Here's my computer history, convince me to get a mac....

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, I’m gonna lay out my entire computer history right here, and I want someone to convince me to get a mac. Firstly, I got on the internet about 8 years ago on an old computer. I have considered myself a little averse to change, and I never liked the fact that I didn’t understand completely how Windows XP worked the way I did Windows 95, but that’s okay now. Used to, I hated it that Windows wanted me to put my stuff in My folders, but now I sort of go with the flow, because I know, in the end its easier to let it have its own way instead of fighting it.

I used to be an avid gamer. Recently I have played Neocron (MMORPG) and also a lot of strategy games. I would kind of like to play Matrix Online or another 3d MMORPG, but honestly that doesn’t seem to important now. I also played Star Wars: Galaxies for a little while. That was cool too, but I think as I get older, my desire to play games will get a lot less important. Plus, I have a feeling that if I ever wanted to play games so bad now, I could be satisfied with an xbox or something else. But as I say, games aren’t a big part of my computer life now. One of my favorite things to do is download music and movies. I have a pretty large collection and this is one of my reasons for wanting a Mac because it seems like it is good with this kind of thing.

So, there is my history. I was an avid gamer, and usually go through spurts of gaming. Honestly, I use a lot of pirated software. I dont’ have the money and I have the needs, so I pirate a lot of stuff. Sorry if that offends some people here, but I know I am not alone. This is another reason why I am not so keen on the Mac as I won’t be able to get free stuff as easily. I like BitTorrent, and Ares, and Limewire at the moment. I use those to download lots of music and software.

I am currently thinking of actually selling my entire computer for a mac mini at the moment. I have an AMD athlon 1700XP with 1 gig of ram and two 80 MB hard disks, plus a DVD and CDR combo drive with a Geforce FX (the lowest model, I forgot, I bought it two years ago). I figure I cold probably get a couple of hundred for it, which would go towards the cost of the min. I plan on saving a hard disk so I can keep some things on it, and maybe burn some DVDs when I get the mini if I chose to do it. If I were to get a mini, I would probably get the best one with the superdrive and large HDD and maybe the larger processor and def. upgrade the RAM to 512, so that would be around 800 dollars, I suppose.

But I am still not so sure. After having used my Dad’s laptop for a while, I really started to appreciate the benefits of wireless networking. With a laptop it really gives you a lot of mobility. Plus hotspots are popping up everwhere, and I’d love to be able to use the internet in all kinds of different places.

On the other hand, there is also the benefit of having a desktop. That’s where I’ll spend most of my time with it, in the house. And having a desktop is superior than a laptop if you are going to be at home.

I also plan on moving to Europe soon. I am going to participate in a grad-school program there for two years. I will be in a medium size town, but in Europe, there are a lot of Wifi hotspots due to the population density. The Mac mini would suit my needs as far as portability goes (from to Europe to America and possibly back again) But I guess I should also ask if it is a good idea to give up the Desktop?

I honestly don’t know how I would like the prospect of not being able to play games. I may really want to play one game for a PC one day and not be able to. Who knows? I have gone through phases, but I have a feeling that I may not care so much in the future. I am almost 23 now, so i am sure its something that people grow out of? Or maybe not.

So that is my story. Convince me to buy a Mac, because I love itunes and my iPod, and from what I’ve seen of the Mac, I think I’d like it. Plus I sense something big coming from Apple in the next few years. With iTunes they’ve changed their company a lot trying to turn it into a sort of digital media compliation of products. I see the mac Mini as an extension. Maybe like an iPod for video? I am really impressed with MacOS. I downloaded PearPC and although it is really slow, OSX Panther is really cool.

So if I do decide to sell the wintel box, should I go for the mini or a low cost ibook? The main draw of the ibook is beign able to take it anywhere and use the internet nowadays. That is super cool But then again, I’ll have the windows laptop too. However it is super slow. 800 Mhz, but it runs my apps pretty well. Maybe I just answered my question, but I have this nagging feeling that maybe I should just go for the laptop if I want a 300 dollar flatscreen to go with it. Then I’d probably have the same hardware with portability. But then again there is the desktop comfort issue. To me a mac is like a fine German car. Its the little things that make it feel much more comfortable. Also I think having a quiet computer would be cool.

Well… what should I do?

I’d love to hear your experiences with switching to a mac or about how you really appreciated having a laptop in X sitiation, etc.

2

Also, how come people port games to the mac if it has such little market share? I never understood how any games make it.

3

That is some complex post there. I’ll try to tackle as many of your issues as I can.

On the subject of games, the Mac is probably a better gaming platform than it was even a couple of years ago. Most big game developers have found that maintaining a Mac programming division is not cost effective; what has happened is that smaller Mac development companies (often consisting of just a few people) are working with the big companies to license their games and port them to the Mac. Because there’s so little overhead, a Mac developer can make a nice profit by selling as few as ten or twenty thousand copies. Pretty much every top-tier game gets a Mac port sooner or later; if you’re a casual gamer, I think you can get by on the Mac with no trouble. Then again, I was never a big gamer, even when I used Windows.

On the whole, it seems you don’t need to be persuaded to go for the Mac so much as to leave behind the last few advantages of Windows. BitTorrent and Limewire are both available in Mac versions; I’ve never heard of that other program you mentioned, so there might be a Mac version of that too. (Check versiontracker.com or macupdate.com; you may be surprised to see how much Mac software is out there these days.) OS X is much more forgiving than XP as far as where you can put things and how you organize your directories. I think your general impression of OS X is solid: there are innumerable “fit and finish” features that individually may not seem like much, but taken together add up to a much more satisfying user experience. If you like iTunes, you’d definitely like the rest of the iApps; they’re all easy to use and quite powerful, and the integration between them can be pretty amazing (having your iTunes library show up in iPhoto or iMovie, for example).

Lastly, on the hardware front, it sounds like you’re leaning heavily toward the iBook. You can always pick up a cheap CRT and a keyboard/mouse bundle if you want to do some desktop computing in comfort; the mini already uses a laptop hard drive, so you’re not losing anything there.

I share your perception on Apple as a whole. I feel it’s one of the few companies out there with a real vision of how to bring technology into people’s lives, and I think they’re going to be firing on all cylinders for a good while yet. I was saying to a friend the other day (who’s planning to Switch as soon as he can justify dumping his Dell laptop) that this is a great time to be a Mac user, and it’s probably only going to get better.

Let me know if you have any more questions, or if you still remain unconvinced. :wink:

4

I was all set to offer up some advice, since I’ve got a PC and a Mac laptop, but that bit pissed me off. I work in games. So you’re telling me that you have no problem stealing stuff that I spend a lot of time working on, because you don’t have the money but you “have the need.” If you don’t have the money, then save up your damn money until you can afford it. I sure do “need” a plasma screen TV too, but I can’t afford it; is it okay if I just go down to Best Buy and jack one?

Sorry if that offends you, but I know I’m not alone. If you don’t want to get a lecture, then don’t go around bragging about it. Especially if you then go on talking about buying not just a new computer, but one that’s notoriously expensive.

5

There’s a reason a lot of ex-Windows users end up saying, “Once you go Mac, you’ll never look back.” :wink:

6

Just steal a Mac and if you don’t like it steal a new Windows PC.

Or is there some honour among thieves when it comes to hardware?

7

I won’t say that there isn’t any illicit Mac software available. But Mac users are more apt (or at least in the Mac communities I hang out it) to purchase their software, to indicate to software companies that Mac users have money, and they are willing to spend it on software. They may obtain a copy of software that they own a license to (but have misplaced/damaged the disk), but that’s not the same thing as piracy.

I don’t want to convince you to get a Mac if you are truly ambivalent about it. A lot of Mac users will not pretend that Macs are the strongest gaming machines. However, it would be unfair to say that no games are every played on the Mac. If you get a Mac and develop a desire to play games, you can play games.

The Mini has a less powerful graphics card (32 MB) which may not be the best for gaming. Other Mac geeks have said that with some adjutment or tweaking, you can still play graphics intensive games on the Mini. This is secondhand information—I don’t play graphics intensive games.

So, if you think you could live with limited or restricted gaming (should the desire strike you), then I think you’d like the Mac Mini. Just be aware that the hard drive is a laptop hard drive, that the maximum amount of RAM is 1 GB (and that comes at a price), and the upgradability options are limited. With all that said, it sounds like a great little computer. I’ve ordered mine and am still waiting for delivery. (I had some custom configurations so it’s taking time.)

8

My most used computer is a laptop (Mac 17"G4). I love the portability around the house. I can take it to where ever my toddler is playing and work while she plays. Laptops rock.

9

Okay first things first. If you want to discuss my opinion on software, we can do that somewhere else. I would really appreciate that, and if there is demand for a new thread then just make one. I am not trying to attract attention to that becuase I don’t think its something to be proud of, but it is something that I do. But if you must know, I don’t use that much pirated software. My verision of Windows is legit, as is my Microsoft Office. When I said pirated software, I suppose I meant more like filesharing in general. I don’t use it that much, but sometimes I do. If you want to chastize me, then please open up a new thread. Obviously some people don’t think that its something so rare. And also, for those of you who are taking lots of joy in lecturing me, think about your own collection of music. But seriously if you want to debate this, then start your own thread.

But thanks for the help for those of you who were helpful. I went over to Mac Gaming, and I did notice that there were quite a few games out there! That sounds cool! But I have my serious doubts about online games. However, World of Warcraft is out for the Mac.
About the Hard disk situation…I could always connect one of my current 80 GB 3.5 discs up via USB. I don’t know if that would be fast enough, though. Maybe firewire?

10

You definitely want to go with Firewire for external drives. Firewire 800 (double the bandwidth of regular Firewire), if possible, but regular Firewire is still better than USB 2.0 any day of the week.

You can get external hard drive cases that support all of the above. Firewire 800 is only available on the PowerMacs and larger PowerBooks, however.

11

wow, you were right. I didn’t believe it until I saw this:

http://www.digit-life.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/

12

I have the same Powerbook; I can barely use mine around my 1-year-old – he won’t keep his paws off it.

13

Home of the Underdogs has a Mac section with 801 programs listed. Don’t know how much of that are games or can be downloaded.