New Macbook Pro

[Chunkford]

Never had any of those problems with any computer on any OS, and I've used a few! Maybe I'm blessed 

Or your just sensible with what you install :p

[4Eyes]

so it seem windows has caught up there

.. yup, both Mac and Windows are getting closer to Linux 

In truth, there is far less difference between them all than most people are prepared to accept - we dig our trenches and get comfortable in them etc.

The actual differences are far less important than the pain of having to learn to become an expert on something new.

[Gurtie]

Yes, the pain of something new 

Ironically, I found it easier to adapt to my mac than I am to get used to this laptop with effing Office 2007.  Perhaps I just expected a mac to be different and therefore didn't mind hunting around for stuff, but trying to do things in excel 2007 is neither intuitive nor is anything where it used to be in its equally non intuitive but engrained in my brain positions.

I want an XP skin!

Or beer. Perhaps it gets easier with beer.

[grnidone]

What the hell were you all doing to your PCs that they never worked? Not picking on grnidone in particular (sorry - easy quote), but they "they just work" argument is such a crock.

Well, after fighting my Dad's PC last night to get it to work, I beg to differ. 

I fought that damn thing for 2 hours to get it to work with the newest Adobe flash plugin because he wanted to see something on Youtube.  Removed Adobe plugins, re-installed plugin.  Re-downloaded then reinstalled.  Etc etc.  Then fought it to get it to recognize his 2 year old blackberry to get the phone numbers and pictures off of it.  Read every tech support item with similar issues did what it said.  Didn't work.

This has always been my experience with PC software.  Fight fight fight.  Uninstall.  Reinstall, fight some more, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Fighting a PC *just* isn't worth my time or energy.  The only reason my father doesn't have a mac laptop is because the john deere software he needs won't work on a mac (or on the emulation software because it is such a hog.)  And quickbooks for a mac is a joke. 

I stand by my statement.  The damn things just work.

[nffc]

>or on the emulation software because it is such a hog

I'd look again, the software has come on leaps and bounds. There is always bootcamp too, I've always seen that run windows much better than a PC.

[grnidone]

The emulation software isn't a hog.  The John Deere software is a hog.  But if you say so, I'll give it another try...

[4Eyes]

This has always been my experience with PC software.  Fight fight fight.  Uninstall.  Reinstall, fight some more, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

With the greatest respect Heather, that has NEVER been my experience, (and to clarify, I think we are both talking about Windows here, not PCs).

There may well be more crap software out there for Windows (I can't comment, as I don't monitor the level of crap software on Macs), but if so, that is because there is significantly more software out there for Windows.

I think the problem here is probably just badly written John Deere Software.

I am not a Windows fan, as you know, I use Linux, and in most cases run Windows in a virtual system when I need it, but even then, your experience really is just not the case for me. There is the odd program that I need to run on a normal Windows box cos it is going to thrash the system a bit, and I don't want my Linux box slowing down, but other than that everything installs and runs fine, every time. Can't remember when I last had to fight getting software to run.

In the past, one could have argued that Windows systems were inherently less secure, (less so now), but never the argument that you put forward.

NFFC is right that emulation/virtual systems have improved a lot. Having said that, performance suffers no matter how good the virtual system - you have less memory and less processor. A dual boot system might be better (I assume bootcamp is exactly that) - but then you lose copy/paste between them.

Sure, there are differences between Mac/Windows/Linux - but performance wise, they are far less than they ever were. The biggest pain in switching between one and the other is learning the default usability patterns - windows min/max buttons, software launching/installing etc. 

After that, it is down to how much software is available. Windows wins that one clearly, but just as with the iPhone/Pad App situation, the competition has all the important bases covered, and anything genuinely useful ends up being available across platforms.

[buckworks]

it is down to how much software is available

What matters is the quality of software available to do the things I want to do. That's a different matter from "how much software".

[4Eyes]

What matters is the quality of software available to do the things I want to do

Yes indeed - that is why I would never have switched to a Mac when I was a windows user - the software I needed to use was either not there, or very much a second best option. It was also the main reason that both Linux and Mac users end up using emulators and virtual systems. Very few Windows users ever needed to use emulators to run Mac or Linux software.

These days, it is not so bad, there is hardly anything that is available on one that is not available on the other two.

[buckworks]

FWIW, in more than 20 years of using a Mac I can only remember once where I was stymied because I couldn't find a Mac program with the functionality I wanted. That was years ago.

These days, there's more possibilities out there than I have time to even investigate, let alone use.

[4Eyes]

FWIW, in more than 20 years of using a Mac I can only remember once where I was stymied because I couldn't find a Mac program with the functionality I wanted. That was years ago.

Obviously it depends on what field you work in, what software you are comfortable with, and also whether you stray outside your walled garden to see what other software is available. For example, there are a few specialist SEO programs that simply have no equivalent on the Mac or Linux - if you didn't know they existed, you wouldn't miss them - but if you DO know, and see a use for them, then they can earn you good money. 

I would never presume to tell a Mac owner that their choice was wrong, any more than I would tell a Windows user to switch to Linux. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses to accommodate.

Explaining why one favours a particular OS over another is fine, but as with religion and politics, the freedom to express one's views comes at the price of having one's views examined and challenged. I am comfortable with that, happy to accept that Linux isn't for everyone, happy to accept that Windows is not for everyone... and getting somewhat accustomed to the fact that Mac owners have a religious zeal that requires 'living with'

[Gurtie]

to be honest, I have a personal mac and a work PC and I happily switch between the two of them with just a few issues when I find I'm trying to ctrl+c on the mac.

There is no real difference. The more you start to rely on specific software the more you do have to use one or another of course, but as 4Eyes says, that's not actually an o/s issue, its a software issue.

Working for a .net based agency I would struggle with a mac work machine, I need to use three different browsers to get one bespoke system to upload, edit and publish something from my mac.  Those days I love my PC. Now I have office 2007 on the work machine I ironically prefer my mac for word and excel based work though because I hate excel in 2007.....

[4Eyes]

I think a lot is down to 'mouse muscle memory' as well.

I switched from MS Office to LibreOffice/OpenOffice when MS brought in that bloody ribbon thingy. I also had to avoid an otherwise 'really nice' Linux desktop cos the 'double click' on the title bar couldn't be configured to maximise a window.

I know that just 4 or 5 days effort would have rendered these issues irrelevant, but it would have been 4 or 5 days of cursing, so s*d that.

My current Linux system is configured to behave like Windows, so no issue switching between them. If I use Mac instead of Windows, I could configure linux to have windows controls like a  Mac to get the same effect.

I just want an easy life without having to keep readjusting

[buckworks]

I just want an easy life without having to keep readjusting

For me that was/is exactly the beauty of the Mac, especially in the earlier years.

Mac programs were so much better than anyone else about adhering to standard protocols and a consistent user interface that any new program I tried would match the "muscle memory" I already had, no matter what the software was about. The Mac protocols have saved a lot of people a lot of time.

Mac owners have a religious zeal that requires 'living with'

We in turn live with the fact that trying to explain not just our practical preferences, but our experience of beauty, will be dissed and dismissed as "religious zeal".

C'est la vie.

[grnidone]

C'est la vie.

Well said.  And I love you all no matter what OS you use.