PC to Mac: My Not-So-Genius Switch

[ozz]

Originally Posted by woof07

Limited how? What kind of sacrifices? Serious question here.

I was waiting on that answer also since I made the switch over 2 years ago
no limitations I know of plus I don't have to micro manage anything.

[brotherlen]

sacrifices? Thats a bit of a strong word, maybe priorities and trade offs. If your willing to trade bleeding edge tech for stability, or at least the ability to know who to blame when something fails. Windows = is it a driver, a hardware component vs. another component, the OS, etc... not a bad thing, just something to be mindful of. Mac = doesn't work, must be the OS, I know off the bat who is at fault, it's usually hardware failings instead of drivers/OS issues though. (melted magsafe adapter, slot loading disc player destroying my discs) I'm don't mind the bashing so much, I'm a fanboy of neither and use a little of everything to give it a try, Linux Studio, FreeBSD, Mac, Vista, 7 Beta (I really like), Just give a solid reason, like audio equipment why it's good/not so good. Besides it sucks, it just works, etc... Seems to be the two staple arguments for the fanboys in both major camps. Since this is a forum of headphones, shouldn't the focus be on what set up gets a cleaner signal? (optical out, no need for ASIO, vs. amount of internal soundcards and devices) It's seriously making me look at my gaming set up for maybe a macbook and more head-fi gear...at the moment I have a MBP (santa rosa) the biggest complaint I have is it has been harder to get good info on system specs versus PC/Windows based hardware. i.e. Looking up how much Ram my laptop could run. I think at the time apple only offered 2GB, however it will read 4GB, it can only utilize 3GB. After working at a computer store, I began to resent "mac heads" because of this. Nobody had a straight answer, I'll even say, maybe I didn't know where to look. I'm going to switch completely so I can consolidate all my stuff onto a single platform. (which one?) I sure have rambled enough, I didn't even say anything, so in closing, Bumble Bee Tuna!

[craiglester]

Originally Posted by immtbiker

Almost anything that you want to do on your PC can be done on a Mac, plus some.

This brings up the question.. when an Apple manufactured Intel PC is running Windows.. is it still a Mac?

I'd say no. It's a Windows PC, hardware manufactured by Apple.

I mean we're always being told a Mac isn't just the OS, or the hardware, it's both together, right?

[immtbiker]

Originally Posted by brotherlen

I sure have rambled enough, I didn't even say anything, so in closing, Bumble Bee Tuna!

Sorry Charlie, Bumble Bee only uses the best Tuna (whose to say that Charlie isn't good, anyway? Years of therapy won't help Charlie now).
That's what they tell us. But what they don't tell us, is that an 8 oz. can of tuna, became a 7 1/2 oz can, which then became a 7 1/4 oz. which I now see is a 6 oz.
We are being deceived. At least in audio, I can make my own decisions on what size cans I want to use, plastic or not.

Heavy stuff.

[dmashta]

Originally Posted by woof07

Limited how? What kind of sacrifices? Serious question here.

limited in terms of configurability and choice of hardware and software. with macs, you're pretty much sacrificing that flexibility.

it's like buying integrated or separate components. an integrated gives you a convenient one-box solution with minimal fuss, plug it in and start enjoying your music. with separates, you'll have to worry about matching individual components, interconnects, this and that. but it allows unlimited possibilities for you to mix and match and tweak to your heart's content.

or like driving, some prefer automatic for the ease and convenience while others enjoy the control and manual involvement of...well...manual. in the end, both will get the job done and get you to your destination. i just think driving manual is more fun.

[ozz]

Originally Posted by dmashta

limited in terms of configurability and choice of hardware and software. with macs, you're pretty much sacrificing that flexibility.

it's like buying integrated or separate components. an integrated gives you a convenient one-box solution with minimal fuss, plug it in and start enjoying your music. with separates, you'll have to worry about matching individual components, interconnects, this and that. but it allows unlimited possibilities for you to mix and match and tweak to your heart's content.

or like driving, some prefer automatic for the ease and convenience while others enjoy the control and manual involvement of...well...manual. in the end, both will get the job done and get you to your destination. i just think driving manual is more fun.

As to that statement most of the tweakers I know and listen to on these forums prefer neither OSX or Windows they use one of the many distros of
Linux saying what you have said but about both platforms.

[brotherlen]

making tuna, after this post...

as far as tweaking goes, you can always do a homebrew mac and have the best of both worlds. If your a pro active builder/tweaker then it's a completely different ball park. Lets face it though, the average Joe Sixpack doesn't really keep up with his computer like people that are a bit more on the tech savvy side, same with a majority of users on the two major platforms. If your using Linux, you have to tinker a bit, Ubuntu is very user friendly, but it's another set of vocabulary that people aren't familiar with. Kernel? Isn't he in the military? Does he make chicken? Not really...... I'll finish after tuna

[dmashta]

Originally Posted by ozz

As to that statement most of the tweakers I know and listen to on these forums prefer neither OSX or Windows they use one of the many distros of
Linux saying what you have said but about both platforms.

agreed but as someone else said, linux is just nerding a bit too far (for me). i like my choices but i don't enjoy complexity for complexity sake. i like mixing and matching my components but i'm no DIY-type.

[brotherlen]

Tuna was consumed and tasty.

Congrats on your purchase Jude, sorry to hear about your experience at the Mac store, sounds like you made out good in the end though, almost forgot what this thread was about.

[ajstark]

Originally Posted by MoSXS

I know all about how Mac OS X is UNIX Certified. But being UNIX doesn't make it better. It's just far too limited.

OS X is only good if you're really willing to make a lot of sacrifices. A lot.

And as far as not getting viruses, run Windows update regularly and stay away from websites you probably shouldn't be looking at anyway.

We do all that, update virus definitions, update windows and do virus scans.

The bad guys have gotten very sophisticated. They have their web pages linked to legitimate sites. When you reach their page and click on a link a dialog box is launched. The dialog box tells you that your computer is infected. The dialog box says you need to scan your computer. When you click ok it downloads a virus.

The virus starts popping up the dialog box with the same message. They cover the screen and it becomes impossible to work.

My wife is not technically sophisticated. She was easily fooled by the dialog box. I took admin rights away from her after she got the computer virus. The second time she got it was easier to clean computer - the virus could not spread to the whole computer it was stuck in her temporary internet folder. Of course taking away admin rights prevents her from doing many admin activates - but I do those activates for her under a proper admin account.

What surprises me is two of my friend caught the same virus. One is working on his Doctorate in computer security. The other friend can program a fix income risk management system. Both of these people should have know better but their computers were infected.

I blame Microsoft for these issues. Microsoft should have locked down there O.S. . Windows is a flawed OS from a security point of view.

MoSXS what type of limitations are you talking about. This is a serious question and I would like to know. Is it the lack of games or gaming? Is it something else?

[dmashta]

Originally Posted by ajstark

We do all that, update virus definitions, update windows and do virus scans.

The bad guys have gotten very sophisticated. They have their web pages linked to legitimate sites. When you reach their page and click on a link a dialog box is launched. The dialog box tells you that your computer is infected. The dialog box says you need to scan your computer. When you click ok it downloads a virus.

The virus starts popping up the dialog box with the same message. They cover the screen and it becomes impossible to work.

My wife is not technically sophisticated. She was easily fooled by the dialog box. I took admin rights away from her after she got the computer virus. The second time she got it was easier to clean computer - the virus could not spread to the whole computer it was stuck in her temporary internet folder. Of course taking away admin rights prevents her from doing many admin activates - but I do those activates for her under a proper admin account.

What surprises me is two of my friend caught the same virus. One is working on his Doctorate in computer security. The other friend can program a fix income risk management system. Both of these people should have know better but their computers were infected.

I blame Microsoft for these issues. Microsoft should have locked down there O.S. . Windows is a flawed OS from a security point of view.

MoSXS what type of limitations are you talking about. This is a serious question and I would like to know. Is it the lack of games or gaming? Is it something else?

just cause some people know better doesn't mean they always follow best practice nor are they immune to bad judgement and mistakes. guess what, those prestigious investment banks with all their top MBAs are the ones in need of bailout now. i can see the benefit of security through obscurity or 'dumbing down' (locking down if you wish) things to protect the user but not if it's at the expense of flexibility and control or having someone decide what's best for me. in that case, i'll gladly take the risk.

as convenient as it is to target microsoft over its track record of security issues and virus oubreaks, it just isn't a very valid arguement. macs are no less susceptible. you have to consider the global percentage of windows users vs mac to realize why such incidents are relatively rare when it comes to macs. in which case you might as well argue that macs are more secure because they are much less popular but then that isn't really saying much about the platform itself, is it? and i'd argue that as macs continue to gain in popularity and new users, the security problem could be much worse given the higher percentage of 'less savvy' users who grew up with this false sense of security.

[ajstark]

Originally Posted by dmashta

as convenient as it is to target microsoft over its track record of security issues and virus oubreaks, it just isn't a very valid arguement. macs are no less susceptible. you have to consider the global percentage of windows users vs mac to realize why such incidents are relatively rare when it comes to macs. in which case you might as well argue that macs are more secure because they are much less popular but then that isn't really saying much about the platform itself, is it? and i'd argue that as macs continue to gain in popularity and new users, the security problem could be much worse given the higher percentage of 'less savvy' users who grew up with this false sense of security.

To a certain extent what you say is true. But with the MAC/UNIX it is much harder to damage the operating system because the OS is run at higher privileges that a normal users account. A normal user does not have the rights to update the OS only admins can do that.

For example, my son is gamer. In order to play a game he needs admin rights on his PC. This implies that the game has modified the OS in someway. Why does a game need admin rights to function? This is a flaw in the OS - the OS should never let some third party update it.

Microsoft has always added features at the expense of security. They are an easier target to crack that a UNIX system.

[M0T0XGUY]

Originally Posted by dmashta

limited in terms of configurability and choice of hardware and software. with macs, you're pretty much sacrificing that flexibility.

it's like buying integrated or separate components. an integrated gives you a convenient one-box solution with minimal fuss, plug it in and start enjoying your music. with separates, you'll have to worry about matching individual components, interconnects, this and that. but it allows unlimited possibilities for you to mix and match and tweak to your heart's content.

or like driving, some prefer automatic for the ease and convenience while others enjoy the control and manual involvement of...well...manual. in the end, both will get the job done and get you to your destination. i just think driving manual is more fun.

The hardware argument I mostly understand. Some people like full customization, and Macs are, for the most part, locked down in this regard.

The software argument, though, is off-base (in my experience). Almost every program I've used on a Windows computer has a native Mac alternative. Some programs, like iPhoto and iTunes, either run considerably smoother on OSX, or even improve upon their Windows equivalents; and X11 generally takes care of the rest. So far, I've never run into a problem with software compatibility.

[ozz]

Well since I am not a gamer or tweaker the Mac and the Dell have served me well as for limitations the mac has allowed me to do anything
I need or want to do. I will probably buy a third computer and try Linux.
I want every OS to succeed because it makes the competition try harder
which equals a better computing experience for the consumer.

[krmathis]

Originally Posted by MoSXS

I know all about how Mac OS X is UNIX Certified. But being UNIX doesn't make it better. It's just far too limited.

OS X is only good if you're really willing to make a lot of sacrifices. A lot.

Limited and make a lot of sacrifices? Please explain...

I have been running Mac OS X for 5 years, and certainly don't think its limited or that I have made a lot of sacrifices. Had to sacrifice secure audio ripping the first two years, but since then nothing that I am aware of.