[rocostonik]

Cool you're a book writer, I'm an actual musician in the field using the gear and let me tell you 80% percent of the PC products we've used have failed us . Maybe you are right about all the satistics and history but what counts is actual results and maybe your experience with PCs has been great and I wish I can say the same for me but it was the consistent failures of PCs that has turned me to a mac user. Funny thing is all the Avid/ Protool users we know run it on power macs. Maybe it's a Northwest/Seattle thing. Windows country. Oh yeah all my posts you have been reading are from my iPhone(handheld netbook). I guess my final conclusion is and always has been is WINDOWS has FAILED me so many times and the macintosh platform has not this is from experience and not something I read in computer history class or a pie chart. Put that in your next book.

[rocostonik]

I believe you this is rocostonik I have two screen names u believe your story but of just hasn't happened to me. But my mac story has happened to alot of my peers.

[rocostonik]

You're forgetting I used to be a PC user hardcore.

[rocostonik]

Final point. Netbook scene don't need fixing or saving it was a dumb subject to write about in the first place. Second, to all the PC fanboys and mac haters, all the people who come to me and tell their computer is messed up for what ever reason 100% of them are windows machines, none of them are mac or Linux users. But that's just me.

[sfoalex]

If you say so, But 200 million more PCs were sold this year against your 10 million Macs. The book I wrote, about DVD Studio Pro actually, was written on a PC. Screen shots were taken of DVD Studio Pro, and examples were created and so forth. The screen shots where placed on a shared storage network that both the Mac and the PC were connected to. The screen shots saved there, and were edited on the PC using Photoshop. The book was entirely written in Microsoft Word. All the Mac had to do is run DVD Studio Pro all day long. And the PC had to run Word, Photoshop, Acrobat, FTP, and I admit my Music app. And still the Mac failed from time to time. The PC never blue-screened or failed in any way as you guys always say they do.

At work, I use Eclipse running multiple instances. I have several PCs with SCSI DLT that copy high capacity DLT tapes. One Mac G5 used to ingest customer provided art, which does usually come from another Mac, which is why the Mac is there at all. We have one Mac, and perhaps 25 PCs. I use 5 PCs and 1 Mac all day every since day. So according to you guys, I should be seeing at least 3 blue-screens per month per machine, multiplied by 5 machines in 15 blue-screens per month. And also according to you, I should never see the Mac fail. Since we do employ a notary public, I almost want to get a signed affidavit stating that both me and the onsite tech have seen that Mac die or become stupid countless times. And I have seen no blue screens on any of the PCs in the last 3 years. And I don't even treat them well. They are stupid tools as far as I am concerned. The Tape Drives have to replaced because we use them so much they just die. But those PCs have been fine. And they are all these cheap $399 and $499 Dell towers. Nothing fancy at all.

I am not a pro musician, but I do own ProTools LE 7.3 which I do use with my personal Media Composer and DVTool Kit 2, which I bought for just about $2k in total, and I have yet to see it ever fail. It just works. Light uses to be sure, but still. All the Mac has to do is connect to a server once in a while and run Quark. And yet often I will use the Go menu to connect to a server and it will hang. And when it does, I just reboot it. And that's pretty much it. Sometimes it kernel panics, but not very often, but often enough that I say things to myself like, "and mac users claim these never panic". Well they do. I use one every day and they have problems like everything else does.

You remind me of my current Mac friends. They swear up and down they have zero problems. They actually say, "NO PROBLEMS", and I still own OSXWorld.com from when I drank the koolaid. And gave the site away, not the domain to a private friend, and so I go there, and I see the same friends, who just got finished telling me how perfect their mac is, complaining about some problem when coming out of sleep mode, or a keyboard stroke not being detected, or a white MacBook that went DOE and the trouble they had trying to convince a store genius of the reality of the situation. You know what I believe? I believe you guys just won't admit it to a PC user that you do in fact have the same problems everyone else has. You guys are afraid that a PC user will yell out "YOU SEE, I KNEW IT" if you do. And why have that fear? Because you guys for the last 8 years have claimed all this perfection that doesn't exist. Get over it. It's a computer. You have one; I have one. I don't buy the failure thing at all. What I buy is that you guys bought the marketing and too proud to admit you're being robbed. I won't say robbed blind, because you guys welcome being robbed. You see a machine with less features and a more expensive price tag, and have somehow convinced yourselves it's a value. My $599 Tosh has an Express Slot. My $699 HP NetBook has an Express Slot. Your $1,299 Mac Book has no Express Slot. Heck, the Koolaid bartender even had ballz to tell you that you don't need FireWire in the new MacBooks with nVidia GPUs, likely because with nVidia GPUs they are now capable of running FCP. I personally know a lot of the audio gear is FireWire. My ProTools LE is USB. But the Avid Mojo is FireWire. So is the AJA Io. I guess lower end Mac Books were powerful enough to run FCP and that scared Apple. They took FireWire away so FCP users can't use advanced hardware on the lower end hardware. So Apple again finds a way to force FCP users into buying the $1,999 MacBook Pro even though the MacBook is more than capable of running the software. And you guys clap about it instead of calling this out for it is. A plain and simple rip off.

Alex Alexzander
Message was edited by: sfoalex

[rocostonik]

Once again sales numbers has no effect on my end experience with a machine. 200 million pcs sold that means nothing in terms of results and productivity. My personal belief is the popular the machine the more a target it becomes for malicious software. Anyways you and crew of people mist be lucky ones. I don't got nothing against the pc, All the things I have posted are from
my real life encounters with windows maybe it's the weather up here.

[sfoalex]

I think it's just a matter of what you use. When I used Macs exclusively I had a tendency to see things through the crystal glass full of Koolaid. I must have, I still own osxworld, ran a great and helpful site for Mac users for a long while. But I have always used both platforms and go back all the way to the Apple IIe when I started using that in 79. I don't believe for a second you don't have problems. I do believe you don't even admit it to yourself.

My best friend before he switched to a Mac claimed he never had a PC problem, ever. Not one. Then he switched. And suddenly his story switched too. Because all of the sudden he had all these problems with the PC and would never go back to the PC. My brother. I tried to get him on the Mac platform. He takes photos. He told me the Mac was too slow, and frankly too stupid top ingest the photos with the speed of his PC. I wasn't sure what he meant by that so I asked him to show me exactly what he was doing on the PC.

He was connecting the camera, copying over all the photos from the flash chip onto the PC, and then just using the file manager which has a thumbnail view. In that view, he could rotate, reject, and do pretty much all he needed to do to quickly dismiss all the bad photos before going into Photoshop. I tried to find a Mac solution with the same ease and speed. Nothing was faster or easier than his process was. And I was blown away, as I was drinking the koolaid by the 2 liter bottle at that time, that his crappy PC blew past my glorious and expensive silver super computer. But there it was. Later I went back to the PC only to find my brother switched the to Mac after all. I said, but what about the photos and the speed, and ease. You know what my now Koolaid drinking brother said in response? He said, everyone else I know doing photography uses a Mac. That's my brother insane answer to reality. He had a better, faster, easier process and he threw it away because of a stupid perception issue. And as a long time mac and pc user I have seen this perception many times. They say things like, "macs are better at graphics". Well, sorry but the fact of the matter is, the PC is by far superior at graphics and has been for a decade.

You say you don't have problems. Well, I don't buy it. You just overlook them unconsciously. I see you guys do it all the time. That's my first-hand experience. Friends do it all the time. I guess they think I don't read the Mac forums, but I do, just like you still read the PC forums.

Alex Alexzander

[rocostonik]

I swear never had a problem with mine. Had mine for a year. I'm sure there are mac users with some mac problems but not me and my friends. I don't about you and your machines but trouble free service is pretty common on the mac side of things. "It just works"- Steve Jobs

[sfoalex]

I have this PC that hasn't had a single problem in 14 years. It's buried under tons of junk in a box in a closet somewhere. "No problems at all." -Alex Alexzander

[rocostonik]

I still have this old commadore that runs Geo Works remember that? And a Apple Quadra with the Cd rom disc caddy. That's old school. This has got to be the longest running argument on the pc world web site.

[rocostonik]

in regards to your brother and his photos. Your misconception to that it is all about graphics power, well it not, stability also is a big factor if not bigger. You dont need the greatest graphics chip to do photos or even
video. A stable OS is key. And let's face Vista and Xp don't really hold up to the stability of OSX tiger or leopard.

[sfoalex]

It's spelled Commodore. And I used to use Berkely Softwerks GEOS as well. And I have 4 Macs up on a shelf that are the 9" black and white models. An SE, and SE/30, the original 512k and a "Classic". I even have a fully functional NeXT TurboStation somewhere. I have an Apple //e under a table somewhere. An 867 G4 under yet another table. And I have a Quadra too. I just mean to throw them all away, but I never get around to it. I forgot, I have a G3 blue and white too. I gave my mother my Intel Core2Dou MacBook 2GHz which is pretty new. She wanted a Mac when she saw her sisters, my aunt. And you might find this hard to believe but all I ran on that Mac was Windows. So I reformatted it and gave it away. I sold my dual 2 GHz G5 when the intel pentium single core 3.2 GHz running After Effects blew it away. Got a good price for it too.

I have the first CDROM from Apple as well. It was called the 300i and it's very long and low profile. It came with speakers and RCA audio in the back for the powered speakers. It was $599 when I bought it, but then black CDs used to be $9.99 for a 3-pack.

I switched from the Apple IIe to the Commodore 64, to the 128, then the Atari ST, then the Mac, then the Amiga, then the PC in 1991. Built lots of PCs all the way up to 1996 when I bought a PowerCenter from PowerComputing. Dropped that for a 400 MHz Pentium based WinBook. In 1999 switched back to the Mac, owned all kinds of various models. By about 2004 I dropped the drop the mac except for what I use at work.

In 1994 I certified for Novell Network Engineering. Then got a Lotus Developer and Admin certification. Later got an MCSE. Then an HP Star, various ProCurve notes, became a SAN engineer for Storage Array Network Design. By 1999 I was editing which is why I got into the Mac. Prior to that I had edited in Premiere 4.2 in 96. And prior to that, I played around on the Toaster. In 86 I wrote a BBS and a terminal in Blitz 64 for the commodore.

Basically, I have a deep background in both art related and tech related areas. So I have built hundreds of PCs, supported huge networks, and know both platforms exceedingly well.

Alex Alexzander

[sfoalex]

Quote

{quote:title=rocostonik wrote:}
in regards to your brother and his photos. Your misconception to that it is all about graphics power, well it not, stability also is a big factor if not bigger. You dont need the greatest graphics chip to do photos or even
video. A stable OS is key. And let's face Vista and Xp don't really hold up to the stability of OSX tiger or leopard.{quote}

While I agree with you that stability is everything, I do not agree that osx in any of its forms is more stable than either XP or Vista. You believe that I am sure. As I have written already many times, the PC is very stable. Perhaps you do stupid things on it that cause instability. But I do all manor of tasks on my PC, and I don't see any real problems that I would be too concerned with at all. I can go to a PC forum or a Mac forum right now, and both forums will be full of people with problems.

Alex

[dash2k8]

"I'd rather pay 1300 bucks on a Macbook that will last me 6-8 years..."
Why would anyone want to use a computer after 6-8 years?! You may save money but you lose tons of productivity. Not realistic. I don't imagine an 8-year-old Mac being able to run the latest OS X. So the $1300 investment is realistically only good for 2-3 years. I'd rather pay $599 for a 2-3 year notebook, thank you.

[dash2k8]

Bottom line is, Macs cost much more than PCs for the same level of hardware performance. There is no debate. So if Apple were to introduce a netbook, I imagine it will perform like an EEE PC at 3x the price. But it will surely look cool. No debate about that, either.

[sfoalex]

Quote

{quote:title=dash2k8 wrote:}
"I'd rather pay 1300 bucks on a Macbook that will last me 6-8 years..."

Why would anyone want to use a computer after 6-8 years?! You may save money but you lose tons of productivity. Not realistic. I don't imagine an 8-year-old Mac being able to run the latest OS X. So the $1300 investment is realistically only good for 2-3 years. I'd rather pay $599 for a 2-3 year notebook, thank you.{quote}

No one is using a computer from 8 years ago. He'd be running System 9 and a 350 to 450 MHz G3 or G4. Mac guys love to make this claim, and yet before the January expo they already have their already over loaded credit cards ready to buy anything Jobs announces. And always, it's slightly better than the past machine and absolutely not at all worth a total upgrade cost of buying an entirely new Mac.

One ex-friend told me he wanted to be a designer. So he buys a iMac. I said, why not buy the Adobe suite so you can learn the software. Nope, he wanted the Mac, then had no money for software. Claimed it would last him for many years to come and made the mistake of calling the depreciating iMac an investment, as almost all Mac users confuse the distinction. Investments appreciate in value, which is why they are called investments. All else is not an investment by definition. Anyway, 6 months later he buys a quad-core. I say, what about learning to design? To that he actually swears at me, uses the f word several times, tells me PCs suck, I didn't even mention PCs, just mentioned Adobe's suite is all, and he tells me all about how he needs the tower because of expansion et al. He never so much as expanded the memory or learned a thing about design. And that is your typical mac fanboy. In love with the image but more often than not, hold absolutely no skill that requires a Mac what so ever.

Note to many of you Mac users. You can read mac rumors with any NetBook for 6 times less the money. And no one will know what you use to post all that Apple love. I'm posting this from my HP2133 and guess what... The text looks just the same as your text from your big expensive silver paper-weight. And no, it's not crashing and it only costs $699 and even has an Express Card slot and a 9 in 1 media card reader. It weighs 2.6 pounds. Lighter than your Air and a thousand dollars less. 1280 x 768 res too. Fits better on the airline tray tables too. Imagine that.

Alex Alexzander

[rocostonik]

Oh cool , 699 Hp you're posting from
well I'm posting from
a $199 iPhone. Who cares.
Tell me 10 things vista has that's osx doesn't.

[sfoalex]

Quote

{quote:title=rocostonik wrote:}
Oh cool , 699 Hp you're posting from
well I'm posting from
a $199 iPhone. Who cares.
Tell me 10 things vista has that's osx doesn't.{quote}

Tell you ten things. Yeah, let's play this game. Why don't you tell me ten things OSX has that Vista doesn't have.

I'll give you ten things off the top of my head:

1. Access to a far larger choice of hardware from more than one vendor.
2. Access to a far larger base of competitive software in the areas of business, enterprise, and home entertainment.
3. Direct support for Blu-ray playback in software, including HDCP support from software player, to Video Card, to HDCP compliant display. Had this for 2 years now.
4. Built-in FTP support right in the Vista UI. Apple's support of FTP in the Finder has no write access, only read access.
5. An uninstall architecture that allows customers to easily remove software without leaving stupid plist files all over the place. This includes driver rollback on any device, which simply doesn?t exist on the Mac at all. Had this since Windows ME. About 9 years now. And don't even say Macs don't need drivers. Install an ATTO card and tell me you don't need drivers.
6. DirectX, which is the hands down winner for game development.
7. Media Center in Vista is vastly superior to Apple?s Media Player.
8. I can change much of the interface look and feel. I can set the colors of the Areo glass too, and not just a preset. I can make it any color in the 24bit spectrum. Can you change the color of your windows? Make it look just like older versions of the OS if you want to? Nope.
9. Built in true support for Active Directory, making Vista an excellent Enterprise Client in a large network.
10. A roaming profile, making logging into any PC assume all the characteristics of the PC I use every day.

But those ten things aren't so important. What is important is that Windows has tons of vendor support. Unlike Apple, which you can only buy from Apple, I can buy a Windows PC from anyone. I can buy a tablet PC from perhaps ten different vendors. Can you buy a tablet PC that isn't a hackup job from a MacBook? Nope. Can you buy a 8.9" NetBook? No. Can you buy a 7" NetBook? No again. If Apple decides to stop giving you FireWire, you are out of luck. If Dell doesn't give me FireWire, I can buy an HP, or an ASUS, or a Levano, or any number of other vendors. I'm not locked into any one vendor. They all run Windows, and so I have choices. You do not. If Apple doesn't make a NetBook, you don't have one to buy at all.

Can you buy a new tower that cost $399? No. How about twice that price? No. 3 times that price? No. 4 times that price, perhaps. What if I want a media center type PC with built in DVR? I have many to choose from. You have maybe one or two from Elgato. And external stick-out trash. I can build a PC that looks like a stereo component, has a DVD or Blu-ray, covers recording, playback, and burning. Can you do that? No.

Can you build or buy a single unit with say 8 or 12 drive bays for a single device for a rack that can host a large database? No. You need to go external. Can you even buy an XRAID anymore? No, Apple dropped em. The only true rack mount Apple offers is the Xserve. Wow, a choice of an Xserve 1u or the Xserve of 1u. Tough choice there.

Do you have support for subscription music? No. You have to buy every single song. Can you go to Amazon and rent a movie? No. How about Cinema Now? No. Movie Link? No.

Vista is more than what is in the box. It's a huge eco system of hardware, software, and middle ware. That's what OSX lacks. Mostly Vista isn't pathetic. OSX is.

Alex Alexzander

[sfoalex]

Quote

{quote:title=rocostonik wrote:}
Oh cool , 699 Hp you're posting from
well I'm posting from
a $199 iPhone. Who cares.
Tell me 10 things vista has that's osx doesn't.{quote}

You make my point for me. Who needs a Mac to post in a forum. Which is all most of you do, so why do you need Macs? It's all just text after all. Even your phone can do it. And that same logic extends into so many other areas. A $499 PC can run Photoshop every bit as well as a Mac can. I can build a PC for about $600 that can out render a Mac at twice that price, easily. Why, because $1,200 buys you very little on the Mac side. You'd be pretty limited with hardware at that price range. If you want to approach PC speeds, you must buy a tower for the expansion, and that's an invitation to a car loan on the Mac. On the PC, I get a tower for the cost of a case and motherboard, typically no more than just about $250 if I build it myself. That machine will have PCIe architecture, and come from the same people that manufacture Macs for Apple overseas.

Look at those new ASUS motherboard that have a small LINUX ROM in them. They can instantly boot into that rom and allow you to go online, use skype, browse the web, and so on. Without ever even booting into Windows. Pretty neat feature. Doesn't exist on any Mac at any price. You have to wait for Jobs to declare it useful. Good thing Jobs doesn't own the food chain. He might decide prime rib is bad and you all would become vegetarians over night.

The output is what counts. I can write a book, edit a movie, make money, run a company, control access to hundreds of thousands of users with a single active directory. Can you? Up to a point you can, but it stop short of the big job. Macs are all consumer. That's where they start and stop. Windows goes much further.

Alex Alexzander

[Bohica55]

Why would I ever want the junk put out by Apple to "Save" my netbook, when Acer has already done that for me?? I have been using a netbook with XP (which does not crash when properly set up) and use a 160GB hard drive with fantastic clarity on a small screen and can use most if not all the apps that I find to be essential and in a machine that fits into my cargo pockets and if I need to install something on the road, my 16 GB flash drives are more than enough for the task. With LAN and Wireless, I can access the net, send completed projects and keep in contact with anyone that I need to.
Oh, by the way, Expensive?? try $450.00 Canadian before taxes. To make it more user friendly, I dropped the McAfee suite and installed my own favorite, and if needed I have an external DVD drive and burner that is very portable. So, who need Apple, 5 Notebooks and not one is junk from them.