|
Posted By
|
Message
|
Silveraura
God's God
Registered
08/08/2002
Points
6747
         
|
17th August, 2010 at 05:29:44 -
Originally Posted by Dogzer
microsoft is better than mac
discuss.
This is not a matter of discussing Microsoft at all. If it was, I would have brought in why I prefer Zune over iPod. This is a matter of choosing which operating system is better for them, and fact is.. Macs are for people who can't be bothered with or are too incompetent to keep a PC in good working condition. They sure as hell pay for it in the end though, which means that the justification is very difficult to make for anyone with half a brain or more.
I'd like to roughly compare it to buying a nanny to keep your house clean. Spend a ton of money just to do something you can do yourself for free, especially if you never let it get bad to begin with.
http://www.facebook.com/truediamondgame
|
Assault Andy
Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered
29/07/2002
Points
5686
 
|
17th August, 2010 at 09:24:04 -
You can get a PC with better specs than a Mac for the same price. With a Mac, you're paying mainly for the build quality and look which is important to many people.
Having said that, I am still going to buy a Mac Mini (my first Apple computer) tomorrow because I need it to make iPhone games 
Creator of Faerie Solitaire:
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=7792
Also creator of ZDay20 and Dungeon Dash.
http://www.Jigxor.com
http://twitter.com/JigxorAndy
|
Hagar
Administrator
Old klik fart
Registered
20/02/2002
Points
1692
 
|
17th August, 2010 at 09:51:06 -
I have never seen anyone with a Zune in the UK. Its either an Ipod over here, your phone or a Creative Zen.
n/a
|
Hagar
Administrator
Old klik fart
Registered
20/02/2002
Points
1692
|
17th August, 2010 at 09:52:38 -
@ Andy - even the Mac Mini seemed overprices to me :/. The size of it was quite neat though 
(Would hate to take it apart mind!)
n/a
|
Cecilectomy
noPE
Registered
19/03/2005
Points
305
       
|
17th August, 2010 at 11:18:36 -
it may still be slightly overpriced for the specs you are getting, but its the cheapest mac you can get. and is still pretty decent.
n/a
|
Flava
Registered
30/07/2002
Points
684
 
|
17th August, 2010 at 13:23:32 -
Originally Posted by SiLVERFIRE
Macs are for people who can't be bothered with or are too incompetent to keep a PC in good working condition. They sure as hell pay for it in the end though, which means that the justification is very difficult to make for anyone with half a brain or more.
Macs have many advantages and disadvantages over general Windows PCs - different people prefer different platforms. It's nothing to do with whether somebody only has "half a brain" or not.
I use a Windows PC and have done my whole life, but I do have experience using Macs during education and work so I will put my opinions here.
Hardware
The hardware is generally top quality - it's expensive but you generally get what you pay for and it's guaranteed to last a long time. Example - I bought a crappy Compaq laptop for about £400 which lasted about 2 years before it started slowing down and having problems (was pretty much down to the cheap graphics card, memory and hard drive). It wasn't worth the money replacing the components so I just bought a new laptop. I've generally had this problem with laptops from Compaq, HP etc.
I have friends who have had Macbooks which last around 4-5 years without a single problem what-so-ever. Some do have problems, but generally you can tell that the quality of hardware is much better than that you get with your general PC companies such as Compaq. I guess it's down to what company you're buying from - I've never tried Dell laptops for example, so wouldn't be able to say they're laptops aren't good quality. But from minor experience I'd say Apple laptops are some of the best. But they're also the most expensive.
Software/Applications
Obviously, with OSX you're missing out on many applications developed for Windows. A lot of common applications like Steam, VLC media player etc are available on OSX though. If I was to switch to OSX then I wouldn't miss any Windows applications personally (now that Team Fortress 2 is available on Mac anyway). I can't really think of anything I'd miss. Then you have all the development software for the iPhone, which obviously isn't available on Windows - that's if you're into developing software anyway.
Operating System
OSX is unix based and is a very solid operating system. It's easy to use, it's quick to use and it's pretty. The user interface design is generally top notch and everything is where you expect it to be. I find there are also fewer limitations than Windows system, if you know what you're doing. You can pretty much do whatever you want through the terminal window, whereas with Windows you have to mess with the registry and all that crap.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My suggestion would be to find somebody with a Mac and get them to let you play with it for a bit. The only real difference between Windows is the user interface and the fact it is a unix based system (which also have many advantages/disadvantages over Windows, but I won't go into that - just google Linux vs Windows or Unix vs Windows). I also would only suggest buying a Macbook rather than the full-fledged Mac desktop - the hardware is nearly as good and is a little cheaper if I recall. Plus the hardware in the Macbooks can pretty much do anything anyway.
Also note that Macs can run OSX and Windows on the same machine. Though you can build a "hackintosh" which lets you install OSX on normal PC hardware. Maybe you could look into that if you want to give OSX a try.
I'm still sticking with a Windows desktop but when I get enough money I'm scrapping my laptop and getting a Macbook - mainly because I know it'll last longer and I'll be able to do everything I want to on it. Plus I'm looking at going into iPhone and Android development (of which I can do both on a Macbook).
Also, I am not an Apple fanboy. Like I said, both platforms have their advantages/disadvantages - you really need to look into them yourself.
 Edited by Flava
This is a signature. Have this one on me.
|
Hagar
Administrator
Old klik fart
Registered
20/02/2002
Points
1692
|
17th August, 2010 at 14:07:45 -
My one friends Macbook is cracking everywhere espeically at the back and the front where I guess the magnetic strip is placed for retaining the screen (Yet he still swears by Mac quality... typical fanboy ). One guy I know used to use a Macbook pro (Now has a thinkpad and a netbook), the optical drive packed up, the earphone socket only works if you apply pressure, and some other things i think packed up - he keeps it as a memento of "great" mac build quality. Just be careful Flava - hopefully the Macbooks are better now...
Cheap components or not, hardware should not slowdown due to age (optical drives perhaps if they are dusty and hard drives will if they are failing). A CPU,RAM and graphics card will run at the same clock speed from day one to when it stops working - assuming a thermal controller does not slow down the clock due to insufficient cooling (dust again!).
Sounds like you need to defrag/uninstall some useless memory hogging software/clean the dust out to me... Never had a problem with keeping one of my self built PC's running to the best of their potential. Laptops are especially prone to clock throttling due to poor cooling.
On a side note note does Mr Jobbs hunt Hackintosh users down?
n/a
|
Flava
Registered
30/07/2002
Points
684
|
17th August, 2010 at 14:58:45 -
Regarding my laptop issues, it was a heat issue not an ageing issue. Cheap components often use cheaper materials which are more prone to heat - my issues were not necessarily speed issues. My graphics card had issues after a year were it was no longer displaying certain things correctly and my hard drive generally became slow as time went on (I took it out and found out it was a known unreliable hard drive). Also have a self-made PC which I've never had any problems with - but that's likely because I made sure to pay for the extra cooling and good quality components.
I have heard of the Macbook cracking issue in the past but I believe that has mostly been resolved now. I can really only go on my friends' word though - I have three friends who have had Macbook Pros for the last 3-5 years and none of them have ever had a problem with them.
This is a signature. Have this one on me.
|
Silveraura
God's God
Registered
08/08/2002
Points
6747
|
17th August, 2010 at 15:33:46 -
Originally Posted by ..::hagar::..
I have never seen anyone with a Zune in the UK. Its either an Ipod over here, your phone or a Creative Zen.
Thats because of Microsofts excellent expansion skills. Despite the Zune being better than the iPod and the Zune service - Zune Pass especially, being better and the Zune Software being significantly better than iTunes, Microsoft is having above and beyond a difficult time convincing an ignorant country (US) much less world, to see that.
On top of that, as you hear all the time, Apple fans love to swear by whatever they use because they so love the fact that they seemed to have found the light, meanwhile the audience who buys the Zune are a lot more passive. They know we want quality but they don't care, for the most part, who wants to touch their pretty new toy. It works, period.
Make no mistake though, they may not be every direction you look over here, but when you start over turning rocks, you'll be shocked at how many people do actually use them and most people who do use one, love it.
The problem is Apple basically made the word MP3 player and iPod synonymous and owning anything but iPod is not cool, especially if its roots started out as a blatant poop brick rip-off - despite coming a very long way.
I own a Zune 8 and a Zune HD16 and I love it.
Edited by Silveraura
http://www.facebook.com/truediamondgame
|
Flava
Registered
30/07/2002
Points
684
|
17th August, 2010 at 17:58:52 -
I own an iPod Touch because it does everything I want and more, not because I think it's "cool". Would be interested to know what the Zune does better though - Microsoft haven't even marketed the Zune over here and I haven't heard anything about it on Gizmodo/Engadget since the Zune HD was announced.
Edited by Flava
This is a signature. Have this one on me.
|
Hayo
Stone Goose
Registered
15/08/2002
Points
6949
|
17th August, 2010 at 19:29:39 -
I don't even know what a zune is. Couldn't they have picked another name?
www.hayovanreek.nl
|
Hagar
Administrator
Old klik fart
Registered
20/02/2002
Points
1692
|
17th August, 2010 at 19:38:30 -
There is only two things I do not like with the Ipod:
1) A lack of drag and drop
2) My first and only ipod packing up, about 6 months after I replaced the battery (built in failure time perhaps? I suspect so, the same thing happened to another engineer I used to work with - he also changed the battery). I detest inbuilt batteries - its making the device a throw away commodity - Lithium Ion and LiPo cells do not have that many charge/discharge cycles. Numerous friends of mine have dead/useless ipods - but they keep going out and buying every generation that comes out.
Flava there is people that will buy Apple products without even looking at what else is on offer to qoute Onion News "I'll buy anything from Apple as its long as its shiny and plastic!" types - but there is fanboys like that for every product . As an engineer I can not see why people keep going out and buying the same series of products if it breaks or even worse if the current device is working but they just want the newest one.
I am still not convinced about the cheap hardware argument. My Toshiba laptop is still runnning nice (was not much more expensive, has a Core 2 Duo CPU and a Intel Video chipset - I do not use it for games so this does not bother me. I think I brought it Christmas time 06 or Janury 07 but I did put XP rather than Vista is came with.
n/a
|
UrbanMonk
BRING BACK MITCH
Registered
07/07/2008
Points
49667
     
|
17th August, 2010 at 20:03:56 -
I have a MacBook for compiling iPhone apps and I like it for the most part. It's a bit harder to get to your files cause of how the file browsing is setup, but I guess it's just cause that's not what I'm used to.
I have newest model (not pro) and it's slower than my 2 year old Dell vostro. Dunno why but it runs the mac versions of the adobe products a lot slower. Could just be the fact that it's not optimzed for mac.
Anyway, if I didn't need it for iPhone apps I wouldn't have one, but it's certainly not a disappointment either.
n/a
|
Jon Lambert
Administrator
Vaporware Master
Registered
19/12/2004
Points
8235
  
|
17th August, 2010 at 20:11:16 -
Originally Posted by Flava
I own an iPod Touch because it does everything I want and more, not because I think it's "cool".
This. Although I'm leaving it at home while I go to college since I have my Droid X and my mother wanted an iPod to use.
I had a friend with a first generation iPod Touch who sold it to get the money to buy a Zune HD, convinced that it was the better product, with HD screen and all that. For the first few days he used to think it was so cool, especially the way it displayed album art and info while playing music, but eventually he realized that it wasn't that great (with a slow web browser and not many apps) so he traded it back for his original iPod Touch and was happy again.
Sandwich Time!Whoo!
JoyCheck & KeyCheck Widgets
For easy implementation of customizable joystick and keyboard controls.
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8364
|
Matthew Wiese
The Fencer
Registered
01/02/2009
Points
149
|
17th August, 2010 at 20:28:17 -
I'm running Windows 7 on a relatively new iMac (the 24.5 inch ones that can't be bought new anymore from my knowledge). I love it, and I use the Mac half for schoolwork.
n/a
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
Post Reply