Why? Why does a MAC cost more than a PC?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wiiprii @ Aug 22 2007, 02:51 PM) [snapback]500540[/snapback]</div>

Well, I already have a flat screen monitor, keyboard, speakers, mouse etc. So when I replace my current tower a fully loaded MacMini may be all I need. I've got everything else.

I love my Titanium. But when it goes I'll definately replace it with a MacBook Pro.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 22 2007, 02:25 PM) [snapback]500462[/snapback]</div>

Actually, back in the DOS days, it went like this...

DOS users were people who had PCs at work.
Amiga users were the cool creative types...

And Mac users were people who wanted the coolness of the Amiga but couldn't live without the 'bong' noise.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Aug 22 2007, 01:30 PM) [snapback]500557[/snapback]</div>

I know what you're talking about. I was not impressed with the coding efficiency of HTML editors in the past. It's definitely worth another look, if you need to do up a site.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Aug 22 2007, 03:42 PM) [snapback]500573[/snapback]</div>

You can always get a two or three-button mouse (I have the two-button plus wheel), and program it so the right-click is control+click. That's real easy to do and works on any model of Mac, at least since Apple led the movement to USB and firewire, and away from a variety of specialized connectors.
I like the Mac method of saving files, opening files, exiting the program etc. since these are one-stroke operations (control-S; control-Q; etc.) instead of two stroke operations (control-F then S; control-F then Q unless that app inexplicably uses control-F then X to exit, etc.) Apple has more control over the hardware and software in their final product, and it shows as being better integrated.

That said, hard-core gamers would still want a PC, and the PC has more applications available. Some useful things, but also things that really gum up the works like spyware checkers and virus blockers. yeah, that's fun to be required to need those.

I'm the kind of person who likes to write my own HTML (with CSS), not use an auto-generator. But I don't want the computer to require all that maintenance just to keep doing what it's already done, I have enough of that at work. So I come home to a Mac, take it out of deep-sleep mode, and just use it. No rebooting, no driver updates or tracking DLLs, etc. Just use it to do other stuff.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tekn0wledg @ Aug 22 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]500282[/snapback]</div>

:lol: :lol:

You are so funny! You are paying for the quality, the build, and the look when you buy a PC.
Low quality, lousy build, and ugly look.


And to build a PC that is equivalent to a Apple of similar specs, will cost you more, no doubt. Why? Because.


Apple's cost more since they are built to last, built to run, and while doing that, are built to look better whilst doing that.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wiiprii @ Aug 22 2007, 03:51 PM) [snapback]500540[/snapback]</div>

I am that type of person; the kind who after two of his DELL PC's crashed in less then six months (totally, kaput), kept the keyboard and mice and monitors and simply bought two Mac Mini's (one I put more memory in). And they work great. In fact, one is now the 'main' computer in the living room, where I run my router. I use the iMac in my office.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ Aug 22 2007, 12:38 PM) [snapback]500332[/snapback]</div>

NOT QUITE...

MAC VS. PC = BOAT VS. CAR.

Sure you can retrofit and jimmy in windows to run windows programs on the mac but it's not going to run as 100% efficient unless you dualboot on the newer x86 mac's, but then what's the point, just get a freakin pc.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nerfer @ Aug 23 2007, 12:18 AM) [snapback]500833[/snapback]</div>

I'm not really sure what you're getting at here... closing a window in windows (haha) isn't as easy as a mac, but everything else is the same - control-S saves, control-O opens, control-x cuts, control-c copies, etc. Any modern program, on Mac or PC is going to use the one stroke approach... the two stroke is still available if you want it (and i know a few old timers who still use it). BTW, on windows machines, it would be Alt-F then S to save using the two stroke, not Control-F. Control-F opens the "find" screen in most programs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ 2007 Aug 23 09:00 AM) [snapback]501014[/snapback]</div>

Sideways scrolling is wonderful. Why not configure the one-eyed mouse to be two? It just rocks one way or the other for left and right 'buttons'.

 

I have bought both my kids Dells. By the time I was finished with all the add ons the cost was about 1400 for each one (software ncluded). I bought myself a MacBookPro for 1,600. That was it. Not much difference in price.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fred S @ Aug 23 2007, 04:07 AM) [snapback]500894[/snapback]</div>

Just buy the Mac version of whatever the software is.

Unless it's games. Buy a PC for your games. I don't play games. I use my Mac for school and work and I have all of the software I need for that.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Aug 23 2007, 11:06 AM) [snapback]501019[/snapback]</div>

I use a Wacom tablet. It has a wireless mouse with four programmable buttons and a scroll wheel. Plus the tablet itself has four programmable buttons and a scroll bar. And it has a graphics stylus with buttons as well.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fred S @ Aug 23 2007, 04:07 AM) [snapback]500894[/snapback]</div>

Or get a freakin Mac and then you can run whatever you want.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Fred S @ Aug 23 2007, 04:07 AM) [snapback]500894[/snapback]</div>

The point, if you chose to dual boot, is that you need some things that run in windows (i can think of a few things that don't have decent Mac equivalents), but want the Mac desktop for most things. I am dual booting my Macbook, and it works great. I use OSX for a majority of my life, and only switch over to Windows when working on robotics stuff (unfortunately, the compilers for those are pretty specific, and don't have Mac equivalent versions). There's no reason for me to get two laptops, and every reason to prefer OSX for most things.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Aug 22 2007, 02:00 PM) [snapback]500585[/snapback]</div>

No, Mac users were people who said "Amiga, what is that anyway, a new game system?"

I seem to vaguely remember a store that had Amiga computers near a bike store I used to go to but Amiga seemed like a Mac-wannabe computer to us Mac folks.

 

What can you do with your Mac when you want to do a hardware upgrade? OK I know you can pop in a larger hard drive or add RAM, but how do you change like say a newer DVD burner? For example, a few weeks ago I find a deal on an all format (DVD+,-, single and dual layer and DVD RAM) burner for $40, seeing it as too good a deal to pass up, I grab it and now my old 4X burner has been replaced with an all format 16X burner. Can this be done on an iMac without it being in an external case with yet annother wall wart?

One more question regarding OSx, since this is actually a Unix/Linux OS, will it run most any of the Linux software out there like KDE etc. I wouldn't expect to be able to just grab an RPM and load it, but is there anything that will install these? Also, can I get past the GUI entirely and work on a command line?



On a side note: A number of years ago, the effort was started at work to integrate a video display in the gate backdrops here at MSP to replace the old slide the names and times in the track. Yes this is now standard but I'm talking like 10-12 years ago. Well the proposal was given out to vendors, and of course Apple was one of the vendors submitting a bid. So Apple says they will bring out a working example and set it up at a gate for us to see first hand. They did so and had it proudly displayed for everyone to see. Well, as any software project can go, there will be bugs and glitches. Apple of course can't simply handle an error by merely displaying "Error xxx in Line yyy", no they display in like 100 point extra bold type PROGRAM BOMBED with a graphic of a cartoon bomb, you know, bowling ball with a lit fuse! :lol: This was over a gate at MSP! Even pre 9-11, bombs, even cartoon bombs didn't go well at an airport :lol: Guess what, those pretty animated backdrop displays at airports, they are running on PC's.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Aug 23 2007, 03:43 PM) [snapback]501196[/snapback]</div>

iMac's are... special. They aren't really intended for people who want to be able to upgrade their machines - instead they're designed to be an all in one system that doesn't appear to be more than a monitor. If you want that flexibility, go for a Mac Pro... They're pretty much the same as your typical PC tower in terms up upgrading.


I haven't looked into loading anything that doesn't say OSX on it onto my laptop, but i really don't see why you wouldn't be able to... here's one walkthrough i found that details how to do it:
http://www.simplehelp.net/2007/05/09/how-t...te-walkthrough/

As for GUI versus command line, you're pretty much stuck with having the GUI present, but like any Linux box you can extremely easily bring up a terminal window, or two, or twelve to do whatever you want. I really don't see why you'd want to completely kill the GUI ever just to have a single command line... Heck, even when i was working on the Linux box's back in school i would have 2-3 telnet windows open to the same box so i could do multiple things easily.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(wiiprii @ Aug 23 2007, 02:25 PM) [snapback]501120[/snapback]</div>

You really need to read about the Amiga... Ars Technica is doing a good retrospective series.

However, it could multitask, do thousands color and stereo sound (when the macs were limited to B/W and mono), and is *STILL* used in video production. And, oh yeah, you could pick one up for half the cost of the Mac.

Apple had Commodore's amazing ineptitude with marketing save them from facing a true competitor.

It's nice to see that the Mac caught up with the Amiga with OSX tho. Only took them 17+ years to get that sorted.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Aug 23 2007, 01:43 PM) [snapback]501196[/snapback]</div>

Yes, you can upgrade your iMac, you can add more memory, you can change out the hard drive, and if you really wanted to you could change out the optical drive. It's just not as easy as on a PC, as someone said already, the iMac was designed as more or less a closed system. But there are webpages that will show you how to take one apart. I had an old first gen iMac that I completely disassembled to upgrade the Ram and hard drive. I always need a second optical drive to duplicate stuff so I bought an external DVD burner a year ago, this was before I had a Mac with a built-in DVD burner.

Installing X11 will allow you to install any Unix app compiled for the Mac. I did this back in 2002 when I first installed OSX on my Mac Powerbook G3, I installed OpenOffice.

This is one thing I love about the Mac, and one major advantage it has over the PC, is being able to get to the command line and really do some stuff. I began on the net when all it was was a Unix command line. 'telnet ftp.sumex-aim.stanford.edu' was one of my most common commands. I went to sumex-aim (which ran on a Mac SE/30!) to get all sorts of Mac freeware and shareware, this was in 1991.

You can boot into a command line, I used to know the key command. From there I don't know what all you can do though, I haven't explored it much.

OSX really made the Mac a lot more fun to use. I can't imagine spending all my time on a PC in Windows. Without the Mac, I'd be running Linux.

 

Quality, ease of use, consistency, lack of viruses and trojan horses, UNIX-based (stable), regular online software upgrades, dot-Mac synchronization (home and powerbook computers). Consumer reports repeatedly rates Macs highest quality on "frequence of repair" tables.

At home I have a 70 centimeter cinema display, at work I use my powerbook with a 43 cm monitor for presentations, documents, analysis, emails, iTunes, photography. It is all clean, crisp and designed to work together. In a word, seamless.