[philippe]

I have six Macs in my home so far and zero PC. At least five are still working btw and I certainly know what I am talking about because I have used almost every type of machine you can find from handheld to mainframes, workstations some running Windows others Linux and even VMS.

They are a number of things you cannot do with a PC and that you can easily do with a Mac. Everything you can do on a PC can be done on a Mac either because the application can run in Mac OS or because if your Mac is new you can install and run Windows with it.

Macs are only more expensive if you compare them with the non brand name machines. But if you want to compare apples to apples so to speak you need to compare the price of the Apple machine with DELL, IBM, Fujitsu and alike. Apple is still cheaper than DELL (same configuration) and Apple customer support is the best you can find.

What else to say? Apple Machines (and the Mac OS) are mostly trouble free. It's plug and play right out of the boxes and you do not have to worry about viruses.

[MotoHK]

Originally Posted by philippe

I have six Macs in my home so far and zero PC. At least five are still working btw and I certainly know what I am talking about because I have used almost every type of machine you can find from handheld to mainframes, workstations some running Windows others Linux and even VMS.

They are a number of things you cannot do with a PC and that you can easily do with a Mac. Everything you can do on a PC can be done on a Mac either because the application can run in Mac OS or because if your Mac is new you can install and run Windows with it.

Macs are only more expensive if you compare them with the non brand name machines. But if you want to compare apples to apples so to speak you need to compare the price of the Apple machine with DELL, IBM, Fujitsu and alike. Apple is still cheaper than DELL (same configuration) and Apple customer support is the best you can find.

What else to say? Apple Machines (and the Mac OS) are mostly trouble free. It's plug and play right out of the boxes and you do not have to worry about viruses.

What is the all in cost once you factor in all the software add ons which you prob would not need with MSFT's OS? Example, I can get a copy of Office at Wal-Mart Teachers Ed for $99 US. I see not need to spend hundreds of $ porting it into what you can buy. Apples I seem to recall reading have display problems, paint falling off, battery explosions, etc. Like buying a Toyota and porting a real engine such as the Ford V8 into it. If Apples are in such high demand why the convergence to an Intel powered Windows OS?

[ayukobaby]

sorry im not with you. wat do you mean by software add ons i need with MSFT's OS? do i need to put in other softwares besides the Windows?
What disaplay problems? i think the battery explosion only happened wiv those old machines with sony battery? the new macs in the market shouldnt have this problem rite?

Originally Posted by MotoHK

What is the all in cost once you factor in all the software add ons which you prob would not need with MSFT's OS? Example, I can get a copy of Office at Wal-Mart Teachers Ed for $99 US. I see not need to spend hundreds of $ porting it into what you can buy. Apples I seem to recall reading have display problems, paint falling off, battery explosions, etc. Like buying a Toyota and porting a real engine such as the Ford V8 into it. If Apples are in such high demand why the convergence to an Intel powered Windows OS?

[discobay]

Dell notebooks are also suffering from overheated batteries.

[penguinsix]

Yea the batteries are Sony in both Dell and Apple I believe.

My advice is a Macbook, but I would also advise you to wait until Sept. 13. The point is that Apple has a major announcement on Sept 12 about upgrades and new models, so you could see some upgrades to the unit you want or a new model that might relieve the price pressure.

If you attend some major geek conferences, you'd be suprised at the number of Macs in the audience. A number of the Open Source/Linux shows I go to know have a large number of OSX machines as many sysadmins are buying one machine that can handle all the needs of their offices.

But it sounds like you are sold on the Mac already.

My general advice on a computer is that within 3 product cycles of that unit, you'll be looking for a new one. Cycles can run from 6-18 months, so basically every 2-3 years I end up replacing a machine. I'm on a bit more accelerated scehdule given my work, but basically I buy (for personal use) a new desktop one year, then a laptop the next, then a desktop the next, etc...based of course on availability and releases. There are exceptions. I have one laptop that I've ugraded a few times (processors, etc) because it is just a reliable tank--been through hell and back. I also end up with some systems that I can't wait to get rid of...

Try to think of your needs not right now, but over the next 2-3 years, or even 5 years if you are just looking for a machine to do more simple tasks (web, email, office, etc). Once you get into a good system of buying machines you'll find it easy to always have what you need for what you want.

[PhilE]

New Mac convert here too - Mac Mini Core Solo under the 'TV'. I also run a IBM Thinkpad for the reasons MotoHK gave although I'll consider a MacBook when it needs replacing.

The Mac is a great package - especially comparing the minimal time it takes to set it up versus installing Windows XP, device drivers, security updates, service packs, essential tools etc on the X31.

One thing not mentioned above - if you are pushing your video into a large LCD, Plasma or Projector, a Mac isn't as good quality for DVD playback as Windows. I play all my DIVX/ AVI content from the Mac OS X side apart from DVDs... when I boot into Windows to use PowerDVD - the improvement is noticeable. If someone released a good software DVD player for OS X I'd happily say goodbye to Windows.

Oh and finally - all the latest Macs have region-locked DVD drives (combo and superdrive). You either need to replace them with a 3rd party drive or use an external DVD drive if your DVD collection spands R1, R2, R3 etc...

[Lammarite]

Have you tried VLC to playback DVD's etc? iT's a stripped down player but the results are good and it plays all files.

[PhilE]

Hi Lammarite - I used VLC for a while - amazing format support for such a small program and probably the best quality you can get on OS X, but a bit of a pain to use with a remote control compared to FrontRow (even with the excellent Remote Buddy). However, I still get tearing with VLC on horizontal panning shots and sometimes poor deinterlacing dependent on the source DVD. PowerDVD is near perfect in comparison (tho others argue you need TheaterTek etc for that).

This is on a large plasma and/or a 3m wide projected image so any defects are going to be more noticeable. On a smaller LCD or regular TV it wouldn't bother me as much. I should also point out that the artefacts when using VLC don't bother my wife at all, so call me fussy.

P.S. Note that even VLC will not get around the Region locks of the Intel Macs (there are a few internet posts that suggest it will).

[alexdicker]

Originally Posted by applefan

The black one is more expensive not just because it's black. It has a faster chip and depending on which white one you're looking at, the black one also has a different DVD drive which allows DVD write. The black one also has an 80GB hard drive compared to 60GB for the white ones. Also, Macs only get fewer viruses, etc if you run the Mac OS. If you run both Windows and Mac OS, you will still be susceptible to virus attack when you're using Windows just like any other PC.

If you only want to use e-mail, surf the web, office and multi-media, I suggest you use the Mac OS. The standard email program called Mail is much more user-friendly and powerful in filtering spam than Outlook Express. But if you have to have an MS product, you can use Entourage. The web browser Safari is faster and again more user-friendly than Explorer. You can also use Firefox but I've found it slower than Safari.

Good luck with your purchase!

You do not get a gaster chip with the black macbook compared to the white unless you comparing the 1.83GHz proccessor to the black one. If you compare the white 2.0GHz with Superdrive to the black one you will find you actualy do pay for the colour even if you add the extra 20GB hard disk space to the white 2.0GHZ.

[alexdicker]

Originally Posted by PhilE

Hi Lammarite - I used VLC for a while - amazing format support for such a small program and probably the best quality you can get on OS X, but a bit of a pain to use with a remote control compared to FrontRow (even with the excellent Remote Buddy). However, I still get tearing with VLC on horizontal panning shots and sometimes poor deinterlacing dependent on the source DVD. PowerDVD is near perfect in comparison (tho others argue you need TheaterTek etc for that).

This is on a large plasma and/or a 3m wide projected image so any defects are going to be more noticeable. On a smaller LCD or regular TV it wouldn't bother me as much. I should also point out that the artefacts when using VLC don't bother my wife at all, so call me fussy.

P.S. Note that even VLC will not get around the Region locks of the Intel Macs (there are a few internet posts that suggest it will).

Hi I do not see the point in VLC for DVDs. As sasid it does have distortion in shots and also i think it is only well suited for VCDs only. As for the rest there ways to actually "crack" you DVD superdrive so it can play all regions but it is very risky and it could permanently damage your DVD drive. I haven't tried it yet because it is still under warranty and i do not want to void it.