Announcement

**nunchalnaomi** · 3 April 2006, 20:05

I have come to the opposite conclusion. I work at a art school with mac g5's. I am the tech. I have multiple problems with macs. The apple care doesn't call me back when they promise. The macs are very touchy about media. We have students with media problems all the time. A tdk dvd-r 8x will work, but the 4x and 16x won't . Memorex 8x don't work. The same media works fine in multiple pcs. They came and changed the drives, but they are still very finicky. None of the pcs have the same problems. All the media is dvd-r, that should work. I think final cut is a fine program. Macs are shipped more secure. They are not very comparable on price when you compare hardware. For 600$, I can get more then a 60 gb hard drive and 512 of ram. My small form factor pc will run circles around the mini and they are similiar sizes. I can list a bunch of small problems that the macs at work experience if you want. They are numerous. Macs and pcs are tools to use. I don't think macs are better. But I don't care what you use. I think a lot of the arguments for/against mac/pc are silly. Whatever tool floats your boat is the tool you use.

**Marshmallowman** · 3 April 2006, 20:15

heh, you don't use them you fix em , different perspective.

**Jerry Jones** · 4 April 2006, 10:07

The drives in Macs are made by the same companies that make drives for PCs.

Sorry - I don't buy that one.

Moreover, you should see the ignorant problems that I experienced as a City of Boise employee back in the early 2000s.

The network was 100% Windows and the issues with driver conflicts, hardware errors, etc. were legion.

My brother's MAC MINI has so much software included - FREE - that he can almost do as much right out of the box with his computer than I can do with a PC loaded with thousands of dollars of purchased multimedia software.

He turned it on and it works. Period.

I'm going to buy one.

I worked with an old MAC back in the mid 1990s and it did not impress me at all.

But APPLE has really improved the MACs since then.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

**Hulk** · 4 April 2006, 15:47

The Macs are definitely the coolest looking computers out there.

I like the combination of price, speed, software, upgradeability available with PC's.

Different strokes for different folks. We definitely need Apple competitive to keep MS in check.

- Mark

**Jessterw** · 4 April 2006, 17:34

Never thought MACs were all that cool, but I do love my Mac

**nunchalnaomi** · 4 April 2006, 18:45

I am very aware that they have the same hardware inside. These are new g5's with os 10.4 and all updates. They had sony multi format drives. Because of the problems, mac replaced them with I think samsung. They still are very very finicky about media. Macs do not use plus r. I understand that. But regular minus r media that burns in a pc, will not or might not work in the macs. I am not blowing smoke. This is a problem that I and the students have to deal with. What should I tell a student who just bought a 100 pack spindle of memorex when they won't work? They work on a pc, just not the macs. It is not bad blanks. It is finicky macs. I can email you the repair reports. You don't have to buy what I am saying. I don't care. What software came with your mac mini? Final cut pro and any serious program cost money. Even imovie and idvd are no longer included in the os. They are part of the ilife software that also costs money. We have the adobe creative suite and the apple production suite. Both cost over 1,000$. They are fine products. The dual processor renders and encodes very fast. I think imovie is a joke, but final cut is very good. The os is fairly stable, but I have to forse quit often. But the countless small problems make macs not professional in my opinion. Just the finicky media burning is enough to turn me away. Just so you know, I started on mac and also have had problems with pcs. Getting my matrox rtx100 to work was a pain. I worked in a multi pc/mac/unix large format printing house for years. There are always some problems with any system ( especially fonts). Computers are just tools. But for me, partially because of investment in software, but also because of price and performance, pc is the tool for me. Not looking forward to the vista transition. Enjoy, hopefully you don't experience the same media problems that we are experiencing.

Originally posted by Jerrold Jones

The drives in Macs are made by the same companies that make drives for PCs.

Sorry - I don't buy that one.

Moreover, you should see the ignorant problems that I experienced as a City of Boise employee back in the early 2000s.

The network was 100% Windows and the issues with driver conflicts, hardware errors, etc. were legion.

My brother's MAC MINI has so much software included - FREE - that he can almost do as much right out of the box with his computer than I can do with a PC loaded with thousands of dollars of purchased multimedia software.

He turned it on and it works. Period.

I'm going to buy one.

I worked with an old MAC back in the mid 1990s and it did not impress me at all.

But APPLE has really improved the MACs since then.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

**Jerry Jones** · 4 April 2006, 18:51

Originally posted by nunchalnaomi

Macs do not use plus r. I understand that.

Please read the drive specifications detailed on the following APPLE Web page:

Page Not Found - Apple

http://tinyurl.com/qm9ad

You will note that both "+" and "-" formats are supported on the MAC MINI.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

**Jerry Jones** · 5 April 2006, 19:12

Now it's possible to run Windows on a MAC:

http://tinyurl.com/lcc8n

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

**paulw** · 6 April 2006, 00:19

If it means installing win XP as well it's the crazzyist thing yet. Run Windows apps via something like Wine maybe but a dual boot machine.. MAC usrs. Welcom to the world of the virus... Better to port MAC OS to normal PCs..

**Sasq** · 6 April 2006, 00:27

Originally posted by paulw

If it means installing win XP as well it's the crazzyist thing yet. Run Windows apps via something like Wine maybe but a dual boot machine.. MAC usrs. Welcom to the world of the virus... Better to port MAC OS to normal PCs..

umm errr well thats been done.
Apple gets rather upset about that btw...

**KRSESQ** · 6 April 2006, 13:18

The only thing (I think) that keeps Apple from doing a full-support port of OSX to the PC platform is the fact that if they do, Microsoft will drop ALL support for OSX in all of their products.

OSX on a PC platform = a quick and powerful system. Windows XP on a Mac = a common PC.

Kevin

**Jessterw** · 6 April 2006, 14:08

Interestingly enough, preliminary tests are showing that XP runs quite well on the Mac hardware. I'd go so far as to say that it even bests equivalent 'PC' systems, but there haven't been enough (or any) thorough comparisons done yet. All the 'tests' thus far have been Photoshop centric for the most part.

Should be interesting to see what more expansive and referential testing shows.

**nunchalnaomi** · 6 April 2006, 18:34

I did not know that. They have been using multi format drives for a long time. It would be a great feature on the g5's. I am just hoping for read/write to ntfs drives in leapard.

Originally posted by Jerrold Jones

Please read the drive specifications detailed on the following APPLE Web page:

Page Not Found - Apple

http://tinyurl.com/qm9ad

You will note that both "+" and "-" formats are supported on the MAC MINI.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net