PCs or Macs???? (cartoon)

[bobbieinok]

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=13

[Dark]

1. You know, I actually prefer Windows.

Mainly because all the games are programmed for it, and I already know how to use it.

Don't use any of those damn facts to change my mind, either.

[wtmusic]

2. yep, reliable OS is for wimps too

call me wimp :P

[MazeRat7]

3. Three guesses what I use... and the first two don't count.

(hint) look at my icon. *grin.

MZr7

[TahitiNut]

4. CP/M ?

:silly:

[MazeRat7]

9. How many people do you know that actually USED CP/M ? *LOL

I admit I did in the roaring days of the Z80.... oh good grief.. I am dating myself again. Whats worse, my first "personal" computer was a PDP 11/73 and first home brew was a Moto6800 with (gasp) 64k of memory and a cassette tape for storage.

Ahhh a walk down memory lane....

MZr7

[GrpCaptMandrake]

17. Home brew? Cool!

My first home brew was a German Hefeweizen style with a naughty little Belgian witbier yeast. It gave off esters of banana.

OS ("Olfactory Sample") was "butterscotch."

[MazeRat7]

18. Now that was funny.... *grin.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

27. Couldn't resist

I'm still frustrated because 22 years ago the CS department at my university wouldn't let an English major take a computer course. Only room for the majors.

Pure jealousy on my part! :evilgrin:

[Texas_Kat]

32. I remember those days

Mac person to fellow computer user: What did you name your harddrive?

Mac fan: "Rosebud, Godzilla, Spielburb, Xoltan, Spot ... "

PC person: Huh?

[TahitiNut]

52. Well, I used CP/M inside and out.

Yep ... Z80 days. Xerox 820. As a Xeroid, I had complete source and docs on every bit/byte. With my handy-dandy M80 Macro Assembler, I drove that sucker to the max, including various emulators I wrote. With the SIO and PIO, I was able to make that little beast behave like a variety of specialized equipment at the end of a serial or parallel interface based on the design specs of that equipment prior to it actually being in production. Those were the days! One of the more interesting projects was to interface like an IBM serial terminal for some application-specific front-ends. I think I had my most fun writing comm software for it.

That was the first (and last) computer that I was able to know from end to end, comprehensively. From that perspective, it was just right.

[sproutster]

36. hah!

With you.

[kiki]

41. Reliable OS my butt.

I must've worked on about 20 different Macs in about 10 different offices in the last 5 years, and I don't think I've ever used a Mac that worked properly.

I'm told that Macs tend to get a bit tetchy once you put them on a network (kind of an essential feature for an office computer); whatever, Macs suck ass. :p

[B3Nut]

44. Nah, they don't suck ass...

...but OS X isn't as reliable as it's supposed to be, and font management is still wierd. I support a small gaggle of Macs in my employer's ad department, and was a Mac-only user until 2002 when I built my first Wintel box (been rolling my own ever since, I build most of my employer's machines too). Apple still hasn't built Windows domain functionality into their Samba implementation, we have to use AdmitMac to get the Macs onto the NT4 (soon to be 2003 Server) domain. They get a bit cantankerous at times, and Apple has a long way to go to get a printing subsystem that's as unobtrusive as the one in Windows (one of the only Windows components that's truly excellent). Printing was a majot hassle on my old OS9 and earlier machines, running a print job monopolized the whole machine and you couldn't do anything else, the machine would be unresponsive while printing. OS X isn't much better in this regard, it uses a printing subsystem that feels an awful lot like that clumsy and counterintuitive CUPS kludge (actually, I think that's what it is!) that the versions of Linux I've tried had. Windows happily spools and prints in the background, installing/deleting printers is a breeze, and I've never had to install font management programs on a PC. The Macs have to run Suitcase to get the fonts to behave in Quark...it works, sometimes.

I like a lot that the Mac has to offer, but I'm preferring XP these days.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[Swamp Rat]

5. me likes UNIX

:)

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/

[frylock]

7. how bout osx86?

all I needs is my nvidia drivers!

[Swamp Rat]

10. you might search here:

:)

http://www.osx86project.org/

http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[frylock]

21. still awaiting the alpha of macvidia

http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=496646

[Journeyman]

6. I'm too busy making money with my Mac. . .

to learn to use a "real computer."

[Fairlyunbalanced]

8. If you're not a graphic designer/architect

you have no reason to pay for a mac that you can't really upgrade, or use for games, and alot of databases etc.

[Swamp Rat]

11. maybe we're just insane... i luv my mac

:hug:

[MazeRat7]

13. All mac users love their mac's... thats part of being a mac user

I see this time and time again. It will be interesting to see what happens when Dell and HP release OS X on their boxes using the Intel platform. That will surely tell if it is the OS, hardware, or "total experience" that commands such loyalty.

Interesting days ahead for Apple.

MZr7

[Swamp Rat]

16. I'm gettin' a Pentium powered Apple Powerbook!

I'll wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation to come out. For the time being, I am able to use this iMac G5 w/20" screen. The only upgrade I need for now is an additional 1 gig memory stick... and they're getting cheap - $165.99 @ Crucial! :)

[janedoe]

22. My loyalty is gone.

I bought a lemon -- and Apple knew it was a lemon. They refused to deal with me and told me to buy yet another machine (within 12 hours of receiving my new Mac!).

I first got the dual boot OS9/OSX laptop. It went belly up after a week. I sent it back, they replaced the HD, I got it back, then the CD/DVD drive didn't work (couldn't re-load my software), sent it back, they replaced that drive, then the HD malfunctioned again... meanwhile, I needed a working computer! So, I got a dual boot OS9/OSX desktop. That's the one that went belly-up upon plugging it in. Apple knows it, but needed to dump these machines, so didn't tell the buyers they were lemons.

So, I liked my old Macs (have always had Macs), but how can I buy yet ANOTHER Mac, after buying two (known to Apple) lemons?

I think I know why Apple is now turning a profit. My 1995 G3 laptop has yet to ever crash. Why buy a new computer? They need to make them less reliable in order to turn a profit.

Gee... who taught them that?

[Elwood P Dowd]

35. Apple didn't make G3 laptops in 1995.

Apple owners don't refer to their computers as "dual boot OS9/OSX" models. Go back and try again. :thumbsdown:

[Art_from_Ark]

43. A 1995 G3 laptop, huh?

The PowerBook G3 came out in 1997. Here's a web site that lists all the Apple models and the years they were introduced. It can come in handy for the next time you pretend to be a Mac user.

http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=pg3sbronze

[Brundle_Fly]

53. my April 2003 17 inch powerbook

has been to the middle east, europe, in sand storms and ridden on a camel, and it has never not turned on. I have replaced the battery once, and it has been a complete workhorse.

oh and it weighs about 6-8 pounds less than the dell it replaced.

[burythehatchet]

40. that is, until they compute the long term cost of ownership

I went 3 years with a G4 powerbook - burning batteries, $80 power cords that shred like cheese, and finally, a crashed hard drive that led to my losing 3 years of work product. Never again.

[janedoe]

14. Yeah! So let's make EVERYONE use a windows box...

...and it's the most convenient for virus producers, as it "reaches out " to the lowest common denominator. :-)

[Brundle_Fly]

29. um. the new macs

have the space for 2 dual core processors
16 gigs of ram
512 meg video cards - which is amazing for games or 3d apps.
4 PCI-Xslots

[Texas_Kat]

33. Oh dear... one of those

Can't upgrade......people.

Actually upgrading memory, vid cards, etc is easier on a Mac than a PC. Plug and play. But you seldom need to, since Macs are probably 'overbuilt' for typical users.

I have both..... I use the PC to check Mac production work to see whether audio, video, 3-D animation and web work holds up when viewed on a PC. So I get a bit of experience with what y'all have to go through.

Working on a PC always seems such a struggle.
:banghead: ;)

[MadHound]

39. You really haven't worked with Macs much have you?

It shows in your ignorance of the machine. First off, Macs are quite upgradable. I have a Power Mac 6100, came out in '93, that I was able to upgrade multiple times, and that is still doing useful work now twelve years later.

And I've always used my Macs for gaming. In fact their rendering speed, better quality graphics and sound make them ideal for gaming. Yes, there are some games that are never made for Macs(just as there are some games never made for PCs, check out Ambrosia Software), but unlike PCs, one can either install a hardware or software PC emulator and run Windows programs on your Mac with little or no loss of machine performance..

As for databases go, well, I work at one in a business that is database and number crunching intensive. All we use are Macs, because they last longer, have fewer problems, and are more durable than PCs, the same reasons that I've always used Macs at home. Sure, the initial price of a PC may be cheaper, but if one is having to constantly upgrade and/or fix the beast, in the long run my Mac is cheaper. Especially when you factor in the ever present down time that PCs all suffer from due to viruses and technical problems. I know that I've never had to reformat and re-install programs due to catching a virus, nor have I ever lost data, had my computer crash, or any of the many other technical problems that seem ubiquitous with any Win-tel box.

I've had much experience on both machines, and for my money give me a Mac every time. I want to spend my time on a computer either working or playing, not having to reboot, reformat, and other remedial efforts as one does for a PC.

[wtmusic]

48. Yeah and what do you do when you need to run a DOS app?

If Mac was a serious business platform someone would have ported Wordstar 2000... :P

[PatGund]

55. Oh?

I'm an IT professional, System Administrator at my last job, Secondary SysAdmin and Sr. Support Technician at my current job, (Medical College in the ME).

Got my Apple G4 tower about 5 years ago. I've upgraded the ATA hard drives four times now, the processor twice, (it's now a Dual 1.8 Ghz G4), and the video card twice. USB 2.0 card has been installed as well, and Firewire 800 ports. (Both off the shelf PC/Mac PCI cards.)

Also have a Powerbook G3 "Pismo" that has had it's hard drive upgraded to 80 GB, it's DVD-ROM upgraded to a DVD-RW, and it's processor upgraded to a 550 Mhz G4.

And they both have gone from OS 9 to the Unix-based OS X. Which means I now have access to the Unix applications I need as well.

So I'm curious what you mean by "can't really upgrade"??

Games - The ones I'm playing right now is SimCity 4, Lego Star Wars, and World of Warcraft. I've not ever had many problems finding games.

Databases - the only database I've never been able to run natively on a Mac is MS Access. FileMaker Pro, (dual-platform), and 4G have had no problems.

Sorry, my professional experience doesn't mesh with your statement. It might have been true 10 years ago, but not now.

On edit - Oh yeah, my G4 cost me as much as an equivalent PC when I got it 5 years ago. Macintoshes are price-wise on a par with most name-brand PC's.

[longship]

12. Linux for me.

No worries about reliability.

[MazeRat7]

15. *wink.

[longship]

20. They don't know what they're missing.

I remember the beginning of the microcomputer industry. It was a helluva lot of fun. Then IBM PC came around and spoiled all the fun. Everything increasingly became all wrapped up in proprietary protocols.

I was a fairly early Linux user, ten years ago. It didn't take me long to embrace it. For the first time in over a decade, working on computers was fun again. I've not looked back since.

It's nice to see that there are many Linux users here at DU.

[MazeRat7]

25. Yup from Slackware 1 to RH FC4... its been a great to have a personal nix.

[okieinpain]

19. Mac's = simple

[janedoe]

24. If it works.... (n/t)

[architect359]

46. ...and they do...(n/t)

[okieinpain]

51. I mean they are ok. I really don't have anything against them.

the first real pc job I had about 15 years ago was a all mac shop. it's just that the over hyping deal gets on my nerves.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

23. I've used (and sworn at) PCs for years

and just recently bought a few more.

I'm still part of the "Bill Gates Ghetto." Mainly because there's no Mac Dealer in the entire state of West Virginia. That's intellectual and commercal snobbery of monumental proportions. To simply concede a market based on . . . what? Dunno. Just know that when I priced Macs, the answer I routinely got was "We'll sell 'em, but we don't do Service Calls. You're more than 50 miles from the nearest dealer (Cincinnati, Roanoke, Pittsburgh)."

I'd love to play with a Mac sometime. A few good friends own, and are are absolutely enamored of them. Reminds me of the VW Beetle drivers of yore. The difference? Volkswagen's "Beetle" became the single most-purchased automobile in the world.

Serious question: is a Mac made entirely in the USA? I don't know. Sure would be a selling point, though, wouldn't it?

[MazeRat7]

26. No, some models are made in Eastern Europe under contract. (n/t)

[GrpCaptMandrake]

28. Truly didn't know

Kind of a pity really. America needs a good company we can get behind. We need a "Converse Chuck Taylor" for the 21st century.

[MazeRat7]

30. Well, NONE of the big three make ALL their US products here.

By that I mean products intended to be delivered to US customers. Generally orders for servers, storage, and most desktops are built in the US and the bulk of portables are assembled overseas and configured here for delivery.

All non-US orders are built outside the US for a variety of reasons.

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a global US company that does ALL its manufacturing in the US.

MZr7

[GrpCaptMandrake]

31. I know

That's why it's important to find one.

My "American" truck was built en Mexico. My "American" van was assembled in Canada. My "American-made" t-shirt is made of cotton grown in Egypt.

I chose Systemax for my PCs because they maintain an American assembly point and American Tech Support.

[baron j]

37. If one can't assemble one's own computer (which is cheaper and more

reliable, and you can control how it looks), then one should buy from a local (you won't have to support corporations that treat employees poorly, or outsource, and if you have a problem, you can drive over to where you got it and have the person who assembled it fix it). And, if you need to use more than one OS for various purposes, you can boot whichever OS you need at that moment from a partitioned drive.

[Texas_Kat]

34. Most Mac people buy their hardware online

Bought 3 of 'em in the last year that way.

A big ole-dual processor G-5, a Mac mini (you might try one of those since they can use your existing monitor, keyboard and mouse and they're only ~$500) and a 20 inch iMac. Try MacMall.

We also have (an 5-year old g-4 tower with upgraded (and upgraded) ram, a 4 year old iMac-DV and an old Mac g-3 tower.

The oldest (g-3) is set up with onscreen video recorder (elgato), the G-4 tower runs Photoshop CS, Dreamweaver, FlashMXPro, etc and the iMac-DV is a project machine.

The G-5 is a video workstation and the Mac mini is a presentation computer (cheaper than a laptop). The 20-inch iMac is a college student workstation.

Most Mac's just don't wear out.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

38. Why don't you buy it off their website?

Love your screenname, by the way: "Well, Colonel Bat Guano, if that is your real name." ;)

[Ravenseye]

42. You'd think there was a contest or something

Whenever there is a Mac vs. PC argument you'd think that it's fairly even. Where when you look at the latest OS statistics....

October 2005

Win XP 70.2%
W2000 15.0%
Win 98 2.8%
Win NT 0.4%
Win .NET 1.6%
Linux 3.3%
Mac 3.2%

I guess Mac users tend to be more vocal.

[IChing]

45. From apple's home page....in honor of rosa

http://www.apple.com/

Don't forget to use microsoft Internet explorer since it's so safe

Just kidding,

microsofts homepage http://www.microsoft.com/

no honor

[FVZA_Colonel]

47. I'm a PC user, but really for one reason.

And that reason, is games.

[m_welby]

49. i've used both (all 3 if you count linux)

MACS are wonderfully designed and engineered machines. certainly the 'cadillac' of personal computers. If you are having difficulty doing anything in the mac os then YOU are trying to do it the hard way.

As for the argument that windows is better, microsoft has stolen just about every decent feature of windows from the mac os (or unix). It certainly isn't better. I use (and support) microsoft every day and have been since before compaq built their first dos machine.

and linux, incredible os if you like to do things the hard way. I find it fascinating and frustrating at the same time. incredibly stable and yet incredibly complex.

[mod mom]

50. APPLE is the bluest of computer companies. I prefer to put my $ in

companies that support progressive thought.

[aePrime]

54. That cartoon's a lie!

Obviously drawn by a Humanities major.

I'm a computer science graduate student. Most of my personal computers are Linux, but I do have a Mac (Windows is not allowed within my house). I'd much rather the campus have a lab full of Macs than PCs (read: Windows). I'm far from the only CS major to feel this way. I mean, Macs are now Unix with eye-candy!

[RebelOne]

56. I use a Mac at the office and a PC at home.

Mac, of course, is more user-friendly. But my PC at home serves its main purpose, which is surfing the Web.