Mac user? Why?

garfield said:

it's simple, beautiful and fun.....

Click to expand...

shugie said:

I'm quite sceptical about the "different league" claim though, no matter how Apple might dress it up, their hardware uses the same processor as some pcs, and their operating system is Linux based, just as Ubuntu for PC hardware is.

Click to expand...

tricky dicky said:

pain having to defragment with external program (Drive Genius)

Click to expand...

stolzy said:

When you buy a mac its the operating system you're paying for.

Click to expand...

WindyChuffer said:

err no.

Mac OSX Snow Leopard 10.6 (latest) is £25 here on the Apple store and here on Amazon.

You are paying for good quality components, a bloody good screen, metal case, good build quality etc. By the time you have specced up a Dell or other to similar hardware spec, there is buttons in it. Sony Laptops work out more expensive! Plus the aesthetics of the Mac are streets ahead of everything else IMHO. Have just been through this myself last month. And I'm not a Mac die hard - I am primarily a Windows user.

Click to expand...

Temeraire said:

Interestingly enough, my company is just stripping out its 2.5 year old Macs as they were very unreliable. Much more so than the Dell machines running Windows that came before them.

Based on the grief we had with them at work, I couldn't be tempted by a Mac however good the advertising is.

Click to expand...

tricky dicky said:

Defragmenting a mac - some things I learned this week

How to Defrag a Mac Hard Drive
By an eHow Contributor
I want to do this! What's This?

Defragging a Mac hard drive is a thing of the past because of the way that OS X manages files. After installing system updates or new applications, the computer will optimize itself. There are ways to periodically clean up your computer and defrag a Mac hard drive, but it can take a few hours and may not improve performance significantly.
From Essentials: Computer Troubleshooting

*
How to Get Your Computer to Boot Faster

When I worked in a television newsroom, it took so long to boot up our computers that we were… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Install More RAM on Your Computer

Every year technological advancements encourage you to enhance your computer's efficiency. You… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Format a Hard Drive With Windows XP

If you want to format a hard drive while using or installing Windows XP, you've come to the… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Troubleshoot a Computer

Before calling technical service and paying for "help," take a look at your computer yourself. A… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Pick an Antivirus Product

Security software is a viable means of warding off bugs, Trojans, and worms without having to… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Defrag a Mac Hard Drive

Defragging a Mac hard drive is a thing of the past because of the way that OS X manages files.… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials
*
How to Defragment a PC Hard Disk

Over time, files and applications become scattered in various places on your hard disk. Disk… More
More: See All Articles in this Essentials

*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Difficulty: Easy
Instructions

Defrag a Mac Hard Drive
1.
1

Open the Disc Utility program, which is located in the "Utilities" folder of your "Applications" directory. Highlight your hard drive from the list and have the program repair the permissions. This is an easy way to correct some common computer errors which could be slowing your hard drive down.
2.
2

Look for a program to defrag your computer. There are some free utilities that can work on your Mac hard drive, but you should seriously consider purchasing a program because of the stability and support that comes with a purchased product. Defragging programs include Disc Warrior and iDefrag (see Resources below).
3.
3

Take steps to back up your data before you defrag a Mac hard drive. Data loss is unlikely with well-respected programs, but defragging is a long and extensive process, and you can never be too safe.
4.
4

Plan to run your defragging program during a time when you won't need to use your computer. No matter which program you decide on, it can take up to several hours to defrag a Mac hard drive. Some companies even suggest running the program overnight.
5.
5

Notice whether defragging your Mac hard drive improved your computer's performance. Opening applications and large files should be faster if only by a few seconds. If your hard drive is more than 75 percent full, the performance increase may be more noticeable.

www.macpaw.com Ads by Google
Tips & Warnings

*
OS X automatically defrags files that are less than 20 megabytes. These files will make up the majority of your computer, unless you use it for specialized tasks such as software compiling or high-quality graphic design.
*
Backing up your documents and then erasing the computer's hard drive can be a crude, but inexpensive and effective way of defragging it.
*
Be sure that a defragging program can give you a detailed report of what was changed and how many files were affected by the process.
*
Clearing your computer's various caches, including those associated with your Internet browser, can also help speed up your machine.


Read more: How to Defrag a Mac Hard Drive | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2091895_defrag-mac-hard-drive.html#ixzz0xBRZIz6U

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X 10.1, Mac OS X 10.0, Mac OS X 10.5

Do I need to optimize?

You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:

* Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.
* Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.
* Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."
* Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.


For these reasons, there is little benefit to defragmenting.

Note:Mac OS X systems use hundreds of thousands of small files, many of which are rarely accessed. Optimizing them can be a major effort for very little practical gain. There is also a chance that one of the files placed in the "hot band" for rapid reads during system startup might be moved during defragmentation, which would decrease performance.

If you think you might need to defragment

Try restarting first. It might help, and it's easy to do.

If your disks are almost full, and you often modify or create large files (such as editing video, but see the Tip below if you use iMovie and Mac OS X 10.3), there's a chance the disks could be fragmented. In this case, you might benefit from defragmentation, which can be performed with some third-party disk utilities.

Another option is to back up your important files, erase the hard disk, then reinstall Mac OS X and your backed up files.

Tip: If you use iMovie with Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, and FileVault is enabled, performance issues can occur if your project is located in your encrypted home folder (including the desktop).

Have good weekends

Click to expand...