Computers - Which do you use? MAC or Windows?

Which operating system do you use most often on your personal computer?

  • Total voters
    49
Notorious T.O.D. said:
If fussing to get your computer to work is your interest then go PC and Microsoft.  If you just want to work with your computer then go Mac and don't look back.  My friend just switched to a 17" Macbook Pro and he loves it so much he is going to convert his whole company to Macs...  

Windows 7 is just another Mac OS want-to-be. I used to laugh when I worked for IBM in 2000 and this technology giant was running Windows 95 as its standard PC OS, 5 years old, ....sad but true...

Best,
Todd
Click to expand...
Todd,

Fussing?  What fussing?   Even given that it's brand new, Windows 7 has been pretty much dead solid perfect.    I have mine set to automatically install updates at 3:00 am, and it doesn't crash or reboot randomly.   I.e. it just works. No fussing at all.

It doesn't bother me the people would prefer a Mac to a PC.   Each to his own.   However, the superior attitude that some Mac people have just cracks me up.  

My stepson is one of those.  A few years ago when the new Mac OS came out, he stopped over to show me his new Mac laptop with the first Linux .   It was a pretty little thing, but he kept going on and on and ON about how great it was.   In the process is checking it out, we decided to pop in a DVD that I made of my wife's Akido test.   Uh oh!  It didn't work!  

So the excuses started...  "Well you made that on a PC.   It's probably screwed up!"   So we popped it in my Win XT laptop.  No problem!   "But, but, but...  The DVD is probably made so that it that will only work on a PC!"  So we stuck in a standard, retail DVD movie.   That didn't work on his Mac either!!!

One gentleman said virtually all PC apps will run on a Mac.  How about SQL Server?   (No, a virtual PC doesn't count.)   I use SQL Server every day.   It runs quite nicely on all of my PCs, including this laptop.   Any device that I buy must run ALL of my important apps and run them just as fast as a PC. "Virtually all" doesn't count.  

Unlike some people, my core values and self-worth are not wedded to the tools I buy.   And make no mistake, Macs and PC's are just tools.  Buy what works for you, but don't run around insulting other people for their choices.

Dan.

p.s. I have an Apple iPhone and love it.   That said, it isn't perfect.  There are a few things that it doesn't do as well as my old Win Mobile phone.  On balance, it's a far better tool than Win Mobile devices for my needs.  But it's still just a tool.
 
Windows XP works fine for what I have to do (Use it daily being an IT engineer),  but I'm thinking (not convinced )about upgrading to Windows 7 on my home PC...
before XP, I used windows 2000,  before that windows 98 and 95
Until now Windows 98 and XP are my favorites.
Millennium and Vista ,tested them both and I call them Microsoft's "Black and Decker's" ...  and Mac, I can't give an honnest opinion about it, we have a few at the office , only used by our graphical team, all the rest uses Microsoft and we are 1800 users
 
nico said:
Millennium and Vista ,tested them both and I call them Microsoft's "Black and Decker's" ...  and Mac, I can't give an honnest opinion about it, we have a few at the office , only used by our graphical team, all the rest uses Microsoft and we are 1800 users
Click to expand...
Nico,

Regarding Vista, my feelings about it are the exact opposite of my feelings about Win 7.  Unfortunately I was forced to use Vista for several months.  Except for my Windows Mobile device, it was the single worst product experience I've ever had.  (And I've had a lot of them.)  Saying that Vista is Microsoft's "Black and Decker's" is a compliment.

Regarding XP, Win 7 is slightly faster, has better security, and is easier to use once you get used to it (it's a lot different than XP). It took a while for me to find things in Win7 because they are in different places and sometimes work differently than XP.  It's the same with Macs.  Things are in different places, named differently, and work differently.  If you're used to a different OS, a new one can be a challenge.

Dan.

p.s. I've been using and programming computers since 1971.
 
I use windows, because I like playing the latest videogames, and I like assembling my own PC's (choosing everything from the case, powersupply, motherboard, cooling, ... to the latency rating of the ram modules)

I don't like apple much, and I normally only read the apple vs PC threads. Only experience I have with apple computers is that I used a macintosh at university a few times to surf the internet in the mid nineties (only if the computerrooms with the windows pc's were all occupied) And I found it a bit weird with just one mousebutton, and it annoyed me that I couldn't use downloaded content on a windows pc.

I can't really remember what annoyed me about quicktime so much, but it was pretty severe because last time I installed it was about 8 years ago. I refuse to install I-tunes, and since my isp switched to that for the free download credits I don't download the free mp3's I am entitled to.

Last time I encountered apple-related annoyance was when I bought an external harddisk (Western Digital studioline), I chose that one because I liked the way it looked, and had the most connection options... the website I bought it from didn't mention it came standardly formatted for apple.

I've had a few problems with microsoft Operation Systems over the years, but once I figured out the solutions it all worked fine. (I have never upgraded just the OS, so I skipped a few... I only used dos 3.3, windows 95 (the 97 version with usb support), windows xp 32bit, vista 32 on laptop, and vista 64 on my current core-i7 pc) I might switch to windows 7 though, because the 1 year old hardware is still very up to date, but I 'm in no hurry because vista works pretty well for me.
 
How about an option for mare than one?

I use all three plus additional operating systems.  They all have their advantages and there faults.  Over the years (48 of them since I first programmed a computer) , I have probably used somewhere between 60 to 80 different computer operating systems and I learned long long ago to to get excited about any of them.  I use them as best I can then move on when something better comes along.
 
If you choose the right components for a Windows PC you can run all three major OS's on the same computer, Windows, snow leopard and Linux (Snow Leopard runs like a dream on a quad core with 8gig of ram) then we wouldn't have to worry what was the best  ::). The BEST OS IS the one that suits your needs best as has already been stated here.
 
Chris Rosenberger said:
Something that is being missed by those that say Mac is is better than Windows.
--- Snip ----
I believe Microsoft does one heck of a job in making things work as well as the do, with what they have do deal with.
Chris    
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct about the  control of platform. That is what Apple does and the user wants things to work well. In general users don't want to bother with sorting out problems they want to try a new program and throw it out if it does not help, With OS X they can with Win.x most can't without breaking something.

A point that you mis is the the companies (MS/Apple) are very different. Apple is a hardware company that makes some SW, MS is a software company that makes some HW. In general Apple does its job better than MS. How ever it is in a limited range of products, best in portable music players, smart phones, high end laptops. in those markets they dominate, they do well in low end server OS, high end consumer desktops and pro machines. But if you want a net book or cheap computer you have windows or linux Apple is not in that market and is unlikely to be.

In that way Apple is similar to Festool if they can't do it right, usually better, (Not, just good enough) they don't do it. Not every product is ahead of the competition but in use the quality and service is easy to appreciate.
 
Fussing is a non IT PC user trying to get Windows to work on his or her PC so that they can get on with the real work they need to use the machine for in the first place.
When a user goes through reload, update and trying to get their PC working they eventually become very frustrated and in my friend's case he decided that he had had enough of MS and was willing to go a different direction than to move into Windows 7, good or bad.  MS may not really be a hardware company but the changes they make to their OS ultimately force you to move to a more powerful machine or the new PC you buy will force you to move to their new OS...  This major pain is what the not IT, non PC geek users get tired of fussing with in the long run.  I want my machie to be a tool for useful work not a project that I have to fuss with periodically to try to get it to work at all.  Enjoy your PC Dan...

Best,
Todd

Dan Clark said:
Notorious T.O.D. said:
If fussing to get your computer to work is your interest then go PC and Microsoft.  If you just want to work with your computer then go Mac and don't look back.  My friend just switched to a 17" Macbook Pro and he loves it so much he is going to convert his whole company to Macs...  

Windows 7 is just another Mac OS want-to-be. I used to laugh when I worked for IBM in 2000 and this technology giant was running Windows 95 as its standard PC OS, 5 years old, ....sad but true...

Best,
Todd
Click to expand...
Todd,

Fussing?  What fussing?   Even given that it's brand new, Windows 7 has been pretty much dead solid perfect.    I have mine set to automatically install updates at 3:00 am, and it doesn't crash or reboot randomly.   I.e. it just works. No fussing at all.

It doesn't bother me the people would prefer a Mac to a PC.   Each to his own.   However, the superior attitude that some Mac people have just cracks me up.  

My stepson is one of those.  A few years ago when the new Mac OS came out, he stopped over to show me his new Mac laptop with the first Linux .   It was a pretty little thing, but he kept going on and on and ON about how great it was.   In the process is checking it out, we decided to pop in a DVD that I made of my wife's Akido test.   Uh oh!  It didn't work!  

So the excuses started...  "Well you made that on a PC.   It's probably screwed up!"   So we popped it in my Win XT laptop.  No problem!   "But, but, but...  The DVD is probably made so that it that will only work on a PC!"  So we stuck in a standard, retail DVD movie.   That didn't work on his Mac either!!!

One gentleman said virtually all PC apps will run on a Mac.  How about SQL Server?   (No, a virtual PC doesn't count.)   I use SQL Server every day.   It runs quite nicely on all of my PCs, including this laptop.   Any device that I buy must run ALL of my important apps and run them just as fast as a PC. "Virtually all" doesn't count.  

Unlike some people, my core values and self-worth are not wedded to the tools I buy.   And make no mistake, Macs and PC's are just tools.  Buy what works for you, but don't run around insulting other people for their choices.

Dan.

p.s. I have an Apple iPhone and love it.   That said, it isn't perfect.  There are a few things that it doesn't do as well as my old Win Mobile phone.  On balance, it's a far better tool than Win Mobile devices for my needs.  But it's still just a tool.
Click to expand...
 
I get accused of being a Mac fanboy by my brother in law all the time.  I have both a PC and a Mac and admit that they both do similar things.  The problem is, ever since I bought my first Apple Computer in 1989 I have never once had the urge to throw one of them out of the window or smash it with a hammer.  I wish I could say the same of the various PC's I have to deal with.  I cannot explain it, I know it is irrational, but Mac give me a warm feeling like Festool
 
As someone who makes their living with computers and have since that first mac, they both have plus's and minus's.  Back in the day of appletalk prior to them converting their kernel to unix they were pigs on a network.  The old saying was users luv'm admins hate them.  That's all gone now  and people always quote the virus thing, but in the world of hacks, which would you rather write a virus for a few or a gazillion.  In the end, its totally a personal choice.  If they were not 2x or 3x most computers, they would rule the world instead of the other way around.  It's hard to justify that price difference if the main thing you do is play on the internet and do doc's and spreadsheets. 
 
Frank Pellow said:
How about an option for mare than one?

I use all three plus additional operating systems.  They all have their advantages and there faults.  Over the years (48 of them since I first programmed a computer) , I have probably used somewhere between 60 to 80 different computer operating systems and I learned long long ago to to get excited about any of them.  I use them as best I can then move on when something better comes along.
Click to expand...

I was hoping to see which people used most.  I use 2 of the 3 myself, but use Windows most often.
 
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