Reverse Switch! OSX > W7

[DescendeadRose]

The laptop has arrived - I've spent some time over the weekend setting it up, and I'm pretty sure its going to be ok. First thoughts:

- It looks good (once I removed the stickers that Asus plaster all over it)
- It looks thinner than it is - the wedge design and the silver top, black bottom create an illusion of a much thinner machine. Its about 1 inch thick at the battery end but doesn't look it.
- Build quality is reasonable - its no MBP, but it feels decent enough.
- Keyboard flex is noticable - hoping it won't prove to be an issue.
- There was a lot of 'bloatware' with it - took a good couple of hours to remove it.
- Aero is horrible - the glassy effects are tacky, appear to offer no advantages other than eye candy - the Basic view is fine though.
- The the viewing angle of the screen is very 'narrow' - as someone else pointed out, unless you are directly in front of it colours invert.
- HDMI out is great - plugs straight in to the TV, which detects it as 720p - looks great on the big screen
- Track pad is hit and miss - multi touch scrolling works, but is not always smooth
- Its quick - no noticable lags loading or booting (at least not after I removed the bloatware and made changes to the start up items). iTunes opens in about 7 seconds with a library of about 3000 albums. Coverflow is not as smooth, but I didn't use it anyway.
- Windows Update is annoying - it repeatedly failed to update part of the Windows Live software - in the end I had to remove it - it also failed to complete all updates until at least the third or fourth time it had booted - why??
- Importing my itunes library could have been smoother, but wasn't too bad.
- Importing from iPhoto to Picasa was problematic due to the way iPhoto creates folders based on import date. Worked round it by exporting into Month by Month folders.
- WebCam is not great - noticabley worse than the mac.

So all in all, its pretty much as I expected considering this is undoubtably a downgrade.

If the imac is an 'A', then the Asus is probably a reasonable 'B' for me so far.

Glad to hear you're having a mostly positive experience with it! It may be a downgrade, but as long as you don't feel regret, and it does what you need/want it to do, then you made the right choice!

 

[usagora]

You still misunderstand - I hate the form factor and have no wish or need to work from anywhere else. I know you can use a Laptop with external peripherals but its hardly elegant is it?

Well sure, if you never have a need to access your files outside your house, then why bother? But my guess is that most people want to and many need to, like myself. But yes, I'd much prefer an iMac over a clam shell Macbook (although it is still rather "elegant" ;D) if I had the $$$$ and the choice.

Btw, we're glad you like W7. I too enjoy its appearance, but much prefer OS X's way of handling the inner workings. It's just so much simpler and straight-forward. The only thing that would be totally awesome for OS X to incorporate would be the automatic window resizing that you have in Windows 7 (drag to side/fills half screen; drag to top/maximizes). Oh, how many times I need to compare two windows, and it's such a pain in OS X in comparison.

 

[osxx]

As you say IYO. For me W7 is the better option IMO. It is perhaps your reluctance at using it that is preventing you from knowing its full potential.

Read into it however you choose I use several different OS's as I like to be informed because our client base is very diversified but over the last 2 years most have been switching to Apple.

 

[JP-ME]

Read into it however you choose I use several different OS's as I like to be informed because our client base is very diversified but over the last 2 years most have been switching to Apple.

Gartner still shows world market penetration at around 5%. Apple are never going to break the Enterprise market as (a) they aren't interested and (b) when it comes to Enterprise whatever you may think MS are a great company. Apple have to all intents and purposes given up on Enterprise.

Btw, we're glad you like W7. I too enjoy its appearance, but much prefer OS X's way of handling the inner workings. It's just so much simpler and straight-forward. The only thing that would be totally awesome for OS X to incorporate would be the automatic window resizing that you have in Windows 7 (drag to side/fills half screen; drag to top/maximizes). Oh, how many times I need to compare two windows, and it's such a pain in OS X in comparison.

I have heard this argument before but no one is ever able to quantify what they mean by that statement? What is simpler and straight forward and what do you mean by inner workings. What you see as a user is the UI for any OS when using it not the inner workings.

 

[dtravis7]

Can I ask a question? If you feel Macs and OSX are so inferior to Windows 7, why even own one? Sell the Mini and purchase a Windows box at a lower price and be done with it. It really seems like you are here just to berate the Mac, OSX and even users here on the forums.

Mac Forums is here to help people with their Macs and OSX. All this is really not helping anyone.

 

[cwa107]

Sounds like you are good with Windows 7. Sounds like a lot of people are good with OS X. We don't need another one of these threads. Different strokes for different folks and no one is going to convince the other that one is better than the other. It all comes down to personal preference.

So, let's end this one here. This horse has been beaten to death and does not add value to the forums.