Page 1 of 2

MAC vs PC

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:00 pm
by vchris
Since I've been having all these issues (see comp issue thread) and also all the issues I've had all my life with Windows wouldn't it be just easier and better for me to go with a MAC computer instead of PC?

I've never played with a MAC before so I'm not sure what I'm getting into. I know that MACs are a lot safer (no viruses or almost for them), run smoother, interfaces are nicer, more reliable than PC and more... How about web development on a MAC? I believe they use APACHE as their web server. Other thing is games, I won't be able to play all the games I was playing on my PC but usualy the big names also come out on MACs. How easy are MACs to use compared to PCs?

I guess some of you will also recommend a linux system since it's real cheap but how reliable is it really? More reliable than Windows? How easy is it to use? I've played with linux redhat before but it's been a couple years.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:12 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I shouldn't need to say this but just on the precautionary side... flames = no thanks :)

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:41 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I am getting more and more into *nix systems. Fedora Core Linux is my preferred distro. Haven't been on a mac in years, but was told they are essentially GUI based unix systems.

Anyway, I was thinking of getting one, so if you do, post what your experiences are.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:48 pm
by feyd
My family will be moving to Mac's come the first week in August (no sales tax during the first weekend statewide.)

I'll likely go with a 13" MacBook with 2.0Ghz (the white model,) but pop in more RAM separately, as the $500 Apple wants from me feels... way too much. My grandmother will probably get the slightly slower version of the same model while my parents will get a Mini with some added whistles.

Add in my student discount and I'll save some decent cash. :)

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:50 pm
by d3ad1ysp0rk
feyd wrote:My family will be moving to Mac's come the first week in August (no sales tax during the first weekend statewide.)

I'll likely go with a 13" MacBook with 2.0Ghz (the white model,) but pop in more RAM separately, as the $500 Apple wants from me feels... way too much. My grandmother will probably get the slightly slower version of the same model while my parents will get a Mini with some added whistles.

Add in my student discount and I'll save some decent cash. :)
I was thinking 15" Macbook Pro.

Doesn't 13" seem a tad small for developing.. anything? I mean, you could probably browse the internet and run a word processor, but anything that involves multiple windows, or just a large screen prescence (ie. photoshop) would get kinda ridiculous.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:50 pm
by Burrito
cool, will you give me your old rig?

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:53 pm
by seodevhead
Everah wrote:I am getting more and more into *nix systems.
I've seen that term used a bit but don't know what it is.... what does *nix mean???

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:55 pm
by feyd
Burrito wrote:cool, will you give me your old rig?
two words: hell no.

As for being small for dev, yes, 13" is small. I would love to get the larger one, but it has less battery life, and costs nearly double... for two inches? No thanks.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 5:56 pm
by feyd
seodevhead wrote:I've seen that term used a bit but don't know what it is.... what does *nix mean???
Any and all variants of unix. This is most often linux, unix, irix, sunos:?:, and a few others. It can include BSD variants too.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:44 pm
by Chris Corbyn
Lunix :P

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 6:49 pm
by seodevhead
Thanks for clearing that up for me. Is Ubuntu a *nix OS? I have heard this brought up a lot and really don't understand why anyone would put a Linux OS on their computer other than for purely "testing" type purposes. I mean... you can't run dreamweaver, photoshop, etc on Linux, correct?

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:15 pm
by Chris Corbyn
seodevhead wrote:Thanks for clearing that up for me. Is Ubuntu a *nix OS? I have heard this brought up a lot and really don't understand why anyone would put a Linux OS on their computer other than for purely "testing" type purposes. I mean... you can't run dreamweaver, photoshop, etc on Linux, correct?
Not strictly true. There are tools for creating a windows environment to run such tools in (Wine, Crossover Office...) but even so, I can do heaps more on my linux PC than I can do in Windows. I can't remember the last time I ever felt the need to use windows.

There's heaps of free software for it, loads of community support, plenty of ways to hack about in the system (legally) and it's (at least in my experience) far more stable. I don't have to defrag, I never get system freezes, I never see a blue screen, my filesystem is more efficient, my bootloader kicks ass and my desktop environment is more featureful. Why would I not use Linux? :)

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:20 pm
by vchris
as per benchmarks I've seen Macs seem faster than other INTEL or AMD PCs. Is that true or is it just some bs?

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:59 pm
by RobertGonzalez
seodevhead wrote:Thanks for clearing that up for me. Is Ubuntu a *nix OS? I have heard this brought up a lot and really don't understand why anyone would put a Linux OS on their computer other than for purely "testing" type purposes. I mean... you can't run dreamweaver, photoshop, etc on Linux, correct?
Ubuntu is one of many Linux distributions (distros). Almost everything that yo can buy for Windows you can get free for Linux. In fact, in Fedora Core (the only install that I have hands on experience with) those tools come with it. Firefox, Thunderbird, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, phpMyAdmin, OpenOffice, the GIMP, and a ton of other free, open source software that is easy to load, easy to manage and easy to update. And, not the least important feature, they are all FREE.

Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 2:38 am
by matthijs
vchris, I'll share you my recent experiences. I've been in the same situation as you. Have been using windows all my life, last years XP. So I'm quite familiar with how everything works, know what software to find and use, know how to do basic system configuration, etc etc.

Basicly everything's fine and I'm a happy win/xp user.

Except for all those 'small' issues. A crash now and then. Spending energy on virus/spyware issues. Dealing with system popup messages I don't understand. Dealing with system issues I can't understand. Quirky UI issues. Etc etc. Nothing spectacular, but all combined enough for me to buy a Mac (white MacBook 13" 2gb).

So now I've been playing with the macbook for 2 weeks. Haven't totally switched yet because I'm taking my time to find the best software, migrating my stuff, etc etc. But so far I'm very very happy. I'd never used a mac before but it all works very intuitively and easy. Of course it takes some time getting used to, but not in a negative way. One thing I really like is that it's all just very beautiful. It suddenly is a pleasure to look at my screen and use the software.

As for reliability: OSX is supposed to be more stable then XP, but it did crash one time already in my case so I'll see how that goes. I'm planning on installing Linux somewere, either as dual boot on the mac or on a (old) px box. In fact I should be able to run all 3 systems on my macbook. And using something like parallels it's a matter of pressing a button to switch systems.

I think if you want an out-of-the-box stable and easy to use system, OS X is the best choice. From what I've heard Linux is a very good choice to. But maybe Linux needs a bit more tweaking/effort on the users side to install and configure everything, find the right software etc (correct me if I'm wrong!). Ubuntu is recommended often if one wants to try Linux.