Anyone besides me have a Mac and if so what do you think of it compared to windows?

I think my MacBook the best computer investment that I ever made. No more locking up or freezing, no auto shut downs, pop-ups or viruses, and it's fast. I happen to have a fairly new windows PC that we purchased about a year ago and it is almost impossible to work on without a few disasters.

~Sheila

Mac appreciation thread! If I could marry my Macbook, I'd probably swear off men. Okay, not really. (Yet.)

I used a Windows laptop for a number of years, and it was just a ritual wiping of the hard drive every few months due to viruses or other issues.

I have to admit, all the RAM in the world couldn't make a computer fast enough for me, but it's my sick, RAM-eating career. Some days I have the urge to hide under my desk.

And finally I'll let my superficial side out and say, Macs are soooo pretty, and everything on the screen is pretty. <g> I could actually do nothing on World of Warcraft and just stare at the graphics all day. My mom came to visit last month and gushed over the feel of the keyboard LOL.

JD

I've been a PC user all my life, but having one of my bestest buddies (Lara!) and a boyfriend who are Mac geeks, I've been converted.

I have to wait until October, when Permanent Fund Dividends come out (Alaska, I love thee), but then I'm getting my first iMac. I'm so excited I've been dreaming about it!

Jessi

Ditto. ...I mean, unless Clark Kent actually walks into my office one morning - cause then, all bets are off. *giggles*

I've been a Mac user since 1993. I had never even owned a PC until a couple years ago when I bough a laptop (which, incidentally, is the worst piece of crap I've ever owned, bar none).

It's like Alaska, once you try it, it really sucks to have to go back.... *winks at Jessi* I'd strongly suggest everyone give it a try, at least once in their life.

Ooooh... btw - what's everyone think of the iPod Touch?? I'm totally drooling over the webpage... I so want one of those!! *sighs*

I've been a Mac user since I bought one in '95, and I haven't looked back since. Oh, sure, I own a Windows XP system, but my iBook is always sitting next to me. Apple has treated me real well, even giving me a new laptop when the logic board in the previous one died 3 times in as many years. When I first started working at my current job, someone dubbed me the Mac Goddess, and I proudly wore that title. Sadly, the only remnant of that is on my work website.

I'm not too sure of the iPod touch. It looks pretty darn cool, but it's way too little space for way too much money. I'd rather upgrade my 30GB to the 160GB, even though I don't have anywhere near that amount of music. Maybe when my current iPod dies, the iPod touch will have dropped in price or drastically raised the space.

I have zero Mac knowledge. Can you run programs like Microsoft Office on a Mac?

If there's a Mac version of it, yes. I have Office for Mac on my machine, myself.

Then again, Mac computers can be booted in Windows now (though I fail to see the real point in running WinXP on such a beautiful computer) so you can technically run absolutely ANYTHING on a Mac.

Hehehe!

I have Microsoft office that I purchased separately for my Mac (Office for Mac). But after learning my Mac I realized that I could have used iWorks for the same purpose. I don't have parallels on my Mac. I've read reviews that said that the windows program freezes, shuts down and subjects your Mac to the same worms and viruses.

I agree!

~Sheila

I have had a Windows computer ever since I was, say, 6 years old (my dad's in ICT business, so our house was practically stuffed with computers). I have to say that I loooove the look of the mac computers, but having been practically raised with windows (apple wasn't as big back then) I find it very hard to use (x is on the other side of the screen - whoever came up with THAT?). I keep hearing positive feedback for the Mac, and more and more negative responses to Windows (especially Vista), so maybe I should consider buying a Mac sometime.

The problem is, though, I can NEVER EVER win that stupid chess game!

I'm mostly a PC user, but when I needed a laptop a couple of years ago I ended up buying an iBook G4 and on the whole don't regret it.

Pros are the near-instantaneous access when I open the lid, the reliability, and very good stability.

Cons are software incompatibility with the PCs, much more restricted range of games, and less compatibility with some types of external hardware; for example I wanted a microscope camera and because of the way I'm set up it would mostly be used on the laptop - I could get any of a dozen models around £50-100 for the PC, the cheapest Mac compatible is several hundred pounds. Keyboards are another example - there are hundreds available for PCs, virtually none other than Apples' own for Macs.

There's a Mac version of Microsoft office, but it's nowhere near as good as the PC version - no idea why, it just isn't. But Open Office is Microsoft Office compatible, free, and better, and there are versions for just about every platform including Mac, Linux, and PC.

The only serious problem I have, and it's probably only noticeable to someone who lays out VERY large documents in e.g. Word or Open Office Writer, is that the way fonts are handled differs slightly between the PC and the Mac; after several pages the page and column breaks in documents will be in slightly different places, and things such as text boxes may suddenly shift from one page to another. It sounds trivial, but the last book I worked on was nearly 100 pages of double-column text with lots of illustrations, text boxes, etc., and every time I worked on it on the iBook I had to accept that I couldn't lay it out with any accuracy, since everything would be changed when I got it back on the PC.

Forgot to add that if I ever have no choice but to go over to Windows Vista on my PCs I would certainly choose to go Mac instead, or possibly switch to Linux. Vista is AWFUL...

I'm what people would consider a power user on both platforms. I build my own PC's and currently have six of them in my house and have never bought a brand name. My platform of choice, though, is the Mac and have several of those as well. I use my Mac Pro at home for virtually everything and nothing slows it down. I can render videos for my media server at better than real time, surf the web, run email, run Aperture (a professional photo management app) and run Parallels with Windows all at the same without that computer breaking a sweat. And it's rock solid, too.

On the other side of my desk is my personal Windows Vista machine that gets turned on maybe once in a blue moon.

When I'm away from my desk, I have my trusty MacBook Pro with the gorgeous 15" LED glossy screen. Why can't PC vendors make a laptop that isn't ugly?

For those who need Windows and like Macs, the Intel Macs are the ultimate computer (sorry M5). You have several different ways of running Windows for those programs that just don't have a counterpart on the Mac side. For games and speedy 3-D graphics, Apple makes it easy to install Boot Camp on a partition of your drive or a separate drive on a desktop machine. Booting into it gives you a fully functional Windows machine with no Mac OS. Many stories you read on the web will tell you that Macs run Windows better than most PC's do, and faster too.

If you want Windows side-by-side with Mac OS, there are several different options, the two most common being Parallels Desktop and VMWare's Fusion. Both are excellent products and run Windows programs quite well. In fact, both PD and Fusion have modes that hide the Windows desktop so it looks like the Windows apps are running on the Mac desktop and are fully compatible with OS X's Expose. The latest Parallels beta (build 5148) even has the option of showing your Mac documents, pictures, movies and music folder in place of the ones you would normally have in Windows so you are essentially using the same home folder in both operating systems.

For those who don't want to pay Microsoft a dime for a version of Windows, there's CrossOver, an app that came out of WINE (self-referencing acronym that stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator) that essentially emulates the Windows programming interface allowing you to run Windows programs without Windows. What it does is translates Windows programming calls (aka API calls) into the Mac equivalents and it does it at nearly full speed. It isn't fully comprehensive, so check CrossOver's list of supported Windows apps before you buy it.

I wouldn't even run Windows except my development tools only run on Windows (I'm a software engineer using Visual Studio 2005).

I also have a little Mac Mini that sits in my media closet acting as a media server streaming TV shows and movies to my Apple TV's. I've ripped hundreds of my own DVD's and placed them on my Mini with two terabyte hard drives and can watch them on demand.

I also recently converted my wife to the Mac (she's on her second iMac - one of those awesome-looking aluminum 20" iMacs) because she loves using Aperture to make photo books and Photoshop for photo editing.

For those who need Microsoft Office, the one on the Mac isn't very good and isn't even Intel-native, but then why would Microsoft make Office for Mac a top priority? Consider this... iWork '08 and NeoOffice for Mac (free, open source app that's way ahead of Open Office and was written from the ground up as a Mac app instead of having X11 roots) both support the file formats that Office 2007 for Windows uses while Microsoft can't even write a decent translator for Office Mac 2004, which shamefully doesn't support Office 2007's new formats. The new Office for Mac 2008 is expected to ship in mid-January.

If you really need Office, though, you can always run it in Parallels or Fusion. That's what my wife does since Entourage is bad even for a Microsoft app.

As for the iPod touch, I already have one on order, shipping by September 28 and delivered by October 2. I can't wait and am already counting the hours. Who cares about the iPhone with its 2-year contract with AT&T and the pathetic EDGE network? <g> Karen's right that the 16GB is pretty paltry, but I'm sure I can make do even though I really want it for photos and videos and, of course, web surfing through WiFi. Meanwhile my old iPod with the 60GB hard drive will stay in my car.

I have a Macbook and am absolutely in love with it. There are a few things about Windows that I miss (mostly just a few games and such that can only run on windows), but once I get the Parallels software, that will be taken care of.

What kind of games did you want to run? Be careful since neither Parallels Desktop nor VMWare Fusion support DirectX 9 or 10. They are both stuck supporting DirectX 8.1 with Parallels working slightly better than VMWare with game compatibility. If the games you want to run rely on 9 or 10, you may have to resort to Boot Camp to play them as Boot Camp is a fully operational Windows computer.

Parallels has stated they are working on DirectX 9 compatibility that will be released as a point release for version 3, so if you buy 3.0, you'll get it for free when it's ready. VMWare is very tight-lipped and has not stated what they're working on.

As another warning, Microsoft's EULA (End-User License Agreement; yeah that thing nobody reads and clicks past immediately) permits only Vista Business Edition or Ultimate Edition to be run in virtualization as Parallels and VMWare work, so Vista Basic, Home, and Home Premium are out. Windows XP has no such limitation. Boot Camp is not a virtual machine, so the Microsoft license restriction doesn't apply.

Ah I see. Well specifically the game I've been dying to play since I got it (because so far I haven't had a computer to support it) is the Desperate Housewives PC game.

Would you recommend Parallels or Bootcamp?

I've always used macs at home,
but my high school's and uni requirements meant that I had no choice but to learn my way around the PC,
and at the moment uni-requirements are that I need to use office for mac (especially with regards to word, xcell, and occasionally powerpoint...)
even though most people say the opposite, I liked the mac versions better as I was used to them and could find my way around them...
I tell you windows for mac was one of the best things ever, as it meant compatibility which had never been experienced before...

I agree, though...
on OS10 (now I use 10.4) I have never had any bugs nor virus' nor flash-restarts... this computer is 3 yrs old, and before then I have been using macs since 93...

at the moment I have the powerbook G4 (pre-intell)
I have had 1 major problem though using some old software that the uni provided for me to do 3d chemical structures etc.... the program was obsolete (with 8.0 being the latest OS it ran for on mac), and there were huge bugs in it... but the company was out of business, and the uni required meant that I needed to use that program (I eventually gave up and used the university PCs). I tried to use another program for macs, but since the uni did not have it I was not allowed.... something about the lecturer comparing data on his computer and giving electronic files that did not convert...


I have been considering upgrading so as I can play some on-line games with my friends, this one has no mac equivalent unlike WoWC... but they think I am stupid to spend money on only a game...so I havnt yet
I love my 12" too, they don't make them anymore... and it is so cute...and light... compared to bulky, ugly, annoying and unreliable PCs

I use Parallels myself, though I don't run very much in the way of PC software. I find it annoying to have to reboot in order to get into Windows, so I stopped using Boot Camp a long time ago. If rebooting doesn't bother you, then Boot Camp should work fine for you, but keep in mind OS X is not running while you're running Windows.

I checked on the game you mentioned for software requirements. It seems to require DirectX 9. It seems it will run on both Windows XP and Vista. If you really want to run this, then Boot Camp seems to be what you'll need. Or you can wait until Parallels supports DirectX 9.

Once you go Mac, you'll never look back

As an update, yesterday VMWare came out with a new beta version, 1.1, that introduces "experimental" DirectX 9 support. It's missing shaders, so any game requiring DirectX 9a, 9b, or 9c won't work. Parallels has yet to support any form of DirectX 9.

I'm a Mac user since 1992. I just bought a new MacBook so I can run Windows XP using Parallels for work (mostly Visio). I know there are several Mac apps that do the same flow documentation, but there either isn't a smooth import/export function or the look gets funky on the other end.

I don't reboot into Windows, though. I just open Parallells and emulate Windows when I need it.

Cheers!
BJ