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Author Topic: Should I switch?  (Read 5134 times)

Wedge

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Should I switch?
« on: March 10, 2005, 03:38:39 PM »
I am currently a PC user but I just got an iPod shuffle and I have been thinking of switching to a mac for a while now.  I don't game (heck my favorite games on the pc are solitaire and spider solitaire) and I have always though the mac products were very innovative.

Any good reasons for or against?  I am pretty much on the fence with this one.  I was thinking a mac mini with a 20" LCD.
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Dave Markowitz

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Should I switch?
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2005, 03:54:23 PM »
If the applications you need are available on the Mac, go for it.  My desktop runs Linux while my laptop is an Apple G4 iBook w/12" screen (still stuck on XP at work).  For my needs Max OS-X does everything I need.

The keyboard on my iBook is quite good and the screen is absolutely beautiful.  Apple's mice are still only 1-button, with is a PITA IMO.  Fortunately, OS-X supports two-button scroll wheel mice without any special configuration changes, so I bought a Logitech mouse rather than an Apple mouse to go along with my iBook.

On OS-X, I run Firefox for a browser, Thunderbird for email, and use OpenOffice.org for word processing and spreadsheets (MS Office is available for the Mac, though).  I bought it in December and it's been rock solid.

Mac OS-X is absolutely stable and you don't need to worry about viruses and spyware.  The UI is a bit different from Windows but it's quite easy to learn.  And I love the fact that if I want to I can open up a terminal and be at a UNIX shell prompt.

The one upgrade I'm planning is to add more RAM.  It came with 256 megs which is ok, but not great when I'm running a bunch of different apps.  I'd set up a new Mac with a minimum of 512 megs of RAM; I'm going to upgrade my iBook to 768 total.

Even though I'm a long time Linux geek, I've given serious thought to switching to a Mac for my next desktop.

One thing you should do though is compare the cost of a 20" G5 iMac with that of a Mac Mini + keyboard, mouse, and 20" LCD.  The iMac will have much better performance than the G4 Mini.
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Feanaro

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Should I switch?
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2005, 04:15:18 PM »
If you don't game and don't specifically need something a PC provides, you probably won't lose anything. But unless you have a specific gripe with your PC I can't see a good reason to switch. Macs do tend to work better out of the box. (Though given that all the hardware and most of the software is first-party, I should hope it would work) But, like Glocks, Macs are over-rated in the reliability department. Reliable they are but no infallible. They can and do crash. But there are fewer things to go wrong, though that is a double edged sword. Fewer choices. And higher prices.

Plus, you have to put up with Mac fans. Imagine 1911 and Glock Fanbois joining their collective powers. Tongue Not that the PC crowd doesn't have it's nuts.
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Wedge

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Should I switch?
« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2005, 05:14:15 PM »
Dave, I think you are right about the imac and I think it would be the same price (even though I would have to get another 2button wireless scroll mouse).

I don't have any particular gripe with PCs I have just always liked macs for no particular reason.
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garrettwc

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Should I switch?
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2005, 07:12:09 PM »
Dave, I have played with Linux a few times. Not enough to get really good with it, but enough to know I like it. If I get my way, my next machine is a laptop.

Do you think it's worth the hassle trying to get Linux up and running on an Intel based notebook or would the Apple be the way to go.
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Unisaw

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Should I switch?
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2005, 12:58:12 PM »
My wife resisted macs for years even though she hated having to deal with spyware.  I finally just bought her an iBook as a surprise gift and she has never looked back.  For someone who is not a gamer, it is a very viable option.
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Zundfolge

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Should I switch?
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2005, 02:08:16 PM »
Quote from: garrettwc
Do you think it's worth the hassle trying to get Linux up and running on an Intel based notebook or would the Apple be the way to go.
If you're going to buy a new machine anyway, go ahead and get the Mac ... if you want to continue using your current machine, go for Linux. There are several good distros out there that aren't that difficult to setup and use. I recommend Ubuntu but there are other easy ones out there like Mandrake, Suse and Redhat.

I got sick of the spyware, viruses and crap so I switched to Ubuntu and will stick with it until I can afford to buy a Mac. You can download Ubuntu for free (or order a CD, they ship them 100% free!) and try it first ... if you don't like it you can switch to the Mac later.


The only reason to stick with Windows is if you're a gamer, a CAD designer or you have some software package not available elsewhere ... otherwise Mac or Linux are the way to go (and frankly a good Mac is just as good a gaming machine as a PC).
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Dave Markowitz

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Should I switch?
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2005, 03:50:02 PM »
Quote from: garrettwc
Do you think it's worth the hassle trying to get Linux up and running on an Intel based notebook or would the Apple be the way to go.
How much of a hassle it will be to get Linux running on a laptop will depend on (a) the specific laptop and (b) the Linux distribution you choose.  With some of the more desktop, newbie-friendly Linux distributions running them on a laptop can be quite easy.  For example, at work I have a laptop dedicated for testing purposes in our lab.  It is a Dell Latitude D600 and it came with Windows XP Pro installed.  I found it very easy to set it up as a dual-boot machine with XP and SUSE 9.2 Professional.  SUSE installed very easily and detected all the hardware (including the onboard wireless NIC).

HOWEVER, an Apple will require no tinkering to work straight out of the box.  Mac OS has a real seamless feel to it.  Everything pretty much Just Works.  And the displays on Apple laptops are the nicest I've seen.

You can pick up a 12" G4 iBook like mine, with built-in 802.11g wireless for ~$900.  As I mentioned in my first post I'm upping the RAM by 512 MB; it's on order from Crucial and cost ~$140.
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Standing Wolf

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Should I switch?
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2005, 04:21:41 PM »
Quote: Mac OS-X is absolutely stable...

My old Macintosh running OS 8.something or other used to lock up about once a year.

My new Macintosh running OS X locks up, crashes, refuses to start, refuses to shut down, or otherwise earns foul curses at least once a week. The modem actually connects about 50% of the time.
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Wedge

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Should I switch?
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2005, 03:43:39 PM »
I use Linux at school and like the flexability and command line ability.  I was talking to a friend that switched and he loves his 12" iBook.
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mtnbkr

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« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2005, 04:19:15 PM »
Quote
My old Macintosh running OS 8.something or other used to lock up about once a year.
Sounds like an unstable machine to me.  I haven't had Win2k lock up or crash on me in several years.  

My current machine only crashed when the harddrive suffered a physical failure.  My previous machine went over three years without a hiccup.  I retired it when I started dabbling in video.  

One of the reasons is that I'm very particular about the hardware I use to build my PC.  If all PC manufacturers were that particular, Windows would have the same reputation for stability than the Mac has.

Chris
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garrettwc

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Should I switch?
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2005, 08:36:00 PM »
Thanks for the feedback.

Just bouncing ideas on the notebook for now. The idea with the Intel base was I could get one a year or two old refurbed for 50% or so of retail. If I went Wintel it would be IBM T42, Dell Latitude, etc. Haven't decided on a distro. Tried Mandrake and didn't really care for it but it was an older version. Liked Knoppix, so maybe a Debian based.

Since this would be a primary though, maybe better to go with a solid platform, and experiment later.
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