PC/MAC!!!

[ian2120]

I figured I havent seen one, so why not make one? I love these debates.

My opinion stands as this:
There are PC users, Mac users, Mixed users, and Mac Haters.
I am a mixed. I type now on my Macbook, which I have had no problems with, running Windows XP, because I've been playing some DoD. Speaking of which, (biggest point in any gamer Mac/PC debate) MAC USERS DONT BUY MACBOOKS, MACMINIS, OR MBAIRS TO PLAY GAMES! They buy them for general use, which is done quickly, and well in OS X. Im not saying that the OS doesn't have flaws. Of course it does. I find iPhoto to run a bit slow, even on a gig of ram, and everyone knows the whole "Macs are more secure," is bull, and might not be true in ten years, as Mac is gaining more of the market.

But as for Mac Haters? You shouldn't hate Macs, you should hate OS X. My friend, the biggest Mac hater I know, was ready to slit my throat when I got my MB. But even he says he likes the laptop overall (except the keyboard), just hates the OS.

So, that's my opinion. Now I don't want anybody just posting an "eww, mac" or "Mac, and mac users suck", I want legit points.

...or the moderators can shut it down because i finished my own topic

[DK]

This argument seems to be missing Linux. Best operating system in y eyes unless you're a PC gamer, but some games work off the shelf on linux now like Eve Online.

[hailrazer]

I have Mac Leopard installed on my HP Pavilion laptop along with XP and Vista 64bit and here is my opinion.

Leopard is the boot master.... boot up times are less than 20 seconds until harddrive light stops blinking whereas Xp is around 70 seconds and Vista 64 is around 5 minutes.

Leopard is much faster at opening programs.

Leopard is a little easier to work with.

That being said I just can't get into Leopard and find myself back to Windows. The main reason is the lack of software. Windows just has so much competing software that when I need to do something I can easily find a Windows program to do it. With Mac I have to search half the day and then the program doesn't do it as easily as one of the Windows programs.

Well that's my 2 cents.

[ian2120]

Good points Hailrazer! And, yes, I did forget linux DK. I used to be a fan of Ubuntu, until I screwed up my computer with a faulty installation!

[Black Six]

The reason you haven't seen another topic like this is that they generally degenerate into flame wars. If I start to see this happening here it will be closed without a second thought.

As far as my usage goes, I own a PowerMac G5 and a Macbook Pro. I use Boot Camp and VMWare fusion if/when I need to run Windows apps, which isn't all that often. The only times I've really used it in the past year are for limited gaming purposes (although I do most of my gaming on my 360) and programming (at my school Visual Studio is the standard, so that's generally what I use). Even then, I play Diablo 2, and will be playing Spore and some other games natively in OS X, and in one of my classes I was coding in Java and could do that in Eclipse on OS X fine. So other than those two situations I've yet to find another reason that I have to use Windows for.

[bacteria]

I use Windows because all my software uses it and I have become well versed in reformatting and re-installing Windows from time to time; saves having to learn how to get annoyed with a Mac if I only have frustrations with Windows! Windows gets unstable and has problems, but hey, it works most of the time! When it gets issues, spend half a glorious day getting fed up reinstalling from scratch. Woot!

[ian2120]

...and will be playing Spore and some other games natively in OS X...

Do you know if the Mac version of Spore will run on a MacBook?

[minkster]

I just got a Macbook Pro this year and I mainly use it for video editing purposes. I don't really care about gaming..and I have to say it was probably the best switch I ever made. I was amazed at how fast the computer starts up and shuts down (windows takes so much longer)...and having just installed Final Cut, I am in loveee with it.

I <3 my Macbook Pro

[bicostp]

I used Macs exclusively up until about 2002, going from an SE/30 with System 6.0.8 to a Quadra running 7.1, and finally to a Power Mac 7600/132 with a video capture card running 7.6.1. We were getting them for free from work as they discarded them, but when the time came and they had to decide between Mac OS 8.6 and NT 4.0, upgrading to NT was much cheaper and gave them far more to work with. Then we started getting discarded PCs. I've only had one Windows 98 machine. All our other PCs are on 2000 or XP. (Except the Pentium 166 based DOS gaming machine. It's running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11.)

Maybe in a few years when my desktop machine is completely outdated, I'll get a Mac Pro and dual boot OS X and Windows. I like both of them, but can't run OS X myself now because of a lack of hardware. Given the opportunity, I'd have both.* At that point I can't honestly see either of them completely taking over.

People still don't seem to get that Macs are a lot more like Wintels now than they ever have been before, especially since the move to Core 2 processors. (They use regular hard drives, regular disc drives, regular PCIe cards...) They're just much better built than your average Wal-Mart Wintel computer, and have an OS of their own that can be run in addition to Windows.

Dell/HP/Whatever : Apple :: Chevrolet : Cadillaic

Or for your blue oval guys:

Dell/HP/Whatever : Apple :: Ford : Lincoln

This argument seems to be missing Linux.

Screw Linux. OS X is a far better Unix based desktop OS, because unlike the community, Apple has done a lot of work writing, stabilizing, and debugging their desktop system. (Linux devs do the first part, but seem to have a tenative grasp on the latter two. Development is 20% coding and 80% perfecting, and they ony do the 20%.) Without going into a huge rant, Linux is a moving target for developers where something that works today might not work tomorrow. Windows, OS X, and the *-BSDs all give them predictable ABIs and system components to work on, which makes writing, supporting, and guaranteeing the functionality of their programs much easier.

Think about it. Billions in development grants has been dumped into Linux, they give it away, and people still don't want it. Doesn't that tell you something?

* Yes, I know about OSX86. I don't feel like breaking any licensing agreements.

[Rekarp]

I have tried them all.

Used OSx allot when I was on the newspaper staff. It crashed a bunch (like 3-4 computers a day) though. I don't know why they crashed but sometimes all it took was opening a file and poof. These where high end G5's as well. I will never buy a MAC just due to the prices you have to pay for the hardware but I am willing to give the OS another try if Apple offered the OS separate from there machines and it worked flawless with drivers.

Windows Xp. My favorite. Easy to use, there is no fiddling around with settings and config files to get stuff to work. Only crashes when I do something stupid; ie program an infinite loop >_>. Oh and spyware sucks.

Linux. The worst of them all. I tried really hard to switch to Linux. I loaded up Ubuntu onto another harddrive and tried to use it for every day things except gaming which is what I would keep XP. Couldn't do anything as easy as XP can. Gimp totally sucks and so as blender when compared to Photoshop and Lightwave 8. I know those are free programs but they still suck. Open Office is completely crap. MS Office runs 10 times smoother. The fact that I had to mess for 8 hours to get the stupid wifi and sound card to work doesn't help its case either. Never going back ever. I did like compwiz tho

Vista. At first I hated Vista. Buggy drivers, crashed allot, software problems. Aftera few years the OS has really matured and is actually a decent OS. Tho it runs a bit on the slug side and it feels more clumsy then OSx and XP.

[Bibin]

I enjoy them both, but primarily use Windows XP. I use it on the desktop I built, as it does everything I want it to. My modified copy, titled "Schvindoze Eacskschpee" has extra security and defense features, so the spyware and viruses aren't such a big deal - Avast and SpyBot are backups too. I don't mind the visuals as I have a great custom msstyles theme - I actually enjoy using Windows XP and don't feel like it's a chore.

Mac OS X Does a fraction of what I want it to do, but it's fun to use during that time. I don't believe that that makes it "superior", but it's still an enjoyable system with a good, stable kernel. That said, Windows XP is perfectly stable on good hardware when idiot users don't manage to mess it up (I've yet to have a bluescreen or anything requiring a reboot).

Apart from my desktop, I run leopard on a PowerBook G4 15" 1.67ghz Aluminum. While I like leopard, tiger is a despicable operating system that I want destroyed. I also have a Pismo.

[Sparkfist]

Even though I don't get to use it much, I like the ease of use and the interface layout on Mac. It's designed for people that just want to do the job, not mess around with technical things. I'm a big fan of the fact you can just drag and drop apps on to your hard drive and they work.

Windows, it's a necessary evil I like playing games, and I use ventrilo to talk to people. They don't run with on Linux, and I have yet to find a osx86 iso that will work on my machines without modification. And with Windows, I'm more for XP with the good old 2000 theme.

Linux is what I use most the rest of the time. I use the distribution Ubuntu, with is nice and I'm able to do almost everything I want with it, biggest problem is connecting to the wireless at school, but hopefully I can fix that. And I do like Linux for many of the same reasons I like OS X, they are under the hood very similar.

As for which is better.... That's like asking "What car is the best?" There is no best for all only what works for you. Some people find Mac easier, others Windows, and there there are the masochists that prefer *nix based systems.

[ian2120]

Wow, thanks a lot for keeping this really clean guys! I really appreciate it. FYI: My MacBook (Dec. '07) has only crashed once, and I was overloading it with at least 7 open apps.

[vskid]

Windows XP is my preferred OS at this time. I know how to use it and all the programs I want to use work on it. Right now, it is the only OS on the regularly used computers in my house.

I have never used OSX (I've played around with System 7). It looks like a pretty good OS, but it isn't worth the extra I'd have to pay to get an Apple computer. If I could legally put it on another computer, then I might look into it.

Linux is kind of fun to try out, to "stick it to the man" and such. But it just doesn't make sense to me, I've used Windows too long and it isn't worth it to me to try to learn something else when Windows works fine for me.

Vista looked like a steaming pile of crap when it first came out. Now that most of the driver and other issues are worked out, I would consider getting a system with Vista pre-installed. Especially since I plan on getting a tablet pc the next time I make a big upgrade. Vista seems to be the king when it comes to using a tablet (as long as the hardware can handle it).

None of the OSs are really bad, it just depends on what you need to do and what hardware you have.

[grossaffe]

I hate mac and pretty much anything apple because their way overpriced for what they do. You can get just as good hardware for much less money than a mac costs.