Megid said:
I am here because I just got done reformatting my PC for the last time.. I am so sick of the PC. But I got questions and I don't know anything about Mac's.
1. How is the virus problems with the macs do you get many and is there built in protection? Or are you like us and get them all the time also.
2. Are MAcs stable? Mine is not, and even today I have trouble running windows xp.
3. Playing games require hugh system resources, but from the look at the g5 it does not come close to meeting the standards of some of the games out there today? Do Mac run different and don't need as much power.
4. Do most web sites support mac? can you play games on the sites with no problems? popcap.com?
Thanks for the info
1. Viruses are virtually nonexistent for Macs. I even find an antivirus program to be a waste of time because it slows down the computer more than its protection is worth.
2. Due to its Unix core and the lack of programmers trying to target Mac users for attacks, Mac OS X is incredibly stable.
3. The way Intel and AMD, especially Intel, clock their processor speeds is totally different from the way Macs do it. My iBook G4 1.33 GHz runs faster and more efficiently than my friends' 2.4-2.8 GHz P4 PCs. A 2.5 GHz G5 is virtually unbeatable unless you're overclocking P4s/Athlon 64s, or using an Opteron, and the Opteron is arguable. To use a worn-out phrase, 'It's Apples and oranges.' You can't compare PC and Mac processors evenly based on plain clock speed. Clock efficiency and power is a totally different and much more involved matter. "3.4 GHz P4 processor" is a smoke and mirrors thing. By itself that doesn't mean all that much. That being said, Macs do not currently run most games as well as PCs do for the simple matter that most games are PORTED from PC to Mac, which means they're not efficiently designed to run on Macs. Games originally programmed for the x86 architecture just aren't going to run as well on PPC, no matter how much better your system is. They will run, and sometiems run very well, but PCs still have the edge for the time being.
4.Websites don't 'support Mac' or 'support PC.' Websites are programmed in HTML, and whether or not a website renders properly is entirely dependent upon your web browser, and its rendering engine. Internet Explorer for PC currently has the 'best' rendering engine, despite how poorly programmed and insecure it is. The internet was made to order for IE. However, if you used Firefox on PC, for instance, it's available on Mac. Additionally, Camino, a native browser with the same rendering engine as Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape, is available. There's also Safari, Apple's own homemade browser. I personally mostly use Camino and use Safari once in awhile. IE and Opera are also available for Mac, but they're really to the point of being so slow they're not useful.
You raise a lot of good questions. Just remember to try and get away from judging Macs and PCs by the same standards on things like processor speeds and RAM. Mac processors are generally more powerful than x86 (PC) processors for their GHz clock speed. Macs also, you should know, use a LOT more RAM than PCs if you'll let them. You should get at least 512 in a new Mac for it to run smoothly. I'd personally recommend 768 or 1 GB, but I would not recommend paying for Apple's namebrand RAM as you can get it for a third of the price at places like Crucial. Anyway, good luck with your possible purchase and potential switch. If you decide not to go with it, that's cool, too. There's all kinds of reasons to stick with PCs. We Mac users just happen to think the reasons not to use them outweigh the reasons to use them. Hope I was helpful.