why do you guys like mac so much?

[anonymo]

your pc may be visually pleasing when it's in a nice case...but your OS definitely ain't (not without lots of customization).

 

I mean, my next "pc" may in fact be one I build and install OSX on it (yes this is possible). I think I'm mainly in love with OSX over XP than I am with Macs vs PC's.

Ok I will accept the answer that OSX just happens to be exactly how you would customize your Windows XP.

 

And M2...comparing an Apple with a Dell...what are you thinking? That's like comparing...err...appl...no I won't do it. My passion for Dells runs parallel to my passion for Macs but at least Macs are well built for the price

[Playaa]

Playaa it's all personal preference.

I'm not going to disagree in any way whatsoever. However, this topic is called "why do you guys like mac so much?" not "please don't tell us why you like mac so much".

 

I've only been using OSX for about 3 months...at first I was kinda overwhelmed and regretted getting the Macbook...once I learned how to use OSX I find that it does so many little things that aren't in any way significant, but when added up make it soooooo much better than XP.

[benjester]

It is all a matter of personal opinion or knowledge of the software. I can make a windows machine look just as pretty as a mac, and run just as smoothly.

 

PC's have a lot more software problems because there are more software developers creating software for the platform. Increase the macintosh software on the market 10 fold, and you would see similar support problems.

 

Visuals of any machine is personal preference. Personally I like the way the mac looks... but honestly, never been a fan because the market support just isn't there. a lot of my software doesn't run on a mac... And I really like the new titanium keyboards they have... but still wouldn't own a mac.

 

I also side with cujo on a lot of this... and I started with macs back in college... i work in a publishing company where half the computers are macs... but I still want to be able to build a system from scratch... and you can't do that with a mac.

 

Oh, and our mac support staff, all run boot camp, and run in Windows Vista most of the time...

[Playaa]

PC's have a lot more software problems because there are more software developers creating software for the platform. Increase the macintosh software on the market 10 fold, and you would see similar support problems.

this is false (to a degree).

every application that I run on my pc at work (excluding Visual Studio of course) happens to be an application I can run on my Mac as well. Quite often, these applications break on Windows and don't break in OSX (see my VLC Player example from above).

 

as far as making your Windows look like OSX...go for it, it's what I do on my Windows machines.

[stutters]

Oh, and our mac support staff, all run boot camp, and run in Windows Vista most of the time...

...because windows is what needs support most of the time.

[benjester]

In your vlc example, you admitted that the error still took place, it just keeps playing... so your idea of stable is as long as the stuff keeps chugging along, and you can "ok" out of errors, it's all good? That to me proves my point... the software is the problem, not windows.

 

and our mac staff doesn't support windows... they can't do anything more then reboot when troubleshooting is required.

[akaM2]

hi john, whats new in your macworld? Im doing good.

[ZeroDamage]

Oh, and our mac support staff, all run boot camp, and run in Windows Vista most of the time...

...because windows is what needs support most of the time.

 

Hmmm.... there is truth in this statement. Fortunately I am not Japanese and will not be falling upon a sword today.

[benjester]

well, unfortunately, we get more help desk calls for our mac community then pc... but hey, what do I know.

[stutters]

well, unfortunately, we get more help desk calls for our mac community then pc... but hey, what do I know.

yeah, they're called displaced windows users (ie - my machine died, is off for repairs, and i have to use "this thing.")

 

if only windows users could get past the "oh my, there's no start bar" and approach the UI with a logic based approach, they might not need to call you. then again, that's a life worth of windows training they'd have to undo, which takes about 5 minutes.

 

hi john, whats new in your macworld? Im doing good.

oh, it's good. and mellow. drama free. no windows update today, either.

[dragonfly]

PC User: There's nothing wrong with my machine, and Mac users annoy the heck out of me because of their puppy-love with an Apple. They keep trying to convert me even though there's really nothing wrong with my PC, only the PC's of the millions of idiotic users out there. My machine works well and does EVERYTHING I ask it to. Besides, OC'ing is fun.

 

Mac User: PC users are just ignorant. They dont understand what it means to be deeply in love with a piece of technology. She's got the sexiest hardware too, what with the new slim design. PC users just haven't seen the true beauty that is Mac yet!

[tookey]

most of the mac supporters almost always assume several things

 

a) windows users are dumb

windows users can't take care of their computer

c) windows users would rather have a dell instead of a mac

 

For me personally, all three of these are false. I haven't gotten adware/spyware/viruses in who knows how long, I've worked in IT and am not dumb. I do have to update windows regularly, boohoo, it does it overnight and I don't notice. I haven't bluescreened since I built this computer. My windows isn't bloated, or fat, because I took care of that during the install process. I also installed my own theme, so my computer is visually appealing to me.

 

I do agree with one thing, I'd rather have a mac over a dell laptop. Above those though, I'll keep my self built windows desktop. As far as laptops go, I would either build my own or get a mac. I completely agree that most namebrand windows pcs are poop. My biggest complaint about macs? I don't really have one except that their users won't stop trying to convert me when I'm perfectly fine and hassle free with my windows comp.

[Cujo]

first off, to settle the prettiness argument, windows vista is at least as pretty as osx.

 

playaa, to echo bejenster regarding your vlc issue. i've had videos crash in power dvd that play fine in mpc and wmp11. i've had videos crash mpc that play fine in wmp11 and power dvd. your example has only to do with the software you're using to play the file. if you tried different software to play your video on each machine you'd have different results.

 

also, there has to be "little things" you miss that windows has that you can't do on your mac. i miss things from xp on vista and vice versa. out of curiosity, can you name two or three things specifically that your mac does that you couldn't do just as easily on your windows pc?

 

sj, how is holding down the mouse button to see the properties of a file or folder any more or less logical than right clicking?

 

i wish i could start at the beginning of my computer knowledge again. spend a day with a mac and a day with a windows machine and see which i preferred and which i found easier to use.

[stutters]

sj, how is holding down the mouse button to see the properties of a file or folder any more or less logical than right clicking?

no no no, you don't get that one, unless i get this one:

how is having no mouse to interact with your os more intuitive?

 

love,

 

sj

[ZeroDamage]

most of the mac supporters almost always assume several things

 

a) windows users are dumb

windows users can't take care of their computer

c) windows users would rather have a dell instead of a mac

 

For me personally, all three of these are false. I haven't gotten adware/spyware/viruses in who knows how long, I've worked in IT and am not dumb. I do have to update windows regularly, boohoo, it does it overnight and I don't notice. I haven't bluescreened since I built this computer. My windows isn't bloated, or fat, because I took care of that during the install process. I also installed my own theme, so my computer is visually appealing to me.

 

I do agree with one thing, I'd rather have a mac over a dell laptop. Above those though, I'll keep my self built windows desktop. As far as laptops go, I would either build my own or get a mac. I completely agree that most namebrand windows pcs are poop. My biggest complaint about macs? I don't really have one except that their users won't stop trying to convert me when I'm perfectly fine and hassle free with my windows comp.

 

You can not make the assumption that every other Windows user knows what you know. Trust me, they do not. Most of the users that I support are not dumb but I have a couple out of the 100+ that I support that doesn't listen to reason and somehow reinstalls a spyware application like "Smiley Central" even after I blocked the smileycentral.com url on the dns servers. Someone who will remove my spyware protection a day after I put it on there.

 

At my old job, 99.9% of what I did was clean up viruses and spyware because that was 99.9% of the problem. I put that at a lack of computer security education and major flaws in Windows and IE such as ActiveX interfacing with most if not all of the OS's system.

[Playaa]

most of the mac supporters almost always assume several things

 

a ) windows users are dumb

B ) windows users can't take care of their computer

c ) windows users would rather have a dell instead of a mac

 

actually, I would say all of those are true...for the majority.

I fully believe that folks like the people on here...don't need to use Macs. It's the people like my mom, or my sister, the people who just browse the web, do emails, use a word processor and sometimes watch DVD's on their laptop. (and of course, the people who need a Mac for their living)

 

I just think that 90% of computer users would find more enjoyment out of using OSX than Windows XP (or Vista) on a daily basis.

 

first off, to settle the prettiness argument, windows vista is at least as pretty as osx.

close enough that I won't argue.

 

playaa, to echo bejenster regarding your vlc issue. I've had videos crash in power dvd that play fine in mpc and wmp11. i've had videos crash mpc that play fine in wmp11 and power dvd. your example has only to do with the software you're using to play the file. if you tried different software to play your video on each machine you'd have different results.

 

obviously it's the software that is erroring, however, it's the OS that is causing the error to be a problem or not a problem. My example was just to show that Windows XP does not handle errors nearly as well as OSX does.

 

also, there has to be "little things" you miss that windows has that you can't do on your mac. i miss things from xp on vista and vice versa. out of curiosity, can you name two or three things specifically that your mac does that you couldn't do just as easily on your windows pc?

 

I honestly can't think of something off the top of my head that XP does and OSX doesn't that I wish it did...I'm sure there's something...everything I can think of are just differences that I've had to relearn rather than things it doesn't do. (example: system file permissions. In Windows XP I can delete important things rather easily, in OSX I can do it, but not very easily. As a "power user" I prefer the XP way because I'm not stupid...however for most of the computing world the OSX way is better because most people ARE stupid).

As for the little things it does that I love.

1) if I hit my F11 key, all of my open windows slide off the screen so I can see my desktop. Hitting it again causes them to come back.

2) if I am in a OSX Native program (like TextEdit or Safari) I can mouse over a word and hit Ctrl+Cmd+D and a dictionary definition of the word pops up.

3) if I throw my mouse into the top right corner of my screen, my screensaver turns on instantly

4) if I throw my mouse into the bottom right corner of my screen, all of my open windows resize and show at once alongside each other (with a live view, so movies keep playing, browser windows keep displaying, etc.). I can then click on the desktop to cancel, or click on a specific window to bring it to front and all windows resize back to their original.

(these corners are customizeable)

5) if I am in a browser window (or any window really) and see a chunk of text I want to save, I highlight it...then drag it to my desktop. A text file is automatically created and saved with the text in it. If, at a later date, I want to put that text into an email, I drag the file into the email box and the text is pasted there.

 

Some things that aren't native but are still awesome.

1) my Macbook Pro has a built in motion sensor, with IAlertU (a free app) I can put a motion sensitive alarm on my laptop that can use the free FrontRow remote control as a way to enable/disable the alarm. So if I'm in a coffee shop and want to get a refill, I just hit a button and my laptop is safe(er).

2) VLC player (the best player out there) is 10 times more user friendly under OSX...I don't know why since it doesn't do anything it COULDN'T do on Windows...they just haven't made the Windows UI the same way.

 

and my favorite thing my Macbook Pro has ever done? I launched EVERY SINGLE APPLICATION on the machine at one time (excluding a full screen game, because I wanted to watch what would happen) and in less than 3 minutes...it was finished and everything was running perfectly fine. This includes such memory hogging apps as Photoshop CS3 and Firefox. This also included me having to click Allow a million times on LittleSnitch (a port watching application that I had just installed, so it didn't have any profile settings for any of the applications yet...so it kept asking me if it was ok that they used the internet).

 

also...I can right-click on my Macbook Pro...just hit the mousepad with 2 fingers rather than 1.

[stutters]

PC User: There's nothing wrong with my machine, and Mac users annoy the heck out of me because of their puppy-love with an Apple. They keep trying to convert me even though there's really nothing wrong with my PC, only the PC's of the millions of idiotic users out there. My machine works well and does EVERYTHING I ask it to. Besides, OC'ing is fun.

 

Mac User: PC users are just ignorant. They dont understand what it means to be deeply in love with a piece of technology. She's got the sexiest hardware too, what with the new slim design. PC users just haven't seen the true beauty that is Mac yet!

PC User: my parents who know everything about computers and then some bought me my first computer, and it ran windows. i've heard macs suck, and i'm comfortable with what i know. new things scare me, and i can't handle a paradox. it's strange, too. my all knowing, tech savvy parents seem to be slipping with age. now they call me every other day and ask why the computer is running so slow, why there's this strange audio chirping, and something about popups.

 

Mac User: I like trying new things.

[anonymo]

I love it when Mac users dig in with this same argument they never fully comprehend (I'm starting to think Apple built in logic barriers into OSX that just doesn't displays certain words and sentences).

 

None of us are saying Windows in more intuitive, easy to use and pretty out of the box than OSX. OSX has Windows beat here hands down. It's the ability for the user to make Windows better than anything a Mac could even conceptualize that we are trying to explain to you.

 

The experienced Windows user can: make Windows look better than anything possible on a Mac; can build a PC/Laptop that out performs a Mac in every way and for half the price; can upgrade without parting with certain "organs"; can fix manufacturing defects (not really important for Windows users actually, just making the experienced Mac users dream).

 

From what I am hearing, none of you have been using your Macs for more than a few years. In the last 10 years I have used just about every Apple computer, from iPods to Macbooks to the G4 and G5 and I've seen more crashes (more like "hey user! Im just going to pop out for a second while you wonder why this stupid icon is on the screen and when I get back you can start all your work from scratch!") than I have with XP on my PC. Not that you guys would see your Macs crash, no, you would have to use them for something other than wordproc/media/internet to see it and when you're sticking up for Apple concerning the functions you could do with a $200 laptop, well...do I need to continue?

 

 

**edit**

lol...looks like we are all busy typing our witty and heavy handed replies this morning...ok I'll make a deal with you, I won't read yours if you don't read mine

[Playaa]

I would honestly like to know what you can possibly make a Windows machine do that is "better than anything a Mac could even conceptualize"?

as for upgrade-ability of the actual hardware...I've already said in a previous post that you CAN install OS X on a non-proprietary (i.e. non-Apple) machine...so that's not really an argument.As far as this whole "debate" goes...I'm only sticking up for OSX over Windows. Hardware is a pointless argument.

lol...looks like we are all busy typing our witty and heavy handed replies this morning...ok I'll make a deal with you, I won't read yours if you don't read mine

 

TOO LATE! ALREADY READ YOURS!!!

 

Edited October 3, 2007 by Playaa/Pselus

[anonymo]

I would honestly like to know what you can possibly make a Windows machine do that is "better than anything a Mac could even conceptualize"?

 

I bet you would!

 

Oh the irony!!

 

[stutters]

ok, so the price thing on hardware?

 

mac pro @ default config: $2,499.00

same machine priced out on newegg: $2,033.97

 

apples to apples. so pretax, preshipping, i save $465.03. as an added value to the pc user, i get to build it myself, OC it, and then call each independent mfg to talk warranty coverage. with a mac, i open the box, plug in three cables, and call one number if anything goes wrong in the next 3 years. oh, nearly forgot! that doesn't include your choice of vista (small, medium, or large), keyboard, or uni-mouse.

 

go ahead, pick apart the prices, complain that the mac pro isn't what you need, but remember, it was your argument.

 

**edit**

lol...looks like we are all busy typing our witty and heavy handed replies this morning...ok I'll make a deal with you, I won't read yours if you don't read mine

consider it done.

[boiler]

man, this thread got out of hand quickly....

 

 

I thought things would slow down after my "apple store sells microsoft laser mice" comment

[tookey]

k, so for the average user macs are better, conceded.

 

for me windows runs problem free.

 

why are people like me still trying to be converted by people like sj?

 

I use windows because a)I'm used to it and I have no problems with it.

 

At the same time I have no problems with mac either. Soooo, in order to answer whats the better OS for me question? I pick the one I know about because frankly, I don't have the time to learn new things.

[stutters]

 

....

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

[Playaa]

man, being a Mac user on the internet is alot like being a Christian on the internet. Everyone wants to prove you wrong, but you aren't allowed to reply to their topics trying to prove you wrong because they don't want to be preached to.