I think I may switch to the Mac, but I have some questions...

[satanicpoptart]

ive been following osx sense it release back around 8 months ago or so. and in the begining it was not the greatest of things. but now 10.1.3 is truelly the best thing i have ever used. no crashes ever. everything words perfect. you can download M$ office and photoshop from limewire. it truely iis a wonderful os. of course im runing a dual 500 with 768 ram, so i dont know about a single cpu 400. but if you end up goin witht he dual, i promise you you will love it.

[themacko]

Originally posted by satanicpoptart
you can download M$ office and photoshop from limewire.

I don't want to sound too self-righteous, but let's not encourage software pirating.

[Solaris]

I'm sure it's for "evaluation" purposes only

[voice-]

Originally posted by johngibbons
I also plan to run the mac off of my KVM (Belkin 8 port), so I'll need a USB to PS2 adapter. I'm assuming that won't be a problem, but how does the mac handle a PC keyboard without the Apple keys (or whatever they have on them these days)? Will I run into any issues there?

I know Logitech sells keyboards for Macs and Windows, so if you can live with that butt-ugly Win-key and have USB, I can't see the problem.

Originally posted by johngibbons
The other XP thing I really like is the switch user feature. You can basically "log off" without logging off and let someone else login to their own desktop, etc. You can quickly switch back to the other user with all your programs left as they were. Is there similar functionality on OS X? My girlfriend loves the fact that she can have her own login and wallpaper, and I love the fact that she won't be nosing through my files. :-) I can live without these two, but both would be nice.

Sorry, no. This is the one thing I like about XP too, and I have requested it through the OS X feedback section

[uoba]

further to voice's point; each user can log-in with their own desktops, dock, etc. The only difference is that when one user logs out, their apps will shut down as well (unlike the XP feature which you mentioned.)

All users will have different prefs and files saved for each app seperately.

I use one login for everyday design and admin work, and another login for marketing work (Entourage with daily e-mails/contacts in everday login, Entourage with totally different set of contacts for the marketing login).

Access to each others folders, prefs etc. is denied to each other.

Finally, as you can see, I run OSX 10.1.3 on a G4 466 with 640mb. This is still a fantastic machine, and I normally will work with the following open Entourage, Photoshop, Suitcase, Explorer, Messenger, iTunes (oh yeah!), Illustrator/InDesign.

The recent Java update seemed to have improved things as well.

Finally finally, as a good pointer, I have, for the first time in 3 years, been using a PC with Windows 2000 Pro, yesterday (Dual PIII 800Mhz). I was relieved to get back to my lover-ly Mac at the end of the day, I was actually suprised that Window and UI issues where faster on my OSX Mac! And a hell of lot friendly and nicer.

[jeb1138]

I don't know how much video you do, but if it's any sort of hobby or pastime then I have two words for you (ok, so one of them is an acronym...) -- "DV" and "SPEED".

As far as DV -- digital video is much faster and easier to work with on a computer (for any purpose) than analog formats such as VHS. Importing it is a matter of transferring instead of converting, there is no generational loss and DV quality is generally better than VHS to start off with. If all you have is a bunch of old family VHS tapes you want to burn to DVD's I'd ditto testuser and rinse in saying that you should really look at a cheaper DV camera whose analog out port doubles as an analog in. It's not much more expensive than the cards, and if you're going to shoot any more video in this life you'll be very glad you have one. And even if you really like video and decide that you want to get a really good DV camera later, you'll be glad that you spent the $300-$500 on a cheaper DV camera instead of a analog card because you can use it as your DV deck for your computer and spare your good camera some serious rewind/fast forward mileage and really prolong its life. (and you'll have one that you can lend to friends or take on the lake without increasing your worry level by too many decibels)

As for SPEED -- there is no one that works (or plays) with video on computers regularly that doesn't wish for a faster computer. Real-time viewing of full-quality video on computers has almost become standard, but real time rendering (of fades, titles, warps or any other effect) has only just begun to exist on the fastest computers. Video and graphics are, after all, one of Apple's strongest points, and iMovie will find every creative bone in your body and set it in motion if you have any affinity for making videos at all. (and then to think of what Final Cut Pro could do for you... ) If you really wanna see the Mac shining in all it's glory your gonna wanna play with demanding formats in a demanding OS, and that's gonna demand the fastest computer you can afford. Of course, it does also work just fine on slower computers, yada yada yada....

So whether you aspire to box-office-blockbuster your way past Lucas (who is a little richer than Spielberg, by the way ) or if you're just looking to immortalize your old family VHS footage in digital format, get a DV camera (and watch your free time fly out the window if you're not careful... ) and the speediest G4 that budget and reason allow.

[putamare]

you can't drop OSX on your G3 266mhz

I've had X running on my beige pizzabox (512MB) since 10.0.1, mainly as a web/mail server, but I also upgraded the CD to one of the Pioneer A03's, and do network backups to DVD. I don't sit in front of the box all day, but do occasionally use the interface to install new software and try new things and in runs good enough for what it does. Toast burns data DVD's w/o problems (in about 1/2 hour from a local drive), but I haven't tried to watch a movie or use iDVD with it. One great feature is that you can actually boot from the Pioneer drive, something you can't do with many other non-apple drives.

I have an IOGear KVM for my desktop systems (400MHz B&W G3 & self built 1.2GHz Athlon). I'd recommend upgrading your pc to usb & using a usb-only KVM (PS2 is for squares) as I don't know if you're going to be able to find a usb-2-PS2 adapter w/ X drivers. I've noticed that since X, however, I've been switching to the PC less and less.

[chemistry_geek]

I have a 500MHz G3 with 768MB RAM and OS X runs just fine. I think a 400MHz G4 should be alright for you, just load it up with as much RAM as you can. OS X seems to do well with more RAM. As for the OS X Aqua interface, sometimes it runs a little pokey on my machine, but most of the time it runs just fine. I don't write programs or compile on my computer since I don't know how. I suppose before purchasing any computer you have to evaluate your current and future needs. Mac OS X on a 400MHz G4 should run faster than my 500MHz G3 simply because OS X takes advantage of the AltiVec unit on G4. I've heard that dual 500MHz G4's are a dream.

To put things into perspective, a 733MHz G4 is 11X faster than my orginal 400MHz G3. This was according to Apple's website quite some time ago when it still listed the the Blue and White G3's in performance comparisons. The AltiVec unit makes a huge difference in performance when it is used.