- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 18
- Location
- Whittier, CA
- Your Mac's Specs
- uMBP 2.66/4GB/320GB; iMac 2.66Ghz/4GB/320GB; Apple TV; Black iPhone 3G 16GB
Well, after a "stint" in the Windows world... I am back to the Mac community. I'm here to say that the grass is not any greener (or all that green) on the other side. I bought an HP Tablet PC to replace the black Macbook and I was frought w/ problems on the Vista OS.
Originally I was having issues w/ Mac, and to a greater extent the Apple Store @ Brea Mall. It was mostly cosmetic and quality issues that I feel were exacerbated by the Genius staff, and customer service issues by their management. In the end, I was given a full refund and I washed my hands of Apple for the time being. My fiancee on the other hand has had a great time w/ her Macbook and Mini and has kept her composure during my Vista angst, keeping from saying "Go get a Mac". I went back to using my old trusty PC w/ XP and later decided to get a Tablet PC w/ Vista. Oh man...if I had only known...
For instance, Vista is slow....REALLY slow... 2-3min boot times on an Turion X2 2.4Ghz w/ 2GB of RAM. Returned it and got a 15" DV6500t (Santa Rosa) notebook... beautiful case, worked great, happy for about a month until Vista started with the "Guess that Blue Screen!" trivia. It started w/ the notebook not going to sleep, then giving a bluescreen when it attempts to go to sleep....THEN when it's just sitting idle and not doing anything. Needless to say, I'm neither happy or pleased w/ Vista. I can't blame HP b/c the 'hardware' tests fine and seems to work, but Vista is just abysmal. I spent 1hr on the phone w/ HP support and the rep (Canadian) said that my issues w/ Vista are not unique.
This afternoon, my fiancee was watching me do a full install that started at 12:30pm....we left the house at 2:30 and it was at 30% complete. I don't think it's necc. Vista that is taking so long to re-install, but the bloatware that their recovery discs include. The recovery failed at one point and tomorrow I'm going to start over... it's a real shame b/c I like the computer but this Vista b/s is just driving me nuts. My fiancee is a die-hard Mac chick who uses her notebook for just about everything from creating lesson plans for her classes (college and high school) and doing digital photography. She loves her Macbook and said to me, "Perhaps you would be happier w/ a Mac...just don't go back to that store" and we went over to the S. Coast Plaza Apple Store. I'm typing on a white Macbook right now and it's like being back w/ an old friend....
I keep my trusty DV1000 HP notebook as a backup b/c it's running XP and works absolutely fine. The DV6500t is going to be up on eBay soon, unless something is wrong w/ it (hardware-wise).
On the way home, I stopped by Fry's and picked up 4GB of Kingston RAM on sale for $80. I have to say that sadly I do not see that much of a difference (yet) w/ the RAM upgrade from 1GB to 4GB, but I plan to use Virtualization at some point. Plus, the RAM was cheap--it was $60 for 2GB, and $80 for 4GB...how could I pass THAT up? Anyway, tomorrow I will be Bootcamping w/ XP Pro and installing VMware for good measure.
Anyway, I'm happy to be back and thought I'd share my little story. Cheers everyone
Originally I was having issues w/ Mac, and to a greater extent the Apple Store @ Brea Mall. It was mostly cosmetic and quality issues that I feel were exacerbated by the Genius staff, and customer service issues by their management. In the end, I was given a full refund and I washed my hands of Apple for the time being. My fiancee on the other hand has had a great time w/ her Macbook and Mini and has kept her composure during my Vista angst, keeping from saying "Go get a Mac". I went back to using my old trusty PC w/ XP and later decided to get a Tablet PC w/ Vista. Oh man...if I had only known...
For instance, Vista is slow....REALLY slow... 2-3min boot times on an Turion X2 2.4Ghz w/ 2GB of RAM. Returned it and got a 15" DV6500t (Santa Rosa) notebook... beautiful case, worked great, happy for about a month until Vista started with the "Guess that Blue Screen!" trivia. It started w/ the notebook not going to sleep, then giving a bluescreen when it attempts to go to sleep....THEN when it's just sitting idle and not doing anything. Needless to say, I'm neither happy or pleased w/ Vista. I can't blame HP b/c the 'hardware' tests fine and seems to work, but Vista is just abysmal. I spent 1hr on the phone w/ HP support and the rep (Canadian) said that my issues w/ Vista are not unique.
This afternoon, my fiancee was watching me do a full install that started at 12:30pm....we left the house at 2:30 and it was at 30% complete. I don't think it's necc. Vista that is taking so long to re-install, but the bloatware that their recovery discs include. The recovery failed at one point and tomorrow I'm going to start over... it's a real shame b/c I like the computer but this Vista b/s is just driving me nuts. My fiancee is a die-hard Mac chick who uses her notebook for just about everything from creating lesson plans for her classes (college and high school) and doing digital photography. She loves her Macbook and said to me, "Perhaps you would be happier w/ a Mac...just don't go back to that store" and we went over to the S. Coast Plaza Apple Store. I'm typing on a white Macbook right now and it's like being back w/ an old friend....
I keep my trusty DV1000 HP notebook as a backup b/c it's running XP and works absolutely fine. The DV6500t is going to be up on eBay soon, unless something is wrong w/ it (hardware-wise).
On the way home, I stopped by Fry's and picked up 4GB of Kingston RAM on sale for $80. I have to say that sadly I do not see that much of a difference (yet) w/ the RAM upgrade from 1GB to 4GB, but I plan to use Virtualization at some point. Plus, the RAM was cheap--it was $60 for 2GB, and $80 for 4GB...how could I pass THAT up? Anyway, tomorrow I will be Bootcamping w/ XP Pro and installing VMware for good measure.
Anyway, I'm happy to be back and thought I'd share my little story. Cheers everyone
