Educate me on Macintosh
Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:18 pm
Out of the maybe 15 people I know who have switched (both actual walking-talking people, and possibly fake internet people), all have become raving lunatics praising the Mac in what seemed to me was a suspiciously short time interval. Is this some sort of a collective hype that accumulates more momentum as it gathers mass, or are macs truly that great?
Last time I was witness to such collective agreement was when Firefox was kind of new-ish, and in that case it was completely justified. Is the case the same, or is this Steve Jobs' marketing machine doing an exceptionally good job?
Is there a way to 'test-run' the OS? With Linux you have Live CDs, but the point is very much moot, since Linux is free anyway. I'm kind of scared of dumping money on an Apple hardware/software bundle only to be burnt and be unable to use either.
How good is emulation for Windows programs on Mac (if it's at all possible)?
Now, I know there are practically no games for macs, but that doesn't particularly worry me; if I were to switch (remote possibility seeing how entrenched I am in windows) I'd buy a power/iBook and laptops are generally worthless when it comes to gaming.
As far as specific questions go, here are a few:
What are the benefits of the OS being UNIX-based (apart from me getting [partly] immersed in UNIX while still being protected by a nice&friendly GUI)
What programs that you need/want are unavailable for mac? So far the only replacement I'd miss would be foobar2k, but I guess iTunes is good enough a replacement.
Is there any major upcoming release I should be specifically wait for, should I decide to buy a mac? I'm hearing something about a G5 chip - what's the deal with that? Speaking of which...
How would Apple ditching IBM and switching to Intel chips affect me, if at all?
As much as I've been hearing about 'it just works!', I have a hard time grasping the concept. Why/how/what does not 'just work' in windows? I usually just install a program, and then run it and that's the end of that.
Are macs still (considered) overpriced?
While general information is much appreciated (the questions were just what I could think of in a two minute period - just explaining what your general experience with macs has been would be very helpful), please reply with more or less specific information, as opposed to cliches you've heard; chances are I've heard them too
(durr, macs are easier to use and pretty, but, like, they have less programs than they do for Windows and stuff and they're expensive but they run unix so that's good)
Last time I was witness to such collective agreement was when Firefox was kind of new-ish, and in that case it was completely justified. Is the case the same, or is this Steve Jobs' marketing machine doing an exceptionally good job?
Is there a way to 'test-run' the OS? With Linux you have Live CDs, but the point is very much moot, since Linux is free anyway. I'm kind of scared of dumping money on an Apple hardware/software bundle only to be burnt and be unable to use either.
How good is emulation for Windows programs on Mac (if it's at all possible)?
Now, I know there are practically no games for macs, but that doesn't particularly worry me; if I were to switch (remote possibility seeing how entrenched I am in windows) I'd buy a power/iBook and laptops are generally worthless when it comes to gaming.
As far as specific questions go, here are a few:
What are the benefits of the OS being UNIX-based (apart from me getting [partly] immersed in UNIX while still being protected by a nice&friendly GUI)
What programs that you need/want are unavailable for mac? So far the only replacement I'd miss would be foobar2k, but I guess iTunes is good enough a replacement.
Is there any major upcoming release I should be specifically wait for, should I decide to buy a mac? I'm hearing something about a G5 chip - what's the deal with that? Speaking of which...
How would Apple ditching IBM and switching to Intel chips affect me, if at all?
As much as I've been hearing about 'it just works!', I have a hard time grasping the concept. Why/how/what does not 'just work' in windows? I usually just install a program, and then run it and that's the end of that.
Are macs still (considered) overpriced?
While general information is much appreciated (the questions were just what I could think of in a two minute period - just explaining what your general experience with macs has been would be very helpful), please reply with more or less specific information, as opposed to cliches you've heard; chances are I've heard them too
(durr, macs are easier to use and pretty, but, like, they have less programs than they do for Windows and stuff and they're expensive but they run unix so that's good)