It’s called Plug and Play, and it works just as well on Windows. You don’t need driver disks for hardware any more, and haven’t for years, unless you’re plugging in some obscure hardware (you know, the stuff that just wouldn’t work at all on a Mac).
I used to organise a seminar programme last year. We’d have two speakers every week. Needless to say, I got intimately acquainted with the hardware recognition ability of different machines. My own experience (and this also comes from being in the audience of various meetings) is that Macs perform extremely poorly when attempting to use the overhead projector. Even Linux has better performance when trying to interface with projectors.
Nope, but the fact that his computers are dead and in the trash long before he can set one up as a bleeding-edge music server in the basement points to a real quality difference between Macs and other PCs.
I suppose dispo-puters make sense for some, but it’s always pissed me off when something I spend more than a few bucks on breaks or becomes obsolete before it reasonably should break or become obsolete.
Do Macs really have no driver (or similar) issues stemming from the switch from PPC to x86 architecture or x64? Or from OS9 to the fundamentally different OSX?
That’s pretty impressive if it’s really the case, which I’m struggling to accept, since the company is kind of notorious for abandoning legacy support.
Really? My experience is the opposite. Those who know the most about computers are running Linux on a PC. Those who know the least (artists, writers, etc.) are running Macs.
Meh. I have a couple of 14-year-old Fujitsu Stylistic 1000s (that I paid about $50 for back in the dot-com crash, around 2001) running server-type functions using Win 98 (!!!) and they never crash… ever.
For the last decade or more, I have taken in hand-me-downs from gamers who are buying faster machines, then have put together systems pro bono and passing them on to people who need them. All of them Windows machines, many of them working 13-14 years after their manufacturing date.
The thing is that ~10-year-old Windows PCs are such commodities, people tend not to hang on to them. It’s not that they have failed, it’s just that they are so ubiquitous that it’s easy enough to find a later version for free or really cheap.
By the way, if you want to make your own auto-antonymous definition of bleeding edge, could you at least give us a heads-up?
I use both Windows and OS X almost every day. OS X is better. The next computer I buy for myself will be another Mac.
If you disagree, fine. It is after all a subjective decision, about which reasonable people can agree to differ. Who knows, perhaps different people want different things from a personal computer.
Nah, I’d rather just use it improperly. Buzz-phrases deserve that respect from us.
HP printer drivers are the notorious exception to this. Also, some cheap peripherals, such as Argus USB-wired cameras cannot be made to work without rolling your own compatible driver
x86 and x64 machines will not run OS 9, so a big hunk of the 90’s software base is unuseable. However, most of the good stuff got Carbonized for OS X, and is still usable today. OS 10.6 does not contain a 64 bit Carbon implementation, so the API is probably being phased out for new development. That might cause minor pain for some down the line, but most will never notice.
I’ve been following this thread for a while, and I just have to say the level of banality in these arguments is getting ridiculous.
For the record, I have a TI 99/4A at home I just booted up from 1981! I can load Adventure on it. This PROVES that TI is superior to EITHER Mac OR Wintel because they last forever!!!
In fact, I’d wager that the proportion of MITS Altair 8800’s that can still start is higher than either MAC or WINTEL machines sold! Therefore THEY are the superior machine.:dubious:
So as to add some relevant discussion to this thread, here is an interesting case Study done on Cultural marketing analysis , specifically the Ipod but relevant to Apple’s Brand Strategy from the Stockholm School of Business
How so? You haven’t really used it since 86 or so, have you? Where’s the value in that?
Now if it was still reliable and you could still do something useful with it, that’d show some retained value. What you have is, like my 84 Mac, a fancy paperweight. That it still runs tells you that it was a *well made * fancy paperweight, but a paperweight is still all it is until you start doing something with it.
Professor: “Sure. Let me just set it up here… Oops! I forgot that little extra cord I need to plug it into the projector, because for some reason Apple refuses to include industry standard ports on their laptops. Sorry, guess I’ll just have to fail you.”
Seriously Chronos, I work in a math department with lots of Macs, and people have trouble getting them to work with projectors all the time.
meanwhile, while you’re sitting around with your overly expensive 2001 macintosh still attempting to fully capitalize the purchase price by running some ganged-up music server, wintel users have bought 3 new upgraded machines.
For me, it’s not an issue of image and status. I was a PC owner for the longest time and, about four years ago, I decided to buy a MacBook Pro. Now, I had used Macs before, being a photographer and working in the newspaper industry, but I never really had a strong preference for them. But it had been years since I last used them with any regularity. Anyhow, within a couple weeks, I found myself doing all my photo editing and design on my MBP instead of my desktop, I enjoyed OS X and the Mac versions of the Adobe Creative Suite so much. Within a year, I got rid of my PC desktop and bought a MacPro. (I’ve also since bought a MacBook as a gift, and a replacement MacBook Pro, where the old MBP Pro now serves an entertainment hub, more or less.)
Now, I think these Mac vs Windows PC arguments are stupid, because both computers have exceptional systems. For my purposes and my approach to computers, a Mac and OS X are a much better fit. There are quirks about OS X and there are certain things I like the Windows approach for better but, overall, it’s been a joy to work with Mac and OS X. For me. Once again, I know people for whom OS X drives them batshit crazy because it doesn’t do things the way Windows does.
And, the fact that I don’t need to run a number of firewalls and anti-spyware software and sweep my computer every week for malware is perhaps my biggest joy. Now, whether this is because nobody writes viruses for the Mac (though I do know there are some out there) or OS X is inherently more secure, I don’t care. The net effect is that in four years I’ve never had malware on my computer, even though I’ve been surfing the net “without a condom,” so to speak. This may one day change but, for now, it’s wonderful.
I love my macs for most of the reasons already mentioned; stability, no tinkering, no virus fighting, peripherals work out of the box, etc. For me it’s more money, but it’s value for money. You get what you pay for in my opinion.
I do find it humorous that the very same people who thing Macs are all price gouging and posing are often the very same people wearing designer sunglasses and jeans, driving highend autos because they wouldn’t be caught dead driving anything “lesser”. It just undermines their price gouging poser argument, in my mind. Totally deaf to Mac users maintaining it is quality for money, while wearing $100 sunglasses and calling us posers, cracks me up!
I wasn’t able to slog through all of the fanwanking here. Just came to say that I use Macs & PCs extensively, personally & professionally. Right now, Mac is the best, simply because you can run Mac OS AND Windows, thus having the best of both worlds. So no, it isn’t just image & status. In fact, those 2 things have almost nothing to do with it.
Technically, you can do the same with a PC, but its much more of a hassle.
Aside from other issues raised in this thread, I’m weary of the extent that Apple makes vendor lock-in a corporate policy. If I buy a mac now, and decide several years down the line that I’d prefer a Windows or Linux system, is the OSX of that time going to actively fight againt me in making that transition? Given what a PITA is was to get the iPod to work with anything other than iTunes (IMHO, the worst program I’ve ever had the displeasure of using), and everything I hear about jailbreaking iPhones to get them to do useful things, I am extremely wary of purchasing any more Apple products.
It certainly feels like it, but I’m interested now. Both my wife and I have computers that are a few months old. I plugged my video camera into my Mac and the videos loaded into iMovie with just a few clicks. I’ll see if I can get my wife’s PC to load the exact same video recorder later this week. In my experience, hooking these things up with PC’s is nothing short of maddening, so I’m interested in how her new computer will deal with it.
Given that Apple actively promotes the fact that you can install Windows on a Mac, via Boot Camp, I doubt you’d face that kind of pushback. Apple does it because it makes business sense. And they make the iPod locked into iTunes because, again, it makes business sense.
(Aside: I’ve never gotten why some people just hate hate hate iTunes so much. I hear it often enough that I’m sure a good chunk of it comes from rational people having really bad experiences, but I’ve never had an issue with it. Though I do know that earlier installations on Windows could run into serious, serious problems, but it feels like that isn’t the case now, really.)
I did two stints at an Apple Store, and we were specifically told not to bash Windows. When people asked me why they should go with a Mac over Windows, the first thing I said (unless they were buying a Mac Pro, in which case they were almost never “switchers”) was that Microsoft faces a huge handicap – they have to design an OS that not only works with tons and tons of hardware elements from the present and recent past, but also will work with hardware from the near future. It’s a herculean undertaking and there are bound to be problems in that approach. On the other hand, Apple manages both the hardware and software ends of its products, and that results in some pretty smooth integration, with OS updates that come out whenever Apple puts out some new hardware (like, say, a mouse).
So that’s an advantage for the Mac, if not a fair one.
Another advantage – unless you’re savvy, your Windows PC is going to come loaded with gobs and gobs of “trialware” and “bloatware” that will immediately create 10 icons in your system tray just when you turn the damned thing on. This isn’t Microsoft’s doing. I’m sure the Windows engineers would much rather see the product of their labor ship untainted. A Mac gives you the option of a MobileMe trial when you turn it on the very first time, and also comes with a trial version of iWork that you won’t know even exists unless you start the program. That’s just far, far less bothersome to the user.
So that’s another advantage for the Mac, but again, it’s not Microsoft’s fault per se.
Now, I haven’t had chance to play with Windows 7 so much, but last I checked a Mac also came with just plain better built-in software than a Windows machine, iPhoto and iMovie are both surprisingly versatile programs and easy to use. I’m not sure if there’s a free equivalent on Windows. That helps cut into the “Apple tax” a good deal (which I think is a reality on laptops, but not an issue on desktops. The top-of-the-line iMac is a killer machine that almost makes it pointless to even consider a Mac Pro, and is a good value to boot.)
One “why I’m glad I use a Mac” experience from yesterday. My wife had to print a large document, so I decided to use the printer in our building’s business center. I took her Macbook down there with a USB cable to connect to the printer, but soon realized that the computer automatically detected the printer wirelessly via Bonjour. It downloaded a driver in the background once I clicked on it and, seconds later, I was good to go.
I get the impression from the Windows 7 commercial that it is capable of a similar thing. But I’m pretty sure the Mac did it first.
Finally, I think anyone who’s geeky can make either operating system work for them equally well. But for most people, who just want a hassle-free experience and don’t run specialized software, I’d recommend a Mac nine times out of ten.
This frankly doesn’t make any sense at all.
What “vendor lock-in?”
Software written for OS X does not run on Windows. Period.*
Now, there may be versions offered for both platforms, and in fact, most of the big players (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) do, but when you buy a piece of software for OS X you have to assume that it’s only going to run on that operating system. Just like if I buy a Windows program - I can’t complain that it won’t run on OS X.
So, there is no “fighting” at all. If you want to base all your purchasing decisions on the possibility of switching to some different platform at some future time, you need to do everything open-source, and hope that you can build it for your current platform.
Yeah, yeah - i know about third-party OS X emulators, but they work for crap, and they’re not strictly legal.
