Mac vs PC... Again

[Hackintosh2000]

So are there any other Windows people out there that have been underwhelmed by the Hackintosh experience? I hadn't really used a Mac since I was a child. So I thought a Hackintosh would be a good way to get reacquainted with an old friend and see if there was anything to this Mac hype before I parted with $2000. Unfortunately I discovered that Mac is a lot of hype. Well aesthetically from a hardware point of view nothing on the PC side competes with Mac. The only major bit of stylistic flare I see on the PC side is ridiculous toy cases made for gamers that look like cheesy set pieces from a low budget sci fi movie.

 

 

 

The Mac has a couple of nifty little programs like iChat built in, but when it comes to heavy lifting it falls flat. For example there are major flaws with the major productivity suites on the platform. I see no compelling reason to abandon Office 2007 on Windows 7 64bit. Also Windows Media Center is built in, awesome, and most of all free. All I have to do is plop in a PCI tuner card manufactured years ago, plug in an antenna and I have a DVR that records 1080i OTA programs for free, no channel guide subscription fees. There is no comparable solution on the Mac, and OS X doesn't recognize my PCI tuner card. Of course down the road when I get cable I want to take it to the next level and get the Ceton InfiniTV PCIe card. As usual, no Mac support. I love watching all my shows on my plasma via my xbox. I was really shocked when I started looking into the TV offerings for Mac. There are numerous cheap or FREE solutions for the PC that "just work" right out of the box. Every day I watch free first run 1080i content that blows any downloaded content out of the water.

 

 

 

The only compelling reason I've seen so far to have a Mac is Final Cut Pro. And there are plenty of people that say Adobe Premiere CS 5 is now ready for prime time and superior to Final Cut Pro.

 

 

 

Am I missing something here?

[Devout]

So are there any other Windows people out there that have been underwhelmed by the Hackintosh experience? I hadn't really used a Mac since I was a child. So I thought a Hackintosh would be a good way to get reacquainted with an old friend and see if there was anything to this Mac hype before I parted with $2000. Unfortunately I discovered that Mac is a lot of hype. Well aesthetically from a hardware point of view nothing on the PC side competes with Mac. The only major bit of stylistic flare I see on the PC side is ridiculous toy cases made for gamers that look like cheesy set pieces from a low budget sci fi movie.

 

 

 

The Mac has a couple of nifty little programs like iChat built in, but when it comes to heavy lifting it falls flat. For example there are major flaws with the major productivity suites on the platform. I see no compelling reason to abandon Office 2007 on Windows 7 64bit. Also Windows Media Center is built in, awesome, and most of all free. All I have to do is plop in a PCI tuner card manufactured years ago, plug in an antenna and I have a DVR that records 1080i OTA programs for free, no channel guide subscription fees. There is no comparable solution on the Mac, and OS X doesn't recognize my PCI tuner card. Of course down the road when I get cable I want to take it to the next level and get the Ceton InfiniTV PCIe card. As usual, no Mac support. I love watching all my shows on my plasma via my xbox. I was really shocked when I started looking into the TV offerings for Mac. There are numerous cheap or FREE solutions for the PC that "just work" right out of the box. Every day I watch free first run 1080i content that blows any downloaded content out of the water.

 

 

 

The only compelling reason I've seen so far to have a Mac is Final Cut Pro. And there are plenty of people that say Adobe Premiere CS 5 is now ready for prime time and superior to Final Cut Pro.

 

 

 

Am I missing something here?

 

It's all about user preference. For my my pure MacBook was such a solid built machine that I got accustomed to it's UI so, I just had to get my desktop working like my MacBook. Adobe Premier CS5 could be better than Final Cut Pro soon, but for now my film courses study around the use of Final Cut Pro, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

 

I'm mainly a web designer, and I've found working on my Mac has made me more productive for no reason at all, but I'm just more unlikely to loose my work, I've had several encounters in the past where not-responding ruined some of the vital revisions in my past work, and I'm a save freak as well... I can stumble upon hours of changes, and not expect one crash, or twitch, that could ruin my work.

 

I know the mac version of the cs5 suite, runs much more smoother than the Windows counterpart, because it allocates ram much more wisely, that I've gotten the use of working with multiple big files, and several windows while transferring images between a clients web server and mine, to make live mock ups. Also on Windows, you can never just drag the files onto the PS/DW icon to open the file, I find that annoying, since I've got accustomed to the fact, I just drag an image or html/php file onto the associated application and it just opens it. Everything is simple, and not cluttered.

 

There are so many reasons out there why, you can discuss PC is better or Mac, but the fact that it's just all down to user preference. There's no reason why you can't have both, like me. I still love Windows for it's own features such as Aero Snap, in fact I normally write long essays on it, since auto save, saves my ass, and word isn't really intensive, since it's not handling huge files.

[Krishna21]

PCs are better then Macs IMO; they are much cheaper and can game and also do Mac's creativity.

But that does NOT mean Macs are bad computers

 

PCs can game and do productivity and art at an affordable price.

Macs can do productivity and art.

 

It's more over if your rich or not; because if I have insane PhotoShop skills and I make under $30K a year, I'll obviously head to the PC. But if I make $200+K a year and PhotoShop, I'll go for Macs.

 

Macs are also for those who are rich and want a computer that works right out of the box and aesthetically please.

PCs can look better then Macs; but that requires a lot of tweaking and knowledge.

 

Macs are simpler to use and are amazing.

PCs, when on the first impression, look horrifying, but have potential to be amazing.

 

 

 

But both computers, in the end--are amazing.

Thank god for the OSx86 Project.

I can boot into Mac OS X and create amazing music on Logic Pro, and to relax, I can boot into Windows and play Call of Duty..

[Hackintosh2000]

It's all about user preference. For my my pure MacBook was such a solid built machine that I got accustomed to it's UI so, I just had to get my desktop working like my MacBook. Adobe Premier CS5 could be better than Final Cut Pro soon, but for now my film courses study around the use of Final Cut Pro, and I don't think that's going to change anytime soon.

 

I'm mainly a web designer, and I've found working on my Mac has made me more productive for no reason at all, but I'm just more unlikely to loose my work, I've had several encounters in the past where not-responding ruined some of the vital revisions in my past work, and I'm a save freak as well... I can stumble upon hours of changes, and not expect one crash, or twitch, that could ruin my work.

 

I know the mac version of the cs5 suite, runs much more smoother than the Windows counterpart, because it allocates ram much more wisely, that I've gotten the use of working with multiple big files, and several windows while transferring images between a clients web server and mine, to make live mock ups. Also on Windows, you can never just drag the files onto the PS/DW icon to open the file, I find that annoying, since I've got accustomed to the fact, I just drag an image or html/php file onto the associated application and it just opens it. Everything is simple, and not cluttered.

 

There are so many reasons out there why, you can discuss PC is better or Mac, but the fact that it's just all down to user preference. There's no reason why you can't have both, like me. I still love Windows for it's own features such as Aero Snap, in fact I normally write long essays on it, since auto save, saves my ass, and word isn't really intensive, since it's not handling huge files.

 

Thanks for the reply. I suppose it does come down to personal preference. The most critical functions I use my computer for are creating documents and presentations for work. I also do some spreadsheet work. MS Office is ubiquitous so having a stable 100% compatible solution is of the utmost importance. I went by the online Mac store and read the reviews of Office 2011. They were awful. I thought of iWork as a possible half @$$ solution but the Internet is rife with complaints about compatibility. So that pretty much kills the Mac for my productivity needs. I wish Jobs would spend a little more time on improving the productivity experience. I am shocked and disappointed this aspect of the Mac has been totally neglected.

 

Honestly, I like the build quality of Macbook Pros. I would love to have one of them as a travel computer, but when I'm on the road I need a solid MS Office machine.

 

I'm still leaning towards Final Cut Pro as far as movie editing. It seems to be pretty big in the Indie scene, and some Hollywood blockbusters have been cut on it. I guess Premiere CS 5 is pretty good, but I have a Hackintosh... gotta use it for something.

[Devout]

Thanks for the reply. I suppose it does come down to personal preference. The most critical functions I use my computer for are creating documents and presentations for work. I also do some spreadsheet work. MS Office is ubiquitous so having a stable 100% compatible solution is of the utmost importance. I went by the online Mac store and read the reviews of Office 2011. They were awful. I thought of iWork as a possible half @$$ solution but the Internet is rife with complaints about compatibility. So that pretty much kills the Mac for my productivity needs. I wish Jobs would spend a little more time on improving the productivity experience. I am shocked and disappointed this aspect of the Mac has been totally neglected.

 

Honestly, I like the build quality of Macbook Pros. I would love to have one of them as a travel computer, but when I'm on the road I need a solid MS Office machine.

 

I'm still leaning towards Final Cut Pro as far as movie editing. It seems to be pretty big in the Indie scene, and some Hollywood blockbusters have been cut on it. I guess Premiere CS 5 is pretty good, but I have a Hackintosh... gotta use it for something.

 

I know how it feels, I wasn't used to this change and I used to think Mac was a horrible OS, but one day I just switched on my Macbook and decided to go on OS X, and just fell in love with the simplicity of the design (and I had just near enough got my iPhone then, so I wanted to have a change of heart from windows). I found myself adapting to the new environment after a couple of days, and then went back to Windows and felt 'strange'. I'm in hell with keyboard shortcuts now, when using a windows computer, but it shows that I've really changed in the past god knows how many years of using Windows.

 

I bought a Macbook and just installed bootcamp with Windows 7, because I loved the exterior design of the design. You can do the same, keep the apple product quality with a productive OS. Maybe one day, you'll cross over to OS X and not look back! And this lead me to install Hackintosh on my desktop, because I wanted to use it's hardware for more power pushing performance (exporting videos mainly, and working with intensely big psd files, that I need a bigger screen also for)

 

I really don't see why Office 2011 is hated so much. I don't use Office a lot, but I normally write a word document or two and use powerpoint, and I've felt no real changes from the windows version. The ribbon is still there, and most of the tools are located exactly the same way as Office 2010, but more refined to match the continuity of the rest of the user interface. Office 2011 uses DocX I think, but that's supported with iWork 2011, the only problem would be if you're using a windows computer and have a pre-installed font that's windows only have, then when you run it under a mac (office or iwork), then it'll just switch it to the default font. But in this case, this problem can happen between windows computer themselves, because user installed fonts might be used. I don't really find this a problem, since it's a pretty common problem that's universally accepted anyway, an it's pretty easy just to install the font in the destination or switch it to something else that looks similar (for Powerpoints, and Word documents, I don't think pretty fonts would need to be used).

 

But anyhow, a new feature which may could well be developed could export the font inside the docx format (or whatever format) and allow the possibility of encrypting the font inside the file (only accessible in the document, doesn't install on destination), so that it can still be edited on destination computers. I'm going to make millions, with this idea :') joking.

 

Anyhow, yeah.. bootcamp + macbook pro = love. for you

[Hackintosh2000]

I bought a Macbook and just installed bootcamp with Windows 7, because I loved the exterior design of the design. You can do the same, keep the apple product quality with a productive OS.

 

Anyhow, yeah.. bootcamp + macbook pro = love. for you

 

That's an idea. I was checking out the Panasonic Toughbooks. They are more rugged than the Macbook Pros but the prices are ridiculous. I'm not going to be drop kicking my laptop! I'm just so sick of shoddy Windows laptops. A decent 15 inch Macbook Pro costs way more than I would want to pay for a laptop, but having a piece of hardware you can depend on while on the road is worth it.

[Devout]

That's an idea. I was checking out the Panasonic Toughbooks. They are more rugged than the Macbook Pros but the prices are ridiculous. I'm not going to be drop kicking my laptop! I'm just so sick of shoddy Windows laptops. A decent 15 inch Macbook Pro costs way more than I would want to pay for a laptop, but having a piece of hardware you can depend on while on the road is worth it.

 

You must really be a bad owner if you own one of those Toughbooks, unless your climbing up a mountain, anyone should take good care of their possessions. It's kinda hard not to, with a MacBook Pro. The quality in design is non-existant compared to any other product.

 

(P.S Final Cut Pro X!, YES!, now all we need is iTunes X and we're sorted!)