Submitted by “Macs ‘just work’ so often, and so well, that I’d rather just use my computer than spend all my time maintaining it. There are already scores of religious fanboy zealots who are going to tell you how great the Mac is, and why you should switch. I’m not going to. I’ll let them convince you. But beware. Just because the Mac is an excellent computer, that doesn’t mean it’s panacea. Here are some things you’re going to want to pay attention to as you switch.”
The guy read my mind. Every single one of his points is absolutely on the dot!
Some things to add:
– Go back to the black keyboards. White keyboards get absolutely *disgusting* looking after awhile, even if you keep your hands clean. All keyboards are disgusting — dark colored keys at least keep them from looking disgusting.
– For god’s sake texture the mouse! There is a reason no other mice have a completely smooth surface — it gets dirty! Oils and dirt from your fingers build up and create a residue on the surface. With a textured mouse, you can’t feel it. With a smooth mouse, you’re stuck cleaning it everyday to keep from feeling dirty.
– Make the PowerMac case more ergonomic. Aside from noise, the G5 cases are a big step back from the G4 ones. They collect dust much more easily, and since they are made of giant slabs of aluminum, are an absolute pain to move around.
– Oh, FTFF!
Edited 2006-05-13 19:07
The guy read my mind. Every single one of his points is absolutely on the dot!
Exactly, I found it a very good read. I do disagree on the keyboard issue though. I personally really like the Mac keyboard.
The keyboard is probably a matter of preference. I grew up using one of those battle-tank IBM keyboards, so I have a preference for deep key travel and stiff switches. Of course, a lot of people like the feel of mushier keyboards, so I can understand why Apple made it that way.
What I can’t understand is why they made it so easy to get dirty and so hard to clean. The current Apple keyboards, for those that don’t know, are basically a clear open tray with keys in it. It’s very easy for dirt to get under the keys, and quite possible for hair or crumbs to get under the keyboard, between the clear plastic shell and the white mounting plate for the keys. There is no way, outside of dissassembling the keyboard, to get that stuff out.
The thing I like about their keys (although I’m mostly in the same boat as I’m on a unicomp now) is that they’re rounded down. I’ve never understood why someone would want the edges to stick out like that, I hit those edges all the time (thankfully, the unicomp’s edges are almost non-existant).
Unfortunately, due to restraints in laptops, we’ll probably all have to get used to small travel keyboards. Hopefully they can make them still have a nice extra bit of cushion at the bottom though.
I have to agree that I don’t understand how they test their input devices. Maybe Steve Jobs has fingers strong as a gorilla?
I’m using the white wireless keyboard and while it’s wonderful to be wireless, the overall feel is mediocre and it wears down very quickly. I can’t type particularly quickly with this keyboard and I often hit keys in the wrong sequence.
I’ve owned three of their white keyboards and this one is about six months older than the other two I own. The two newer ones are worse: Keys will not sink in, because too little grease has been applied to allow smooth key action. The Enter key can’t be pressed without hitting it at the center and you have to use abnormal amounts of muscle to press down shift. Space will not respond unless you hit it at the center.
The keys generally don’t allow when you hit them at the edge, something that is not acceptable for long term typing. Someone with a white Apple keyboard, try nudging the left or right Ctrl-keys down by it’s edge and see if it can be pressed down easily. You can only do that if you hit them exactly right.
Overall the keyboards I’ve tried are among the worst I’ve tried. I have a 12$ keyboard with much better keys than this. This must be a production error, since I’ve not found anyone with the same problems.
The question is now, if you want an Apple keyboard with Apple keys, where to go? The white ones are the only ones offered by Apple, and I love the wireless. If you hook up a PC keyboard, the Alt and Windows (Cmd) key positions (not their meaning, this can be altered in OSX preferences) are swapped, which can be confusing if you use Apple keyboards elsewhere.
Covers work too. I’ve got a white keyboard with a cover on it and it looks fine, the keys still feel great (I hate the feeling of polished smooth used keys).
Of course, for covers to be applicable keyboard makers have to make their keys correctly and to a spec.
– Go back to the black keyboards. White keyboards get absolutely *disgusting* looking after awhile, even if you keep your hands clean. All keyboards are disgusting — dark colored keys at least keep them from looking disgusting.
This is one and only point on which I very strongly disagree. White keyboards DON’T look disgusting, as long as you do, in fact, maintain hygene and clean your keyboard from time to time (once every 3 to 4 months).
There is a reason that hospital workers (be it doctors or nurses) wear white or light clothers: so that dirt can be easily seen. White is implicitly and explicitly a sign of cleanliness.
(Side but tangential note: I often feel disgusted when I have to work at the keyboards of some of my colleagues at work. But interestingly enough, all the ladies have clean keyboards. The men who have dirty keyboards are those that smoke. I don’t know what is the connection – why would someone who smokes wash his hands less?)
They don’t wash their hands less – but tobacco smoke stains their fingers (as well as beards of those who have one). Furthermore, there are people who smoke at their terminal – and their keyboards are particularly disgusting from all the ashes flying around (it is like volcanic ash deposits on Iceland – given enough time, they would turn into fertile soil). One of the worst cases was of a smoking LADY who worked in my corridor 🙂
As I said, I’m mildly OCD, so I wash my hands very often and wipe down my keyboard about once a week. It still gets dirty. Hygiene isn’t the only (or even primary) source of dirt on your hands. For example, I live in Georgia, and am a pedestrian, which means that if I go out to lunch, my hands sweat and I come back with a fine layer of salt deposits on my fingers. I also touch all the public railings and door handles, etc that are a fact of life in the city. Unless you wash your hands right before, this stuff will end up on your keyboard.
Look, I obviously have no idea about yoursituation, and I will not even pretend I do, OK? So what I’m saying is strictly relevant to my own experience, and what I’m saying is that all of the keyboards I personally use, are clean and white, and yet I clean them only about once a year (much less often than I think it shold).
The reason why your experience is different, could be a million things. For example, you said you live in Georgia , and the climate there is much warmer than in Finland, so your hands may sweat more often than mine. So yes, I do get it that one measure doesn’t fit all :o) I can’t help being dusgusted by dirty keyboards, though. The idea of dead, putrified epidermal cells laying there is just too much for me.
What, You don’t think putting “handles” that are thin strips of sheet metal (aka knifes) on a case that weighs nearly 50 lbs is a good thing? Crazy.
I love the extreme pain it causes just moving it a little way. I love having to have a guy with a cart come out from the apple store to take it in when ever it breaks because it’s to painful to carry it with it’s handles. How can you question apples design?
Seriously, it was one of the most boneheaded things apple ever did.
is to remmber to use the best tool for the job. If you game, stick with the PC and Windows. It is what it is folks. There are some good games for the Mac, but not all. As well not all games are for consoles either. The majority of games are for PC, where they are generally developed and then maybe ported to console. Comparatively there are very few games for Mac, though there are more for Mac then Linux. For graphics design and general office work, the MAC is the best tool IMO. For day to day use and reliability, stick with the PC. I use Linux, OSX, and Windows, just depends on what I need to be doing at the time.
Man, it is so true, you can not plays the way can on a windows machine, I run FreeBSD, Windows, and Mac OSX (my main machine), and I tell people all of the time, Macs are not for gaming…
I just Microsoft would work a little harder on the bugs…
//The majority of games are for PC, where they are generally developed and then maybe ported to console//
I’d say “not anymore” to that. Used to be games came out on PC first, consoles second.
Now, there are many, many, many more games available on console than PC.
Some don’t even come out for the PC period. (and vice versa, of course … but I’d wager there’s tons more console than PC game titles).
“Some don’t even come out for the PC period. (and vice versa, of course … but I’d wager there’s tons more console than PC game titles).”
Yes and no to this one. I stick with PC Games as the ones I like to play come out on that platform. The only FPS to come out on console first was Halo as far as I know, but I could be wrong. When they start getting the Doom 3’s, Quake 4’s, etc for console first, then I will switch my gaming platform. Until that time, the PC is my only alternative. Especially for when Duke Nukem Whenever comes out “When it’s done”
There are many more games for console, if you happen to be a teenager and don’t mind cheesy cartoonish games.
Part of getting a mac should be getting used to it. The author just tells the user to get rid of all their Mac software and just get Open Source equivilents which are near enough the same on Windows (Firefox, Thunderbird). I would rather recommend that you actually try things out more and get used to Apple Mail and Safari.
Personally, I like using Mail.app because I can run it without any toolbar and it’s so much simpler than Thunderbird.
His main recommendations are to ditch Safari and iChat for Adium and Camino (neither of which have equivalents on Windows). Both Adium and Camino are far better Mac apps than their i* counterparts. They actually look like Aqua apps, and are quite HIG compliant. The fact that they have better features and are more robust is icing on the cake.
Safari + Saft is much more robust than Camino. Does Camino have “Undo Close Tab”, or “Restore Browser Windows After Crash”? Even with CamiTools, its out of the question. Don’t like Brushed Metal? You can switch Safari between brushed metal and aqua with Saft. How about spell checking? bah. The only minor niggle I have with Safari is that flash videos have choppy playback when not focused, and PAUSE when another tab is selected in the same window as the movie. The NERVE. Although it makes sense.
A much worse case is Firefox, it seems to try to balance being cross platform with looking like the Mac, and ends up in some sort of “Uncanny Valley”. I mean it doesn’t feel like an X11 app, and it doesn’t feel like a native Aqua app, its somewhere in between thats very out of place. It doesn’t even have native controls. Ew.
iChat and Adium serve very different purposes. One lets you chat with AIM, with good file transfers and video chat, while Adium natively connects to multiple protocols. I use Adium most of the time, and iChat when i need its advanced AIM features.
I don’t see the gripe with the mighty mouse, now that I’ve become used to it I find myself trying to squeeze the mice at work.
One thing I highly recommend is xGestures. Mouse gestures in any application are wonderful.
Edited 2006-05-13 22:18
Macs sure ain’t panacea, but almost all the tips the author gives are wrong or matter or personal preference.
A quick refutation:
1) “Buy a new keyboard”, he says, because Apple keyboards have light action. So what? A lot of people prefer lighter action. He also reccomends old-IBM style keyboards that make clunky sounds when pressed. WTF?
(He also mentions the fact that HIS ONE (1) Apple keyboard stopped working after two days as if a faulty excibit means anything about millions of working apple keyboards out there).
2) “Ditch safari quickly”, cause it is slow. Huh? Safari is faster than Firefox that he suggests. He mentions seeing the spinning beach ball a lot. I don’t. Only with tabs in the 20s is there a problem.
3) “Ditch ichat”. Because you’ll want to others to more chat networks. Well, if you do, you’ll ditch it. Pretty common sense.
4) “Don’t expect to be able to compile anything yourself”. We’ll, without the right libraries, you won’t. As in every system. Doh! The problem he mentions is silly, and should have been corrected in the upstream code.
5) “Install Xcode and X11”, he is wrong that Apple doesn’t offer x11 for download. The tip is pointless. If you need them install, if not not. Doh!
6) “Your computer has amnesia.”. Dunno, never happened to me, with multiple networks and dhcp servers. Easily corrected though.
7) “If you’re a graphic designer, wait”. Pretty sensible stuff. However, that PS runs “slow as hell” is incorrect. It runs as well as on an old G4 system, about twice as slow as in a G5. Good for everyday use, not good for graphic designers.
8) “Get a wireless card” if you have a mac laptop. WTF? Reception is great, and his facts about wireless antenna placement on macbooks is wrong.
9) “Apple’s schizoid UI”, regarding metal and aqua themes. Matter of preference. The UI elements are the same in both themes, so it’s not like a KDE and a Gnome app. It also makes the deskop less boring.
10) “You will not play games.” Almost true. You can get many games for Mac, you just don’t get all the games Windows has, or as fast. Hardcore gamers will not be happy. People that care only for the occasional game can have a look at what’s available, buy it, and play away. You can also install Windows via BootCamp and play away.
11) “The other Mac users.” are usually helpful and brilliant. If the author chooses to dwell on the Mac equivalent of Slashdot, then he get’s what he deserves.
I may or may not agree with your refutations, but you are totally missing the point of the article! The point was NOT to list arguments that will be valid for EVERYONE or even the majority of people. The point was to WARN about POTENTIAL problems, things that might present a bad surprise for SOME. In that sense, the article was pertinent and a worthy read for potential switchers, as SOME may find there a thing or two that would be of relevance to them.
– Go back to the black keyboards. White keyboards get absolutely *disgusting* looking after awhile, even if you keep your hands clean. All keyboards are disgusting — dark colored keys at least keep them from looking disgusting.
– For god’s sake texture the mouse! There is a reason no other mice have a completely smooth surface — it gets dirty! Oils and dirt from your fingers build up and create a residue on the surface. With a textured mouse, you can’t feel it. With a smooth mouse, you’re stuck cleaning it everyday to keep from feeling dirty.
Dude, ever occured to you to CLEAN your keyboard and mouse?
If it picks up dirt, CLEAN IT. Hiding the dirt because you use a black keyboard is not healthy, is idiotic.
I clean the things constantly, because I’m OCD and keep a can of pressurized air on my desk anyway. However, they get very dirty very quickly. I clean my mouse once every day or two, and my keyboard once a week. It’s still too dirty for my taste in the intervening period.
The simple fact is that human beings are disgusting. He shed hair, skin, excrete oil which mixes with the hair and skin, etc. We are covered by a layer of our own filth (and I’m not just talking about programmers). However, its a matter of good design to not remind us of that fact constantly. It’s not unhealthy to only clean your keyboard once a week, but it is nice to not actively notice that dirt during that time. It’s kind of like the PSP or the black iPods. A lot of people rag on the PSP because it shows smudges (read: a layer of oil and dead skin cells left by your fingers) very easily. They think a matte finish would’ve allowed the system to look much nicer after regular use.
Edited 2006-05-13 19:23
Finding a color similar to the bulk of the filth you find on your input devices would probably obfuscate dirt more readily than black. Or at least that’s my experience, and all of my input devices are black or some mixture of black and dark gray.
… the last update that came out (strangely labeled as a security update) substantially improved Flash under Safari. Flash runs much faster now and the page FoodTV.com, he mentions has a fully usable search box right here, doesn’t block Safari at all. It’s still not as fast as it should be, but it’s usable.
I swing back and forth between Camino and Safari. Safari feels sometimes much faster at laying out pages, while Camino doesn’t pause as often. Safari is not a bad browser, but somethings fundamentally wrong in the engine should be fixed, like the 5-10 second pauses that it does sometimes. It could be a threading issue. Dashboard exhibits similar behaviour. I’ve noticed that CPU usage shoots to 100% during these pauses. They both eat a lot of virtual memory.
I’d keep both around, for those things that one can do and the other can’t.
Well I’m looking forward to the next real update of Safari. A huge amount of progress seems to have been made on Webit (what powers Safari) since the release of Tiger. It’s just a shame that you really won’t see most of it till 10.5.
Haven’t we had enough “My opinions about Macs are the absolute truth” articles already?
You should read this one. It’s pretty pragmatic and realistic.
What he doesn’t mention is: get used to buying your hardware from one and only one supplier, with a rather limited range. Also, get used to a limited range of software.
Nothing to do with how it feels, really, except for the second. But!
What he doesn’t mention is: get used to buying your hardware from one and only one supplier
You can buy your monitors, keyboards, mice, speakers, microphones, RAM, external optical drives, hard drives, and AV links from any hardware vendor you want. Quit acting like it’s still 1992.
Also, get used to a limited range of software.
Get used to fewer choices of much higer quality, easier to use software than what you’re used to with Windows. Or if you miss your Windows software, use Boot Camp. Dude, it’s 2006, join us.
“You can buy your monitors, keyboards, mice, speakers, microphones, RAM, external optical drives, hard drives, and AV links from any hardware vendor you want. Quit acting like it’s still 1992.”
The aftermarket is not the point, and you know that perfectly well. In many ways it is still 1992. The model has not changed. You are in the market for a new computer with OSX, and, as you know, you can only buy it from one supplier with a very limited range.
You don’t believe it? I would like my OSX machine with an AMD X2 and a Seagate 300G drive. Half a dozen manufacturers, more, will accomodate me in this or any other similarly reasonable requirement, as long as I do not want OSX with it. Take a look at what’s available from a small UK supplier like Evesham in either Intel or AMD. And that’s just one. I’m not interested in small form factors, I’d like something nice and quiet like the Asus or the Dell mini-towers, for under £500. Tough. We don’t do those form factors. You want small, live with a mini and laptop drives.
This is very restricted choice, and if you commit to Apple, you have to get used to it.
I also don’t think the choice is of less but higher quality. I think its just less. Why are we all running MS Office on our Macs? Is that part of the less but higher quality stuff? Or is it because OO 2.0 is not available.
I think people should buy whatever the hell they want…
You like OSX?
Then buy a Mac and cry about the price..
You like XP?
Buy a Dell or Alienware or whatever…..
You have the choice now make it people…
I have made mine….O-S-X!
You are in the market for a new computer with OSX, and, as you know, you can only buy it from one supplier with a very limited range.
Yes, you have to buy OS X from the company that makes OS X. And there seems to be a system in Apple’s lineup for pretty much everyone from the “I just use email and Yahoo” grandmother to the “I edit high definition video” movie director. Only someobody who builds their own systems from scratch, such as yourself, is going to care about what brand of hard drive or ethernet card is inside it. You’re a small minority of the buying public, and you’ll probably never buy a Mac no matter what Apple offers. Everybody else either just cares about the specs (is it 7200rpm?) or doesn’t even think about it at all.
You don’t believe it? I would like my OSX machine with an AMD X2 and a Seagate 300G drive.
I would like my XBox with an AMD X2 and a Seagate 300G drive. I would like my Honda Civic with a Ford engine.
You want small, live with a mini and laptop drives.
If you’re talking specifically about a mini, you can buy a really kickass external firewire drive, use disk utility to set it to boot in “Target Disk Mode”, and boom, that’s your system drive. The mini is all about external expansion/modification, it’s the birth of the “component computer”, where the mini is just the smart, tiny central component in the system you build up around it.
But since you said you don’t want small form factor and would prefer a tower, Apple makes these aluminum towers called PowerMacs, and you can put any hard drive you want in them.
This is very restricted choice, and if you commit to Apple, you have to get used to it.
Only people who are used to choosing each and every internal component of their computers themselves have to “get used to it”, and they probably never will. There are many people who don’t come to the computer store with that preconceived idea of the way things “should” be.
But what I really don’t get is how people who want a machine that runs XBox OS and XBox-specific software are perfectly willing to buy an XBox (from one manufacturer with a limited number of models!) to get it, but aren’t willing to pick up a mini to run OS X, because that would be “giving in” to Apple. Huh?
If you thought of a Mac mini as a console, would it help you get over it? Because really what it is is just a central component that you build your computer around, externally.
I was over at my buddy’s house the other day and I looked at his setup. He’s got a Mac mini as a central component, attached to a third-party keyboard, samsung flat panel monitor, logitech mouse, pyro A/V link, a VCR, a pen tablet, a USB hub, an Ethernet hub, a wireless gateway, a USB web cam, a USB microphone, and two external hard drives. The only thing he had to get from Apple was the mini itself, the central component, the rest of his system he built around it, externally, with his choice of components from his choice of manufacturers. That’s what the mini is, that’s what it’s about. It’s a new way of thinking about what a computer’s role is. Instead of trying to cram everything inside the box, it’s about building your system outside of the box.
But I doubt you get that.
Edited 2006-05-14 10:42
“……Instead of trying to cram everything inside the box, it’s about building your system outside of the box.
But I doubt you get that. ”
Some of us do…
No, its not about building your own machines. I have, occasionally, but this is not the issue. Nor is the mini a different model of a computer, any more than the AOpen version is, or the Shuttle, or the Lex Lite before that. They are just different form factors.
This is just about being forced, once you’ve picked OSX, to buy your computer from Apple. Pick Windows, and you can buy your computer where you want. Pick any of the Linuxes/Unixes and you can buy your computer where you want.
Pick OSX and it must be Apple. Now, people argue that Apple has all the choice they want. Maybe it does. It is however a real and inescapable fact that if you buy Mac, this is one of the big things you have to get used to.
Why bother denying it? Its obviously true. And no, it is not like wanting a Honda with a Ford engine. Because the car market is not like the computer market, and OSs are not like engines.
The Macs are just Intel machines like any others. They are no different in terms of functioning components. The only difference is locking the OS to them. Oh, and the cases.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of computer suppliers. I can find one who supplies off the shelf just about any combination of hardware I want, as long as I do not want to run OSX on it. I have no problem at all finding a manufacturer who will deliver complete systems with X2 processors. Its just that Apple won’t, and won’t let me buy them elsewhere.
And if I want a mini tower system, of the sort sold in quantity by Dell and lots of other suppliers, Apple’s response is, you don’t really want it. Sorry, I do really want it. I know what I want. I want more choice than your model gives me.
you are way over thinking this situation! if you want an X2…. go get one! simple!
if you want to Run OSX…. get a macintosh! simple! you are make this WAY to complicated!
most people i know… eventually have more than one computer!
see… you can have you cake and eat it too!
simple!
What he doesn’t mention is: get used to buying your hardware from one and only one supplier, with a rather limited range. Also, get used to a limited range of software.
Nothing to do with how it feels, really, except for the second. But!
More accurate: get used to being able to run OS X/Linux/BSD/Windows on one machine and thus being able to run more software. Mactels are a dream come true for developers.
of course NOT build inside the alu case. Is he thinking Apples engineers are totally stupid? The antennas are placed in a plastic/rubber covered space in the back (MacBook) or on the display frame (Powerbook G4).
All the other points he mentioned are just personal flavors. I agree only to less of them. And while I am writing this I have opened about 100 tabs in Safari – on a dual 1GHz G4 PowerMac with no beachball at all. That guy should check his system.
I think we’ve had about enough with half-baked personal opinions of people who know better. Why not start your own computer company then? Seriously. I very often see people switching from Windows to Macs and all they do mostly is try to go the same route as in Windows, instead of using the great powers of MacOSX’s interface. For example, these crazy full-screen windows they don’t need. Or learning keyboard shortcuts, or using drag-and-drop for once. The author of the blog sounds as if he’d be equally happy with a PC and any OS that exists there, so be it. I this is hardly newsworthy and is actually quite irritating. “You’ll have to adjust to the idea that you’re joining a userbase of raving zealots” – what the f–k??
Mail.app’s IMAP implementation is FAR from ‘pokey’. It’s quite good in fact which has been proven by many client machines I maintain. Maybe it’s because the IMAP server is on an Xserve? Ha ha.
Edited 2006-05-13 20:59
To be honest I was surprised by how reasonable most of this article is, after some of the articles posted recently I was expecting a thinly disguised troll. As great as Mac OS X is, it’s still far from perfect, and he highlights some irritating flaws that should be corrected. People should be aware of the issues with Macs when they consider purchasing one, an informed decision means less likelihood of disappointment.
The only thing I’d strongly disagree with is the complaint about other Mac users. Of course there are some fanatics who spend half their lives insulting Windows users on Mac Advocacy groups, but people like that aren’t unique to the Mac community.
Far from praising everything Steve Jobs does and denying that Apple hardware and software has flaws, it’s often Mac fans who identify those problems, and they can be very critical of the decisions made by the Apple leadership. It’s generally when trolls make “Macs suck!” type posts that people get on the defensive and maybe come across a little fanatical in their defense of Apple.
In my experience the Mac community is one of the most helpful and friendly in the computer world. I’ve found that Mac users tend to be a lot gentler with newbies than certain other communities. Even silly questions that have been answered many times before tend not to just get an “RTFM” response. I suppose that’s partly because it’d be a bit inconsistent after telling people how easy to use and intuitive Mac OS is…
I think the macs are cool and i really like the os since it has a little of BSD in it and the way it looks. but everytime i think about buying one. i always came to a halt when i start thinking about the price. after they swithed to using intel cpus. i see it as a overprice pc, or maybe it’s me since i’m a notorious tightwad
The price isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. My mom recently got a 20″ iMac Core Duo for $1700. It’s pricey, but look at what you can get from Dell at that price. The cheap models are all single-core. They all come with low-end graphics (X300). They come with 19″ LCDs if they come with an LCD at all. Once you get to the models with dual-core processors, mid-range graphics cards, and 20″ LCDs, you’re paying $1500-$1700, and that’s without the form-factor advantages of the iMac (space saving, quiet).
I agree with you completely that some of the Mac models (the PowerBooks, the PowerMacs) were quite overpriced, but the Intel iMac and Mac Mini are very reasonable compared to the competition. The Macbook Pro is expensive, but not so much compared to its high-end competitors (thinkpad T60’s). I’m overall very impressed that Apple hasn’t resorted to their typical product differentiation tricks (eg: single-core in the iMac) and thus have a pretty good value across their lineup this time.
You have the choice when you create the filesystem to choose if you would like it to be case sensitive or not, that is new since 10.4.x, but as you are writing this article today when 10.4.6 is out, this is just an correction to your statement about HFS+.
: : Get a new keyboard. : :
Wrong
Correct:
If you dont like the Apple keyboard, get a different one. I personally like the Apple keyboard, and i have tried many. Get the keyboard that fits your type of work. The old IBM’s where great for those with long fingernails
: : Get an old mouse. : :
Wrong
Correct:
If you dont like the Apple mouse, get a different one. I personally like the Apple mighty mouse, and i have tried many. Personally I hate wirelsess mouses because they at not precise enough for my type of work. Get the mouse that fits your work.
: : Ditch Safari. Quickly. : :
A too stupid argument to comment
: : Ditch iChat, too. : :
Wrong
Correct:
Use the chat & instant file transfer tools that fits your needs. I personally like the simplicity of iChat, – great for making telephone conversations with my family, and more.
: : And Apple Mail? : :
Ha ha ha – a really too over-stupid argument for even the most clueless. There must be something horribly rotten in your state of affairs. Yes, I have used Thunderbird too, for two years
: : Get a wireless card : :
Wrong.
The airport card is far better than many other wireless cards, and there is noting wrong with the antenna. This is a plain foolish.
: : You will not play games. : :
Wrong:
Correct:
The mac will play the games that are made for it. Simple. Write and optimise the game for Mac OS X and it will play it ! A simple as that. My 95 oktan engine does not run well on diesel, either.
: : Imporant: : :
Don’t buy a Mac if what you are really looking for is a copy of your old “i am used too” box. Don’t work against your own interests, and be open minded ! Let go. Planes have crashed because of pilots stubbornness dealing with new technology and new ways of doing things.
Edited 2006-05-13 22:45
I like this guys comment, not bashing Apple or Microsoft…sounds open minded…
You must have a Mac… ^_^
: : If you’re a graphic designer, wait. : :
Don’t worry. This is the most conservative industry in the whole of computing. They are still running on OS9, many of them.
That is wrong, i am working in the graphical market and there is nobody, at least not in sweden, that works in os9 anymore. All companies have an 0S9 machine in case older documents comes in, but all new work is done using OSX.
What can be said about OSX in graphical market, a majority are stil running 10.3.9 and only people buying new macs run 10.4.x, that is because they have an environment that works for them and they don´t need to upgrade to 10.4.x yet.
In my opinion the Anti-Mac-Zealots are even worse than Mac fans. I don’t know the history of this too well, but most people these days who prefer Macs, sound just reasonable.
Thom could also put some effort into making the headlines sound more neutral. It’s not sunday evening yet.
Linux just works!!!
And the interesting thing is it works well on multiple architectures. With a simple tweak, one can make it look like an OSX. And there is a fine balance between the availability of software and games in Linux.
this is not a platform war site… so knock it off.
I like the fact that the value does not depreciate so quickly when it comes to Apple Hardware….
see for you self….
http://www.the-ish.com/g4value/
I think Macs are a good investment in very well made hardware….
$400 for a Dell?
this is maybe a little off topic but in the next week i am going to be getting either a low end mac book pro, or a powerbook and i am a little skepticle about getting the mac book pro but at the same time i like the speed and the graphics card that comes with it.
My one of my main concerns is the adobe suite of applicatins running dog slow, but i will be using this computer for everything, not just graphic work, any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
one more thing, I am not a big fan of the OSX gui (it looks pretty, but i don’t like its behavior), however i am a fan of it’s underpinnings and i think i will get used to the interface eventually (i’ve played with them a bit and while i caught on really fast, i am kind of used to the linux way of doing things.