Mac or PC...

zissou'smom

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
6,482
Purraise
8
Originally Posted by ShopCat

What do you prefer?
I don't know anyone personally that is good with a Mac, & that kind of stinks cuz a co worker gave me a nice iMac ...it was given to his Mom, who didn't like it & thus wanted to pass it on. It is a nice computer, but different. I have practically no experience with these things at all & am back to the basics, learning stuff all over again. I feel that it is worth my time spent to learn this system, as different as it may seem at first. What the heck, right?
I'm just looking for opinions, wondering what you might like better, & why.
Also, I know basically nothing about Macs, so any advice would be sincerely appreciated!
Really, just turn it on and fiddle around awhile. They're meant to be intuitive, and there isn't really much to 'learn' how to do-- unlike Windows.

Honestly, all that installing and other rigamaroll you have to go through with a pc is a thing of the past. For example, my old computer had XP Pro on it. It took a disc and about an hour to get my printer installed on it. When I took my new mac out of the box, I plugged it in, connected the printer, and that was that.

Out of curiousity, what OS is it?
 

jcat

Mo(w)gli's can opener
Veteran
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
73,213
Purraise
9,851
Location
Mo(w)gli Monster's Lair
PC here, but not by choice. As a teacher, I have to use the same software the school uses, so a Mac was out of the question.
 

EnzoLeya

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
5,154
Purraise
8
Location
South East Iowa
Right now I wouldn't get a Mac. I really like playing games and they don't have many games that are compatable with the Mac, it would take some getting used to, and they cost a bit more than I can afford right now.
 

lemur 6

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Feb 5, 2005
Messages
640
Purraise
2
I prefer PC's not for the software, but for the ease of manipulating the hardware. You can't build a Mac from scratch like you can with a PC. Just grab your off the shelf components, knock them together and bam you have a PC. You can't do that with a Mac, you have to buy the whole package.

I see Macs like BMW's, and PCs like dirty old Hondas with swapped race engines. Dirty old Honda will beat the pants off the BMW in terms of speed, handling, track performance, but you better know what you're doing. The BMW is what gets the girls, even if you drive like a dolt.
 

sarahp

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
15,841
Purraise
28
Location
Australia
I am not artsy whatsoever and I'm a Mac person. We got a free Macbook laptop 4 years ago now, and I LOVE it. I hadn't used a Mac before and it was so easy to change over to, so much nicer than a PC and so user friendly. It's only just starting to play up a bit, and it's slow now compared to newer laptops, so we're upgrading when Leopard comes out to a Macbook Pro - I am now a Mac girl through and through!

I say get the iMac - they're pretty intuitive, and just let us know if you have any issues
 

forensic

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
1,350
Purraise
2
Location
Buried under the cat
I have the worst luck with Macs. Like most schools, my college had all Mac in most of the labs. I made some of them make funny noises before they died.

My ex told me I was not allowed to touch a Macintosh ever again.


So I'm all PC.
 

saya

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
817
Purraise
2
Location
Napa, CA
viva la macintosh!

macs are so much more user friendly than pc's.
case in point: look at the installation directions for software... for a pc, the directions are 3 pages long... for a mac, about a paragraph!

much easier to maintain too, macs defrag themselves apon startup, and you can run just about anything on a mac these days with the help of "flip4mac" and other programs like it. plus, you don't have to worry about viruses or ruining your entire system if you decide to dump the programs you don't use.

so lucky to have gotten a free mac!

o btw, macs aren't so expensive anymore, I got my mac mini for a little over $200! brand new...
 

renovia

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 26, 2006
Messages
4,360
Purraise
8
Location
Maine
Originally Posted by coaster

I always rated a new program by whether or not I could use it without opening the manual. At one time you could do that with just about everything that ran on a Mac. Not quite so much any more.

Windows XP isn't so bad, so long as you don't have to make any changes -- new software, new hardware. It gets the job done well enough for me.
1. ALL programs have gotten much more intricate - so I don't think the Mac programs are less intuitive, they just require a little more explanation. They are keeping up with the technological - times...

2. as long as you don't make changes (software, hardware)...yuck. you'll need to buy everything you could possibly need ON/WITH the computer because once you use the darn thing there it goes........don't use the XP you'll clog it up....
 

rubsluts'mommy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
2,211
Purraise
11
Location
On the west side of... of... somewhere.
Originally Posted by Renovia

2. as long as you don't make changes (software, hardware)...yuck. you'll need to buy everything you could possibly need ON/WITH the computer because once you use the darn thing there it goes........don't use the XP you'll clog it up....
XP is hands down one of the worst. I've had more issues with my XP PC than with any other computer, mac or pc. Even when my Win98 laptop was online all the time, I had less issues. Back in Chicago, I kept threatening my XP machine with taking a trip out my 7th floor window... I shoulda done it. Now i'm in a ground floor apt. Won't make as much of a mess/crash.

At some point everyone's going to have to add/upgrade software to their PC. Certain mainstream virus programs are the worst out there... and some machines get bundled with that cr**. Other programs are almost as bad. But at some point, you have to try and improve the machine and how it runs. *le sigh*

A.
 

littleraven7726

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 1, 2002
Messages
3,339
Purraise
12
Location
Next to the World's Largest 6-pack
I like XP. I have less issues with XP Pro than I did with Win 98/95 and 3.1 combined.
You couldn't pay me to bog this machine down with Vista.
I told DH I'd buy an empty machine and load Linux before I'd run Vista. Talk about a bloated OS. Yuck.
 

coaster

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 28, 2005
Messages
5,174
Purraise
7
Location
Wisconsin
Ya, I agree with that. I don't know why Amanda has so many problems with XP. It's miles above ME, SE, 98, and everything preceding. Yes, it's a real pain with new installations and when it breaks refill your anti-depressant prescriptions and stock up on cold beer. But preceding versions were the same or worse. When XP is running smoothly, if you just leave it alone and do regular defrags and disk cleanups then it runs pretty good.
 

rubsluts'mommy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
2,211
Purraise
11
Location
On the west side of... of... somewhere.
Originally Posted by coaster

Ya, I agree with that. I don't know why Amanda has so many problems with XP. It's miles above ME, SE, 98, and everything preceding. Yes, it's a real pain with new installations and when it breaks refill your anti-depressant prescriptions and stock up on cold beer. But preceding versions were the same or worse. When XP is running smoothly, if you just leave it alone and do regular defrags and disk cleanups then it runs pretty good.
Of course, putting XP on an inferior machine doesn't help. Granted, my XP machine runs a smidgen better with some new hardware... inferior machines cause problems... both of my PC's are from a major 'budget' company (cow print on boxes, you know who I'm talking about), and have had nothing but headaches since buying it. The threat of being tossed out the window back in Chicago was at least once a month... and no, it wasn't my PMS talking...


And regular defrags/cleanups don't get everything... trust me on this. If all you ever need in a computer is right out of the box, then fine... but when you really dig in and use your computers a lot, like i do, you're going to add things... you aren't going to be satisfied with the mainstream crud we all get sold (neither major antivirus programs are worth their money). Hence you're going to add programs at some point.

Don't mean to be all bit**y, but I've been sick for over a week now and am frustrated by it not going away... just wish my equilibrium would return to normal.... dang-it.

My XP machine doesn't get powered up much anymore due to its attitude problems. And the fact I have no room for the keyboard to sit ON the desk (no under desk trays... I had to kill the last one), due to the monitor being an old CRT. Once i can afford a flat screen, maybe... MAYBE... it'll get turned o- *ahem
* powered up more. It's also been turned into a dual-boot (I think that's the right term) machine, purely by accident... I had to do a reinstall of XP (bad machine, bad, bad machine), and messed it up... now i have two XP's running... it has no hiccups with that ... just other things. Now, if i can turn one XP into Linux... I'll be set. Mind you, I don't run to the big box store's tech boys to fix my problems... I usually can fix them myself... and if, by some chance, I can't then I call one of my friends and have them walk me through more thorough diagnostics...

Back to the couch and knitting I go... I hate being sick... makes me all pis*y...

Amanda
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #37

shopcat

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
463
Purraise
1
Location
The Rocket Garden
Wow! I'm off the computer for a couple of days & look what happens!lol
Thanks to everyone for your replies.
Here is a picture of the Mac..

(I know the speakers don't match, they are for another computer)
And some basics I wrote down the other day.
Mac OS X
version 10.4.6
processor 800mhz Power pcG4
Pioneer DVD-RW
DVR-104
etc, etc.
Judging from what I've seen in the Mac version of an event log, I think it's from 2006. A co-worker's Mom got it from a co worker(also for free)she didn't like it & didn't want it around the house. The person who gave it to her is the father of a kind of famous baseball player-there are still some pics of him in it, & some good photo editing software. Unfortunately, not Photoshop, but Photoshop Elements 3.
I found a good Mac book at the library the other day & have been looking thru that, & I think it has what they are calling a super drive?
I have tried to open the program for DvDs to have a look around, but it keeps opening up in classic view, but then tells me it won't run in classic view!
I haven't had much time to get too deep into it or experiment with it much yet, but i can see how people could get addicted to them.
It seems easy enough, just like anything different, it'll take some getting used to.
 
Top