Amazing.
Now, as far as my computing goes, almost everything I do I run on my Ubuntu dedicated machine as there is no reason for me to go to anything else. Can't comment on Suse that someone else mentioned, but a friend of mine runs it and has become a bit of an evangelist about it. Still, Debian-based distros with the apt-get functionality just make life so damn simple, why would I switch from Ubuntu?
I also have an older box with XP on it because, from time to time, I need to do some work in RoboHelp, and it simply does not run properly in emulation.
Maybe what I need is a really powerful MacBook Pro, and run both Ubuntu and Windows in emulation and streamline my operation. Hmmm...
Peace,
Pierre
Just a bit of anecdotal evidence from nearly 30 years in the education world:
I know lots of folks who have made the switch from PC to Apple, but not many who went the other way, at least of their own choice.
Those who have switched to PC have done so because their business or school required them to do so, mostly because some software app (PeopleSoft to name one) was only available on the PC side.
In fact, in most schools that I visit, the teachers are using Macs--or would like to--and the central office and administration is on PCs.
To say that most of the people one knows run PCs, so they must be better, is not really an accurate assessment of the situation.
I know lots of folks who have made the switch from PC to Apple, but not many who went the other way, at least of their own choice.
Those who have switched to PC have done so because their business or school required them to do so, mostly because some software app (PeopleSoft to name one) was only available on the PC side.
In fact, in most schools that I visit, the teachers are using Macs--or would like to--and the central office and administration is on PCs.
To say that most of the people one knows run PCs, so they must be better, is not really an accurate assessment of the situation.
It just depends on what you are used to. I started on on Vic20s and C-64s then to an Apple IIe. In high school we had the Mac SEs and I continued to use Macs all through college (late 80s-92). My first job was at a university which was all Mac based. PCs at the time went from DOS to 3.1 and W95 had just come out. PCs were very foreign to me and I preferred the simplicity and ease of Macs.
When it came time to buy a system for home in the mid 90s though, I bought a PC. Macs were in the toilet at the time and looked like they were going down and PCs had everything I needed and then some whereas some software was hard to find on the Macs. I have been using PCs ever since (currently W2K) and I find them extremely easy to use, very intuitive and completely trouble free. I have never had virus problems or spyware problems, my system does not crash, and any software I can think of that I need is developed for it. All I do is take reasonable precautions and run a firewall, a daily updating virus program (F-Prot) and daily running antispyware software - I don't have to anything with these programs as they boot and run in the background without maintenance.
About 2 years ago, a piece of equipment I needed to use was on a Mac, so I was given an account in another lab on their Mac system (all brand new stuff). I hated it - I hated the interface, it was counter-intuitive and stupid and I missed the options on PCs I was so used to using. It was the exact opposite of my previous experience. I had over 10 years of Macintosh experience and it did not help me to navigate the new (at that time) OS (probably X or a touch later).
So, see? It just depends on what you use, what you are used to and familar with and what your needs are. One is not necessarily better than the other, just different.
My pennies -
Dennis
When it came time to buy a system for home in the mid 90s though, I bought a PC. Macs were in the toilet at the time and looked like they were going down and PCs had everything I needed and then some whereas some software was hard to find on the Macs. I have been using PCs ever since (currently W2K) and I find them extremely easy to use, very intuitive and completely trouble free. I have never had virus problems or spyware problems, my system does not crash, and any software I can think of that I need is developed for it. All I do is take reasonable precautions and run a firewall, a daily updating virus program (F-Prot) and daily running antispyware software - I don't have to anything with these programs as they boot and run in the background without maintenance.
About 2 years ago, a piece of equipment I needed to use was on a Mac, so I was given an account in another lab on their Mac system (all brand new stuff). I hated it - I hated the interface, it was counter-intuitive and stupid and I missed the options on PCs I was so used to using. It was the exact opposite of my previous experience. I had over 10 years of Macintosh experience and it did not help me to navigate the new (at that time) OS (probably X or a touch later).
So, see? It just depends on what you use, what you are used to and familar with and what your needs are. One is not necessarily better than the other, just different.
My pennies -
Dennis
mrob said:
My 2 reasons:
Quickbooks PC & Mac versions don't play well with each other nor does
Excel and quite frankly I'm not thrilled with Excel for Mac.
A
AVB19Peace
Hey Tito, what are the issues with Excel? A friend of mine might be in a situation with crossplatform Office use and would like to let him know of any caveats that could come up.Tito said:
- Thread starter
- #70
Really glad I posted this Has been a facinating insight. In my new house using Ubuntu Linux and all is well
Mac would seem to be the winner.....but of course I would have to use Linux....so why change!!!!!!
Brian
Has been a facinating insight. In my new house using Ubuntu Linux and all is well Mac would seem to be the winner.....but of course I would have to use Linux....so why change!!!!!!
Brian
mrob said:
I am definately a laptop only user! VAIO with 17" screen and XP. With the RV and my traveling habits I had to get one... and now I find I don't use anything else. I have a cable wireless set up here that allows me to use the laptop anywhere on my 10 acres and my printers are all hooked up with Linksys units also. I store the laptop between the nightstand and the bed and then take it in the kitchen with me while I am making soap. I have a motosat unit on the roof of the RV with a wireless set up and can get on the net anywhere in the US by just raising the dish on the roof.
I will never go back to a desktop.
I was recently talking to my dad about this also, he has 3 houses (boston, florida and indiana) and is talking about getting 2 more desktops so he can get on the net where ever he is staying... I am pretty sure I convinced him to go laptop also, but it took me 10 years to talk him into a computer and a cellphone... so ????? lol
Sue (Mama Bear)
madmedic said:Really glad I posted this
Mac would seem to be the winner.....but of course I would have to use Linux....so why change!!!!!!
Brian
Actually, I just read a peice of email a couple of days ago that said: "I run GNU/Linux therefore I am not terrified to open my e-mail."
I thouhgt that was funny. Then I read a post just above here where this was said:
Mike02 said:
So, that's "reasonable" to have to run this every day? And, if, like most people, you were not aware of these problems and did not take these "reasonable" steps, then what?
And, you're right when you say that people use what they know and feel comfortable with. Mike02 may not have liked the changes to the Apple user interface, but that doesn't mean they were bad, or that Windows is better, it was just a preference based on experience.
My experience is that Microsoft products, though largely stable, are badly coded and use hardware badly. They DO crash, from time to time, as most machines do, but the added maintenance just to keep them running and malware free doesn't, in my eyes, justify running substandard software from a company that thinks everyone is a crook.
Open source is the only real alternative, and with choice now like SuSe backed by Novell, Ubuntu, and about a million apps that all work just fine, I can't see ever "upgrading" to Vista.
Sorry for being preachy, but it seems like whoever bought all this shave soap left the boxes hanging around, I couldn't help myself.
Peace,
Pierre
AVB19Peace said:
Excel for mac is fine, there are some differences in layout etc of the program but to be honest once I got used to it I think it is better... I have NO problems with Excel on my mac and I am a very, very heavy excel user.
All of that said, if I had to pick one piece of software that is crappy on my mac it would be MS Entourage (their mac version of outlook). It's terrible, horrible, crappy-crappy, suck-suck. I live in constant fear of losing the database (some stupid MS proprietary format)... go figure that the one thing about my mac I don't trust comes from MS.
Of course you are correct. You clipped the part, though, where I said the programs boots automatically and run in the background and I really don't have to touch them. I think though that most people are aware of the problems of running PCs. Firewalls are common to all platforms though, but the virus and antispyware are more particular to Windows PCs mostly based on the huge market share it has and the inherent flaws in the coding. I can't account for others peoples inteliigences or intentions, I just do what I think is correct (or my IT department tells me to do...).vox_rox said:
I forgot to mention I have also experience with Linux (and Unix too). I also have used Knoppix for harddrive recovery oin Windows systems too. For quite a while, I had a dual boot on my current system for W2K and Fedora FC3. I found the new graphical interfaces on Fedora to just be outstanding. Linux can pretty easily replace Windows in my opinion with some more work. Some of the issues I saw though was that I had a lot of stupid hardware issues like sound cards not working but everything else did. My familiarity with the OS was really limited and I felt that it was going to take a lot of serious effort to get up to speed - much more time than I had. I felt unprotected in that other users with bad intentions perhaps, were much, much more knowlegable than I and trouble could be had expecially in a huge university environment with all that high speed networking and servers available. I also felt like I could really do some damage by not knowing what I was doing with complete access to all system parameters. The thing that makes it good also makes it really bad if you don't know what you are doing exactly.
Dennis
I've installed Ubuntu on several computers and never had any sound card issues. It just works.
Excel works fine on a Mac. I've been using two programs for years on Macs, one being Excel and the other being Filemaker Pro. Never had a problem with either of them, if I did I wouldn't be making any money.
YMMV of course.
Excel works fine on a Mac. I've been using two programs for years on Macs, one being Excel and the other being Filemaker Pro. Never had a problem with either of them, if I did I wouldn't be making any money.
YMMV of course.
Excel for mac is fine... true a bit different layout. In the past I had trouble going back and forth with data between Mac and PC. I've had formulas go bad and data ends up getting weirded out. It's no fun working up a budget only to find that the numbers ain't working.
My problem is this:
Office
C
ClientsC
Home:Apple
So really it's one or the other. So now I'm hoping that boot camp will allow me to take some work home (if I must!).
My problem is this:
Office
CClients
CHome:Apple
So really it's one or the other. So now I'm hoping that boot camp will allow me to take some work home (if I must!).
Mike02 said:... virus and antispyware are more particular to Windows PCs mostly based on the huge market share it has and the inherent flaws in the coding. I can't account for others peoples inteliigences or intentions, I just do what I think is correct (or my IT department tells me to do...).
Of course, now YOU'RE correct. Who can account for what the general public does, and how many choices do you have at the workplace where computing policy is dictated and usually inflexible, but that's not a bad thing. Home computing, you can at least make your own policy in that setting. All powerful even - except for SWMBO of couse, within reason.
Mike02 said:
That's interesting. I know a guy where I work who is a developer who had a registry failure on his home system where he does freelance systems development, and he was dead in the water. He managed to get, at least what he told me, was 99 per cent of his data back by booting with an Ubuntu live CD, which detected all ihs hardware, and burned all his data to CD's. Then, of course, he formatted and re-installed Windows because he developes code in a Microsoft environment because that is what his clients are currently working in.
Anyway, your points on Linux are well taken, and Hoemlan Security will be glad of your diligence in keeping your system patched and malware free!
Peace,
Pierre
Similar threads
