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Could someone please outline the basic differenced between a MAC and a PC?
From my understanding the only difference is the OS. Strictly speaking, hardware for one will work on the other as long as it is supported correct? Are there any FUNDAMENTAL hardware differences?
Thanks.
Day and Night, that's a quick sum up of the differences :D
No, to be honest, they are like a Ford and Chevy; they're both cars, but while they have parts that achieve the same purpose like a processor, motherboard, RAM, etc. (engine, alternator, radiatior, water pump, etc.) they are NOT interchanable between the two. You can however buy accessories that will work on either like digital cameras, MP3 players, printers, speakers, etc. (window tint, fuzzy dice, seat covers, etc.)
I was trying to sum it up in simple terms, does that make sense and answer what you were asking?
"(window tint, fuzzy dice, seat covers, etc.)http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l9...1/ROTFLMAO.gif
Very good 3fingersalute.LOL
:grin: That should do me for a week DonJ.
Thanks.
Thanks 3fingersalute. What you are saying makes a lot of sense. DonJ has hit the nail square on the head... :) Thats exactly where I was coming from, because essetially what Apple are saying is - MAC is better(more stable, can do more thing, etc.) than ANY PC - period. It just bugs me, because Windows is not the only OS you can have on a PC. In fact you have a lt of choices, but for the uninformed customer and the virtual Windows domination over OSes since every PC you buy from a mainstream company comes with one whether you want it (pay for it) or not, most people will come to believe that PC are generally BAD. Most will not know that in fact Windows is BAD, not the PC. No offence to Windows lovers.
I woun't lie I still use Windows, but I am not going to Vista - I'll need a totally new PC to run it :). I still have 3 that can run Linux perfectly fine. The problem is that I am just starting with linux, but I hope I can get pretty familiar with it before Microsoft abandones supprt for XP hehe.
What do you guys think about all this?
Windows, like Macs have proven to be incredibly stable - you just need to build the machine carefully... make sure that what you put in it is of good quality and fully compatible and the drivers have been written properly.
It's not that windows is bad, it's just people don't take the time to research the hardware/software properly. That's why macs are more expensive and that's why you don't get alot of hardware choice.
Vista is a totally new operating system for totally new pcs. We still get posts from people expecting to put XP on 10 year old machines and whining that their ISA and parallel port legacy hardware is not supported out of the box and the company that made them has no intention of making XP drivers (or has gone bust).
Linux has it's faults too... understandable documentation being one of them.... and if it's so secure out of the box, why do linux people have little games of root?
NooNoo, you have a point there. I realise hardware compatability and drivers play a big role in the stability of a computer. I should have thought better when I posted that Windows is bad. For anyone reading this, please disregard that part in my previous post.
As far as the "uderstandable documentation" - that is a bit tricky. When you have hundreds of thousands of people writing packages for linux, it is quite hard to get them all on the same page. The major distributions however, have a more structured websites and it is a bit eaisier to find what you need.
Linux definately has its faults, but the ability to reconfigure every part (when having the sufficient ability) of it in order to make it suit your needs, and the fact that "reverse engeneering" will not get you in jail, in my opinion, is a big advantage.
The fact that you can "make it your own" also gives you the ability to make use of your old computers. Tons of computers will be thrown away and pollute the environment simply because they will be unable to run Vista or Mac OS 13 or what not. There was an article about this somewhere, but at this moment I can't exactly recall where.
Good posts everyone.
At heart I'm a pc guy, but with the advant of OSX as well as the Mini Macs running Intel chips (here come the viruses you so smugly avoided all these years... :) ) and the ability to dual boot from XP or OSX... the line starts to blur. I'm comfortable with both working with them every day....although I prefer a Windows OS. I just never liked the secrecy involved in troubleshooting a Mac or having to completly take apart an iBook just to replace the HDD. Most, if not all pc, laptops it's just one screw...remove the HDD. Simple.
Apple shoots itself in the foot with upgrades and backward incompatibility as well as making it difficult to fix things that should be as simple as they claim their OS is.
Linux is still a bane of my existance.
Partly my fault being weaned on Dos...I can't help but return to those commands instead of the Unix that I should be typing. Open Source is great, don't get me wrong, but I get overwhelmed with the onslaught of info I get when researching it. The structured websites do give you the initial info but from then on,as far as tweaking is concerned, it's convoluted at best. Almost TMI
It appears to me, based on my experience and reserch, that the things the Mac does, it does well. If you have something a bit off the beaten path, it can probably be done with Windows, albeit with some dificulty. It will probably be impossible on the Mac. As far as Vista is concerned, it is probably time to retire my SOYO Dragon Ultra 880 board and go with something with a dual core AMD processor and a graphics card a bit newer than my Saphire Radeon 9600 pro.
I will also retire my main Western Digital WD800JB which was a fast drive in its day. I'l probably go with one of the new Western Digital SATA fast drives with a bit more capacity. i would suggest that anyone going to Vista and not wanting to replace the computer entirely do the same thing
Usualy those who say windows is very unstable are the ones that have to have every single piece of free crapware avaliable on the internet.
Running an XP pc with decent antiviral protection and spyware cleaning will give you a very long time error free on good hardware.
But usually its an emachine with too small a power supply and not enuff memory and every screensaver,registry cleaner, and hokey options changer ever made. Thats a large part of what crashes windows pc's
3rd party free software.
As for Mac's I suspect they ahve their uses but frankly the owners leave a seriously bad taste in my mouth.
It isnt security issue free as seen by the rash of Mac patches of late.
Its just no one ever really paid them any attention.
Windows is a fine OS if you know what you're doing with it. However, 99.99% have no idea what they're doing, and that'll lead to problems.
My grandparents' PC is a fine example of a well-looked after Windows machine, it was built over 2 years ago, and it is still stable, still running well, I still frequently update it (a pain on their dialup), and couldn't be any better for them. However, many other machines running Windows will go from fine to in need of a format in three months, because the users will clog them with junk.
I do like the look of Macs, OSX seems cool, and the machines are well designed as well, I'm planning on buying one eventually. However, the earlier machines had far less in common with their PC counterparts, the newer models use Intel CPUs and all. Still, I do want one :)
Linux has its place, it can do the desktop thing, but it's much better at being a server OS. Desktop Linux still feels like an afterthought. Then again, I use Linux as my desktop, mainly because I don't like Windows, but I can't afford a Mac.
It seems like the concensus is that Windows is a good OS if you know how to maintain it. Primarely, don't fill it up with junk (i.e. a program you might use once or twice and then let it sit on your pc doing nothing) - usually free. Isn't that true for any OS though? It doesn't make sense to put debigging packages on your linux installation if you have no idea what to do with them, does it?
I guess it all comes back to being able to take care of your machine. You can't expect to run something like SpeedUp MyPC / Registry Booster and expect it to make your PC like new.
On a final note, I am glad so many people gave this thread a consideration. After all competition is always good - it drives prices down :). I have a feeling that years from now Windows, Linux, and MAC will be talking pretty much the same language. More and more companies like provide linux distros with support and the popularity of linux will grow even to the home computer. The real question is which group will win the "battle. Is it going to be the corporate giants or the open source community? Well, about that ... I have no idea.
I would say any OS is good if you know how to maintain it.Quote:
Originally Posted by peshek77
The problem is, people are unwilling or feel incapable of learning what needs to be done. These same people however, often spend hours maintaining their cars.
I agree with NooNoo. I think people are under the impression that computers should run virtually indefinately without any maintenance. The car analogy works very well here. You can just compare computer maintenance to cars. Without fluid changes and regular checkups you will get considerably less mileage out of a car and computers needed to be treated as such. You wouldn't believe (actually some of you may) how many computers I have worked on that their insides are caked with dust or how many computers have let their basic Antivirus protection expire years ago and then call the computer a piece of junk when it crashes or runs like a dog.Quote:
Originally Posted by NooNoo
Unfortunately some things many end users cannot do, but this is true of cars as well. How many people do you know that do their own oil changes and tune ups?
Now seeing as there are many more Windows Users out there vs Mac OS users you will see more problems come from that user base just by that. I could almost guarantee if the tables were turned and Mac OS was dominant over Windows you would see the same types of problems. I think people have seen a bit of this now with Macs being a bit in the spotlight. OS Security flaws showing up and such.
During the last ten years we have built up a regular customer base well into the thousands which includes exactly 23 Mac owners (30 machines in total). To a man (& woman) they all delight in telling me (and probably anyone else who will listen) how superior Mac's are over PC's.
All of them are on first name terms with both of us!! That is how well we've got to know them - fortunately Mac's in general are straightforward to fix when they do go wrong. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier, the parts are mostly bespoke and expensive compared to PC parts. Also can be difficult to source sometimes.
Got an old iMac on the bench at the moment with a faulty dial-up modem... Being a Mac of course the modem is "bound" (binded?) to the network port so it won't network either!! (Customer is wired broadband through a router).
Were it a PC I would simply remove / disable the modem as it's not used or needed but as it's a Mac I am forced to source and replace the exact part as the OS will throw a fit and fall over if I carry out any hardware changes!!! (been there before - got the tee shirt!!).
In my opinion, OS's up to 9 beat the hell out of the M$ offerings of the period (3.1 / 95 / 98) for speed / stability but OSX' regardless of updates or patches, never has been a serious competitor for 2K or XP - after all you can now specify XP as an install on a new Mac!!!
I still like Mac's though - they are very agreeable to use when set up and running properly..... just don't think I'll ever own one!
John
I'm of the mind that different operating systems all have their use.
Windows is a great user-friendly OS for the average Joe. Windows is also great for user management on Domains. Straight forward tools and strong security policies and low training requirements for staff make it a great choice in the workplace. Additionaly Vista Corp edition has a fully functional Unix shell. I see windows/unix being crossed over and conjoined. The best of both worlds? Maybe.
I find the following little fact *very* interesting regarding the regular distro's of Vista.
Windows XP:
Command prompt:
CD /windows
Response:
The system cannot find the path specified
Winows Vista:
Command promtp:
CD /windows
Response:
c:\windows\
Did they make things easier for linux users or did they forget to remove something from the "borrowed" shell?
Linux/Mac, I toss these together due to the fact that they are both based on the Unix kernel. These two operating systems have a lot of "good" things in them, things i might add got stolen in Vista, if UAC is not a direct parallel to sudo, i don't know what is. What linux excels in is a super stable operating system (i hit 700+ days uptime with my linux server) it's very locked down in regards to file structure and is a very hostil environment to Virus's/hackers.. again, things we now find in Vista. The downside to unix is the high cost in training needed to make it work
I've avoided hardware, cause no matter what operating system you have, if the base is not good and solid, everything will fall like a house of cards
Here's the bottom line:
Windows is an OS, and it's publishers have put out a set of specifications for machines to run this OS, but really has no means to enforce those specs other that it runs like crap if you don't follow them. Hence the need to research, buy and carefully assemble quality components (or buy from a vendor you trust to put together quality hardware).
OSX is also an OS, but it's publishers also have near absolute control over the hardware that it runs on. So there's no issues with finding the right hardware, or getting the right driver version, etc.
Most anything can be "made to work" on a PC. And it doesn't always take an extreme level of geekeeytude to do so.
Not everything works on a Mac, but for the things that do work, there is no "make it work" - IT JUST WORKS! True, if you're a Unix (FreeBSD actually) geek, you can probably make OSX do damn near anything you want, but most of us aren't that geeky.