System shootouts

Nice! We should keep this thread handy for when those newbies show up here asking why they should go Mac, or someone asks for information to take to their boss to justify a Macintosh purchase. Good find!
 
Going a bit off topic....but can someone explain why macs were so bad?

Apparently they triumphed in the 80's....then went bad or something?

Cna someone explain?
 
Macs didn't go bad -- they just fired the "brains" behind the Macintosh (Steve Jobs). When he made his return to the company in the early to mid 1990's, he pioneered the first iMac (along with Jonathan Ive) that brought back a lot of interest in the Macintosh.

While Steve Jobs was "gone," Gil Amelio headed up Apple computer and tried a few things that just sunk Apple lower and lower -- one was trying to license the Macintosh ROM, and that's when the clones started coming in (PowerComputing, StarMax, etc.) and doing the same thing to Apple that clones did to IBM in the 80s (basically, you could get a clone much cheaper than the original thing from Apple/IBM, so why buy name brand?). In addition to that, Gil Amelio's Apple-Macintosh computers were so convoluted with different model numbers that it made it damn near impossible to "choose" a computer! You had the 7600, the 8600, the 9600, the 8650, the 9650, the Network Server, the Performa series (which added a bunch more numbers to the end of the name), etc. Without simple names, who the hell could guess what kind of a computer a "8650" was? Or what the difference between a 9600 and a 9650 was?!

Macs never went bad -- Apple just had a few years where a moron was running the company. Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are Apple computer, and that's where the ingenuity and brains come from.

I used Macintosh computers and Macintosh clones through the Gil Amelio era, and it wasn't so bad. They were still damn good machines with damn good software, but it was much too confusing for the home user. Steve Jobs brought the Macintosh back into the home with the first iMac, and Apple's been improving ever since.
 
They died when Steve came back to Apple. Apple owns NeXT and just basically consumed it. Apple purchased the remains of NeXT along with Steve Jobs, who, to this day, retains an annual salary of $1.00. No kidding -- Steve Jobs works for an annual salary of $1.00 from Apple. Somewhere, in a box on his tax forms, Steve Jobs writes $1.00. Of course, that doesn't take into consideration his "bonuses" from the company, like a private jet and stock options worth millions.

Mac OS X takes a lot of "inspiration" from the NeXT OS. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if more than 50% of Mac OS X's code was identical to the NeXT OS's code.
 
Cocoa is almost entirely compatible with NextStep, so that should tell you that OS X shares a lot in common with Next.
 
lol. And the self-serving justification of owning a Mac continues...

Use what works for you. Why can't that be enough motivation to own a Mac?

Anyway, I build all of my PC's, can't really do that with a Mac. The Mac(s) I do own, they're all upgraded via aftermarket parts; and I just don't own a G5 yet not due to costs, but moreso because of no 3D apps are on it that I use on the PC (read: 3ds max and Softimage).

Good link if you need the aforementioned justification for your purchase.

I'm not one of those types though.
 
drustar said:
Again slightly off topic but what happened to NeXT machines? :-D
Click to expand...
As NeXT was about to make the transition from the Motorola 68040 CISC processor to the Motorola 88000 family of RISC processors, it realized that it could not survive selling hardware. NeXT dropped its own hardware line and ported NeXTstep to Intel hardware. That was the genesis of OpenSTEP, which later morphed into Apple Rhapsody. NeXT, however, did not support every conceivable configuration of che@p@$$ PC. It supported a very limited selection of CPUs and peripherals, although the user was free to provide his own support from hardware that NeXT did not support.
 
I was using such kind of arguments in a pc forum too, but Dell and Alienware are known as some sort of pretty overpriced hardware. The current Dell XPS is even more expensive than a Dual G5 2.5Ghz when you normalize the specs!
What many pc-users point out is that they can get low-budget and low-quality hardware for much less money and a very reasonable performance. Apple doesn't offer any low-quality product and can't compete with those cheap pcs. And in that point I have to underline "think different". Quality matters to me and when a pc comes to a closely equal quality like apple, then they are at least at the same price if not more expensive.
 
That's the worst site design I ever saw.

Honestly, as a graphic designer, I wouldn't show that site to anyone, even to prove a point.
 
Zammy-Sam said:
Apple doesn't offer any low-quality product
Click to expand...
It would be naive to believe that Apple doesn't cut some corners. Take for example the 56K modems in any Mac machine, be it laptop or desktop. Those modems have been heavily berated by journalists and users. I myself got broadband as soon as possible just to avoid having to use those horrible modems again. This is how bad it was: I turned my PC into a proxy server just so I can surf on my iMac.

Are you forgetting the recent laptop battery recall? How about all those complaints about white spots and dead pixels on LCD screens? I give points to Apple on overall design and presentation. Everyone will agree that Macs look pretty. But they miss points on the little things, like those I mentioned above.

And no I'm not being totally critical of Apple, every hardware company has had at least one recall on one of their products. So I'm not putting down Apple as a hardware company, I'm just *not* holding them to a higher esteem above the rest.
 
What's wrong with the modems? I've never had any problems with them except for the fact that they are dial-up and are slow. They are based on the commonly used Conexant chipset (that's what the Linux drivers say btw) which are used by practically all laptops these days and some desktops.

So what could possibly be wrong with them?
 
No, we've all had various problems with Macintosh computers -- but to have a problem with a modem, then turn around and say that all Mac modems are crap is going overboard. Having one problem with a DVD player then saying all Macintosh DVD players don't work right is wrong.

If he has a legitimate problem with a Mac, that's one thing. But to make a blanket claim such as "Apple modems aren't good" is just FUD.
 
hulkaros said:
Come on Viro... Ignore Lycander! It is the usual FUD from him :rolleyes:
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Nice to see you too Hulkaros.

Alright fine, in the interest of peace-making, I'll step down a bit. No biggie. I based my initial statement at "all Mac modems suck" on #1 my personal experience, and #2 an article published on www.theregister.co.uk That website is arguably biased against the Mac, furthermore the writer of said article was using the PowerBook with the problematic modem in Europe. Am I to insult Europe and say their phone lines suck? So which will it be: offend a userbase or offend an entire continent? Heck I think I may have even offended dial-up users too in that post.

What about Convert's post about Alienware machines looking horrible? At least Alienware boxes aren't beige. So is he spreading FUD? Look, we all know that both camps throw mud at each other (Mac vs PC, endless debate). I've reached a point where I don't like any computers anymore :eek: All the bad things people say about PCs are true. And all the bad things people say about Macs are also true. These are machines, made by men, they're bound to have problems and there is no perfect utopia so get over it, and don't get so defensive.

I've been hanging around here because I just want to keep things in check and hope people have a grasp of reality. I'm saving up $$ cha-ching to buy a new Mac. Maybe I'm just fishing for excuses: both reasons why, and why not to buy another Mac.

And if I get to be too much just have a mod delete my posts and/or ban me. Better than insulting me by disregarding my words to be unimportant.
 
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