Want to play around with a Mac...

[imported_y2jdmbfan]

Guys,


I've been very interested in getting an iBook or PowerBook to play around with. I really like the GUI on the OS and want to get to know Macs a little bit better. I want something small, I have a PC Dell laptop that I share with my Dad on occasion, it's his, but I can use it when I want. I'd like to check out a small compact Mac with power, something that will run the OS smoothly with all the fancy effects in Panther, but also that won't break the bank. I'll be doing mostly browsing/listening to music/some word processing/maybe some game playing/video editing. Some suggestions on where to start would be helpful. Budget is around $1000-$1500.

Thanks,

Y2J

 

[Dark54555]

if you're in college (or know someone who is), check to see if they've got the apple student rate. You can put together a pretty nice iBook in that price range.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Hi,

If you are going to be doing mostly browsing, listening to music, word processing, then go for the iBook. As for gameplaying, the Powerbook would be better. The Powerbook comes with a way better video card, and more processing power. Video editing will also be faster on the Powerbook too. Check out the specs for both the laptops and see which one will better suit your needs.

http://www.apple.com/ibook/

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/

If I had to choose which one, I would go for the Powerbook, but thats just me.

May I add that the Mac OS is very easy to use. My older bro is a Die Hard PC user, and got used to the OS in a matter of minutes. Either the iBook and Powerbook will be a good choice for you. One thing I love about the mac is no viruses, spyware, etc. We disabled norton for 1 day on my bro's PC, and the next day he had 8 viruses. Check out http://www.apple.com/switch to see many people who have switched from the PC to the Mac. I'm not saying PC's are bad, but I have had a much better experience with a Mac.

Good luck with your decision.



I am a mac user.

 

[Modder N Art]

Originally posted by: y2jdmbfan
Guys,


I've been very interested in getting an iBook or PowerBook to play around with. I really like the GUI on the OS and want to get to know Macs a little bit better. I want something small, I have a PC Dell laptop that I share with my Dad on occasion, it's his, but I can use it when I want. I'd like to check out a small compact Mac with power, something that will run the OS smoothly with all the fancy effects in Panther, but also that won't break the bank. I'll be doing mostly browsing/listening to music/some word processing/maybe some game playing/video editing. Some suggestions on where to start would be helpful. Budget is around $1000-$1500.

Thanks,

Y2J

IMHO, the top of the line iBook is the best value. Compared the the smaller 14" model, the top model has like $350 in upgrades for $200 more. OTOH, the 12" model is exceedingly svelte and compact, but I couldn't live with that postage stamp sized screen.

Actually, even though I've used both Mac and PC for years, even the glorious beauty of OSX isn't enough to make me want to live with the limitations, the missing functionality, and the harder to use interface. And I never thought I'd be describing a Mac like that!!!

Lisa

 

[Jigglelicious]

Apple occasionally has a 12" Refub Powerbook on their hot deals page for $1350 (check the page during the morning hours - thats when its updated). Its the latest model with a 1.33GHz G4, combo drive. It comes with twice the VRAM compared to an iBook, and should be speedier all around. Thats the one i'd get if I was looking for something portable. The iBook is also a great choice if you want to save some cash and want that extra durability, but I wouldn't try to game on it.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

"Actually, even though I've used both Mac and PC for years, even the glorious beauty of OSX isn't enough to make me want to live with the limitations, the missing functionality, and the harder to use interface. And I never thought I'd be describing a Mac like that!!!"

What limitations are you talking about? Also, what missing functionality? And the interface is not that difficult at all. Like I said, my brother, a die hard PC user, got use to the whole OS in minutes. Its not very difficult at all.



I am a mac user.

 

[imported_y2jdmbfan]

I think I would go the Powerbook route, I can get a student discount still, just graduated in May...LOL...Got my ID and e-mail account still. Would you say a 12" or 15"??? Also, is there that much of a difference in video cards between the 12 and 15?


Y2J

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Hi Y2J,

I would definently go for the 15''. The 12'' seems a bit too small for me. As for the video card: The 12'' comes with an Nvidia FXgo5200, and the 15'' comes with an ATI Radeon 9700 mobility. Both cards have 64mb VRAM. If you were to go for the 1.5GHz 15'', you can upgrade the 9700's 64mb of VRAM to 128mb of VRAM. The 15'' 1.5GHz Powerbook with just the 64mb of VRAM will cost you $2499, and if you want double the VRAM, it will cost you $2599, more than a grand over your budget. If you can pay a little more than $1500, go for the 1.33GHz 15'' Powerbook. You wont get the 128mb video card though. Make you sure you get at least 512mb of RAM. Panther runs great with 512mb of RAM or more. Let me add that the 15'' 1.33GHz comes with a combo drive instead of a Superdrive. Combo drive will read DVD's and burn CD's, while the Superdrive Burns and reads DVD's and burns CD's. The Superdrive may come in handy when you make your own DVD using iDVD, which comes already installed on the OS.

Now, if you dont think the 12'' is too small, then definently go for the 12''. The video card isnt as good as the Radeon, but I dont think the Radeon is a lot better. The 12'' with the Superdrive goes for $1,799. Also, you get the 1.33GHz processor. Dont forget to get at least 512mb of RAM.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your decision.




I am a mac user.

 

[imported_y2jdmbfan]

Anyone know a good Mac dedicated website like Anandtech? Where I can ask hardware and software questions? I want to know if I will notice the difference between the 12" Powerbook w/ a 5400RPM 80GB HDD, VS. the standard 12" Powerbook with a 60GB 4200RPM HDD.

Thanks,

Y2J

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Hi Y2J,

Check out the Apple Discussions boards. http://discussions.info.apple.com This is a good place to go for people that are switching to the Mac platform. Go to the Powerbook forums, and if you joined the forums, make a post about the hard drive comparison, and sure enough you will get it answered by many people who own Powerbooks. Just keep in mind though that those are support forums. Many people go there and post things like "After seeing all the problems you people are having, I'm thinking twice about purchasing..." Well, what do you expect from support forums. People go there and post problems that they are having.

Good Luck. The discussions board has helped me a lot when it came to switching.




I am a mac user.

 

[frazzled]

I own a 17" PB with the 5400 RPM HDD. The upgrade is definitely worth it (I traded my husband my 12" with 4200 RPM HDD for the 17" ).

I'm a new switcher (just took delivery of a maxxed-out G5 DP 2.5) . I switched after starting with an iBook at work.

One major diifference between Macs and PCs (especially laptops) is that the Macs seem to hold their value a bit better. As a result it seems that Mac folks hold on to their equipment for a long time. So, I have always been told to buy "as much Mac as you can possibly afford" when you go to make your purchase. Future-proofing and all that.

Two of my favorite sites for questions are:

Macintoshian Achaia (scroll down the list) and

Macnn (check out the forums)

Good luck and enjoy,

fraz

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Hi fraz,

Thanks for posting. Yes, macs do hold their value a lot more than a PC. I have an old Powermac 9600, upgraded to a G3 and 256 megs of RAM. Its a computer from 1997. If you go to powermax.com, you will see how much those Powermac 9600's go for. No processor upgrades and like 64 megs of RAM go for $200+. No PC that old can have that value. The clamshell iBook's go for about $399 too.

 

[imported_goku]

Eh macs lack support of a lot of software, macs are only good for word processing, images, web surfing and a few other things (all the stereo typical crap that is mentioned on QVC for what you'd use the comp for). Sure if you want an overpriced webrowsing machine then get a mac, if you plan on getting a mac anyways knowing that older macs have the same functionality as newer ones then just get a used notebook. You'd save money and you wont be missing out on anything a newer one has, maybe wifi but you can always get a card.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Eh macs lack support of a lot of software

What software are you talking about? Why do you say macs are only good for word processing, images and websurfing? If this were true, I dont think movie studios would be using macs for their video editing. What was used to make the movie Van Helsing? A Dual 1.25GHz Powermac G4. What do most schools use for film studies when they get into the video editing course of the class? They use a mac. I use my mac for Photoshop, play some games, flash mx, dreamweaver.


I will tell you this. There is more to the mac than you know. Have you heard of Altivec? Probably not. Altivec is found in the PowerPC G4 and G5 processors. What altivec does is it can produce data in 128 bit chunks, instead of 32 like in the P4 and AMD XP, AMD Athlon, centrino, duron, and celeron. In photoshop, I went against my friends AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 2.07GHz. Everything about his computer is faster than mine. Faster memory, faster bus, way faster HD, faster processor. My mac only has a 133Mhz FSB, slower memory, and a 5400 rpm HD. My friends is a SATA 7200 rpm with 8mb cache. In various tests, my mac outperformed his AMD, such as image sizing and gaussion blur. I was beating him with an average of 12 seconds. I lost in 3 tests, and the only one I remember was painting the image. I lost by 10 seconds. My 1GHz mac was whooping a 2.07GHz AMD XP machine.

macs are only good for word processing, images, web surfing and a few other things (all the stereo typical crap that is mentioned on QVC for what you'd use the comp for

I am just curious to know how much you know about macs to make an assumption like this.

 

[imported_goku]

Lol, I had a feeling you would rant on and on about video encoding bullshit. For one thing I dont expect you to encode on a laptop now do I? So with video encoding out of the equation it really comes down to what I said before.

Edit: Athlon XP 2000+ runs at clocked at 1.67 GHz. The only reason why studios use macs is because all of thier software is on a mac and they dont want to switch/wont admit they could easily use a pc. They are used to macs and dont want to switch, Macs are utter crap and everyone knows that the P4s are the video encoding king and not AMD for the PC side. My sister when she went to a video editing school thought macs were so amazing because they could encode her video in like 3 seconds while on her 1.5GHZ P4 took a few hours, after her explaining everything she did it really came down to the fact she was using divx codec at home while at school it was uncompressed.

You never actually listed the specs of your friend's machine and having done that you have no arguement. Mac people will never admit that thier hardware is inferior, I have use macs and I have to say they are crap. I had to use one for about 4 months at school before I dropped the class not only because the teacher was an uneducated moron but everything about the class pissed me off. Its quite pathedic that a mac will crash when running it's own operating system made for that exact hardware setup and all that other proprietary garbage thats included while a PC can be relatively stable on some of the most odd/uncommon hardware setups. I have never used a mac that I liked, all macs are are just really expensive web browsers because thats what MOST people do on thier macs and not video encode or that other bull. I got to my little cousin's house and I see him with his new mac all happy and delusional, he spent a wad of cash just so he can talk to his friends online, modify his webpage and surf the web because thats all he really does. You come up to him after 7 hours and he is still doing the same thing, chatting and surfing. If thats all you really need, then just get a pentium II, because you dont need an all powerful system when your just going to look at internet porn.

(expects rants/attacks from mac people, gets out M16)

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Lol, I had a feeling you would rant on and on about video encoding bullshit. For one thing I dont expect you to encode on a laptop now do I? So with video encoding out of the equation it really comes down to what I said before.

Well, there is a reason why Apple made Final Cut Express. It is a lighter version of Final Cut Pro. Many people do video editing on their laptops. Look it up. And let me add. The Powerbook has more than enough processing power and a good enough video card, (a Radeon 9700 in either a 64 or 128mb card) to run Final Cut Express and do video encoding and Video editing.

And you still didnt answer my question. When you said:

Eh macs lack support of a lot of software, macs are only good for word processing, images, web surfing and a few other things (all the stereo typical crap that is mentioned on QVC for what you'd use the comp for

What software are you talking about? And how much do you know about macs to make such an assumption?

 

[imported_goku]

Tons of software, games are the biggest factor. There is no denying it that PCs have more software, yes I can too encode on my laptop as well but thats not what you got it for. You got it for compatibility with office applications like Bear sterns crap or bloomberg, fast track other office applications or sync with office applications to use on the road. If you notice macs dont have domain support like pc's do, agian not for businesses. I'm sure they got some version of quicken but I guarantee you they dont have real database programs. Tell me, have you ever have heard of mainframes based on macs? NO! Macs are stupid people mainstream/stubborn video encoders while PCs are for everyone. There is no advantage to using a mac while a PC has all the compatibility one needs. If apple goes out of business your screwed! If microsoft does, WHO CARES! There are tons of operating systems for pcs while a few for the mac.

Macs sux period.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

When you say tons of software, care to name some of them? You refuse to mention some software. Sure the PC may have more software, but the mac has some kind of substitute. Why do you assume that the Laptop is ONLY for compatibility with office applications or road use? This is just YOUR opinion. That is what YOU use YOUR laptop for. If that is all the laptop is for, then why pack so much processing power and such a good video card in it? Its true that games are one thing that lacks on the mac, but Macs werent made for games. Look it up. If you want to play games, you use a PC or a gaming console.

I'm sure they got some version of quicken but I guarentee you they dont have real database programs.

Yes, they do have quicken for Mac. In fact, all the new macs you purchase come with Quicken 2004 pre installed. Intuit supports Mac all the way. And when you say they dont have real database programs for mac, have you heard of FileMaker Pro? Its for PC's too you know. Look it up.

Macs are stupid people mainstream/stubborn video encoders while PC's are for everyone.

Dont mean to make you feel stupid, but Macs are computers, not people. Since when are macs ONLY for Mainstream/stubborn video encoders? Why do you assume this? Care to back this up? Macs are for everyone. I dont know where you got macs are only for mainstream/stubborn video encoders. Probably because the mac is used mostly for tasks like this, and the PC isnt. Macs can be used just like the PC, like web browsing, photoshop, dreamweaver, flash, etc.

There is no advantage to using a mac while a PC has all the compatibility one needs.

What compatibility are you talking about? Hardware or software? Care to back this up? One advantage to using a mac is no viruses, spyware, etc. We can surf the net without having to worry about this crap. You have to purchase Anti Virus programs, some kind of internet security, and all kinds of adware removal programs. And everytime you want to access some web pages, you get some stupid dialogue box asking you to "Permit this cookie for accessing the web" or something like that

If microsoft does, WHO CARES! There are tons of operating systems for pcs while a few for the mac.

Name some other Operating Systems other than Linux.

Macs sux period.

Why though? What do you have against mac that makes you dislike it? Is it because it doesnt play the games you want? It seems the only reason you dislike mac is because of the stupid assumptions you make.

 

[imported_goku]

Lol mac people always put out the one liner: Macs are for everyone.

No macs are for people who have very little to do on the computer and are willing to spend 3K on a machine that is 3 years older than a comparable 1k machine. People buy macs because they look nice, or they are too stubborn to use pcs, feel cool, want something that is EASY and featureless.

If you knew a thing about anything you would know there are like 100 operating systems, I know this because a long time ago on the screen savers this guy had like a world record for the most operating systems. And guess what platfrom it was on! PC! Unix is one off the top of my head, there are so many operating systems that I cant even name them! Tell me what you can do on a mac you cant do on a pc? PCs have greater compatibility in the Business world/gaming world. It's very ironic that pc's would have such great compatibility with those two things and yet they are so very different. Video encoding is another thing PCs do great, people with macs are in denial. Its not, look what my mac can do, its look what my PC can do. There are so many things a MAC can't do that a PC can, but how many things can YOU list that a MAC can do but a PC cant!? NONE! WHAT SO EVER! ZIP ZAP NOPE NADA! Apple has an inferior product with completely proprietary hardware while pc's are relatively standard. When you want a faster mac, you can't upgrade it. Sure you can get some ram and better video card but you cant really upgrade it like a pc. Tell me of anyone who has gone to the store and built a mac from scratch, tell me if they got the parts one by one. Tell me if they have the machine overclocked 1GHZ faster than default, NO ONE! Why, because mac people are simple minded people, ones who know one thing and will stick with that. PC= Real world Macs= Fantasy World.

PC will eventually kill macs and probably apple will fade into the entertainment sector. If apple does realize that having proprietary hardware is stupid, then they will probably turn in to a company like MS where they have just software. They will quickly be beaten to a pulp and will at best thrive in the entertainment industry. Linux will be the new mac and hopefully be as equally powerful and MS, hoping that it doesn't turn into MS it will stay open source and when MS decides to turn it's back on the consumer, all will convert to linux.

Happily ever after.

Edit: Spell business wrong. (buisness)

 

[imported_Lucifer]

Lol mac people always put out the one liner: Macs are for everyone.

Where did I say this? Stop putting words in my mouth.

Unix is one off the top of my head, there are so many operating systems that I cant even name them!

I never asked you to name them all. I said name some of them.

There are so many things a MAC can't do that a PC can, but how many things can YOU list that a MAC can do but a PC cant!? NONE! WHAT SO EVER! ZIP ZAP NOPE NADA!

You have failed to answer my main question. What software on the PC is there that wont run on the mac? And when you said that PC's have all the "compatability" What are you talking about? Hardware or software?

Tell me if they have the machine overclocked 1GHZ faster than default, NO ONE!

Bullshit. You dont know this at all. A guy has the same computer as me, except an 800MHz, and overclocked it to 1.33GHz. It is possible to overclock a mac, its just that YOU dont know how to do it, because you dont know jack about Mac Hardware. There goes another assumption.

PC will eventually kill macs and probably apple will fade into the entertainment sector. If apple does realize that having proprietary hardware is stupid, then they will probably turn in to a company like MS where they have just software. They will quickly be beaten to a pulp and will at best thrive in the entertainment industry. Linux will be the new mac and hopefully be as equally powerful and MS, hoping that it doesn't turn into MS it will stay open source and when MS decides to turn it's back on the consumer, all will convert to linux.

100 percent opinion. Why post such nonsense? Have you noticed you are going off topic? This has nothing to do with what we are arguing about.


Your whole argument is opinionated. You obviously cant keep a good argument, so you decide to either go off topic and make assumptions of things you dont know about. If you want to keep a good argument, stay on topic, stop saying YOUR opinions and start saying fact, and your assumptions are totally whack. And you know it. Re read most of what you said.

Answer my questions, back up what you say, and start using facts instead of what you think. If you cant, you might as well not post anything else.



EDIT: Actually, you spelt business correctly the first time. Business, not buisness.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: Thin Lizzy

Lol mac people always put out the one liner: Macs are for everyone.

Where did I say this? Stop putting words in my mouth.

Unix is one off the top of my head, there are so many operating systems that I cant even name them!

I never asked you to name them all. I said name some of them.

There are so many things a MAC can't do that a PC can, but how many things can YOU list that a MAC can do but a PC cant!? NONE! WHAT SO EVER! ZIP ZAP NOPE NADA!

You have failed to answer my main question. What software on the PC is there that wont run on the mac? And when you said that PC's have all the "compatability" What are you talking about? Hardware or software?

Tell me if they have the machine overclocked 1GHZ faster than default, NO ONE!

Bullshit. You dont know this at all. A guy has the same computer as me, except an 800MHz, and overclocked it to 1.33GHz. It is possible to overclock a mac, its just that YOU dont know how to do it, because you dont know jack about Mac Hardware. There goes another assumption.

PC will eventually kill macs and probably apple will fade into the entertainment sector. If apple does realize that having proprietary hardware is stupid, then they will probably turn in to a company like MS where they have just software. They will quickly be beaten to a pulp and will at best thrive in the entertainment industry. Linux will be the new mac and hopefully be as equally powerful and MS, hoping that it doesn't turn into MS it will stay open source and when MS decides to turn it's back on the consumer, all will convert to linux.

100 percent opinion. Why post such nonsense? Have you noticed you are going off topic? This has nothing to do with what we are arguing about.


Your whole argument is opinionated. You obviously cant keep a good argument, so you decide to either go off topic and make assumptions of things you dont know about. If you want to keep a good argument, stay on topic, stop saying YOUR opinions and start saying fact, and your assumptions are totally whack. And you know it. Re read most of what you said.

Answer my questions, back up what you say, and start using facts instead of what you think. If you cant, you might as well not post anything else.



EDIT: Actually, you spelt business correctly the first time. Business, not buisness.

Yes you actually did say Macs are for everyone but because you don't realize this, your a bigger moron than originally anticipated. I did name software that macs can't use but you keep on asking me what software they can't use, entirely stupid and pointless when I have answered it already. I never said you can't overclock a mac but what I did say was that I have never in my entire life seen a mac overclocked by 1GHZ like a Pc has with Aircooling! Here are the primary uses of a computer:

1. Graphics/Audio/Video Editing (Pcs do a better job than mac people will admit to)
2. Office- Trading, spread sheets, Databases, data center, presentations, auto cad, word documents, accounting, so many more office stuff etc.
3. Gaming - High End, Low End, Mid End
4. light use/home use - websurfing, e-mail, simple word documents, maybe picture editing etc.
5. Servers - Pretty much covers that.
6. Extended processes -Human Genome Project, Prime 95, Seti etc.

PCs with out a doubt will do 1-6 easy as pie. Macs can do 1 and 4 but others not really/at all. There is no reason to spend more money for a mac when for a lower price and higher performance you can get a pc. Macs are clearly not for the office environment as they have no real networking capabilities IE Domains, gaming is a clear no! They have a few games barely any, mac servers in use are pratically non exsistant, extended processes I have never heard of macs doing, and 1. and 4. is all I know macs CAN do. But a PC just can do everything better so why get a mac when you can get a PC? PCs acutally have good sound cards/video cards while macs have integrated/generic. So a mac really comes down to looks, software you already have, being used to them and a simple featureless machine.

Also one more thing, don't tell me a 200MHZ machintosh is faster than a Pentium 200 or a 100MHZ/166MHZ machintosh is faster than a 100/166MHz Pentium, because in reality they are much slower. I have used 100MHZ Macs that performed like 386s or slower, just utter crap. I will never purchase a mac simply because of the OS, infact the only time I WOULD buy a mac is just to install Windows NT 4.0

No I spelled business wrong, hence the "(" ")". I understand that could be confused.

Agian Summed up macs are for: People who want an overpriced web browser, to encode video but dont know about PCs yet, a pretty machine, a simple machine with little functionality, a computer to say that you have one.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Haha, no0b battle. Awesome.

/grabs a :beer: and a lawnchair

Oh, and goku, I got one word for you - Xserve.

This post typed on an overclocked G3.

- M4H

 

[imported_goku]

Clearly none of you are understand what I am saying. Agian I did not say you CANT overclock a mac, but I did say though that I have NEVER EVER seen a mac with A 1GHZ Overclock. EX. 2.0GHZ Mac to 3.0GHZ, now I hope this will clarify things. There would be no significant gain on a mac that is overclocked because there are no applications to utilize this when you only use the computer to check e-mail. Apple's computer segment has never gained more than a 3% market share and I dont think they will ever get more than that.

I wouldn't call my self a noob just because I am new to the Anandtech forums. The earliest I knew of anand tech was about 2001/2000 when I was looking up articles about Pentium II cpus, already looked at the tomshardware site but wanted more and I ended up stumbling on the anandtech site. I checked back at the site 2-3 years later when a friend told me to look at the forums for his post (2003) I checked it and then in march 2004 I really needed help with a problem but had no one to go to so then I decided to join the forums. Thats my anandtech story and I am done!

 

[way]

12" PowerBook user chiming in here.

OP, http://www.barefeats.com/ provides benchmarks comparing various Macs so you can see the difference that hard drives and CPU clock speeds makes between the PowerBooks.

goku, if the PC platform can cover everything you use a computer for cheaper and better than Macs, then that's cool that you advocate PCs. But the fact is that for me and others, for what we need our computers to do, it might be better to use Apple computers or other non-PC platforms.

From my own personal experience, I have fewer problems connecting my PowerBook to a Windows Network (via Samba) than getting a bunch of PCs running various versions of Windows talking to each other on the same network. I'm also unable to find any equivalent to Mac OS X or iLife on the PC platform. I value an OS that is Unix-based that can also run Microsoft Office (natively), and I value the ease and convenience of being able to put my picture slideshows, songs, and home movies together to burn DVDs to share with family and friends.

If you know of PC equivalents that can do those things better (or at all), please let us know.

 

[Justin216]

You can overclock a Mac, but it is pretty limited as people are doing it with current model eMacs. Thing is, it requires soldering, modding, and such...And yes, the machine will reflect a change in speed. No, not all Mac users "only check their email". It is people like you that need to loosen up a bit. Your comments have made you seem like a noob. Apple's marketshare is increasing, albeit by a slow, small margine, and it will increase some over time. Apple have already turned an exceedingly large profit from the iPods, and this will spill over into a few new sales in their computer market.

I use both a PC and a Mac..

When I want to get my work done, whether it be webdesign, programming, video editing, audio editing, then I use a Mac to do the job. My PC is only used as a glorified console, its only purpose is to play games. Macs are not gaming machines, maybe not yet anyway. They are both great platforms for their distinct purposes. There is a reason that most major movie studios, audio studios, and thousands of professionals use Macs. It isn't the style or the flare as much as it is the software that is Mac only that is far greater than a windows counterpart for these tasks and it is simply more secure for their work with large amounts of stability. Yes, there may be limited Mac software since there aren't many developers. But the quality of the software Macs do have is most definitely better.

Another issue about this market share you all speak of...You do know that the new Microsoft console due out in a year or two is running on Apple's hardware? Sure, IBM will make the chips, but Apple owns the patents to the names....Microsoft knows that the PowerPC processor has much more ability than any Intel or AMD processor (Although, AMDs 64 line is very promising and is definitely better than the standard x86 processors). The PPC has shorter pipelines and more registers, which makes it slightly technologically better than the A64s(only in 32-bit mode anyhow) while pushing more and more information through the pipes.

This isn't ment to be a flame, more of a constructive criticism of some of these posts. These, in retrospect, are to be considered my opinions on the matters at hand.

Thanks for reading

-Justin