Many “light” users (email, web browsing, chat) will never have the kinds of problems a power user has because they are the lowest common denominator in use. Start installing Final cut pro, Entourage, light room, photoshop, plugins, archive tools, sync tools, etc. and you will see the same crap you see on a Windows machine if you were to be as “promiscuous” at software installing as power users.

I use both quite a bit; and truthfully both Mac and Windows SUCK. But I have no alternative since Linux will suck in the same scenario even if they did have useful software which from my perspective they don’t.

As a life-long hardcore Mac power user, I have to say I’m pretty shocked by this thread. Before the Windows users get into high dudgeon here, let me stipulate that I am NOT an evangelist. I just want a computer that WORKS. I don’t really care and never have cared who made it.

Of course, we all have our preferences and our gripes, but what’s being said here just doesn’t jive with my Mac experience AT ALL.

I mean… AT ALL.

Now, there’s several possible reasons for this…

I know that I haven’t always been impressed with the QC on the more “mainstream” Macs. I had a MacBook Pro that died prematurely too.

I have worked most of my career in high-end advertising/marketing in the mainstream ad business and in the film business. And it’s funny…because in all the shops I’ve worked in, big and small, there’s one thing I’ve observed time and time again.

The suits all use PCs.

The creatives all use Macs.

And the suits are very, very envious.

Always. And have been for years. They constantly say: “I wish I was on Mac.”

Why? Because they’re always having problems with their PCs. Yes, Macs are arguably “sexier,” but it goes far beyond that. They see the creatives humming along, cranking out work, with far fewer problems. They hear about it in the staff and IT meetings. They see the proof before their eyes.

Why do they use PCs? Because they’re cheaper. That’s the theory, anyway. In the corporate world, if they can get a computer for less, they will. IMHO, they no longer understand the old aphorism about “penny wise and pound foolish.” They’d rather pay harried IT guys overtime to keep their PCs working (because that’s a future cost that comes out of a different budget) than buy a machine that’s simply more cost effective over it’s useful lifespan.

Numerous studies back in the day showed that when you factor in down-time, hair-pulling and various headaches, PCs are actually A LOT MORE EXPENSIVE to own than Macs. I remember those studies because I was involved in computer purchases (and the long rounds of debates that went with) on more than one occasion.

I dunno if this as as true as it was then. It may be better, it may be worse for all I know.

But I DO know that in every edit bay, retouching station and designer’s cube in every agency and studio in town, you will find Macs. Period. Bar none.

Believe me when I say this — all these business big and small are NOT using Macs just because they’re “cool” or “in” or “hip.” Do you think multi-million dollar businesses and billion dollar industries make decisions based on such frou-frou? Of course not!

I even know a number of shop owners who tried — I mean, really gave it the ol’ college try — to switch over to PCs on the grounds that it’s “cheaper.” Every single one of them that I know of, without exception, went back to Mac.

Now in my case, I’m always on the bleeding edge. I’ve always got a tower loaded with lotsa RAM. That helps. But on the flipside, I’m always pushing the envelope too.

On a daily basis I’ll have 20 or even 30 or more programs, big and small, open at one time. I’ll be doing a render in one program while working in another. I put a load on my machines every day with 2 gig photoshop files (yes, I said 2 gig) and 12 hour Maya renders and what not!

And I hardly ever get a crash!

I mean, as in almost never. Sure, individual apps crash sometimes. For instance, new versions of Firefox are notorious for this. But often as not, it’s the software, not the Mac.

I literally go weeks without a reboot. More often than not I’ll reboot manually because the machine is getting a bit buggy or slow. But I can go for long periods of time, using the machine heavily, and never have ANY serious problems.

Talking to my PC friends, I’d say that’s a rarity. But it’s common with Macs.

This is the reason the entire advertising/marketing/film industry is based on Macs. They just flat-out WORK. No problems. No headaches. No hassles.

Wanna install new software? Cool. Bing-bang-boom. Done. Up and running. Ready for action. Move on.

So, I’m really sorry to hear about your problems with Macs. I really am.

I suspect part of it is that you are so familiar with PCs now, using the Mac can seem difficult. A good buddy of mine, who has been an IT pro for many years now in the PC world, was the guy who introduced me to Mac. But after having been away from them for so long, his wife wanted a new laptop and she insisted on a Mac. He later admitted that he hated the machine for quite a while. Not because it was bad (in his case, anyway), but because it was just DIFFERENT from what he was used to.

I think the person that touched on the Windows issue may be dead on. Many of my friends who are trying to run Windows software on their Macs have gone from perfectly stable and reliable machines to the usual Windows nightmares. Many of them LEFT the Windows world for the Mac world precisely BECAUSE they were tired of all the viruses, software incompatibility issues and other headaches… only to regain them when they tried to run PC software on their Macs!

As to the person who says that Macs are not “all that” in film making/editing, I refer you to my remarks above.

It’s true independents often use PCs. One of my good buddies uses a Windows render farm for 3D animation work (though his front end is Mac). But by and large, it’s all Macs in Hollywood and the entertainment and advertising businesses, at least on the creative side. And that, after all, is where the bread is buttered.

It’s not with the bean counters and suits.

At least on this score, I’m glad I’m a creative.

I don’t see Windows users making free advertising for their OS like Apple/Mac users do. So who are the stupid ones? And what MAC? You mean Unix with a simple graphical interface on top of it.

If anyone like to make love to their Macs every morning and place a cloth on the floor and pray in every direction that Steve Jobs is that morning, whatever. But don not bother me or try to lay you evangelism on me. I’ve worked with Mac/Apple users for fifteen years and NEVER encountered one that wasn’t preaching the use of the almighty Apple.
If they did their jobs as good as their preaching I would be out of a job. What is my job? Fixing the incompetent work that comes from Mac users. Yes really, there are a lot of companies out there that make a living of this. Not something you see on the “Made with a Mac” sites.

I don’t have to much problems with Apple as a company, except for the fact that they are as close to legalized criminals as any company can get. But I do have a lot of problems with Mac/Apple user who are trying to spread there evangelism around the globe in the only way they can; ” Everything else is bad so that’s why Apple is good”.

I’ve had both great and bad hardware from a variety of PC vendors. I’ve had great and bad Apple hardware. If you don’t feel like you’re getting your money’s worth… well, it’s you that’s gotta live with that decision; choose differently next time.

I always laugh when people say you have to have a Mac to do animation and editing with. I know right then that they do not have a clue about what they are talking about.

(or real world experience)

But i do have a Mac in the house and its not bad…but when i want to get serious rendering done for under 5000 dollars I have my work horse. Oh and our mac had to brought back to the “geniuses” because it crashed after a week.

They should put that in there commercials. lol

The amount of ‘my machine doesn’t hibernate’ problems I’ve read on the Mac forums makes me think that even Linux distros are working better with laptops nowadays…

Mine freezes at random, is slow at random times when browsing the Internet( multi color pinwheel icon for a cursor ), and doesnt feel as “fast” as my old Toshiba laptop running XP with only 2 gigs of ram on a Celeron processor. For over 3k dual core processors and 4 gigs of ram, I would have expected more from Mac considering all the hype.

Its brand new, but I am not sending it in to the “shop” to be fixed or looked at. I feel like for over 3k, I could have had the SAME problems on a Vista/XP Win 7 box, but with more bells and whistles ( like a SD card slot or video output )

-Jason Brown

OS’s have their ups and downs pretty predictably. DOS was, and is, rock solid. Windows 1 and 2 were garbage, 3.11 was fairly stable. 95 was garbage until 98SE, then ME was garbage again. WinNT3.5 wasn’t too great, 4.0 was fairly stable, 2K was pretty solid, and XP is back at 2K stability after a few service packs. Vista is garbage, but 7 will probably be stable.

Similarly, Mac OS was very stable until 6 introduced multitasking without protected memory, 7 was garbage until 7.5 and then 8 and 9 cleaned things up. Mac OS X has been more predictable: you’d literally avoid 90% of the fuss if you only owned 10.2, 10.4 and 10.6.

The pattern is pretty simple: new technology breaks and then a later release cleans it up. Also, maturity clearly helps: OS X seems like it’s shiny and new, but people don’t remember that the original NeXT (and the remnants of the NeXTStep APIs are still very prevalent in OS X’s libraries) is 6 years older than NT.

I’ve used a lot of systems – Linux, BSDs, SGIs and every DOS and Apple incarnation on hardware ranging from PDAs to 128 node clusters. Every system will have its own design goals and its own warts. Every system will need serious tweaks – via CLI or registry or whatever – to run optimally.

I use a Mac Pro as my everyday PC. I just wanna get shit done – mail, invoicing, research, web-dev, archiving, sales docs, faxes, photos, etc., etc., etc. OSX just does it without drama or hassle. Of course I’ve got Linux and Windows servers here for OS specific development, db/web hosting, etc. but that’s probably more to keep my feet wet on non-virtualized hardware than anything else. I could easily just everything entirely on the Mac Pro (but I’d lose a lot of blinking lights and machines that go ‘ping’)

I’ve probably owned at least 12 Macs IIRC. I’ve hacked them, clocked them, changed procs, wired shit in, you name it. Not one of them ever broke – not one. Incredible! I can’t even count just the number of Asus and Dell mobo’s I’ve tossed from catastrophic failure, bad caps, dead ports, whatever in just regular usage.

For me, it’s a no-brainer.

Shame to see you go, bro.