Should my next computer be a Mac or a PC?

It sounds like your mac was the exception, with the logic board problems. Furthermore, with something like AppleCare, if you had those problems during the course of the 3 years it covers, you’d be able to that repaired or replaced.

As for issues with sharing files with PC users, you don’t specify which programs files you tried to share. Most any major program’s files are intercompatible – Office, Adobe, etc. If you were using iWork, for example, you could save those files as Office format to share with your associates.

Regading TurboLister, have you looked for a comparable program for the Mac? And as regards your DVD burning problems, what was the issue? What kind of information were you trying to burn onto DVD?

4 years is the average lifespan for a lot of users, simply in the sense that they opt to get a newer machine at that point. I have a 5 year old PowerBook G4 that a family member still uses, and works just fine. I’ve seen people who still use their “Luxo” iMac, and someone who even still uses the Bondi Blue “original” iMac. If you think you’ll get a PC machine that’ll still run your programs in 4 years, all the best on that.

Stability-wise, you can’t do much better. And, if you’ve been using Time Machine, when you start up your new Mac, you’ll be able to pull that machine image onto your new machine.

A four year old Windows PC should be able to handle most modern applications. I don’t see a new Windows PC being unable to run apps in four years.

For example, I have a 4 year old HTPC running WinXP on a dual-core Opteron 185 with 2GB of PC3200 RAM and an 8600GT (which isn’t 4 years old – it’s 2½). Win7 64 runs fine on it, as does MS Office, all browsers, etc… The only applications it struggles with are recent games.

Clock speeds haven’t increased significantly in the four years since I bought my opteron, although the number of cores and the amount of cache on the processor dies has. The increases in capacity are only just beginning to be exploited, but the only programs that are really taking advantage of multi-threading are high end video applications and games.

As for retrieving files on an HFS partition from a Windows machine, there appear to be some driver programs available. I can’t vouch for any of them as I don’t own a Mac.

If you really can’t decide between which breed of computer to use, have you considered multi-booting using Boot Camp (included with Snow Leopard) or something else like the Chameleon Boot Loader? Alternatively, you can install OSX on a PC intended for a Windows/Linux install (a bit naughty – it contravenes Apple’s ToS) and switch between them either with a bootloader or by selecting different boot drives at startup.

You have to go mac. Now mind you, macs aren’t cheap and they are not considered “disposable machines” Getting a mac is almost a spiritual experience and is a considerable investment. It is not just a computer, its not an assemblage of steel, silicon, transistors, and circuits. It is art. It is thousands of hours full of hard work, tears, and blood to create this magnificent machine. If you want something with perfect synchronization between the hardware and software then get a mac. I have been through a lot of PC’s and nothing has been as personal as getting my macbook pro. I love it so very much.

PC. Please stop paying the tax because a mac is “pretty” and “easy to use.” You can get a PC with BETTER hardware specs for cheaper. Plus there system is too “closed up” and proprietary, they have a very small finite set of programs that are available (mind you all the common stuff will work, office, email, etc). For the kind of stuff I want to run (3rd party software that interfaces with a VW\Audi computer), I must have windows. I have ran windows all my life and love it. Windows can be secure if you MAKE it secure. Why do most businesses I see use Windows (XP for that matter).

Windows assumes users are intelligent, Mac assumes they are too dumb to use a computer so they try to just make it easy.

EDIT: Yes I know you can run windows on a mac. Not many people doe that though..

Many thanks for your thoughts. Eponymoushipster, I was having problems burning home movies to DVD after editing in imovie. Regarding the faulty logic boards, I did have applecare, so had a lot of repairs done under this, and was very happy with the services, however was disappointed that I had such problems with it right from the start, I think maybe I got a duff one. Once out of the apple care period however, there was no aftersales service at all. I am leaning toward giving apple another shot, however. Flutherme, I do believe that pcs can be great machines but that this requires a certain amount of customisation, and technical skills that I just don’t have, and really don’t have the time or interest to learn. I need something that ‘just works’ to use the now overused phrase with relation to the apple/pc debate, and that doesn’t require huge amounts of my time in maintaining or updating it. I believe this is where mac has an advantage for ‘dumb’ consumers like me!!!!! However, if I have problems with this Mac like I did with my last one, it may be curtains for macs for me!!!!

Well, I prefer software THAT WORKS right out of the box. I don’t want to constantly call tech support because my S*it is blue screening, freezing up, crashing and dashing. I have to fortify my PC’s like the pentagon so some asshole doesn’t infect my machine with one of a million viruses that are out there. My mac is better then any other laptop that I have ever used because of the beautiful engineering that has been put into it. You truly get what you pay for.

@chaostheory

Yup, typical computer user (No offence by that, and no your not dumb, you just don’t care).

So if you want easy and “just works” go with the mac

@Tenpinmaster

I NEVER run AV. I NEVER run a firewall. I will usually run AVG every few months just out of curiosity and I am usually uninfected. Don’t run random ActiveX controls from random sites, don’t run random exes from random sites, don’t trust music that you download thats only 200kB and in exe format, and don’t run programs or scripts from random emails!!

99% of infections can be prevented with common sense.

btw, my PC never bluescreens. EVER.

MAC!! It is so wonderful! I have been using them since I was a kid!

@FlutherMe I remember doing a search to update my iphone after it crashed and I was trying to web search the file name and accidentally clicked on something which booted me to another site and infected my system with a trojan. I mean.. S*it! I can’t even do a damn google search without a land mine blowing up in my computer. I have had 2 viruses last year alone which made me re install all of my files. I had a virus from my world of warcraft account which embedded a secret passcode sniffer which i didn’t even know installed on my system. I have had a hell of a time keeping viruses out of my system and I was sick of it. I am glad you have had luck with major problems with your computer. The problem is that a lot of people don’t know what all that crap is (active x, scrips, .exe files) They shouldn’t have to know what all that stuff is. They just want to use the computer without it blowing up on them. Get a mac! Its great out the box and they won’t have to F*ck with trying to figure out how to keep it from getting infested and various software errors that tend to pop up with compatibility problems.

You are doing a good job of convincing me Tenpinmaster!!!!

@chaostheory thank u! I have 4 pcs at my house and the mac is the only thing I like using

@FlutherMe actually, quite a few people like/use the option of either BootCamp or virtualization from Parallels or VMWare. trust me, it’s an often asked question.

Bootcamp is good. It allows you to run windows on OSX (The mac operating system). Everything you need is built into the mac software without you having to buy all these additions. The only think you would need if you want to create a dual boot system ( windows and the mac OSX software) is to supply your own windows software.

@Tenpinmaster i prefer the “virtualization” option, simply for the fact that you can still be using all your mac apps, and run the one or two windows apps you need INSIDE of OS X. much more convenient. esp with coherence mode running; it’s like the Windows program is running right on the desktop.

@eponymoushipster Agreed. You know why on laptops OSX runs better and last longer on battery mode then its windows counterpart? I thought that they would be about the same but they have proven that although windows runs great on a mac, it drains quicker.

@Tenpinmaster probably has something to do with how the system handles checking resources, etc. 10.6 rewrote a large chunk of the code regarding low-level processor handling. besides, overall, Windows is a greater resource hog. 2GB of RAM just to run? please.

@eponymoushipster lol! yes.. resource pig! I love OS X.6 It’s an absolutely beautiful! You know this brings back the notion that “its the little things that matter” Little things can really make a big difference in how the system handles its resources or how well it runs. Do you know why windows slows down big time (even on a new system) literally a month or two after you get it. I have had my mac for about 5 months and it still runs as quickly as it did when i first got it. My windows machines have had to be reformatted at least once for each machine.

@eponymoushipster

2GB? For real?

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/8657/41535934.jpg

And thats with an assload of programs running. I have 3 IE windows with this many or more tabs open. I’m downloading files too!

@FlutherMe

via

Windows 7 system requirements

If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here’s what it takes:

*

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
*

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
*

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
*

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

So, that dosen’t meant it uses it all the time.

Run even the great Mac OSX with the required 1GB of RAM, and you will not be having a good time on it. I do admit, Windows 7 with its winsxs directory is a fucking disk hog 20GB will get eaten up in no time

@FlutherMe lol! u want to know our computers at work uses 512 mbytes of ram. LOL! Once we load up windows it sits there and pages to the hard drive and makes using any of our actual ” work ” applications very difficult. I just don’t see why Microsoft doesn’t re-do the OS from the ground up. I mean, disk defragmentation?!? The registry? it’s insane that it’s been using the same old technology over all these years. If they were to go in a new direction about the next big operating system the perhaps I would have more of an optimistic view on windows.

@Tenpinmaster

It seems most businesses are running XP still? Why is that?

@FlutherMe Because vista is terrible and they are reluctant to upgrade to windows 7 unless they can be sure it will work with their current software. That’s one thing apple needs to step up is their affordability. If they can find a way to be competitive in the business sector, Microsoft would have a serious problem.

@FlutherMe most businesses are running XP because that’s what came with their Dell PC. Vista was a mess, and Windows 7 is not far behind.

@Tenpinmaster as regards business, Apple is quite competitive, but people like @FlutherMe, who think they’ve got some “advantage” in Windows, often miss it. Take for example Exchange Server. How much does that cost? thousands of dollars. and then you pay for a Microsoft “certified” engineer to set it up, and a license for each seat that uses it. you’re talking tens of thousands of dollars.

On the other hand, you can (for a small to medium size business, which is where this really counts) pick up a Mac Mini Server for $1000. handle the same services as Exchange, and no per seat license. as many users as you want. for $1000. no need for special technical people or anything.

how’s that for cost effective for business?

@eponymoushipster you don’t get any argument from me. Exchange support handles very nicely in OSX. I still see apple having problems with competitive pricing because there stuff is still more expensive then it’s PC counterparts in terms of equipment. Now again, you are right in your previous statement. Once the equipment is implemented, you save loads of money on maintaince because the stuff just works! People are mostly just interested in the short term gain which is why they go to PCs to run their business. Yes, its cheaper initially but not so much in the long run.

@Tenpinmaster it comes down to total cost of ownership. Time is money in business, and if you have to reformat and reload an entire office of PCs, how much downtime and loss is that to your business? How much money spent on virus software updates, patches and so on? Overall, it’s lower.

I have always been a PC user and I always will. I will admit that a Mac does look good but that is about it. Does it help to mention that Apple most likely wouldn’t be around today if it weren’t for the help of Bill Gates letting Apple using Microsoft Word?

@sweetteaindahouse does it help to mention that Bill Gates ripped off the Macintosh’s interface for Windows?

Great discussion guys, I am glad I asked. Definitely a mac now for me this time! Have really appreciated all your answers, many thanks.

@chaostheory Your welcome :) was one of more enjoyable discussions!