Mac Users: Enlighten Me...

As far as ports: my big gripe is that while I understand that Firewire is a technically superior standard to USB, two computers (an iMac and a Mac Pro) and two devices (a Dazzle bridge and a DV/DVD deck) require four cables. At least USB ports on a PC or Mac are all shaped the same despite the obvious deficiency of the USB A pair.

 

Software, mostly. I adore Mail, iWork, iTunes (for syncing my phone), Contacts, GarageBand, and the ease of using the OS. It's highly intuitive, beautiful, fast, and yet at the same time just powerful enough to get everything done I'd like done. Having been on a Windows 7 machine for a year now, and Ubuntu (ugh), I can say in no uncertain terms that Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the best operating system in the world by leaps and bounds. Windows has made strides recently, particularly from Vista to Windows 7, but Microsoft has a lot of work to do to catch up to Apple in operating system and built in programs. A few simple examples:

- I have a Microsoft bluetooth mouse. I had to install a program from the internet by googling it, then I had to uninstall and reinstall. Then once more. It started working, but the buttons, which were supposed to be customizable, can't be customized. Even a year later, I can't customize the buttons. On my Mac? It was plug and play, instantly. Still is.

- I popped in a DVD, into my very nice DVD burner, and it opened in Media Center or whatever it's called. Guess what? Spacebar doesn't pause and play. Oh, and the little navigation bar never disappears. And it won't upscale. I only ever use VLC on Windows for all videos and high-quality music.

- The Taskbar? The icons have two sizes: a little too big or a little too small. And folders in the menu bar simply open to folders. I have to install confusing software just to get it to do anything similar to Mac OS X.

- My favorite, though, is I can't move or edit the title of something when it's open in Windows. How hard would that be, really? Windows doesn't really do Expose or anything similar either.

And, tbh, Apple knows how to design gorgeous hardware, too. The MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and iMac are gorgeous, better looking, imho, than any other option out there for computing.

 

It seems more organized. It is basically like I outsourced my software update schedule, backups, music organization, music syncing to iPod, application appearance and photo processing so I have to do a lot less. I want Apple to take care of the menial tasks that should just 'get done', and so things 'just work'.

I usually use 3 USB devices on my MacBook, and I understand the desire for more. But at my desk, I use a USB hub to allow more external harddrives to be plugged in at the same time.

I use Linux for some file organization, and I know iTunes is locking my account to the mp3's I import...There are a few other things as well that I could nit-pick at. I wish I was better at using the overlooked features...and had more free time to play with non-internet stuff (creating books, music, movies).

 

ooh just had a flashback to my tech support days for HP products. We we verboten to say 'firewire' and had to say 'IEEE 1394'

 

Does anyone but apple actually use firewire any more?

 

I used to really hate using Macs. But with the introduction of OS X, that all changed.

I am currently using a MacBook Pro and I find the one major thing about it that is great... is that it works. Consistently. I never have issues with it. It is stable and doesn't crash.

 

Everything's been said. Everything feels as though some real thought, planning and organizing has gone into it. It feels natural and intuitive. Transitions are smooth, ease of integration with other Apple products rocks.

And it works. And it lasts. And if one needs more than 2 USB ports on a laptop, they need to get a desktop.

 

Since a lot has already been said, I'll add this one: Automator. I love it so much. Import an album of photos and want to resize some of them to email to friends? I have a workflow saved in automator to do that for me, so I end up with a .zip file on my desktop ready to be emailed in just a minute or two. It's awesome.

 

I need to pick up a mac, just to learn to troubleshoot the OS. I have almost no mac experence and I've ran into jobs that they want mac experence.

As for using one, I'm heading towards linux and away from everything else.

*Start Threadjack*

Can a mac OS be run as a VM?

 

Oh I have machines that have firewire on them too. But I've never used it. USB 2.0 was always faster, and now with 3.0....

 

7 may be stable, but I've never used it. I stopped using a PC about five years ago when my current job required that I switch to Mac. Back then, PCs were still XP and unstable. I hear good things about 7 but I just can't bring myself to mess around with a PC. All my pathways have been converted to Mac.

 

To clarify the USB thing, I'm a desktop-only person. I have 5 USB devices plugged into my home computer and 8 at work, 9 when I connect the camera, not counting the monitors that act as 4-port hubs.

 

I can't tell you how much regret I felt once I switched to a Mac running OSX. All those wasted hours, the anger and frustration of dealing with windows/PCs. It has been a godsend to my productivity. I have no agenda other than pragmatism.

 

Well, once you plug a mouse in one and a keyboard in the second, you are officially out of ports. My laptop has three and I reckon another one would be nice.