Can I offer a big "Thank You"

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We had an iMac until it died recently. I didn't like the puck mouse one bit but was very impressed at how we plugged it into our network and, as others have said, it just worked, and got onto the net straight away. It was a very low spec and ran Panther terribly, so I didn't use it much other than for testing the odd website.

As I've moved from a techy IT background into a more creative field, I've been tempted by Macs - specifically by Tiger which has some very useful features, and the more refined UI.

However there's very little difference in terms of what you can do (the programs we need are fully-featured across platforms) and even less inside now Apple have switched to Intel.

And here, as well as PCs being cheaper, the main benefit is that I can fiddle with problematic PCs and fix 99% of hardware and software problems myself. From my limited experience with Macs, were something to go wrong, I wouldn't know where to start.

Windows XP annoys me daily. Sometimes it takes around 15 seconds when I right-click for the menu to appear, windows steal focus when I don't want them to and I have some awful problem somewhere which means I can't copy-and-paste reliably when the Num Lock key is on. Memory doesn't seem to be used very well and I have around 30 background processes running even when I don't have any programs open.

And I hate the fact it (and Vista) is based on a kernel from the 1970s and hampered by needing to remain backward-compatible. There's also bad security and being a generic means no integration between the OS and any custom hardware, which is a shame.

The internal CD/DVD drive is broken - but that serves me right for walking into it when it was open.

But my PC is on most of the day and lets me run many aspects of my business and social life. So I guess it's pretty cool really.

M@

[LARF]

Hey.

Me again, the one that kicked all this off.

The reason I prefer Macs is quite simple really:

? they work, the hardly crash - and if they do nine times out ten it's very easy for the end user to fix and you don't have to call in the IT guy.
? they are easy to use, so much so that some designers who move to Mac from PC are confused because they are trying to do things the long way round and are quite frankly amazed when I show them it's just a key command or one click on the mouse.
? it has a one button mouse - there really is no need for two buttons - trust me.
? they are efficient - in a busy studio the last thing you need is an OS that takes you round the houses - OSX rocks!
? they are clean and well designed
? you get your money's worth - they do last a very long time.
? they feel solid and dependable to use - go from a mac to a PC and it feels like the whole things going to fall apart if you even blow on it. PC's may be cheaper but the ratio of purchasing PC's to macs is three to one.
? they are compatible with PC's
? just set 'em up and watch 'em go - what banners said about the network is true - I can plug in the ethernet cable to the back of a brand new machine and I'm surfing the net and linking to other Macs and the server in about 10 seconds (no kidding)

I'm not a MAC snob but believe me when I say that if everyone used MACs rather than PC's we'd have more time off work or more time to do even more work.

:-)

[Jim_Campbell]

"From my limited experience with Macs, were something to go wrong, I wouldn't know where to start."

Yeah ... but in my experience they don't really go wrong! As I said, my G4 is unmodified (other than an upgrade from OS 9.02 to 9.1) in seven years.

In that time, it's had only two significant failures. Both times, crashing at start-up, both times fixed by Norton Utilities in fairly short order.

Over the years, this machine has always been my home machine for e-mail and internet access and has doubled up for print and web design, running Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver and Fireworks, and hooked up to a (completely unsupported) Calcomp graphics tablet, an Epson Stylus Photo EX, a variety of scanners and whatever external storage devices people have brought round.

TCO, around ?400 per year, with ZERO expenditure beyond the orginal outlay. Minus the money I made from a few freelance jobs probably puts me about a grand in credit on the machine.

I'm now on the verge of getting a new machine - this one really doesn't have the processing oomph for OSX and I'm finding a significant number of websites simply won't work with my unsupported browser. But I'll be truly sorry to say goodbye to the old workhorse ...

Cheers

Jim

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:: If everyone used MACs rather than PC's we'd have more time off work or more time to do even more work.

And imagine if Amigas were still going. True hardware-based multi-tasking. Marvellous!

M@