Mac vs. PC?

Tree Machine

Sometimes its about getting out there first.

Aerial

It's nice to use one of the cloning programs like the one I linked to because it allows you to restore your system files as well as your data.

This is nice because a "normal" reformat and reload of the OS. in your case Windows XP, means downloading service packs, drivers and a complete fresh installation and re-configuration of your setup.

By cloning your boot disk you get the system restored will all updates and configurations back just as it was. A real time saver.

Just how Bill Gates became the World's richest man is a story more like J. D. Rockafeller's than Albert Einstein's. Through swindled or outright stolen ideas or products, coupled with predatory monopolistic tactics he came to dominate the personal computing landscape.

Aerial

Tree Machine

And Microsoft not playing nice with the Quicktime format, a really excellent video and image and music format that PC's are seemingly not warm toward.

Well, Aerial, thanks for stepping up as a Mac dude extraordinaire. It's nice that you have PCs also and can speak from both sides.

What do you use your PCs for that you can't do on a Mac?

Aerial

Quicktime is an excellent example of how Microsoft has used it's monopoly power to attempt to "knife the baby" (a famous quote from an internal email memo that was published during the anti-trust trial) with regards to Apple's Quicktime media format. The crumby Windows support of Quicktime is Microsoft's revenge for it's existence.

I can use both platforms effectively, having spent many years selling Windows based systems into Corporate America. My two Windows systems I keep around for two specific purposes.

My somewhat elderly IBM Thinkpad is a Print server for a rather complex Xerox "Workstation" laser printer, scanner, and fax terminal. This heavy duty all-in-one printer predated OSX and one of the few printers that OSX has no built in drivers for. I can get it to print under OSX with emulating HP laser printer protocols, but not all of it's features. It was easier to just download the Windows 2000 drivers and give my trusty Thinkpad something to do in it's waning years.

I just recently (last Summer) bought my Toughbook and Microsoft Streets & Trips along with a USB GPS unit to act as an in car navigation system. This was a total failure because the Microsoft program caused repeated system crashes on the Microsoft operating System. This usually happened at the worst possible time, and was so frustrating that I went out and bought a Garmin.

What a piece of crap Streets & Trips is as a real time navigation system. But I do like the hardened nature of the Toughbook, and I still plan to use it when camping or in a blind photographing wildlife.



Aerial

Aerial

Is my posting high resolution images like the one above a problem for you bandwidth wise? If so I can post at lower resolutions.

Also, can you restore my ability to edit my posts? I rarely get it right the first time, and usual my edits have to do with formatting or punctuation issues, not content.

As an on topic aside, the Macintosh's built in, system wide, spell checker make me seem like I know how to spell, when that couldn't be further from the truth. This post had five boner spelling that it caught. (Some typos, most misspelling)

Aerial

Aerial

^^^ "usual" should be "usually"

My Mac's spell checker does not spot contextual errors.

Aerial

Aerial

Neither of my Windows systems have any form of virus or malware protection, they lead a sheltered existence under the firewall provided by my Macintosh and Network router.

Even so, I would never use either one of them for sensitive or important information. The thought of using a Windows setup of any kind for my online banking or buying gives me chills. Kind of like free climbing a frozen waterfall, a slippery slope indeed for the unexperienced.

Aerial

Aerial

DUH, had my first look at the Picture Forum, it's all explained here:

How to resize pictures, EASY! | Click here before posting a picture.

Still though, how do I FTP photos up to your server Ekka?

Aerial

Tree Machine

What about the Windows side of the Intel-based Macs. Is that Windows OS virus-proof because it is in a Mac?

Aerial

Oh no, not at all. Once a Macintosh is booted into Windows, it IS a Windows machine, just as susceptible to attacks as any other Windows machine.

What I was referring to was the protection afforded to the Windows machine by being behind the LAN managed by my Macs. Even this is not total protection for a machine that has a port open to access the Internet.

I don't do email, I don't download music or video, I don't do any critical online activities like banking or buying things with them. In fact the only reason that the Toughbook even had access to the net was light surfing before my wife got her Macbook.

If you do any of these things with your Windows systems you most definitely should use security programs to protect yourself and your data, even if your copy of Windows is running on an Apple computer.

Aerial

JohN Dee

You know, I once read an article on a company that ran all of it's business on and through windows. Then when somebody approached them and asked why don't they just run it on and through mac, the tech department replied with they'd all be out of the job and there would be no tech department.

__________________
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Therrin

Built my first PC when I was 8, before the windows OS was around. Used BBS's with modem stacks back then...oh what joy! Miss those days sometimes.

I've used Mac's at school, and they're okay for that. I think of mac's like a commuter vehicle, or something I'd lease. Whereas a PC is something I can slide underneath, do some work on, set it up for 4wheeling, etc etc.

Personally though, I love modding my computers. PC's are really the better way to go with that. Always upgrading one part or another, or pushing it to do something specific that I want. Except for a IBM Thinkpad I picked up about 7 years ago, I've never bought a computer. Each has been hand built; but therein lies the rub. I actually ENJOY buidling PC's. If it's not your thing, then I can understand why you'd stick with a Mac.

I used to have 1 PC for web browsing, 1 for Gaming, and 1 that I had linux-unix type OS's on that I'd mess around with and learn the OS.

I'm not sure that it's fair to call Windows "copying" Apple's interface. There are several OS's that can be run via text, or using the GUI. (like Unix) In the old days at least, when I'd have trouble with the GUI, I'd just revert back to text and go in and fix problems that way.

PC's ya do kinda gotta stay on top of, but once you learn the secrets I personally think that it allows you a more vast world of opportunities than a Mac. But then, I've never been just a "user", I like to maintain and get down into the nutsNbolts and learn stuff from the inside out. PC's I think are more capable of being manipulated to specific tasks.


Ekka, Aerial's right about the image files. (iso) I run a primary master hard drive with an underslung slave. If you're transfering PURE data, then it matters not which drive has the OS. But if you're trying to copy over programs and such that need to execute through the OS, then you'll have a hard time of it.
I run everything program related through my Master (C), and store all my data on my Slave (D). Though also have an external slave I can hook up for cold storage.

Which leads me to say, that when I got my 15-card reader, for xfering data off of SD and other type cards, I was able to get a piece of hardware that I could slot right in the front of my case, giving me the internal reader so that I didn't have to have it lyin around as an externally connected peripheral. I liked having the ability to mod things like that as I choose.

Aerial

Therrin, I fully understand the DIY (do it yourself) aspects of computing and it's true that if you like to design and build a computer to the specifications you prefer the Wintel PC is the platform that allows you the most options.

But going with Apple computers does not mean you can't get under the hood and do a bit of improvement. The only Mac in my house that has not been modified for better performance is the wife's macbook. And it won't be long before I get into that one to swap out the slow 60 Gig hard drive for something bigger and faster. Next to maxing out the RAM, a faster hard drive is the best performance boost you can give any computer.

I mentioned that my Mac Tower has five hard drives in it, but it is more than just a box of disks, it's a finely tuned system of using the Mac OS's ability to set up RAID arrays. One set for data protection (Mirrored RAID) and one set for max speed (RAID 0).

Then there are the processor upgrades that you can install. My tower has dual 533 Mhz G4 processors, but there are upgrade kits that can take it to dual 2 Ghz G4's. That's almost 4 times the speed of the stock CPUs.

The same with my Apple Cube, an even older computer. The RAM is maxed out at 1.5 Gigs, and the hard drive was replaced with a 100 Gig 7200 RPM unit with a 2 MB cache. Fast for it's day.

As I also mentioned, my four year old PowerMac laptop runs rings around the wife's much newer Intel core2duo Macbook because of the 2 Gigs of RAM and super fast laptop hard drive that I put in it.

Almost any computer can be modded up to much better performance by careful selection of components, the Mac is no exception. Having said that, it's true that for bare metal builds the Wintel PC can't be beat.

And my complaints about Windows aside, in an IT expert's hands it can be quite solid and secure. It's just that not many people have those skills.

Aerial

Check out this site for Mac mods:

Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC

Aerial

Just how Windows came to be is pretty well documented and was the subject of a court case way back when. Apple sued them for ripping them off, and lost on a weasel worded agreement that Microsoft's lawyers got them to sign.

Apple needed applications for the new Macintosh platform and to do this they needed Microsoft to port "Word" (you all know that Word came out first on the Apple platform right?) to the new operating system (the first with a GUI, licenced from pioneering work on the GUI that took place at Xerox's PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) facility.

Microsoft was provided all the information needed to make Word a GUI application by Apple. Apple thought they had an agreement with Microsoft to limit it's (the GUI) use on Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, but Microsoft's lawyers had the fine print in that agreement that trashed the spirit and intent of that agreement to limit the use of the key elements to the Apple product.

Out popped Windows, and the rest is history. Apple sued Microsoft and they lost based on the weasel worded fine print.

Well, yes I am, it's great to find a topic on this forum that I can not only speak authoritatively, but give pretty darn straight advice.

Creating a disk image of your complete operating system's installation and the programs you use with it is a far easier restore for those catastrophic disk failures that are sure to happen eventually.

The general idea is that you don't have to do any configuration and installation of updates, service packs, or drivers. Not to mention reinstalling and reconfiguring your applications.

A Cloning program makes a bit for bit copy of your hard drive. One that you can lay on a fresh reformat, or even a new hard drive without any of those hassles. This is especially useful on Windows installations because there are way more installation and configuration hoops to jump through is this failed boot drive scenario.

Aerial

Aerial

In the Apple World things are much easier. The Cloning program is part of the OS. Installation of complex software is drag and drop, as in uninstalls - just drag the icon representing the "package" that is the application and all it's drivers to the Trash and it's gone.

In the past you had to be somewhat of a Mac Guru to even know that "Disk Utility" even existed. And it was only as good as the last time you made the image file. With the release of the latest iteration of OS X 10.5 "Leopard" Apple has built in these sophisticated back up options and made it possible to keep an hour by hourly updated complete image of your setup.

"Time Machine" is Apple's biggest advance to the OS X operating system since it's inception. It makes sophisticated backups available to even the most newbee of Macintosh users. Just plug in a hard drive and and OS X pops up a dialog box asking if you want to use it for Time Machine backups. Literally one click sets this all up.

Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Features - Time Machine

"Time Capsule" is an Apple NAS (Network Attached Storage) device that allows you to do this for all your Macs, wirelessly. Pretty cheap actually, since it includes a Gigabit class router and WiFi "N" base station.

The Apple Store (U.S.) - Time Capsule - 1 TB

At some point I'll be getting one of those Time Capsules to manage my Time Machine backups, but for now I just have Firewire external hard drives doing this via plugging it in.

When I upgraded the hard disk on the powerbook I'm typing this on, I recycled the 80 Gig from it to an external Firewire enclosure. It is now acting as my Time Machine backup drive.

I don't plug it in all the time, but when I do it automatically updates the disk image it contains to my current system status.

Aerial