The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anyone a background with windows and switched to Macintosh? What have been the results and yoour opinion?

I have used Windows for 20 years or so peridoically.
It's hard to avoid it...
I have used Mac for as long.

I sit at a Mac I feel like I can get things done.
I fight with Windows to get to point 1.

Yeah it's better than the DOS days, but in comparison,
I ALWAYS am glad to be back on a MAC.
I am on a internet cafe PC, at the moment, DRAT!

Almost ANY app. except the most esoteric specialty app is on Mac's.
Like one tracking 3D animation rotoscoping points to live action video,
locking for perspective and camera POV angles.
This ain't on a Mac last I looked, but might be...


I have built from scratch a twin CPU AMD 1900 PC with 7 fans and LOTS of power running WIN 2K and MAYA 4 for 3D, and the above esoteric usage.
I still prefer my off the shelf Mac.

Now I am SURE that 10 guys will come on saying ;
"We love our PC's and they are cheaper etc."

I am convinced that the Intel machines low cost,
just got many people comfortable with PC dialog,
and they never get far enought into learning a Mac dialog,
to be comfortable and see the benifits.

Old Yankee proverb :
"Long after the joy of low cost wears off,
lingers the curse of poor quality. Uh yuh."

At the time I built the 2 CPU PC that was the
only hot platform for Maya, so I reluctantly did it.
But did it right; top shelf for that time.

So I DO know both platforms down to chosing and assembling parts.
Gimme a Mac please.

<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 26 November 2005 at 09:39 PM.]</p></FONT>

Half the links I email to my sister (a lifelong mac user) she can't see/hear and she always talks about freeware or shareware to get access to apps that us PC users do normally. If you are A) wealthy or B) an artist get a Mac... otherwise, save your money.

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-johnson

.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Garth Highsmith on 06 January 2006 at 08:05 AM.]</p></FONT>

I fought PCs for almost five years and lost every time. Then I say down at my wife's IMac and could immediately do everything I could never do on my PCs. I bought the first of my two Macs that day and have been thrilled ever since. They're incredibly easy to use, even for a techno-moron like myself, and I pretty much can't make it crash no matter how hard I try.

For years, I would agree with tha Apple lovers, but I've had 4 XP machines in my house, 2 PCs and 2 laptops, I have had zero problems with any of them. Windows 98 and 2000 were a different story.
The spyware and virus issue is a different story, but with 2 or 3 free programs and a little common sense, you don't need to worry much. Both OS's are overpriced (IMHO),XP is 1/4 the cost of building your own PC, and Apple stuff has always been too high. JimP

I'm a Windows user as of about 5 years ago,before that it was UNIX for me.

I bought my wife a iMac G4 back when OS X was called Jaguar (10.2.. They've had 2 updates since then (Panther and Tyger). We're still running 10.2.8 because I don't want to rock the boat with an OS upgrade (I've read about too many horror stories and frankly, if it works, why fix it? She uses it just for email and web surfing.

I find the Mac incredibly unintuitive as a Windows user. Things don't seem to "just work for me" at all. I have friends who say the same thing when they try to use a Mac.

That's been my experience anyway.

I've run my studio on a Windows XP machine for almost two years now,- hasn't crashed once yet so I believe PC/Windows has catched up with Macs over the last 3-4 years.

Don't have anything against Macs (besides the price), but I 'grew up' on Windows so like Bill I find them a bit hard to get. A Mac user going to Windows probably feels the same way, so it's mostly a question of what you're used to I guess....

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

I've used both but I can't justify the cost of buying new software to switch to a Mac. Additionally, the lack of heavy duty, industry-standard 3D CAD/CAM programs (Solidworks, etc.) and CNC software pretty much preclude the use of Macs for our main machines.

I'd love to get one for Video and DVD creation.

Yes, years ago before I ever owned a computer I would always hear, buy a mac for graphics(artist), buy a PC for drafting(tech).

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-johnson


<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by erik on 29 November 2005 at 04:23 PM.]</p></FONT>

Thankyou everyone for your input. I did a test drive at the mac store. Was I surprised. After two hours in the store listening and talking to customers using macs and playing with the thing I have found enough reasons to switch. Found not one unhappy person with the system. I have always had my computers custom made for me so the cost seems cheap to me. They have classes for learning in the store and the whole computer is right in front of you. If you have a digital camera you just plug it in and it accepts it . YOu don't have to install software and then call and call and call the manufacturer I am sold.

The one big (seldom mentioned) advantage that Windows has over MAC is in the sheer availability of software. There's about ten times as much software out there for the Windows OS as there is for MAC.

<SMALL>If you have a digital camera you just plug it in and it accepts it . YOu don't have to install software and then call and call and call the manufacturer I am sold</SMALL>

If someone used that as a Mac selling point, you were pretty much being mislead. The "good old days" of having to load vendor-supplied proprietary drivers and software to get hardware to work with Windows are gone. WinXP comes with drivers for most current generation hardware built-in. "Plug-and Play" is a reality now, not "Plug and Pray", like it used to be.

Many devices do come with application software to use with the device, it's true, and that software must be installed in order to use it, but it's not necessary just to connect the device to the WinXP OS.

There may be "Mac advantages", but connectivity isn't one of them, IMO.

<SMALL>There's about ten times as much software out there for the Windows OS as there is for MAC.</SMALL>

That's a fact. Many software houses don't write Mac versions due to the much smaller user base.

Just check this topic: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum12/HTML/002717.html
about 2 zillions words to explain how to download and view a pix from a website background!
Now on the Mac:
Click and hold on the background picture
While holding move your pointer to the desktop
doubleclick on the resulting icon
et voila
Ed

<SMALL>about 2 zillions words to explain how to download and view a pix from a website background!</SMALL>

Rightclick -> select "save target as" -> choose folder -> click "save". Voila!
(that's ten words.... )

Steinar


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www.gregertsen.com

.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Garth Highsmith on 06 January 2006 at 08:06 AM.]</p></FONT>

<SMALL>It doesn't matter how many applications are available for a given system</SMALL>

Sure does for me. Significant application non-availability is an option I'm unwilling to accept.

Significant software unavailability is not an issue on the Mac.

I know no one who is using all 10,000+ PC apps available.
I know no one using all available Mac titles either.

If I can do what I need with 20 titles, why worry about 9,980 others?

John's point on the cost of buying new apps is valid.
But nothing says you need to throw out your old PC.
Just start gravitating towards the newer machine gradualy. Baby steps.
I am switching over to OS 10 now, but as a true power abuser I am still on OS 9 for several things. Cost isa the issue.
But I am talking MANY MANY serious sound plug-in's like Waves etc,
and this stuff is NOT cheap on either platform.

I had something like 9,000 apps and mini apps on OS 9 for Mac...
I still find I can do most anything,
but the most mission specific CAD CAM stuff that John was commenting about,

But there ARE good CAD CAM programs.
Very, very powerful and complete.
The operative words are INDUSTRY STANDARD.
If you have several entranched mission specific PC apps, then that is the right direction for you.

One of my uses for MAYA is to output graphics from Cad Cam files as 3D video fly throughs of CAD CAM designs.
I will be tapping the real estate market here for that.
All the source files are from PC apps, so no incompatibility.

If you can learn to switch from D-8 lapsteel to D-10 PSG or D-10 to Uni,
you can switch from PC to Mac and back.
In both directions all you want.

But chances are if you get to know a Mac well,
you will less and less go to the PC, when there is a choice,
if there is no difference in functionality for the application.

PC users are more likely to say
Never use a Mac.

Mac users are more likely to say
Take your pick, but if you learn a Mac,
and know both,
you will pick the Mac more often.

<SMALL> Mac users are more likely to say Take your pick, but if you learn a Mac, and know both, you will pick the Mac more often.</SMALL>

Amen. I have always (well, since 1987) found the Mac to be a more comfortable fit all around. And I have used both Mac and PC (as well as Unix and Linux boxes) extensively.



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<font size=1>Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | MSA U12 | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?</font>

.<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Garth Highsmith on 06 January 2006 at 08:11 AM.]</p></FONT>

The superiority of Macs is an article of faith - a "meme" if anybody knows the term.
I changed from Mac to PC about ten years ago, and have learned how to put a reliable PC together.
My Mac colleagues firmly believe that Macs never crash - and they still believe it as they stare at a locked-up screen, at a computer that has decided to ignore properly installed accessories, or an invoice for yet another OS upgrade.
Odd isn't it?

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Cheers!
Dave

I use Windows at the office, but I run the Forum on a FreeBSD server and use a Mac Powerbook G4 at home.

The main frustration is that software from Windows doesn't run on the Mac. I have two other computers that I would replace with Macs if switching software wasn't such a hassle.

There is a bit of a difference in how programs work in general, but it's not a big deal.

The Mac hides a lot of things from the user. It took me nearly a month to find the Unix terminal shell! This might not matter to most people, but it was a major source of confusion for me. I didn't begin to understand how OS X works until I saw the directory structure from the Unix perspective.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"><small> Bobby Lee</small>
-b0b- <small> quasar@b0b.com </small>
System Administrator <span style="text-align: right; font-size: 0.75em; font-variant: small-caps">
My Blog</span>

I don't believe Mac's never crash.... not a bit.
I have had 15 Apple computers and 3 NeXT's.

BUT, when I MUST install a fresh system,
it doesn't take all my system disk data to the cleaners with it, nor occasionally periferal discs becoming un-recognizable to boot.

Mac's are much more error repair friendly.
Not infalably... never implied that.
I have shattered discs, and had total crashes.
I have a stack of 40+ older drives to use as a boat anchor.

I have over 600 gigs of disc space currently in play.
No chance to adequately back that up...
Yeah, RAID arrays or not, that is a TON of stuff.
Video and audio and images

But on a PC I would likely be up the creek totally
MUCH more often than a Mac.

The comparative incidents of
PC's making my life a misery per hours used,
vs Macs per hours used... well
The Macs win.

If you want to use the BEST music software and the best of the VST (or other) plug-ins etc, the the Mac is the ONLY option (In the Professional World that is)
I've been a Mac and Pee Cee user from their beginnings, and before that, Sinclair, BBC and Commodore et al. So what would I know ?
Solely from a sync point of view, the MAC is "A Doddle"

Baz

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<SMALL>Steel players do it without fretting</SMALL>