Have you used garageband? Not just versatility, but loop library is huge. It's a great buy on it's own. It's also used widely, so in terms of collaboration, you're in a better position to share files.


Top 10 Reasons to buy a mac

10. No piecing together crap. All integrated. Buy it and plug it in. It WORKS.
9. Better software and more stable platforms for design, video and music.
8. Bootcamp on the new intel machines means you have a PC and a mac when you get a mac
7. .mac account
6. iphoto
5. garageband
4. imovie
3. safari (better than firefox and ie combined)
2. looks so sexy
1. no viruses

[ 08-09-2006, 01:29 AM: Message edited by: Melchior ]

Ummmm [img]smile.gif[/img]


Top 10 Reasons to buy a mac

10. No piecing together crap. All integrated. Buy it and plug it in. It WORKS.

All intergrated, 1 thing breaks, it's ALL dead. bad.


9. Better software and more stable platforms for design, video and music.

Not true. I go WEEKS without having to reboot and run TONS of video editing stuff and 3D Max apps.

8. Bootcamp on the new intel machines means you have a PC and a mac when you get a mac


7. .mac account

What does that mean? [img]smile.gif[/img]

6. iphoto

Photoshop 8.0

2. looks so sexy

Sexy? SEXY? Since when are PC's needing to look sexy? I don't wanna bang my PC! [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]


1. no viruses

Not true. There are virii for Macs. There are less, but thats because hardly no one uses them. Hackers attack the mass market. [img]smile.gif[/img]

So...Maximum PC did a test in their July issue, tested both Windows XP and OS X on an intel-powered Mac. Before I say the results, let me say Maximum PC is all about computing performance, and their standards are demanding. Their tolerance for crap is low, and they are fairly scientific in their testing...personally, they're my most esteemed resourced when it comes to computers.

They tested software that was supposed to run on both platforms on the very same machine, after installing both OSes on it...and XP won every contest. Sure, there are issues about program-porting, but that doesn't account for the 20% (or more) performance jumps when switching from OS X to Windows XP.

When it comes to performance, XP wins. It's more efficient for processing, and that's what really counts, not a bunch of shiny gloss.

[ 08-09-2006, 03:16 AM: Message edited by: Ilander ]

What's with all the replies, I wasn't even serious. Just kidding, yeah okay I figured they sucked. It seems they are instead trying to use the flaws as a marketing technique to make people buy (Virtually no viruses on a Mac - until enough of you buy one, then we're like windows but without the security patches).

Even my ipod (though it's cool) pretty much forces me to use the itunes app. and that in itself is a clunky and lacking pirce of software that doesn't come close to Media Center as far as options are concerned for loading songs unto my MP3 player. I think to myself if this one application is so annoying imagine how the Mac OS is.

You make it sound like you won't get security patches if you buy a Mac?! Their rolling out of security updates may be slow in comparison to Linux, but it sure beats 'patch tuesday' followed by 'virus wednesday' followed by a one-month wait for the security fix.

There are still unpatched security vulnerabilities in Microsoft software that they refuse to fix. According to Secunia, with all patches and workarounds applied, Windows XP Home is still affected by 26 documented flaws, some of which are rated "highly critical". As the code is closed, nobody knows how many undocumented flaws exist.

It is undeniable that a Mac is more secure than Windows out of the box due to its Unix backend, the fact that it doesn't ship with tons of internet-facing services enabled, the fact that the user must create a username and password and is discouraged from running things as root (the administrative user).

Having said that, it sounds like you've already made up your mind on this issue...

One of the Linux magazines I buy ranks distributions according to how fast they release fixes for security issues. The fastest (Red Hat) released a patch for a popular internet service within 20 minutes of the flaw being published. The bulk of the major distributions had released patches within two hours, with only Debian straggling a little with a lag time of a little over a day. Now that is taking security seriously and I wish the big players would do the same.

[ 08-09-2006, 04:56 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

Ilander, I think your magazine is definitely right:

http://sekhon.berkeley.edu/macosx/GenMatch1.png

There's a detailed analysis here of the Mac's performance failings. It also has links at the bottom to the original article which included Windows comparisons.

You make it sound like you won't get security patches if you buy a Mac?! Their rolling out of security updates may be slow in comparison to Linux, but it sure beats 'patch tuesday' followed by 'virus wednesday' followed by a one-month wait for the security fix.

There are still unpatched security vulnerabilities in Microsoft software that they refuse to fix. According to Secunia, with all patches and workarounds applied, Windows XP Home is still affected by 26 documented flaws, some of which are rated "highly critical". As the code is closed, nobody knows how many undocumented flaws exist.

It is undeniable that a Mac is more secure than Windows out of the box due to its Unix backend, the fact that it doesn't ship with tons of internet-facing services enabled, the fact that the user must create a username and password and is discouraged from running things as root (the administrative user).

Having said that, it sounds like you've already made up your mind on this issue...

One of the Linux magazines I buy ranks distributions according to how fast they release fixes for security issues. The fastest (Red Hat) released a patch for a popular internet service within 20 minutes of the flaw being published. The bulk of the major distributions had released patches within two hours, with only Debian straggling a little with a lag time of a little over a day. Now that is taking security seriously and I wish the big players would do the same. </font>[/QUOTE]I had made up my mind but was recently unsure of late due to hearing all this marketing stuff. On your point about security, I do believe that if Macs got the worldwide consumer-base that windows has overnight, it wouldn't be very secure.

I assume from your post you use only Macs yourself then? How do you find them for gaming etc?

I liked the second and fourth the most.

Z man - All intergrated, 1 thing breaks, it's ALL dead. bad
Not true. Replacement is more than possible.
In any case, in 5 years I had not one thing break down on a single mac.
It's VERY robust and stable. Never put it into the shop.


zman -Not true. I go WEEKS without having to reboot and run TONS of video editing stuff and 3D Max apps.

~That's not my experience with the PCs I've owned. I've found them flaky. There's a reason I switched. I hated macs with a passion, but got fed up with PCs. You're talking to a convert. I can't tell you how much I hated macs. Even six years ago I was pretty anti. I just got fed up with PC and tried a mac. never looked back. ~

zman -What does that mean? [img]smile.gif[/img]
~The .mac account gives you free webspace/blogpage etc (no ads), a virtual hardisk online for filesharing and backups... loads of stuff.~

zman -6. iphotoPhotoshop 8.0
~ Does Photoshop 8.0 come FREE with any and every PC you buy?

zman -Sexy? SEXY? Since when are PC's needing to look sexy? I don't wanna bang my PC! [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

~Ah... when you want to impress a girl and look hip, not like a geek. That's when mac sexiness becomes important. ~ ;)


zman -1. no viruses Not true. There are virii for Macs. There are less, but thats because hardly no one uses them. Hackers attack the mass market. [img]smile.gif[/img]

That amounts to the same thing.

Mac also sends out security updates. Updates from the manufacturer make all the difference.

You just need to try one. I mean, I still have both types of computer in the house. A PC desktop, a PC laptop (for my wife) and a mac laptop.

The mac tops the lot in terms of speed, reliability, performance, and everything else.

[ 08-09-2006, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: Melchior ]