System shootouts

Lycander,

Dude, chill. The only problems I've had with my modems in either Powerbook or iBook is getting them to run under Linux since there aren't any OSS drivers for them. The only driver that supports these modems are the Linuxant drivers and these cost.

TheRegister (and The Inquirer) are basically the tabloids of computer publications. I ascribe as much authority to them as I do regular tabloids. ;)

I agree with you that there are some Mac users who aren't grounded in reality. But the same thing can be said about Windows and Linux (especially Gentoo) users as well. Most of us here are fine with criticism of Macs, it's the nebulous criticism that get's labelled FUD. Criticising the way the Alienware PCs look is fine, since that's a taste thing. Many have criticised the new iMac G5 (myself included). Criticising Apple laptop displays is fine since the original poster told us the criteria he/she was basing judgement on.

On the other hand, making somewhat vague statements like Mac modems suck but then providing no examples of why they suck just screams FUD. Claiming that an 800 MHz iMac drops frames while playing DVDs smells a lot like FUD.
 
I like to be difficult, what can I say.

The thing about my modem was it would never hold a connection longer than 10-15 minutes. Long enough to grab system updates, but not enough to be productive. Update after update, each one promising to fix the modem issue but never did. I became bitter towards the "It's a Mac, it just works" slogan.

I actually enjoyed using my Macs when I had them, in fact I'm trying to get back in this platform. Went to my local apple store to scope out a new iBook or maybe something better. But I never really meshed well with the Mac crowd and that's what's really holding me back. Call it a social defect, I just can't run with this pack.
 
Hmmm... did you experience similar results with different ISPs, or was this experience exclusive to one ISP? And also, how many Macintosh computers have you owned that exhibited this same problem? Without variance of those two things, it certainly is FUD to say that "all Macintosh modems suck."

In reference to the "Mac pack," I completely understand. There's one guy in my C Programming class that wears hemp necklaces, has the 70's shaggy-bowl style haircut, wears leather sandals every day and brings his 15" PowerBook to class. He spouts off at the mouth like he knows what he's talking about, but comes off sounding ignorant. Everything that comes out of his mouth is either "Apple" or politics, and he doesn't know the first thing when it comes to politics. He and Mr. I Drink Starbucks Every Day And Shop At The Gap And Old Navy and Banana Republic All The Time sit next to each other, and have absolutely nothing in common other than their passion to degrade the image of the common Macintosh user further than it is, but somehow that's enough to cling to each other like an elite 2-person society.

Believe me -- I hate nothing more than the stigma of some preppy-granola VW-driving Starbucks-drinking Barnes & Noble-frequenting latte-sucking "I think I'm a born-again hippie" Liberal know-it-all arrogant son of a bitch that has become the image of a Macintosh user. We used to be different thinkers. Now we're a bunch of fake-ass hypocritical sellouts.

And yeah, http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46230 is FUD. I think it's apparent by the responses he's getting.
 
Off - On topics

on the systemshootouts.org, why didn't they choose Apple Works (since it came with the system) as Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation and Database ?

On - Off topics

In my country (Malaysia), we do still use modem in rural areas where broadband is not covered. So again, thanks Apple for not excluding the modem and i had no problem using the modem.
 
Appleworks doesn't come with all Mac systems. AFAIK, it only comes with the iBooks, iMacs and eMacs. My Powerbook didn't come with it (thankfully) and so I had to buy MS Office.
 
@Lycander & gerbick:
Saying in general that Apple this and that sucks YES it is FUD... What is it that you don't understand? :rolleyes:

For example a "legitimate" Apple "sucking" problem would be the PowerBook batteries... Then again, they are offering a free exchange... While the problem is a "suck" one, the solution clearly isn't! The problem alone doesn't give ANYONE the right to state the Apple's PowerBook batteries do suck!!! :mad:
 
hulkaros said:
@Lycander & gerbick:
Saying in general that Apple this and that sucks YES it is FUD... What is it that you don't understand?
Click to expand...
then I can call the serious amount of FUD I see when people post that "WINDOWS SUCKS" and it's all based on either a friend of a friend or some real limited usage/knowledge?

face it. the Apple Mac is a tool, and it's only as good as the people that use it. I've had a couple of upgrade issues with iTunes 4.6 (had to purge all of my music, rebuild my Library.xml, and then restore my iPod - all to only have to help out 4 friends with the same problems) as well as 10.3.5. Sure... it's cute to say "have you repaired permissions"... duh. Already done that, but as a total stranger, you'd not know my aptitude level. So it's ok.

But wow... I've not had a crash in Win2k3 for over a year. WinXP, I've had one in one year (I hate that OS, btw)... and I was really pushing that OS with that one - 520mb Photoshop file and 3ds max in the background rendering something with only 1gb of RAM... not smart. And I've had a critical crash on 3 servers with Win2k to the point where I switched to all Linux/Mac OSX at my house for over a year until I needed to do some 3D - and I wasn't in the mood to emulate (too slow) or re-purchase (3ds max and Softimage ain't on Mac anyway, so besides being too expensive)...

I've not had a virus since 1996 really - one other time in 2000, but that was to test a network containment as part of a demo for a product we developed - and yet my Cube decided to crash last night for some who knows reason.

But, I'm not gonna fly off the handle and say that "all Apples suck, crash, won't peel my potatoes..." or whatever. But yet the moment somebody says something negative at this site - and I do have to say that the "all Apple modems suck" verbiage could have been worded up a bit differently - and it's considered FUD!?

Get over it, not all people will see your beloved computer purchase or platform in the same way as you. Hell, I'm starting to think I'm the oddball here because I don't praise it, but I sure as hell do like the Mac. Just not into the whole territorial stake out over the MacOS like most others here tend to be sometimes.

Sheesh. Why even allow discussions if different opinions aren't welcome?

That's the part I don't get :rolleyes:

All I did was ask a sincere question on how that was FUD. El Diablo explained it rather eloquently, and I didn't post a retort because he was that clear. I thank him for that, seriously.

Anyway, you'll be ok. No need to catch feelings over something you purchased with your money, and I had zero to do with any of that. And vice versa.

Toodles darling.
 
Of course this thread's subject is prone to becoming a flamewar, and we don't want that (see board rules). So I'd say we'll have to keep on the topic of that website.

I personally think it's _good_ to have such a website bookmarked. You'll sometimes meet people who have those clichés in the back of their minds that Macs are more expensive under any circumstances. If I meet someone like that, be it online or IRL, I tell them the price of the cheapest iBook. After they _grasped_ that there even exists such a cheap Macintosh model, we can start talking for real. Sure, the PowerMacs aren't exactly the cheapest computers one can buy, but they also aren't aimed at the cheapest people out there. And it just _may_ be that the person you're talking with does fall through the grid of Apple's products (hardcore gamers, for example, won't find a PowerMac nor an iMac very attractive...). But then that's that. Such a site still helps, because those people can look at it and lower the bar for some people to switch to a Mac.
 
Oh and about Lycander's question of what he _should_ have said about those modems: Nothing. Nothing in this thread at least. This thread is not about modems and it's not about the quality of modems. Bringing the quality of Apple's built-in modems to this thread is a) going off-topic (majorly even) and b) it was kinda trolling (which is against board rules, but it wasn't _that_ much trolling that anyone would have had to interfere). But the answer to Lycander's question, I quote "Am I to insult Europe and say their phone lines suck? So which will it be: offend a userbase or offend an entire continent?" The answer is: Neither. Nothing. Just don't talk about the quality of built-in modems in a thread about a site comparing PCs to Macs. If you have a real problem with the quality of Apple's modems, find or open a thread in the opinions forum. That easy. :)
 
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