switching to mac

morgan

morgan

morgan

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looking around for a new computer today in *Oi no competitors!* and stumbled cross the mac section. the imac 17" looked absolutely fantstic. it was £679. quite pricey but looked good.

I've been pc user for the last 15-20 years and never used mac but i've herd gret stuff about them, especially for digital imaging/photo stuff.

bit hesitant to make the switch. are they better than pc? All i use my computer for is emial/web/photoshop. do you get lot of bang per buck?

be very interested to hear from any people who have both/made the switch. is cs2 faster/better imaging software?

cheers & happy christmas!
 
If that's all you use your PC for then there's no real argument for or against. Peronally I'd say stick with the PC as there's just no point in switching as you've already got what you need.
 
On an Intel Mac CS2 will run in Rosetta, an emulation environment for the PowerPC CPU for which CS2 is coded. Adobe will not be patching CS2 into a universal binary nor will they release a separate Intel version. Until CS3 comes out photoshop will run slower on a new Mac in comparison to a older G5-equipped one.

However, CS3 isn't far off now. :)
 
Are they better than pc... Well they are build and design with pure contempory style intended. They run fantastic but the games side of the personal computer has given the pc the favour. The new macs (intel ones) are well worth the move but Im not sure that a 700 quid imac would better what you currently have (without knowing what that was)

If gaming is not an issue then I would just go for it. No regrets
 
I really don't think Mac's offer much anymore apart from a stylish case. Go back 5+ years ago and you use to get decent hardware (SCSI for example) but the Mac's of today are no better than PCs but for a higher price tag. Add to that OSX which is the most backward version of Unix ever to be released.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
I really don't think Mac's offer much anymore apart from a stylish case. Go back 5+ years ago and you use to get decent hardware (SCSI for example) but the Mac's of today are no better than PCs but for a higher price tag. Add to that OSX which is the most backward version of Unix ever to be released.
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What a stupidly ridiculous reply to this thread. I take it you've not used one for a decent amount of time then?
 
I switched from a PC (Athlon 64 3200+) to a Mac Mini (Core Solo 1.5ghz) about 9 months ago, and I don't regret it.

OSX just works, no crashes or freezes. It's plenty fast enough for most things. The Mini is also very quiet, and very small - I originally bought it to use as a media player, but liked it so much that it's replaced my main PC.

Don't forget that you can dual-boot an Intel Mac with XP and OSX - useful if you've got some PC-only software. These days, Macs are really PCs, with a different type of bios. The difference is, they are designed as a package, rather than thrown together from off-the-shelf components. They're not perfect, though.
 
^^Gord^^ said:
I really don't think Mac's offer much anymore apart from a stylish case. Go back 5+ years ago and you use to get decent hardware (SCSI for example) but the Mac's of today are no better than PCs but for a higher price tag. Add to that OSX which is the most backward version of Unix ever to be released.
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Some Macs are actually cheaper than the "equivalent" PC.

OSX has a few quirks (harder to find the "oily bits"), but I now prefer it to XP.
 
clockworks said:
Some Macs are actually cheaper than the "equivalent" PC.
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Yeah - I think my MacBook with the HE discount was cheaper than the equivalent windows laptop, certainly not much more expensive at £860inc for a 2GHz C2D, 2GB, etc...
 
Can't add much really. Macs are great. I got a MacBook Pro a while ago and I love it. OSX is great too.

CS2 doesn't run natively on OSX, but there is the CS3 beta out now, with the option to properly upgrade when it comes out. So there isn't really a problem there.
 
I would almost echo what ^^gord^^ said

a few years ago, asking this question would have got a whole list of resoundng yeses, with a few gameplayers saying no, macs are useless

but these days, pcs have the eqivilent software to do what you want.

If you want a mac for the look, then go for it, if you like the mac operating systems, then that is a bonus. Again mac op system is potentially more stable than windows, but windows, set up correctly for all hard ware and software installed on it is pretty stable

Also. on the subject of software, and support, I think it is fair to say if you have a problem with your OP system, you are more likely to either know how to fix it yoruself or know sombody who will know with a standard PC

Or alternatively there are a fair number of unix based op systems around now for pc's if you want to leave microsoft behind you

It is really all down to personal preference

but dont buy one just because they used to be so much better at graphic manipulation / processing, get a mac if the overall package is more apealing to you than the standard pc route


EDIT

for some reason "THE" got filtered out??
 
ahhh, lol my idiot fingers getting me into trouble again, it just happend in another post as well.

i will have to keep my eye on that one,
 
Hello there. My name is cyk and I'm a switcher. Aperture is a great package, with a great bunch of features but its dog slow on anything but a Mac Pro with 4gb of ram, and thats just silly. Photoshop CS2 runs fine, for the most part, on my Macbook Pro with 2gb of ram. CS3 is much faster. I run Photoshop and iView for my photography. Both available on OSX and Windows. I like that they are as I can just work on any machine. I prefer OSX. There is something about the Apple community. People go that extra mile on OSX when creating their software. There's always nice little touches in every program that make it that bit nicer to use over the Windows clone. Adium over Miranda for example. Adium has spawned a whole bunch of plugins for Miranda to copy its style. Then there's Parallels. Want Windows? Got it. You can run Windows inside of OSX, and I mean inside. You can run IE7 in its own window in OSX just like it was any other OSX application. For a web designer the new Intel Mac's are the design platform imho. You can test in IE7, IE6, IE5.5, IE5, IE4, Opera, Firefox, Safari, basically any browser on OSX, Windows or Linux. CSS Edit is a fantastic program for CSS live CSS editing, and theres a whole bunch of programs like that for web dev on OSX. I'd say Mac's have an advantage for Web Dev. For Photography, not so much. Its just a different way of working on your computer on a daily basis. For me its a nicer way. I prefer the way it looks and works. I love the ability to label folders with various colours on my desktop so I know whats for work and whats personal instantly. I love Spotlight for its easy ability in searching everything I have. I mean everything. I hit Apple + space and type a keyword in and it finds it. It searches emails, keyworded pictures, google, del.icio.us bookmarks, mp3's, videos, folders, text files and all quicker than anything ever. I like the integration of packages in that I can create a playlist for a movie in iTunes and drop mp3s in it and its available in iMovie for use.

I am a gamer too. If you want games you can install Windows via Bootcamp just for your favourite games if need be. That partition can be accessed via Parallels too when you're in OSX so you can run everything, aside from the games. Also, ignore the whole 1 mouse button nonsense. Its such an old joke. You can easily right click on a 1 button MBP trackpad just by touching it with 2 fingers. So easy.

For me, I just prefer the Apple way of doing things. Some prefer Windows, some Linux. Some people hate change and just can't handle it. They get angry when OSX or Linux doesn't work like Windows does. Why should or would it? If you're open to change, if you appreciate the little things in life you might enjoy switching. I know I have. Has it made me a better photographer? Probably not. Would switching from Canon to Nikon make me a better photographer? Probably not.
 
Do you know anyone that has a mac? Personally id want to give it a try for a little while before buying it.
 
brocksta said:
Do you know anyone that has a mac? Personally id want to give it a try for a little while before buying it.
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Visit a local computer store. They'll probably have a display model you can tinker with.
 
I have been using a PC heavily since the mid 90s. I am a photographer and I have a big passion for music. I own a high spec PC and a G4 17" Powerbook Apple laptop. I love the laptop but its too slow to become a main machine so next year I am moving to a one system set up of a quad Intel MacPro with 4 Gig of ram. On that I shall run windows via bootcamp if there is ANYTHING i cant live without ( I doubt it though) I love Aperture but it does run slow when you have a heavy collection and you are used to the speeds of todays PC's.

OSX does everything for me as a Designer and Photographer. I love the whole package feel you get with Apple. It just works and never lets you down when things are too important to loose. Apples OSX Leopard has several key features that would sell its self to almost anyone. Gaming will get better on apple.. Its come along way in a short time anyway thanks to Intel showing themselfs to Apple.
 
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