2 years, 11 months ago
Why are so many people pro mac / ipod?
Everyone just jumped on the band-wagon and im curious why? I hate my macbook, its really just not all that great. Yeah OSX is alright, but it still freezes, my battery life on my macbook is about 5 mins (after 2 years), and its slow. Really cmon. I hope Windows 7 is a hit because i am not a fan of anything mac anymore. Ipods are also overrated esp. with t-mobiles android smart phones coming out. Anyone agree?
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M$3 Answers
I think it breaks down like this:
The design of OSX, iPods and Mac hardware is more visually pleasing than that of competitors in most cases.
Microsoft is the giant in the industry and everyone wants to root for an underdog. Linux would work but it's still a little to difficult to use/not enough mainstream applications for the average user.
The lack of worry about viruses on the Mac is a huge plus (while it lasts anyway..)
And there is the band-wagon thing as you mentioned.
I was a PC user since the DOS days and just recently switched to a MacBook. It was difficult to get used to at first, but I really enjoy using it.
Then there is the iPod. I have had 6 of them. Again, mostly because of the quality design.
Is Apple the perfect company with the perfect products?
Not really. There are many things not to like as well.
For one, the pricing of products with Apple is usually a bit high.
And they always seem to release a new version of their products with a great new feature (that should have been in the previous 3 models) right after you fork over your money
But overall, I am very happy to be a new Mac user, despite the fact that I also hate hopping on band-wagons!
The design of OSX, iPods and Mac hardware is more visually pleasing than that of competitors in most cases.
Microsoft is the giant in the industry and everyone wants to root for an underdog. Linux would work but it's still a little to difficult to use/not enough mainstream applications for the average user.
The lack of worry about viruses on the Mac is a huge plus (while it lasts anyway..)
And there is the band-wagon thing as you mentioned.
I was a PC user since the DOS days and just recently switched to a MacBook. It was difficult to get used to at first, but I really enjoy using it.
Then there is the iPod. I have had 6 of them. Again, mostly because of the quality design.
Is Apple the perfect company with the perfect products?
Not really. There are many things not to like as well.
For one, the pricing of products with Apple is usually a bit high.
And they always seem to release a new version of their products with a great new feature (that should have been in the previous 3 models) right after you fork over your money
But overall, I am very happy to be a new Mac user, despite the fact that I also hate hopping on band-wagons!
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M$
The only reason I switched from a Mac was to play games.
Now that I don't play games anymore I'm back on a Mac.
I spent hours tweaking and reloading on a PC. On my Mac it loads, it works. Done. If it doesn't work it's not going to. There is no tweaking.
Crashes happen for a reason on a Mac. Most people are used to PC crashes that just require tweaking to bypass and they never really know what the problem is.
On a Mac it's due to a real problem that can be isolated and resolved one way or the other.
Having used a Mac for almost as long as they have existed (including the NEXT) I can say that the ease of use that is built in confuses people who are used to a more complicated Microsoft attempt to copy it.
The PC (a misnomer, but used as it is understood for the purposes of this post) is a command line, contextual work environment.
The Mac is a graphical, key combination environment. What a PC user can do with right clicking and drilling down through a myriad of selections, a Mac user can do with a single key combo.
Just like the Mac mouse can be a single button and work perfectly, the PC reduces the brain load of key combos by making 8 button programmable mice.
Sometimes I need a program that was written only for PC so I load the Windows OS onto my Mac (via VMWare Fusion). I've spent days on the phone with Microsoft solving the same problem I had on my PC (a missing/corrupt acpi.sys problem with early Vista OEM installs) and I still haven't gotten to use the software I wanted. I know the solution is possible but I don't miss that very typical Windows problem at all.
I've always preferred a Mac. If more programs were written for the Mac first, there'd be far fewer PC users. Effective advertising doesn't make one better than the other. It's performance under pressure that decides the day.
Like Bose. I asked an audiophile what made Bose speakers so popular. "Effective advertising" was his answer. They actually suck, but the ad campaign and the hype make people learn to accept significantly lower quality and perceive it as superior - in spite of the poor performance when compared to a real audio system.
Not bashing the PC, just prefer the Mac for superior performance under pressure.
And if I get back into games, I'll get a PC again. Or a PS3 (the Xbox comes with BSOD's right out of the box - giving PC users that warm fuzzy "like home" feeling). :)
Now that I don't play games anymore I'm back on a Mac.
I spent hours tweaking and reloading on a PC. On my Mac it loads, it works. Done. If it doesn't work it's not going to. There is no tweaking.
Crashes happen for a reason on a Mac. Most people are used to PC crashes that just require tweaking to bypass and they never really know what the problem is.
On a Mac it's due to a real problem that can be isolated and resolved one way or the other.
Having used a Mac for almost as long as they have existed (including the NEXT) I can say that the ease of use that is built in confuses people who are used to a more complicated Microsoft attempt to copy it.
The PC (a misnomer, but used as it is understood for the purposes of this post) is a command line, contextual work environment.
The Mac is a graphical, key combination environment. What a PC user can do with right clicking and drilling down through a myriad of selections, a Mac user can do with a single key combo.
Just like the Mac mouse can be a single button and work perfectly, the PC reduces the brain load of key combos by making 8 button programmable mice.
Sometimes I need a program that was written only for PC so I load the Windows OS onto my Mac (via VMWare Fusion). I've spent days on the phone with Microsoft solving the same problem I had on my PC (a missing/corrupt acpi.sys problem with early Vista OEM installs) and I still haven't gotten to use the software I wanted. I know the solution is possible but I don't miss that very typical Windows problem at all.
I've always preferred a Mac. If more programs were written for the Mac first, there'd be far fewer PC users. Effective advertising doesn't make one better than the other. It's performance under pressure that decides the day.
Like Bose. I asked an audiophile what made Bose speakers so popular. "Effective advertising" was his answer. They actually suck, but the ad campaign and the hype make people learn to accept significantly lower quality and perceive it as superior - in spite of the poor performance when compared to a real audio system.
Not bashing the PC, just prefer the Mac for superior performance under pressure.
And if I get back into games, I'll get a PC again. Or a PS3 (the Xbox comes with BSOD's right out of the box - giving PC users that warm fuzzy "like home" feeling). :)
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M$
From someone who's been using Windows for about 15 years now (Windows 3.11 for WG), it's hard to explain. My office gave me a MacBookPro earlier this year and I didn't use it for months, it was too confusing.
Then my wife started using it for e-mail, then Skype, now she doesn't touch our PC which i've invested much-dinero into.
Why, because I keep having to re-install because of issues with drivers, my new video card drivers conflicted with Skype, my wireless printer kept losing connection, etc.
All the while the MacBookPro kept just chugging along.
It also the "in" thing these days to be a MicroSoft basher.
Then my wife started using it for e-mail, then Skype, now she doesn't touch our PC which i've invested much-dinero into.
Why, because I keep having to re-install because of issues with drivers, my new video card drivers conflicted with Skype, my wireless printer kept losing connection, etc.
All the while the MacBookPro kept just chugging along.
It also the "in" thing these days to be a MicroSoft basher.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
If I understand correctly, Mac apps don't cause any speed issues unless they are running (unlike Windows apps where things like the registry get clogged up).
So the first thing to check with speed issues is background processes.
There is a free widget called iStat Pro that is handy to see what is running and what percent of CPU is being used. It also shows you the temperature of various components. (Too much heat can be another speed issue)
There is a build in app called Activity Monitor that allows you to see detail on the active processes. Try running it and killing off any unnecessary programs.
If you find a few that aren't needed, then you can take them out of the start up process. Here is an explanation of how to do that.
You could always throw some extra RAM at the problem as well!
Oh, and I believe sometimes you can have bad RAM that will lead to slowness. You can see what is showing as available in iStat above.
Hope that helps!
These are all good answers... Thanks. I do agree that OSX is way better than windows at this point, but i messed around w/ ubuntu for a while and liked that even better. Even though there is more tinkering with ubuntu, everything is free and after a few hours it works and usually keeps on working.
Maybe windows 7 will be impressive, but it will be hard to beat osx. One thing with macs is the actual hardware isnt as good as you can get w/ PC's (more choice). With that comes with the driver issues. Its much harder to deal w/ 1000's of types of hardware, compared to mac who only has to deal with a few types. I could be wrong but im under the impression that apple charge you more for the same hardware, thus having more expensive computers.
All in all i do like osx, just my mac has been bogged down and running slow. Should i reinstall osx or what?