PC or Mac - incoming fire!!!!

[Rob]

No I wasn't, I was under the impression that you have a shinny bling macbook or something similar?

 

[Chris]

No Rob, just a basic working model. A good old dependable, always there, working model.

C

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I have no recent experience of a mac to make fun of Chris, sorry Not being able to do something I need it to counts as not working to me though

 

[Dave Docwra]

Chris, I have always used PC's for years & could never imagine why anyone would pay the extra money for a Mac, I found Win7 an exceptional good OS but I also personally had no issues with windows vista, Thats mainly because I thought some hanging problems, long starts & shut down issues were the norm.

Anyway I was standing in PC world after my PC had been playing up & was being told it is most likely the Mother board failing & if I were to bring it in, they would repair it & charge me a Kings ransom, I decided I would replace it with a compact system to save space, it was three years old & maybe not worth spending money on it, After looking round the only one I really liked was the Imac but decided it would have to have Win7 installed & so got a price.

Went off & checked on line for a better price & unbelievably PC world were competitive & would also set up the Fusion thing free of charge & install Win7 for me, I got the system home & ignored the Apple side as the mouse was unworkable with no right button, was invited to the Apple workshop as I was now an Apple user better still it was free in the store, I was the only one not using the Apple side of the system & was asked for my reason's, I explained the mouse is really not to my liking, she smiled at me knowingly & without calling me any unkind names demonstrated to me, how to turn on all the functions of the mouse & how to use the two finger trick in a nice way.

Since then I started using the Apple OS & I have learnt how to use the basics of my Imac, it never fails to do anything I ask it to do, I had problems a while back with a Netgear Readynas which I could never get to work properly with my old Pc & after lying in the back of a cupboard for ages I thought I will give it a try one more time & the Imac without any fuss installed it & has worked perfectly ever since, recently I made the mistake of plugging a 160GB hard drive into a Panasonic tv not knowing it would be formatted in some weird way & after doing some Googling found out it could not be formatted back for any other use, plugged it into my Imac & it asked me in a popup thingy what format was to be used, I thought FAT sounds good & it done what they said could not be done.

I rarely use the Win7 OS & really feel I was very foolish in paying for the installation. I have brought a little notebook for an upcoming trip & find the Win7 system so clunky compared to the Imac, I am really interested in the comments Rob made about installing OS X & may try this on my return.

Regards Happy Macky Dave.

 

[Chris]

Dave, I've always liked you. That's all I have to say.

C

 

[Dave Docwra]

Thank You, Sent in real Time from a Dependable & faithful Mac.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

You had to attend an Apple workshop to be able to use the right mouse button?

 

[Rob]

Not being able to do something I need it to counts as not working to me though

I have to agree with you there Jon

So Chris am I right in saying that you were forced into buying a PC because you could not get your Mac to do what you want it to do?

Dave, you can install OSX on any PC but it is illegal as the Apple licence terms and conditions state that it you can only install it on Apple hardware, crazy I know. Imagine the law suits if Microsoft tried that... There is plenty of info if you google for it.

 

[Chris]

No Rob, you're not listening. I bought a PC to run some free PC software as I am too tight to buy some Apple compatible software. That and I would look a complete cock driving around with a desk top Mac ratchet strapped to my dashboard. I could have bought a Tom Tom GPS but fancied a bit more detail. Hence I pissed way my hard earned on a PC If I was REALLY bothered, like in a crossing the Sahara sort of way, then NO WAY would I have done this. I would have had a Mac welded across the bonnet.

Come on Rob, keep up. Don't lag behind like some sort of archaic Microsoft product. Oh stop it.


Chris

 

[Dave Docwra]

Jon, I am a real amateur on computers & did not have a clue about the set up of these fruit machines, this is one of the only criticism's I would have about these machines, is the set up instructions are real simple, basically remove from box plug in & use, absolutely no clue on on setting up the mouse & by the look on the face of the store trainer I am sure she has come across problem's like me before.

Thinking about it one of the thing's that made me buy Win7, was all the programs that would only work on Windows, up to now every thing I have installed or down loaded has worked with the minimum of fuss.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

It was mac's I was making fun of Dave not you My recollection of trying to use a mac was how frustrating it was to only have one button so that's usually what I roll out when I want to do some mac bashing Chris tells us you can use lots of buttons now but not if you just switch it on apparently

 

[Chris]

Jon, I did say that the one button thing was a whole life ago. OS 9. We've had two button stuff for nearly a decade now. To use, they are just like any PC, OTHER than they just don't fnurk up like a PC.

Chris

 

[Julian]

I support a little 200 user pc network, a dozen Windows servers all sorts of Cisco stuff
Personally I wouldn't be without my MAC, converted about 5 years ago, haven't seen any reason to go back. Have to say win7 is better than Vista and nearly as good as xp which they made at least 10 years ago, that seems cutting edge to me lol

 

[jeepmadmike]

Since buying an iPhone I started thinking that a mac could be the way, have a I pad now too which I love

There is always alot of anti apple people, I've never been a microsoft or apple person windows has never been the best operating system, but due to millions of pirate copy's in the early days it's become the world standard.
Vista was just proof that they don't have the right people developing there software. I hate windows 7 half of my old software doesn't run on it, gave up on it and installed XP.....

Still sitting on the fence here

But I would buy a apple product just because it doesn't run windows!

As the first post stated it's just like the LR LC thing we all know that both have there good points but one uses the hardware and software designed and engineered for the job the other is a collection of miss match parts screwed together badly, people still buy them.....

 

[Simon_LJ70]

Since using iPhones I have been impressed with how apple make things simple and dependable (except receiving a signal lol) it has never frozen or not worked and have had a 3G and 4G.

Bought an iPad and have been using this for work and travel, creating docs and presentations as well as watching movies and is far easier than carting a laptop about. Icing on the cake was buying a Brodit adapter for iPad and iPhone for the lj70, along with memory map and the perfect answer for navigation.

Now my flaky dell laptop that was top of the range a 18 months ago and runs my home network and music server along with a wifi hard drive and sonos boxes has lots of little annoying glitches and things that don't work as I want them. Vista was a disaster but 7 is better, but I have to work at it rather than it been simple

Off shopping for a replacement iMac soon, don't think I will be back in pc land for a while, just like things to be simple and reliable

 

[Chris]

I must have missed something here. What was Vista? Sounds like is was a bit of a disaster.

I think in fairness my question was a little misguided - it's not actually the mechanics (err electronics?) of a PC that are the issue, it is perhaps something to do with they way they handle software or maybe the software itself. Would that be fair? I think that apple software running on an apple product is pretty unbeatable in terms of reliability. Where we do have problems is where we end up using converted Microsoft software like Office. It's the only time I get an error massage
'Office has experienced a problem and has shut down...'

I think that from what you have been saying, I have been missing a trick perhaps and should be looking to run a Mac as a PC for some tasks. Still not sure I want to take my Macbook into the field though. I'm off roading this weekend so I can give the little netbook an opportunity to shine! I think that it's extremely well put together. It feels far better quality than you'd expect for the money. But clearly something has been introduced that makes it lock up every 10 mins.

Chris

 

[Ian Rubie]

I have not used a Mac since my uni days. Greg has an Apple laptop at the workshop which he is currently having to install windows on so that we can run AutoData which is not available on Apple.

I am not sure but think the percieved reliability of Apple products is because they are so tied down. If you installed Windows and tied it down to the same extent it to would be stable. But because Windows lets you install all sorts of stuff both good and bad, people do which is what leads to the problems.

As to the often repeated saying "they just work", for the uses some people want they just don't.

Ian

 

[Dave Docwra]

Hi Ian, Greg can upgrade free off charge with Autodata & have all the information online, Its always up to date & secondly you do not need to have Windows installed.

 

[adrianr]

Chris

VM Ware fusion will let you run windows in emulation, and it runs well for what it is.

I write databases and have to check how they look in windows version.

I wish somehow we could find a font that looks consistent from machine to machine. The comment before about locking things down is true - i know that a font on my mac, a new one or my 10+ year old ones all look the same. Cannot say the same for different windows set ups. No doubt this will be taken up as things continue to evolve. For now i often have to have to filemkaer check what operating system and platform people are working on and then send them to layouts specific for that in terms of on screen layouts and print layouts.

well, if nothing else it keeps me on my toes.

Good luck this weekend. Hope your new toy behaves itself.

 

[jeepmadmike]

I have said it for years tablets are the way it will go,

Regardless of make model software, If they work like an iPad....

I'm finding i use my ipad for so much, my laptops are beginning to feel "difficult" much like my old desk pc did, when I first had a laptop not redundant yet but give it a couple of years

Tablet and blue tooth key board is a great combo