To Mac or Not To Mac...?

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Duvi

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Jun 18, 2006
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Well... I put my Dell XPS as I've been thinking of going Apple. I have an iPhone and this device is perfect for me... I feel like I would get the same feeling with a mac. Am I stupid in thinking/wanting a mac? I have never had problems with my XPS, which I just got last year for a little over 1500$. I do not want to build and I've tried. I have no interest in doing it again... Stay with windows or Mac it up?


The most I do on my pc is play counter-strike 1.6 and download music.

I also love surfing phone sites for news and things and that's about it....

Thanks in advance,
S.
 
if youre thinking about it, go for it. most people that try apple end up liking them. if the only game you play is cs 1.6, you could get away with this through boot camp, depending on the mac you buy.

i used to build my pcs, and once i bought my first mac, there has been no looking back. now i have a dual g5, a g4 cube, and a macbook. just bought my parents a 20 inch imac for christmas. it seems to be sticking with them better than the pc i built for them.

and no, you are not stupid for thinking/wanting a mac. despite what bill's legions of fanboys tell you. are you stupid for wanting any computer? no. are you stupid for wanting a computer that you dont have to dick with every day? no.
 
I went mac last sep (bought a MacBook to replace my Inspiron) and have been overwhelmingly happy with the move. I have it running Vista on a 30gig boot camp partition but honestly I never use windows on the MacBook. I still have XP on my desktop rig and I work on XP boxes all the time and I frequently find myself wanting for OSX features I've become used to. I will say the first 30min with the Macbook took some adjusting but since then I've never looked back. If u are gonna go mac I reccomend the Apple refurb site. I got my MB there and saved $200 for a comp that is identical to a new one and comes with the same warranty.
 
To add to that, the iPhone is simply amazing when paired with a mac, itunes, iphoto, ical, and mail - perfectly in sync without doing any work at all. I was amazed coming from a Windows Mobile phone, and Windows in general.

Note: I have not used the iphone on Windows, so I have nothing to compare to, I was just amazed at how seamless everything was. Plug it in once, and everything works.
 
Being an ex-Mac user that switched to PC, I can honestly say that there isn't really much difference between Mac OS X and Windows. People might say, oh Mac OS X is much better and vice versa, but seriously, there isn't much difference, and I don't feel that I am losing out.
 
I have both and i see no reason not to have a mac. I would recommend having both os's. Just to be sure you dont have to worry about anything not being compatible (zune for example).
 
I am in the process of selling my PC to go Mac. My dads a recording engineer and uses Macs almost everyday. I love them, and decided to join. You won't be dissapointed.
 
I bought a Mac mini about a year ago, loved OS X so much that I sold it and upgraded to a Mac Pro. Go Mac, you'll not regret it.
 
One more vote for Mac, I use my MBP on the road all the time and then come home to my q6600 4gb vista64 monster. Ultimately both systems do what they are intended to do vista64 for multiple vm (including a OSX10.4 VM) and gaming, then the MBP for light computing and things that need to "just work" IE presentations at work, office apps..etc.

I Have a Mac Mini up for sale if interested.
 
Do it. You won't be disappointed. It is just a more elegant way of doing things, and frankly, you will be VERY pleased by how seamlessly your phone syncs with iCal/Mail/etc.
 
I say go for it as well. I have an old g4 aluminum powerbook which was my first mac and it is/was awesome. I am hoping to upgrade to a 24" imac if the wifey lets me ;) Also, a couple of my friends and I went out on a road trip one summer and we used a handy cam to film all the crazy stuff we did. I used one of the apps that came with the powerbook to compile the DVD. I think the new macs still come with the iMovie application.
 
sounds like from what you use your computer for switching over to a mac would be easy. Just get a macbook/macbook pro if you're going to go with a laptop, they should both be able to run cs 1.6 in boot camp.
 
I just made the plunge to all Mac as of like 20 minutes ago, haha. I bought a Core Duo MacBook to replace a Dell 700m about 1.5 years ago and just today ordered a Mac Pro to replace my DIY Athlon 64 X2 desktop.

If your machine was older I would say no doubt make the switch if you like the way the iPhone works, but since it's just a year old and apparently a decent system, I don't think it's worth the money to upgrade now because you wouldn't be getting much of a performance increase; you'd just be paying all that money to switch operating systems basically.

If you do decide to do it now though, my only suggestion would be to do any HDD or RAM upgrades yourself. I know you said you don't want to mess with building anything, but you save so much money because they really stick it to you on those upgrades. Like the Mac Pro, to go from the stock 2GB to 8GB costs $1,500 if you have Apple do it. If you do it yourself 8GB of the same RAM costs $430. Then you'd actually have the stock 2GB left so you would have 10GB total or you could sell the 2GB to offset a bit of the cost. It costs $550 to go from a 320GB HDD to a 1TB one whereas you can buy a 1TB drive for ~$230 and still have the 320GB drive left over. You can search on youtube for videos of the installation process. On the MacBooks and Mac Pros upgrading the HDDs and RAM is incredibly easy.
 
I did the same. I fell in love with my iPhone after seeing how seamlessly the apps integrate with each other and could only imagine how cool it would be if OS X was like that too.... and it is. Everything just works.

I'm loving my Mac Pro so far and still have an extra 500GB internal drive that I can boot into Vista-64 on if I want to game.

I'm finding little things that most people would take for granted, just wonderful. Like.. I'll open my "movies" folder and it actually opens exactly where I left it, even after a reboot. It has the correct dimensions and the correct browsing method (cover flow with a long list underneath for easy quick viewing) every time I open it. With Vista it was like a lucky dip every time I opened any folder. Like a party game, it would be a random size, in a random place and have seemingly random 'view' options that didn't often correspond with the data in that folder.

Just stuff like that really get me. It sounds like an advert but when they say, "it just works" they really aren't kidding.
 
lamboman said:
Being an ex-Mac user that switched to PC, I can honestly say that there isn't really much difference between Mac OS X and Windows. People might say, oh Mac OS X is much better and vice versa, but seriously, there isn't much difference, and I don't feel that I am losing out.
Click to expand...

Same here. I lived, breathed, and ate Macintosh until about 3 years ago, eventually moving to the PC as many apps I was interested in weren't PPC compatible. Now, with bootcamp this is a non-issue... But it doesn't change the fact that I really didn't miss much about OS X.

The OS is stable as hell, and mac products are built like a bullet proof tank, but I find applications, on the whole, are more stable under Windows. I get more crashes, ESPECIALLY when PPC programs are emulated under rosetta, on either of my macs per day, than I have yet to have on my pc, in 2 years.

Having said that, there are a bunch of features on OS X that you'll fall in love with, and wonder how you got along without. Things like, Exposee and spaces, for example. Plus, things are alot more elegant, such as control panels, systemwide shortcuts, application UI's are generally more intuitive, etc. The wireless support is incredible, with good file sharing protocols to boot (yet, still, sharing is a bit more quirky than over XP...)

I'm sure you'll love OS X, just as you like XP. Neither is particularly better than the other, they trade blows often, they each have their quirks etc.

Perhaps you could purchase an imac or something with a dedicated GPU, to play CSS under bootcamp, and still enjoy one of the best OOB computer experiences to date (the iMac, that is).
 
Arcygenical said:
Same here. I lived, breathed, and ate Macintosh until about 3 years ago, eventually moving to the PC as many apps I was interested in weren't PPC compatible. Now, with bootcamp this is a non-issue... But it doesn't change the fact that I really didn't miss much about OS X.

The OS is stable as hell, and mac products are built like a bullet proof tank, but I find applications, on the whole, are more stable under Windows. I get more crashes, ESPECIALLY when PPC programs are emulated under rosetta, on either of my macs per day, than I have yet to have on my pc, in 2 years.
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Moving to Mac, I have to say everything isn't flowers and roses, I have the occasional problem here and there (as well as crashes). But actually using my computer has been a blast. OS X's workflow is so much easier to me to understand and take advantage of, and that's something I disliked from Windows.

But to the OP, I have to voice my other opinion too. I'm assuming you have a pretty powerful machine, so unless you have some way of stomaching the cost (or selling the XPS), buying the iMac isn't something I would do on a whim.
 
If you are stupid for wanting to try a Mac, I must be totally nuts. I have never owned an Apple product. I don't have a reasonable rationale for wanting one (like already enjoying th iPhone). I only want one because all the cool people on Revision3 podcasts use them and because they are pretty. I'm such a tool.
 
Thanks for all the responses...

I also have a g5 laser mouse and wanted to know if I'm able to use that on a mac as well?

I just love my iPhone and realize that if the first apple experience I have has been this good, 99.9% chance, I won't be dis-satisfied with a mac.

Edit: How easy is it to bootcamp? I am very tech savy, but I like things to be automatic (where I download the program and click install and everything is done for me)
 
dopefire said:
Edit: How easy is it to bootcamp? I am very tech savy, but I like things to be automatic (where I download the program and click install and everything is done for me)
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You just run the Bootcamp application, choose a drive/partition, put in your Windows CD and click a button. Then after Windows has installed you put the Leopard disc in and it installs some drivers for the Mac hardware.

It's really that simple and supports Vista 64bit too.
 
raddevon said:
If you are stupid for wanting to try a Mac, I must be totally nuts. I have never owned an Apple product. I don't have a reasonable rationale for wanting one (like already enjoying th iPhone). I only want one because all the cool people on Revision3 podcasts use them and because they are pretty. I'm such a tool.
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diggnation! Alex is now the only windows user because randolplh got the air lol.
 
OS X has it own annoyances. You'll find things you like and hate about both. Personally I prefer to have control over my hardware and like to be able to upgrade my video card. If you want a new video card in any consumer level mac you have to throw away the entire computer and buy a new one.

Of course if one just installed OSX on his or her's PC one could have the best of both worlds ;)
 
Or would adding the OS X to my PC be the best? I really don't know what I want... I'm too comfortable with windows, but everytime I try something new, I end up liking it.

Phone wise... went from a regular phone, to a smartphone (nokia 6682,) then to a wm smartphone, then a pda (treos) then blackberries (loved this switch) and then the iPhone (even more love.)

Other things it's the same way... It could just be that I love spending money (waisting) or feel it will really be a better experience for me.

Question: What the pros and cons of using OS X on my XPS versus Windows Vista on a Mac?

One for windows on mac was one mentioned by someone... which is being able to upgrade my video card, but I really don't do that. As long as I have a card as good as my GeForce 7300 LE. Also am I even able to put a Geforce in my mac... I honestly do not like Radeon, never have, never will... I notice that all the iMac comps have radeon vid cards.
 
dopefire said:
Or would adding the OS X to my PC be the best? I really don't know what I want... I'm too comfortable with windows, but everytime I try something new, I end up liking it.

Phone wise... went from a regular phone, to a smartphone (nokia 6682,) then to a wm smartphone, then a pda (treos) then blackberries (loved this switch) and then the iPhone (even more love.)

Other things it's the same way... It could just be that I love spending money (waisting) or feel it will really be a better experience for me.

Question: What the pros and cons of using OS X on my XPS versus Windows Vista on a Mac?

One for windows on mac was one mentioned by someone... which is being able to upgrade my video card, but I really don't do that. As long as I have a card as good as my GeForce 7300 LE. Also am I even able to put a Geforce in my mac... I honestly do not like Radeon, never have, never will... I notice that all the iMac comps have radeon vid cards.
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We can't talk about that here, and honestly I wouldn't recommend it. You're going to have to jump through a few hoops, which defeats the purpose. At the end of the day, it's an operating system. Do you really want to put that much work into it, at the risk of it breaking one day?
 
dopefire said:
Question: What the pros and cons of using OS X on my XPS versus Windows Vista on a Mac?

One for windows on mac was one mentioned by someone... which is being able to upgrade my video card, but I really don't do that. As long as I have a card as good as my GeForce 7300 LE. Also am I even able to put a Geforce in my mac... I honestly do not like Radeon, never have, never will... I notice that all the iMac comps have radeon vid cards.
Click to expand...

A card as good as your 7300LE?! Well I guess if you like that then gaming isn't your thing. It's a pretty crappy card. Nothing wrong with Radeon cards either. I've owned Nvidia and ATI and just go with what is best at the time. I'm running a Radeon x1900xtx now that works great.
If you are happy with your video card then you won't be concerned with not being able to upgrade your video card in a mac.

As to your first question, there is nothing special about mac hardware. It's just off the shelf PC hardware. You might as well ask what's the performance of running windows on one set of hardware or another.

Running OSX on your PC isn't exactly legal. And depending on your hardware it may not be possible at all, may involve a few hoops, or everything may work 100% right after the install with no tweaking needed(I speak from experience).
 
Oh great ... thanks for the answers... I didn't know it wasn't legit. I thought they might have actually sold OS X for PC. Sorry to sound like a noOb.
 
dopefire said:
Oh great ... thanks for the answers... I didn't know it wasn't legit. I thought they might have actually sold OS X for PC. Sorry to sound like a noOb.
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Yeah its really counter intuitive. You would think that since they have built it to run on intel based pc's that they would help port it over to create a larger user base, but I think that they're much happier selling hardware that might be a little bit overpriced ;)
 
Black-Tom said:
Yeah its really counter intuitive. You would think that since they have built it to run on intel based pc's that they would help port it over to create a larger user base, but I think that they're much happier selling hardware that might be a little bit overpriced ;)
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Apple has always been a hardware company, not a software company. Microsoft could not survive selling just optical mice and keyboards; Apple could not survive selling just operating systems.

there is nothing special about mac hardware. It's just off the shelf PC hardware.
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That's not exactly true. It's more like *modified* off-the-shelf PC hardware. They have the EFI thing instead of a BIOS, They also modify the firmware of some of the parts to be Mac-specific.

I notice that all the iMac comps have radeon vid cards.
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There is one, and ONLY one, model of Mac that has a video card you can actually remove and replace; The Mac Pro, which starts at $2299 with one CPU. Every other model of Mac has everything integrated into the system board or otherwise inaccessible.

One of the big issues with people debating the switch is that aside from some stupid commercials where they exaggerate Windows flaws, most people don't have direct access TO a Mac, especially one they can tinker with. Many people go in blinded by the power of marketing and expect the Mac to be this wonderful thing. For the most part OS X does nothing that Windows can't do, it just does it prettier or more proprietary. Many people don't want a Mac for OS X, they want a Mac for Final Cut Pro.

I can say I fooled with iWeb '08 a bit yesterday and for a totally uncreative non-programmer like me it was the first time I had *fun* making a web page. I cranked out a quick homepage and some galleries without a line of HTML and it doesn't look like a crappy 1997 Geocities page.
 
SuperSubZero said:
Apple has always been a hardware company, not a software company. Microsoft could not survive selling just optical mice and keyboards; Apple could not survive selling just operating systems.
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Of course they could. Microsoft get's by just fine selling just software. Apple can do both. People will always buy apple computers, even if OSX ran on any PC. But apple would make alot more money just off of software sales alone. Thier market opens up dramatically.

SuperSubZero said:
That's not exactly true. It's more like *modified* off-the-shelf PC hardware. They have the EFI thing instead of a BIOS, They also modify the firmware of some of the parts to be Mac-specific.
Click to expand...

EFI is a rather minor difference. However, there are now PC motherboards that use EFI. I'm not aware of any other firmware being "mac specific". You can replace parts with PC parts aside from the video cards in the Mac Pro only because those have to support EFI and Nvidia/ATI doen't sell those yet to the general public.
 
The classic should I get a Mac cause its better debate. If you want one then go for it! That’s the great thing about free choice.

I’ll probably never own a Mac until the OS is separate from the hardware and for me that’s kind of a big deal. Plus, I really don’t know of any applications that only exist in the Mac world that I would use. I know that a lot of audio people are into Mac’s, but there are tons of great apps for that for Windows. The iPhone is cool, but it doesn’t do anything that I don’t already have.

I see Apple as a company that promotes form over function, which actually can be a complement, like the iPhone. Windows Mobile should have had a decent web browser years ago, we’re finally going to get a couple this year, thanks to the iPhone getting people interested in mobile web browsers.

Choice is wonderful!
 
dopefire said:
Well... I put my Dell XPS as I've been thinking of going Apple. I have an iPhone and this device is perfect for me... I feel like I would get the same feeling with a mac. Am I stupid in thinking/wanting a mac? I have never had problems with my XPS, which I just got last year for a little over 1500$. I do not want to build and I've tried. I have no interest in doing it again... Stay with windows or Mac it up?


The most I do on my pc is play counter-strike 1.6 and download music.

I also love surfing phone sites for news and things and that's about it....

Thanks in advance,
S.
Click to expand...

The only reason I keep a PC is for games like Team Fortress 2 and Company Of Heroes (plus the habit of building a new machine every 2-3 years). Macs are awesome. I got my first one, a G4 desktop expressly for Final Cut Studio back in 2002 and I grew to love OS X. OS 10.5 pretty much blows Vista and XP away at this point. Now I see Windows solely as a place I can play my Steam games on, and now you can just dual boot if you want. I've seen TF2 run great on even the previous gen iMacs. The current 24" iMac is my favorite computer I've ever owned (and I've been building my own PCs for 11 years now), so yeah, if you're on the fence then you should check them out.
 
heatlesssun said:
I’ll probably never own a Mac until the OS is separate from the hardware and for me that’s kind of a big deal. Plus, I really don’t know of any applications that only exist in the Mac world that I would use. I know that a lot of audio people are into Mac’s, but there are tons of great apps for that for Windows.
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It comes down to OS preference. There is nothing I can't do applicationswise aside from Windows gaming that I can't do just as well or better on OS X. Hell, my favorite FTP and Usenet programs are OS X exclusive programs. Even though Blizzard, id, Epic, and EA games have native OS X versions of their games, if you really want to game you need Windows, bottom line (because Valve DOESN'T have native OS X apps :) ).
 
No need to thread cap but can you buy osx disk and install it on any computer? Like lets say i wanted to put os x on this pc could i just install it like xp?
 
No need to thread cap but can you buy osx disk and install it on any computer? Like lets say i wanted to put os x on this pc could i just install it like xp?
Click to expand...

There are ways. None are explicitly easy, none are legal, and all get you a closed thread if you talk about it here :p
 
Just a FYI, since people had mentioned Steam.. I have Steam running through VMWare Fusion in Mac OS X, keeping my Steam things up to date and keeping me logged into friends.

If I want to actually play something I'll reboot into Vista but all other times I can manage my game list through OS X quite happily.

Since I'm playing WoW again, I'm spending very little time in Windows, apart from the odd TF2 or CoD session. WoW is running at 2560x1600 at 60fps pretty much consistently on the new MacPro 8800GT, through OS X.
 
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