iMac - Filled with Rubbish

[neiltc13]

The fact I can export most to a PDF will cover this without spending 100s on Adobe Products.

There is software available for Windows which lets you export to PDF as well and it doesn't cost a penny, unlike iWork.

the added bonus of a more stable platform.

More stable is an absolute joke. Just over a year ago an iMac would be the most stable computer you could buy in its class. Since the introduction of "Leopard" though their performance and stability has gone downhill.

Some of this has been fixed by incremental software updates. However, you're going to become very familiar with this little icon:

One of the first things I show anyone who buys a Mac is that holding down the Alt key while right clicking an icon in the dock modifies the menu. This gives you access to the much needed "Force Quit" function, which is basically the same as pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL on your Windows machine and ending a process. When you see that beach ball icon, it's time to perform this!

Unfortunately, a lot of the members here never experienced Tiger so they won't be able to tell you how much worse Leopard is.

I'd rate Leopard as worse than Windows XP for program crashes, but slightly better for its implementation of how to get around them.

The problem is that Mac OS gives you very, very little feedback on what it's doing. If you want to modify something to get it just the way you want it you'll probably have to become familiar with Terminal and its Command Line interface.

I'm not saying Mac is a bad computer, I use mine all the time, but I just wish people could be made more aware of their problems when buying, instead of simply looking through the rose tinted glasses.

I made the switch to Mac in 2005 and back then with Tiger vs Windows XP (which was an unstable mess at the time) it was no contest. Windows has since improved vastly and Mac OS has gone backwards. Back then I would tell everyone that getting a Mac was the best thing they could do and I really did believe it was true. Hell, it probably was true. But these days when we have good, stable, feature rich operating systems like Windows Vista on the PC side and Windows 7 coming along too I find it hard to recommend a Mac, especially with these new UK price hikes.

But, it's your money and if you're happy spending £2000 on a machine which will give you the same performance of a PC a quarter of that price, that's your choice.

 

[elcid]

Take image editing. On Windows, you get Paint. For all the criticism it gets, Paint is an excellent piece of software which does its job admirably. It's fast, good for quick edits and is also fun too. Show me the free software for OS X that does this as well as paint does. There simply isn't one.

http://paintbrush.sourceforge.net/

Simply amazing what a google search can find.


On a side note, how do you get 1600+ posts on a Mac site when you so obviously dislike Macs.

 

[NT1440]

There is software available for Windows which lets you export to PDF as well and it doesn't cost a penny, unlike iWork.

I beleive this function has been built into OSX itself for years now.....

 

[Pyrotechnic]

Seems to be more positives than negatives on many threads, so I guess I will have to go with the majority.

 

[NT1440]

Seems to be more positives than negatives on many threads, so I guess I will have to go with the majority.

No offense, but thats really not a great way to live life....

 

[Pyrotechnic]

No offense, but thats really not a great way to live life....

I can only base my opinions on a Mac by what I read. Now there are more people on here saying they are great as opposed to saying they are shyte.

No offence taken. I guess i will be back on here within a week or two either agreeing with you or not. Time will tell. I certainly don't live life based on forum posts

 

[NT1440]

I can only base my opinions on a Mac by what I read. Now there are more people on here saying they are great as opposed to saying they are shyte.

No offence taken. I guess i will be back on here within a week or two either agreeing with you or not. Time will tell. I certainly don't live life based on forum posts

Oh I meant going with the majority in life. Here in this instance, go for it, most switchers love the choice they made.

Good luck!

 

[neiltc13]

most switchers love the choice they made.

This is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about. Where are the figures to back this statement up?

There is no evidence that "most" switchers love the choice they made because only a handful ever report their experience publicly (on the internet).

Personally, I know of at least 2 people who dislike the Mac OS interface and one of them has recently replaced his ageing 17" iMac G5 with a Windows machine because he was so tired of the hassle his Mac was giving him.

At my University we have an area with about 30 iMacs. The machines have both Windows and OS X on them, and it is very rare to see people using OS X. I asked a few of my friends why they don't use it, and aside from it not being the default startup option, most of them said it was because they didn't think it performed as well or was as functional to them as Windows.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

There is software available for Windows which lets you export to PDF as well and it doesn't cost a penny, unlike iWork.



More stable is an absolute joke. Just over a year ago an iMac would be the most stable computer you could buy in its class. Since the introduction of "Leopard" though their performance and stability has gone downhill.

Some of this has been fixed by incremental software updates. However, you're going to become very familiar with this little icon:

One of the first things I show anyone who buys a Mac is that holding down the Alt key while right clicking an icon in the dock modifies the menu. This gives you access to the much needed "Force Quit" function, which is basically the same as pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL on your Windows machine and ending a process. When you see that beach ball icon, it's time to perform this!

Unfortunately, a lot of the members here never experienced Tiger so they won't be able to tell you how much worse Leopard is.

I'd rate Leopard as worse than Windows XP for program crashes, but slightly better for its implementation of how to get around them.

The problem is that Mac OS gives you very, very little feedback on what it's doing. If you want to modify something to get it just the way you want it you'll probably have to become familiar with Terminal and its Command Line interface.

I'm not saying Mac is a bad computer, I use mine all the time, but I just wish people could be made more aware of their problems when buying, instead of simply looking through the rose tinted glasses.

I made the switch to Mac in 2005 and back then with Tiger vs Windows XP (which was an unstable mess at the time) it was no contest. Windows has since improved vastly and Mac OS has gone backwards. Back then I would tell everyone that getting a Mac was the best thing they could do and I really did believe it was true. Hell, it probably was true. But these days when we have good, stable, feature rich operating systems like Windows Vista on the PC side and Windows 7 coming along too I find it hard to recommend a Mac, especially with these new UK price hikes.

But, it's your money and if you're happy spending £2000 on a machine which will give you the same performance of a PC a quarter of that price, that's your choice.

This whole post is just comical. You got a grudge or what? What happened - buy Apple stock when it was hovering near 190?

 

[Pyrotechnic]

A change is as good as a rest they say, we shall see.

If we are looking for facts, Apple only hold 12% of the Market, so I guess that makes it a unpopular choice for a personal computer.

I shall start a new thread when mine is up and running. I am a fussy bugger and if its not doing what I want I shall certainly say so and get shut of it.

 

[NT1440]

This is exactly the kind of thing I am talking about. Where are the figures to back this statement up?

There is no evidence that "most" switchers love the choice they made because only a handful ever report their experience publicly (on the internet).

Personally, I know of at least 2 people who dislike the Mac OS interface and one of them has recently replaced his ageing 17" iMac G5 with a Windows machine because he was so tired of the hassle his Mac was giving him.

At my University we have an area with about 30 iMacs. The machines have both Windows and OS X on them, and it is very rare to see people using OS X. I asked a few of my friends why they don't use it, and aside from it not being the default startup option, most of them said it was because they didn't think it performed as well or was as functional to them as Windows.

The easily accessible (google) polls of customer satisfaction are all over the internet. Over 50% of current customers are switchers, and apples satisfaction rates are way above the competition.

 

[neiltc13]

The easily accessible (google) polls of customer satisfaction are all over the internet. Over 50% of current customers are switchers, and apples satisfaction rates are way above the competition.

Unless you started with an Apple machine and have never ever strayed anywhere else, then of course you're a 'switcher'. I'm a switcher in that case but where did you pull that 50% figure from?

I notice that the only customer satisfaction data available relates to the United States, a country where Apple's market share is markedly higher than elsewhere.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

A change is as good as a rest they say, we shall see.

If we are looking for facts, Apple only hold 12% of the Market, so I guess that makes it a unpopular choice for a personal computer.

I shall start a new thread when mine is up and running. I am a fussy bugger and if its not doing what I want I shall certainly say so and get shut of it.

"Only"? Not bad when you consider the market has Dell, HP, Gateway, eMachines, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, others. They grew their market share by over 25% from 2007 to 2008, and now rank 3rd in the US.

Wal-mart has the largest market share of all retailers - does that mean they are the best? Who's better - Marks & Spencer or Tesco? Who's bigger - Marks & Spencer or Tesco?

 

[PurpleCliff]

Unless you started with an Apple machine and have never ever strayed anywhere else, then of course you're a 'switcher'. I'm a switcher in that case but where did you pull that 50% figure from?

I notice that the only customer satisfaction data available relates to the United States, a country where Apple's market share is markedly higher than elsewhere.

Here in Australia official customer satisfaction data shows that Mac is doing very very well!
Lol I find it funny that you come to this Mac site and begin to advertise (to people who have begun to love using a computer that won't break continuously) the competition - a computer which everyone here has used, and is aware of, and pretty much dislikes. Good luck!

 

[Roofy.]

Geez, I thought this guy was going to say that iLife is rubbish. Good thing

 

[itommyboy]

iLife 09 is bloated crap. iPhoto 09 is unstable, buggy and simply slow. It is far worse than its predecessor and the only real shame is that there isn't a good alternative.

The last thing I find iLife 09 is slow or buggy. Then again nothing on this brand new 3.06 GHz iMac is. Maybe you have an older computer? Either way I find iPhoto 09 the most fun and useful version yet. The more I play with "Faces" and "Places" the more I remain blown away. And they are actually useful tools once you learn how to really use them ( a massive batch import of photo's that you want to tag with some sort of personalized identification quick and easy, for example). If you've spent some time allowing Faces to recognize your photos it works very well, saves time and is fun. Yeah sounds like a real bummer doesn't it? Once I showed my wife Faces she could not get enough of it. That option alone in iPhoto has finally made my wife a fan and user of our Mac. In fact she's taken over my old PowerBook as "her" computer now!

GarageBand has turned into yet another revenue stream for Apple.

I personally agree with you there. That being said it's my understanding that if you're a musician or into recording or have any other reason to like/need/use GarageBand - that it is really quite good for "coming with" the computer. I personally have no experience with it though.

Also, if you're looking forward to "compatibility" with standard document formats like .doc and .xls, iWork is NOT for you. It struggles with simple formatting when importing and does a terrible job of exporting to these formats.

You obviously do not know how to use iWork properly. What is hard about iWork is not being able to know how to use it and get it to do everything you want it to - within a week or two of actually using it. Supporting MS docs and all.

That 2-3 hours of removing Dell's preinstalled stuff is going to be replaced by 2-3 weeks of hoping and praying you can find software to make your computer do what you want it to do.

Somewhat true but not nearly as scary as you make it sound. Remember the first time you ever used a PC? If you're a first time Mac owner, like anything new there's going to be a learning curve. The thing about Macs is while you are exploring and having fun with all of the useful software and apps it comes with, you are learning and don't even realize it. One day (very soon might I add) you realize you know what your doing and your way around your Mac! There are some differences in everyday software that you at first may not be used to. But most anything you want to use or do or run on your Mac will or can. Do you have a library of wmv or wav files (wat why do you lol)? VLC allows you to play them. This is obviously just one example.

Take image editing. On Windows, you get Paint. For all the criticism it gets, Paint is an excellent piece of software which does its job admirably. It's fast, good for quick edits and is also fun too. Show me the free software for OS X that does this as well as paint does. There simply isn't one.

You got this one. Windows takes the cake over OSX (as it currently stands) on Paint. If your hanging on to Windows because of Paint, I commend you for holding strong to your beliefs.

My printer doesn't "just work" with OS X and there are many thousands of other models that will be the same.

This unfortunately at times can be true with macs and printers. Not all of them like Macs out of the box. But chances are it does/will work.

I had to download some third party software, some strange Unix driver extension and then the driver itself to get mine to work with my Mac.

It's not like downloading drivers is such a new thing in Windows. So on the rare occasion you find yourself downloading some support/driver wares on OSX, consider it a nice ironic reminder of just how little you have to do such mundane tasks now that you've gone Mac!

I hope that provides some much needed balance to this topic!

Indeed I thought it did.

BTW for any Windows users thinking of making the Mac switch but just can't quite make the jump because your "life" is on your PC....don't forget Macs run Windows now to - better than PC's!

 

[thebeans]

Ahhhh. How Sweet It Is!!

Ah, I read I could just plug my printer in. Surely its better to put the install disc in, providing of course it contains the correct software for the OS.

Ahh yes. I am relatively new to macs myself (last Sept or so). I remember when I plugged in my printer. Coming from the Windows world, and actually working in IT with windows in a school system, I was used to the Windows way of Found New Hardware, do you want to install, where are the drivers, are you sure, is it the default, Blah Blah... I was so shocked when I plugged the printer into my iMac and nothing happened. No questions, no "where's the driver" etc. The iMac just knew I plugged the printer in, installed all the drivers itself with no interaction from me. Nada. Heck, the printer icon even looks like my actual printer.

Enjoy your new machine. Give yourself a little time to learn how to do things that you are used to doing in the "Windows Way" and it will be smooth sailing and no looking back from then on.

 

[thebeans]

Not perfect, but....

There is software available for Windows which lets you export to PDF as well and it doesn't cost a penny, unlike iWork.



More stable is an absolute joke. Just over a year ago an iMac would be the most stable computer you could buy in its class. Since the introduction of "Leopard" though their performance and stability has gone downhill.

Some of this has been fixed by incremental software updates. However, you're going to become very familiar with this little icon:

One of the first things I show anyone who buys a Mac is that holding down the Alt key while right clicking an icon in the dock modifies the menu. This gives you access to the much needed "Force Quit" function, which is basically the same as pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL on your Windows machine and ending a process. When you see that beach ball icon, it's time to perform this!

Unfortunately, a lot of the members here never experienced Tiger so they won't be able to tell you how much worse Leopard is.

I'd rate Leopard as worse than Windows XP for program crashes, but slightly better for its implementation of how to get around them.

The problem is that Mac OS gives you very, very little feedback on what it's doing. If you want to modify something to get it just the way you want it you'll probably have to become familiar with Terminal and its Command Line interface.

I'm not saying Mac is a bad computer, I use mine all the time, but I just wish people could be made more aware of their problems when buying, instead of simply looking through the rose tinted glasses.

I made the switch to Mac in 2005 and back then with Tiger vs Windows XP (which was an unstable mess at the time) it was no contest. Windows has since improved vastly and Mac OS has gone backwards. Back then I would tell everyone that getting a Mac was the best thing they could do and I really did believe it was true. Hell, it probably was true. But these days when we have good, stable, feature rich operating systems like Windows Vista on the PC side and Windows 7 coming along too I find it hard to recommend a Mac, especially with these new UK price hikes.

But, it's your money and if you're happy spending £2000 on a machine which will give you the same performance of a PC a quarter of that price, that's your choice.

I have never used Tiger so I can't comment on how much better or worse it is than Leopard. But I can say this for a fact. I have had my iMac since last September 08. During that time it has been used literally every day except for a couple weeks when we were out of town. I can say that since we have had it, we have had one (1) "crash" that involved a program being locked up and requiring a force quit. That's right. One time.

No OS X is not perfect and Windows is not awful. It all depends on the user's needs and expectations. Having used both now though, I can say I like OS X better for a home machine for sure.

Cheers

 

[mac.andy]

There's no trash in an iMac. It's a premium computer with quality software.

Apple don't do trash like Dell and HP. What you get is functionality on a quality operating system that's less likely to be killed by malware.

As for the beachball cheap shot - it's just trash talk.

 

[Jack Flash]

There's no trash in an iMac. It's a premium computer with quality software.

Apple don't do trash like Dell and HP. What you get is functionality on a quality operating system that's less likely to be killed by malware.

As for the beachball cheap shot - it's just trash talk.

RDF

 

[sn00pie]

My OS X experience has been excellent so far. I just haven't been able to figure out why Macs slow down so much when watching videos and flash.

 

[Jack Flash]

My OS X experience has been excellent so far. I just haven't been able to figure out why Macs slow down so much when watching videos and flash.

Because Flash is coded sloppily for the Mac.

 

[dejo]

Also, if you're looking forward to "compatibility" with standard document formats like .doc and .xls, iWork is NOT for you. It struggles with simple formatting when importing and does a terrible job of exporting to these formats.

Heck, even Microsoft has problems with compatibility of Office documents across versions of their own software.

 

[EmperorDarius]

No rubbish or trialware in a new, you can be sure.

...

If there's something in which Windows is terrible is stability. From Windows, OS X and Linux the first is undoubtedly the most problematic. A lot of my friends that have switched to Macs weren't annoyed as much as they were with Windows. I don't know what's your impression, but I think that OS X is one of the most stable OSes and that saying that Windows is more stable is a joke.

 

[old-wiz]

Heck, even Microsoft has problems with compatibility of Office documents across versions of their own software.

Moving Office documents back and forth between different versions of Word or Excel is a nightmare. It's one reason why companies try to keep all users on the same version of Word!

iWork has a hard time importing different versions of Word documents as well, so it's not great either way.