General

[Sir Brass]

And the constant need to reformat/reinstall about every year or so, along with the general hassle to maintain that they take. Not that I can't do it, as I'm quite computer savvy, it's just that I'm sick of it.

So, I'm going to the light side.

I'm getting an iMac. And, having done my homework, I'd like to debunk what someone said about them being basically laptops attached to a stand. WRONG! They're full sized computers, including taking standard-sized HDDs. And I can't wait to get mine. Will be getting it when I move into my new apartment in July.

Windows can go corrupt its registry and drivers all it want to. I'm going to an OS that's actually designed well and not written in spaghetti code that also causes its share of dynamic memory violations.

That is all .

[Berm]

[comovartia]

I agree. My next system will be a mac. I'm just not sure if it will be an imac or a mac book.

[Long Beard]

I was hesitant to make the switch, but now that I did, I won't go back. Every time I'm forced to use a PC, I feel very frustrated that the wonkieness of it. You won't regret it.

[Jaan]

It's 6 of one, half dozen of the other. I've used both extensively and they're both computers. They both have thier strong and weak points. I've used everything from a Heathkit I had to program in hexedecimal, to an Apple ][e, to an Amiga with a Video Toaster, to $3k Macbook Pro. Nothing was ever so spectacularly better than the other.

[Modokun]

First, I want to say that I own a Mac G5 and use it regularly.

Mac's GUI is wondeful to use. Almost everything is incredibly simple, and consistent across all applications. You never have to fight it, it just flows naturally. But there are some incredibly annoying faults.


Single Click or Double Click?!?!

When opening a program in your dock you single click it. To open it from from the desktop, you double-click it. To open it from the left side of a Finder window, you single-click it. To open it from the right side of a Finder window, you double-click it. Unless you are in column mode, then you single-click it. Come on Apple, make up your mind!

Window Focus

To work with a window you have to click it. But, when you click the window it also brings it to the front, which means you can't work with partially hidden windows. For example: When dragging more than one icon at a time from window to window if the source window overlaps the target area when you click the icon it brings the source window to the top, hiding the target window.

Moving and Resizing Windows

To move a window you have to use the title bar. Windows can be moved partially off-screen to the left, right, or bottom, but not the top; it sticks to the desktop title bar. Also edge snapping is nonexistant. To resize a window you have to use a small icon in the bottom right hand corner of the window. If that part of the window is off of the screen, too bad for you, you must move the window first and then carefully click the resize icon; especially if it overlaps a button...

I have more complaints but I think thats enough whining for one post... :P

The MacOS does have tons of great features though like, dock icon previews, file coloring, seamlessly integrated multiple desktops, hot corners, video conferencing, DVD burner integration, the Dashboard and widgets.


I said I wouldn't whine anymore but I forgot a couple of things...

The Mac Mouse

Yeah, the mouse does look cool but it only has a single button. And from personal experience I can say that it is agonizing to use. Luckily any third-party multibutton mouse works right out of the box with a Mac, including the scroll wheel. Recently Apple has released a new mouse with four buttons and a scroll wheel.

Itunes Mini-Store

Ever since the release of Itunes 6.0.2 the ministore has been reporting every song you play to Apple. You can check out the traffic with tcpdump, but really all you have to do watch the ad bar display ads relating to your current song. How dare you Apple, we trusted you!


Apple's well designed GUI has helped to fill an important gap in the Linux world. The foundation of the GUI has some disappointing defects. But are only really apparent to users that have experienced Linux's advanced technology. Because Apple seems to follow Microsoft's mindset closely I don't expect Apple's OS to ever catch up with Linux.

[Vizzaka]

Ill be joining you at the end of september Mr. Brass

[hank_k]

I'm another on the fence type. I'm typing this from an iBook G4 which i use for the vast majority of my computing .. words just fine for what I need to do, better than I need for some things. What bugged me most about windows was how counter intuitive a lot of things were, and how to get one thing done, you usually had to fight your way through. Case in point is a lot of the XP security nonesense. I go to a site, go to download a file, get a popup saying "oh hay, we stopped teh doanlode, do u wnat to do it ?" .. I click yes, since that's why I clicked the download link in the first place .. "oh hay .. this site were let you doanload sum filez. u sur ?" ... YES. click again and you finally get to the file. I can see the reasoning, as a lot of people will click yes to anything that any site asks them to download .. as evidenced by many people saying "I don't understand why it's running so slow" only for me to look and see 50 of those search bars, countless little desktop gimmick apps and who knows how many countless spyware and adware processes running.

It is nice being on a system that doesn't take in the backdoor so easily, but there are times when you need windows .. for us powerpc guys, that's pretty much anytime you want to play a game .. but that's what the 360 is for

[Rayodder]

Ubuntu your PC, it's free and takes 20 minutes to set up

[idkfa]

Originally Posted by Rayodder

Ubuntu your PC, it's free and takes 20 minutes to set up

Ubuntu is awesome. However, I currently use an iBook G4.