get ready to buy a mac.

Let the bashing commence!

OSX is fantastic. But there are some bits of software that plain won't run on it, which is where Windows comes in.

I can't honestly believe anyone would buy a mac, format it and install purely windows on it - windows is basically a fallback mechanism - so if you can't run something in OS X you have something you can run it on. Eases the transistion to macs.

When I get a macbook pro somewhen in the summer (if all goes according to plan), one of the first things I'll be doing is installing Windows and linux - in buying a mac you have oen system which can run all 3 major operating systems. You also have to bear in mind that there is such thing as "the right tool for the job" - buying a mactel gets you a penknife :thumbsup:

Oh, and the hardware isn't overpriced, for what it is :icon_bigg

 

Lets not go downtown with this thread, please. I might consider switching to mac, and keep my PC for gaming, if the following criteria are met:

1. The laptop will be compatible with the software I'll be using for college.
2. The school, overall, is MAC friendly such as let me get online either thru wifi or ethernet
3. I can have the option of installing windows and being able to play some of my games on it, just incase.

 

I own a PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz and I am very happy with it.
I really detest new INTEL based Macs, if one can still call them "Mac"... :-(

I hope, in the future Steve Jobs will again switch to Freescale PowerPC CPUs.

 

That is something that I do not understand. The Intel chips are faster and cheaper than the PPC chips (at least according to everything that I have seen), so why is this a bad change?

 

Mac CULT

Because it dilutes the "unique-ness" of a Mac according to the purists. Apparently they don't like that they are now buying standard X86 hardware in different boxes. PPC stuff is interersting but I think Mac fans can thank ol' Stevie for undermining the platform for the past few years and lying about how awesome the G5's were while they were developing OSX for X86. Perhaps they could have done better if they weren't dicking around in the background.

I bet IBM is glad to have Apple off their back anyways.

 

The problems that arise:
- no more updates for PPC G3/G4/G5 machines regarding Mac OS X
- need for bloated "universal" binarys
- in the future maybe Intel-x86 only binarys?
- slow emulation mode for existing applications
- easier copying/cracking and installing of Mac OS X on standard PCs --> Result is annoying activations, copy protections, ... Mac OS X Client (not Server) had no serial number!!!

 

All of them are simply growing pains. The PPC architecture simply cannot keep up with the x86 architecture in terms of cost or performance. It is impossible to know what Apple's plans are regarding support of older hardware. Most OS's eventually cut older hardware in favor of newer hardware. Honestly, if you are happy with the hardware you have now, then why worry about updating the OS. If you need the functionality of the new OS and the hardware doesn't support it, then you will need to upgrade. That is the way it will always be simply because it makes the companies more money this way.

So what if the universal binaries are bloated? In the absolute worst case, the executable size might be double the size of a dedicated binary. This is hardly a significant impact on the gigabytes upon gigabytes of hard drive space that is currently available.

As far as the cracking and serial numbers go, I don't even know how to respond. You seem to imply that OSX wasn't pirated before it was made to run on the x86. Every piece of software is pirated in some form or another. And I would hardly call the process of getting the x86 version of OSX running on a non-Apple machine trivial.

 

Mac OS X was pirated, but every Mac user paid already a premium
hardware price and Mac OS X could until now only run on Apple's Macs.
Until Mac OS 8 all upgrades were free.


But if it gets pirated on every this-and-that x86 PC then I am sure Apple
will introduce some very annoying activation procedures which all
of us know from Windows XP.

Getting Mac OS X x86 to run on a PC is not trivial - but maybe in the
future "pre-patched" ISOs could arrive.

On Mac platform, you do not need to upgrade the hardware every year
completely.... We have got a Powermac G4/500 from the year 1999 that
is still running latest Mac OS X 10.4 (at the time of buying classic Mac OS 9.1 was
the latest OS) happily and after the 1 GHz upgrade CPU you can't notice
any slowdown feeling. It was perfect for Photoshop and a lot of applications
were an 1 GHz x86 PC would really feel somewhat slow - but now it's a server

Another nice thing: CPU upgrades. Just swap the old CPU for a new one instead
of buying a complete new Mac. That will go away with x86 based Macs.

Can you use a 7 year old PC with the latest Windows XP? I think, a 7 year old
PC is already ready for the trashcan ;-)

 

That just shows that Apple started changing their OS distribution model years before the hardware change.

Then that will simply prove that the people running Apple are dumber than those running Microsoft. Any research taking more than 30 seconds will show how futile and frustrating the activation of any software is, particularly that for XP. No-CD hacks, activation cracks, key-gens; you name it, it's been cracked. Hmm, wonder how many Google searches are going to pick up this thread.

Anyway, no form of content "protection" scheme does anything more than pissing off the customer base. Half the time it seems that they are broken before the software is even released to the public. The last thing that Apple wants is to lose customers because the activation of the OS or other software becomes as bad as some Windows software.

I am not sure what this statement is supposed to indicate. Yes, prepatches images of OSX for non-Apple hardware, as well as XP for Apple hardware, will be available from the "usual" places, as are the cracks I mentioned above. You have the same problem with non-x86 versions of OSX as well.

You don't have to do that with Windows either. The only times that (insert standard "in my opinion" clause) you really need to constantly upgrade your hardware are when you want to play the latest and greatest games (most not available on the Mac) or if you are using heavy scientific or engineering software (i.e. AutoCAD, ProE, etc.). Newer software is almost always going to be optimized for current hardware +/- one or two generations.

Are you kidding? If anything, it is easier to swap out an Intel chip than a PPC one (excluding the amount of time it takes to get to the chip). Additionally, new Intel chips are released at an almost exponetial rate compared to PPC chips. More chips = more upgrade potential = faster price drops.

Actually, yes you can. The Pentium III was available in 1999 and many people are quite happy running those older computers. While I might not go near a computer that old (Mac or Intel), it is perfectly capable of running XP, Office, IE, etc.

 

I used a celeron 600mhz with 256mb of ram to run xp, and it was fine. And that wasnt from 99. More like an high-end 97-98 machine.

edited because it wasnt a pentium 3 now that i remember, it wouldnt even make sense anyway.