My Month With XP.

**~~NeYo~~** · June 17th, 2002, 05:39 PM

Originally posted by xaqintosh
I'm getting very depressed by this thread, too much Pro-XP and Anti-Mac

LOL! ...Thats Because M$, are Kinda taking Steps Forward ... Well they Did, until Product Activation! lol! ... i like XP, Esp its Customizablility! *Cough*

Who knows, SP1 is pretty iminent it seems, so that Could be a fix 2 my One and only Nag!

Neyo

**Annihilatus** · June 17th, 2002, 05:43 PM

I use XP all the time and to say that it's unstable is just retarded.

I have an Duron 1100 MHz with 512 megs of RAM. I have a mouse, a graphics tablet, a USB joystick, a 21 inch monitor, a laser printer and webcam plugged to the computer at all times.

Does the computer freeze? Only if I use a TV card that wasn't certified for XP. Does it freeze otherwise? No.

I don't think any regular Mac user ever considers the fact that PC's are very regularly equipped with hardware that could be considered outdated. It's not uncommon to see a new computer equipped with a sound card that was released in 1998. Half the time, that sound card or any outdated hardware is the source of the problem.

When you want to upgrade a PC, you usually change just the processor and motherboard and you're on your way. When you upgrade an Apple, most of the time you're buying a completely new computer. It's obvious that if every single one of the pieces is approved by Apple, it'll work better. What would happen if Microsoft shipped its own PC's with only approved hardware of its own? Chances are it would never crash at all.

How many manufacturers make hardware that goes inside the PC? Several hundred. How many manufacturers make hardware that goes inside a Mac? You can count them on one hand, two to be generous.

When you're comparing a PC to a Mac, you're comparing a company that caters to billions of different configurations to one that caters to a few. If there is a conflict with Windows on a PC, it doesn't mean it affects every single PC out there. If there is a conflict on a Mac, it's easy to fix since every single iMac is identical and if you're using a tower, there are only a few manufacturers that actually make compatible hardware so it's not like you have to look for long to fix the problem.

Anyways, in the end, you have to hand it to Microsoft. They're not as pretty or secure as Apple, but they have a much bigger job to do and frankly, XP is a DAMN FINE os.

If there's trouble with XP, chances are it's the user's fault and not the OS'. Besides, if you were using a Gateway machine, you were using a machine by a manufacturer that equips its PC with the shittiest parts out there to make the biggest profit. I assemble my own PC's, as such I know I'm buying quality hardware. Quality hardware = quality experience and my XP is damn awesome to tell you the truth. Once again, it doesn't have as much eye candy as Mac OS X, but it's much faster and less expensive.

Andre

**Javintosh** · June 17th, 2002, 06:19 PM

yawn... it's like deja vu all over again (to quote someone famous)....

I remember having the Mac/Win debate with people when Win3.1 was the latest and greatest. These people swore up and down that Win 3.1 was da bomb.

Then Win95 came out and suddenly Win3.1, which these people swore up and down was a great OS, became a piece of crap. Listening to some of these people was like listening to myself when I argued with them.

Someone must have been taking notes...

Win 95, on other other hand was da bomb!

Did not hear much when Win98 came out (as it was Win95 rebranded). Did not hear much about WinNT (could anyone defend *that* with a straight face?)... but then Win2K came out...

If you are wondering how that went, just reread the paragraphs 2-4 again. Only this time change win 3.1 for Win95/98 or WinNT and change Win95 for Win2K.... but then WinXP came out...

If you are wondering how that went, just repeat the previous paragraph, lump Win2K with Win95/98 and WinNT and then exchange Win2K for WinXP.

Steve Jobs may have his reality distortion field, but at least we mac users *know* about it...

I use WinXP at work. Frankly, I don't understand what people are excited about... It is Win2K repackaged.

Come to think of it, the whole Win95/98 thing is identical to the current Win2K/XP thing.

Has my windows XP crashed? no.
Do all my PageMaker print jobs show up in the printer queue with the same exact name regardless of document name? yes.

Microblows will never cease to amaze me.

**xaqintosh** · June 17th, 2002, 06:23 PM

Steve Jobs may have his reality distortion field,

ok, I'm back. can someone enlighten me as to what the above mentioned ~ refers to?

**Javintosh** · June 17th, 2002, 06:27 PM

wow, that was a short exodus.

here's a link that talks about the Reality Distortion Field:

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...backseat.shtml

Here's an excertp for the article:

For those of you not familiar with this amazing phenomenon, it works like this. When the charismatic Jobs gives a keynote speech, everything he says comes off as powerful truth. He makes believers of us all right then and there. Sometimes the effect fades when we're away from his presence, sometimes it doesn't.

For instance, when Jobs introduced the gorgeous 22-inch Apple Cinema Display, at that moment in time, I knew I had to have one. Never mind that my wife would shoot me for buying a monitor that cost more than my car. When the CEO unveiled the Cube, I had to have one.

**Javintosh** · June 17th, 2002, 06:31 PM

actually, I found an even better quote about Steve's Reality Distortion Field:

The Steve Jobs reality distortion field is an interesting phenomenon to experience first hand. The effect lasts about 48 hours. In New York last summer I heard a fitting line to capture the feeling. A guy in the row behind me called someone on his cell phone just after the keynote ended and I heard him say, "It was great, it was just great, I drank the Kool-Aid." For those of you who don't get the reference, highlight the hidden white text that follows to reveal the answer. The reference is to the cult of Jim Jones whose followers drank cyanide laced Kool-Aid in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, too many years ago for me to want to remember. Fortunately for the Mac faithful, Steve is not deadly. ;-) It turned out to be the funniest line of the expo. And lots of people drank the Kool-Aid in San Francisco last week.

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...7.briggs.shtml

**azosx** · June 17th, 2002, 06:49 PM

bubbajim: The PowerBook G4 was purchased brand new through an Authorized Apple Reseller. Seeing as so many people have had paint problems, I'm not surprised now it came out of the box that way. As for the damaged A/C port, the box appeared to have sustained damage in the same corner the A/C port was orientated, possibly due to shipping. The styrofoam in that corner of the box was broken, yet the outer box and shipping box didn't appear to be damaged. Apple was made aware of this the first time I sent the PowerBook in for repair.

The conversation with the repair technician went something like this.

Tech: "What have you been doing with your PowerBook?"

Me: "Nothing. I've only had it back from Apple for about 20 minutes."

Tech: very rudely, "You do know you need to be ginger with these units!"

Me: confused, "I haven't had it long enough for anything to have happened to it." less than 20 minutes before the conversation, Airborne Express droped-off the PowerBook. They could see that on the package tracking.

Tech: very rudely, "I'll make an exception and fix it one more time for you but in the future you need to be more careful with your PowerBook!"

The tech was just an ass and it was obvious that the grease, scrached LCD, broken PC card slot and yet to be fixed A/C port couldn't have been caused by abuse, just poor repair workmanship.

The trackpad even came back with a horizontal crease down the middle of it, and the paint around the PC card slot eject button was missing.

I realize most of the people you talk with at Apple Support are just out-sourced technical help from some company but still, Apple should monitor them more carefully.

You mentioned Apple keeping logs, which is funny because when I was transfered to a product specialist after this little incident, she checked to see which repair tech had talked to me, then went silent, then was very eager to see I be taken care of. Possibly he was the one with a poor service record.

In any case, I still like Apple and think the PowerBook G4, despite it's subtle flaws, chipping paint, rather fragile, is still the best professional laptop on the market today. I see no reason why the replacement wont be perfect and I think my experience was just a freak occurance.

**~~NeYo~~** · June 17th, 2002, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by Annihilatus
If there's trouble with XP, chances are it's the user's fault and not the OS'. Besides, if you were using a Gateway machine, you were using a machine by a manufacturer that equips its PC with the shittiest parts out there to make the biggest profit. I assemble my own PC's, as such I know I'm buying quality hardware. Quality hardware = quality experience and my XP is damn awesome to tell you the truth. Once again, it doesn't have as much eye candy as Mac OS X, but it's much faster and less expensive.

Andre

Well, Mine Works a Charm, and Looks Great Too! ... what more can u ask for?!
i do agree tho, i'd never buy a machine from a shop, and would always build it by hand, you know what you have, and also, an inkling as to what maybe a problem, if one is to arise!

Click for Large Version!

NeYo