🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:25:59 +1100, Ribfeast <goaway@nospam.com>
wrote:

>>> Go on, prove that you are more than a troll - give me a reasoned
>>> argument to support your point of view. Alternatively, keep on with your
>>> current approach and guarantee a place in the kill file, whence peace
>>> will be restored! Smile, and the world may just smile with you!
>> That's fine mr ostrich, killfile me, that's your prerogative. But I
>> leave you with just a few of the reason's I don't like macs, and why I
>> avoid them at all costs.
>> 
>> 1) Macs are way over priced and underpowered
>I'd hardly call 64 bit dual G5 processors underpowered.  And the iMacs are
>not overpriced.  Where else can you get a top-quality 20" LCD and 64 bit
>computer setup with quality components and stylish design to beat that
>price?  You could probably build something yourself out of shit parts, but
>you get the lack of reliability that comes with it.

That's the key, build yourself but with *good* parts and put a free OS
on it and you are free from the monopolists.

If I could say something I like about Apple it is that giant LCD
screens they sell, very nice, but still very expensive. I could get a
22" LCD TV for less, but it probably wouldn't be as good. They are
selling them where I work for $2300 US (last time I checked)

>
>> 2) they are costly to fix
>Buy an extended warranty and a surge protector.  And they rarely break
>anyway.
I have yet to see a mac older than 2 years that isn't either broken or
trashed. Both my regular use PC's are 5 year old PIII's although I do
upgrade them from time to time (more memory updated vid cards etc.).

>
>> 3) both hardware and OS are proprietary which means you must depend on
>> the notoriously fickle Apple corp for virtually everything from
>> security patches to processors.
>Not much different to MS, except MS takes even longer because of all the
>extra hardware it has to support.  And has all the bloat that comes with
>supporting all the yum-cha crap that is out there.
MS releases updates almost weekly (that can be considered either good
OR bad, but at least the updates are free and reasonably timely). You
can delete the bloat of uneeded drivers etc. but they are handy if you
are like me and contantly add or remove stuff from your boxes. 
>
>> 4) lack of viable software, what software is available is very costly
>> and unstable. Because there is virtually no competition there is no
>> motivation for software companies to improve their software when users
>> experience problems. Instead they release an "upgrade" which they
>> charge you for but is really just a patch for what they did wrong in
>> the first place. Ever wonder why photoshop is much more stable on
>> windows than mac?
>Haven't had problems with any of the mainstream products that I run on my
>G5.  I crash maybe once or twice a year, and my uptimes are measured in
>months, not hours. 

I must admit I don't have much experience with G5's, my work gave up
on macs a long time ago and there are only a few holdouts . They of
course also have PC's because the macs always break or don't run much
other than word processing apps and spreadsheets.

>
>> 5) frequent crashes and lockups, perhaps due to shoddy memory
>> management and/or poor proprietary software
>Maybe in MacOS 9.  MacOS X has a full protected memory system.

OSX seems pretty decent, but the mac users I know don't really know
how to use it, and run in compatibility mode or whatever it's called
so they can run the old programs.

>
>> 6) poor security: security through obscurity is the worst possible
>> security model there is. That is Apple's philosophy, says so right on
>> their web page. It takes them months after publicized security flaws
>> to fix those flaws. This makes Apple totally unsuitable for a server
>> platform and just as unsuitable for an "always on" desktop.

>No ports open to hack by default, and built in firewall, unix security, heck
>a virus would have to ask for your password before it can infect you.  My
>computer is fully open to hackers and viruses and I have never actually had
>one succeed in attacking me.

 Probably because you are in such a minority (in that you are running
a mac) that you just haven't been found. That is security by
obscurity. If you don't have a fully patched system, and that's
provided Apple has bothered to issue a patch, you are vulnerable to a
number of nasty exploits.

No ports open is good, that is one thing I wish windows would do out
of the box, instead you have to close them manually. 

>
>> 7)  one button mouse. You say there are multibutton mice but I have
>> yet to see one attached to an actual mac. Aside from the constant
>> lockups this is the most annoying "feature" that macs have.
>I agree with you that 1 button mice do suck, the first thing I bought with
>my G5 was a 3 button Logitech mouse, which worked perfectly without the
>Logitech drivers, although I did install them for some extra features.  1
>button mice are more simple for the grannies though ;)

Heh, and children :-) At least you have the option for multibuttons so
that is a step in the right direction, how much of the software
supports multibutton?

>
>For the record I use both mac and PC at home, I have a dual 1.8G5, and a
>3Ghz Pentium 4 that I built myself out of the best brands, neither have
>crashed since I bought/built them, XP is the best MS OS so far that I have
>seen, but it still has a very long way to go compared to MacOS X, especially
>in ease of networking.  The amount of headaches setting up wireless networks
>with XP is ridiculous!
>I like the PC hardware almost as much as I like the mac hardware, but the OS
>on PCs leaves a lot to be desired.  And Linux is not a viable alternative
>(yet) for most people despite what many may think.

I'm not a big fan of XP, but it is vey stable, I rebooted my work
machine today for the first time since I installed service pack 2  and
I don't honestly remember when that was. I only rebooted because I
wanted to try knoppix. 

>Anyways that's my $0.02 + GST.
Canadian eh?