Thinking about ditching my PC for a Mac

[commodorejohn]

Some of that stuff is tightly integrated in to the OS though, and by updating it, it updates Windows and some of the DLLs used for stuff like previewing documents in Windows Explorer and providing advanced infomation for files in the 'Properties' dialog box. On top of that, updates to later versions fix some of the bugs/features (delete as appropriate) with said functionality.

I suppose that's a matter of opinion; as far as I'm concerned, all I need a file manager to do is manage files, and anything else is either bloat or active annoyance. (Thumbnails = off, Explorer bar = off, HTML + folder pairing = off, and so on and so forth.) I can't think of anything it doesn't do as-is that I want it to do, certainly not enough to muck around with WGA for.

On top of all this, is it even worth going to all this effort for XP? It's an outdate OS that first hit the shelf late 2001, I've only got XP on my laptop as driver support for 7 is dire on this cheap **** hardware and all I use it for is web browsing, email and iTunes .... everything else is done on my Win7 Desktop.

Either way, once MS have pushed XP users out and stopped support, so will software vendors and then it'll be a dead OS along with some of Microsoft's great products and utter failings (Win2000 was awesome imo, and WinME was their biggest mistake)

Again, probably a matter of opinion, but XP does everything I need with lower requirements than newer versions, and there's a number of fiddly little changes to things in new versions that I know would drive me crazy if I tried to switch over. Dead or soon-to-be, it's still my OS of choice. (And yeah, I've been trying 2000 and I'm quite pleased with it; shame they didn't keep later NT-based versions that light...)

 

[Harrison]

Win 2000 was my favourite OS for a long time, and I only moved to XP when it was a software requirement by Adobe apps and a few others.

Very robust with SP4.

XP wasn't really stable at all until SP2, but since then, when setup correctly was quite reliable, but I wouldn't say perfect.

The people having issues with XP were always a lack of ram, no free hdd space, or a rubbish graphics card.

For me I thought Vista was a big improvement over XP, but only if the hardware was powerful enough. On low-end hardware it could be unstable or slow, and that gave it a bad reputation. It was always hardware not up to the job, rather than the OS.

Then we finally reached Win7. For me this is the best OS to date. XP was a nightmare to install on certain setups. Not finding most hardware, so after install you would have a VGA low res screen, and most hardware with an ! next to it, and no way to ID it other than looking at the hardware.

Vista improved greatly on this, it would normally find most hardware drivers, but not quite perfect. Win 7 had refined this, and finds most hardware correctly. Only rarer things like BT drivers are needed.

And in use Win7, it is really stable. It never crashes, and handles unstable apps really well.

Again, anyone with bad experience of Win7 really needs to looks at the hardware, or any junk installed, as it isn't the OS.

 

[Harrison]

In regard to discontinuing support for XP. In all fairness look how long it has been supported by Microsoft.

Companies have to discontinue support at some point to move the industry on, or we would never progress.

I'm however not sure about Win8 yet. Both Microsoft and Apple are quickly heading too far into consumer only features and integrating tablet ui design. Tablet and desktop ui should remain separate, rather then trying to make a single do all OS. Or we get into the danger of software not working well on either platform.

At least win8 can switch frim Metro to desktop.

 

[thomas_red]

Threads like this one should be banned
IMO Mac's stability/quality comes from 90's but are a little bit outdated.
My first contact was in publishing studio, PowerMac G3, G4 and Cube and yes, it was fantastic experience, power, extraordinary operating system etc. Publishing and graphics software worked great and i couldn't imagine better system to do my job. But ... in time situation changed and we are in the point where both systems meet on same level.
Someone said it before, yes, Macs are good but properly built PCs are good too. I expect that in some time both OSs will merge, hardware is allready the same.
I'm writing it from Windows 7 PC with toolbar on the top and object dock installed on bottom of my desktop

 

[af1]

I did it, Mac user since 2006ish

neither is better then the other to be honest. Macs are over priced PCs but i prefer them
I use a windows computer at work. Mac at home!

I suppose its the same as a car
a Ford focus does exactly what my VW Golf does, but i bought the Golf

simple

 

[WonkeyDonkey]

Hackinthosh on PCs doesn't really work properly- almost.. many features are missing or poorly implemented. i have tried most of the distro's in the past and used them on modern Pcs.

lots of issues so i wiped it and bought a mac. best thing i ever did.

While I've found the Intel Macs to run really quite well, I wouldnt discount a hackintosh these days.

The setup of it really isn't painful at all. I've been using one as my main desktop for a long time now on Snow Leopard and its been solid as a rock. No messing every 5 minutes, no tweaking aside from the initial install.

I find this far less hassle to administer than any Windows system I have previously used.

 

[AndyLandy]

I've been a Mac user since the year dot. Wouldn't have anything else nowadays. Windows just frustrates me so often and Linux needs too much babysitting. Still, I think a lot of OS choice is subjective, I don't believe there's a global "right" answer.

That all said, if you want to play with a proper Mac on the cheap, the current crop of Mac Minis are incredibly specced for the price. Well worth a punt. I just picked one up myself (here on the 'bay no less)

 

[djos]

Windows just frustrates me so often and Linux needs too much babysitting.

I hear you, I've a background in server support and my Windows 7 x64 machine occasional just annoys the living crap out of me! Just last night my PC didnt wake from sleep properly and had to be hard-reset and then was completely screwed, even system restore from safe mode failed to fix it.

Thank God I run a WHS 2011 server and was able to do a full image restore from that nights backup and voila all was well again. I would have lost it if I needed to do a full re-build from scratch!

 

[Gouldin]

This game is reason enough to keep a pc rather than a mac. (No before anyone says to bootcamp it , the gfx cards in the macs are crap. My 27" Early 2011 i7 16gb ram iMac struggles with Starcraft 2, so this game isn't gonna be upto much on a mac)

http://hardocp.com/news/2012/06/05/mrated_star_wars_1313_first_look

 

[AmiNeo]

Thing I hate most about windows is windows updates. Any form of dual boot keeps getting screwed up every now and then thanks to them. I had both Windows 7 and Linux disappear from the bootup menu. I guess one of the updates removed grub and somehow managed to screw its own bootloader up at the same time.

For anyone who hasn't tried linux in a while the latest Ubuntu LTS release (12.04) is rather nice indeed. Its becoming more and more usable for the mainstream with each update.

 

[Gouldin]

Thing I hate most about windows is windows updates. Any form of dual boot keeps getting screwed up every now and then thanks to them. I had both Windows 7 and Linux disappear from the bootup menu. I guess one of the updates removed grub and somehow managed to screw its own bootloader up at the same time.

For anyone who hasn't tried linux in a while the latest Ubuntu LTS release (12.04) is rather nice indeed. Its becoming more and more usable for the mainstream with each update.

I do hate windows updates, much as I hate Mac OS updates and Linux updates. They all fail eventually in one way or another. That's why I disable auto updates on all of my pcs and update what I deem important,not what apple or M$ dictate as being important.

 

[woodycool]

For anyone who hasn't tried linux in a while the latest Ubuntu LTS release (12.04) is rather nice indeed. Its becoming more and more usable for the mainstream with each update.

I really hate the bloated (and horrible looking) `Unity` shell on Ubuntu from 11.04 upwards (and default on 11.10 and 12.04)
For a much nicer Linux experience, I prefer Lubuntu 12.04 (it`s Ubuntu 12.04 but with the LXDE desktop environment)

As for the Windows Update discussion, I`m running a little expirement:

Home PC: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Work PC: Windows 7 Professional x64

On the home PC, I`m doing EVERY SINGLE UPDATE that comes my way.
On the work PC, I`m not doing any updates at all (completely disabled)

The true test is which one will run longest before Windows kacks itself!
At the moment, the home PC is looking a tad unstable!

 

[johnim]

That's why I disable auto updates on all of my pcs and update what I deem important

which is none of them

 

[morcar]

If you want a really speedy linux give Zorin OS a try its awesome.

 

[johnim]

cheers i will try zorin

 

[AmiNeo]

Thing I hate most about windows is windows updates. Any form of dual boot keeps getting screwed up every now and then thanks to them. I had both Windows 7 and Linux disappear from the bootup menu. I guess one of the updates removed grub and somehow managed to screw its own bootloader up at the same time.

For anyone who hasn't tried linux in a while the latest Ubuntu LTS release (12.04) is rather nice indeed. Its becoming more and more usable for the mainstream with each update.

I do hate windows updates, much as I hate Mac OS updates and Linux updates. They all fail eventually in one way or another. That's why I disable auto updates on all of my pcs and update what I deem important,not what apple or M$ dictate as being important.

Amen to that. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to do this when I reformat oh:

---------- Post added at 21:39 ---------- Previous post was at 21:37 ----------

Zorin OS.... now thats a new one!

 

[johnim]

it looks great and quite fast in vmware type in this in it now

 

[dj.echo]

hackintosh

hackintosh

Hi you should keep your pc mac`s are not all that you pay for the name
hackintosh all you need is pentium 4 or up to an i7 i have a mac can't stand it i used my old p4 fujitsu scaleo 1gb graphic card 2 gig memory 2 x dvd dl drives runs much faster than a mac the only mac thing you will need is a mac keyboard as it has the dvd drive eject button top of the range mac will set you back £800 to £1600 . you can pick up a hackintosh set up from evilbay that start at £300 to £450 for an i7 they run much better than the real thing there is no g4 g5 cpu`s any more so that use intel cpu`s if you like send me a jiffy envelop i can send you a dvd on how to get it up and running step by step don`t try and use hackintosh os`s that are on the web as most are for i5 to i9 its easy to do and the main advantage is that you can do a multi boot system it is best to use windows xp win7 is a ***** but it can be done i have set up 6 systems fully working if you can let me have a list of the components in your pc i can send a dvd with the driver packs and the multi XE thats the thing that makes it all work it fools the pc in to thinking its a mac all software that i would send is freeware hope this helps in someway

 

[woodycool]

If you want a really speedy linux give Zorin OS a try its awesome.

Zorin OS? Is that made by this guy?

 

[AndyLandy]

If you want a really speedy linux give Zorin OS a try its awesome.

Zorin OS? Is that made by this guy?

"No! That's Christopher bloody Walken crank-calling us again."

"More cows, Bill!"

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/onthemoon/On+The+Moon+ep.17/