Buying Advice For Mac?

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tlarkin

VIP Member
I am not bashing Windows in the sense no one should use it. If you hate Linux or hate Mac, then why use something you hate? I am simply pointing out that Unix is the most tried and tested OS out there, it was originally developed in the late 1960s. It has been a true multi user platform for many years. Microsoft is just now catching up.

There are things that are not maybe valid to your average end user. I totally agree with that. I doubt end users care about the security model of not having access to anything outside your home folder, nor do they understand the security model that has this by default. That doesn't take away from the fact it is a superior model from a security stand point.

The fact that Unix has withstood the test of time, and is older than any OS out there and still has the least amount of exploits, tend to prove the fact it is more secure. Which is why it is such a popular server model. 99% of end users don't need the server model, I agree. Again, just because an end user doesn't need those abilities does not take away from the fact it is more secure by design.
 
He's just a philosopher that builds logical structured arguments.

Now, before you start bashing Apple, have you ever used a Mac? Seriously guys, I think quite a lot of people in this thread have never used a Mac and are basing their opinions on what they've heard and mere pictures.

I think you have a thing for tlarkin. Also you assume too much.

Please tell me how a Mac is better than a $400 windows based PC for the average user. The same PC is even capable of running Ubuntu or w/e flavor of linux you wanted to as well.
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
I think you have a thing for tlarkin. Also you assume too much.

Please tell me how a Mac is better than a $400 windows based PC for the average user. The same PC is even capable of running Ubuntu or w/e flavor of linux you wanted to as well.

I don't have a thing for tlarkin. And I refuse to answer such a stupid question when it's been more than answered for you.
 

patrickv

Active Member
Says the guy who's profile and signature is "Mac'd out". I have, just as anybody has, Googled the Mac vs. PC debate, and found nothing that has proven anything.

Bro, I'm an IT guy, I am both a PC and Mac user. Stop being dumb for once, between me and you we are discussing file systems, not Macs vs Pc. Grow up for a minute and google about file system hierarchy. Then you'll understand.

The fun thing to notice on CF is that people are so immature, sorry mods but that's a fact. Someone starts a thread about (Macs) just asking one very simple question and the cursed thing ends into a freaking argument.
 
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mihir

VIP Member
I think you have a thing for tlarkin. Also you assume too much.

Please tell me how a Mac is better than a $400 windows based PC for the average user. The same PC is even capable of running Ubuntu or w/e flavor of linux you wanted to as well.

Guys please don't go personal otherwise this thread would be closed and the OPs question will remains unanswered and there also might be a few temp bans.


As for the debate why do both the sides need to prove that their machine is superior to the other.Since they both know they will never convince one another.There will be nothing like ohh yeah this guy was right and I am wrong on this thread and both of the sides know it.
Both the sides are well educated in the field of computers and while buying their machines all of you must have analyzed it perfectly and also would have compared a lot of other options etc etc.But I have a news flash for you guys "People have different opinions and not all think the same or want the same"
If someone like a MAC over a PC its because all the Pros of a MAC compared to a PC are in his liking and the samething goes other ways.Most of you are just listing the pros and cons of each machines.
 

Doctor Varney

New Member
Thank you, Mihir. Very well said.

Did anyone actually read the original post? It's "Buying advice for a Mac".

If I asked for advice on buying a typewriter, then I want to buy a typewriter. Telling me I should buy a computer with word processing software would not be advising me on the best typewriter to buy. It would be trying to persuade me to buy a computer instead of a typewiter. Many fair points would be made in the process, but I would still be no closer to knowing which typewriter I needed. Do you see what I'm saying here...?

So - does anyone have any advice for buying a 2nd hand Mac - for a seasoned PC user who requires some introduction to Macs? I am not in the market for the biggest powerMac - I just need to run Photoshop CS2 and a decent DAW package with VST instruments.

Instead, we seem to have attracted a lot of PC fans who have it in for the Mac. I do relate to their arguments because I have been there myself with this particular way of thinking.

Let's get something straight: When I am carrying out important tasks on the Mac platform, I will not be thinking about how much money I could have saved with a PC. Instead, I will be thinking about how much money I am making... I have already saved a ton of money by buying (building my own) PC, only to have lost it again, due to unproductive downtime through repeated operating system and hardware failures.

I've come to the conclusion, it's no good asking PC gaming enthusiasts whether it's worth buying a Mac. They don't think in the same way because of their particular requirements. If we want a great, reliable and comfortable car for the road, we do not need to know which rally car will shave 0.100056 seconds off the race by the way it takes corners at speed. We invariably end up with an aggressive info dump instead of a plain answer which is sensitive to the buyers tastes and requirements.

I know that a PC has to be maintained in order to function properly. Contrary to what has been suggested, I DO know enough about PCs to be able to sort out most of the problems... part of that has included me creating a dual boot system which quarantines my work environment from the Internet. The point is, that the problems arose in the first place, when really they needn't have.

I don't need to be an expert in computing to understand that a Mac is safer on the internet than a PC. I will stick my neck out and say it is probably a fact - because there are not as many viruses and malware exploits written for the Mac platform. We need to distinguish here between viruses that you must click a link in order to contract and those which find their way in without any interaction from the user. That may be where Macs are safer but the common sense of the Information Age is simply - don't click on anything you don't trust. So when people DO click on things they shouldn't - that is probably why people are saying Macs are not safer than PCs. But on the whole, for now, I am willing to believe it, until someone can show evidence to suggest otherwise.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone graciously for their input to this thread. I both admire your passion and value your information.

Dr. V
 
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lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
Do you want a desktop or a laptop? You could look into used Mac Minis or iMacs if you're looking for a desktop, or used MacBooks. The last 2-3 years is a good time period to search in.
 

Demilich

New Member
Bro, I'm an IT guy, I am both a PC and Mac user. Stop being dumb for once, between me and you we are discussing file systems, not Macs vs Pc. Grow up for a minute and google about file system hierarchy. Then you'll understand.

The fun thing to notice on CF is that people are so immature, sorry mods but that's a fact. Someone starts a thread about (Macs) just asking one very simple question and the cursed thing ends into a freaking argument.

Your statement proving this simple theory: Windows/PC>OSX/Mac = reasonable thinking>rebel "I'm always right" or something like that.
 
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Doctor Varney

New Member
Do you want a desktop or a laptop? You could look into used Mac Minis or iMacs if you're looking for a desktop, or used MacBooks. The last 2-3 years is a good time period to search in.

Thank you, Lucas. I want a desktop. It's not meant to be portable most of the time but there might well be times when it has to travel and be set up at an event. That wouldn't be such an issue as to warrant definitely having a laptop unit.

Mac Minis... iMacs and then there are the differences between G3, 4, 5 etc which I need to explore. Being a PC user for such a long time, I have never really looked at the Mac market before.

So it seems logical for me to take what I have now and compare those specs with the equivalent Macintosh models (either past or present) which are available to me.

Currently I am using:
Athlon 64 4000+ (single core - about to go dual core)
2.41 GHz
1 MB RAM (about to upgrade to 2MB).

So realistically, I think I'd be looking for the equivalent to the post-upgrade PC.

I'll still be keeping the PC for it's ability to use free software and various other features - but the Mac would (in theory) become the more serious workhorse and itself be connected to the Internet.

One thing that would be very useful for giving me a range of modern audio interfaces to choose from, would be a firewire port. If you could advise on how or if thats possible...?

Then it will be a case of discovering which DAW software available to the Mac platform suits me the best.

Thanks

Dr. V
 
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tlarkin

VIP Member
Thank you, Mihir. Very well said.

Did anyone actually read the original post? It's "Buying advice for a Mac".

Yeah my bad, I just hate it when people like to bash something with tons of misinformation.

So - does anyone have any advice for buying a 2nd hand Mac - for a seasoned PC user who requires some introduction to Macs? I am not in the market for the biggest powerMac - I just need to run Photoshop CS2 and a decent DAW package with VST instruments.

CS2 will be a problem for a new Mac. Older Macs were based off of Power PC technology (PPC) and were written in entirely different code for an entirely different hardware architecture. CS2 is written for PPC hardware. You will have to at least get CS3 to get universal binary versions, and even then you are most likely best off with CS4. This is entirely Adobe's fault, and Adobe is a horrible developer. I hate supporting their very crappily coded apps. I get that photoshop is super powerful and a must have tool for some, but supporting it, packaging it, deploying it and dealing with group policy and licensing, Adobe is the worst. As for DAW, Macs run a plethora of digital audio apps. Depending on what you want to do you could use Garage Band, MOTU, Pro Tools, Logic, Final Cut Studio, Reason, and so many other apps out there.

Instead, we seem to have attracted a lot of PC fans who have it in for the Mac. I do relate to their arguments because I have been there myself with this particular way of thinking.

I hate to say this, but a lot of times the most vocal people are also the most ignorant, or perhaps most misinformed.

Let's get something straight: When I am carrying out important tasks on the Mac platform, I will not be thinking about how much money I could have saved with a PC. Instead, I will be thinking about how much money I am making... I have already saved a ton of money by buying (building my own) PC, only to have lost it again, due to unproductive downtime through repeated operating system and hardware failures.

I concur, I switched over to Macs professionally about 5 years ago. I have been working with Macs and supporting them since 1999 by profession, but never actually ran my personal computer as a Mac. I found myself being 10x more productive. With Spaces, Stacks, and the multitasking memory management of OS X, I found myself doing a lot more work more efficiently.

I've come to the conclusion, it's no good asking PC gaming enthusiasts whether it's worth buying a Mac. They don't think in the same way because of their particular requirements. If we want a great, reliable and comfortable car for the road, we do not need to know which rally car will shave 0.100056 seconds off the race by the way it takes corners at speed. We invariably end up with an aggressive info dump instead of a plain answer which is sensitive to the buyers tastes and requirements.

Again, I hate to say this about gamers because I hate talking in stereotypes, but a lot of them are very misinformed. i often see them building rigs with 8 to 12 gigs of RAM. They don't realize that 99% of games are 32bit apps, which can never use or address more than 4gigs of RAM. Having 8gigs is a waste, unless they are going to do some serious multitasking outside of gaming. Even the fact that almost all games are 32bit and can only address a maximum of 4gigs of RAM, hardly any of them will actually take 4gigs. I got 8gigs in my PC (I run virtual machines) and the most I have ever seen a video game take up, is around 3gigs. Gamers also have the mindset of hardware hardware hardware. Hardware only becomes really apparent when you actually push it to the level needed. Performance is not always dictated alone by hardware. Your OS resource allocation and app performance hold a hand in performance just as much as hardware at times.


I know that a PC has to be maintained in order to function properly. Contrary to what has been suggested, I DO know enough about PCs to be able to sort out most of the problems... part of that has included me creating a dual boot system which quarantines my work environment from the Internet. The point is, that the problems arose in the first place, when really they needn't have.

Computing is just like anything else. If you take the time to actually read up on the subject and learn it, you can. It isn't hard, but it is just really boring to some people. Most people do not care to learn about memory management or perhaps the inner workings of a file system. I even admit, it gets quite boring and I have to know it for my job.

I don't need to be an expert in computing to understand that a Mac is safer on the internet than a PC. I will stick my neck out and say it is probably a fact - because there are not as many viruses and malware exploits written for the Mac platform. We need to distinguish here between viruses that you must click a link in order to contract and those which find their way in without any interaction from the user. That may be where Macs are safer but the common sense of the Information Age is simply - don't click on anything you don't trust. So when people DO click on things they shouldn't - that is probably why people are saying Macs are not safer than PCs. But on the whole, for now, I am willing to believe it, until someone can show evidence to suggest otherwise.

Lots of security experts would agree that since the Mac has a smaller market share it is less targeted. I have already laid out the many reasons why Unix based OSes are more stable and secure than Windows, so I won't repeat myself again.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone graciously for their input to this thread. I both admire your passion and value your information.

Dr. V

I will be expecting my free beer in the mail. :p:D


To answer your question - If you are going to be doing some heavy audio and video work, I would get an iMac or a Mac Pro, or if you want to go mobile a Macbook Pro. Some Hollywood videos have been post edited on Macbook Pros.

I think you have a thing for tlarkin. Also you assume too much.

Please tell me how a Mac is better than a $400 windows based PC for the average user. The same PC is even capable of running Ubuntu or w/e flavor of linux you wanted to as well.

The average user wants to run Ubuntu? I don't think so. You bring nothing to this conversation, you cannot even contribute. You are simply trolling.
 

lucasbytegenius

Well-Known Member
Thank you, Lucas. I want a desktop. It's not meant to be portable most of the time but there might well be times when it has to travel and be set up at an event. That wouldn't be such an issue as to warrant definitely having a laptop unit.

Mac Minis... iMacs and then there are the differences between G3, 4, 5 etc which I need to explore. Being a PC user for such a long time, I have never really looked at the Mac market before.

So it seems logical for me to take what I have now and compare those specs with the equivalent Macintosh models (either past or present) which are available to me.

Currently I am using:
Athlon 64 4000+ (single core - about to go dual core)
2.41 GHz
1 MB RAM (about to upgrade to 2MB).

So realistically, I think I'd be looking for the equivalent to the post-upgrade PC.

I'll still be keeping the PC for it's ability to use free software and various other features - but the Mac would (in theory) become the more serious workhorse and itself be connected to the Internet.

One thing that would be very useful for giving me a range of modern audio interfaces to choose from, would be a firewire port. If you could advise on how or if thats possible...?

Then it will be a case of discovering which DAW software available to the Mac platform suits me the best.

Thanks

Dr. V

Ok, well I wouldn't go with the PPC platform for a few reasons, one is that I had a hard time with a lot of newer software not being supported on that platform, and I think you would like to be able to continue to update your Mac past Leopard, as Leopard is the last version of OS X to support the PPC platform.

The G3 and G4 are old PowerPC processors, G3 came out in 1998 (?) and G4 was 2001-02 I think. G5 came out in 04 iirc. However as I said I think you would be better off with an Intel-based Mac than a PowerPC one.

And btw there is quite a lot of free software available for OS X as well, you're not restricted to Apple's Mac App Store.
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
10.6 doesn't support PPC either.

Yeah it does, but you gotta install Rosetta yourself. It is on the installer DVD as a separate install. You can either pull the PKG out of the installer disc and install it, or add it as an option when you install the OS, or when building an image to mass deploy.
 

Doctor Varney

New Member
tlarkin said:
Doctor Varney said:
Did anyone actually read the original post? It's "Buying advice for a Mac".
Yeah my bad, I just hate it when people like to bash something with tons of misinformation.

No bad. At least you argued using your own experience to back it up. Much of which I found informative. I believe the proof of the pudding is not in numbers, spec sheets and bench tests but in the eating.

I don't know what Rosetta is... or PPC!

Dr. V
 
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BlackDawg

New Member
I believe the proof of the pudding is not in numbers, spec sheets and bench tests but in the eating.


Dr. V

Exactly!
I agree with the others here as well, buy an Intel based mac, not because the Intel Arch is better than the PPc, but simply because its newer and will be compatible with so much more software, giving you a far better selection from which to chose your favorite apps for your tasks. Pick one with a core2duo or better processor and you should be good to go. Most all macs have the firewire connection so that shouldn't be a hard issue to work around. Which ever model you do choose, enjoy it and enjoy tasting "the other white meat"! lol :)
 

tlarkin

VIP Member
Exactly!
I agree with the others here as well, buy an Intel based mac, not because the Intel Arch is better than the PPc, but simply because its newer and will be compatible with so much more software, giving you a far better selection from which to chose your favorite apps for your tasks. Pick one with a core2duo or better processor and you should be good to go. Most all macs have the firewire connection so that shouldn't be a hard issue to work around. Which ever model you do choose, enjoy it and enjoy tasting "the other white meat"! lol :)

Actually Intel is far superior to PPC by today's standards. PPC architecture was advancing too slow and the x86 market was advancing way faster. So Apple made the decision to make the switch, and it was a good decision if you ask me.

After 10.7 comes out PPC will no longer be supported at all, so there is no reason to buy a PPC Mac.
 
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