Yet another reason I'm switching

I previously posted a problem I had with my Vista laptop that is making me switch to a Mac (the thread is "a few questions from a switcher to be"). I haven't yet figured out which Mac to get. So tonight my laptop prompted me to install Vista's Service Pack 1. After nearly two hours of a very slow download, the service pack started to install. The first 2 parts installed correctly but the 3rd didn't. So that meant that Vista had to go back to its restore point. So over 3 hours later I'm back to where I started. Yet more proof that Vista (and Windows in general) sucks. I guess the question I have to ask myself is why has it taken me so long to see the light and decide to make the switch. I still have some questions to ask (they will be in other threads) to help me decide which Mac laptop to get.

Go with the macbook pro! It is better in every way than the macbook in my opinion! Anyways....after using vista I had to make the switch...

My laptop has vista too. It crashed three times due to an intel update. I put linux on it and have been happy since.

I still have some questions to ask (they will be in other threads) to help me decide which Mac laptop to get.

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What would you be using your mac for?

Macbook would be good for word processing, email, web surfing, light photoshop use and light video editing.

A Macbook Pro would be better for heavy photo or video editing...

Good choice (the switch)

Have never used Vista, but it sounds like MS have seriously tripped up

I guess they just thought everybody would love their new OS, without ever really considering their customers

Lets hope they can learn from their mistakes

Got to be something wrong. Vista is not that bad. I got it working perfectly on my new MBP without a problem. My Windows software runs as fast if not faster than on my ThinkPad T61p with 2.5ghz.

You can find fault with either system.

greggebhardt said:

Got to be something wrong. Vista is not that bad. I got it working perfectly on my new MBP without a problem. My Windows software runs as fast if not faster than on my ThinkPad T61p with 2.5ghz.

You can find fault with either system.

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yes you can,

my fault with vista is that it makes me wanna kill myself or preferably b. gates, and my fault with osx is that withh leopard i have to change the default desktop back to the tiger one

oh hardship

getuptogetdown said:

Go with the macbook pro! It is better in every way than the macbook in my opinion! Anyways....after using vista I had to make the switch...

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hmmm I really don't understand why people are so quick to recommend the MBP when it is serious overkill in terms of power for the home user.

granted I will be purchasing apple's equivalent to the MBP this time next year in 17" when I head off to university to pursue a visual communication and animation degree, the only thing i can fault with the MB (for me) is the screen size, but I find my 20" iMac too small so i cant grumble!!

I just feel that most users wont be doing "heavy video work"

sorry for the rant I just am feeling picky!

The THOUGHT of Vista the intrusive was enough - I switched and run XP Pro in a virtual machine.

Have the best of both worlds now. THIS IS A VISTA FREE AREA :-D

By the way. My MBP is severe overkill and I love it

Honestly, I think the problems with Vista are mostly with the nut behind the keyboard.

I bet the failure installing SP1 had a reasonably descriptive error which probably referred to a misconfiguration or something that was otherwise borked by the user.

However, I never bothered to mess with Vista. Just kept using XP until I bought my MacBook a couple months ago. I LOVE it! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.

I beg to differ, Fray. I got no descriptive error message and I looked. I have faithfully installed every single Vista update (and believe me there was at least one every few days) for the past 14 months and never had any problems with these updates until the past week when I installed an optional sound card update (which I previously discussed in another thread - it caused the sound to go off and I had to uninstall the update) and then this problem with SP1. If only a few of us were complaining about Vista, I would agree with you about the "nut behind the keyboard." But the number of people who have had problems with Vista is huge - just read the PC magazines and web sites. I for one will not even bother with any Windows OS on the Mac I buy.

Anyway, in response to shav, I will using Photoshop Essentials 6 , word processing, internet, e-mail and a few games like Age of Empires.

Vista works fine for me on my homemade gaming PC. I think you just have to make sure you have enough power to run it and use good quality components when building your computer. Apple uses high quality components and it shows in the stability and usefulness of their machines. To answer the OP's question, I would recommend a high end MacBook unless you need the larger screen. A high end MacBook would have more than enough power for what you want to do, and I think you would be very happy with it. If you need a larger screen I would get the base model MacBook Pro and upgrade the RAM to max myself. I have the base model MacBook Pro and I love it. I maxed out the RAM and upgraded the harddrive mysel when I got it and it has been great. I decided to go with the Pro because I am a WOW addict and needed the extra graphics power for gaming. Good luck with your decision.

Magyarbill said:

I previously posted a problem I had with my Vista laptop that is making me switch to a Mac (the thread is "a few questions from a switcher to be"). I haven't yet figured out which Mac to get. So tonight my laptop prompted me to install Vista's Service Pack 1. After nearly two hours of a very slow download, the service pack started to install. The first 2 parts installed correctly but the 3rd didn't. So that meant that Vista had to go back to its restore point. So over 3 hours later I'm back to where I started. Yet more proof that Vista (and Windows in general) sucks. I guess the question I have to ask myself is why has it taken me so long to see the light and decide to make the switch. I still have some questions to ask (they will be in other threads) to help me decide which Mac laptop to get.

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Magyarbill -

Apparently, you recently purchased a Vista laptop computer with some pretty good hardware specs (needed in order to run Vista). This laptop had to be rather expensive investment. What do you plan to do with it? If you sell it used, you'll only get a fraction of what you paid for it then you'll have to turn around and spend a considerable amount of money for a Macbook or even more for a Macbook Pro.

Now maybe you recently won the lottery or are an heir to a fortune, so I don't want to tell you how to spend your money. But why don't you keep the laptop and install Linux on it? You'll get very good performance out of that laptop (owning to the advanced hardware in it) and in won't cost you anything except some time to figure out how to do it.

I'd recommend looking at PCLinux OS or Mint Linux. They're both good distros and fairly easy for beginners to set up. You can dual boot and keep Vista on it if you'd like.

Juan, I'm giving it to my wife. I wouldn't try to sell it when newer more powerful Windows laptops are hundreds of dollars less than what I paid for mine. I would never get anything like I pad for it. Plus I don't want to load Linux - how many applications like Word or Photoshop are there for Linux? I want a Mac since it has applications like Word, Photoshop as well as Apple's applications and the OS is stable, unlike Vista.

If you feel like it's a good time to switch, then go for it. I should say, though, that don't do it if you have the idea in mind that OS X is some happy utopia of cherry blossoms and rainbows where the only problem is the surprise one experiences upon discovering that gastrointestinal movements smell like peace and happiness. Every OS will have occasional errors, and there is a learning curve associated with learning the ins and outs of each of them. Try out a Mac at an Apple Store, see what it's like, ask questions about how to do X task, and then make a careful decision. If your decision is made in a centred, informed state of mind like that, then you'll be fine regardless of what it is. Either way, welcome.

On the topic of Linux apps, OpenOffice has all the features of MS Word and more. As for a Photoshop equivalent, GIMP on Linux is arguably just about as powerful but open source and therefore free. Ubuntu is a particularly easy to install and use Linux distribution that I'd recommend to anyone that wants to get into using Linux.

Also, are you actually Hungarian or did you just want a cool username?

Magyarbill said:

Plus I don't want to load Linux - how many applications like Word or Photoshop are there for Linux? I want a Mac since it has applications like Word, Photoshop as well as Apple's applications and the OS is stable, unlike Vista.

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You'd be amazed at the kinds of applications you can run on Linux. You can do things that I'm not allowed to mention here. Keep an open mind.

Discerptor, I'm not under the misconception that the Mac OS is perfection on earth but from all I've heard and read, it is certainly more stable than Windows in all its versions. And I do intend to spend a far bit of time in the Apple Store playing with a Mac.

As far as being Hungarian, my paternal grandparents were born in Budapest (the Pest side).