MAC or PC , laptop ?

[W.Ditto]

may soon be in position to replace my croaked laptop....never had any trouble with PC, but am open-minded to change; any real reason to go "apple" or not ?
no flames, please....
thanks

 

[ozarkshome]

Yes, several reasons to go Mac. Less hassle, better "standard programs" come with them, etc.

 

[stardriver007]

Had to make the same decision.

Get a MacBook Pro with a 23" monitor, 2MB RAM, extra KB and mouse, absolutley superb.

You will not regret it.

 

[gvk]

I am in a similar situation now. I have recently been weighing upgrades for both my laptop and desktop systems, and am leaning toward making the switch from PC to Mac. Right now I am hesitating while investigating the software implications, including obtaining Mac versions of PS, NX, and Photo Mechanic, and also cross platform upgrades or replacements of other Windows programs that I use. I have looked at some friend's machines running Microsoft's new Vista and am not impressed. As long as I have to learn a new operating system it may as well be one from Apple. :smile: I just wish that there was a gradual way to do this. However, there is not, and soon I am going to have to make a decision, and likely just jump in.

 

[Beezle]

It is a big leap to make either way.

I WORK on this stuff and I use both platforms every day and I still have a (rather crazy) comfort zone I don't like to get outside of.

 

[SmilesLots]

Remember that if you switch to one of the Intel Macs, you can use Bootcamp or Parallels to run Windows programs on your Mac.

 

[Lowolf]

Get a Mac why suffer with Vista when the Mac runs so much better

 

[strawman]

Remember that if you switch to one of the Intel Macs, you can use Bootcamp or Parallels to run Windows programs on your Mac.

Exactly. I could never consider Macs before because all of my business stuff has to be done on a PC. Now I'm looking at a Macbook Pro so I can use the Mac side for editing and the PC side for work. The best of both worlds all wrapped up in one (very expensive:wink: ) machine.

 

[gadgetguy11]

Another (strong) supporter of the mac from a new convert - my only question to self: "Why didn't I do this years ago??"

 

[wbeem]

MacBook Pro. Like John said, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

 

[StrongSportsPhotos]

I'm an IT Professional and work with Windows based products everyday. I will say this...the Mac is superior. Simply because Windows has the bigger market share does not make it better.

If and when I have the money, I'll be gettin me a sweet Mac!


John

 

[Rich Gibson]

MacBook Pro; I owned 2 Toshibas, nice computers but the Windows overhead was a real drag. I replaced one PC for a mini for my wife; she has stopped calling me every few days to answer some question from Zone alarm or Spy Sweeper or Redistry editor. I don't buy yearly "updates" (@ $30-$65 each per year) anymore.

I had five PCs of various speeds, configurations. Now it's all Macs: 1 MacPro, 1 MacBook Pro and two minis.

Rich

 

[barriosa]

I don't know about the Macbooks. I bought my wife one and regret it. We both work with PC's at work and get discounts on PC software. And sure you can get boot-camp and purchase ANOTHER copy of windows but really what is the point if you are going to end up running windows all the time? Sure the software that comes packed on a Mac is great until you want to try to do something just a tiny bit more advanced then you find out you have to purchase more software. The more you use ilife and iworks the more I realize how limited they are. Sometimes I feel like I was suckered into a delayed "bait and switch", tactic with the Mac. Sure iPhoto is great but Picasa (which is free) is still better and the more you use iPhoto the more you realize you should have purchased Aperture. iDVD is nice too until you try to add a Play All button and find out you have to upgrade to Toast or one of their other Premium priced DVD authoring packages. And don’t forget to pay for the iMovie upgrade so you can use .mpgs. Even Open Office is vastly superior to iWorks. It almost seems like the whole iLife suite just gives you a “taste” of what you can do if you shell out more money and get the Premium software at the premium prices.

Sure all versions of Windows are buggy but after working with them since Windows 3.1 I know how to fix a lot of problems that pop up or know where to find solutions to most of my problems.

I would have to say the biggest advantage of buying a Mac over a Windows based laptop is you won't be uninstalling loads of crap off the Mac. Windows PC's are usually packed with tons of trail versions of stuff that you end up removing.

 

[Dale]

Wish I'd switched years, rather than 15 months ago.

Hedge your bets, buy a Mac, dual boot with Bootcamp, and I'll guess you'll be 95% OSX after 6 months, using Windows for one programme only.

 

[Dale]

Oh and that advanced Photo program is called Aperture.

You get iPhoto for free, which is good, but basic. Aperture looks fantastic. Have a look at it on Apples web site.

 

[SilverEagle]

Cost out a 'comparable' Mac and a PC, plus all software you will buy, and any hassle factor related to either system. Then it's just a matter of $. The consensus seems to be to go Mac. Most likely, a lof of PC users are embarrased to continually defend our choice to stay with PC. Almost everyone I work with uses PC's and therefore I have a support network for PC's. I also continue to shoot Nikon, when a lot of photographers have changed to Canon. My biggest issues are with taking and making photographs, planning trips, getting things put together for exhibits, etc. All the choices we must make as photographers, is certainly part of the fun and challenge. Thanks for the thread, I probably should take some time and assess the Mac vs. PC option. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the thousands of $ I have invested in software. This perhaps is big reason to go ahead and go Mac, if you're just getting started in photo computing......before you get locked in.

 

[Rich Gibson]

I intentionally purchased Parallels to use with three of my Macs. Gradually I found other suitable applications for the Mac and was left with Qimage, until I found out how to do stuff with Photoshop CS3. Don't get me wrong., I'm NOT a Mac bigot...I still detest their arrogant, condescending TV commercials. I guarantee that someday in the near future there will be a widespread virus on the Mac and the world will not end.

Additionally, the "it's easy to use" mantra is deceptive. Their OS is based on Unix and when you run into a situation which isn't handled semi-automatically by OSX (yet there are very very few of these) you're hung out to dry. Can you say "80 x 25 character-based unix utilities using stuff like glog, burp, sklizx type commands?" Could you believe when I mentioned this about six months ago in a thread I was taken to task by some Unix gurus because OSX had an underpinning of "all this robust" unix software extending back for years and years and therefore was so powerful and elegant? Right...powerful and extremely complex.

That said, I find myself rarely if ever doing any maintenance on the Macs and for the most part nothing goes amiss. Nothing equivalent to the Blue Screen of Death. Bottom line is I spend way more time post processing and relaxing here at the Cafe.

Rich

 

[DanielD]

Can you say "80 x 25 character-based unix utilities using stuff like glog, burp, sklizx type commands?"

Here I come! :biggrin: Doing this at work all day (and don't hesitate to do so also at home). Sometimes you can solve some jobs very efficiently doing so, although I understand everyone who wants a nice graphical user interface. I definitely don't want to PP images command line based!!

Let's see if anybody here knows what

svn st -q | grep ^C | cut -b8- | xargs svn revert

does. evil: SCNR.

 

[MontyDog]

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax;

 

[dmwphoto]

Mac.