Forum Moderators: travelin cat
I use frontpage, office and what if I want to play a few games are there still this bumb to get ower.
What about the sound is it only a normal 128 or is it also quality and what if I want to transfer some files to my PC laptop.
The stock video and sound cards are great compared to your run-of-the-mill PCs, especially on a G5. Transferring files to your Mac is getting easier and easier, as Mac knows that's a big deal to "switchers". You can transfer online for free using their iDisk method, or assuming your PC has USB or IEEE394(Firewire) ports, you can just transfer that way with minimal hassle. Macs can even boot up as target disks (Apple+T) if you have a firewire port on your PC.
Customer support and machine build quality are second to none. Mostly this can be attributed to the fact that Mac doesn't outsource parts the way Dell, Gateway, etc do. It's like the difference between a 2005 Honda and a 1985 Chrysler. I've had my G4 Powerbook for 3 years (edit: not only have I had it for 3 years, but it's pretty much been running ever since the day I bought it... I think I turned it off once... Christmas of '04 maybe...), and only last month did I have my first issue with it. Their support in Houston TX shipped me a secure box on Monday; I shipped my Mac to them on Tuesday; I got it back on Wednesday.
The only reasons I would not buy a Mac:
1) Pricey
2) OS-X (as compared to Windows 2000 which I use at work) is a little too slow and tactile if you like to speed through menus and commands and do everything at a mile a minute. Where Windows 2000 might instantly react when you click on a menu item, OS-X will blink cutely for .2 seconds and then show you the item. It adds up at the end of the day. If Mac didn't have such great keyboard shortcuts, I would say that doing the same 8 hours of work on my work PC would take 10 hours on a similarly equipped Mac. Of course, Mac DOES have great keyboard shortcut support, so if you can learn how to manipulate those, the OS will be just as fast if not faster in everyday use than Windows.
[edited by: Don_Hoagie at 2:33 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2005]
thanks for your opinions.
OSX comes with Apache, PHP and MySQL already installed
Are you sure about MySQL? I don't recall ever having seen it in a default install (though I haven`t tried 10.4 yet). However, it's easy to install with a package like MAMP.
1) Pricey
Sheese! The new version is $100 LESS than the older version! Guess lowering prices doesn't make every one happy, since there's those that want the poor quality $500 Windows computers that get bombed with viruses, spyware, and crashes!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only downside to this upgrade that I saw was no increase in hard-drive space. :(
So, if you are shopping on price, be sure to include what adding these features on to the PC you would be looking at would cost. (Well, the features you plan on using.)
Plus I think the 512 MB of RAM is hard wired so any RAM purchase is automatically *adding* more RAM. (You don't have to pull out a RAM chip and replace it with a larger one to see a benefit, like in the Mac Mini.)
Are you sure about MySQL?
Yuppers; got it right here.
As for Front Page, we usta have it; we may still, but no webmaster with any pride will use it. Its output sucks so hard, it makes your ears pop.
My only question is... being almost entirely white, how grubby do they look after a while? Does the keyboard start to look really unsightly after a few months hard use?
my white mouse is perpetually stained with grit. I am dirty tho.
the white plastic cleans up well but!
And Re: my "pricey" comment: I didn't say they're too expensive, or not worth it. I own one for christ's sake, and spent a whole post promoting them. But price out a comparably equipped PC from most of the manufacturers, and the Macs- for plenty of good reasons- are consistently more expensive. Hence, pricey.
Justin
