anyone use a mac computer????

[manaheim]

For the record, I have supported computers for a living for 15 years... I've seen over 30 companies and many thousands of users. Macs and PCs both. I have found just as many end user problems with Macs as PCs, though granted fewer viruses and trojans on macs at least for the moment. Also granted earlier versions of MacOS were way worse... but then so were earlier versions of Windows. They both have come a LONG WAY (ignoring Vista. Vista needs to burn.)

There ARE fewer software titles for Macs, but as some said it's generally something you can "get around" by using another tool, and most of the time major offerings will be available for both platforms... unless you happen to be a gamer, then sometimes you're just not gonna be able to get that title. Not often, but it does happen.

My personal recommendation is if you like the Mac better, then get the Mac and follow best practices for the platform. You'll be fine. If you like the PC better, then get the PC and follow best practices for the platform. You'll be fine.

I find the users that complain the most on both environments tend to be the ones who aren't being that smart... like opening random attachments in email from people they don't know, going to questionable websites, etc.

Good luck!

 

[photogmatt]

Go for the mac, you can always run windows on the machine as well if you really wanted to. Either by using the included bootcamp, or Parallels / VMWare Fusion. Apple builds higher quality machines, and once you get used to OS X there is no reason to even use windows. (This coming from someone who's job it is to administer windows networks)

 

[manaheim]

Apple builds higher quality machines, and once you get used to OS X there is no reason to even use windows. (This coming from someone who's job it is to administer windows networks)

This is the kind of comment that drives some of us buggy and spirals these threads off into hell... Apple builds higher quality machines than... who, exactly? IBM? Dell? HP? The mom & pop shop down the street? Me cobbling together pieces from top shelf manufacturers?

And define "quality", please...

You really cannot compare Apples and "IBM original PC clone descendants" in this way.

 

[chrisburke]

UGH, i hate that people suggest running windows on your mac.. i know it is something you can do, BUT you will get viruses on the windows partition if you do. THERE IS NO REASON TO RUN WINDOWS.. any app you need, there is something available mac wise...

also in regards to "how are they at photo editing" thats what they are made for.. so the answer is they are awesome.. i run the whole cs3 suite.. and it works great... my photo editing process usually involves lightroom 2 and then photoshop if needed...

 

[chrisburke]

I find the users that complain the most on both environments tend to be the ones who aren't being that smart... like opening random attachments in email from people they don't know, going to questionable websites, etc.

Good luck!

150% agree with this... as I've said in the past on here, I've been fixing computers for the past 10 years, and of the thousands of PC's i've fixed 95% of them the problem is one of the following:

The user has put limewire or some other p2p program on their computer for the use of STEALING music (which I dont agree with) these programs are FULL of ad ware, spy ware and viruses (because some people are dicks, and they put viruses on there described under the titles of things you may search for.

Porn.... something else I dont agree with, but one of the first things I do is check a users cache and temp files, FULL of porn... its always embarassing to a person to say "your computer crashed because its full of viruses from porn.. they get very embarassed.. I just laugh at them for not having something better to do with their time.

Email attachments... spam, unknown names... stuff like that... for what ever reason about 90% of user end users seem to think its ok to open an attachment from "habib" from "isbeckistan" even though they dont know habib... how dumb is that?? But the fact is its true...

As a mac user (and fan boy) I can admit, if windows users used their computers properly, and with some common sense, they would have NO PROBLEMS with their computers, but the fact is, they dont... and thus their computers crap out like crazy... the great thing about mac is, you can try to screw it up, and you really cant... i mean obviously there are ways, but its pretty darn hard to do... so th typical user, who wouldnt know how to mess it up, couldnt.

 

[manaheim]

^^^ yup, agree with everything you said including it being harder to bone a Mac. It's one of the reasons I've been threatening to put my wife on one... well, that and they're DEAD SEXY and as much as I don't want to use one, I would love to have one in the house. Such neat little things. So pretty.

 

[chrisburke]

^^^ yup, agree with everything you said including it being harder to bone a Mac. It's one of the reasons I've been threatening to put my wife on one... well, that and they're DEAD SEXY and as much as I don't want to use one, I would love to have one in the house. Such neat little things. So pretty.

yea, the mac mini i have is for my wife, cause she kept bombing her pc... i got tired of fixing it,... and yes, they are sexy, and the mac mini looks really sharp in my living room next to my multimedia setup

 

[cherry30]

my brother just got the new 13 inch mac and he is loving it. i also have a lot of friends who switched to mac and they are loving it.

 

[zeroskillz]

I own and use both (Mac and Dell).

As far as what they do,
No real difference.
Photoshop runs just as well on the PC as the Mac, as well as all my other Adobe apps.

As far as which I'd chose if I had to chose one, I'd go with Mac.
Only because it takes far less diligence/work to keep it running properly.

PC's are more crash/virus prone, and take more attention to keep things running smoothly. My Mac I never worry about.

As far as price goes, you can get a PC far cheaper (but if the same power as a Mac, they're pretty much the same price).

There's nothing wrong with either platform, you'll just need more tech knowledge to keep your PC happy.

HTH
-Ted

Oh and PS, if you get a PC, go with a Dell or comparable. Stay away from the junk at Best Buy etc. Those come preloaded with so much crap it's ridiculous.

 

[Village Idiot]

For a number of reasons macs are pretty well the standard in the graphics industry and are vastly overrepresented amongst photographers as opposed to the population as a whole.

Some of which are myths and misconceptions...

i exclusively use mac... i have for 6 years now.... i've got a macbook, an iMac, and a MacMini.... I used PC before I switched, and I gotta be honest, i'll never use a PC again. They may be cheaper, but in the end they are very expensive... service, crashes, viruses, OS reinstalls... a real pain in the neck. Since i've used mac, i've never had a virus... I've never had to reinstall an OS, I've never had a freeze, I've never had to restart cause something froze up... its just been a lot less of a headache... HOWEVER, someone out there will say "I use PC, and I've never had any problems" but chances are, most PC users tend to not really be that tech savvy, and they have had many problems with PC.. i've never met someone who regretted switching to mac..

I have a Dell notebook that I've had Vista Ultimate on since the first month it was launched. I've had no problems with it what so ever and in fact Adobe PS has crashed less on the Dell than on my MBP. I do like the interface on OS X better, so that's why I use it.

Apple did do something really smart and they're including a lot more in their basic configurations of their machines. They're still expensive though. You can get a PC with the features you want and some of the stuff you don't need and it'll be cheaper nine times out of 10.

But with a Mac, you can use Windows on it and the new notebooks are just plain sweet. No one needs one unless you're running OS X exclusive programs like Logic or Final Cut.

The 13" notebooks are kind of "crappy" for photo editing because of the screen size. The 24" iMac isn't bad. I like the 15" MBP though because I can hook it to the monitor of my choice and the screen is still large enough to use if I have to.

OS X has a lot of convenient features that make it a blast to use, and the fact that programs aren't confined to one window can be a blessing.

 

[40LTD]

I've used a Mac (OS X) for a few years, and I use XP/Vista daily. I did not use the Mac heavily, but it was a decent machine.

Would i dump my 2 Vista notebooks and XP desktop for a mac? Unlikely, since they...all run perfectly fine without issues. I lean towards Windows mainly because I am more familiar with the OS, and it helps me get things done quickly.

As for defrag, virus scans etc maintenance for windows taking up time, that may have been true in the Win 9X days, but not any longer. For eg, I have Diskeeper 2008 installed on all the Windows machines; it defrags all the drives completely transparently *in the background*, and everything is done *automatically*. No time is wasted on defrag.

AVG anti-virus scans are scheduled for Saturday 0300h, and get executed without any fuss. No time is wasted on Virus scans.

Windows runs fine without any tweaking or messing around, as long as the following 2 conditions are fulfilled
(1) No bloatware/resource hogs on the system (I suppose no OS is immune to poorly written programs)
(2) Decent hardware. Obviously Vista wont run all that well on a P-III with 256Mb RAM, but at the same time, you don't need a quad core, 8GB monster to run it fast either.

 

[Flower Child]

i really like the force quit on the mac. i miss it when im on my pc

 

[chrisburke]

well flower child, there is a force quit on PC as well (crtl+alt+del) its just not as quick as the macs force quit.

as for village idiots comment about the mac book being crappy for photo editing and him liking the 15" better because he can hook it up to a external monitor.. you can do this with the 13" as well.. I use a 13" macbook every day.. in fact I can honestly say i almost NEVER use my iMac... macbook is just more convient. I use it for editing pictures daily.. creating websites daily, and everything I do on a computer, daily... when I arrive at my office, I set my macbook on my laptop stand, and plug in 3 cables.. one is my USB cable for my Line 6 Toneport UX8, the other is to my hub, which has things like my external keyboard and mouse, 2 external HD's, a DVD Burner (I got the first generation MacBook base model which doesnt have the DVD burner) also plugged into that hub is my iPhone 3g, and my M-Audio Keystation 88es.. the macbook works great as a day to day computer, and does great with heavy editing.. I use final cut pro almost daily.. I use PSCS3 daily, and all the other CS3 apps daily.. macbook handles them great

and the third cable I plug in is my 19" dell monitor, which is a great monitor for everything I do..

here it is to give you the idea.. this one was taken before i got the m-audio keystation 88

Heres a shot with the keyboard, its not that great as I took it with my iPhone, and in low lighting, the iPhone camera sucks.

 

[goodoneian]

it's weird how many complaints there are about windows computers getting virus's. i haven't run any kind of anti-virus software in probably three years and i'm yet to have any kind of virus or related problem. and it seems like when i stopped using norton i stopped getting virus's. i could just be lucky though.

 

[smithphoto]

I have a windows desktop at home (self built) and an HP laptop. Both XP pro. Both run photoshop well and I rarely have bad crashes. Yes it does crash an I do have the occasional issue of having to defrag. The defrags are completely my fault as I'll have three copies of the same thing an delete move rearrange, copy, ect for months without considering the hdd search time.

I've also used macs in the past, primarily for video editing. They are fast, smooth, but I suffered freezes, crashes, and the occasional need for a defrag on it as well. So all I really have to say is they are both versatile, they are both stable, an yes, they are both vulnerable to the end users use.

In my opinion macs are fantastic for media, while pc's are better at things like, say AUTO cad or crunching numbers program design. I mean the Mac OS is partially designed on a windows machine. In my opinion it's all simply about which you prefer more. They are both great, and in my opinion neither will let you down if you just treat it right.