CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Computers, GPS, 'Smart' 'Phones

Mac v. PC

(28 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from wee folding bike

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    And you think the helmet debate is contentious... ;)

    Had my first EVER major Mac problem last night. It's a little over 4 years old now, never frozen, never wavered. But last night it wouldn't start up, got as far as a blue screen with an occasional spinny 'loading' thing.

    5 minutes on the iPhone looking through Apple support and I was starting up in safe mode, then restarting, and all is well. I've personally not once regretted moving from PC to Mac. There's a premium to pay, for sure, but for workign on the websites, dealing with images, and creating videos it really, really works for me (and I've got a comparator because I did all of that on a PC before).

    And 4 years with not a jot of trouble is pretty damned good going, especially when it can be solved in five minutes (though I am going to get a new external HD to back-up properly).

    Now, how long till we're talking about the M*c debate...? :P

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. steveo
    Member

    Macs are teh suxxors PCs rulez!!

    Bah try doing that stuff in Linux, real men edit video at the command line. I'd go Mac but I like my games to much to get a games console.

    http://xkcd.com/378/

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    XKCD, spot on as ever!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. rust
    Member

    I use a mac at work and a pc at home. I'm a photographer and do a the odd bit of editing video.

    And my opinion is that mac and pc are the same.

    If someone else is paying I will have a mac, if I'm paying I'll have a pc.

    (If you get the chance have a look inside a mac pro, they're beautiful (though for me the price difference isn't quite justified))

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. Dave
    Member

    Get a big external disc and turn on Time Machine, anth. It actually does work (automagically backs up everything all the time) - I've saved a ton of stuff this way.

    Not only is it rediculously easy to use, it's integrated with apps too so (for example) you can enter Time Machine from the Mail app and scroll back to 2010 some time to see which messages were in the inbox and sent messages... just as if you had loaded Mail back in 2010.

    I've never regretted getting a Mac either. If I priced my time spent wrangling it would have worked out much cheaper by now anyway.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. chdot
    Admin

    "Now, how long till we're talking about the M*c debate...?"

    Pretty much over.

    There are still Apple obsessives - both the new product queuers and the slightly blinkered 'Apple/Steve are always right'.

    Apple is now more 'mainstream' - helped by the so-called halo effect created by the whole iPod development, followed by the iPhone and now iPad.

    Apple is no longer mainly about computers, but has not neglected that side of things. The basic operating system is, for general use, probably, still easier to use, probably less prone to viruses and curious system errors etc.

    Apple's forthcoming cloud 'product' may take things in new directions for many people, though a minority of a minority are complaining about withdrawing functions that are valued in its current cloud - MobileMe.

    Apple knows that it will make little difference to the new mass users, but it's a fine line as to how much it's worth upsetting the real 'fans'/dedicated users - but Apple doesn't always listen...

    In stock market terms Apple is now as big as Exxon and probably more benign. Certainly it's an amazing case of the power of one man's (Steve is male) vision/determination - often in the face of much scorn from 'those who know better'.

    Apple may well, at times, have produced underpowered overpriced machines - which 'gullible people buy 'cos they look pretty', but that doesn't explain the 'repeat business'.

    Wots this got to do with cycling? Not a lot - other MP3 players and navigational devices are available - Android may be better than iOS in ways that Microsoft is seldom better than Apple.

    BUT one thing is clear, a big factor in the Apple success story is leadership. Jobs/Apple has managed to operate outside the standard short-termism that normally restrains large companies and governments.

    Imagine if Steve Jobs was in charge of transport policy (or someone half as good).

    It wouldn't be a question of giving people what they think they want. Of course it might involve overpriced, electric, must-have, flying machines, but at least the process would have involved a lot of 'Think Differents'...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Dave, this is why I need a new external hard drive - got a clunky old one that was just given to me, and had nothing but bother trying to back-up successfully. Been assured it's all to do with the HD being awful, so thought I'd try with one of these funky new tiny ones.

    And @rust, "And my opinion is that..." shows that this place really is too civil for its own good. You're supposed to tell me I'm wrong, wrong, wrong. ;) This is the thing, it's all personal opinion, and liking different things is what keeps us sane!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. Min
    Member

    Anth, you're wrong wrong wrong. :-P
    Actually it has been so long since I used a Mac I don't know but I used to prefer them.

    Mind you there is nothing wrong with PCs at all.

    Provided you don't use Windows.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Stepdoh
    Member

    I've got a 1TB western digital one sitting on my desk which I dump all big files onto, saves me gumming up the works of my laptop. Was under £50 from Amazon. It is one with a PSU etc, so not in the tiny category, but good for backing up.

    Me, in the PC camp finding Win 7 does lots of nice things that help me work (snaps, etc) and I just know inside out how to work it.

    Just feel Apple OS is getting a bit old, it just looks and feels a bit stuck and that it's been tweaked and mucked about it but otherwise there's a near decade old system that is fine and solid, but not exactly innovative.

    After nearly 7 years of service my old Toshiba Laptop has started randomly BSOD-ing, but think that's more to do with hardware/heat failure than any OS issue.

    And in the iOS/Android debate. iOS is boring, Android is like a beta product and WinPho is the shiz, fo. If Windows 8 manages to integrate some of the really nice bits of WinPho into the desktop it will be something amazing.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. Stepdoh
    Member

    PS, you may want to consider a NAS, just plug it in somewhere like your router and forget about it and let time machine do its job.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    What on earth is a NAS?

    So, when my iPhone is up for renewal in November would upgrading to anything other than an iPhone be recommended? I do like the fact that everything just integrates seamlessly between the iMac and the iPhone and wonder if that ease would be the same with Android (or WinPho - what on earth is that???).

    One thing that DOES annoy me about the Mac stuff... That 'i'...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. Stepdoh
    Member

    NAS network attached storage (a HD with an ethernet port)

    Phone choice is a difficult one, if you like your iphone, get an iphone, if you want something different go ahead. WinPho is Windows Phone 7, the new OS that replaced the really awful Windows Mobile and the one that Nokia will be using soon.

    Has a nice typrographic heavy interface based on transit design.

    I like it better than android as it's a bit more polished. Way smaller ecosystem than iOs/Android, but it's got all the apps I need. Plus they were intelligent enough to demand minimum specs from all producers so the phones all play nicely with it (my android work phone is getting a bit clunky)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. Stepdoh
    Member

    "Imagine if Steve Jobs was in charge of transport policy"

    -Gorgeous, fast, clean, robust efficient public transport that only 10% of the public could afford to use.

    :P

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. Kim
    Member

    Well they both run on the same processors now, so the obvious answer is to run Linux which is far more stable, and if you occasionally need some odd software then use a VM... ;-)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. Stepdoh
    Member

    Och, but then we get into the whole ubuntu thing and then it's like KDE or Gnome and jeez.

    I miss BASIC

    10 PRINT "stephen Rocks"
    20 GOTO 10

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. mgj
    Member

    My advice is to learn whatever system your parents use, as that is what you'll be fixing for them later ;-) Having had a bad experience with a Mac at Uni in 1990 (a virus from the P&J brought in on a disk by one of my fellow students took out my dissertation, leading to a 15,000 word re-type), I've stuck with PCs. Which means I cant fix my dads Mac problems with mail (randomly cannot send) nor understand why you cant just browse a memory stick and show the photos on it but have to import them into some application first. Weird that I find the iPhone so intuitive but the mac so counter-intuitive after years of Symbian and Windows respectively.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. rust
    Member

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "... nor understand why you cant just browse a memory stick and show the photos on it but have to import them into some application first."

    Hmmm, that's really odd. I can't stand iPhoto, so don't use it (unless I want a photo to work in iMovie, in which case I've got to import it first into iPhoto, bleurgh). Otherwise I just stick the memory stick in (or, from the camera, the SD card into a card reader and into the USB), highlight it all in Finder and open with Preview or Photoshop... Finder and Preview will show me the RAW files off the camera as well, so doesn't need to be JPEGs...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  19. crowriver
    Member

    I've used Macs since 1990. I've tried Windows and Linux too. I'm sticking to Macs. Easy to use, and they 'just work'. The OS is increasingly robust, but I have Time Machine on backing up hourly over wi-fi. Just in case: never actually had to delve into the backups for the past two years. Yet.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  20. Greenroofer
    Member

    Remember the adage:
    The probability of a catastrophic loss of data is proportional to the time since your last back up and inversely proportional to the quality of that backup

    With all this talk about NAS and Time Machines and stuff, don't forget the importance of an off-site backup. If all your pictures are in the cloud, then that's fine, but if they're not and some hoodlum steals your computer and NAS device, it could be a little annoying.

    We've got one of those £50 Western Digital 1TB drives mentioned above. Every couple of weeks it makes the trip home to get the latest backup put on it, then it goes back to a locked drawer at work.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  21. alibali
    Member

    "My advice is to learn whatever system your parents use, as that is what you'll be fixing for them later"

    The reverse is true in our house. The yoofs aren't into computers but heavy tech users for all that. That's why this thread is worth archiving. In just a few short years it will seem as quaint as stepdoh's BASIC, desktop PCs or floppy discs (or CDs for that matter).

    Posted 12 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    "In just a few short years it will seem as quaint as stepdoh's BASIC, desktop PCs or floppy discs (or CDs for that matter)"

    Ah yes which company started that trend...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  23. alibali
    Member

    RIM, HP, Compaq, Apple, Motorola, Nokia in their different ways.

    Should be an interesting fight with Samsung, LG, HTC, ZTE, Google and the rest.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  24. Stepdoh
    Member

    ...yeh but how many of those gawdawful lacie floppy drives were sold soon after :P

    (and wasn't a paperclip a required accessory for those initial iMacs)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  25. crowriver
    Member

    Ah yes which company started that trend...

    Sony? Nintendo? Nokia? Microsoft (X Box)?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  26. LaidBack
    Member

    I've spent over 15 years working with Mac stuff to do graphics work.
    In the old days trying to work round a Postscript error was the challenge. Now Acrobat pdf does all that for you in graphics jobs.

    Now using a recent iMac - my G5 broke two weeks later so was close call. Quite good and can shovel through a lot of graphics work.
    Timemachine back up as Dave says is excellent.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  27. wee folding bike
    Member

    Lion builds on TimeMachine. MacBooks do a backup of any deleted files when away from the backup drive and then merge it when reconnected.

    Versions and Autosave allows you to step back in different... err... versions of your files. As yet it only seems to be supported in Apple's own applications, iWork, but that's what I use so I'm happy.

    There is a wee boot partition with utilities so if something does go wrong you don't need to dig out the installer disk (unless it has gone VERY) wrong).

    if you don't like the change in scroll behaviour, and the Memsahib doesn't, then you change it back to the way it's been since '84.

    Got iWorks apps on my iPad which is nice. Keynote even does the secondary display like it does on a MacBook or iMac. so I can see what the next slide is. Bento for iPad syncs with the real machines so I can carry my database on a tablet.

    I've been using Aperture since June now I need to find a way to sell the Memsahib on Final Cut Pro.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  28. wee folding bike
    Member

    Crowriver... I'm going to the Apple Store tomorrow with a TimeCapsule which has overheated and died. The caps on the PSU break.

    I'll try to have them sort it. If they don't then I'll get the soldering iron out and cut a big hole in the base to allow some airflow once it's mended.

    Posted 12 years ago #

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