Funny thread for PC to Mac switchers [Archive]

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CheckMarshall

10-06-2006, 06:01 PM

I recently purchased a Mac after almost a year of doing some VERY Solid research. I mean I spent hours at work reading, watching youtube clips, Jobs Notes and books about Apple.....for me it was a good choice.

I still have my PC and work on it every day for misc things. I was reading the PC area of the forums when I came across this humorous thread.....in the PC SECTION ;) :

How often do you reload your system?
http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=563

This almost made me laugh out loud! Just rembering that I used to slick my PC, start from scratch for various reasons every couple of months....then when I install something wrong, get some bullshit virus/malware or just get tired of all the crap i slick it and start over again.

Most dont do it as often as I may have, but I do know quite a few that it was a bi monthly thing....

Its funny because I cant think of any Mac owner friends of mine that have done it for any dumb reason other than something legitimate. But the Mac just has this ease of use about it that almost eliminates the need for it...

Just thought it seemed funny and wanted to share!

-Marshall

noonebutme

10-06-2006, 07:29 PM

when i ran OS X, i formatted it as often as i formatted XP. Though, whats the point of creating a thread to laugh at another thread? seems spamesque.

Casework

10-06-2006, 08:06 PM

when i ran OS X, i formatted it as often as i formatted XP. Though, whats the point of creating a thread to laugh at another thread? seems spamesque.

This is the type of thread where Mac users can just sit back and take a 5 minute break from life, realizing all the time we are saving by not working on a PC.

darknessgp

10-06-2006, 08:23 PM

This is the type of thread where Mac users can just sit back and take a 5 minute break from life, realizing all the time we are saving by not working on a PC.

You mean time saved NOT playing any cool games.

O RLY? I have had a few PCs at work and at home that have never needed to be formatted and reinstalled in the 4+ years I've worked with them. I think it really all comes down to two factors. A) Virus. Which are primarily for Windows OS as they have the biggest marketshare plus business market share. and B) PC users install programs almost constantly. This leads to conflicts and sometimes the user installs shaddy software. The PCs that have not been formatted, I have not installed very much software on them. The few Mac owners I know use maybe 1 or 2 applications that do not come with the OS... maybe that should tell you something about why PCs tend to be formatted more than Mac. Is formatting a bad thing? No, it really isn't. Generally formatting should be done every 6-8 months for any standard home computer that is in regular operation.

I do find this thread odd though. I mean seriously, making fun of another thread? Esp. when the thread is not about when you HAVE to format, but when or if you do it on a regular basis. i.e. it's not like they had a major error forcing them, they choose to.

striker1211

10-06-2006, 08:25 PM

And we laugh when we are playing games made after 1998. also, I've never had to format my pc... so... it's the user, sorry. Oh, and if you check the "show me your programs folder" thread in windows you'll see i install many programs weekly. I'll admit macs are better for people who cant stop double clicking random exes and pifs all day...

PS: im not insulting those who format a lot, just saying you dont HAVE to to run windows...

lol flames are fun...

CheckMarshall

10-06-2006, 08:30 PM

when i ran OS X, i formatted it as often as i formatted XP. Though, whats the point of creating a thread to laugh at another thread? seems spamesque.

Actually, the intent of the thread was not to point and laugh. But just to look and see the difference in two systems...

Formatting often is not whats bad here. The thread in question is a reminder of all the 'junk' that can lead to a PCs utter demise.....and how often that really occurs.

and maybe hear your thoughts about it.

Thats all......

-Marshall

Casework

10-06-2006, 08:32 PM

Ah, isn't the ignorance lovely. At least 75% of the popular games on PC are available on the Mac. For the other 25%, Mac users have this little ability called dual-booting. Darkness, please don't talk to me like I'm stupid. I grew up using PCs and being a hardcore PC gamer. I realize that 98% of problems on PCs are user based. For the last year I spent on a PC, I didn't have any anti-virus software, and only one adware program that I ran MAYBE once a month, yet I never had any viruses, and next to no spyware aside from the occassional set of cookies. But at the same time, these are things I don't even have to THINK about now. Maybe it's because of the market share, or maybe it's because of OS X's much more secure structure when compared to Windows.

darknessgp

10-06-2006, 08:42 PM

noonebutme

10-06-2006, 08:43 PM

O RLY? I have had a few PCs at work and at home that have never needed to be formatted and reinstalled in the 4+ years I've worked with them. I think it really all comes down to two factors. A) Virus. Which are primarily for Windows OS as they have the biggest marketshare plus business market share. and B) PC users install programs almost constantly. This leads to conflicts and sometimes the user installs shaddy software. The PCs that have not been formatted, I have not installed very much software on them. The few Mac owners I know use maybe 1 or 2 applications that do not come with the OS... maybe that should tell you something about why PCs tend to be formatted more than Mac. Is formatting a bad thing? No, it really isn't. Generally formatting should be done every 6-8 months for any standard home computer that is in regular operation.
Er.. OS X gets more cluttered then XP does in terms of uninstalling. Sure, XP has the registry crap to deal with, but OS X has its own share of troubles with plist and files being dumped into the /Library or ~/Library.

In terms of App's built into the OS, XP has WMP - OS X has iTunes/Quicktime. XP has Wordpad, OS X has Textedit. XP has IE, OS X has Safari. They have the same basic built-in apps. iLife is NOT part of the OS, Apple just bundles it with the OS a majority of the time.

CheckMarshall

10-06-2006, 10:05 PM

wastern

10-06-2006, 10:08 PM

B) PC users install programs almost constantly. This leads to conflicts and sometimes the user installs shaddy software.

you hit the nail on the head here. people instal a lot of software, remove it, repeat. the registry gets f'd up. That is a huge weakness in Windows....that bloody registry.

I install and remove just as many programs as I did with windows. I can just remove a couple files and every trace of the app is going. I don't have to comb through something like the registry in a vain attempt to remove it all. its impossible to do in windows.

Most of the time on the mac, unless you're OCD, you can just throw the app itself in the trash, nothing else. It isn't going to mess anything up, its just a 1k preference files that sits there, don't conflict with things or anything

the only real way to clean up your windows system is to format it. that is the sad truth. You can run cleaner apps all day long, but you'll never get it all.

Casework

10-06-2006, 10:29 PM

75% of games eh? Pulling numbers out your ass are you? Can you give me the list or even name a few recent and popular games that are on Mac, excluding any Blizzard made games? Plus, dual-booting must be great for you guys... even though it runs slower. The processor works fine, but majority of the other things are not, as they still have to be emulated.

Dual-booting using Boot Camp isn't emulation. Paralells is similar to emulation, but not Boot Camp.

Besides Blizzard games? I could say name a few games people miss out on Macs, excluding Valve games and there goes probably the first example(s) that anyone would use.

Obviously 75% isn't a scientific fact, if you want to argue pure numbers then you might as well be talking to yourself. My point is, a large amount of the games that come out on PC also are released on Macs nowadays, and for those that aren't, you can run Windows on a Mac in a non-emulation environment and run any PC game you wish.

It's painfully obvious you are just a blind Mac-basher and you really have no experience as a user of OS X or something like Boot Camp. If you're going to argue against it, at least understand the capabilities that it has.

And if you're going to focus on semantics and "facts" here's a little bit of information for you.

http://www.everymac.com/articles/q&a/windows_on_mac/faq/

Can you play Windows games on an Intel-based Mac?

Yes. By installing Boot Camp and Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac, you can boot into Windows and play any Windows game provided that the minimum system requirements are met.

How do Windows games running on an Intel Mac compare to a PC?

If you install Windows and play Windows games on an Intel-based Mac, you can expect performance roughly equivalent to a similarly-equipped Windows PC.

Will Windows Vista run on the Intel-based Macs?

Microsoft says a "capable" system must have at least:

* An 800 MHz or faster Intel-compatible processor.
* 512 MB of RAM.
* A graphics processor that is "DirectX 9 capable".

Even the slowest Intel-based Mac, the Mac mini "Core Solo" 1.5, has a 1.5 GHz Intel "Core Solo" processor, 512 MB of RAM installed by default (upgradable to 2 GB), and as noted on the relevant Intel specifications page, the "integrated" Intel GMA950 graphics processor has "DirectX 9 3D hardware acceleration". The MacBook models, the education-only iMac "Core Duo" 1.83 17-Inch (IG), and the iMac "Core 2 Duo" 1.83 17-Inch (IG) have faster processors and the same "integrated" graphics.

The remaining Intel iMac models, the MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro all have faster processors and substantially faster graphics processors. So, all Intel-based Macs are "capable" of running Windows Vista.

In the default configuration the Mac Pro is fully compatible with Windows Vista. Additionally, some MacBook Pro and Intel iMac models only are prevented from reaching the "premium ready" designation because of Apple's default skimpy installation of 512 MB of RAM. If you did not configure your MacBook Pro or Intel iMac with at least 1 GB of RAM at the time of purchase, you will need to upgrade the RAM in order to reach the recommended requirements to run Windows Vista. Realistically, MacOS X also runs much more smoothly with at least 1 GB of RAM installed.

How fast is a Mac running Windows using Boot Camp compared to a Windows PC?

For all practical purposes, an Intel-based Mac running Windows XP is a Windows PC.

MacWorld installed Windows XP Pro using Boot Camp on an iMac "Core Duo"/2.0 20" and a MacBook Pro 2.16 15" and compared these systems to a Dell Inspiron E1705, an HP Compaq nx9420, and an HP Pavilion a1250n. The iMac, Dell, and Pavilion systems have 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo (T2500) processors, and the MacBook Pro and HP Compaq systems have 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo (T2600) processors. All models were equipped with 1 GB of RAM and were running Windows XP Pro SP2, with the exception of the Pavilion model which was running Windows Media Center Edition.

The gritty details of tests in WorldBench 5, Multitasking, Windows Media Encoder 9, Roxio VideoWave, Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1, and Microsoft Office 2002 SP2 are provided in a chart for your perusal.

However, the short conclusion by the author is that "the Macs running Windows gave these PCs a run for their money, with the 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro turning in the fastest scores on three of the five individual tests. The build-to-order MacBook configuration also tied the 2.16 GHz HP Compaq in the sixth test, involving Roxio VideoWave."

What is Parallels virtualization? How does it compare to emulation?

Virtualization, as used on EveryMac.com, refers to Intel's "virtualization technology". The Intel website describes virtualization as allowing:

A platform to run multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions. With virtualization, one computer system can function as multiple "virtual" systems. . . [you could run] different operating systems and software for different or legacy tasks.

In very basic terms, virtualization directly uses the underlying hardware to "virtually" run multiple operating systems "alongside" the host, whereas emulation "recreates" a CPU, and often an operating system, in software. Ultimately, virtualization is much faster than emulation.

How fast is a Mac running Windows XP using Parallels compared to Boot Camp?

Parallels says that the Desktop for Mac software provides "near-native performance", rather than the full speed of a "dual-boot" configuration.

A ZDNet article published the day that Desktop for Mac was released in its final version quoted a systems administrator at Canada's University of Waterloo who said that "the performance in Parallels was within 1 to 2 percent of [Boot Camp]."

Real-world tests released more recently from C|Net and MacWorld show that Parallels Desktop for Mac is not quite that fast, but nevertheless remarkable compared to the performance of emulation software.

------

So if you want to continue to mindlessly bash something you don't fully understand, at least do a little bit of reading first. Thanks.

wastern

10-06-2006, 10:50 PM

BWWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAhahahahhhahhahahahhaha haaa.....ha...ha

boot camp does nothing but get around the whole efi/bios shit. It is Windows, the Macs are just like any other x86 box you can buy. Who told you it would be slower....John C?

striker1211

10-06-2006, 11:10 PM

wastern

10-06-2006, 11:13 PM

I don't get the boot camp argument. I would think that would make apple look bad. They gloat about XP on MAC but you can't run osx on a pc? If apple is such a great company why don't they give PC users a chance to try their software without hacking it up. That's like a windows user saying: "Oh, if i want security i'll just dual boot linux".

here is why. Apple is a HARDWARE company. First and foremost, they sell hardware. They use their software to sell hardware

Microsoft is a SOFTWARE company. They don't care what kind of hardware its on, they still make money.

Also, when you look on a per person basis, when someone gets XP with the Dell they buy, MS gets a couple bucks. When an Apple user get XP MS gets full retail for it

Another thing Apple prides itself in is perfect integration of hardware and software. They sell the full solution. They can't do that with 100 different vendors and 100,000 different pieces of hardware thrown together. As with windows a linux....it won't "just work"

Casework

10-06-2006, 11:19 PM

here is why. Apple is a HARDWARE company. First and foremost, they sell hardware. They use their software to sell hardware

Microsoft is a SOFTWARE company. They don't care what kind of hardware its on, they still make money.

Also, when you look on a per person basis, when someone gets XP with the Dell they buy, MS gets a couple bucks. When an Apple user get XP MS gets full retail for it

Another thing Apple prides itself in is perfect integration of hardware and software. They sell the full solution. They can't do that with 100 different vendors and 100,000 different pieces of hardware thrown together. As with windows a linux....it won't "just work"
Precisely. People seem to often forget that XP is not the same thing as a PC.

While, of course, Apple wants people to purchase and run OS X, what they care more about is selling these $2000 machines, first and foremost, rather than selling their new OS(which is included anyway). Microsoft just wants to sell their software. They don't care if it goes on a Dell or a Mac. Advertising and supporting running XP on a Mac only does good things for Apple as it makes them a legimate hardware company in the PC market.

phatlip12

10-07-2006, 07:37 AM

I think Apple needs to get away from the idea that "We are a hardware company". Just wondering how many of you bought a Mac due to the hardware? People buy Macs for OSX and software for OS X.

Casework

10-07-2006, 09:19 AM

I think Apple needs to get away from the idea that "We are a hardware company". Just wondering how many of you bought a Mac due to the hardware? People buy Macs for OSX and software for OS X.

Hardware is where they make their money though. While they obviously put a lot of effort into OS X, I'm sure they'd much rather be selling thousand dollar machines than relying just on the income of an operating system. OS X over Windows was definitely something that attracted me, but at the same time, for the longest while I was trying to convince myself to just go with a PC instead. Pound for pound the Mac pricings were at the very least comparable if not better. OS X is just kind of the icing on the cake. Apple makes great software, but they're always going to be a business because of Macs, iPods... not because of iTunes or their Office Suite.

wastern

10-07-2006, 12:58 PM

I think Apple needs to get away from the idea that "We are a hardware company". Just wondering how many of you bought a Mac due to the hardware? People buy Macs for OSX and software for OS X.

While OS X is the reason I bought a mac, the hardware doesn't hurt. Its top shelf stuff and what most other companies strive for.

I actually had a girl propose to me when she saw my G4 iMac. haha...sadly true... Every Mac I've ever owned got a reaction from people when they walked in and saw it for the first time. You never see that happen with PCs, they all look the same and boring.

I love the simple elegance of the mac, it fits my style very well. The only thing I would get in the PC world is a Thinkpad. It has a sophisticated, understated look to it that I like. Its not flashy, but it still looks damn good.

Having a minimalist design, without making it look plain and boring is actually quite hard to pull off and Jonathan Ives is a master of it.

striker1211

10-07-2006, 06:28 PM

You never see that happen with PCs, they all look the same and boring.

If someone actually builds a PC they are not boring. You can choose from many cases and you arent limited to 1 company. Search for case mods on digg, or even for high end cases at newegg. If i was gonna say something was boring i would say seeing the same exact cases on a mac is boring... I will admit that dell and emachines are the ugliest POSes ever. But remember mac hasnt always been stylish, they just caught on recently. Apple has really took the "cool people pcs" approach and sooner or later the big pc makers will catch on.

phatlip12

10-07-2006, 09:28 PM

Hardware is where they make their money though. While they obviously put a lot of effort into OS X, I'm sure they'd much rather be selling thousand dollar machines than relying just on the income of an operating system. OS X over Windows was definitely something that attracted me, but at the same time, for the longest while I was trying to convince myself to just go with a PC instead. Pound for pound the Mac pricings were at the very least comparable if not better. OS X is just kind of the icing on the cake. Apple makes great software, but they're always going to be a business because of Macs, iPods... not because of iTunes or their Office Suite.

True but OSX is what makes them buy that hardware. :P

I think Apple should license their OS but continue to make hardware. People are still going to buy there computers, there great machines and there beautiful (and they are pretty much the same in price when compared to Pc's with similar specs).

Pamich

10-07-2006, 10:06 PM

True but OSX is what makes them buy that hardware. :P

It's also what makes people not buy that hardware.

wastern

10-07-2006, 10:25 PM

If someone actually builds a PC they are not boring. You can choose from many cases and you arent limited to 1 company. Search for case mods on digg, or even for high end cases at newegg. If i was gonna say something was boring i would say seeing the same exact cases on a mac is boring... I will admit that dell and emachines are the ugliest POSes ever. But remember mac hasnt always been stylish, they just caught on recently. Apple has really took the "cool people pcs" approach and sooner or later the big pc makers will catch on.

I've looked around at cases before. It is RARE for me to find one that looks good. Most that try to look good try too hard. They end up looking gaudy and overdone.

Case mods are a lot of work and reserved for a very nitch market of enthusiasts. And again, most of them aren't practical, nor would they appeal to the average user. They might be cool to see, but I wouldn't want one sitting on my desk.

phatlip12

10-07-2006, 10:33 PM

It's also what makes people not buy that hardware.

Well that used to be the case but it shouldn't be anymore because you can put Windows or Linux on it. ;)

Pamich

10-07-2006, 10:38 PM

Well that used to be the case but it shouldn't be anymore because you can put Windows or Linux on it. ;)

I can't speak for everyone, but if I want to run Windows stuff, I'll get a Windows box. The only reason I have Windows on my Macbook currently is so I have Visual C++ with me where ever.

striker1211

10-07-2006, 11:03 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811215002

I think that case is all kinds of sexy

psylion

10-07-2006, 11:46 PM

I think Apple needs to get away from the idea that "We are a hardware company". Just wondering how many of you bought a Mac due to the hardware? People buy Macs for OSX and software for OS X.

How about both. The software just works and that makes me happy. The hardware is beautiful to look at and that makes me happy. Apple is a hardware company and it always has been. I don't know why people have a problem with that. I never hear anyone saying that MS should stop selling software and start selling hardware.

wastern

10-08-2006, 01:17 PM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811215002

I think that case is all kinds of sexy

looks like standard PC styling to me, i'm not a fan. but to each their own

the inside is still a mess though.....have you seen the inside of the Mac Pro....

no wires. clean as a whistle. I really don't think any PC makers can match that

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6186/picture1ls8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

phatlip12

10-08-2006, 04:18 PM

How about both. The software just works and that makes me happy. The hardware is beautiful to look at and that makes me happy. Apple is a hardware company and it always has been. I don't know why people have a problem with that. I never hear anyone saying that MS should stop selling software and start selling hardware.

I wasn't trying to say that they should stop selling hardware, I was saying that they should get passed the mentality that "We are ONLY a hardware company" and get more involved in the sofware part. Why? Because they do it so well and I think there is alot of money to be made in doing so.

Apple makes great computers but they also make great sofware, they should do some more stuff with their software now (and continue to make great hardware).

striker1211

10-08-2006, 05:29 PM

looks like standard PC styling to me, i'm not a fan. but to each their own

the inside is still a mess though.....have you seen the inside of the Mac Pro....

no wires. clean as a whistle. I really don't think any PC makers can match that

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6186/picture1ls8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I see one thing when i look at that, barriers.

Casework

10-08-2006, 06:00 PM

I see one thing when i look at that, barriers.

While I understand what you're saying, I don't think you're going to need more than a teraflop of storage and a quad-core processor. While you can't just put stuff in there where and how you would want, most of those barriers are just empty spaces waiting for _____(hard drives, processors, etc).

darknessgp

10-08-2006, 11:08 PM

While I understand what you're saying, I don't think you're going to need more than a teraflop of storage and a quad-core processor. While you can't just put stuff in there where and how you would want, most of those barriers are just empty spaces waiting for _____(hard drives, processors, etc).

I think his point was more of being able to customize, and do so easily. It's great if you almost never want to add anything to it. It's great for Apple cause when you want to upgrade, you don't pull out a few components and replace them. You have to go buy a whole new one. With PCs, you can mix and match all different kinds of parts.

On the side of the case style. Wastern said so himself that he doesn't like the normal PC style case. So obviously he won't like the mods as most don't change much. However, with a PC users can make their own custom case if they choose to. Currently, you can not do that with a Mac.