Mac OS X

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by S.A.M., Jun 8, 2007.

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  1. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    I agree. And I actually am a software engineer, or was for many years. Although I think it's fraudulent to call what we do "engineering," it's somewhere between voodoo and a medieval craft.

    Just as when I was a kid I enjoyed rebuilding carburetors but now I just want the damn car to get me where I'm going, I used to enjoy debugging software but now I just want the damn computer to do what I tell it to. My Mac does it and my PC does not. It's as simple as that.

    My eight-year-old PowerBook is like a toaster. I plug it in, turn it on, wait a few moments, tell it what I want, out pops perfectly toasted data, and I walk away from it. Two or three times a year something goes wrong and I can usually just reboot, recover a file, lose a couple of hours of work, and forget about figuring out what happened.

    My brand new ThinkPad with XP takes an hour to boot. I'm sure that's not true but it sure feels like it. Every single day I use it--and I am not exaggerating this time, I really mean every single day I use it--one Grungeware application or another crashes. Word, Excel, IE, that's about all I use and they are all pieces of crap. I have lost so many files that I routinely save my work every half hour to two different file names. That way when Word fails hard and actually destroys the original saved file I've still got backukp.

    I have to have Word and Excel on my Mac for compatibility with my job, and they work better over there. But I use Safari and it's much more reliable than IE.

    I don't do anything fancy. Word processing, spreadsheets, music, e-mail, the internet. That's it.

    Mac does it better because Mac does it right. A Macintosh is an appliance. A PC is a delicate laboratory instrument. I just don't feel like spending ten percent of my time at my computer being a frelling software mechanic or a file reconstruction investigator.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Jun 28, 2007
    #21

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  3. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    coconutBattery isn't just a tool which shows you only the current charge of your battery - it also shows you the current maximum capacity of it in relation to the original capacity your battery had as it left the factory.
    You also get information about the battery-loadcycles (how often did you fully load your battery), the current charger (coconutBattery even warns you if you plugged in a wrong charger for your Notebook) and last but not least information about the age of your Mac.
     
    S.A.M., Jun 28, 2007
    #22

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  5. Ripley

    Ripley ⁠ Valued Senior Member

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    Ripley, Jun 28, 2007
    #23

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  7. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Jun 29, 2007
    #24
  8. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Jul 2, 2007
    #25
  9. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Jul 3, 2007
    #26
  10. John99

    John99 Banned Banned

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    ha ha, thats a cool name.

    OS X works greeat for me too

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    Clean App is cool, the only thing i dont get is that when limit runs out it still shows you where the files are located

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    ...i bought it anyway...
     
    John99, Jul 6, 2007
    #27
  11. river-wind

    river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    river-wind, Jul 16, 2007
    #28
  12. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Aug 6, 2007
    #29
  13. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Aug 6, 2007
    #30
  14. pencil

    pencil Banned Banned

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    I would pick Vista over anything else. Why buy a Mac for video editing? Macs have only maximum of 2-cores on their high-end machines. Why do that when I can buy a custom-built 16-core, 16gig ram, 10-raid raptors for video editing that will be faster than ANYTHING apple has on the market.

    Any PC for the same price (even cheaper) would blow away a MAC in performance.
     
    pencil, Aug 6, 2007
    #31
  15. Ripley

    Ripley ⁠ Valued Senior Member

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    So then don't get one. Big shit.
     
    Ripley, Aug 7, 2007
    #32
  16. John99

    John99 Banned Banned

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    i think they have quads now. mac hardware is very good, comperable to the estreme highend pc plus much better designed, especially mac pro.

    and where are you going to get a 16 core motherboard from?

    also, what 64bit programs are you going to run?
     
    John99, Aug 9, 2007
    #33
  17. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    S.A.M., Aug 12, 2007
    #34
  18. river-wind

    river-wind Valued Senior Member

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    river-wind, Aug 14, 2007
    #35
  19. Lord Hillyer

    Lord Hillyer Banned Banned

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    Sam - thanks for the links.

    Fraggle - spot-on about Macs vs PCs. I like your analogy to appliances and lab instruments. My six-year old G3 iMac running either Classic or Tiger with only 800 MB of memory ran with more stability and internet surfing speed than my two year-old Dell XP laptop - which was theoretically far more powerful - and both on the same HDSL connexion.

    Now I run a Powerbook exclusively. It wasn't so much that Macs attracted me as that PCs pushed me away with their chronic crashes, bugs, malware, hostile interfacing, time-wasting, and general cantankerousness. Macs are the smiling, hot waitress who do their best to make one's meal a pleasant experience; PCs are the beaten-down-by-life, scowling, curt old hag who spills things in one's lap and messes up the order.
     
    Lord Hillyer, Aug 14, 2007
    #36
  20. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    That's a wonderful quote. May I use it?

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    Fraggle Rocker, Aug 15, 2007
    #37
  21. Lord Hillyer

    Lord Hillyer Banned Banned

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    Thank-you; most certainly.
     
    Lord Hillyer, Aug 15, 2007
    #38
  22. Ripley

    Ripley ⁠ Valued Senior Member

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    And, uh, most posters here at Sciforums are, uh, PC users. Explains a lot.
     
    Ripley, Aug 16, 2007
    #39
  23. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Most posters at SciForums are technically oriented. Many are actual geeks. This is hardly a representative cross-section of the population. People like me, an IT professional with an 8-year-old PowerBook, are not typical of either IT or SciForums but I run into people like myself out in the real world.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Aug 16, 2007
    #40
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