Joined the dark side.... Just picked up a MacBook

[Grassi21]

Originally Posted by gmcunni

Odd that a MAC in the office gets around the filter that prevented you from viewing AZ, sounds like your security guys have a little hole in their systems

Good point. I have yet to give it a go at work. I'll find out on Monday. Fingers crossed...

[ckofer]

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

Good purchase!

[davidhowland14]

one other thing you have to look forward to is continued usability. Try running Vista on a 4 year old windows laptop and you'll have major, major problems. I do all my computer work on a 4-year old mac laptop running the latest OS and everything works wonderfully. Apple updates often and the updates trul are updates, not just pretty graphics and a crappy OS. Welcome to the real world of computing.

[mondeo]

4GB Sandisk MP3 players start at around $75 on Newegg, iPods are at $130 for 4GB.

iTunes album downloads start at $9.99, Walmart from $7.88.

A MacBook, with the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo, 1GBx2 DDR2 PC 667, integrated Intel graphics, and 160 GB 5400RPM HDD, is $1299. You can configure an Dell with equivalent hardware (and better hard drive and memory) for $994 with Windows.

The issues I have with Apple are not based on the operating system, but rather the massive price jump, highly limited hardware flexibility (a system with dedicated graphics costs another $700,) and their anti-Windows FUD campaigns, which play purely off of the perception of Windows issues. Stability? I haven't had a Windows software crash since Windows XP SP2 came out what, 4-5 years ago? And actually, the crashes I experienced in Windows due to a bad memory stick on my new computer were nicer than the ones I was getting with Linux; Windows actually has a screen for crashes, while Linux just rebooted, and I would have had to dig to get to the information.

Which brings me to my final statement about Apple: if not for the common misperception of Linux as a non-user friendly, text driven operating system, I don't think Apple would sell any computers, whatsoever. Linux is now at the point where a basic user (web browsing, email, general productivity, multimedia,) would probably be more than happy with a Linux system. Any further beyond that, and it begins to be a pain, but that's the point where you start getting compatibility issues in Mac, too. Games, things like TV tuner cards, and other non-standard but still fairly common applications, etc. So in the end, I don't see the benefit of Apple over a Linux system other than a few Apple-developed programs, and Linux is free.

FWIW, I built my new computer last December, and ran until mid-March with Linux only. It does work, even with printer and file sharing with Windows computers on the same network; never tried linking it with my XBox (as a media server,) but from what I know, it does work.

[BeanoNYC]

Originally Posted by Grassi21

Thanks Beano. My friend runs his own production company.

NY or CT?

[wa-loaf]

Originally Posted by mondeo

4GB Sandisk MP3 players start at around $75 on Newegg, iPods are at $130 for 4GB.

iTunes album downloads start at $9.99, Walmart from $7.88.

A MacBook, with the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo, 1GBx2 DDR2 PC 667, integrated Intel graphics, and 160 GB 5400RPM HDD, is $1299. You can configure an Dell with equivalent hardware (and better hard drive and memory) for $994 with Windows.

The issues I have with Apple are not based on the operating system, but rather the massive price jump, highly limited hardware flexibility (a system with dedicated graphics costs another $700,) and their anti-Windows FUD campaigns, which play purely off of the perception of Windows issues. Stability? I haven't had a Windows software crash since Windows XP SP2 came out what, 4-5 years ago? And actually, the crashes I experienced in Windows due to a bad memory stick on my new computer were nicer than the ones I was getting with Linux; Windows actually has a screen for crashes, while Linux just rebooted, and I would have had to dig to get to the information.

Which brings me to my final statement about Apple: if not for the common misperception of Linux as a non-user friendly, text driven operating system, I don't think Apple would sell any computers, whatsoever. Linux is now at the point where a basic user (web browsing, email, general productivity, multimedia,) would probably be more than happy with a Linux system. Any further beyond that, and it begins to be a pain, but that's the point where you start getting compatibility issues in Mac, too. Games, things like TV tuner cards, and other non-standard but still fairly common applications, etc. So in the end, I don't see the benefit of Apple over a Linux system other than a few Apple-developed programs, and Linux is free.

FWIW, I built my new computer last December, and ran until mid-March with Linux only. It does work, even with printer and file sharing with Windows computers on the same network; never tried linking it with my XBox (as a media server,) but from what I know, it does work.

you sound just like BMM. did he take over your account?

[ckofer]

Linux may be the dark side.

[BeanoNYC]

Originally Posted by mondeo

Which brings me to my final statement about Apple: if not for the common misperception of Linux as a non-user friendly, text driven operating system, I don't think Apple would sell any computers, whatsoever. Linux is now at the point where a basic user (web browsing, email, general productivity, multimedia,) would probably be more than happy with a Linux system. Any further beyond that, and it begins to be a pain, but that's the point where you start getting compatibility issues in Mac, too. Games, things like TV tuner cards, and other non-standard but still fairly common applications, etc. So in the end, I don't see the benefit of Apple over a Linux system other than a few Apple-developed programs, and Linux is free.

I installed linux on my PS3 and am quite impressed. ...Runs great. I'm more partial to my Macs. On both a mac and linux related note, I'm hoping that Netflix quickly comes up with some sort of player for those two platforms.

[MichaelJ]

Awesome! I have an iBook G4 and a dual G5 PowerMac; no Intel for me yet. I love doing video and photo work on the big one, and the laptop is like an oversized PDA. Everything "just works".

Pick up Adium for all your instant messaging needs, Skype if you like, Firefox for Mac for those few websites that don't work with Safari.

If you have Airtunes speakers, then Airfoil is an awesome product (redirect ANY app to your remote speakers), and Audio Hijack Pro will take any audio-producing program and reroute it to anything else (including to file). Bitpim can talk to your cell phone if iSync can't, the built-in screen sharing is just VNC, you can get a Microsoft Remote Desktop client, Flip4Mac to view .wmvs, GPS Babel+ and Google Earth go great together on the Mac, and the list goes on with more things I could recommend. You also want Growl, the integrated notification framework. It's hard to explain, just Google for it.

Welcome to the universe of light!

[davidhowland14]

Originally Posted by mondeo

A MacBook, with the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo, 1GBx2 DDR2 PC 667, integrated Intel graphics, and 160 GB 5400RPM HDD, is $1299. You can configure an Dell with equivalent hardware (and better hard drive and memory) for $994 with Windows.

that's the problem with your statement.