Trout

iTrader: (1)

Anyone here run a PC and Mac?

I am not a techy but like the new Macs and may well get one

365

If you're not a techy buy a Mac but go for the new Intel ones. Apple are light years ahead of Microsoft when it comes to software and OS aimed at home users and with the new Intel Macs they can dual boot (use the Mac OS or Windows OS) so you have a no lose situation because IF you hate OSX (which I doubt you will) you can just install Windows and use it as a Windows machine.

The new MacBook can be had for £700 including shipping and VAT etc.. if you buy through the education store at www.apple.com/uk/thestore look for the education link on the right in the 'More Stores" section

Markus

Yup, I run both here, as do a fair few others.

The Mac line up is essentially all Intel based now, apart from the Pro desktop machines, which will appear later this year.

Using Apple's boot camp software (Currently in Public Betat, it will be included in the next major version of Mac OS X - 10.5 aka Leopard, probably released late fourth quarter 2006 to early first quarter 2007) you can dual boot the machines, so Mac OS X and Windows XP can co-exist on the same machine. You can also use something like Parallels Desktop for Mac to provide a virtual machine for XP whilst running Mac OS X, very handy indeed, and for some, much more useful than dual booting.

Any questions, just ask, I or the rest of the mac geeks will pop up and answer them as best we can

ScoobyDoo555

TBH, unless you've got a reason to go for both then it makes it a bit harder to justify.

I've a Mac and PC user (writing this on my PowerBook + I've got a Mac in the studio) PC is downstairs.

But they are an expensive (albeit better/more potent) alternative.

Kinda depends what you want to use it for

Dan

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the answers guys.

I use a friends Mac and I simply like it. Looks good, great interface. Just a nice maching to use. And the smaller ones are very portable and a competitive with similar sized windows machines.

jowl

Currently using my G4 iBook to post around the house - lighter, quick to boot and battery last four several hours - and wireless signal is much better than PC laptop.

Have a Mac mini G4 and will will buying an Intel Mac mini as a media centre. Should be getting new MacBook next month too

The more you use Mac, the more you think "yes, this is how it should be"

Although My main desktop is still my Shuttle PC.

If the Mac book is as fast and reliable as it should be, I may just use that as my main computer

Simon C

Yup, I run both. The mac G4 Powerbook, mirrors the PC. The Mac gets used as a mobile data storage and for processing pics when I'm away from the pc as well as a post gig preview for certain bands that I photograph.

Both sit on the same network when I'm at home with no problems, and I just drag folders off the mac to the pc and vice versa.

Mossman

David,
Ring me mate Can tell you all about coming over to the dark side
Been runnning on Macs for nearly 5 years now and have never looked back - it will be superb for capturing all the growing up of you know who!
Cheers,
Jon

AllanB

Yep use Mac and PCs at work and only Macs at home as a result.

Great bits of kit and some good advice to be had on Scoobynet.

If you need help just shout as I work for MacWarehouse

AllanB

jowl

Any deals coming up on the Macbook?

I know you can't discount much on the actual hardware....but any offers that throw in other hardware etc ?

KiwiGTI

I have to agree, I make my living from the PC side of things - ie MS products, and have been for 10 years, but apart from becoming an expert in their stuff and playing games I never achieved anything. This was even with the regular trips to Thailand bringing back Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, Dreamweaver and every other piece of expensive software I could find.

Bought a Mac Mini last year and now have 10,000+ photos stored, websites for my 16 month old son and rest of the family, all my MiniDV tapes burnt and edited onto DVD and my entire CD collection burnt to iTunes.

All this on the included software, using the Mac just made it so easy and nice to do. If I'd stuck with a PC I probably wouldn't have bothered and I would have not shared a lot of important personal and family memories.

Mossman

Kiwi! Sounds good! The movie editing is wonderful eh?! Do you use .Mac at all? If you do, let me know! reachjm at mac.com

Cheers!
Mossman

PS David - any decisions yet?!

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Hi Jon - still thinking about it.

I bought a Viao a year ago when I set up the business and the laptop/PC world has changed massively over the past year.

My usage is mixed and changing: -

Movie editing and creation of DVDs - attempted and failed on an XP machine with Sony software

Microsoft Office - a must for my client work

MP3s - Creative rather than iPod!! Bizarre I know - that would probably change if I had a Mac.

Web browsing - lurking in Snet and searching the world via StumbleUpon/Firefox

Music composition - a little bit of composition and mixing

All the MS outlook stuff including managing my Sony P910i

Photographs by the gazillion using Sony Memory Stick


So my current desires are a big Media Centre PC as a server - so much processing power available nowadays. Not quite sold on the new iMac - you can get an XP machine with a lot more power for less money with a gorgeous glossy black 19in screen (£300+ cheaper).

A Macbook as a portable device - much more portable than my luggable 17in Viao.

Any thoughts would be welcome - I could easily source both of the above for significantly less than £2000 all in - any other options up to that limit would be considered.

Rannoch

jowl

I would say from your list, the mac is EXCELLENT (and a lot more user friendly) at most of your needs.

The only slight snags are...

MS Office - currently only runs under PowerPC code - meaning it is emulated. It does work but will be slower than native PC and a Universal Mac binary. MS are working on a Universal binary though.

Outlook. There is Mac equivilent I believe but I don't use them (yet!) so couldn't comment on how good they are / how they relate to Outlook.


I'm planning on a Mac Mini as a media centre 'PC' - the form factor and quietness is great - but the storage capacity is not. However, I have a Bufallo Linkstation that will provide storage in the short-middle term. That will be upgraded to a Full computer in later years.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

These snags are quite significant as when I am on the 'road' these are two key uses. So a MacBook running an Intel chip would need to emulate PowerPC to emulate Windows to run Office - does not sound great!

However since posting I found this benchmark...

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mact...2004Benchmark/

Looks I will be buying a MacBook!!

The tough decision now - Black or White?

Rannoch

jowl

Yes, it's not an ideal situation with Office. However, it DOES work - or you could boot Windows and use Office for now - assuming you have a Windows SP2 CD and a Windows office CD.

ah, just read the link.....looks good!!


Although I'm a self confessed geek, I don't usually describe hardware as gorgeous.....but I think the Black Macbook is gorgeous. However, I'm obvisouly more Yorkshireman than geek as I can't justify the extra expense for so little increase in specs - just for a black one.

mattbeef

Office works fine, do any of you guys actually use office on an intel mac?

All our at work are fine so i just dont get why people are cautious about it.
Enterage is the equivilant to Outlooks and to me works the same but i use Mail instead as i sync my calendar with my ipod so use iCal

RichB

I've an old Powerbook G3 in gorgeous 'ltd edition' black if anyone wants to make me an offer.... The hinges dont hold the creen up and F7 is missing but the rest of it's ok!

AllanB

Guys I am testing the Intel machines tomorrow. We have had customer feedback that the Apple intel machines running Bootcamp are much faster than thier PCs so hopefully we'll see for ourselves tomorrow when we start our tests for ourselves.

If you want to buy anything drop me a mail at allan.bayman@macwarehouse.co.uk and I'll see what I can do


AllanB