Are macs over hyped?

Please, before you assume I am just a troll hear me out.

I am a computer science major in college and I am really having trouble understanding the appeal of the mac platform.

I have heard the "no viruses" part and can kind of understand that. I have heard "easy to use" which makes me feel stupid really, since my own personal experience with OSX has been well.. not simple..

Most of my personal experiences with the OSX platform come from my girlfriend who before she met me figured she would try out mac.

My girlfriend has very lax standards for her machine's and really tends to let issue's go easily..

I have found that the plastic on her macbook is separating which just looks bad.. Apparently it was doing this while it was in warranty and they wanted to charge her money to fix it.

The OS itself really is confusing and annoying to someone who hasn't been using it for quite some time. I mean, linux or windows is going to be just as "easy to use" if you take the same amount of time to figure them out.

I have found it is just as likely to "hang up" as any other os..

I would like a moment to say this. *I am not bashing the OS trying or am I trying to say that it is WORSE it is only my observation that there doesn't seem to be any advantage to it over any other OS I've used*

I mean.. over all her experience has been by definition lousy.. I have seen a few other people with Mac's and there seems to be a growing number of people who just sort of opt for them because, they are "new and shiney".

I am really not worried with the people who like it just because its "different"... I am just wondering what is it that draws people to mac?

Are these machine's over hyped?

Do you honestly feel that it serves your needs better than windows/linux?

And please, anything I said negative about the OS has been my personal experience, I am not trying to say that it is the same for everyone.

Maybe I really just shouldn't be so worried with trends however, I want to know what is drawing people to it.. Particularly the crowd who tends to really research and consider the products they buy in depth.

I really try to refrain from being bias, and I'm not here to be persuaded into loving OSX or mac. I do however, want to understand why people like it so much.

 

Never used a mac before but I do understand why most students bought a mac for their studies. Untill recently, macs were the only laptops which gave good battery life. If you have to take notes in class everyday, its easy to decide between a mac which gives 7-8 hours, or a normal laptop which gives 2-4 hours.

Ofcourse with the comming of sandy bridge, and before that with intels ULV cpu's that changed. Even more so with the comming of the netbook. So, the advantage that apple had compared to the other alternatives is already a thing of the past from a hardware perspective.

For gamers the brand was never an option though. I'll leave the other non hardware comments about the OS and such to people who actually used one. Hope this helps.

 

They don't get a lot of viruses, but they're just as vulnerable as Windows in all reality. There have been several pieces of malware to come out in the last few months, and my understanding is Apple has not been very effective at combating them.

That's only an advertising stab at Windows. Sometimes they're easier to use, other times they are not. It usually comes down to user preference. I've owned a MBA for almost a year now and I'm still learning new things. For me it seems that you have to know 10000 keyboard combinations / shortcuts to use it well. But that's me.

That's bad construction and bad service. Not Apple like. Unless she really does not take care of the laptop and causes the cracking from "abuse"...then they have all the right to charge for repairs. Might want to consider an aluminum MBP or MBA .

Again it mostly comes down to user preference and style. Some people tend to get along with Windows better than OS X, and the other way around.

Everyone's needs are different but the trackpad and screen are just about the best hardware you'll ever see. The trackpad is seriously miles ahead of anything HP or Dell or anyone else has...at least for me...but you'll find a lot of people like those particular perks.

The form factor for the MBA is kick-butt as well. 3lbs or so, 8+ hour battery life, more comfortable keyboard angle (and palm rest) relative to my previous laptops (MBP 13" and 15", Dell E4300, E6400, and others way back in the day). Again, my needs and not necessary anyone else's.

The Unix-like OS is also a plus for my needs as a computer engineer. A vast majority of the tools and whatnot that I need to do my job effectively come with the OS (and they're good tools) and I tend to often rely on linux manuals for those tools when I need them. Half the time on Windows I find that I just have to SSH into a machine anyway. Screw that! I never really realized why OS X was so popular amongst my undergraduate students until I got one myself.

Just wait. In a few pages this will turn into a flame war and we'll have to close the thread . People are just...unusually passionate...about OS X.

False. Many business class laptops, often at or near the price of other Apple machines, offered similar battery life. I've owned several.

Apple machines have shared the same hardware between their Windows brothers for quite some time now. It comes down to the simple observation that other manufacturers did not put as big of batteries in their computers *or* the hardware was dramatically more powerful (GPUs, for instance). One particular observation on my machine that might help...regardless of if I am running Windows or OS X my MBA tends to get similar battery life for the same usage patterns. It isn't perfect but it's certainly a close call (closer than it used to be when Apple had crappy drivers for Windows and who knows what other people experience on this front).

In the Windows world battery life is once again on the rise because that is what the consumer wants and they can finally get it at a price they're willing to pay.

 

Where OSX really shines and it's a good idea to use it, it's when you do music production or video editing and use firewire interfaces. The firewire drivers on OSX are much, much better than in Windows.

If you don't fall in the above category, you don't need a Mac. Most people who can afford one buy one just to look cool. And they aren't all that cool anyway.

 

There were several factors that drew me into buying my MBP. The first one was Mac OS X itself. I had been running Windows 7 since its October 2009 release on my netbook without any issues. I purchased a Dell Zino HD micro desktop and it came pre-installed with Windows 7. No issues for a while until I started running into registry issues (pretty much just like Windows XP), I had to keep clearing out the registry, and I was sick of the constant malware/tracking cookies/virus/trojan crap. That's not to say that OS X is super secure, it is just a minority OS and butt munches are going to release something that affects more people.

There have been some OS X issues like this as of late but, Apple has been fast to fix them (I am not sure which ones Greg was talking about that Apple has been slow with). MacDefender is a good example. It pretty much swept across dimwitted OS X users (they really hadn't seen anything like this before yet it is common practice in Windows) for about a week, then Apple has continually released OS X fixes for it. MacDefender gets updated, Apple issues a small OS X update another week later.

So OS X can be infected rather easily but the content isn't out there for it. I also like the program dock at the bottom of the OS. Windows 7 was finally adopting this approach but I feel that OS X has a better implementation (Apple has been using it for a lot longer). The second reason I went with a MBP was the trackpad. Even on my 13" MBP, the trackpad is larger than 99.999999% of other 15", 17", and 18"+ non-Apple notebooks out there. A friend of mine just purchased a 17" Dell XPS notebook with a premium trackpad. It is still about 1/2 the size of mine. The only company that has come close to Apple in terms of trackpad quality is HP but the size is still smaller and the experience isn't as smooth.

The third reason I went with my MBP is the battery life. Even when I purchased mine earlier this year, I would of had to go with either an even more expensive business class notebook or something with a non-Sandy Bridge ULV processor to get 7 hours of real world computing. I have no issues buying a business class notebook but the Sandy Bridge models I saw wanted $1700 and higher for a 14" model that was advertised for 10 hours of battery life (which means it would get about 7 hours of real world usage). I didn't want to go with a last generation ULV processor either.

Lastly, I still feel that Apple's design for the MBP continues to set the bar. Many companies, including HP, are implementing that type of design with their own products. My 13" MBP is thin, the unibody aluminum is sturdy, and the very minimalistic design is a nice change from most notebooks that spread their ports across all three sides and have 234897 different dedicated media buttons.

So those are the reasons I made the switch to a Mac. I was a solid Windows users ever since 1993 but, after completing extensive research, I decided that it was time to get a Mac. I still use Windows to this day and think that 7 is pretty damn awesome. There are some things I can do easier with Windows and there are other things that are easier to do under OS X. In all honesty, both OS's are just different means to do the same thing. Different strokes for different folks. The only thing is that there are some idiots out there who are quick to insult something they know nothing about and there is this whole kind of "cult" following with Apple that many people have been apart of since the 80's and early 90's.

Those types of people just take things too far and the fanboys need to realize that all three major platforms have their imperfections.

That is a broad common misconception. You don't need to be in the arts to use a Mac. There are plenty of people who use Macs for everyday use, engineering, medicine, etc. I have no doubt that there are people who buy products just to stay in the popular trends but I would like to see the data backing up the claim that most people who can actually afford to buy Macs just buy them to look cool (I would love explaining this one to my 70 year old grandparents who went with a Mac mini).

 

My experience with Windows vs Mac in around 15 sentences.

Windows
- 1995-2007
- got viruses while i already had firewalls and AVs.
- so had to re-install the system once every half a year while having my projects on separate drive
- photoshop and other software was performing "unexpected operations" into closing time to time loosing me hours of my work.

Mac:
- 2007-2011
- is not the same as windows. Transition may take a week.
- i miss some gaming so had to install bootcamp win7
- I am not saving my projects while working anymore because applications doesnt close by themselves. Ever.
- I didnt re-install mac os or loose any data or had system doing smth weird since 2007, only upgrading.

So far i am using both OSs and hate neither of them (win7 is really solid) but i feel more comfortable in Mac Os.
Even if it will save me from few software crashes a year that will save enough nerves and time to justify its price for me.

 

I've been using computers since I was 9 years old, which would be somewhere back in 1985-86 timeframe, and I was dinking around in DOS. I've used every single version of Windows since 3.1; all the 9x's and NT derivatives etc. I started with Linux in '97, by downloading individual floppy disk images for Slackware. I've used more distros of Linux than I can honestly recall...at least into the two-dozen range. At home, I've run versions of both Solaris (pre-open source) and Open Solaris. QNX Neutrino RTOS? Yep. Ran that for awhile too. Hell, I even ran BeOS for a few months as my sole OS. Finding weird, obscure operating systems and getting them working and functional is a somewhat hobby of mine. Or rather, used to be.

Out of everything, over the years, OS X is my favorite OS. It's not because my MBP is 'shiny' or because I'm some hipster sitting at Starbucks, or I'm a tech-illiterate idiot, or any of the other bullsh!t cliche jabs that get tossed around. I use it because OS X is a very good OS, and it works near-flawlessly with the hardware it was designed for.

 

I was a long time windows power user(I had vista on a potent gaming laptop and really did not mind it, 7 has come a long way from XP, I do think it should have been a service pack or 30$ upgrade) up until I got my Pro. ( I'm a dual CIS/Web Dev major)
Couple things.
Viruses: It is impossible to write a virus for mac os, They require self replication and that is physically impossible on a a mac, Malware can be done but generally the Mac OS is good with it, you would have to be a very poor user to fully get Mac Defender, also Apple patches fast and patched up the holes it used.
The macbook is the low budget machine, the pro has way better quality. Ploycarbinate plastic does tend to have the issue that was in the Macbook.
Windows is very confusing to someone using a mac for so long, as a mater of fact I would be willing to bet the reason you are so confused by the mac is simply because you used windows so long. (Windows has some really poor design sometimes, Mac OS does have some really clever ideas such as no popup boxes that force you to stay on a window or being able to preview things with out an idiotic preview pane.)

Linux and Mac OS share a lot, it's by nature of the *nix Architecture and by design. Windows is very poorly designed in basis and is a very old OS, It is not easy to use to many people (I had a CIS-110 Corse in college and there were a number older people in the class, They were lost, however one was in a class with iMacs and he was not that lost, Mac OS is very mediforical in design where windows is theoretical.)

So now you know my bias let me tell you why I got my pro.

1: Quality, the fit and finish on the Macbook Pro is the best of any notebook on the market, nothing comes close, trust me I tried the Envy 14, Dell XPS 15/14 etc, the trackpad is unbeatable, the keyboard is just as great.(the base barely sells and has basically been replaced by the air)

2:OS, Mac OS fits my needs very well, now, I know you are a Comp Sci Major and not to criticize but it is basically CIS minus programming, The mac Kicks butt for that and Web Dev, also Photoshop on the mac laughs at the windows copy. The mac is great for content creation, FCP, CS5.5 is better, etc. Also, OS Upgrades are $30 flat, not $100-$200 + hope for drivers or "just upgrade your computer".

3: Size/features, My 13 inch mac has a Disk drive and is less than an inch thick, it's portable and capable.

This is just my opinion, you are perfectly allotted to yours.

 

From a computer science perspective, you get POSIX compliance with Mac OS on a laptop with all hardware working out of the box, guaranteed to work with updates, all in a decently powerful, clean looking laptop package with long battery life.

Although some computer science university level programs and courses may use windows, most of the good ones use linux. You can complete all of those assignments from within Mac OS. Obviously, you could use linux as well, but you will be hard pressed to get support and you will spend a good chunk of your time solving issues with the OS (software breaking, problems with updates, problems with hardware drivers), unrelated to your assignments.

 

I have trouble understanding why some people like chicken and some like beef, and some don't like either one...

 

Just a little comment for Snow_Fox, since you are a computer science major, I think as you progress through your studies you will appreciate the OS as what it is: Unix really. And then you will be as proficient as you probably are with Windows. It's just the nature of the beast especially for CS majors. You'll just have to be fluent with any OS, and enjoy it too.

Give it another shot. It's definitely worth it.

 

Hi Snow Fox,

You realize that posting this on an Apple-centric forum, you are going to get biased results. With that said, I am a Computer Scientist (among other things) and used Mac, Solaris, Fedora, and Windows during my undergraduate discoveries. Computer science is pretty much a theoritical field, and you choice of operating system is purley cosmetic. Each OS has advantages and disadvantages, and will have its fans and its foes. One of the beauties of the Mac platform is that it currently the only legal way to be able to runn all x86 operating systems from the same box. If you purchased a Mac, you could run the Max OS natively, and then use a program like Parallels Workstation or VMWare Fusion to run the others in a VM. You could also use BootCamp to dual boot betwen Windows and OS X. This is a great feature that cannot be duplicated (legally) with a non-Apple product.

Personally, I chose the Mac OS for my undergraduate studies because of Apple's arrogance. When I was in college, Apple was still in the denial phase about malware and virii and released updates irregularly. This meant I could turn the Mac on, do my school work and turn it off. When I was using my Windows Vista based computer it would almost always need to do some update (either Windows or other third-party program), scan for virii, or something else that both impacted performance, and prevented me from just turnin it off when I was done. This was a timesaver. I just started my graduate degree, and once again decided to go with a Mac. Of course now it is OS X vs Windows 7 and Apple is a little less arrogant (when it comes to updates and malware). However, my Mac still updates less frequently than Windows (granted most Windows updates are not from MS, but third-party programs like Adobe) and I still don't feel the need to run anti-virus software on the Mac. So for me, it is great.

Is it worth the price? That depends on your own priorities. You can beyond a doubt get more computer per dollar if you did not get an Apple. There is definately a price premimum you pay for Apple, and it is up to you if it is worth it. I have a multi-PC household, and am actually typing this post on an Alienware. If I could only have 1 computer and games were not an issue, I would get a Mac. Don't let anyone kid you, games on the Mac are few and far between, and almost always are second-fiddle to the PC counterpart. Plus most Macs have rather anemic video performance and upgrading a Mac, forget about it.

You should head over to a local computer store and check them out for yourself. If you have a Micro-Center or Best Buy near you, you may be able to check out both class of computers in the same store. Apple also has an education discount (ranges from $50 to $200 depending on product) to help defray the cost

One final thing. If you are very familar or comfortable with Windows, Macs are not easy to use. The way things are structured and interfaced with on OS X is different than Windows. Simple things like installing or uninstalling a computer can be confusing for a switcher. It won't take long to figure things out, but there will be a learning curve. If you have no biases (unlikely in the 21st century), that may be different, but it took me about a month before I was comfortable getting around on the Mac.

Good luck!

Rich S.
Good luck!

 

I've used Mac Classic, OS X when it was first released, Linux and Windows. Do I think it's over hyped? Yes I do, but that's just my opinion. My OS of choice is Linux Mint, I prefer it's layout and UI.

 

I'm not an expert in computers, just an user. After many years using windows and many headaches..., the answer to this question is YES. And the reason is simple: working with mac makes me save time.

 

I'm in computing science as well... between Linux's crap driver support and Windows' lack of ability to talk to linux servers with out difficult... Apple looks pretty darn good...

don't get me wrong it is over hyped, but it's a solid platform and it's certainly more stable than XP or Vista in any case. and often windows 7 as the hardware it runs on tends to be overly cheap.

 

That's the user's responsibility.

 

I've owned two Lenovos the past 3 years and both were not built well at all. I had flexing in various parts of the laptops. The steel rollcage or whatever is a joke. I also had annoying CPU whining from both Lenovos. I went w/ Lenovo's T series b/c it was supposed to be their best. I'm guessing they have crapped on IBM's quality. I don't find OSX easier to use than 7, but the build quality is far superior. You can obviously get better specs, but you also get what you pay for. I use my laptop hours per day and would gladly pay a premium for quality. I used to be anti-Apple as well.

 

Mac OS X is not Unix. It is a derivative of a derivative of BSD, which is essentially Unix. It however POSIX compliant, which makes it Unix-like.

Incidentally, Linux is also Unix-like, in fact more so than Mac OS X.

Here's a full family tree of Unix and its illegitimate offspring...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Unix_history.svg

 

"No viruses" is quite simple BS. Every computer platform is vulnerable to viruses, the difference with OSX is that (much like linux) there simply aren't many malware writers who can be bothered to write viruses for a platform that has less than 15% total market penetration.

"Easy to use" is partially true. OSX was more or less designed to be a simple point and click experience, and most users will never need to see under the hood while using OSX.

Poor hardware quality affects all computers, lemons happen. Don't be fooled, mac hardware has as many problems as pc hardware - the key difference is that if a pc part fails it is often user-replaceable and cheaper, whereas if a mac part fails and you don't have applecare you are screwed out of hundreds of $ and more downtime than a pc.

"Confusing" is partially false/true: OSX is easy to use out of the box and if you never want to customize anything beyond your wallpaper you won't have any trouble. But if/when you want to become a power user, you'll find windows and linux easier to dive deeper into, and far less restrictive.

"Hangups": spinning beach ball of death. Even mac fanboys will admit to themselves that they've seen this more times than they'd care to admit. Hangups and kernel panics happen regardless of OS choice/platform.

The advantage, you ask? The simplest way I can put it, is that you only gain an advantage using OSX if you own any other iStuff (itunes iphone ipad ect). OSX plays seamlessly with other iStuff because it is Apple's "walled garden", win7 is decent at iStuff integration but it is nowhere near seamless, and linux can be a nightmare. Oh, another advantage is battery life; due to aforementioned walled garden, apple controls every aspect of the design of both hardware and software, so they can squeeze every ounce out of the non-removable battery in ways that Gates can only dream about.

They are overhyped and overpriced imo, but you've got to hand it to Steve... he's a marketing genius. They do look nice.

It does not serve any of my personal needs, because I don't own an iDevice. Windows handles gaming, mundane daily tasks like office/the adobe suite, video/audio editing and syncs with my android just fine, while linux handles the heavy lifting tasks that windows cannot handle.

 

Because white meat is better than red meat.

 

actually Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 (and soon to be 10.7 supposedly) are Unix... they are certified UNIX 03. So there is no way Linux is more like Unix than a certified Unix OS.
Register of Open Branded Products

 

I got a MBP during college because 1) it looks nice, 2) I like the keyboard, 3) Unix. I probably could have done just as well going with a Thinkpad and Linux but there were benefits in getting a commercially supported OS. Got tired of messing with Linux after freshman year.

 

Yap. Why don't you guys compare a Mac Pro with a premium Windows-based laptops like a Sony Vaio Z or HP Elite? Would you see the high quality there as well? Please Don't compare a $ 400 laptop and a $ 1500 one!

Anyway, I personally hate Macbook because of its keyboard layout which lacks of dedicated keys like Page Up/Page Down, Home, End,...

 

you have put your finger on the issue. that's why I sated they are overhyped for most people, I personally don't have a choose, I need a mac for my school. but I own an 'Elitebook as well, and it has many advantages.

also you need to remember most people have never heard of Elitebook nor do they see them in the store... but they see mac and 400$ PC's... Also a 1000$ consumer PC is not significantly better than a 400$ when it comes to quality...

fro the average consumer they see tons a cheap PC and Apple they don't see the business machines from dell and HP.

 

Apple hardware tends to be well engineered, well made, and tastefully designed. I'll stop short of saying more reliable. In some cases, you can get functionally equivalent machines for less from other manufacturers. But usually, Apple offers at least something unique and sometimes creates products that don't really have any competition. Those are the products that interest me the most.

My first Mac laptop was a 12" iBook G3, purchased just after the release of OS X. At the time, other ultraportables were expensive business oriented machines so the 12" iBook with XGA display and Combo drive for $1200 was a good value. It was also one of the first machines with integrated wifi and had better battery life than Wintel laptops of the time. My second and current Mac laptop is a MacBook Air 11. I looked at lots of ultraportables but there's really nothing on the market to compete with it. Prior to this, I hadn't seen anything decent in this size range since the VAIO TT. In the 11.6" size, everybody else seems to be offering dirt cheap, stripped down AMD Zacate machines.

I was also really impressed with the G4 Cube, but could never find a good reason to buy one. But I did later buy a Mac Mini to use as a music/media server, and ended up running Linux on it. So I guess you could say the hardware is what sells me.

I was one of the early adopters of OS X and it used to be my favourite OS. But now I have sort of a love/hate relationship with it. As a former hardcore UNIX geek, I love the Darwin kernel, BSD derived foundation, file & plist based settings management (compared to Windows Registry), and access to all the common UNIX CLI and X11 apps via Fink or MacPorts. And I appreciated the UI consistency that Apple enforced through their first few releases. But I always thought the Dock and window management were lacking, and Apple chose to address it by adding gimmicks instead of fixing the fundamental problems. I'm also disappointed in the way Apple has slowly eroded UI consistency from 10.3 on which has made the OS less intuitive now than when it debuted. Unless you're willing to limit yourself to the basic streamlined workflows Apple specifically designed for, learning OS X feels like learning a bunch of magic tricks. I still get by with OS X just fine, but it's not much of a selling point for me anymore.

 

I normally see you on the other side

At any rate, this is actually an issue my brother pointed out in concerns to mac vs pc when discussing it with one of his friends in a general non argumentative discussion.

People really get a bad image of windows based machines because, they use the crappy 300$ (or less) dells mass supplied to our school.

So naturally if you "upgrade" to a 1000$ mac system.. its going to be a difference of night and day..

I'm really honestly not trying to argue mac vs pc in this thread.

I am really more trying to understand the appeal of mac in general which I have trouble grasping.

I know several people have made various points that, at the end of the day they all have ups/downs and in many ways it is more of a "flavor" than a serious difference one way or the other.

I noticed some people discussing mac or XXX being a borderline requirment at their universities.. Personally I'm something of a fan of the way my university is set up with "Figure it out yourself, regardless of what hardware/software/whatever you need to do it."

I will say you touch on an interesting subject though Yuio because I have found that many people refuse to look at higher end pc's "Oh I can get an X cheaper!"

Actually it annoyed the crap out of me when a friend of mine said she didn't want to spend more than 300$ on a new laptop.. and using this forum, I actually found her just that.. a 300$ laptop.

She said she would "Consider it" then a month later popped out like 800$ for a mac..

 

I think you really explained something in a way I couldn't in one sentence.

I mean, I've seen a few people who can use OSX in a really, really productive/intuitive way..

However, outside of that.. I have felt personally that if I try to get serious in OSX, I find myself spending more time navigating the OS looking at the doc and trying to keep up with how the different things work than actually working on whatever..

Then again, there is a reason I have a 23" monitor and windows 7 I guess.. win7 (at least to me) has been a pleasure anytime I'm multitasking.

SO maybe its an apples to oranges comparison because, I'm looking at a laptop vs. desktop.

 

You should really think about becoming more efficient, then. Why not put a short cut to where you save your documents on the desktop? Or maybe drag a folder to the Finder side bar? If you're opening 3 and 4 folders to get to content over and over again, you're doing it wrong. That goes for any OS.

As for the dock, it's hard to believe anyone spends a lot of time trying to find an application on the dock. Remove applications you don't use. Add only applications you do. Eventually you'll naturally know where an app is on the dock.

Lastly, you get used to how things work differently. You must be a new user.

 

There's more than one way to skin a cat:

- the dock is flawed and an inefficient tool. you aren't required to use it. put it on the left or right side and set it to hide and forget that it was ever there. maximize your vertical screen real estate.

- launch applications with spotlight. avoid using the trackpad as a point and click device when possible, because it's generally slower than keyboard command entry. hitting ctrl-space + the first 2 or 3 letters of an app + enter is extremely fast

- don't put folders or links or anything else on the desktop. keep it empty for feng shui. it won't make you any faster.

- do use the trackpad for window management gestures, which are really good

 

I am also in computer science, and been using Ubuntu on my desktop PC at school/work and Windows 7 on my laptop (ThinkPad T400). I really like what MS has done with Win7. Even as far as antivirus goes, one can now run Windows Defender (provided for free) and fully solve the problem (unless you are actually looking for trouble). It's actually kinda amazing how low on resources that application is. Having said that, I also need to run Ubuntu in VMware to do work related stuff on my laptop and although it's a bit inconvenient, I am fine with it.

Why am I posting all this? Because whereas I am 100% happy with my current OS choices, I am seriously considering switching to a MBP. I am currently looking to buy a new laptop and money is not really an issue, and I cannot find anything out there which can hardware-wise challenge Apple. IMHO, only Lenovo can do this. But what choices do I have there? The W520/T520 are too bulky (the 15" MBP is already pushing my limits), the X220/X1 have 768 vertical pixels resolution, and the T420 has an absolutely terrible screen, similar to my current laptop (really, just try watching 5mins of a movie, and you'll understand how bad it is). Plus I've had a terrible experience with Lenovo's driver support. Believe it or not, T420 users were only able to install Win7 SP1 just 3 weeks ago due to Lenovo dragging their feet with driver updates (fyi, T-series is supposed to be their flagship line). A similar issue happened last year with a power manager driver problem.

To sum it up.. for me the switch, if it happens, will be due to hardware/driver support, because no PC manufacturer seems to be able to match Apple. Unavoidably that also means switching to Mac OS but I am pretty sure that after a few weeks, I'll be able to get the hang of it like with any other piece of software. If someone believes I am wrong in the way I see things, I would be glad to hear your opinion!

 

To OP, You could always run a Linux OS like Ubuntu.

Apple is unique because it owns and releases its own hardware and software. They also place a tight control on their products. Unlike MS or Linux, OS X can only be installed on Macs. This allows for greater control and less variation to deal with (ie manufacturers adding additional things to Windows).

I think that the top three computer manufacturers I would buy from are HP, Lenovo, and Apple. I like what they're doing with their top line of notebooks (Elite, T/X/W, and MBPs) in terms of providing support. Information is easily accessible from these three vendors.

Also, like many have said, the main reason that Apple laptops are attractive are because of design, battery life, and OS X. My main reason for switching to Apple would be battery life which is crucial in an age when PC manufacturers can't provide long battery life for their products.

 

semi true, lately there is little to no difference if you work withing the same price points. for 12-13" laptops the X220 is reighning champ I believe with 12-15 hrs usable time on the onboard 9 cell battery. in 2006 you could get 12 hours out of a rather expensive Panasonic toughbook with a 1000 nit screen and WWAN active. the computers existed .... just not in Best buy or most B and M stores.

the new dell and HP workstations get the same as the 15" and 17"

Apple still has Design and touchpad .. I tend to find what OS a moot point as long as it runs the apps I need

 

The media LABS at my school use Macs due to the "Final Cut Pro" software.

I will say that I truly detest OSX ...it's just not for me, but FCP is an incredible piece of software for editing videos.

As for music production, some prefer Ableton Live (OSX), others prefer FL Studio/Reason (Windows). Most of the electronic (D&B/House/Trance) music producers I know (which hold a huge fan base) use Windows based music production tools, including myself.

I do know some people who use Ableton (OSX) and most compose Hip-Hop (maybe it's easier for that particular genre? I never asked).

So there you have it:

Macs/OSX shine in the video editing and music production fields. For video editing, I prefer OSX (FCP), for music production, I prefer Windows (FL Studio).

 

not anymore, all the features we WANTED and NEEDED from Avid, Premier and others never appeared, and many NECESARY features from FCP 7 are now gone. Apple says the will now add them but so many of us are jumping ship as we already waited 2 full years for the improvements and we can not wait any longer. the 1.0 release of FCP X is quite honestly .... iMovie extended

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/final-cut-pro-x-whats-missing-for-some-pros

small read for you over the outrage, and if you read the comments these people are not your home users. Were talking comments from people from Pixar, Disney, Warner Brothers, Discovery channel, BBC etc on there.

 

Another thing that Apple only offers on their MBP15+ is a antiglare/matte screen. After using the matte display on my T410, I can't stand using glossy screens. I just wished the MBAs and MBP13 had an option for a matte screen. If they do, I know what my next laptop is going to be seeing that I can run any OS I want on a Mac.

 

what is wrong with the dock? On the bottom with auto hide, only the main programs you use stuck on it, and folders to Apps and Utilities and custom folders in pop up menus, it all works great.

 

Agreed. The Dock is very good and very useful in production and has a lot of functionality and I consider myself a power user. Been on Macs for 14 years and Snow Leopard's Dock is far superior to the Windows 7 taskbar. The Snap feature on W7 is nice but it doesn't outshine the Dock.

To understand why people buy Macs is to use one. Not try it out, but actually using it.

 

Okay I did not buy mine. It was given to me. There is nothing wrong with my MacBook. Everything works. It runs, boots and shutdown fast. Faster than a Windows or Linux laptop.

That being said my requirements in a notebook are simple (word processing, spreadsheet, web browsing and email). I am not hard to please when it comes to an OS. I am fine with Windows, Linux or Mac OSX. I am concerned more about size and weight of the notebook than its performance.

When it comes time to replacing my MacBook, I probably wont be buying another Mac. Not for lack of satisfaction. I just don't see myself spending this much for a notebook. I carry them around a lot. Risk of loss or damage due to dropping is high in my case. Basically, I go for cheaper machines.

Now if the Windows model I was looking at was priced equal or close to the Mac equivalent, I would buy the Mac.

 

Or use DragThing. I have (mostly) dispensed with the OS X Dock by using DragThing Docks. But application notifications are provided through the OS X Dock so I can't completely get rid of it.

 

There is a distinction between Unix-certified/Unix-like and actual Unix. Mac OS X, like Solaris, is designed to conform to Unix standards, but that doesn't make it Unix. Same thing goes for Linux too.

 

Check the source: What is UNIX ?

Linux is designed to model UNIX, but is not UNIX.


Rich S.

 

I can't help but think what isn't over hyped?

 

Niche products that don't need to be advertised because they have a loyal fan base that knows how good their products are....

Mr. Mysterious

 

Guys, it's pointless to argue about this.

"Actual" UNIX is dead. I think the last OS originating from the AT&T UNIX codebase was SCO OpenServer. UNIX is just a trademark now.

Mac OS X doesn't contain UNIX code and neither do the Linux distributions. They are both UNIX-like systems. The fact that Apple obtained the trademark while Linux vendors haven't says nothing about the UNIX-likeness of the operating system. It's more to do with the hassle of conformance testing every release, the cost of licensing, and the fact that Linux vendors have embraced the Linux Standard Base instead of the Single UNIX Specification because the LSB is based on binary compatibility. It should also be noted that server and ultimate editions of Windows contain the Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications which is supposedly fully POSIX compliant, so in theory it wouldn't be hard for MS to obtain the UNIX trademark either.

Instead of judging the UNIX-ness of operating systems by the conformity of their POSIX APIs and what royalties they paid to the The Open Group, it should be based on how closely they adhere to the design principles of UNIX (everything is a file, organisation by hierarchical trees, plain text configuration, processing by shell interpreters, pipes & filters execution model).

 

That is what I just wrote. Both Mac OS X and Linux are Unix-like in the sense that they comply to Unix standards, but they are not Unix operating systems. I'm not sure how my last post was unclear on this point.

 

Yeah, too bad T series laptops are not $400...

 

The word Unix doesn't mean based on the old at&t/novell unix code base. thats what it used to mean. Anyone now saying OSX is Unix is NOT saying its using that old codebase. The Open Group owns the Unix trademark and do certifications based off of it. Saying an OS today is Unix, is simply saying its certified Unix. Saying that Mac OS X is Unix is NOT a wrong statement in any way shape or form.... just as saying Solaris is Unix, or HP-UX, or AIX is Unix is also fine.

things change... want an example. Use the term Doctor in the 1500s vs what a Doctor is today... when someone says Doctor today, don't go back to and earlier recorded history of the word and assume it means the exact same thing, since there is a lot of difference in what was, and what is. A Doctor 500 years ago might have been similar, but they are far from the same thing as today.

 

ha, so true.

 

Don't feel so bad, some people people work much more productively in OSX, others do so much more productively in Windows.

It is two different "wirings" for how people interact with a computer.

Neither is better overall as much as "better for this person".

For example, while I can use either, and indeed work on either fixing them, I prefer Windows as I find OSX awkward. This doesn't stop me from helping OSX users, it just means I have a personal preference.

Your girlfriend might just be "wired" to interface with OSX better and you in Windows.

Technically speaking neither OS is overall better (for everyone) save for the fanbois on both sides.

-OSX is not immune to malware at all... OSX is a program like any other and thus can run malicious programs. It does have some security, but you see... security is always changing... and apple has started a bad habit in telling their customers they are "immune". Thus apple ignores threats until they cannot do so anymore. This is why I spend hours every week cleaning some mac user's machine up while they recite the mantra "apples are immune to viruses".

One example, the SAME "full control" hack works every time on any Apple fresh from the store up until 3 months ago. This allows any apple on any network to be taken over in SECONDS and used for whatever someone else on the network wants without even a peep to the user. No word on whether its been patched or not even now. Apple has known about this for THREE YEARS and still hadn't patched it as of march of 2011.

Note, this does not mean OSX is worthless at security either. It just means you are going to have to work harder while Apple gets out of denial. The suggestions are the same as PCs. Harden your firewalls, active antivirus, and eternal vigilance.

Just an FYI... most malware even on PCs (including *nix and windows) are not viruses anymore. The plan is to own your machine and make it a slave. Some try to extort, but most users don't even know they are infected and in the case of some users, never will.

As for hype... I think Apple would be just fine if they'd make a model which focuses on performance instead of being pretty and lowered their prices a little.

 

Then, according to you, what is a 'Unix operating system'?