Apple v Vista

prescott28

prescott28

prescott28

Associate
Joined
6 Dec 2004
Posts
1,293
Location
Scotland
Well, with the lack of general reccommendation of Vista and the problems we all seem to have with drivers, I wondered if there was a home for the Mac whcih always seems to be stable and just work. Someone I know pointed this out in relation the the XBox and I thought about it and wondered if it is true.

So, any Mac users out there, is the Mac a stable just get on with it machine that would do all my boring jobs, not playing games really as the PC is fairly good for that? if so, what is a reasonably sensible spec to try OSX out on?
 
Mac OS X is more secure, more stable, easier to use and looks nicer than Vista.

To use Mac OS X you need a Mac, you cannot legally run it on any other hardware.

There is a truism that applies with such questions - once you've had Mac, you don't go back. :)
 
Thanks for the infor guys. When askwed about spec, though, I meant how much disk / RAM but in a Mac, not my present PC. I had thought about the Mac Mini as long as I can use other machine on the home networkt ostore files which should be easy enough.

I hae the possibility of a G4 machine; would that run OSX?
 
I'm new to owning a mac; but I now have two of the them now, even though I been supporting macs for a while now.

Vista is a load of rublish at the moment due to the drivers and GUI is just a poor copy of OS X. My advice would be to wait for the new verison of os x to come out and then get a macbook pro. you looking at spending the same amount for a pc laptop of the same spec from a top brand.

theres nothing stopping you using bootcamp and parallel to vista and driver support is quite good; serveal people here are running it.
 
AJUK said:
Mac OS X is more secure, more stable, easier to use and looks nicer than Vista.

To use Mac OS X you need a Mac, you cannot legally run it on any other hardware.

There is a truism that applies with such questions - once you've had Mac, you don't go back. :)
Click to expand...

While thats partly true there are exceptions, I love my macbook pro for the way it is my digital life (which is want apple wanted the mac to be in the home really) but...

It hangs occassionally, the lack of exploits shouldn't be mistaken for actual security, I'd say if you started from scratch it's only slightly easier than windows too.

Looks nicer is a bit subjective, I like a lot of vista and I run it too as i need a windows laptop for work.

All that said, I wouldn't go back to windows for my home computer now. I'm about to stop by the apple store on the way home to pick up a mac mini i think to use as a server and asterisk pbx.

Hardware wise, pretty much all of the new mac hardware is good enough for it, (if you're talking new) the only thing is it lieks memory, I have 2GB and i wish my (core duo) macbook pro would take more.

The only thing I have against buying the mac mini is that the macbook base model is only a little more and comes with a screen etc. I'm tempted to grab it and then I have a portable server! Does anybody have any info/thoughts on running a macbook pretty much 24/7 (probably with the screen closed)
 
bigredshark said:
While thats partly true there are exceptions, I love my macbook pro for the way it is my digital life (which is want apple wanted the mac to be in the home really) but...

It hangs occassionally, the lack of exploits shouldn't be mistaken for actual security, I'd say if you started from scratch it's only slightly easier than windows too.

Looks nicer is a bit subjective, I like a lot of vista and I run it too as i need a windows laptop for work.

All that said, I wouldn't go back to windows for my home computer now. I'm about to stop by the apple store on the way home to pick up a mac mini i think to use as a server and asterisk pbx.

Hardware wise, pretty much all of the new mac hardware is good enough for it, (if you're talking new) the only thing is it lieks memory, I have 2GB and i wish my (core duo) macbook pro would take more.

The only thing I have against buying the mac mini is that the macbook base model is only a little more and comes with a screen etc. I'm tempted to grab it and then I have a portable server! Does anybody have any info/thoughts on running a macbook pretty much 24/7 (probably with the screen closed)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't. I'm guessing the mini has larger fans (due to it's taller stance) because it runs a hell of a lot cooler than my MacBook does. The mini is hardly cold to the touch, but the MacBook gets mighty toasty.

As for the RAM thing, I've been cursing only 2gig today.. once OS X gets below a certain amount of 'free' ram (around 300 meg or so) it turns into a lethargic snail :(
 
Beepcake said:
I wouldn't. I'm guessing the mini has larger fans (due to it's taller stance) because it runs a hell of a lot cooler than my MacBook does. The mini is hardly cold to the touch, but the MacBook gets mighty toasty.

As for the RAM thing, I've been cursing only 2gig today.. once OS X gets below a certain amount of 'free' ram (around 300 meg or so) it turns into a lethargic snail :(
Click to expand...

True, the macbook benefits from a faster (and 64bit) processor as well, which is tempting, we shall see i suppose...

bear in mind it'll be idle for large amounts of time..
 
bigredshark said:
True, the macbook benefits from a faster (and 64bit) processor as well, which is tempting, we shall see i suppose...

bear in mind it'll be idle for large amounts of time..
Click to expand...

Yeah, so is my MacBook during the day if i'm using one of the other machines, but it still gets a bit hot under the colar. It will probably be fine, but I personally would rather have a mini for 24/7 use. You also don't have a battery in the mini, so if it decides to go pop it's unlikely to blow a hole in your desk like a laptop battery could :)

Edit: Isn't the Core Duo as 64Bit as the Core2?
 
Beepcake said:
Yeah, so is my MacBook during the day if i'm using one of the other machines, but it still gets a bit hot under the colar. It will probably be fine, but I personally would rather have a mini for 24/7 use. You also don't have a battery in the mini, so if it decides to go pop it's unlikely to blow a hole in your desk like a laptop battery could :)

Edit: Isn't the Core Duo as 64Bit as the Core2?
Click to expand...

I'm not really sure, what I understand is the Core Duo isn't but the Core 2 cpu's are. however I could be getting very confused because I have a ultra low voltage core duo in my dell which definately isn't 64bit but it could just be that it's the ulv version....??? :confused:
 
I was under the impression the CoreDuo was 64bit, certainly the later ones, but Intel just didn't advertise the fact.

Not that it makes much difference when you are limited to 2gig of RAM anyway :)
 
Nah, I'm sure there're no Yonahs that support 64-bit integers. If there were I'd be running SMP Folding@Home which only runs on 64-bit Linux on my laptop. :p
 
BillytheImpaler said:
Nah, I'm sure there're no Yonahs that support 64-bit integers. If there were I'd be running SMP Folding@Home which only runs on 64-bit Linux on my laptop. :p
Click to expand...

Fair enough, I'm probably wrong then :)

Like I said though, 64Bit is a bit of a none event, and I can't see Leotard being noticeably faster for using it apart from in specific uses.
 
Beepcake said:
I wouldn't. I'm guessing the mini has larger fans (due to it's taller stance) because it runs a hell of a lot cooler than my MacBook does. The mini is hardly cold to the touch, but the MacBook gets mighty toasty.

As for the RAM thing, I've been cursing only 2gig today.. once OS X gets below a certain amount of 'free' ram (around 300 meg or so) it turns into a lethargic snail :(
Click to expand...
I've got a 24" iMac with 2 gig of ram and it has never done anything other than fly. Even under heavy load, 3D cad, frame analysis, spreadsheets doing calculations, Safari, Mail and a few business applications running, maybe even iTunes as well and it has never missed a beat. It is still as fast as the day I took it out of the box.
:confused:
 
AJUK said:
I've got a 24" iMac with 2 gig of ram and it has never done anything other than fly. Even under heavy load, 3D cad, frame analysis, spreadsheets doing calculations, Safari, Mail and a few business applications running, maybe even iTunes as well and it has never missed a beat. It is still as fast as the day I took it out of the box.
:confused:
Click to expand...

And I'm obviously pushing mine more? So? It's a well known fact OS X crawls when it's RAM is pushed, nothing wrong with that, all operating systems struggle under heavy RAM load.

Please, put down the rose tinted glasses, they'll hurt your eyes.
 
I am a pragmatic person and I don't wear glasses. 3D cad and frame analysis is very intesive work, especially with everything else going on as well, I just don't seem to get any issues, that is all I am saying.

I chose this machine because I wanted to get some work done, it does that for me and then some. Perhaps next time I will buy a computer that gives me something to moan about. ;)
 
I am running vista as a VM (via VMware fusion and parallels) on a Mac Pro. It runs like a lame mule, even after giving it 2 cores and 1GB of ram... Vista runs slow, and seems to slow down OSX a bit as well whilst its running.

XP is much snappier as a VM and can run simultaneously all the time without slowing down either side of the computer.

Just FYI for anyone that wants to run Vista as a VM full time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom