My Month With XP.

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themacko

Barking at the moon.
I converted from a Windows user to a Mac user in August of 2001. I got myself an iBook 500 after my PC was stolen out of my dorm room at the end of the previous semester.

I used that iBook the entire school year and I loved. I vowed I would never go back to a PC as my personal computer. We all know the reasons why.

Anyway, as this Spring semester came to a close I decided that I needed more from my computer. More hard drive space, a cd burner and a faster graphics card for Wolfenstein. So I sold my iBook in preperation of getting an iMac at the end of this summer.

I am now living back with my folks while I wait for my friends lease's to end (we're getting a place together) and I have been using my father's Gateway PC with Windows XP for the past month and a half.

It wasn't much of a problem at first .. then the little annoyances started. Internet Explorer crashes and wants to send an 'error report' at least once a day. The entire machine crashes once a week, on at least one occasion it crashed on me four times in twenty minutes. I went completely ape and almost threw the monitor out the window.

Norton Anti-Virus and Firewall continually bothered me about protective maintenance. Not to mention, if I had more than 5 programs open at once (ie; WinAmp, Word, Explorer, Acrobat and AIM) the computer seemed to grind to a hault.

This is not a slow computer, either. In fact, it is a rather new Pentium 4 1.4 GHz with 256 mb ram.

To top it all off, over the weekend his computer literally died. It began re-starting itself w/o any warning and loosing all sorts of data. It has now been at our local 'Gateway Country' store for 3 days with no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

In conclusion, when I get my new computer in about a month, it will definately NOT be a PC. I actually concidered one when my father almost got me a Sony VAIO laptop .. but I would rather spend my own money on a computer that would work the way I wanted it to, than get a free XP box.

I am actually quite bored in between summer classes today, so feel free not to respond. Just thought I'd take part in the whole 'switch' thing that's going on. I guess I can call this, www.apple.com/stay.
 
I think I speak for the entire Mac OS X community when I tell you that I feel sincerely sorry for you about your entire MONTH havbing to use nothing but Windows, and I am grateful it wasn't me :D

edit: ok, some of the Mac OS X community
 
hmmm, i'm sorry to Hear of your Misfortune with XP, and the PC! Personally, i share a Very Different View, all except one thing! ever since early Whistler BETA's, there was Some Conflict between Nvidia GPU's or Namely the Detonator Drivers, and XP! almost everytime i load a Game, requiring 3D hardware Accelertion, XP will lock up, and after insisting XP doesn't Just Restart, but Give me a BSOD, i came to the conclusion that it was the Nvidia / XP relation ... the term "nv4_disp.dll" was the cause for ALL BSOD's! this is something i have Found VERY annoying, as its been around for over a year, with no fix from either M$ Nor any set of Detonator's from Nvidia!

However, besides this little Mishap, which occurs merely randomly. i can honestly say, XP Works pretty much a charm!
As you all know, my XP has had Considerable vital System Files hacked, and So forth, but it remains to work Perfectly, alongside a good 10 or More Apps, which add Eye Candy or mac like Objects to the Computer, totalling, 300mb or so RAM in use, on idle! i do have 768B inside, which seems to help Considerably!

Despite the praise i have for Microsoft's BEST OS, i to, am planning to move to Mac, for a few reasons, and Should get my iBook (500) back real soon! (We started alike, "themacko" :D). :D

NeYo
 
I bought a Cube last year for a discount price when they were discontinued and loved it. Being a PC user for over a decaded, this was something new and exciting, especially with OS X. The Cube had it's share of problems. It liked to turn on by itself at times and would freeze completely on a gray screen at boot for no apparent reason. I sent it in to Apple and they fixed it under warranty and has run near flawless since.

Now the time had come to replace my Dell laptop that had been running flawlessly for about 3 years now. The warranty was almost up so I decided to buy a PowerBook G4. It arrived several days after ordering it, unfortunately, out of the box it had peeling paint, a black mark across the underside near the battery, and a non functioning A/C port. I'm a pretty forgiving person, I run a business and understand these things happen so I called up Apple and they were nice enough to "make an exception" to fix the cosmetic defects and would repair the A/C port under warranty.

To my surprise this took 3 weeks, and when I got my PowerBook back, a brown greasy substance was oozing from the LCD hinges, covering the keyboard, screen and top and bottom of the PowerBook. A 5 in scratch ran across the top left of the LCD and the A/C port was still not functioning. "Ok" i thought, "it looks like they've been using it to change car tires for the last 3 weeks, lovely." I called Apple immediately and explained the condition my PowerBook came back in. While on hold I was holding the PowerBook and for no other reason than boredom, depressed the PC card slot eject button. Amazingly, it would not reseat into the machine. One more thing to add to the list of growing problems. Next, a repair technician came on the phone and acussed me of mishandling the unit and causing these problem. He then said he'd make an acception to fix the damage one more time. Rather pissed off by now I called back and was transferred to a product specialist, she was very nice and put my unit on a loop to insure it would be fixed in the least amount of time. When they got the laptop for the second time now, they mistakenly opened it up under the wrong case number so it again took nearly 3 weeks to fix. Oh, did I mention, I'm a college student well into summer session and have had no laptop for over a month?

So the PowerBook comes back, A/C port still is not functioning and now the unit has a distinctive rattle when picked up. Kind of like a screw is tumbling around on the inside of the machine. Atleast I'll never beable to mistakenly identify my PowerBook should the need ever arise.

I called back the product specialist who helped me get the repairs "expedited" and told her my problems. She tried to convince me that the A/C port was normal and the rattle I hear is common with all PowerBooks. Basically she blew me off, no longer wanting to deal with this issue.

It's pretty sad I had to go out of my way, take this thing across town to a Certified Apple Repair Center and have them tell me what I knew all along, the machine is broken.

These guys were awesome, they told me this was total BS, that by now Apple should be replacing the unit and what I should say to them to insure this happens. They also told me to have Apple call them if any problems should arise.

Apple is in the process of replacing the PowerBook. After a month and a half and having dropped several grand on something, I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

In anycase, I can relate to your PC woes, just with a Mac instead. Am I never going to touch a Mac again, no, crap happens. I guess some of us are just more open minded than others.
 
Ok. I switched. From Mac to PC. At first I felt sad about it. But now after a month of using my machine I can say that this Machine ROCKS!!! I love it. I LOVE MY MACHINE!

But I hate the OS!

Loc at my sig. there you can find my specs. The Ge-Force Ti 4 is just awesome! All games I ever wanted (for over 12 years of mac use) run fast as s...! With 6x FSAA turned on, Antisotropic Filtering and so on and so on... I bought everything over the internet and got everything in 24 hours for about 1200€! Im sure it will kick every Macs ass in games and co.. I dont often use Photoshop and stuff. So this machine just rocks!

One thing about the OS. I worked with OS X for over 1 year. less then 30 days with XP. And I can say that XP is crap. Related to OS X it just................. No I cant find a word for that. Just bad. In that time I found out how to deactivate the "Oh, your computer crashed. Lets talk to microsoft about it. Please put down you personall life" - dialogs. It crashed in this 30 days 3 times. (Because the Ge-Ti 4 is new and the drivers suck)


Ok, the moral of all this???

I hated PCs. I used to call them PeeCees. And I would like to say that my mind changed totally! I love my PC. Because I had to build it up from the ground I feel like having a "baby". :p :D This Machine has incredible power. And with all the equippment it shipped with (BLUETOOTH!!! ONBOARD!!!) it kicks the digital hubs ass by far!

BUT

All this power is nothing without a good OS which can use the full potential of your machine. XP is the best System Micros... has? Cool. But its shit. I would really love OS X on my machine. That would be just great.

As I'm writing this I'm using Win2k and it works flawlessly.I like the way the Explorer is integrated into the system. Whereever you are you can just type an adress into the window and 2 secs later it opens it. (Its so much faster in Internet things!)

So what did we learn???

XP sucks but PCs are good. I dont thing Apple would do such a big mistake If the bring X to PC. :eek:


(Sorry for bad english, language, spelling, word and all the other bad stuff in this text)
 
themacko...maybe you dont know of to use a PC...:rolleyes:
i have 5, Some with XP Pro and some with 2000 Pro, i have non of the problems you have....:D
 
I'm getting very depressed by this thread, too much Pro-XP and Anti-Mac

:(

edit: I have left this thread for good
 
xaqintosh: There no need to worry. Just step out of this thread and pick the plethera of threads out there that are more cheerful:D .

Back to this thread though... azosx: I can't believe that Apple would do such a thing unless there was reasons to suspect something.. I'm not saying you did anything to the unit or displacing blame, but I am just indicating that sometimes a conversation can go the wrong way. Once that was done they keep that info in a consumer log and any future conversations w/Apple tech will bring up your previous encounters with them.
I am in agreement with you though and would have not even accepted the fact that they sent a scratched up unit in the first place (Is the unit new or refurbished?) Though the joyage was long and hard, I think none the less you will enjoy your laptop.
 
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! :D

Neyo
 
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
 
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. :rolleyes: Someone must have been taking notes... :D

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... :cool:

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. :D

Microblows will never cease to amaze me. :cool:
 
wow, that was a short exodus. :D

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

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0011/02.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.

:D
 
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/0101/17.briggs.shtml
 
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.
 
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! :D
Click for Large Version! :D



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

Microblows will never cease to amaze me.


Why is it when a PC user notes a positive experience with Windows there's always an offensive Mac user ready to belittle him? The truth can probably be found in the reverse of this senario as well.

Every platform, whether it be Mac, Windows, or UNIX has their pros and cons. It's absurd to think one is better than all the others at everything. To lock yourself into using just one is a shame.

For me I find my PC with Windows 2000 Advanced Server to be the best solution for my desktop computer at home. I'm hoping to find the PowerBook G4 to be a better mobile solution than any Wintel laptop on the market. I have a Cube and 15" Studio Display as well, and others in my house prefer that.

Do I run over to them and make fun of them for using the Cube? No. Is flaming over who's hardware and software counter-productive? Yes.

If I based my decision to use a specific platform on one or two bad experiences that every anti-Mac and PC user seem to do, there wouldn't be a computer in this world I'd feel right about using.
 
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