<<
"I think in the future, more home users will gravitate to macs. Computers will become more of an appliance or a tool, people dont wanna bother with driver issues and software incompatibility. An easy to use computer, no trouble." >>
am i the only one who enjoys the flexibility of x86 (cause yeah Macs are personal computers too just like wintels)? and as long as i buy generally brandname hardware i have very few driver issues or software compatibility. just remember, your ease of use mac comes at a cost, flexibility. anyone regularly update their video card on a low cost apple machine? i dont think u can on imacs and towers are expensive.
ive heard the appliance argument for a long time, and i agree (set top boxes like tivo and xbox) for many applications but i also see the continued use of flexible information systems (PCs, x86, apple, whatnot). how long have been predicting the demise of the desktop pc? like immediately after the explosion of windows 95 and pentiums into homes (maybe ~4-5 years now). anyone posting from an information appliance? do u just use your pc for email and internet access? i dont. not that macs are very capable at those two tasks, they look great at those tasks (i dont actually own an apple, although im looking at a midrange ibook for school). macs are great for multimedia (or so those damn creative people tell me, im technical not creative). but i bet very few mac users would categorize their pc as just an appliance.
theres no reason not to get a mac, they have loads of cool features and a helluva operating system. osx is very cool and will have loads of *nix apps soon or right now.
which is better...pc or macs? whatever suits your needs. im running all x86 hardware here at my home right now (although ive been looking into purchasing sun blade system, but im broke student). and ive also been looking at a new apple laptop for school, but ive got a few issues to resolve before i buy one.
im kindve concerned about software developement under osx. im a computer scientist student and ive been using mostly vim and g++ (sometimes kdevelope) under linux and visual studios 6 under windows (although i recently recieved a free vs.net academic version). besides g++, what else is available for osx? codewarrior i believe. i doubt my vs.net copy would run emulate under anything. cost for a developement environment is a big concern, if it is cheap and i cant get it under an academic license, then i realy cant use it (legally anyway).
i know content creation (photoshop, imovie, etc) are great, but what about just basic boring office stuff. ive gotta have compatibility with ms office. but i cant afford office for apple (see above, broke student).
i just decided to spin this reply off into a new post. let me get a link for ya.
new post