Apple Mac - what's that?

[David O'Neil]

...I would never be like Sally trying to emulate a PC running windows while using a Mac...

How time flies. It doesn't feel like a year has passed since some of those passionate posts. If you ever read this, Sally, I really admired your skill, and hope that all's well with you and yours. I still sometimes imagine your family eating carved carrots, and at those times I know how underprivileged my childhood was!

And to keep the thread on topic, every time I've tried a Mac, I've realized how good I've got it with Windows.

[grenadi]

Ok, I'll add in my bit.

My first computer was a Mac in the early 90s. It was pragmatic: my high school used Macs so it was easier to work on them at home and school.

Then in 1995 I got into some heavy number crunching work and found that the software only worked with PC. Well, my book was "The Management Scientist" by Anderson, Sweeney and Williams and it came with a MSDOS microprogram that did optimisation. The disk only worked with PC. My tutor told me that there WAS a mac equivalent called Lindo but he's never seen it. So it was goodbye Mac. Hello PC. aT THAT time the Mac exploded [literally] and went to the rubbish dump. This I was left with a PC.

I have never used a Mac since. And with Coreldraw and Xara [and add in CAD programs] only in PC, and having spent over a decade on them, I now have 2 PC computers. One bought from a shop and one custom built by a tech.

I still like Macs. Their drag and drop file systems are wonderful. The G5 is also a touch quicker than a PC. But after a decade I am so used to PC that I never expect to change.

I am not worried that in the future I will be applying for jobs as a graphics artist where a "Mac platform" is asked for. I think that I could get the hang of a Mac pretty quickly. And more jobs than one would expect ask for a PC proficiency, especially in graphics jobs in business where you bash out their company newsletters etc.

Nothing against Mac. But for the last 10 or so years I have had a PC life and don't expect that to change.

[philbankhill]

I use an iMac and a laptop PC and three operating systems:

59% Leopard OSX on my iMac
40% WinXP on my laptop PC and my iMac (Vmware)
1% Linux -Ubuntu on my iMac (Vmware)

I used PC's for years, in work and at home before dabbling with 3 flavours of Linux OS in the form of Mandrake Linux (Mandrivo now) then SuSe Linux and now Ubuntu Linux.
I prefer Macs to PC's now, after using PC's for 30 yrs. I also have a PC laptop and an ipod browsing TalkGraphics!

I use Xara on my iMac using Vmware which shares the RAM, but Xara doesn't need a lot of RAM because it's so superbly designed. I think Xara looks better on my iMac but then I'm comparing it to a PC laptop.

I haven't tried Xara LX yet on Ubuntu.

I was forced to use Adobe Illustrator in college, wasn't impressed after using Xara. I feel it would be good for graphics students to have the choice of using Xara native on Macs, that would make Xara more mainstream in colleges like the one I attended.

Phil

[JET]

I'm a graphics guy who used Macs primarily until the long, drawn-out, and problem-plagued "arrival" of OSX. At that point, I decided one very disruptive OS change was as bad as another, so chose to stop swimming against the tide and switched to primarily Windows XP. I actually think I had less difficulty and expense switching to Windows than others had switching from Mac Classic to OSX.

The historic functional Mac advantages (ex: seamless multiple monitor support, better font handling, etc.) were moot by the time of XP.

Today, I consider the whole OS-devotee thing one big yawn. Both Mac and Windows are bloated with gratuitous eye-candy. MacOS has lost much of its original elegance, and Windows never was elegant. (But I'm sure glad MacOS is still around for Windows to imitate.)

I don't live in the OS. I live in my applications. I want the OS to handle I/O, manage files, launch apps, handle cross-app resources, and otherwise stay out of my face. I'd love to see a truly robust, industrial-strength, lean and clean OS.

The OS ought to be practically "free" these days. Inflating the cost of every new machine by a couple hundred bucks just to give it a proprietary OS is something the industry should have outgrown by now. Having to buy an OS with a computer should be considered as silly as having to pay a separate license for a set of electrical wiring standards & practices when buying a vehicle.

I also wonder if the whole OS model couldn't be made to be read-only, and reside on a removable flash drive. Pick up the latest open source OS update at the Office Depot checkout counter for $5.

JET

[Spinny]

I also wonder if the whole OS model couldn't be made to be read-only, and reside on a removable flash drive. Pick up the latest open source OS update at the Office Depot checkout counter for $5.

Knoppix. Full Linux OS/GUI that runs right off the CD. Great tool for taking control of your hard drive when Vista wants to hog bits of it, too.

[drgrafix]

Well... I'm new here but I'd like to offer an opinion. First thing somebody has to do is add to the poll:

I am a Mac User.
I use a Mac with virtual Windows.
I use both a Mac and a PC.

Myself... I started on an Apple IIe back in the '80's, went through the Amiga process , and eventually went to PCs. Then, about a year ago, I decided to treat myself to a new iMac 24" and I've been in heaven ever since. My only regret is that I can't use Corel Draw directly on the Mac... so I keep my XP PC to to run Corel and Visio... two programs I have been using for eons.

Doc

[Bob Hahn]

Here's my Mac. Got it in June 2008 (refurbished)

24" 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

[pauland]

Looks fantastic. Jury is out about the phone and radio though... ;-)

[Bob Hahn]

Looks fantastic. Jury is out about the phone and radio though... ;-)

If I had a nearby phone jack, it very well could be this phone (kinda goes with the radio)

[zaphodeist]

Like the phone ... neat contrast with the Mac!