I just replaced my PC with a new PC -- I looked long and hard at a Macbook (15 inch screen) but could come to terms with the difference in price -- it is a set of uber-Rs for the Lotus, and an HPDE event.
I guess I need a laptop like Camry owners need a car. Cheap. Powerful. Not too sexy.
The basic macbooks have the Intel HD 3000 which is more than adequate for most uses.
The 15 and 17 inch macbook pros have that AND the AMD Radeon HD 6750M or 6770M which are both fantastic mobile graphics 'cards'.
They operate in parallel and scale their activity based on graphics load and battery life.
Another thing that Apple products excel at is power management. I defy you to find a PC laptop that consistently gets a 7 hour charge under normal use, and will maintain these characteristics for over 4 years of constant use.
My 13" macbook shipped with a 4 hour charge and four years later still gets a 4 hour charge.
DrBoost wrote: I find it harder to keep up with the latest release of windows, different service pacs, and the latest itteration of Office.
I checked the "Automatically update" box, haven't had a problem with it in nearly 2 years of Win 7.
z31maniac wrote:DrBoost wrote: I find it harder to keep up with the latest release of windows, different service pacs, and the latest itteration of Office.I checked the "Automatically update" box, haven't had a problem with it in nearly 2 years of Win 7.
This is an unacceptable option if you are constantly switching between operating systems. This is a point against Macs though because if you have a PC you would never do this. It's a major pet peeve to me that every time I restart (when auto update is on) there is always some stupid like pack of updates to install that takes between 5 minutes and an hour. It's more of a point against total release quality. Why is it that Apple can provide a more stable and reliable operating system with 1/50th of the updates? I'm tempted to delve into that but it would be OT
I work at a large NW bases software company and I update maybe a few times a year. As for Avid and FCP, we left Avid and went to FCP because Avid doesn't work well in a file based production flow and FCP was cheaper. That said we are looking at the landscape and considering Avid, FCP and Premier.
As for buying a computer, I would wait until the spring:-)
Oh great Sultan of the byte, what do you know about "the spring"?
Sultan, paging the Sultan...
so which Apple Laptop should I purchase?
Apple typically refreshes its Mac product lines in the spring, oftentimes updating the spec and leaving the price the same. I'd get the highest spec refurb you could fit into your budget.
Switching from a PC to a Mac takes about a day to get used to, and then you will never want to go back. All the little tricks and command-lin code and recovery programs that you used to rely on just to get your pc running every day are gone. No more ctrl+alt+del, no more task manager, no more blue screens of death.
FlightService wrote: Sultan, paging the Sultan... so which Apple Laptop should I purchase?
I have no idea. I haven't ever bought a laptop. I get mine as part of the job. That said if you are going to get a Mac I would get a silver one:-)
More to the point, and I have googled it, does anyone have a cheat sheet on what where apples are?
I know pc's but for some reason I keep finding these fuzzy websites with very little data and lots of editorial (which come to think of it reminds me of the Apple snobs I know. Very little data,and a lot of opinion.)
I'd liken a Mac to a sport sedan. It hits a nice nexus of appliance-like reliability with that joy that comes from sweating the details.
I'd liken a PC to a crossover. It gets the job done, and is reliable, but there's little panache or verve to it.
I'd liken Linux to a Honda Civic. If you can leave it alone, it'll run forever. If you start tinkering with it, you'll never stop.
FlightService wrote: More to the point, and I have googled it, does anyone have a cheat sheet on what where apples are?
iMac - all-in-one consumer-oriented
Mac mini - tiny desktop form factor - great as a HTPC
Mac Pro - full tower, aimed at professional market
Macbook Air - ultralight laptop
Macbook - consumer laptop line
Macbook pro - pro laptop line
It appears that the Macbook line has been dissolved, leaving only the Macbook Air and the Macbook Pro.
Apple is the only company I'm aware of that willingly discontinues their best selling products.
If you are looking for a PC then Bing Microsoft Store. I got my wife a netbook there last year and it was great.
FlightService wrote: More to the point, and I have googled it, does anyone have a cheat sheet on what where apples are?
If you want tech specs, check out everymac.com. For some odd reason, they have the tech specs for every mac 
.
Taiden wrote: Why is it that Apple can provide a more stable and reliable operating system with 1/50th of the updates? I'm tempted to delve into that but it would be OT
OS-X is BSD unix with a prettier X. It was rock solid before they started making it pretty.
My designers looked at me like I had two heads when I suggested we might save a little money if we switched to PCs. They are more computer savvy than me and had all kinds of reasons that the Macs are faster and better for that kind of work. Don't know if any of it is true, but I do want happy designers.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: OS-X is BSD unix with a prettier X. It was rock solid before they started making it pretty.
It's actually BSD-based, but instead of the BSD kernel it uses the Mach microkernel. Both of them have been known to be rather stable...
The GUI is actually at least partially based on NextStep (after Apple bought Next), even though it doesn't look anything like NextStep. But at least that explains the many 'NS'-prefixed API calls...
fast_eddie_72 wrote: My designers looked at me like I had two heads when I suggested we might save a little money if we switched to PCs. They are more computer savvy than me and had all kinds of reasons that the Macs are faster and better for that kind of work. Don't know if any of it is true, but I do want happy designers.
Designery types like Macs, but on top of that the hardware appears to be slightly more reliable than what you get with most PCs (at least the PCs that we can get with next day delivery out here in the sticks). Saving a few hundred on the hardware doesn't necessarily work if the machine goes belly up and you have to get a replacement quickly, with employees that cost you a few hundred an hour twiddling thumbs. So you either need to get hardware that you can get repaired quickly or a couple of spare machines of exactly the same spec; the latter of course somewhat negates the savings...
Taiden wrote: Why is it that Apple can provide a more stable and reliable operating system with 1/50th of the updates? I'm tempted to delve into that but it would be OT
The answer of course is that apple is a much more closed sandbox to play in than windows from a developer's standpoint.
Since osx is posix compliant, you can just program to that of course, but if you develop commercial product, you're nothing going to do that.
BoxheadTim wrote: The GUI is actually at least partially based on NextStep (after Apple bought Next), even though it doesn't look anything like NextStep. But at least that explains the many 'NS'-prefixed API calls...
Cool. New trivia for me.
I didn't know they bought NextStep but it makes sense - NextOS was a closed, proprietary hardware vendor that ran the Mach BSD kernel too. Perhaps OS-X owes more of it's success to Apple acquisition than ingenuity but either way... it is pretty good stuff underneath.
NeXT was originally started by Steve Jobs, and when the company was bought by Apple as part of the deal he was brought back (one year after resigning from Apple to begin with)
Software (aside from my engineering stuff) Mac has most of it opensource so I am happy.
EveryMac.com has stuff about every mac model, I wonder if that name is just a coincidence?
I spoke to our most anti-Apple hardcore PC guy today and he agrees with me.
Windows 8 isn't going to cut it, and 7 is a stop gap. Given MicroSoft's history of vaporware for the first 2 version after a new OS comes out that leaves us three options.
We both agreed that Mac was the logical answer. To the point my employer is investigating the situation.
I found a laptop with Win7 for the wife. I will get a little Mac to get my toes wet and go from there.
Any finally words? I think we can put this one to bed. Thanks guys.
I heard a really good explanation of MAC's on a podcast yesterday.
"What you want to do is either very simple, or utterly impossible"
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