What I Like about the Mac
This is the fourth in a series on Macs and PCs that I've published at Spyjournal.
Last time I told you that there were some awkward moments in making the switch from PC to Mac. But in spite of those, there are so many things I love about the Macintosh. Let’s start with the minor things.
Installing and deleting software is just as easy as it should be. When you click on a Mac software installation program, an icon for that program pops up. You drag that icon into your applications collection. That’s it. If you don’t want the program anymore, you simply drag the program icon to the trash can. A lot of things on the Mac are accomplished with simple, intuitive moves like that. And many things that require a software download on a PC come standard with a Mac. The “Preview” program, for example, views .pdf files, creates them, compresses them, takes screen shots and saves those to dozens of different formats. It’s the default viewing program for graphic files, and it has a compliment of editing tools built right in. The Macintosh is rich with utilities like this.
The much-hyped iLife programs live up to their billing. It’s true that you can make slideshows and movies and podcasts and all sorts of things with the software that comes...READ THE REST at Spyjournal.
rlp
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Macs
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 12:13.Hi,
This is my first time on the site. I also recently switched to a Mac. It is amazing. One thing that I most love about it is the SUPER fast start up time. I press the power button and I'm good to go in about 10 seconds, compared to minutes with my old PC.
Anyway, I really enjoy your blog, keep up the good work
God's blessings
PB
www.thewordismylamp.com
Macs
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 12:13.Hi,
This is my first time on the site. I also recently switched to a Mac. It is amazing. One thing that I most love about it is the SUPER fast start up time. I press the power button and I'm good to go in about 10 seconds, compared to minutes with my old PC.
Anyway, I really enjoy your blog, keep up the good work
God's blessings
PB
www.thewordismylamp.com
Coming to the light
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 13:16.Hi, Gordon, Phil from the old Salon blogs. Chuck referred me to your Spyjournal article, cuz I'm in the market for a new laptop and wavering between another Dell and a Macbook Pro.
Two things would send me to the light side: 1) I'd be using VMWare (I think) to run Windows on the Mac, and it simply has to work because all the software I consult on will forever be in Windows. Are you running Windows on your Mac? Any glitches?; and 2) Are the Mac applications compelling enough to shell out the extra grand?
Like you, I cut my teeth on 80s PCs, so it's not an ease-of-use issue; in a way, getting a Mac puts one more learning curve in my weary path.
BTW, in the 80s I used Wordstar as a lights-out text editor to cut and edit code. It allowed extra long record lengths so I could search & edit data files.
Thanks,
Boot camp. I run Vista on my
Submitted by rlp on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 14:36.Boot camp. I run Vista on my iMac. Works just fine. The only thing is, you have to boot into Windows or Leopard.
Programs? Well, someone gave me a copy of Adobe CS2. iWork was cheap. the rest, well, it's an adjustment.
Hi Gordon, Really glad
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 18:00.Hi Gordon,
Really glad you've found the OS that suits you. So many people just stick to what they know, and miss out on so much.
Personally, I'm a linux user, but, much as I love it, I wouldn't recommend it to many people. I'm a physics student, specialising in computation, so I'm pretty picky about my computers. I need a lot of tools, and, frankly, Windows just can't do what I need at a sensible price.
Recently I've been doing a research project that's centred around C programming, for which they've given us the use of some shiny new Macs (and a couple of octicore xserves :D ), and I've been really impressed. It does almost everything linux can, and in a far more cohesive package. I see why you like it. :)
Matthew
MAC vs PC
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 18:16.I took the dive about a year ago to the Mac. Then I switched back. I was also impressed by the easy of deleting programs. However, when I had accidentally installed the wrong driver for a scanner, and then uninstalled it and tried to install the correct one, I found that there were LOTS of files left on the Mac that were never deleted, and as a result, the new driver would not load. It took me months to find all the little files I needed to delete in order to install the correct driver.
Mac looks simple and elegant, but the truth is that an OS with a fraction of the development staff is going to have a fraction of the functionality. For the everyday user, it is probably good most of the time. I just ended up finding time after time after time that I could not do what I wanted to do, or had to install more expensive software (i.e. Bootcamp) to do what I needed. Windows may be flaky and less intuitive at times, but it has more depth, and is simply cheaper to run.
Never got used to them...
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 06:58.I used Macs at a couple of points in my life, the first was back in 1994 and other than a ZX spectrum and a BBC micro it was my first experience of computers. I used them again in 1999, but on both occasions I just didn't take to them. To me the Windows environment behaved more like I expected an OS should. I don't think either is any better than the other, but just depends on what suits the person. I've been using PCs since including Unix based systems for computation.
Philologus
http://www.biblequizzes.org.uk