ilovecode

I used to feel the same way as you. I reasoned “I work in my applications, not the OS - how much of a difference could it be.”

Of course, like yourself, my decision was based on zero experience.

When Apple introduced the Mac Mini I decided to pick one up for

It seems as though my last comment was highly truncated. Kind of annoying.

Basically I like that OSX has the same base (*NIX) as the Linux servers I deploy to. Same command line. For me that is a plus.

Stable & streamlined - so if I save 2 minutes a day - my MacBook more than paid for itself in a year. And why shouldn’t your computer & OS also be aesthetically pleasing considering the amount of time you spend with it?

The price issue is really not true anymore, unless you are buying super low end hardware. My last PC (2 years ago) laptop cost $800 more than my current MacBook.

You should get a Mac.

Just kidding. :)

There’s plenty to discuss here, but basically I end up on the fence of “I love it, I cannot see any possible way I’d ever go back to Windows, I’m more productive, I get stuff done faster, better, and cheaper than I would on Windows, and I will recommend it to you. But if it’s not for you, it’s not for you. Cool beans.” I’m the guy who always loves a good discussion, but in the end if you’re happy with whichever tools you use to get through life, rock, that’s awesome.

It’s a bit much to get into a huge debate in blog comments, but I will touch on one part- I think Macs are comparatively priced. It’s easy to forget that Apple isn’t Dell; Apple simply doesn’t sell low-end machines (whereas Dell probably sells the bulk of its machines on that end of the spectrum). If you match up a comparable machine (which has been done many times on SitePoint threads), Apple ends up priced fairly similarly, even without touching on the lack of antivirus needs, spyware issues, that sort of thing. Plus, the resale value of your Mac is going to be far, far greater than in the PC world. You can still buy five year old iBooks on eBay for upwards of $600 (not to mention they’re still responsive and, well, usable).

Thanks for finishing your comment Justin; not sure why it got truncated. The same command line would be nice as I regularly work on my server in shell mode although I rarely to anything command line in Unix so it not really an issue. For me the cost really becomes an issue when it comes to software but a year ago I got an awesome deal on a laptop that is basically a PC replacement. It should do me fine for at least another year provided I don’t jump in it (that is what happened to my old one!)

@jamie - yeah, that is what people say. I think crashes have a lot to do with what people put on their machines.

@Andi - the macbooks are nice and I would probably prefer one of those to an iMac as I like to be mobile.

Be careful with Safari for Windows. From what I’ve heard it doesn’t support all the things that Safari for Mac does yet. I’d stick with BrowserCam to be sure you’re seeing what “Real Safari” users are seeing.

@ Justin - My personal Linux machines have *exactly* the same base as my Linux servers, so it’s an even bigger plus ;)

My number one reason for not wanting to own a Mac at all is actually three reasons: One. Mouse. Button.

Really, it’s that simple.

The minimum physically possible number of mouse buttons should by law be two. The minimum useful is 3. I don’t care that OSX is specifically tuned to not need a second or third mouse button, I wouldn’t run OSX even if I was getting a Mac. I don’t care that I can get more mouse buttons by adding a USB mouse - a computer from a company priding itself on design should not resort to suggesting an external device for something so basic. I don’t care that I can get additional mouse buttons by tapping or rubbing the touchpad in unintuitive ways - a company like Apple should not have to resort to having users figure out some magic hand waving just to get some options about a point on the screen.

Enough ranting :)

To be honest, I don’t even consider Apple computers that much nicer in design. Especially the latest models with their way-too-large square alphabet keys, and the incredible amount of space between the bottom of the laptop and the actual keys, annoy me.

In all seriousness, I have a range of other reasons why I wouldn’t consider getting a Mac, why I don’t want to subsidize a company whose sole purpose in life is to lock consumers in, and quite agressively so, but when push comes to shove, the one mouse button has always been the last straw for me in moments were I was weak.

(Note: I own a black G3 Powerbook, but only because at my previous job some guy from an external supplier set it up temporarily for some service we contracted, and he never came back, so the temporarily became permanently and then it moved along with me when I moved jobs. It is running my only install ever of Ubuntu, and I’m considering using it as a wallmount picture display because of its perfect 180 degree openability)

“News flash…I’m not cool”
I think you are cool.

@Jamie - I want the Mac your friend has if it has never crashed! Mine crashes on a fairly regular basis.

I have a MacPro (2×2.66 Ghz, 2GB RAM). I switched from my Wintel (1×3.2GHz, 1GB RAM) this year when I upgraded to Adobe CS3. My reason for switching was almost purely driven by the fact that the entire design industry uses Macs and I have had a few cross-platform issues.

Would I have switched if everything worked perfectly with my Windows setup? Probably not. I would have bought a new, cheaper Windows machine and simply bought an upgrade for CS1.

At the end of the day a Mac (and for that matter a Wintel PC) is simply a tool to help me do my job. If the Mac is better for what I do, I by a Mac. If a Wintel machine is better, I buy one of those.

As a Mac user I find Mac fascists really annoying!

We have a Mac (G3 I think). It sits in the corner and gathers dust at present! I’ve used a Mac on occasion and haven’t found them comfortable. I don’t like the mouse and, like you, getting one would suddenly mean having to take time out to learn how to use everything.

I’ve got friends with Macs, one of which constantly sits on the phone telling me how great his is, how I should get one. Why? All I do is use a laptop for running a text editor, couple of browsers, check my email and play a bit of music. I rarely open up Photoshop as I’m a programmer.

Expense isn’t the issue for me however I do know that I couldn’t get the equivalent in Mac that my laptop currently gives for the same price. My laptop doesn’t crash, it hasn’t had viruses (and that’s without having virus software for about 6 months after I bought it), it doesn’t have a firewall besides the windows XP one (which can’t really be counted) and it will last me for 4-5 years. I can’t see where the benefit would be of potentially spending 50-100% more on a macbook to get the equivalent system that probably wouldn’t give me the same value for money.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve ran into some Mac fanatics who actually look down on you for preferring Windows, as if you’re an idiot for not grasping the wondrous awesome that is Mac.

Don’t get me wrong: there are aspects of Macs that I really like. But at the same time, I’m very familiar with Windows and at the end of the day, productivity is what matters to me.

I don’t own a Mac and, hmm, was it 15 years ago? was very happy when I retired the last Mac at the company I worked for.

Anybody who has ever told me “I’m a Mac person” has, in the end, left me thinking that what they meant was “I don’t know crap about computers.”

I had to unretire one of the Macs as a new employee was a ‘Mac person.’ Whenever things went wrong with the Mac she had no idea how to fix it. The clock was wrong … the colors got funny … etc … she had no idea what to do and would have to call me. I had no idea what to do either, but I’d have sort it out. Had it been Windows I’d have known what to do in an instant.

Years and years ago friend called me over to upgrade the RAM in her Mac and when I went to do it got hesitant as a coworker had told her the quickest way to destroy a Mac was to open the case. There must, in fact, be quicker ways as the RAM went in without any trouble. (As a matter of fact, I’ve had several Macs open and they are beautiful on the inside … everything is tidy … there aren’t cables all over the place … a lot of the time Steve Jobs will have handwritten a Haiku on the motherboard somewhere (well, maybe not).)

In all fairness I do know of some big-time nerds who use Macs. I read their blogs and I have the impression they’d be able to fix their own Macs.

(Having said all of that … just last week I set up the wireless networking for a friend’s son’s new Mac notebook of some sort. It took two minutes as Apple has made the process almost idiot proof. As a matter of fact, it took me longer to figure out how to open the Web Browser than it did to enter the correct network settings.)

I think that choosing a Mac because you think they are easier to use is a mistake. If something goes wrong and you know how to fix it, that’s fine and dandy. If something goes wrong and you need help from your local IT guy, it’s likely he’s going to be a Windows person.

(Naturally, this is all my humble opinion.)

I had considered buying a Mac a couple times but then realized that all my reasons for wanting one were stupid. I wanted one pretty much because everyone else had one. Then I though, hang on a second, that seems a bit pointless!

The ‘mouse thing’ doesn’t bother me as you can easily get set up with a two button mouse. The software I would need to purchase outweighs the want for having a ’sexy’ machine. As for crashes etc, I’m running Vista which a lot of people can’t stand and it hasn’t crashed on me once. I was running XP prior to that and didn’t experience any troubles with that either which leads me to believe that people having problems with their PC’s either had some faulty hardware or didn’t fully understand what they were doing.

I have used a Mac in the past and didn’t like the usability. I prefer to have my windows open to full screen and couldn’t get that to work on a Mac although I hear this is now possible with Leopard? The reason most people gave me for not having full screen windows was to do with multi-tasking. I can multi-task just fine on my windows machine. That’s what alt/tab is for.

I guess it all boils down to this: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”…or in the case of these people having trouble using a windows machine: “It it ain’t broke, fix it until it is”.

I spent about 5 years using Macs, and now that I don’t have to, I probably would never go back. Today’s Mac is nothing more than an intel-based PC that has a slick looking exterior with the ability to run a Mac OS. I don’t need to look cool or hip with my laptop or desktop, so that means nothing.

Then, you have the software. I have built up such a collection of software for my PC that switching would be ridiculous. Why buy a computer that would require setting it up to dual boot or run an emulator to still be able to use all of my software? I guess if I didn’t want to do that, I could shell out thousands of dollars to buy all of the Mac versions.

There are only a few things I need my computer to do:

1. Turn on and stay on
2. Be able to surf the internet and check email
3. Handle word processing/office type tasks
4. Run an image editing program such as Photoshop
5. Play music
6. Play the occasional video game

As long as I can run 4 or 5 programs at the same time and be able to easily switch between them while I’m on the computer, I could care less how the OS interface looks. I don’t use a computer to sit in the OS, I use it to run applications that accomplish a specific task, so it doesn’t matter if it is linux, osx, windows, or whatever, as long as it works, I don’t even realize what type of computer I’m using.

Maybe I’m not “cool” like the college kids who think that their fancy Mac makes them able to surf the web and share photos faster, but I don’t need to look cool while I write, manage websites, or surf the web.

I felt like you, but then I had to take a job 800 Km away from Home from one day to another just for 4 Months, when I was there I needed a laptop. I thought about Macs as you do but I needed a system which I could use right after unacking and without spending a lot of time for the system even because my windows machiene was waiting at home and I don*t wanted to care about two systems. I was surprised how fine everything worked.
Now I’m back home and guess how many times I touched my Vista PC right nearly never. instead of it I’ve connected my Macbook to the same monitor as my PC and with the pushing of a button I switch between them If I need to. There is just one reason for which a Windows PC is better its games but I don’t play that much that I would need one anymore If I ever want to I would buy a wii (because its white -just kidding) or a x-box or whatever.
I’ts just my experience I was never and will never hate Windows because it can be a good,secure and stable system when you know how to manage it but now I have a good secure and stable system without managing a system I just use it. And thats worth the higher price for a Mac in my eyes.

I’ve never had any troubles getting the Software I need to work the way I want to.
In fact I was surprised how much software can be found, sure not as much as for Win but If you put all the crap Software beside and the all the Software that brings Win functions that are still implemented in Mac Os or i-Life and then put aside all the systemsoftware which you don’t need with a Mac and as said the big amount of high 3D games what do you think is still out there for the common PC that can’t be found for a Mac? Maybe not the same program but maybe another and better Program.

And after all just install Windows if you want to but you can be sure that you will have a longer driver support than elseware.

And please forget all that looking good or sexy stuff its just a computer -period.

Another point I didn’t make last time: Learning something new can be a fun and challenging experience. Trying a new OS and tool-set is no different.

Over the years I’ve played with BBCs, GEM, various versions of AmigaOS, MS-DOS, Windows 2.x though to Vista, old Unixes, MacOS9, MacOSX and Ubuntu, along with all the different tools you can get for them. OK, so they weren’t all that much fun, but I got something out of all of them.

@Robin: There are some things that don’t “just work” on Windows, due to over-complication. Like the registry. When I first switched to Windows, being accustomed to the Mac method of deleting a program (just throwing it away), trying to replace my Compaq’s pre-installed Norton with Avast didn’t work very well. I had to spend hours on the phone with tech support just to get Windows Explorer operating almost-properly again, and it’s still prone to crashes if I’m in the Control Panel area for very long. There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems, but system preferences just work better than the registry.

Tell us how you really feel Josh . I like that you ran some tests. Scientific tests held in a controlled environment are really the best way to determine which is technically “better”.

How did the hardware compare between the two?