Should I go from a PC to Mac?

S

Smudge

New Member
Hello:

I have always gone the PC route. This is what I use my PC for 95% of the time: MS Word, Internet, photos, and to sync my Palm 755p smartphone (which is soon to be replaced by a blackberry). I am tired of the virus issues, crashes, freeze ups, ect, ect that I have experienced over the several years using PC's. Several friends say that I can eliminate most of these issues by switching to a Macbook. Any thoughts on this? Based on my needs will a Mac fit me well? I use hardly any software programs other than the ones I mentioned above. Thanks
 
I've just made the transition, been a PC ever since learning about computers form the age of 7.

Wanting to try something new, and just to be different really. Macbooks are amazingly stylish as well.
 
Oh man, I don't even know if I want to comment on this thread.....


oh crap I can't resist

yes get a mac you will love it
 
There's a massive war between Mac and PC, and to be honest i think PC's have vastly outnumbered us on this forum.

It's all down to personal choice, and i chose Macintosh.
 
speedyink said:
Lmao, I know what you mean.

Are Blackberries or Palms compatible with the Mac? That's all I'm worried about.
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I have a blackberry for work and I can sync it with iSync but had to hack it up a bit, blue tooth transfers work fine and I also synced my Nokia phone before I got an iPhone.

Google your model with iSync to see if it will sync. There is also a few bluetooth apps which are third party that do such things, like blue phone elite is another one. I have used that with my macbook pro and my cell phones in the past.
 
gamerman4 said:
If you can't manage to keep viruses off of a PC, just use a Mac.
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You know what I just did this week on my PC. I wiped and reloaded Vista, I had contracted some malware from a place I did not know. I would say my PC knowledge is way above average and I don't download any pirated software or anything else really other than some media content (which is legit) and some video games I buy off of steam.

I also know how to avoid getting such things, probably better than most people on this forum. I am not sure what the malware was called or what it did, but my bandwidth usage went through the roof even when idle, and when I would play games my ping would be around 500ms + which means most likely I was uploading something to the interwebs. It was most likely some sort of trojan.

I downloaded and tried like 8 different anti virus and anti spyware software and they all came up clean.

Wiped and reloaded Vista, problem gone. So even people who know a lot about computers contract malware/spyware/viruses that aren't in any prevention software's definitions. You know that if the software isn't aware of it specifically it won't catch it, that is how it works.

That statement is moot. Now, this is like the first virus or malware I have gotten in probably 5 years maybe longer because I do practice very safe computing.
 
you obviously dont know how to avoid things better than some people on this forum, ive been using vista for ages and had no virus/malware issues.

You may want to try ubuntu. As your not in need of any real specialist software you dont need either PC or a mac, so dont waste your money on them.

Try ubuntu for free and see if you like it before you buy a mac.
 
tlarkin said:
You know what I just did this week on my PC. I wiped and reloaded Vista, I had contracted some malware from a place I did not know. I would say my PC knowledge is way above average and I don't download any pirated software or anything else really other than some media content (which is legit) and some video games I buy off of steam.

I also know how to avoid getting such things, probably better than most people on this forum. I am not sure what the malware was called or what it did, but my bandwidth usage went through the roof even when idle, and when I would play games my ping would be around 500ms + which means most likely I was uploading something to the interwebs. It was most likely some sort of trojan.

I downloaded and tried like 8 different anti virus and anti spyware software and they all came up clean.

Wiped and reloaded Vista, problem gone. So even people who know a lot about computers contract malware/spyware/viruses that aren't in any prevention software's definitions. You know that if the software isn't aware of it specifically it won't catch it, that is how it works.

That statement is moot. Now, this is like the first virus or malware I have gotten in probably 5 years maybe longer because I do practice very safe computing.
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My grandmother has a laptop with Windows XP SP3 on it and the default Windows firewall active. It has no AV or extra firewall yet she can manage to use her computer without any virus problems.
Ditto for my mom, my aunt, my brother, my cousin, and two friends, all who have computers built by me. All the computers have no AV software other than a couple of them who I know would go to some bad websites and would probably download stupid stuff, all of them use firefox as well.
I consider XP being quite un-safe after seeing how the security in Vista and 7 work yet it does just fine. Of course, their systems are fully patched which helps but I have taught them all about email scams and that if they don't recognize a site to just leave it. I have yet to see a website that will just throw a virus onto my computer without firefox ever telling me that something is trying to download. Advanced computer users are more vulnerable to viruses because they think that knowing alot about computers will help them and it gives them a false sense of security, I am a victim of it too but I know the basic precautions following an infection, the most important one being to never restart the computer if it is infected until it has been cleaned.

I do have a friend with an iBook G4, nice little machine yet I have had him call me just as many times about something wrong with it as any of the other people that use me as their personal tech support that have PCs. Now its not a lot, none of the call me all that often, if at all, but it has its own little problems like everything else.
 
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Smudge said:
Hello:

I have always gone the PC route. This is what I use my PC for 95% of the time: MS Word, Internet, photos, and to sync my Palm 755p smartphone (which is soon to be replaced by a blackberry). I am tired of the virus issues, crashes, freeze ups, ect, ect that I have experienced over the several years using PC's. Several friends say that I can eliminate most of these issues by switching to a Macbook. Any thoughts on this? Based on my needs will a Mac fit me well? I use hardly any software programs other than the ones I mentioned above. Thanks
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if you have plenty of money and you like shiny things, than yea get a mac :D (couldn't resist)

in all honesty though it's really a matter of preference, i would never be able to use a mac as my primary PC, for gaming, customization, and other reasons. i also find mac's in my personal opinion extremely overpriced. some people prefer mac osx, some prefer windows, some linux.

if you are using just word, internet, photos, etc. you really shouldn't have any problem's with a PC, this assuming you are an experienced user. but if you choose to buy a mac, yes it will be an upgrade (assuming you are using an older PC), you will be getting the mac osx, you will be getting a high quality, well built computer, but it's not going to be cheap. is it worth it? we'll that's just up to you ;) just keep in mind you can get some really nice laptops for half the price of a macbook.
 
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Bodaggit23 said:
That's odd. Maybe a random port scanner.

Or a rogue Windows user from this forum. :eek:

Lol JK, JK :D
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Whatever it was, it ran in stealth because my network monitor showed zero packets being sent, then again I think it attacked it because it showed zero packets being sent/received when I was transferring data over the network. I also sit behind NAT with no ports forwarded to it, except for one random one for a torrent client. Other than that, no remote hosts can connect to my machine.

My grandmother has a laptop with Windows XP SP3 on it and the default Windows firewall active. It has no AV or extra firewall yet she can manage to use her computer without any virus problems.
Ditto for my mom, my aunt, my brother, my cousin, and two friends, all who have computers built by me. All the computers have no AV software other than a couple of them who I know would go to some bad websites and would probably download stupid stuff, all of them use firefox as well.
I consider XP being quite un-safe after seeing how the security in Vista and 7 work yet it does just fine. Of course, their systems are fully patched which helps but I have taught them all about email scams and that if they don't recognize a site to just leave it. I have yet to see a website that will just throw a virus onto my computer without firefox ever telling me that something is trying to download. Advanced computer users are more vulnerable to viruses because they think that knowing alot about computers will help them and it gives them a false sense of security, I am a victim of it too but I know the basic precautions following an infection, the most important one being to never restart the computer if it is infected until it has been cleaned.

I do have a friend with an iBook G4, nice little machine yet I have had him call me just as many times about something wrong with it as any of the other people that use me as their personal tech support that have PCs. Now its not a lot, none of the call me all that often, if at all, but it has its own little problems like everything else.
Click to expand...

I really don't think you can parallel this to your grand ma or mother using a computer. This is something that is new that attacked my machine by me going either to a site that was infected or somehow transferring it myself with out knowing. Like self propagating viruses that attach them self to thumb drives and me working IT for a living my thumb drives get whored out to a lot of different machines, machines I don't use at all. other people's machines.

So considering I have no remote desktop ports open, and even ssh access is not forwarded to any computer except my Mac on my network, I would rather think I know what I am doing.

What I contracted there is no defense against, that is what I am saying. If it copied itself in stealth mode and my AV software has no definition for it then there is nothing I can do.

I am fairly sure where I got it from too, and if I am right it is from a legit website that was spoofed or hacked, or perhaps it was some sort of super buggy software that they wrote that just acted like a virus. The last thing I downloaded was a codec for WMP from a legit site that offered web based training on computer technology. I was downloading a training video that had DRM (since you gotta pay for it) from an online training company, which many people use, and it was WMP only because they were using windows DRM to protect the file. I had to download a DRM license, which was questionable. They distribute them through torrents though, which means it could have came from god's knows who's machine on the internets. It comes in an encrypted disk image and the other training videos I have downloaded have been good quality.

I have contacted the site and their support team is looking into it. It may have just been crappy written software.

However, the fact remains you can set up your home network from the router on with firewalls, NAT, using non standard ports and such and still get infected with Windows. Now if it were any other OS and it wanted to install itself, it would prompt me for my admin credentials and when that happens I immediately investigate what that package does.
 
tlarkin said:
Whatever it was, it ran in stealth because my network monitor showed zero packets being sent, then again I think it attacked it because it showed zero packets being sent/received when I was transferring data over the network. I also sit behind NAT with no ports forwarded to it, except for one random one for a torrent client. Other than that, no remote hosts can connect to my machine.



I really don't think you can parallel this to your grand ma or mother using a computer. This is something that is new that attacked my machine by me going either to a site that was infected or somehow transferring it myself with out knowing. Like self propagating viruses that attach them self to thumb drives and me working IT for a living my thumb drives get whored out to a lot of different machines, machines I don't use at all. other people's machines.

So considering I have no remote desktop ports open, and even ssh access is not forwarded to any computer except my Mac on my network, I would rather think I know what I am doing.

What I contracted there is no defense against, that is what I am saying. If it copied itself in stealth mode and my AV software has no definition for it then there is nothing I can do.

I am fairly sure where I got it from too, and if I am right it is from a legit website that was spoofed or hacked, or perhaps it was some sort of super buggy software that they wrote that just acted like a virus. The last thing I downloaded was a codec for WMP from a legit site that offered web based training on computer technology. I was downloading a training video that had DRM (since you gotta pay for it) from an online training company, which many people use, and it was WMP only because they were using windows DRM to protect the file. I had to download a DRM license, which was questionable. They distribute them through torrents though, which means it could have came from god's knows who's machine on the internets. It comes in an encrypted disk image and the other training videos I have downloaded have been good quality.

I have contacted the site and their support team is looking into it. It may have just been crappy written software.

However, the fact remains you can set up your home network from the router on with firewalls, NAT, using non standard ports and such and still get infected with Windows. Now if it were any other OS and it wanted to install itself, it would prompt me for my admin credentials and when that happens I immediately investigate what that package does.
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i think your problem is between the desk and the chair.
 
It's a matter of luck I guess. I've never had a single virus on one of my computers. When I say this, I mean computers I got my own, not the pre-owning stage of my computing...my family's old win 98 machine got a virus almost bi-monthly :P

My first computer I got I installed Windows XP (original, no SP) on it and contracted a virus from somewhere I shouldn't have been... Then again I wasn't using any virus protection, cause I only had 96mb of ram at the time in that thing :P

Other than that, zero viruses. I've used Avast since the beginning and have downloaded god knows how many GB's over the years.

My parents have also yet to get a virus since XP was installed. But that doesn't say much..their internet habits don't consist of much.
 
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dubesinhower said:
i think your problem is between the desk and the chair.
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*Please keep it clean*

How many times have people had to wipe and reload Windows due to a virus or crappy software? Yes there are also exploits out there that MS has not patched yet and AV does nothing for.
 
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I think macs are awesome, but they are also mystified in the sense that they don't freeze and are super stable etc. ( Right now I am reinstalling leopard on a mac that constantly freezes up) PCs are not as bad as they tell you on the mac commercials, you just need to know a little more to keep them running smoothly.

If I were you, I would buy a good laptop pc for less than $800 and install Ubuntu in it which is awesome.. I don't use it because I use Flash and other programs that sadly don't run on ubuntu. Vista and Windows 7 are good options too.

But If you have a little more money to spend mac is definitely a good option.
 
If you're constantly having problems with a PC then you're likely to encounter similar problems with a Mac. While it's less likely that you'll contract malware, Macs can still get bogged down like any other computer when not properly maintained.

I would say that the only valid reasons to get a Mac would be preference of the Mac OS user interface over Windows, their top notch customer service, or because you think that they are stylish. If you think that Macs are somehow magically invincible and better with media applications then you'll likely be disappointed.

Personally, I prefer PCs because they run about 1/2 to 1/3 the price for an equal amount of power, and I've learned to maintain them so that I don't have the problems that you described. I also like the greater variety of programs available to PCs, and the fact that they're much easier to work on hardware-wise.
 
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