Mac Book Pro... why?

[redcastle]

Mac OS X has an installed base of 6%, I'm guessing almost all of the remaining 94% is Windows.

Who's the borg in that scenario?

That's a bit random
6% of what ? 94% of what ?
surely the percentage footprint of the operating system as a percentage depends on the size of the hard drive or am I confused

 

[cookie]

You're confused.

 

[stolzy]

That's a bit random
6% of what ? 94% of what ?
surely the percentage footprint of the operating system as a percentage depends on the size of the hard drive or am I confused

Fair cop, badly put on my part, but I'm a professonal communicator, so what do you expect?

Installed base in this context means the number of machines with each OS installed.

 

[sparkplug]

"there are many things you can do on a PC that you cant do on a Mac"

Like what? ... and then I ask are those things what I want to be doing?

I've been using both since 1987

The only thing at the moment that OSX can't do that windows will which is of any importance in my experience is pivot tables in excel.

That said, I've just got a shiny new MacBook Pro for work and it's got both Windows & OSX running on it, plus I'm just doing a CentOS install in VM so I can demo stuff on it for clients. One bit of hardware but essentially 3 pcs in one device. Seamless switching between them

I am warming to Lion after just a couple of days.

Oh and 17 years in Graphic Arts tells me that it has always been and still currently needs to be Mac unless you are straying into the cad cam type stuff. If it's vaguely creative (audio visual) then your investment is a wise one David.

Also, I'm writing this on a four year old MacBook Pro which is still capable of producing commercial grade output in the Graphic Arts. Find me a 4 year old PC of the same quality and let's compare how 'expensive' it's been.

My rule is never to replace a computer until it has generated at least twice as much income as it cost. This one has brought me at least four times as much income as it cost and it's going strong. The only reason I replaced the old MacBook early involved a can of beer, a rivet, a pannier and a 5 hour journey on the bike so this one has had to work extra hard to pay for the last one, but to be honest, I'm more in need of updating the software than the hardware.

Although I am starting to really like the new work one

 

[Mike L]

As far as cad cam is concerned I'm using SolidWorks 2011 SP.5 and AutoCad 2010 on a 13" MBP. Both run within a windows virtual machine using parallels 6.

The graphics card is nVidia 4 Gig of ram and the cpu is 2.53Ghz Intel core 2.
All works perfectly.

Fair enough I can sometimes fry eggs on her!

 

[Pukmeister]

Because you're worth it......

I bought a 15" Quad i7 MacBook Pro last year (to replace the piece of shit 15" Hewlett Packard DV6000 series laptop I have which has been repaired three times.) Totally delighted with it.

Since then I bought an iPad2 for the wife, the daughter now has an 11" Dual core i5 Macbook Air for University, and we all use iPhones. All the Apple products are simple to use, well designed items.

Not cheap, but thats also why I ride a BMW when I could be riding Japanese.

The only thing the Mac can't do is play Blu-Ray disks, although I now have a Samsung USB2 portable Blu-Ray rewriter so will bootcamp the Mac to run Windoze for that.

 

[The smudger]

Easy,

PC's are shit

MAC's are proper, everything a PC should be.

Done.

 

[karlp]

Too late

There's nothing you can do on a Mac that you can't do on a PC, but there are many things you can do on a PC that you cant do on a Mac

SUKKKER!!!!

Absolutely agree

PC is very slow to boot up
PC Attracts lots of viruses
PC Keeps crashing
PC Always a pain to configure

I am glad you like it

 

[sparkplug]

Hmm, Just installed windows 7 (bootcamp) and Centos(VMware) on my work macbook. Just for giggles had all three running at the same time and was more than a little bit impressed.

With VM the idea of what can and can't be done on hardware becomes a little ridiculous. I can overcome the problem of not having pivot tables on OSX by installing an operating system which supports them. Easy - although windows took an age to install and update compared to Centos.

In terms of hardware I don't think there is anything in the laptop offering which compares to the build quality of the MacBooks at the moment. Comparing my personal 4 year old one to some 1 year old PC laptops of similar spec, mine still looks in a lot better condition than they do. So the hardware costs more but lasts longer.

Centos has come on in leaps and bounds since the last time I installed it (3-4 years ago) - liking it!

 

[stolzy]

The only thing at the moment that OSX can't do that windows will which is of any importance in my experience is pivot tables in excel.

The n your experience is out of date - Excel 2011 for Mac OS X has pivot tables (whatever they are)

Though the general point is true, microsoft do try and keep the mac versions of their software hobbled in the hpe of driving sales to windows.

I suspect the effect is to actually grow contempt for MS, rather than sales.

 

[GS_or_bust]

When my kids had Windows laptops I was always having to fix their software problems, connect printers, get rid of viruses and try to find out why they were running slowly. Now they have Apple computers I never have to fix anything.

I only use a PC because I write software for them.

 

[Micky]

When my kids had Windows laptops I was always having to fix their software problems, connect printers, get rid of viruses and try to find out why they were running slowly. Now they have Apple computers I never have to fix anything.

I only use a PC because I write software for them.

Then maybe you should do a better job of it so you wouldn't have to be fixing software problems, connect printers, get rid if viruses and try to work out why they are running slowly

 

[Dahoum]

Then maybe you should do a better job of it so you wouldn't have to be fixing software problems, connect printers, get rid if viruses and try to work out why they are running slowly

 

[Yonkyo]

Well, after a lifetime using windows PC's for work and play.

And after being so impressed with the ipad's. I took the plunge and got a MacBook Air.

Holy feck, what a fantastic piece of kit. It just takes my breath away every time i use it.

The OS is light-years ahead of Windows7, and oh so intuitive.

I just edited my first bit a video using iMovie, and it was a piece of piss to create, and a joy to use.
Everything just happens so much faster than my top of the range Vaio i7…..which I thought was fast…until now.

 

[cookie]

 

[Jazbee]

Well, after a lifetime using windows PC's for work and play.

And after being so impressed with the ipad's. I took the plunge and got a MacBook Air.

Holy feck, what a fantastic piece of kit. It just takes my breath away every time i use it.

The OS is light-years ahead of Windows7, and oh so intuitive.

I just edited my first bit a video using iMovie, and it was a piece of piss to create, and a joy to use.
Everything just happens so much faster than my top of the range Vaio i7…..which I thought was fast…until now.

Same here, my old Vaio (great though they are) was getting a bit slow and having other Apple gizmos I wanted to try a Mac and bought the Macbook Pro at Christmas. Took a week or so to start to get the hang of it, but very impressed with it, real quality bit of kit inside and out You really don't need a mouse either, the trackpad is brilliant once you get used to scrolling and push down to click etc Apple TV is pretty good as well...control from the Mac, iPAD/iPOD/iPhone etc and stream music / movies from anyone in the house with iTunes (the kids have got bigger libraries than me

 

[sparkplug]

The n your experience is out of date - Excel 2011 for Mac OS X has pivot tables (whatever they are)

You are quite correct - actually the missing component is ODBC which is the other bit I need for my pivot table work. And, yes, I know there are solutions for this - but it is one thing that the PC is better for than the mac.

Luckily this is not an issue as I have two windows machines, one CentOS and one OSX all floating around happily inside my MacBook Pro

 

[AndrewD]

Got an iPhone about 18 months ago, having ridiculed Apples offerings. Thought "what the hell got 14 days to send it back".

Since then I've been "Applewashed", got an iPad a little later in fact I'm using it on the safa to write this, (mental image should be of Rab C Nesbit ) and finally dropped the PC for an IMac late last year and just upgraded iPhone 4 to a 4s. Oh and I'm watching 'The Wire' on Apple TV...

Apple make products that work, particularly the OS, but can be a little 'closed' to options like Bluetooth serial port on iPhone, but the benefit of a stable OS that "just works" is sublime.

Photo stream is great, I take a pic in France on my iphone and its Geotagged and available on the iPad and Mac back home next time I get to a wifi hotspot.

Bottom line, don't buy her one, get it for yourself!

 

[Edventure]

Have always been a pc user till now........started with an iPad. Buying from an Apple store is a whole different ball game from the crap service at PC world.

Just bought a Macbook Air and it's bleedin lovely!!

 

[longdog]

Thinking of following the Macbook Pro route myself. I have an iPad2 and it's a nice toy, but the Macbook Pro is on a different level altogether.

They are eyewateringly expensive and my credit card is curling up at the thought, but they are beautiful pieces of kit!