SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

How many on here have??

I am really tempted on changing and going over to a Mac. I have a Dell 8300 Dimension and it is ok. But i am getting fed up with XP being so unstable and unreliable (sp?). Plus im a little unhappy with Dell per se.

Darren

Dracoro

What is unstable about your XP? Will be a lot cheaper to sort out XP with a few tweaks etc. than to spend loads on MacOSX.

I use both XP and MacOSX. Don't really have a preference, there's things I like about both and things I dislike about both. Either will be fine unless you have specific requirements. e.g. if you like games then forget the Mac.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

User error

XP is rock solid, 3month uptime is not unusual on my box.

Markus

It all depends on what you do with your machine. If it's mainly gaming, as Drac said, forget it, Mac's are good, but gaming has always been a sore point.

I work for a Mac software dev company and we use PC's as well, mainly for admin, the main reason being that we have an MS Access database for sales and other stuff, plus the Accounting system is PC based. the database we could switch over, the accounting, possibly, but it would be a pain in the ****.

We looked at going 100 percent mac and using Virtual PC for the PC specific stuff, but at that time, the speed of emulation just simply wasn't quick enough. The current crop of machines would probably run it at a decent enough rate, and with the intel based macs, well, it should be running a lot quicker. However, there are other issues such as sync of email between Mac and the virtual PC (you'd end up with duplicates, not good). So we knocked the idea on the head.

There is of course the initial outlay for a Mac, they aren't exactly cheap, plus coming into things now is "interesting". Intel based macs will be released next year, and the PPC based macs will phased out. So if you purchased a mac now, in theory it'd be obsolete in a year, however, macs last for ages. The box I'm typing this on is five years old and it's pretty good, our test machines are between 5 and 12 years old and they run pretty well too.

GaryK

I use both tbh. I had always fancied a mac so went out and bought a powerbook for home use as all I normally do there is word, email internet and I love the simplicity of OS X and the stability. I do miss not having a real x-platform development tool, the dev tools I use on the PC simply arent available or the tools are not mature enough for me to consider devoting time to them. I think XP is a very stable OS tho so am surprised to hear your problems. As Markus says running Virtual PC on a Mac is just downright painful so you really need to determine if you can run what you normally use on a PC on a new Mac.

Gary

Iain Young

My dev machine at work (XP Pro and .net) has been up and running for months at a time with no problems. Only time I've had to reboot in the last year is when applying certain windows updates. Other than that, it's been rock solid.

At home on my games / video editing machines, (also running XP Pro) I've never had a crash or give a hint of instability either. It's a great operating system

mike1210

How long have you had your machine, you sure it isnt spyware etc thats making it unstable. Could try a rebuild and see if that makes it run better
switching to macs seems a bit OTT

boxst

Hello

It depends what you want to do (as mentioned above). I used to work for Apple years and years ago, but always had a PC at home as I just couldn't get the software / utilities that I wanted on the Mac.

It has got better and if you just surf the web, do some word processing / spreadsheets and perhaps some web development, the Mac is really good with a clean, clear, intuitive interface. I still haven't got one though!

Steve

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

I do a lots of graphics and multimedia programs like photoshop, director, flash, premiere etc...

I hardly play games on my PC, i mainly use my PS2.

I like the Mac's, there different and so am I - i like to be different.

and i fancy a change from PC life and go down the mac road.

Iain Young

Bear in mind, you'll have to buy all your software (premiere, photoshop etc) again as well though. Could end up costing rather a lot of pennies...

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

Whos says that i have brought it for PC

AllanB

If you want any help drop me a line at allan.bayman@macwarehouse.co.uk as I'm the sales manager for MacWarehouse.

I may be able to help you further on this.



AllanB

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

I just wanted to see who on here as changed over to a mac from a PC. Why they did what infulences etc... that was all.

But thanks anyway.

Darren

angrynorth

I switched 2 years ago.

I don't see myself going back anytime soon. I've not struggled finding anything I can't do on a Mac.

Applications wise just search version tracker and you will find pretty much everything you would ever need.

At the end of the day its personal preference, but I really like the fact that I trust my OS to do what I want it to, when I want it to.

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

Thats intresting to know. Thanks mate, just the kind of reply i wanted to hear.
Darren

Iain Young

I certainly is personal preference. We've got some Macs at work, and I hate using the things. For me, I cannot see any reason to swap to a Mac. I trust my OS (XP Pro) to do exactly what I want it to, when I want it to as well. It's never let me down so far in several years of ownership

I suspect rather than the OS being the problem, it's more likely to be the PC itself. I've never bought a machine from a manufacturer (I've always built my own from components), so perhaps that's why I've always had such good reliability.

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

Building a PC for you might be the best solution, but for others it might not.

ScoobyDoo555

I use Mac for professional music production and audio editing. Been using em now since OS8
I also have a PC (for the day-to-day stuff) & games, but audio doesn't go anywhere near it, as with all due respect to Microsoft/PC hardware peeps, it still isn't sorted. It just isn't reliable. Personally, I use them (pushing them, I might add) for weeks at a time - Macs just don't trip up (well, apart from thge original OSX - that WAS sh1te!!)
With paying for studio time (up to £1000 per day), I can't afford for the computer to cr@p out - hence the Mac.

However, the PC is still brilliant for the more general packages, for example, Office. Microshaft still have to release Publisher for Mac (unless I can't find it!!)

Both are good, for different things

Dan

KiwiGTI

Office for Mac is actually newer and better version than the current PC one. As for MS Publisher there are much better packages out there for the Mac - after all it is the standard machine in the DTP/Design industry.

I love my Mac mini, so much that I don't even turn my PC on anymore (and broke my addiction to WoW - 180 hours in 4 weeks.)

I work all day with MS products, am a beta tester with them for Vista and Longhorn (my life is continuous bugs and crashes) so for me it's really nice to see the fresh, beautifully designed OS X when I get home.

For the people that say their XP machines have such great uptime, I suspect you must be running some kind of utilities to get that level. XP is inherently design to be rebooted frequently (memory leaks are usual because of poor application design) , it doesn't run processes in the same way that OS X does to keep the system performing well.

kelvin

Prior to my recent Memory issues (see my other thread in this forum from a few days ago), i've had no problems whatsoever with XP - I don't run anything special and mine too runs 24/7 for extended periods. Typically i'll go for at least a month or two between reboots (and then it's only usually due to applying updates

I certainly find the aesthetics of Mac's appealing, but I can't say that my experience of them so far has endeared me to OSX. Give me a PC anyday

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

You are right in what you say....

Daryl

I would recommend a Mac to anyone, had them for 5 years now and love OSX.

Iain Young

Same here Kelvin.

No fancy utilities or anything on my machines. Just the basic os with all the latest updates. My dev machine at work is up 24/7 12 months a year and only gets rebooted when an update requires it. Considering that I use it to do both .net and java development work every day, that seems pretty good to me. The work machine isn't made by me either. It's a Dell

I did consider switching to a mac at home a while ago (just to give it a try), but you just can't get the software for it that I use on the PC, and to switch the software I have that is available on both over to the Mac was going to cost me well over £2k. Just not worth it, exspecially when I have such stable systems on the pc architecture.

I'm guessing that people who have all these problems with XP either don't know how to configure it properly, have dodgy hardware, or have been installing dodgy software which has made the system unstable...

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

thats quite possible.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Sorry but what aload of cack. I'm not running any kind of util to keep the uptime running. I'm not sure what u mean by that anyway, as such a util doesnt exist! Unless ure talkin about a RAM defragger or such like.

I use my box daily for all kinds of things, including gaming. So its not due to me just leaving it idle. All my mates online who know how to use a PC properly,
also never have issues with decent uptime. We dont even use hibernation to cheat I guess its knowing which applications work and which dont/are buggy, and also a good understanding of making sure the hardware is compliant with XP.

Btw Vista is Longhorn, (well a version of Longhorn) so what do u mean u beta test for Vista AND Longhorn?

Also Longhorn is pretty much like OSX asthetically as u should well know if u are beta testing Longhorn. So how come u like OSX so much more?

Daryl

Only difference being that OSX Tiger is up and running on thousands of Macs, whereas MS can't get Longhorn to work properly

SC008Y_MAD

iTrader: (5)

Nuff said...i think

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Well it is in beta isnt it, bound to be a few problems yet, although I've been running it with no issues, apart from the amount of Ram it uses.

ScoobyDoo555

How much RAM has yoru beta been eating up then?



Hasn't Longhorn been in development longer than Tiger (or maybe even Panther - Tiger's predecessor)?

Not stirring - genuinely interested (as I use both, but prefer Mac)

Dan

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Uses 400-500mb straight after bootup, with nothin else loaded.