So I borrowed my friend's macbook....

[Engraver]

Originally posted by: irishScott

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: theprodigalrebel
What a stupid thread. I only spent two weeks with Ubuntu as my primary OS and was able to figure out all I needed (for basic productivity) by clicking the big icons, looking at help files and using Google. We live in an era where you can learn almost everything you need to know using the big search box in the top right corner of your browser window. OS X supposed to be the epitome of user-friendliness (or so I hear) and a Mac can't possibly be harder to figure out than Ubuntu.

The mud-slinging and name-calling in this thread is ridiculous.

and id you notice a lot of it was coming from the mac users?

http://www.thebestpageintheuni....net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

From the webpage linked in the above quote:

After the recent Apple conference, Mac fans were elated. One person was quoted as saying "I've had a Macintosh now for a total of 35 days, and I'm really excited to be part of the Mac community." Part of the Mac community? It's a computer, not a social movement, asshole! I feel like Apple is not just selling computers, they're selling a way of life, and I'm not ready to be that heavily invested in a product. I think this parody helps illustrate Apple's unspoken message:

That's why I said mac users are like scientologists. They think shelling out a lot of cash makes thems part of something bigger.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Amol
I used Windows exclusively for 11+ years but I switched to a MacBook Pro when I started college. I love this thing, especially OS X. I hate to sound cliché but ... "It just works." Most of my dormmates on XP/Vista have been having major problems with their connections to the university wireless LAN but none of us on macs have had any sort of problem. They're also had problems signing onto the university network and when I talked to the IT admin, he told me they run Windows servers.

I sincerely thought the first thing I was going to do after getting my MBP was to get Boot Camp and XP Professional but I really don't see the need for it. Macs are just awesome. Sure, there's the learning curve, but if you're posting on ATOT, it shouldn't be less than a couple of hours.

?

That's because windows is built differently and your friends don't know how to use it. Your example provides zero proof in either direction other than your friends probably screwed it up on their own. Networking in particular is a touchy subject as everyone thinks they are an expert when they usually know very little.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Amol
I used Windows exclusively for 11+ years but I switched to a MacBook Pro when I started college. I love this thing, especially OS X. I hate to sound cliché but ... "It just works." Most of my dormmates on XP/Vista have been having major problems with their connections to the university wireless LAN but none of us on macs have had any sort of problem. They're also had problems signing onto the university network and when I talked to the IT admin, he told me they run Windows servers.

I sincerely thought the first thing I was going to do after getting my MBP was to get Boot Camp and XP Professional but I really don't see the need for it. Macs are just awesome. Sure, there's the learning curve, but if you're posting on ATOT, it shouldn't be less than a couple of hours.

?

That's because windows is built differently and your friends don't know how to use it. Your example provides zero proof in either direction other than your friends probably screwed it up on their own. Networking in particular is a touchy subject as everyone thinks they are an expert when they usually know very little.

The majority of them got their PCs as college was starting, so I have no clue how they "messed it up" if one of the first things they tried to do was connect to the internet. All I know is that they're spending a whole lot of hours dealing with ResNet while I'm out enjoying college.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Engraver

After the recent Apple conference, Mac fans were elated. One person was quoted as saying "I've had a Macintosh now for a total of 35 days, and I'm really excited to be part of the Mac community." Part of the Mac community? It's a computer, not a social movement, asshole! I feel like Apple is not just selling computers, they're selling a way of life, and I'm not ready to be that heavily invested in a product. I think this parody helps illustrate Apple's unspoken message:

That's why I said mac users are like scientologists. They think shelling out a lot of cash makes thems part of something bigger.

I agree to some extent that many people take the MAC "way of life" to an extreme. I don't understand where the idea came from that it is anything other than a machine to do work. I don't automatically think a certain way about anyone who owns a MAC until they open their mouth and give me a reason. When I hear someone say "MACs are better because..." I stop listening and realize they don't have a clue. For most home users, either system is sufficient. You can get on the internet, listen to music, type documents or make spreadsheets, or do whatever else. If you want to play games, you get PC. Other than that, the differences aren't astronomical. In the work place, everything changes.

Based on this, I can't seem to wrap my brain around the social movement following Apple. I own an iPod, but I see no reason to defend my honor if someone says the iPod sucks. For some people, the iPod might suck, or they might just be jealous that they don't have one, or they might just be ignorant. Who cares? When I hear people acting like arrogant jerks because PC users "just don't get it", it very loudly and clearly exposes their weakness - ignorance.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Amol
I used Windows exclusively for 11+ years but I switched to a MacBook Pro when I started college. I love this thing, especially OS X. I hate to sound cliché but ... "It just works." Most of my dormmates on XP/Vista have been having major problems with their connections to the university wireless LAN but none of us on macs have had any sort of problem. They're also had problems signing onto the university network and when I talked to the IT admin, he told me they run Windows servers.

I sincerely thought the first thing I was going to do after getting my MBP was to get Boot Camp and XP Professional but I really don't see the need for it. Macs are just awesome. Sure, there's the learning curve, but if you're posting on ATOT, it shouldn't be less than a couple of hours.

?

That's because windows is built differently and your friends don't know how to use it. Your example provides zero proof in either direction other than your friends probably screwed it up on their own. Networking in particular is a touchy subject as everyone thinks they are an expert when they usually know very little.

The majority of them got their PCs as college was starting, so I have no clue how they "messed it up" if one of the first things they tried to do was connect to the internet. All I know is that they're spending a whole lot of hours dealing with ResNet while I'm out enjoying college.

Yes, they "messed it up" or the admin has incorrectly setup the network. This has absolutely nothing to do with Windows XP or Vista in any way shape or form other than they are being blamed for human mistakes. Huge businesses wouldn't rely on Windows if it was really that unreliable or difficult to setup. What it takes is someone who knows how to use it or took the time to understand what they are doing.

If your friends can't enjoy college without the internet, there are other problems. If you feel like you are truly enjoying college because you are able to connect to the internet, then you have problems as well and that provides some insight into why you're friends with people who also need the internet to be happy. I spent most of my time in college outside of my dorm room, so internet connectivity didn't really phase me one way or the other.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Amol
I used Windows exclusively for 11+ years but I switched to a MacBook Pro when I started college. I love this thing, especially OS X. I hate to sound cliché but ... "It just works." Most of my dormmates on XP/Vista have been having major problems with their connections to the university wireless LAN but none of us on macs have had any sort of problem. They're also had problems signing onto the university network and when I talked to the IT admin, he told me they run Windows servers.

I sincerely thought the first thing I was going to do after getting my MBP was to get Boot Camp and XP Professional but I really don't see the need for it. Macs are just awesome. Sure, there's the learning curve, but if you're posting on ATOT, it shouldn't be less than a couple of hours.

?

That's because windows is built differently and your friends don't know how to use it. Your example provides zero proof in either direction other than your friends probably screwed it up on their own. Networking in particular is a touchy subject as everyone thinks they are an expert when they usually know very little.

The majority of them got their PCs as college was starting, so I have no clue how they "messed it up" if one of the first things they tried to do was connect to the internet. All I know is that they're spending a whole lot of hours dealing with ResNet while I'm out enjoying college.

Yes, they "messed it up" or the admin has incorrectly setup the network. This has absolutely nothing to do with Windows XP or Vista in any way shape or form other than they are being blamed for human mistakes. Huge businesses wouldn't rely on Windows if it was really that unreliable or difficult to setup. What it takes is someone who knows how to use it or took the time to understand what they are doing.

If your friends can't enjoy college without the internet, there are other problems. If you feel like you are truly enjoying college because you are able to connect to the internet, then you have problems as well and that provides some insight into why you're friends with people who also need the internet to be happy. I spent most of my time in college outside of my dorm room, so internet connectivity didn't really phase me one way or the other.

Have you been to college in the last 5 years? All of my assignments are online (my university uses 3 different online protocols for classes: LearnLink, Blackboard, and Online Pathway to University Students). Without having to worry about whether or not I can get my work done, I can then go out and enjoy college. :roll:

 

[TheStu]

So, for those playing at home... thus far we have established

"Macs have no right click"

"Yes they do!"

"Windows rocks"

"I could figure out Ubuntu no problem"

"I thought OS X was easy?"

"Im happy i got a Mac"

"Burn the macbook"

"You're an idiot"

"Nuh uh!"

"Drag the disk to the trash to eject"

"That's dumb"

"No it's not"

"Or use the eject button"

"I have never, in my life seen that symbol before, and am incapable of asking anyone if they have, it should say 'eject' "

"Its the same symbol as anything other eject"

"They all said eject, you're an idiot"

"Nuh uh"

"Why isn't OS X exactly like Windows?"

"Macs are more expensive because they last longer"

"You can't upgrade macs"


I think that about sums it up.... this brings everybody new to the thread up to speed

 

[pmoa]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: pulse8
To eject something, drag it to the trash.

that makes sense

Just hit the eject button on the top right of the keyboard....and the drive should be shown on the desktop, click and hold and you can select eject from the menu

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Amol

Have you been to college in the last 5 years? All of my assignments are online (my university uses 3 different online protocols for classes: LearnLink, Blackboard, and Online Pathway to University Students). Without having to worry about whether or not I can get my work done, I can then go out and enjoy college. :roll:

Yes, as a matter of fact I have. I am at a co-op right now and will resume my senior year next semester. Most of my work is done on the computer as well, but you are kidding yourself if you think the computer lab isn't sufficient. Quite a large percentage of people don't purchase a computer when they go to college. The provided facilities are more than enough. Having your own computer is no more than a luxury.

You can go out and enjoy college with or without your own computer. You are still making excuses to boost your confidence in your MAC, which is baseless at best. As an engineer, I probably use the computer just as much if not more than anyone else for my assignments, and I went several weeks without my laptop because I let my sister borrow it last semester. Somehow I still managed to do all of my work and earn a 3.8 last semester.

 

[kalster]

osx is far more stable than xp/vista, besides it has a bsd based kernel which makes its stable and less prone to attacks/viruses, it also not as resource hungry as vista, more than anything i like having unix access as i can use my fav unix/linux apps. and with parallels now there is no need to boot windows xp/vista ever, all that is lacking really is a good native version of office. office 2004 with rosetta is a bit slow.

if i was a gamer i would probably find os x lacking

 

[Platypus]

there is so much FUD in this thread it's ridiculous

 

[bearxor]

Stu, thats an excellent recap!

Makes me miss those idiots over at NBF...

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: kalster
osx is far more stable than xp/vista, besides it has a bsd based kernel which makes its stable and less prone to attacks/viruses, it also not as resource hungry as vista, more than anything i like having unix access as i can use my fav unix/linux apps. and with parallels now there is no need to boot windows xp/vista ever, all that is lacking really is a good native version of office. office 2004 with rosetta is a bit slow.

if i was a gamer i would probably find os x lacking

There is absolutely no way you can prove this, nor do I believe it anyway. A lot of problems with Windows aren't really problems with windows - it's problems with third party drivers. I have problems at work with Ubuntu freezing in the middle of massive computations or Solaris not being able to kill all of the processes I want to kill, regardless of my privilege level.

It is no more stable because it is based on BSD, but nice try. If you were going to write a virus, would you target 5% of the population, or 95%? When you understand what an operating system really is, then you will realize why what you just said is highly dismissable. All it contains is code that was written by people, which means it is all vulnerable to an exploit in one sense or another. If you take enough time to understand both the hardware that is running the OS (CPU priority levels, exception handling, privilege levels) as well as the actual OS (semaphores, priority inversions, interrupts and exceptions including hardware, scheduling, context switching), you will understand why saying "osx is far more stable..." makes literally no sense. No one spends enough time writing viruses to target a niche group to be noticeable.

Also, what are your "fav unix/linux apps"? This kind of statement jumps out of the page as someone who has irrational bias and is grasping at straws to justify it. You don't refer to all of the operating systems as unix/linux as the two can be very different, and even linux distros can vary from platform to platform.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: kalster
osx is far more stable than xp/vista, besides it has a bsd based kernel which makes its stable and less prone to attacks/viruses, it also not as resource hungry as vista, more than anything i like having unix access as i can use my fav unix/linux apps. and with parallels now there is no need to boot windows xp/vista ever, all that is lacking really is a good native version of office. office 2004 with rosetta is a bit slow.

if i was a gamer i would probably find os x lacking

There is absolutely no way you can prove this, nor do I believe it anyway. A lot of problems with Windows aren't really problems with windows - it's problems with third party drivers. I have problems at work with Ubuntu freezing in the middle of massive computations or Solaris not being able to kill all of the processes I want to kill, regardless of my privilege level.

It is no more stable because it is based on BSD, but nice try. If you were going to write a virus, would you target 5% of the population, or 95%? When you understand what an operating system really is, then you will realize why what you just said is highly dismissable. All it contains is code that was written by people, which means it is all vulnerable to an exploit in one sense or another. If you take enough time to understand both the hardware that is running the OS (CPU priority levels, exception handling, privilege levels) as well as the actual OS (semaphores, priority inversions, interrupts and exceptions including hardware, scheduling, context switching), you will understand why saying "osx is far more stable..." makes literally no sense. No one spends enough time writing viruses to target a niche group to be noticeable.

Also, what are your "fav unix/linux apps"? This kind of statement jumps out of the page as someone who has irrational bias and is grasping at straws to justify it. You don't refer to all of the operating systems as unix/linux as the two can be very different, and even linux distros can vary from platform to platform.

I dont really need to prove it, i am talking from my personal experience. I agree osx is targeted less less coz it has less market presence but stability wise I have found osx more stable, xnu being based on bsd makes it more stable to me, I havent studied the windows kernel/scheduler in detail, but from my experience developing application for unix/linux (as well as studying in detail), I am pretty confident that a xnu based kernel will be more stable and more realtime (hence more responsive) than windows. Being able to use unix/linux apps ( i use both together coz i mostly use open source apps so you can compile and run them on either unix or diff flavors of linux just as easily) is a matter of convenience, I am sure you can run the same apps (asterisk/apache/ etc) on windows as easily

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: kalster

I dont really need to prove it, i am talking from my personal experience. I agree osx is targeted less less coz it has less market presence but stability wise I have found osx more stable, xnu being based on bsd makes it more stable to me, I havent studied the windows kernel/scheduler in detail, but from my experience developing application for unix/linux (as well as studying in detail), I am pretty confident that a xnu based kernel will be more stable and more realtime (hence more responsive) than windows. Being able to use unix/linux apps ( i use both together coz i mostly use open source apps so you can compile and run them on either unix or diff flavors of linux just as easily) is a matter of convenience, I am sure you can run the same apps (asterisk/apache/ etc) on windows as easily

This is all anecdotal, and you admit you aren't even sure other than your own experience. That should tell you something. I am a fervent supporter of open source software because it is interesting and helps people learn, but you can't expect standards for all of it to conform. Have you ever seen the windows software developer manual? It's like 3 inches thick, with every possible detail of how to write software that works.

I use linux at work almost exclusively and am very aware of it's strengths, but also it's weaknesses. You can't simply compile all of your favorite applications across every platform, especially if it is C++. The environments can drastically vary between systems and moreso between architectures, i.e. IA32 to IA64 to X86, etc. I write performance based tests as my job and always compare the results between operating systems. I run the same code on IA32, IA64, and X86, Ubuntu running the IA32/64 applications and XP running X86. You would be sorely mistaken if you thought Windows did not perform better, sometimes much better, on several applications. I also run some of the same applications in Ubuntu on an X86 platform just for the fun of it, and usually the results don't change. The point is, each OS has a place and a function, but making sweeping generalizations about an OS like "it's more responsive" or "it's less prone to viruses" is misinformed at best.

 

[Dean]

I bought an Ibook a little over a year ago but have never used it. It is missing the start button. Not sure what is wrong with it but I am thinking of sending it in for warranty service.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: kalster

I dont really need to prove it, i am talking from my personal experience. I agree osx is targeted less less coz it has less market presence but stability wise I have found osx more stable, xnu being based on bsd makes it more stable to me, I havent studied the windows kernel/scheduler in detail, but from my experience developing application for unix/linux (as well as studying in detail), I am pretty confident that a xnu based kernel will be more stable and more realtime (hence more responsive) than windows. Being able to use unix/linux apps ( i use both together coz i mostly use open source apps so you can compile and run them on either unix or diff flavors of linux just as easily) is a matter of convenience, I am sure you can run the same apps (asterisk/apache/ etc) on windows as easily

This is all anecdotal, and you admit you aren't even sure other than your own experience. That should tell you something. I am a fervent supporter of open source software because it is interesting and helps people learn, but you can't expect standards for all of it to conform. Have you ever seen the windows software developer manual? It's like 3 inches thick, with every possible detail of how to write software that works.

I use linux at work almost exclusively and am very aware of it's strengths, but also it's weaknesses. You can't simply compile all of your favorite applications across every platform, especially if it is C++. The environments can drastically vary between systems and moreso between architectures, i.e. IA32 to IA64 to X86, etc. I write performance based tests as my job and always compare the results between operating systems. I run the same code on IA32, IA64, and X86, Ubuntu running the IA32/64 applications and XP running X86. You would be sorely mistaken if you thought Windows did not perform better, sometimes much better, on several applications. I also run some of the same applications in Ubuntu on an X86 platform just for the fun of it, and usually the results don't change. The point is, each OS has a place and a function, but making sweeping generalizations about an OS like "it's more responsive" or "it's less prone to viruses" is misinformed at best.

maybe i should say, os x is more stable and more responsive for the applications i use, its a matter of preference, I have actually written applications for windows (mfc/win32 api), of course i develop telecom software now for which windows is useless but that is a different story. either way os x is a pretty solid os.

 

[oogabooga]

Originally posted by: Kadarin
Geez.. Either some of you guys are incredibly stupid, or you're just adding flamebait to this thread. OS X is a different user interface than Windows, which means there are different ways to do things. Do you honestly think that people who have never touched Windows in their lives would find it a simple and intuitive user interface? Yeah, right.

I hope they are adding flamebait, but you never know, maybe people really are that stupid.

I can't believe how silly some of the things people choose to complain about macs are. Really, the fact that the eject button doesn't say eject is a fault? And somehow you not knowing a universally accepted symbol for "eject" used on every media player of many types over a long period of time is Apple's fault?
I would find it more believable to complain that you didn't know the eject would eject the CD, but to complain you didn't know what the eject symbol is.

By this logic isn't almost every computer in the world retarded for not having the word "power" on the power button. How does anyone turn on the bloody things?