Friend in the market for a Mac

[ReardenSteel]

Buddy of mine is thinking about buying a Mac for his new CPU over a PC. Anyone have any good advice?

All I know is people who have them seem to like them. Easy to use and few virus problems at all. He's also going Linux wich is another area I know very little about. (had a really old version of Red Hat long long ago)

Does anyone work with or own a Mac here? What do ya think?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[RightCoast]

I have Mac and PC laptops and I love the Mac. Easy to use and personalize.  It takes a lot of getting used to if he's never used one before. Also with the capability of running both PC and Mac programs including Windows I can't see much of a negative.

[TheRightWay]

Buddy of mine is thinking about buying a Mac for his new CPU over a PC. Anyone have any good advice?

All I know is people who have them seem to like them. Easy to use and few virus problems at all. He's also going Linux wich is another area I know very little about. (had a really old version of Red Hat long long ago)

Does anyone work with or own a Mac here? What do ya think?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Personally if he goes linux I would not spend the money on MAC hardware.

I can see liking the MAC OS  (even though I detest it ... only saving grace is that when I open a console I am back to good ol familiar FreeBSD ... mostly) but if he is choosing linux spend his money wiser and get better and more supported hardware and go that route

[Oriole Fan]

I've got a Mac book and I'm very happy with it.

I've had zero problems which is nice after a bad experience with Dell, Vista and adequate memory to run it.

[TheRightWay]

I've got a Mac book and I'm very happy with it.

I've had zero problems which is nice after a bad experience with Dell, Vista and adequate memory to run it.

Memory is cheep ... I personally went for 8GB on my laptop.

While I run server 2008 on it not vista by that point the performance difference would have been negligible

[Baruch Menachem]

I have  been a Mac person forever.  I bought my kids PCs because they are cheap.  You get what you pay for.

The latest versions of the Mac OS are the old style mac GUI over a unix core.   If you like Unix, (the berserkly variety) you can have that.

I am trying to learn basic programming skills (PHP, MySQL, javascript, Java that sort of thing). The mac has PHP installed, but turned off.  If you want to use it, you go into the terminal and make a couple changes to the HTTP conf files and it is on. (PHP 4 on my machine, PHP 5 on the newest versions I understand)   It is a breeze to install MySql and run test programs with the two of them.  You don't have to do setpaths with Java, the you can just run the programs from your home folder.

Macs are insanely expensive, even used, but they run forever.  They are very well engineered.   You just don't get as much time talking to the repair guy with macs.    Or talking to support.   You just don't need to. They can be 30 months or more beyond what is available in windows. Installations are easy, program removals are easy too.   I have a game program on my daughter's windows machine that takes up 10 gigs, and Windows can't get rid of it using the uninstall pain. (Any advice on nuking the thing and getting all that hard drive space back would be welcome. )

Safari is way better than explorer (unavailable on the mac now, I think) and Macs are virus resistant.  Also the auto upgrade feature is way better.   Under vista, upgrades will happen to you when you are working, and suddenly your machine will shut down.  The mac system asks permission first.   And you choose when to restart.    Also Macs require permission to install any program type files.

A whole lot safer, more fun, easier to run, less likely to break.  Just better engineering all over the place.   But arm and a leg expensive.

You might also look into linux boxes, which have most of the advantages of macs, have tons or really good software, are good for getting into the inner workings of a machine, etc.   They are cheaper, less well engineered, but still good value for the money.  I don't want to pay for Microsloth office, but there is a really good alternative if you just want to do basic work called open office for free on all berserkly  unix installations, including linux.

[thundley4]

   I have a game program on my daughter's windows machine that takes up 10 gigs, and Windows can't get rid of it using the uninstall pain. (Any advice on nuking the thing and getting all that hard drive space back would be welcome. )

Here's a free uninstaller program that has a 5 star rating.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/revouninstaller.html

[Baruch Menachem]

Just nuked the thing.  It is nice to see all that hard drive space come back

Now to do some serious virus scans.   First time I have done this for a long time.   I am sure there are going to be lots of them.  I dont do any financial dealings on her computer, it is after, microsoft.   but I dont think I want folks seeing where she is going either.

[TheRightWay]

I have  been a Mac person forever.  I bought my kids PCs because they are cheap.  You get what you pay for.

The latest versions of the Mac OS are the old style mac GUI over a unix core.   If you like Unix, (the berserkly variety) you can have that.

FreeBSD to be exact ... I still prefer the original variety (big FreeBSD nerd) with the ports system. Significantly less resource intensive then the Mac OX variety as well

I am trying to learn basic programming skills (PHP, MySQL, javascript, Java that sort of thing). The mac has PHP installed, but turned off.  If you want to use it, you go into the terminal and make a couple changes to the HTTP conf files and it is on. (PHP 4 on my machine, PHP 5 on the newest versions I understand)   It is a breeze to install MySql and run test programs with the two of them.  You don't have to do setpaths with Java, the you can just run the programs from your home folder.

All linux distro's as well as BSD distro's have the same rough ease of implementation for all of thoes

Also windows (specially with Express version of MSSQL express ... mssql being majorly worth learning in and of itself)

Macs are insanely expensive, even used, but they run forever.  They are very well engineered.   You just don't get as much time talking to the repair guy with macs.    Or talking to support.   You just don't need to. They can be 30 months or more beyond what is available in windows. Installations are easy, program removals are easy too.   I have a game program on my daughter's windows machine that takes up 10 gigs, and Windows can't get rid of it using the uninstall pain. (Any advice on nuking the thing and getting all that hard drive space back would be welcome. )

Doable, the real nasty way to do it is simply deleting the folder, cleaning the registry of entries relating to it is useful as well

And want to look at program installation ease checkout debian/ubuntu or freebsd ... installing with apt-get or ports is litteraly one line

Safari is way better than explorer (unavailable on the mac now, I think) and Macs are virus resistant.  Also the auto upgrade feature is way better.   Under vista, upgrades will happen to you when you are working, and suddenly your machine will shut down.  The mac system asks permission first.   And you choose when to restart.    Also Macs require permission to install any program type files.

A whole lot safer, more fun, easier to run, less likely to break.  Just better engineering all over the place.   But arm and a leg expensive.

You might also look into linux boxes, which have most of the advantages of macs, have tons or really good software, are good for getting into the inner workings of a machine, etc.   They are cheaper, less well engineered, but still good value for the money.  I don't want to pay for Microsloth office, but there is a really good alternative if you just want to do basic work called open office for free on all berserkly  unix installations, including linux.

I like Macs for some of the security but I wish it was simply because of good design/mentality rather then some luck and lack of being a target ... personally I wish for the old days the real advantage they had was RISC processors and the advantage that gave them in video rendering was very measurable ...

[LC EFA]

FreeBSD to be exact ... I still prefer the original variety (big FreeBSD nerd) with the ports system. Significantly less resource intensive then the Mac OX variety as wellAll linux distro's as well as BSD distro's have the same rough ease of implementation for all of thoes

BSD and LSD both came from Berkeley - This is no coincidence.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Been cleaning out my daughters computer while she is away.  I have been throwing all kinds of registry cleaners and the like at it.

Vista is still a dog.  The mac comes right up whenever I want it.   Even with the cleansing the vista machine got, it still takes three minutes for the thing to come up from a nap. 

I just plain don't have the issues with the mac that seem to be routine for the windows folks.   Do you enjoy microsoft abuse?

[TheSarge]

Buddy of mine is thinking about buying a Mac for his new CPU over a PC. Anyone have any good advice?

All I know is people who have them seem to like them. Easy to use and few virus problems at all. He's also going Linux wich is another area I know very little about. (had a really old version of Red Hat long long ago)

Does anyone work with or own a Mac here? What do ya think?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

If your friend wants to start wading into the Mac pool...I suggest starting with a Mini.  The base price is $599.  You can hook up your current monitor, mouse and keyboard to it.  Low price and you get all the best parts of the Macintosh OS.

That's how we started out 3 years ago.  I was a Windows user back to 3.11 and my wife was at best a novice user on PC's in general.

Now she's got a 20" iMac 2.4ghz and there's not enough money in the world to get her to part with it.  I've got a white Macbook laptop...my son has the mini and I got my daughter 14" iBook laptop.