Cool, I'll go check that out.PoisonUnagi said:
Just sayin', I used GarageBand effectively for 5 years, so I wouldn't call it worthless.
Someone sell me on the macbook please.
- Thread starter Dark Knifer
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Just sayin', I used GarageBand effectively for 5 years, so I wouldn't call it worthless.
I bought a macbook for uni for the simple fact that theyre reliable, while they do lack a vast array of qualities that a Windows based computer has they don't slow down as quickly, they're generally faster to boot up etc. Other than that they're nothing special, just reliable and simple.
Hrm, I say be defiant, buy a laptop and run Hackintosh.
Is it that they have a requirement for the operating system, or a partnership with apple? Either or If your capable of running the operating system in question, they really cant say too much about not buying the hardware, because the hardware is irrelevant, provided you have the software
Is it that they have a requirement for the operating system, or a partnership with apple? Either or If your capable of running the operating system in question, they really cant say too much about not buying the hardware, because the hardware is irrelevant, provided you have the software
For my College program I was forced to get a Mac laptop and had to get Parallels just to run windows programs on it for the course.
At first I detested the very idea of getting a mac, but after the first month, I changed just about every negative opinion I had about it. I really like the touch pad and the interface was extremely easy to get use to. It's not so great for games, but Steam made things a lot better.
I absolutely cannot recommend parallels for it though. If you have to run a windows based program on your mac, Bootcamp is pretty much the best solution I've found.
Parallels on the mac just made me hate my mac and my life...
At first I detested the very idea of getting a mac, but after the first month, I changed just about every negative opinion I had about it. I really like the touch pad and the interface was extremely easy to get use to. It's not so great for games, but Steam made things a lot better.
I absolutely cannot recommend parallels for it though. If you have to run a windows based program on your mac, Bootcamp is pretty much the best solution I've found.
Parallels on the mac just made me hate my mac and my life...
The girls may not be impressed by the "uber-leet" rig you built for half the price but they will likely be impressed by the fat wad of cash you have to spend on them since you didn't waste it on an overpriced style-item computer.Duol said:
Macs have their uses and if that is what you want then more power to you. For anyone other than a gamer, developer or other specialist who needs a high powered machine to do their work a netbook, generic laptop or desktop is more than sufficient. In other words, if you only use a computer to access the internet, email and use office type apps then a Mac is a horribly expensive solution to your needs.
There is no reason you should have to pay money out of pocket to "rent" a computer, mac or otherwise from the school. A security deposit which is returned to you when you return the computer at the end would be fine but otherwise the cost should come out of the taxes your family and community are already paying to support the school.
Snip
And the reason no1 complains when people say Mac sucks is because they generally are significantly overpriced for what they are. Also more expensive=/= more appealing as you seem to think. You can be presentable without spending stupid amounts of money. If the deciding factor if somebody likes you is the things you have, is that really somebody you want to know? well you might but I certainly don't.
Your statement seems to be
http://www.laptopsarena.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/acer-laptop-computers.jpg
looks worse than
http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2009/12/macbook.png
Just because the marketing says it doesn't make it so.
[/quote]
It's not about what you or I find visually appealing or attractive. People have particular associations with the Apple brand and these perceptions are overwhelmingly positive for the most part, like it or not. I'm not saying you should base every interaction with another human being on physical possessions. However many people do make instant sub-conscious decisions on who they want to talk to and associate with based on physical appearances, this includes possessions.
I am not talking about long term relationships, only initial impressions, which are very important in my opinion these days. let's create an example:
You're sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop out doing some work and listening to music. Then an attractive member of the opposite sex walks in. They see one of two scenarios:
Person sitting there with a Macbook Pro, simple crappy white earbuds resting in their ears.
Person sitting there with a big gray box open and giant can headphones on their head.
Seems pretty obvious which person is more approachable, to most people at least. In todays' world people have contact with an overwhelming number of people and information. This has made us form a very quick selection procedure that we apply to everyone and everything we meet to determine whether it meets our criteria. Why not take advantage of this and appeal to as many people as possible?
All those other examples of computer you mention are also priced higher because of their looks. You just don't have to pay for the apple badge and reputation that comes with it.
You may say I'm just conforming with society... I am, you know why? Because I am interested in getting as far as I can in this world. If that means a small occasional sacrifice, particularly in monetary terms then so what.
Again not to say that this is the only reason to buy a Mac, I think there are many other good reasons. However I am trying to look at the very argument that is used against Mac on here constantly from a different angle.
And the reason no1 complains when people say Mac sucks is because they generally are significantly overpriced for what they are. Also more expensive=/= more appealing as you seem to think. You can be presentable without spending stupid amounts of money. If the deciding factor if somebody likes you is the things you have, is that really somebody you want to know? well you might but I certainly don't.
Your statement seems to be
http://www.laptopsarena.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/acer-laptop-computers.jpg
looks worse than
http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2009/12/macbook.png
Just because the marketing says it doesn't make it so.
[/quote]
It's not about what you or I find visually appealing or attractive. People have particular associations with the Apple brand and these perceptions are overwhelmingly positive for the most part, like it or not. I'm not saying you should base every interaction with another human being on physical possessions. However many people do make instant sub-conscious decisions on who they want to talk to and associate with based on physical appearances, this includes possessions.
I am not talking about long term relationships, only initial impressions, which are very important in my opinion these days. let's create an example:
You're sitting in a coffee shop with your laptop out doing some work and listening to music. Then an attractive member of the opposite sex walks in. They see one of two scenarios:
Person sitting there with a Macbook Pro, simple crappy white earbuds resting in their ears.
Person sitting there with a big gray box open and giant can headphones on their head.
Seems pretty obvious which person is more approachable, to most people at least. In todays' world people have contact with an overwhelming number of people and information. This has made us form a very quick selection procedure that we apply to everyone and everything we meet to determine whether it meets our criteria. Why not take advantage of this and appeal to as many people as possible?
All those other examples of computer you mention are also priced higher because of their looks. You just don't have to pay for the apple badge and reputation that comes with it.
You may say I'm just conforming with society... I am, you know why? Because I am interested in getting as far as I can in this world. If that means a small occasional sacrifice, particularly in monetary terms then so what.
Again not to say that this is the only reason to buy a Mac, I think there are many other good reasons. However I am trying to look at the very argument that is used against Mac on here constantly from a different angle.
You clearly do not understand the real world if you think that everyone will oversell anything they can to you, and that finding alternatives that save you money without sacrificing (increasing, in fact) functionality is not caused by a lack of understanding.Duol said:
Enjoy going through life overpaying for anything that anyone asks you to.
I really love my Mac. Maybe it's just because the last computer I had was a monolithic HP running Windows Vista, and so an etch-a-sketch would have been a good computer by comparison. What I can say is that my Mac is really reliable, very fast, and easy to use. The interface will throw you a bit at first, but it's pretty intuitive and I've come to find that I like it a lot better than any of the Windows based computers I've ever used.
I would note here though, that I'm not a computer gamer. I've never had the money to be able to afford it, so I've stuck with console gaming. If you are a computer gamer, the mac might not be for you (though it can play Minecraft, and really, what else could you possibly want from a computer?), but for most non-gaming stuff it's a pretty solid computer. Also, because Apple has grown so much in popularity as of late, a lot more programs are Mac compatible. There may be specific programs you can't run, but if nothing else, you can usually find a different program that'll do the same thing which will run on a Mac.
As a final note, if you really want to run Windows only stuff, you can install a Windows OS on your Mac with boot camp if you partition the hard drive.
I would note here though, that I'm not a computer gamer. I've never had the money to be able to afford it, so I've stuck with console gaming. If you are a computer gamer, the mac might not be for you (though it can play Minecraft, and really, what else could you possibly want from a computer?), but for most non-gaming stuff it's a pretty solid computer. Also, because Apple has grown so much in popularity as of late, a lot more programs are Mac compatible. There may be specific programs you can't run, but if nothing else, you can usually find a different program that'll do the same thing which will run on a Mac.
As a final note, if you really want to run Windows only stuff, you can install a Windows OS on your Mac with boot camp if you partition the hard drive.
Here's a great one: your hard drive will probably die in 4 years. Another one is they can't play most computer games. Oh, and they cost a lot, and are fragile. Their delete key works as backspace, so you really don't have one. They don't have Paint, many downloadable applications don't work unless they are specifically for Macs, and all the shortcuts are different.Dark Knifer said:
I bet you want one already.
Oh, this should be fun.RAKtheUndead said:
Somewhat true. If you only look at raw numbers like CPU/GPU/RAM, definitely very true. When you include stuff like build quality (they could be improved in some ways, but they're generally a lot sturdier than your average cheapo laptop, and you'll similarly pay extra for something comparable like a ThinkPad) and size (which I don't care too much about, but some people seem to), the difference is smaller. The big problem is that they have very limited options in terms of the models they offer and not a ton of customization. If what you want happens to match up exactly with what they're selling, you'll have a hard time finding something similar from someone else that's much cheaper. If you want a few things different, like you don't need feature X they include and would rather have feature Y, though, too bad.RAKtheUndead said:
Of course, that only applies to the US, for the most part. Apple rips you off beyond belief in many other parts of the world. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but it used to be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to NYC and buy an Apple computer there than to get the same thing locally in London.
Most computer users use a web browser and Office these days, along with probably some kind of music/media player and maybe an IM client of some sort. Aside from Office (which does have a native Mac version), all of those exist and are free (and often even included) on just about every OS. Yes, there are many, many other things that people use computers for, but as much as I hate that it's ended up this way, the majority of people would be fine with just about anything for most stuff they do as long as they know which button makes the web browser happens. And other than games (which it really is atrocious for, and I won't pretend otherwise even with Steam helping slightly), there are plenty of native Mac apps to do almost anything other than very specific niche things.RAKtheUndead said:
Most people are unlikely to use, or even be aware of, any special capacities of any OS. Even Windows has all sorts of wacky hidden features that hardly get used by anyone but rather advanced users.RAKtheUndead said:
If you really need something with official UNIX certification...well, I don't know that I can think of a reason why you would unless you're working on something where some clueless non-technical supervisor/manager wrote it into the spec. There's almost no situation where UNIX-like (i.e. Linux/BSD) isn't more than good enough, and there's generally a lot more software and support more easily available than for Solaris (which is now Oracle's, since they bought Sun, and who knows if they'll even keep supporting it or if they'll kill it/let it die off). Not that there aren't situations where Solaris is appropriate, but it just seems like a weird suggestion.RAKtheUndead said:
If you do need to run Windows, don't already have a license, and can't get away with a native app or WINE, yup, you do have to pay for it. Depending on what you're doing with it, though, the amount of space is not necessarily a big deal. I have a 10 GB XP image for occasionally testing some crap in VirtualBox (hi again, Sun/Oracle), which has been more than plenty. YMMV.RAKtheUndead said:
I'm curious about the actual numbers, but that wouldn't surprise me too much. See also: anything else with a high resale value.RAKtheUndead said:
That's actually not been my experience. For a smooth/glossy finish, white tends to look better longer than black/dark colors, mostly because fingerprints and fine scratches don't show up as easily in the light. Both are crap compared to a matte finish, though, especially if it's dark, which may not be "ooh shiny", but it sure hides dirt and scuffs well. Stupid trendy shiny plastic.RAKtheUndead said:
Now there's something I can agree with entirely. The whole situation seems pretty silly, but plenty of school districts in plenty of places have tried to justify similar things for the past several years, starting with the iBooks in Maine. Yeah, computers and technology are great, and people have to be familiar with them, and there are some useful things that can be done with them in education, but they don't magically fix or improve anything, and you could probably get a much better return for less money with decent teachers being allowed to teach effectively instead of forced to shoehorn laptops into things somehow or other.RAKtheUndead said:
Anyway, I say all of that as the owner of a MacBook...who's been seriously considering selling it and replacing it with something else for the past couple months. It has its good points and its bad ones. My sister and my girlfriend and several other friends of mine have been mostly very happy with theirs, and they range from "barely knows how to use a computer" to "highly paid software developer who spends dozens of hours a week working on it". I know just as many people across just as wide a range who can't stand them for various reasons, too. It really depends on what your needs are and whether it meets them. My needs have been slowly drifting away from what Apple sells, but it's so hard to find anything anyone else makes that suits me better and doesn't suck in some different way, so I currently have an uneasy truce between my MacBook, my Win7 desktop, and servers running Linux, all three of which are good in some ways and piss me off in others. So it goes. Heh.
