How Many here also use a mac

[Andeda]

No thanks..

[bloodline]

Since getting a MacBook Pro, My need for Windows has become less and less... I do have BootCamp on my machine for XP is there if I need it, but I've not booted it to it in for six months... Last I did was to play Oblivion... Since 99% of what I use my machines for now is Music Production OSX makes a lot more sense than Windows.

Certainly the ablilty of OSX to aggrigate devices and not crash/stutter (The CoreAudio seems to run RealTime!) under stress make it vastly superior to the nightmares that Windows gave me.

I apreaciate the comments that Mac's are for Retards... but I actually happen to like a Unix box that just works, each to their own I guess.

All intel Macs actually have two mouse buttons... The MB/MBP uses a multitouch mouse pad which is vastly superior to two buttons... You have to try it!

[shoggoth]

murple wrote:
You should see the recent thread about Apple being the new Amiga... Macs are hardly in the same category as Amigas. Macs are designed around the idea that users are essentially retarded and need to have their options limited (witness the one button mouse, and Apple's history of hermetically sealed cases).

The one-button mouse really ruins everyting. So what if the OS supports several mouse buttons, and that Apple sells mice with lots of them, the damage has already been done.

While Amigas are pretty easy to use, they always encouraged users to learn and tinker. Notice all the schematics and pin outs in your Commodore user manuals? Ever see that in a Mac manual?

Let's see... a couple of standard USB ports... a standard firewire port... a standard LAN connector... A-HA! There's this oddball monitor connector which requires a 10$ adapter! Damn you Steve Jobs! Damn you! Why didn't you give me the pinout so I could build my own 20$ adapter!

Fortunately they designed this machine for retarted people, so it suits me perferctly. Retarted people, or special people as I like to call us, need special tools - gnu stuff, GCC, bash, X etc. To make this less intimidating, they've added a special GUI extracted directly from Teletubbie-land.

-- Peter

I bought an iMac last October or so.  Can't believe I put up with Windows for so long.  

This weekend was "tax free school shopping" weekend in several states.  I thought to go buy a laptop since some of them are so cheap these days (I don't need much).  Problem is, Microsoft has made it so that you can't load XP on most laptops without running into hassles with drivers/etc..

So much for buying a PC laptop.

Now I'm looking in earnest at a 15" Macbook Pro (want the screen real estate more than anything else) and cannot fathom why anyone would buy a PC these days.

I have to agree, with a little exception that it might be the programs we use, "not the OS", but that's a little like saying "guns don't kill people, people do".   The OS may not be what we use, but in the case of Windows versus Mac OS, Mac OS certainly makes using the applications a far more enjoyable, far less stressful experience.

It may be a matter of age.  I certainly don't consider myself, or any of my friends who use Macs to be "retarded". We have just reached a point in our lives where we no longer get excited by computers and don't want to spend hours futzing with them to get stuff done.

I don't care how the Mac works, but there's absolutely nothing I've ever asked it to do that it refused to do.  It's just easier and I don't have to worry about how to do crap, I just get it done..

The modern Mac is what the Amiga should have evolved into.  Plain and simple.  A great GUI with a way to get under the hood (the Mac's BSD roots).

Wayne

[vic20owner]

The monitor connector is a standard monitor connector...it's DVI.  I am using one right now connected directly to a DELL monitor (as a 2nd desktop).  And if you old style need 15 pin vga connector it's included free with the computer... am I missing something?

Honestly people who keep going on about how macs are for stupid people and that they are incompatible and what not, harping this one mouse button crap, are obviously ignorant to the world of the modern mac.

I agree, I want two mouse buttons so guess what... I bought a 2 button mouse.  Why is this a big deal?  This has nothing to do with the operating system or the computer. It's a mouse.

And comparing a modern mac to an Amiga (suggesting that the Amiga is better) is so tragically hilarious regarding both hardware and software that there is just no need to argue the point.  

I switched from Windows/Linux to OSX and I have never been happier.  Linux is like driving a VW bus, and windows is like driving a ford escort.

Osx is like a luxury sedan... it does everything the other two do, but better, and in one well thought out unit.

It seems to me that the reason people bash macs is simply because they cannot afford one.  It's a shame, I really wish they could because they are really nice.  

You can complain about the tellitubby look all you want, but guess what? Yes you can change it.  No, I don't mean with themes, I mean with Gimp. Or whatever graphics editor you choose, except Deluxe Paint of course.

For the curious, I show how to display the images for the DVD player in a few easy clicks:

http://www.cbmhacker.com/amiga/screen1.jpg
http://www.cbmhacker.com/amiga/screen2.jpg
http://www.cbmhacker.com/amiga/screen3.jpg
 

All of the images for the OS and ALL APPLICATIONS are in a simple subfolder... you edit the images however you choose.  That's it.

BTW, I switched from Linux to OSX on my standard PC (web server) at home as a web server.  Been running for a couple of years now no poblems.

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

But now I have a nice new powerbook thru work  Our entire engineering / development team trashed our windows and linux boxes and switched to Macs.  We do primarily java enterprise programming via Eclipse running JBoss for the app server, mysql for database, and Apache for whatever PHP code we use.

BTW, JBoss and mysql come installed already with the os, and a full development GUI (X-code) is included also (free) but we don't use it.. (we dont write osx apps).

You guys just don't know what you are missing, that's all.  It's like the Amiga days repeated all over again except now you are the crazy fools.  :crazy:

LOL

[T3000]

I use an older Mac G3 275mhz os9 for page print design an page layout at the printshop I work at. We recently aquired a modern up to date HP Pavilion. The more I work with the XP environment, the more the old Mac seems like an Amiga.

murple wrote:
Microsoft products are unusable garbage. Thats a given. Macs are only marginally better though.

If microsoft products are so unusable, how is it that millions of users are making their livelyhood with microsoft products?  

[billt]

I have an iBook. Though I mostly use it instad of my PCs because of portable convenience, not because I'm a mac-head. I sortof quit using my desktop when I got my PC laptop, but the laptop battery only lasted abotu 45 minutes when it was new. Not very useful. My iBook lasts over 3 hours usually, which is usable. I'll probably get a PC laptop with much better battery life someday, and am not sure if I'll continue with he ibook at that point or if I'll be back to the PC again because more of my software runs there that I can't use on the Mac. I can' tpost pictures to Myspace from my ibook for some reason either, which is annoying. I shrink them in Photoshop and then MySpace's FLASH-based photo upload tool still says they're unacceptable for some unknown reason. If anyone has a solution, I'd love to hear about it.

[billt]

I agree, I want two mouse buttons so guess what... I bought a 2 button mouse. Why is this a big deal? This has nothing to do with the operating system or the computer. It's a mouse.

There are the rare times that it DOES make a difference. We can use VPN and VNC to work from home. One of the programs I use at times, Simvision, is a circuit waveform viewer, and you can zoom into a range of the waveform by pressing the CTRL button and left click-selecting the range. OSX seems to consider the CTRL button as my saying I want to use the right mouse button instead of the left mouse button, even when you have a mouse with an actual right mouse button. So in OSX, it's not possible to cause a left-click event with the CTRL button pressed. And thus, I cannot select a range to zoom into when using this Simvision tool from my iBook over VNC. I've asked other Mac users at work if there is a way around that problem, but they all complain about it as well, and no solution has been found.

I can do that just fine from my PC.

These examples are probably few and far between, but they do exist. You may never even encounter them, but they do exist for a few of us.

If microsoft products are so unusable, how is it that millions of users are making their livelyhood with microsoft products?  

Simple.  

It's called market dominance.  If Microsoft tells everyone that they need a "Windows PC" to survive then makes them available for relatively cheap costs, the sheeple buy Windows PCs.  

Then Microsoft gives the US Government a blanket license to run Windows on PCs, then everyone who works around or with the government feels they have to buy a Windows PC to work.  If all those people as well as the Government have Windows PCs, companies say "I can make more money writing money for Windows PCs", so more software is created for the Wintel platform.

It's a cascading pile of excrement, all developed by marketeers and the Microsoft juggernaut which is now so large and monolithic it would take something like the $100 PC to overcome it.

Wayne

[vic20owner]

You're right there... ctrl+click is right click and cannot (easily) be remapped.  Not sure why apple did not make remapping possible for right click key (although I am sure there is a way).  There was a way to remap this in earlier osx versions, but it does not seem to work with tiger.

If I figure it out I'll let you know.

[zetsurin]

I decided to port some software I sell to the mac a number of years ago.  The experience developing on OSX was nice.  I grew to really love the OS, particularly since I enjoyed the familiarity that I had from administering my FreeBSD web server (it's not all shiny graphics, you have a full BSD system at your disposal there).  I eventually consolidated and sold my PPC Mac and Windows boxes and bought an intel mac the moment they went intel.  I have never looked back.  Basically those that claim the mac platform is limiting or targeted purely at idiots are entirely ignorant people.

I now target windows, osx and unix development on my one mac.  The environment is both efficient and trouble-free.  I use VMWare Fusion as my virtualisation environment and it's extremely fast.

Pretty glad I am so limited with my platform designed for retards quite personally.

[trekiej]

I have an 8500 with G3
a AWS9650,8515, and all in one LC040

[uncleted]

The one button thing is more about consistency than a limitation.

If you force app designers to work with one mouse button as being the lowest common denominator, you ensure that all apps are designed to be accessible with only one mouse button.  That way you don't need a contextually sensitive right click to enable functionality like you do in some poorly designed Windows apps (and probably Linux ones too.)  This fits in well with OS X's overall menu structuring too.

If you look at it in Windows terms, think of the Control Panel.  You can easily create apps on Windows for configuration functions that don't have to be installed in the Control Panel.  It makes sense to users that they go there, but there's nothing forcing them to use it.  If expecting a consistent user experience makes me a retard, retard me up, I guess.

I don't know of any Macs being shipped these days that don't actually support more than one button on the shipped hardware.  All the Macbooks and Macbook Pros can enable a right button click through the trackpad by having more than one finger on it (like for scrolling) and clicking with the button.  All the other Macs ship with a Mighty Mouse that can be configured for more than one button.

[starf81]

Another MAC user here!

Today's hardware is the same as PCs but every computer has still a "name" and it sound like in the past when you owned a specific machine :-D

First x86 MACs had a lot of problems but now are rock solid.
And the OS is simply fantastic, very safe and user friendly.

Yes... I can say the Mac is like a modern Amiga.

I laugh when I use old MacOS systems under ShapeShifter. Those were so ugly compared to AmigaOS. Software suites have been the only great advantage. Adobe applications and Xpress are a standard still today.
But OsX is a state-of-art OS and I can't imagine what would be AmigaOS today if it would have been developed regularly.

Obviuosly, it is just my opinion...

Alex

[adolescent]

I have a Color Classic "Mystic" that runs OS 7.5.  I have a beige G3 that I put together to see what all the OS 10 fuss was about.  I wasn't impressed.  This may change if they open up the OS to non Apple, Inc. hardware.  But, due to the high price and poor reliability I'm staying clear of anything with an Apple on it.

[amiga_3k]

murple wrote:
You should see the recent thread about Apple being the new Amiga... Macs are hardly in the same category as Amigas. Macs are designed around the idea that users are essentially retarded and need to have their options limited (witness the one button mouse, and Apple's history of hermetically sealed cases).

....

You want a good solid system that carries on the spirit of the Amiga, get yourself a good modern Linux install.

Not to advertise Apple here but I feel the need of getting the sharp edges a little softer.

I had a PowerPC 9600 Apple which was very easy to open-up and service! Not even spoiled a single drop of blood while opening it up and cleaning it. OS 9 is indeed a bit programmed in a way that nothing much can go wrong, only if you want to be the 'über-expert' and do things that were never supposed to (on the Amiga it's well possible to do things you really shouldn't). The 9600 has been retired a few months ago, it should now rest in pieces at the dump-site.

In the attic I still keep an iMac 333, first series. This machine is also easy to service. And if you're not too sure about how to openup the case, Apple provides the repair and service manuals for free from their website! These manuals even describe how you can test the mainboard using a good multimeter. So, with that in mind, you can't hardly say that Apple think the users are retards who only need to start Safari.

I've both used Linuxes and OSX. My general feel with OSX is that it is very Linux like (even shares shell commands) only it seems to install easier.

I must admit that the Apple is in the attic now and has seen it's place being taken by a Dell-PC. Reason is simple: Couldn't afford a MacMini of the last series. Once I can, I surely will have a long chat with my wife and get us both one.

So, is Apple the best system? No! Why not? You simply don't get emotional attached to it (I can dump them very easy, can't do that with the Amigas ;-)).

That's my two cents, now back to changing my signature ;-)