Thread: iMac 20" Vs. Clone.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

If your son is at school/uni/TAFE you can also get the education discount on the price.

Very good point that!!!

Same goes for Apple, Adobe, and MS software too. The discounts are significant.

Alan

Originally Posted by disco2hse

with a Windows XP partition and Mac OS X.

You're kidding!

They now partition Macs to run MS stuff?

(its been a while folks, go easy)

Originally Posted by disco2hse

In the end the choice is probably better made according to how familiar the user is with any particular platform.

I used to think that too. But I went and got my folks a Mac after their last PC gave up the ghost. They were never overly good with Windows but they were learning. I could only see Vista being a world of grief to support and so I bit the bullet and got them a Mac. They haven't looked back, there computer skills with the Mac have come further in 6 months than several years with PC's.

Originally Posted by dm_td5

I used to think that too. But I went and got my folks a Mac after their last PC gave up the ghost. They were never overly good with Windows but they were learning. I could only see Vista being a world of grief to support and so I bit the bullet and got them a Mac. They haven't looked back, there computer skills with the Mac have come further in 6 months than several years with PC's.

He's young and adaptable and leaves me for dead as far as 'new' tech. stuff goes.

I am more worried about the 'tantrums' half way though something he is doing when it all falls over. I thought Macs would be more stable when crunching large image/data/video/sound files than MS OS's!

If, however, the latest Macs are a combination of Mac and MS OS's then it sort of defeats the purpose of 'making the move'.

Edit: Especially if he's laying out the cash!

Originally Posted by discomuzz

The graphics capabilities seem to have narrowed between the two?

Being a graphic designer I can tell you that the tight integration of software and hardware on a Mac makes it a far better machine for out-of-the-box set up and go. As for graphic capabilities Mac still outshines others mainly due to superior colour calibration without extra software: open box and work.

I am a little biased but I had to work on a Windows machine for a few years and to be honest it was hard to get anything calibrated.

On another topic - back in the early 90's Powercomputing was licensed to make Mac clones. I got one. Never again as there were too many complications (not unlike Windows machines of various brands not working exactly as intended due to minor, but annoying, hardware/software incompatibilities). So I want back to real Macs. The extra money is well justified for the quality: I had no problems with the Mac since I bought it almost two years ago and I live on it...

Originally Posted by discomuzz

He's young and adaptable and leaves me for dead as far as 'new' tech. stuff goes.

'xaccerly. Won't be long before he's shouting "look dad, no hands"

Originally Posted by discomuzz

I am more worried about the 'tantrums' half way though something he is doing when it all falls over. I thought Macs would be more stable when crunching large image/data/video/sound files than MS OS's!

That's a good point. Of course one should always maintain backups and the MacOs X 10.5.* has Time Machine which backs up stuff to an external drive at regular intervals and then allows you to drag and drop stuff back again when you need it.

Macs, in my experience, are far more reliable than Windows PCs, mainly for the reasons I have mentioned - limitation of hardware, well tuned Kernel, etc.

The only crash I have had on my Macbook Pro in the last year (it's only 1 year old) was my fault. The G5 hasn't crashed for, gosh I can't remember.

Originally Posted by discomuzz

If, however, the latest Macs are a combination of Mac and MS OS's then it sort of defeats the purpose of 'making the move'

Ahh, now. Didn't quite say that.

The partitions are like two different hard drives. One is installed with Windows and its app's. The other is installed with Mac OS X and its stuff. They are formatted diferently too. At boot you can choose whether to startup in Windows or the Mac. Windows is not running under emulation either.

They are still two distinct computer systems within the same box.

Of course the Mac system can read the Windows partition files, but not the other way around (typical ).

Alan

Originally Posted by Turtle61

Being a graphic designer... I had no problems with the Mac since I bought it almost two years ago and I live on it...

Mmmmm, well I don't think calibration will on top of his agenda, yet!

I am so sick of the 'crashing' that goes on with what he is trying to do on the PC.

Does your Mac 'crash' very often?

Originally Posted by Turtle61

As for graphic capabilities Mac still outshines others mainly due to superior colour calibration without extra software: open box and work.

Not anymore. Most of the problems that used to affect Windows graphics quality are thing of the past and largely thanks to gaming. As a result most of the major software development houses are giving far greater support to Windows than the Mac, e.g. Adobe have recently released suites only for Windows, and they have withdrawn for example, FrameMaker development on the Mac completely (even though it was first developed on the Mac in 1984!). Adobe AIR is another that has support features for Windows and not Mac.

Originally Posted by Turtle61

On another topic - back in the early 90's Powercomputing was licensed to make Mac clones. I got one. Never again as there were too many complications (not unlike Windows machines of various brands not working exactly as intended due to minor, but annoying, hardware/software incompatibilities). So I want back to real Macs. The extra money is well justified for the quality: I had no problems with the Mac since I bought it almost two years ago and I live on it...

Same here. The clones were dogs.

Alan