O.K... a question for newly switched Mac owners...

[hype.it]

When answering, try to be honest and truthful to your word. And for heavens sake, try to focus on the topics. This forum seems to have a nasty habit of changing subjects.


1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.


NB. Those questions are purely asked because I'm curious. They are nothing to do with Mac-Forums or Apple Computer.


Cheers,

hype.it™


Reply before reading, please.

This space is intentional
​

Reply before reading, please.

 

[CFX]

When answering, try to be honest and truthful to your word. And for heavens sake, try to focus on the topics. This forum seems to have a nasty habit of changing subjects.


1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard?\
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?


NB. Those questions are purely asked because I'm curious. They are nothing to do with Mac-Forums or Apple Computer.


Cheers,

hype.it™

1. I like my iMac...
2.Yes everything is different, hard to get used to. The reason why I am going back to PC is because I cannot toy with this ****. I have to focus on school which is starting like in 2 weeks.
3.Well it has been crashing a lot, everything would freeze so I would have to shut the power off.
4.I am going back to Windows, but after my schooling I plan to go back to Macintosh because I will have the time and knowledge about them.
5.Yes.
6.Nothing, it is extremely well built technology.

 

[Murlyn]

1. How do you find your Mac?

I find it on my desk every morning.. it's quite comforting Actually I love it, I couldnt imagine using anything else.

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

No not really, it just took a little bit of getting used to how to do things, but because the programs seemed to use the same shortcut keys and similar interface, it was easy to go from program to program.. so no I didn't find it too hard.. I just dove in also, so I learned pretty fast.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

Extremely reliable. Being a moderator here, I have heard a lot of stories of unreliability, which I guess I got lucky. I've had my powerbook 667 for 3 years now and I had one kernel panic during that time. So I would say no it does not crash at all and it's the most reliable computer I have ever owned.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?

No way, not at this point, it would be rediculous.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?

absolutely! Although I've been hearing a lot of horror stories lately, so it almost makes me scared to upgrade my current computer, since like I mentioned above.. it just plain does not crash and I have no problems with the hardware or the software and it sounds like the newer ones do have these problems

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?

Hmm.. i don't play games, so I care less about that, but hmm... I can't think of anything that I would use on the PC anymore.. what would I like to see.. Im really not sure.. oh wait! That new 3D monitor.. that sounds really kewl.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

I find it to be pretty good, you can usually tell pretty fast who knows their stuff and who doesnt, and who knows just one platform and who has used many. Overrall I would say there is quite good support, every once in awhile you do get some strange answers though

 

[jamin]

1. How do you find your Mac?
a. I love it. 0 crashes in the 2 months I have had it.

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
a. I had issues of over thinking certain things. Once I got used to a logical interface things improved greatly. Only took a little over a week to become totally comfortable.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
a. Yes. Hasn't crashed at all.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
a. No I use Windows on my laptop and can't stand it. Wish Work would get me a powerbook instead.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
a. Yes and have many times.

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
a. Can't think of anything.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.
a. I found support really good. I have done some searching for some questions I had or found cool tricks by reading the threads.

 

[gort]

1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

1. It's beautiful, thin, awesome in every way.
2. Easy as pie. It took me about 2 days to find my way around the OS.
3. I had a kernel panic once. Finder has frozen about 3 times. Other than that it's fine.
4. I didn't get rid of my PC. Only thing I would do differently is order the higher RPM hard drive
5. Yes, especially my relatives that always feel the need to have me fix their PC. If they bought an Apple I'd never have to go fix their problems.
6. Windows that resize at a reasonable speed.
7. It's good.

How could you need more than a week to figure out os x to be ready for school? Even if you're a computer science student (which I am) it's easy to figure out.

 

[PMJx2]

i think he's trying to say that those are what should be talked about in the "MAc switch over forum." I don't think he's acctualy asking you thoose questions , since people post into the wrong forum...

 

[hype.it]

1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

Guess it's only fair if i answer my own questions too huh?

1. How do you find your Mac?
i like it, i think it like me. But switching from a faster machine to a slow ass PB is annoying.

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
I never really switched. Have used a Mac since the SE30's but have owned PC's along the way for various reasons.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
Workstation: For all the time I've owned it, I had one Kernel Panic and that was prior to Panther. Had a few problems regarding memory mismatch from various brands, if anything some applications freeze and goto 'not responding'

Server: Not crashed yet! Just my doggie networking failing sometimes, it's been restarted a few times for maintenance and installing of server-side applications.

PowerBook: on the whole it's been well behaved, just the occasional glitch here and there, but I'm always trying thing on it... can;t get linux to install, i get errors.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
Erm... that would be no, never!

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
Of course... My clients seems to be gob-smacked buy the display more than anything. View for youtself: At 70% or Fullsize

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
More choice of applications, software manufactures should start porting their application to the Mac. Would be good for everybody.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.
Mostly good, but there are some weak points regarding Unix and X11 that seem to be lacking. Occasionally there are trolls lurking around but i think they got rid of most of them.

Me on Me... rare that!

 

[vuschejan]

1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

1.Well I find my mac awesome... in every way. I love it.
2. Changing OS's took me no time at all, I already knew it from exp with my friends powerbook
3. Its reliable, I had a kernel panic once but that might have been becuase I paused finder with cunning fox....
4. I have the oppurtunity and I havn't and never will.
5. Perhaps, but I dont want to get too many users on this. Then viruses start popping up
6. Hmm, I havn't played any games as much as I used to, before I switched, so I really dont know.
7. Good, havn't been steered wrong yet.

 

[rberry88]

I think the original question(s) have been quoted ad-nauseum so excuse me if I just jump in with my answers:

1. As the saying goes "I'm Lovin' It", seriously.

2. There is a big jump from Windows OS to Mac OS, but since I have a background in Linux it wasn't bad at all. I find MacOS alot easier and straightforward to use on a daily basis. Plus not being attacked by Virus's and spyware on a daily basis is reward enough.

3. I jumped into the Mac World with a brand new 17" flatpanel iMac and it has performed like a superstar so far. I have had exactly one crash in the ~2 months I've owned it, and that was when installing Microsoft Office 2004, oh the irony.

4. I wouldn't go back because it would feel like a step back. The only reason my PC still exists is for high requirement new games only.

5. Not only would I and do I recommend them to others but I bought my parents a new 1GHz eMac two weeks ago so they don't have to worry about calling me every ten minutes when a window pops up on their PC so I can tell them how to fix it, now the only time they call is to ask when I'm coming over for dinner.

6. The only thing I would like to see is more upgrade-ability for the user on the iMac, eMac lines.

7. The forums are good, however there is an occasional time when a forum member doesn't understand that when they ask for others opinions, most times they WILL differ for theirs, but they still get upset, otherwise the forums here are great.

 

[Cloudane]

I'm not even going to look at the other replies yet, just to make it an honest view...

1. How do you find your Mac?

Well, I look at my desk and.... sorry
It's wonderful. I've been a PC/Windows buff since 3.1 (and DOS before that) and a major Linux fan for a while too but nothing could compare to OSX when I finally tried it. Like many others I listened to the stigma that has been haunting the Mac for no real reason I can find now, and didn't give it a fair chance. I thought it was just expensive eye candy. It wasn't.

They *are* overpriced IMO but then again it's worth it to insure quality. The Powerbook was a fair price though for the performance, size and build quality (quite good value in fact) and it goes everywhere... I've had plenty of computers, but none that I've had quite an emotional attachment to. LOL
Hey, it even 'breathes' if you count the pulsing sleep light as such

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

Easy as pie. I had it down in about half an hour. But then I am used to different analogies... my father (who was very technically literate about 5-10 years ago but lost interest in the technical side) has a hard time getting used to ideas such as mounting disk images, applications being installed through drag-and-drop etc. Even I had a few hiccups through expecting things to be far more complicated than they actually were and missing the blindingly obvious.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

It crashed (kernel panic, big text splurge all over the screen) the first week I got it, compared with XP which has been running for months without a hiccup, but then I haven't had any other problems since.

Safari falls over every 2 minutes.

The rest is completely stable.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?

I run both - a PC for gaming and a Mac for everything else. When it comes to the 'everything else', as long as it stays stable, I won't revert... on the contrary once finances are sorted out I hope to get a G5 (or 6 by the time that's done) as my next desktop. Heck if I'm going to be using it 6+ hours per day (which I do) I want it to be good to look at.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?

Absolutely. I just had to repair a PC for a neighbour across the road, his XP had gone nuts and all the fonts had switched to Wingdings or something similar... the rest of the fonts had disappeared without a trace... after hours of fiddling the only answer was to back up his data (a long and painful process involving a firewire HDD caddy and a Powerbook), reformat and install from scratch.

If he'd had a Mac, I could've done an archive-install and been finished within half an hour. Better still, it's so incredibly simple he could've done it himself.

He complained that he's sick of worrying about viruses and spyware (a virus was the likely cause) and all he wants is a computer that he can just turn on and work on "like having a car, you just turn the key and go" without worrying about *how* it works or what might infect it next. He said all he really wants to do (and currently does) is upload and tweak photos, surf the Internet and type letters. I explained all about the Mac... like many others he had preconceptions and had spoken to "a friend who knows about computers" who said avoid them at all costs because they have no software etc. I explained that no you can't just buy software off the shelf at Dixons and expect it to work, but look at all the software that actually *comes with* it and where to get other software when you need it and he was extremely interested. I'll post back if he gets one.

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?

Microsoft Access. That's a large part of my job at work, and I'd love to be able ot develop database applications on my PowerBook without the real sluggish feel that VirtualPC has.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

Can't say I've needed that much, but it's always been great. There are few computer forums that have such intelligent and mature posters.

 

[DakRoland]

I switched about 2 1/2 years ago, so I hope this counts...

1. How do you find your Mac?

I now own 4 Macs and briefly 5. Compared to my Windows days, I find the Macs are much more reliable, and when problems do happen, they are much more quickly resolved.

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

Changing from Windows to Mac OS was not difficult. After 2 weeks, I was absolutely exstatic! I started with OS 9, but then slowly switched to Jaguar and then fully to Jaguar. I now use Panther almost exclusively. The only confusing aspect has been learning to think "Mac", and not think "Windows" when it comes to doing things. I'm much better at that now than I used to be, but every once in awhile, I slip back into that old habit.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

I have had a few Kernel Panics in the last 2 1/2 years, but compared to the number of Blue Screens on my PC I'd deal with on a weekly basis, the issues have been minor. If a program locks up, I force quit it, then relaunch and I'm back to work.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?

I still have my PC for a few games and Network Printing, but the PC has Linux Mandrake on it now, and it makes that aspect much easier. Once I get a USB printer, the PC is history. I won't switch back at all.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?

I would, I have, and I will continue to do so until Apple stops giving me reason to do so.

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?

Since my job is Internet Tech related, I would like to see more apps that deal with things like Radius, Point-of-Sale, Billing System, Internet Acceleration (for Dial Up Users), Server Stats, etc... Some things I can work around on my iBook, others I have to go to the PC for.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

What I've read so far has been extremely informative. I have yet to ask more than 3 questions so far, but the way the Mac community is, it's nice to know there's people who are friendly and helpful.

~Dak

 

[VastDeathmaster]

1. How do you find your Mac?

On my desk infront of the chair. Ummm, It's not hard to find, since it is bright white in color.

Not literal? Oh. I find it easier to deal with when it locks up or a program doesn't run.

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

No. I have been on computers since the Commodore Vic 20, so an unusual arrangement was not difficult. Even with Windows I tried Litestep, a Windows shell replacement.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

No Blue-Screen of anything.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?

No, about the only thing I miss is the ability to completely customize the computer.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?

If they had money, yes.

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?

I would like to see more video memory on the lower end computers. Though I can play Diablo 2 on my eMac, there is an annoying pause every once in a while (using eMac $800 version)

I'd like to see more customizable cases, sold separately.

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

This place is great. I asked about screen spanning and got a quick reply.

 

[Graeme43]

1. It sucks and is slow
2. I actually customized my doz to look like macs.. actually the mac GUI is better than my customization
3. Its all buggy like disk images wont unmount even after logging out
4. Yes, and get a 23" display for my PC instead
5. Nope
6. Hmmm.. windows?
7. It sucks because little/no one replies

 

[Cloudane]

Just a few thoughts...

Get more RAM? RAM = speed, usual default of 256MB (even on G5 - EEK!) = crap. 768 should be ok though... iBooks *are* pretty slow however I believe. Get a PB or a PowerMac next time
Disk images aren't supposed to unmount after logging out, they're working as intended. To unmount them, drag to trash or click the mini eject icon on the finder sidebar.
Other than that, sounds to me like you just haven't taken the time to learn the OS properly

 

[Graeme43]

I know the OS... my openoffice disk image wont unmount no matter what i try and i cannot reboot because of an 8gb download and i have 768mb RAM

 

[gort]

Or click on it and hit apple+E

 

[h0tk4rl]

1. How do you find your Mac?

I absolutely love it!

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

Made the switch from Debian/WinXp/2k3/2k and was productive again in less then a day. I would say things are just different, not confusing.

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

Not one crash in the two (or is it three now) weeks that I have had my G5. I think it's very reliable. The only issues I ran into were apache modules and that was all my fault.

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?

I use PCs at work and will most likely get a longhorn system when available but it would only be to compliment my mac, not compete with it.

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?

I already have and I will be setting my parents up with a mac to replace their PC in a few months.

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?

Don't care for games. Adobe Premiere Pro would be nice but that may change after I get into Final Cut Pro more. I have apache, MySQL, PHP, jEdit, office:mac, Adobe Creative Suite, built in SSH and SFTP support! What else could I need?

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

Support? Plese refer to answers 2 and 3!

 

[Nightblade]

Graeme43, didn't you use to be a real Mac fanboy? Like, didn't you have Steve Jobs as your avatar and always criticized Windows and praised Macs and stuff? It's funny how much people can change....

 

[witeshark]

When answering, try to be honest and truthful to your word. And for heavens sake, try to focus on the topics. This forum seems to have a nasty habit of changing subjects.


1. How do you find your Mac?

Just fabulous

2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?

Not at all. My Mac took on all my uses and needs so fast and well that I never really started using my Linux PC except for fun

3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?

It's incredibly reliable, and never shut down

4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
In my sig

5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
Every time!

6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
Just one thing: a way to force eject an image CD when I know it's not in use

7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

I think the help here is excellent and fast


NB. Those questions are purely asked because I'm curious. They are nothing to do with Mac-Forums or Apple Computer.


Cheers,

hype.it™


Reply before reading, please.

This space is intentional
​

Reply before reading, please.

Neat post this!

 

[Aptmunich]

1. How do you find your Mac?
2. Was changing OS'es from what you know in Windows to MacOS hard? Confusing in anyway?
3. Is your Mac reliable? Does it crash, etc.?
4. If given the opportunity, would you go back?
5. Would you recommend other's to the Macintosh Platform?
6. What you like to see on the Mac, apart from more games?
7. How you find the support given on this forum? If bad, or good then say why it's good or bad.

1) It's the best computer I've ever owned

2)Yes & No: It was easy because I'm fairly compute literate, just needed to get used to things such as dmg's, the lack of a registery and the different names for everything

3) It has crashed a few times, not as much as windows, more than linux. Mostly however when I've been messing round with sound drivers

4) No, I would not.

5) Yes I would, provided their requirements are compatible. (so I don't recommend it to my hard-core gamer friend, but I do to my audio producing, college student friend. Funnily enough however, the first friend is a lot more interested than the somewhat conservative 2nd friend)

6) Even more games A better version of iPhoto, a version of VPC that is usable, a new appleworks.

7) Good, not always 100% correct, but very enjoyable. There don't seem to be that many dedicated users, but I prefer it to the macrumors forum for example...