Mac or PC?

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blackbrandt

That Darn College Student
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Which do you prefer?


I'm a diehard Windows fan. I would rather spend a few minutes restarting my computer to fix it rather than having to bring it in to the Apple store to get a simple fix done.
 
I have had a Mac for nearly 30 years. Never have had to use an Apple Store or Genius Bar. My first Mac still runs. I use them 5-7 years and then replace them. It is that simple.

I have 2 Windows Laptops and I am lucky if they last 24-36 months.
 
I run all Macs. One iMac at home. iMac at office. MacBook Air to move around. MacBook 13" for rocket stuff.

I also run VM Fusion. That allows me to run windows flawlessly. The best way to run windows is under fusion on a Mac. .
 
I have used both at work and home and I hate them equally. I use what is best for each task. It's like if you have to dig a hole, you use the shovel that gives you the least blisters.
 
I have had a Mac for nearly 30 years. Never have had to use an Apple Store or Genius Bar. My first Mac still runs. I use them 5-7 years and then replace them. It is that simple.

I have 2 Windows Laptops and I am lucky if they last 24-36 months.

You confirmed what I've heard about Macs -- you seldom (maybe never) need to take them in to get worked on. My wife and I went with iPhones over 2 years ago. We are just amazed at how intuitive they are to use. I bought her an iPad two Christmases ago -- she loves it, and I use it quite a bit. She has her iPhone and iPad linked, and did it all on her own. I never have to help her with either device. But our PCs drive her crazy.

Meanwhile, my "not-that-old" HP laptop has a bad trackpad, so I need to use a mouse. And earlier today the keyboard started missing strokes (I was sure it was me, but a reboot seems to have fixed it). And I cannot delete the annoying "Get Windows 10" icon in task bar that periodically reminds me that I really should download it. No way! I'll keep it on Win7 until it dies.

I am at a point in my life where I just want a computer for email, web/forum browsing, and woodworking design work (SketchUp). I don't want to fiddle with Windows. I just want something solid. Next PC is going to be a Mac, just not sure if it will be a desktop of a laptop model. With either, I am not going to be completely happy unless I also come home with the 27" display!
 
Mac at home, Windows at the office. I double as IT manager in my free time... My user that needed the most attention and handholding (the president, CEO, and sole shareholder) asked for an iMac at his last upgrade. Now I only hear from him when MS office does something stupid. Or he tries to log in with caps lock on...
 
I use PCs almost exclusively, largely because my work gives me a new one every 18-24 months or so. Most of my more esoteric work software only runs on PC anyhow.

That being said, I have never been in love with many computers. I am deeply in nerd love with my iPhone and iPad though...when it comes to mobile, then I am die hard Mac.
 
I use PCs almost exclusively as well. The main reason is I assemble the machines myself from purchased components, that way when I'm ready to upgrade again I can recycle the parts I want like keyboards, mice, monitors, hard drives, cases, specialty expansion cards. Yes you can do some of that with a Mac, but I also hate Apple products and their business practices, oh and I despise ITunes. I really like the ability to do almost anything to customize my PC like water cooling, overclocking, lots of available accessories and LOTS of software.
 
PC here but no Windows. I am from the Linux confession :) BTW, I have witnessed a few of my collegues having to bring their Mac laptops to the Apple Temple for repair in the last 5 years. Maybe about 12 incidents total. They are nowhere as stable as people believe I think. I myself have had a tendency to crash them ;)
 
PC/Windows. All the ones at home I built for the same reasons as above. Got to say I love my cheap Chinese Android tablets for sitting on the couch and cruising the web or reading ebooks.
 
Windows in the office; Mac at home. The Mac never dies and does everything I need. I run Open Rocket for my rocketry stuff, and standard "stuff" like MS Office, Firefox and Thunderbird for tools, browsing and email. The files coming out of my Mac are perfectly compatible (and email-able) with Windows users.

I'm not a Mac zealot, but I have to admit that since I've owned one, I've never had an operating system problem with it. Even if I had an operating system failure tonight, I'd buy another Mac over PC in an heartbeat.
 
I loved my mac, when the wife and I moved in together she preferred her pc , so I gave the mac a time out. I got it back out not long ago, only to discover the version I owned- whatever was right before leopard , i cant remember :rolleyes: had no updates avail for it , at least that I can find ?? Seems they made the cutoff line leopard and above . Any hope for it mac guys ??
 
We are an Apple family with mac's, iPhones, and iPads. Overall I have had good luck with all the machines. Like anything they will break. As far as fixing them, if I am out of warranty I will fix it myself. It's not that hard.
 
I use both, but prefer Macs. Work is all PC (Windows 7) on a company provided fairly high-powered Dell. At home we have Win 7 on a couple of Acer netbooks and one HP desktop and I'm typing on my five-year-old 13 inch MacBook Pro right now. The MacBook has been to the Apple store once for its own issue (new battery under AppleCare warranty). The 12 inch Powerbook it replaced (which was in service for almost 8 years before being retired) was in twice. The first time they were able to sort out a badly confused hard drive - something that rebooting and using the standard disk utility couldn't deal with. - with no data loss The second time was for a new battery. Just before it was retired I had to put a new hard drive in it - I did that myself - but it was operationally seamless thanks to Time Machine.

I use an Acer netbook as my take-it-to-the-field computer for now - cheap so no great loss if things get full of dirt or something, and quite a bit of my RC airplane related stuff only runs on Windows. I also use it for downloading altimeter data and such. I see this MacBook or maybe an Air replacing it with Windows in a virtual machine when I next upgrade. The bloatware-ridden HP desktop we have will be replaced by an iMac at some point (and maybe Windows in a VM for my wife's favorite genealogy software and one or two other things). But it's not high on the priority list right now. My wife also uses an Acer netbook with Win7 on it mainly for portable genealogy stuff.

I've dabbled a tiny bit with Linux (put Ubuntu on one of the older Acer netbooks in the house that used have Windows XP). More research there is needed....but again not a high priority.

I agree about that bloody "upgrade to Windows 10" thing that just will not go away from any of the home Win7 machines - it comes back after every reboot.
 
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I loved my mac, when the wife and I moved in together she preferred her pc , so I gave the mac a time out. I got it back out not long ago, only to discover the version I owned- whatever was right before leopard , i cant remember :rolleyes: had no updates avail for it , at least that I can find ?? Seems they made the cutoff line leopard and above . Any hope for it mac guys ??

That's pretty old so it is going to give you some problems with some things and it is like living in the past. I have a 2002 powerbook g4 that still works. I sometimes use it to run my vinyl plotter.
It's time for a new mac.
 
I use both at home, and PCs at work. I'm pretty much a "do-it-yerself" IT guy - built a couple PCs, but I still have two Mac laptops that I prefer for writing and design - an old iBook running OS 9/10 for doing translations (Word really hates old versions now) and for scrubbing off the resource fork (olde timers will know what I'm talking about here) and a MacBook Pro running Lion for actual work (got Adobe Suite and MS Office running on it). Toshiba laptop is mostly for playing games that aren't available for Mac. And next week, I will be completing the trifecta - getting a cheap old used laptop for $75 to install Linux on and start learning that. I've heard that Mint is good, but will probably just go ahead with Ubunto because it is one of the most popular distros out there.
 
I don't know where you guys are getting these macs that never break.... My sister has gone through 2 macs in 3 years. First one had 3 repairs on it (Logic Board, Hard Drive, screen) and then it died, then number 2 just died while we were on vacation last week (just wouldn't turn on).

I'm just going to stay here with my PC.... :)
 
I'm a PC/Android guy. Not saying they are better, just more suited to the way I think and wish to interact with the devices.

For example, yesterday I needed to get the wallpaper my son was using as his iPhone lockscreen as a jpg file. It's complicated, but I wanted to use an iPhone app that would put emergency contact info on it, and it requires access to the jpg or whatever file. Half an hour later, googling, installing things, etc. I still couldn't find the darned wallpaper as an accessible file on his phone. Apple tries to shield the end user from things on both the Mac and iPhone/iPad, making simple operations overly complicated. Drives me nuts.

Marc
 
next week, I will be completing the trifecta - getting a cheap old used laptop for $75 to install Linux on and start learning that. I've heard that Mint is good, but will probably just go ahead with Ubunto because it is one of the most popular distros out there.

Mint is great. There's Cinnamon and Mate and a couple other varieties of it. I've got Mate on a box right now. Enjoying it, though it's a bit different from what I'm used to...
 
I put Ubuntu on an old Lenovo thinkpad that I was going to recycle from the office - my kids now use it for Minecraft. Brought new life to the sub-par hardware.
 
Windows 10 PC. A lot of my friends are musicians and use Macs. I've played with theirs, but never saw what the big deal is. My ADK Pro Audio PC contains higher quality components and runs circles around their Macs. It's been on all day, every day for about 5 years so far and just keeps on going. I also used Windows PCs on the job for 25 years, networked with thousands of other PCs. Never had a problem, never had an infection in all that time.
 
I'm a PC/Android guy. Not saying they are better, just more suited to the way I think and wish to interact with the devices.

For example, yesterday I needed to get the wallpaper my son was using as his iPhone lockscreen as a jpg file. It's complicated, but I wanted to use an iPhone app that would put emergency contact info on it, and it requires access to the jpg or whatever file. Half an hour later, googling, installing things, etc. I still couldn't find the darned wallpaper as an accessible file on his phone. Apple tries to shield the end user from things on both the Mac and iPhone/iPad, making simple operations overly complicated. Drives me nuts.

Marc

I have exactly the same complaint about Windows. Except, Microsoft does a poorer job of covering up, and yet has no tool as powerful and comprehensive as the UNIX command line.

Could you not simply input the text you wanted displayed on the lock screen as a setting instead of ratting out the image file? I have never done so but I thought that feature was in place.
 
Mint is great. There's Cinnamon and Mate and a couple other varieties of it. I've got Mate on a box right now. Enjoying it, though it's a bit different from what I'm used to...
I like Mint with Cinnamon. No more Ubuntu for me.
 
PC/Windows here, but I can see the reasoning behind the Mac contingent.

Apple's policy of restricting hardware and software results in a much easier to manage ecosystem where everything is MUCH more likely to work properly together. From the engineer's side, I can't comprehend the hassles that Microsoft has to go through in order to be as compatible as possible with millions of different hardware platforms, all slightly different. The fact that Windows works at all under these circumstances is a testament to the quality of work invested. Apple just made it easy on themselves, and it works for them.

Unfortunately, if you're like me and like the flexibility of changing components and migrating some hardware from one machine to a new unit, PC hardware is the only way to go. If you want a more efficient OS with the expense of needing more software knowledge, Linux on PC hardware is the way to go.

People who just want their stuff to work and not change or fiddle with anything, go Apple. I have friends with all Apple households (computers, ipads, iphones, apple tv, etc.) and it just all gets along together with no tinkering. I like to tinker.

Diff'rent strokes, folks.
-Ken
 
PC/Windows here, but I can see the reasoning behind the Mac contingent.

Apple's policy of restricting hardware and software results in a much easier to manage ecosystem where everything is MUCH more likely to work properly together. From the engineer's side, I can't comprehend the hassles that Microsoft has to go through in order to be as compatible as possible with millions of different hardware platforms, all slightly different. The fact that Windows works at all under these circumstances is a testament to the quality of work invested. Apple just made it easy on themselves, and it works for them.

Unfortunately, if you're like me and like the flexibility of changing components and migrating some hardware from one machine to a new unit, PC hardware is the only way to go. If you want a more efficient OS with the expense of needing more software knowledge, Linux on PC hardware is the way to go.

People who just want their stuff to work and not change or fiddle with anything, go Apple. I have friends with all Apple households (computers, ipads, iphones, apple tv, etc.) and it just all gets along together with no tinkering. I like to tinker.

Diff'rent strokes, folks.
-Ken
Well said!
 
Nothing's perfect. We use Linux at work for production machines. So I tend to develop on MacOS and then port. But we do have some Windows machines for running specific tools. And some people at work prefer Windows for their work machine. So far, we've been letting new employees pick Windows or Mac for their laptop administrative machine. And that seems to be working out OK. I don't think anybody has chosen Linux for their "desk machine."
 
Mac, but I dual boot windows. I use a Macbook pro, and notice that it runs hotter under windows. I like the solid state hard drive, and the fact that the fan almost never runs. I think that OS X is a much better operating system as well, given that it's UNIX based. My main reason for dual booting windows is to be able to use certain parts of Microsoft Office that are not available for Mac.
 
RE: iphone lockscreen "if found text":

Could you not simply input the text you wanted displayed on the lock screen as a setting instead of ratting out the image file? I have never done so but I thought that feature was in place.

You'd think so. Been a standard feature on Android and Windows phones for years. But not available on iPhones. There are apps to do it. The app I got takes a jpg file and burns text into it, then sets that as the lock screen.

My son decided to change lockscreens to one of the other ones that are standard on iPhone. But, it's not accessible as a JPG for the app I've got to work on it to put the text on. Spent lots of time trying to figure out where it is... even installed iTunes on my PC to see if I could find it there. Nope. Installed "iFunbox" which gives access to the file system on the phone... couldn't find it...

Eventually gave up. Will find a different similar picture on the web, move it to photos, then it will work with the app.

Marc
 
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