Apple computers - the Marmite of the technology world.

[Snowwolflair]

I have just been wiping and upgrading my daughters All-in-one MAC, it was her Uni machine and she told me its useless for "serious gaming", and personally I think it is useless for a lot more things, so its going on eBay or to CEX. 

Don't get me wrong its a very nicely designed bit of kit if you are a bit arty and think in a certain illogical way, so I am sure it will be snapped up by someone who adores Apple MAC computers, and who is probably a hater of PCs (the Marmite bit).

After two hours prodding and poking the OS to no avail I had a fresh cup of coffee and thought "what is the most stupid way they could have done this", and guess what its worked. 

The one thing I will say in its credit the OS upgrades don't hit brick walls where the motherboard is no longer suitable, something Windows could learn from.

Anyway it's gone for sale and I am now chilling out in front of my "bank" of PC's.

[mr magnolia]

We used to run macs at work back in the day, but moved to PCs just cos engineering design programmes lived there. They were way better than PCs at user friendliness, but we now have an iMac equipped home computer that I struggle to understand! It works well with the 5 iPhones and various iPads that live in our house though.

Donald

[railsquid]

Don't get me wrong its a very nicely designed bit of kit if you are a bit arty and think in a certain illogical way

You should see the arty illogical way I develop in C on my Macbook. (Very probably won't be buying another one now they've remove the ESC key though).
.
PS I also have a PC running Linux if it helps.

[Snowwolflair]

 

Don't get me wrong its a very nicely designed bit of kit if you are a bit arty and think in a certain illogical way

You should see the arty illogical way I develop in C on my Macbook. (Very probably won't be buying another one now they've remove the ESC key though).
.
PS I also have a PC running Linux if it helps.

[BoxTunnel]

Absolutely useless for gaming, twice the price for half the spec of a PC, snotty customer service and when it goes bang forget it.

But they look quite nice.

Having tried them almost 20 years ago, BoxTunnel has returned to and stayed with the Personal Computer, but if I ever get Billy Gates in a room I will have a word or two...

Graham.

[Yet_Another]

Having worked in IT for my whole career, I gave up on windows machines five years ago and got a Mac. It's pretty much consumer electronics, just works. I resent having to spend any of my precious spare time having to sort out problems with Windows, or just waiting half an hour while it does an update.

But, as the title implies, chacun à son goût, as the French don't say.

[broadsword]

I dont have much bother with Windows apart from the annoying
"Don't switch off as we are doing an update" which appears
almost daily,  in fact it once appeared on a brand new laptop I bought.

[keithfre]

The thing that drove me nuts when I tried to use a Mac laptop was the absence of a Delete key.

[NeMo]

The thing that drove me nuts when I tried to use a Mac laptop was the absence of a Delete key.

Fn + Backspace.

Next!

Being slightly less facetious, as a long-time Mac user (started around 1990) the Delete key, as opposed to the Backspace key, is one it's taken me over two decades to get around to bothering with! I admit that being able to delete things going forwards through the word, as opposed to the Backspace deleting backwards, is pretty helpful. But for the longest time I didn't even think about trying! I guess having a mouse to move the cursor, then backspace-deleting, became my default.

Having worked in IT for my whole career, I gave up on windows machines five years ago and got a Mac. It's pretty much consumer electronics, just works.

The brilliance of the modern Mac is that superficially yes, it looks like any other bit of high-end consumer electronics. But that overlooks the fact it's a genuine UNIX machine capable of running UNIX software and operating systems without too much bother. Virtual machines allow you to run Windows software alongside either Mac OS X or UNIX, and you can also boot a Mac into Windows if you really must.

There are irritations to be found in Apple's approach to desktop and portable computing, but unless "bang for your buck" is your only concern, modern Macs are rarely bad choices.

Cheers, NeMo (back in the day, a regular contributor to Macworld and Macformat, so admittedly biassed!)

[keithfre]

But that overlooks the fact it's a genuine UNIX machine capable of running UNIX software and operating systems without too much bother.

So how does that differ from a PC? PCs can all run Linux, which is UNIX-based. Just curious...

[NeMo]

But that overlooks the fact it's a genuine UNIX machine capable of running UNIX software and operating systems without too much bother.

So how does that differ from a PC? PCs can all run Linux, which is UNIX-based. Just curious...

Standard PC can boot into either Windows or UNIX = 2 options (but only one option, Windows, normally provided with the PC by default, meaning that whatever flavour of UNIX/Linux required has to be added afterwards)

Standard Mac can run Mac OS X, Windows and UNIX = 3 options (of which 2 are available right out of the box, Mac OS X via the Finder, and UNIX via the Terminal)

Not saying three operating system options is necessarily better for the average home user than the two options possible with a generic beige box PC, but it certainly offers a full 50% more options! 

Cheers, NeMo

[railsquid]

The thing that drove me nuts when I tried to use a Mac laptop was the absence of a Delete key.

Fn + Backspace.

Next!

Being slightly less facetious, as a long-time Mac user (started around 1990) the Delete key, as opposed to the Backspace key, is one it's taken me over two decades to get around to bothering with! I admit that being able to delete things going forwards through the word, as opposed to the Backspace deleting backwards, is pretty helpful. But for the longest time I didn't even think about trying! I guess having a mouse to move the cursor, then backspace-deleting, became my default.

Who needs backspace when you have Ctrl-H?

One of the nice things about the Mac for those of us with a more logical persuasion is the pervasiveness of Emacs-esque key bindings through many "normal" applications.

Having worked in IT for my whole career, I gave up on windows machines five years ago and got a Mac. It's pretty much consumer electronics, just works.

The brilliance of the modern Mac is that superficially yes, it looks like any other bit of high-end consumer electronics. But that overlooks the fact it's a genuine UNIX machine capable of running UNIX software and operating systems without too much bother. Virtual machines allow you to run Windows software alongside either Mac OS X or UNIX, and you can also boot a Mac into Windows if you really must.

There are irritations to be found in Apple's approach to desktop and portable computing, but unless "bang for your buck" is your only concern, modern Macs are rarely bad choices.

I started with Macbooks many years ago as I needed a laptop with a proper OS and at the time Linux was tricky to get working properly on laptops; the combination of not having to waste time messing with that combined with the longevity of the hardware (current one is 6 years old), and at the time excellent battery life, have given quite excellent bang for my buck. Unfortunately Apple seem to be going full-on consumer gadget company and the latest round of Macbooks don't appeal at all (stupid touch bar in place of ESC/function keys, insipid hardware specs, forced donglisation of useful things like SD card slots), and Linux has come a long way so will probably consider something else once the current one is finally past it.

[PostModN66]

By strange coincidence opening the NGF and reading this thread is the first thing I have done with my new Mac - having just bought it from the Apple Store in MK.  Wish me luck!

Cheers Jon 

[Newportnobby]

I only have an iPod Classic but have enough issues with the iTunes library to last me a lifetime.
My Mum has an iPad and loves it, especially for the security aspect.
I think the main gripe with Apple is they stick 2 fingers up to the rest of the computing fraternity and it's 'their way or no way'

[Snowwolflair]

But that overlooks the fact it's a genuine UNIX machine capable of running UNIX software and operating systems without too much bother.

So how does that differ from a PC? PCs can all run Linux, which is UNIX-based. Just curious...

Ok a bit of history.

The first Unix V PC compliant versions ran on Motorola 68000 family processors which by coincidence was the processor of choice for the first Mac computers.  This is where the Lynix Mac association came from but is now somewhat out of date.  I know this because I worked on the first port of Unix on a PC (1981).

Most modern Mac computers are almost identical in design and structure to PCs not least because they all now use Intel processors.

You can run Mac OS on a PC and vice Versa and Lynix on either as long as the I/O is configured correctly.

The prime difference remains the ethos of the different OS versions.

In 1983 the VP Marketing for Apple explained it as follows.

PCs are built by engineers to be used by engineers. Mac computers are designed for lay people who need to do clever things but don't want to know how it is done.  He then turned to his VP of engineering and in a quiet aside said "most people are going to be too stupid to own a PC so they are going to buy a Mac".

And there you have the Apple marketing strategy neatly summarised.

NB note the date he said it and look what has happened.