I'm a Mac geek and proud of it. Why?

reed

reed

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This is old hat I know. And this is not a poll. Can you folks out there just give us a thought or two? For the fun, what.Thanks.
 
I'm a Mac geek and proud of it because it is a joy to use. It's really hard to put into words but the experience, or rather the "Macintosh Experience", is just a breath of fresh air compared to anything else I use. On the PC, I mainly use Linux and I love it, but even still it doesn't come close the the joy I get from using the Mac. Not that the experience on Linux for me is a bad one, but it's jsut different than it is on the Mac. It's a well designed and well thought-out operating system and environment that suits me well. And I've been using Macs since the early 90s! Actually, I first used one in the late 80s but I was young and all I did with it was use MacPaint. However, even then the user experience was a joy on that old Mac Plus compared to anything else I used (which at the time, almost every other operating system was command line, be it MS-DOS, PC-DOS, AppleDOS 3.3, ProDOS, or whatever).
 
nixgeek.
Thanks for your thoughts. Seems to sum it up. Good way of looking at Mac as well. We started on a Mac IIce (with a 21" screen. Weighed a ton....but great for desktop publishing. Double page, what). Printer even more so. All was grey. Long before your time. It only gets better and better I think. Despite all. No?

Ps. I followed the directions. Very good.
 
Part of the reason I love being a Mac geek is the frontier feel of the platform. I like having to research answers and solving problems that haven't been seen a thousand times over.

In fact it is that same feeling that makes me love working in Rhapsody, OPENSTEP and IRIX. I enjoy working without a net. Knowing that if I run into problems, the only person I can turn to is myself to solve them. I enjoy that type of challenge.

I also enjoy documenting solutions. Smaller communities appreciate that type of thing more than larger ones. I'm sure I would have no fun doing the type of site for Windows that I currently do for other operating systems.
 
It's funny. I would never think of myself as a Mac geek. For a long time I was a computer geek. Fixing drivers, registry issues, all that junk.

With the Mac I never really feel that I am constantly troubleshooting or working on computer issues. I am doing what I want to be doing. Some mundane tasks, some web stuff, and a lot of photo work.

So is that what a Mac geek is? realizing you are a geek cause you are doing real work instead of fixing problems that get in the way?
 
When I said geek...I really meant "those who are very very fond of Mac." But you folks know that already. Always a group apart. That is what I like. Also...I like the idea of Racer X..."If I run into problems, the only person I can turn to is myself to solve them." Also, Limike28 with "cause you are doing real work instead of fixing problems that get in the way." Brilliant. Macs are good for that. I'm no geek and I still have a thing or two to learn but what I like the most is not only the solidarity (this site for example) but the "politics."
Terrific.
 
A lot of people talk about a simpler, more efficient OS when they refer to Macs compared to Windoze.

I don’t think that holds water any more. Classic was simple. Unix is quite complex for non-geeks. What’s more, Windows XP is OK(ish) and serves most people quite well.

What makes the Mac so good is the visual experience, of crisp graphics & fonts and a much tidier layout.

I hate the Dock. I’d give my right arm to have the Apple Menu back. But that’s just a little gripe.

I spend most of my working day with a PC. It’s just great to come back home and use a Mac.
 
rhisiart said:
A lot of people talk about a simpler, more efficient OS when they refer to Macs compared to Windoze.

I don’t think that holds water any more. Classic was simple. Unix is quite complex for non-geeks. What’s more, Windows XP is OK(ish) and serves most people quite well.

What makes the Mac so good is the visual experience, of crisp graphics & fonts and a much tidier layout.

I hate the Dock. I’d give my right arm to have the Apple Menu back. But that’s just a little gripe.

I spend most of my working day with a PC. It’s just great to come back home and use a Mac.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree with you on the Mac OS efficiency thing. Consider that NeXTSTEP was an attempt to bring Unix to the masses...bring the robust platform to normal users without them EVER having to use the CLI. We see a refinement now with OS X, and it does just what NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP did...bring Unix to the masses without ever having to open a CLI. And I've been an actual Mac user since the System 6 days (I don't count the time I was playing around with that Mac Plus and MacPaint).

As for the Dock, I've gotten used to it. It's actually made it easier for me to close out of apps since I now go down there and Ctrl-Click on the icon to quit out or do other tasks. My only issue with it is that it takes up some desktop space, but that's it.
 
i am a mac geek and love it. how many people can say they added a shutdown keyboard shortcut to their mac plus running 6.0.5? i did (resedit was my friend, once i figured it out. just wish there was something as easy to use for os x). other things i did with that plus, well, maxed the ram so that i could create a ram disk with the system on it so that i did not have to do the disk swap. and talk about boot speed, i have never seen any computer start that fast! i also ran 9.2.2, 10.1.5 and 10.2.8 on my ppc7500, once i had 10.2, i never went back to os 9. now on my g4, the only geeky thing i have done is forced verbose at every boot, like seeing all the text better then a grey apple. i think all this unix stuff on my os x is cool, i just need to learn how to use it all.

btw-you know there are ways to kill the dock, and there are a couple apps that give you the apple menu back (fruit menu is one i think). but i just got useed to the dock, and love it now. i have managed to make it useful, and sidebars in finder windows. with the two, i have what i need. besides, the maginfacation thing the dock does is sooo cool!
 
nixgeek said:
I have to disagree with you on the Mac OS efficiency thing. We see a refinement now with OS X ...bring[ing] Unix to the masses without ever having to open a CLI.
Click to expand...
I can see your point. Unix is a gold standard and perhaps Apple was right to exploit it for the benefit of consumers. I don't think I used the word 'efficient' wisely, as Unix is clearly efficient.

However, Classic was simpler and this suited a lot of people, most of whom were put off by Microsoft's arcane and mind-baffling operating system. With Classic one could even dare to venture under the bonnet/hood. This simplicity was lost with MacOS X.

nixgeek said:
As for the Dock, I've gotten used to it. It's actually made it easier for me to close out of apps since I now go down there and Ctrl-Click on the icon to quit out or do other tasks. My only issue with it is that it takes up some desktop space, but that's it.
Click to expand...
Just ignore my whinging. I just have a few gripes about the Dock. The fact that you can't lock items (that really bugs me), that it takes up desktop space, that the trash can is part of it .... ad nausea. Sorry, I am being a bit of a bore in this topic.

I now use TransparentDock to lock items but it is a little time consuming to use. It would be much simpler if any items placed in the left side of the dock remained locked in place and could only be removed with alt+shift.
 
Yes, Classic was simpler especially compared to what was out there at the time, but it was horrible at memory management and multitasking. As much as I love Classic for its simplicity, it really hurt the OS especially once Windows took off after Windows 95.

Mac OS X brought a lot of what the older Mac OS was missing in terms of robustness, while keeping the simplicity in place. As an old Mac OS user, I find Tiger to be as usable (if not more usable since I don't deal with window clutter anymore) as Classic ever was. And you can still get underneath and mess with the OS, except that it's in a different manner (UNIX).
 
I suppose that I am just nervous about lifting the bonnet/hood.

[Have I got this right - the hood is what you lift in North America to see the engine?]
 
TommyWillB said:
When I'm on a PeeCee I feel like I am "working".

When I'm on a Mac I feel like I am "playing".
Click to expand...


I can attest to that. Even when I'm using my work laptop that has Ubuntu on it, as much as I love it it doesn't do it for me like the Mac does. Incidentally, I use my iMac G5 for my music and it's just a joy to use. I still haven't built up the desire to actually connect the Linux PC for music use with my synths (I have LMMS installed which is a GarageBand clone for Linux...so far, it works great but the thought of having to configure MIDI on that isn't making me smile). :p
 
I am a Mac geek, and have been since a kid with my Apple IIg. My reasons, at first were because it was different than anything else. Most of my friends marveled at my computers, and I liked idea that I had something so advanced. For example, my Mac SE would talk, the other kids thought that was so cool.
Now I like my Mac, because it is reliable, and of course a joy to use. I get so much done on my Mac, and it never gets tiresome. The PC experience for me is out of necessity and the annoyances that go with it. The Mac is fun to use, Apple actually puts thought behind their products, and for the most part listens to their customers.
Even today, I like the idea of going to a meeting, and opening up my PB. Everyone else has drone PC laptops, ugly black plastic boxes. I open my PB up, and everyone sees the Apple logo light up, I feel like that kid again :cool:
 
powermac said:
Even today, I like the idea of going to a meeting, and opening up my PB. Everyone else has drone PC laptops, ugly black plastic boxes. I open my PB up, and everyone sees the Apple logo light up, I feel like that kid again :cool:
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I know exactly what you're talking about. :D While I do plan on getting a MacBook Pro in the future, I have to deal for the moment with my work laptop. I usualy take my laptop to my night class and other's also take their laptops. One day, I was working away on Ubuntu during the class when I heard an all-too-familiar startup sound. ;) I instantly had to look and see where it came from. Apparently one of my classmates had turned on her PowerBook G4 for use in the class. Man was I jealous! :D Of course, one of the guys had to come down on her a bit for using a Mac, but I got her back. :D Hopefully sooner than later, she and I will have a Mac startup duet going in the class with out Mac laptops. :cool:
 
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