Im considering purchasing an eMac with the Superdrive and all that stuff. Id like to get an iMac, but its out of my price range, and the one I want is $1700. Plus I hear that they are coming out with a replacement in Sept. Ive been a PC user my whole life, and just wanted to get some opinions of users out there on why I should switch. The only thing I use my computer for is: mp3 music digital photography (basic to middle of the road) Internet I dont play Quake and Doom and all that, so I dont need intense graphics and such. Is the switch difficult? Any help is appreciated. Drew to the dog.
For those 3 things, about the only thing you'll miss out on is the variety of software. You could get either a PC or Mac and be satisfied. Get a Mac just to be different.
They only have 3.7 percent of the market because Bill Gates was smart enough to market software over hardware. He cornered the market because he spent his time selling operating systems instead of computer systems. Windows became the dominant software in the market and everyone else went immediately to second place. But, that doesn't make Mac's worse machines. In fact, they absolutely dominate the graphics, publishing, filmmaking and music industries. They always have. They are also one of the biggest sellers among educational institutions. They just don't dominate the cubicle world of corporate America and, as a result, don't sell nearly as many machines as Dell or IBM or HP or whatever other PC company is out there. I've used both. I prefer the Mac because I love the interface and, for most of what I do - graphics, web, music - it just is so much nicer than a PC. I can definitely see the appeal of the PC for programmers and gamers in particular. For everything else (business stuff, word processing, internet, etc), it's basically a draw. Both machines handle that equally well. Now that virtually every major software title is available for both platforms (Office, Adobe Creative, Macromedia Studio, etc), it is mostly up to what you can afford and what system you prefer.
That's absurd. Macs are excellent computers and can easily compare with PCs. Though they are a bit pricey. I bet you'll find the MAC experience quite good when it comes to those three area, MP3 (music), digital photos and Internet. I can't help ya with the switch as I'm a PC user, but I really enjoy using my parents MAC.
I'm still in the process of breaking in my G5 so I don't have enough of an opinion to give you right now. I've had a few technical problems with it. I had to take it in to get one of my processors changed, but nothing too drastic.
They are nice looking and the OS looks fluid, the only drawback is the pricing, if money is no concern then by all means go ahead get one but for maybe $600-$800 you can get a PC and still accomplish the same thing
I just dropped a lot of money on a new powerbook for myself and an ibook for my wife. I have been using x86 machines my whole life - this is my first foray into macs since my dad's old Mac IIe. My reasons: 1) Stability. I use windows all the time - I fix windows all the time. I'm tired of it not working. I'm tired of OUtlook just randomly deciding not to work correctly. I don't want to have trouble playing/loading anything not made by MS. I want things to work. A buddy of mine told me he bought a new USB video camera for his mac. In the box was the camera and a USB cable. Thats it. He plugged it in - the rivers loaded automatically - and he was done. That shocked me. OSX is based on BSD, the most stable OS period. (Allright, besides maybe some of the mainframe stuff from IBM/Solaris) The problem with BSD (I use it on a home server) is it is DAMN cryptic to figure out. OSX takes the stabilty and adds a "Mac" GUI. I get all the stability and power, with an apple-friendly user interface and design. Perfect. 2) Security. No more viruses, trojans, or (my personal favorite) malicious web links. No more haphazardly released security updates that break other things often in the process. The difference is so ridiculous it is hard to even write it down. Windows is not fixable anymore - the flaws are DESIGNED into the OS and are therefore unavoidable. 3) Liscensing. I don't agree with Microsofts politics, EULAs, and gross manipulation of the market price. That may not amtter to you - but you might change your mind if you read some of what you agree to when you click "I accept". (For example, MS has the right to know every single video you watch on media player...) Heck, install zonealarm in default mode and see how many times MS apps phone home to Microsoft's servers (it's alot). I have no idea what they are sending - but I can supply a lot of links with pretty good indications that it is not a good thing.... 4) Reputation. I know a lot of people with Macs. Most of them are power-users who jumped on the bandwagon after OSX was released. They love it. Seriously. All the power of UNIX, with none of the cryptic methodologies. If you want the cryptic power though - it's still a quick trip to the command line. Heck - you can even intall a lot of native UNIX/Linux apps in OSX. Drwdog, the mac is perfet for what you want to do. And it is much less likely to break fo no apparent reason. Switching is simple - since MS has office for the Mac still. But I urge you to give OpenOffice a try. My two bits. I can give a lot of other reasons too - but work calls. --rhad
Once you go MAC you'll never go back. Don't listen to mbiker he has no idea what he is talking about. The eMac you describe is an excellent computer and will do everything you want it to do and then some.
Talk to almost anyone who uses macs and you will notice something: Fierce brand loyalty. I can't think of anyone who didn't start out using exclusively PC (except for wagon train on Apple II's in grade school) and THEN switched over to Apple and never went back. Using Apple's exclusively is like being converted. Like waking up from one of those dreams where you fight as hard as you can and can't make any progress on something. So, if Apple sucks so much, why do so many creative, intellectual, and influential people that could use ANYTHING use Macs?
Cool. Thanks for the mostly positive input guys. I guess I know what I want.... Just a little timid using all the new programs and new tools. I have a bunch of USB stuff to hook up, and use a HUB so hopefully that wont be a problem.....
you really need convincing? how's this... no microsoft targeted viruses, no email viruses and no spyware how's that for convincing? (i'm not a mac user, but i think these statements are fairly accurate)
The interface is different, but once you get the hang of it, you'll prefer it to Win. It is MUCH more fluid and intuitive.
I think the Mac OS is really slick and I like it. I've heard loads of positive things about Mac stability and an equal number of negative things about Windows instability (although I haven't experienced that myself since Windows 3.11-- the only PC failures I've had in that interim are hardware-related). They hope. Hey, that's cool. Same thing happened when I bought my digital camera, except I was using a PC with Windows XP.
All I can tell you about stability is this... I had an older iMac for almost 4 years. Once I got Jaguar, I HAD to re-boot due to the system locking about 5 times in the span of a little over a year and the computer was running 24/7. I chose to re-boot about once a week just to do a little cleaning up, but I only had to do so a handful of times. One thing that is important is extra memory. I found with my new iMac that it has been a little sluggish, but when I asked a Mac tech guy about it, he said, "If all you have is the original 256MB of memory, install more ASAP and it will clear up the problem." He said that this is common among the newer machines. I have another 256 just sitting here and I'm going to install it. Apparently, it makes a significant difference.
When I say PC failures, I'm not talking about occasional application crashes or things like that, although at home even those are extremely rare (on the order of perhaps one a year). In the corporate environment, where I have almost no control over the operating variables, Office lockups and the like are much more common. To me, the PC is an extremely utilitarian appliance. I don't play games, don't record music (anymore), and don't do anything else that would justify paying the premium to buy a Mac, as much as I admire the attractiveness of their products. In that regard, I'm similar to the customer base Jeff is talking about: the corporate world. There are a few relatively simple tasks that I expect my computer to be able to perform, and having a wide-screen monitor or sleek chassis or (again) a slick presentation would just be gravy on the cake. Expensive gravy at that.
just to set the record straight. Give Linux/Unix some credit man. For old schooler's, system level programmings, linux/unix is the top choice. windows is good for large scale application level programming though.
A friend of mine has an old Imac [seems the equivalence of a 233 MHz computer] using OS 8 [pawn shop special] is that upgradable to OSX i looked around for him and didn't find alot of new software that [He looking to use Pro Tools] where can one get old Software [it is one of those all in one systems . . so i doubt upgrading is good.] Rocket River
