New to Apple - Very Disappointed

[Chrispy]

To be honest, I think the Intel Mac's are more prone to software issues from my experience. The transition will be worth it in the long run, but right now we are experiencing some growing pains, IMHO. You just jumped in at the wrong time if you're expecting the perfect experience that most of us talk about - most likely regarding our PPC Mac's

This is what I was going to say. My roommate has a macbook and she has all kinds of little quirks throughout the day. My G5 PowerMac is rock steady. The only thing it has done is it unexpectedly quit iMovie 06 the other day but that happens from time to time with iLife apps I have noticed. Other than that, it got stuck during shutdown once so I just held in the power button for 4-5 seconds and all was well. I really think the Intel macs are just having some issues at the moment.. things will get better.

 

[alnikopol]

I had that same digital signature failure... I ended up downloading it directly from Apple's site. I heard they pulled the original 10.4.7 download, so maybe that is the cause.

Thanks for the advice, I was going trough it anyway when I've read your post. Unfortunately this didn't work as well. Is their site being hacked?

 

[zac4mac]

/dev/toaster - Is that battery from an MBP? If so, is it an early one? There was/is a "silent recall" on the early batteries due to widespread failures - I had one too. After about three weeks, I was down to 5-15 minutes of life on a "full" charge. Apple sent a replacement and I sent them the bad one. No muss, no fuss.

Other than being hot as a toaster, my MBP(2.0GHz/100GB-7200rpm/1GB CTO) is an awesome machine, often outpacing my G5DP2.0 revA desktop Mac. And it plays Half-Life2 like mad on XP.

 

[bankshot]

My brand-new Intel Dual Core MacBook acquainted me with the Mac world via a Kernel Panic the second time I've booted the machine, and a total system freeze just after making the software updates. Now I'm following your advice, installing the OS from scratch. But I must say I've expected something elese from a Mac.

This sounds rather like a hardware problem. If it weren't, then every machine (as they are identical) would exhibit the same behavior upon initial startup. Obviously they all don't.

First thing I'd suspect is the memory. Bad RAM is fantastic at causing kernel panics and freezes. It also could explain digital signature check failures you reported later. Test your memory by following the Testing RAM guide.

 

[alnikopol]

This sounds rather like a hardware problem. If it weren't, then every machine (as they are identical) would exhibit the same behavior upon initial startup. Obviously they all don't.

First thing I'd suspect is the memory. Bad RAM is fantastic at causing kernel panics and freezes. It also could explain digital signature check failures you reported later. Test your memory by following the Testing RAM guide.

Seems your intuition was right. After running the Apple Hardware Test in loop mode, an error in the memory was found after 30 minutes. I would have given Memtest a try, but I couldn't get the system up, so I had to stick with AHT. Thanks for the help.

 

[chairguru22]

What did shock me was the inability to try different settings in the setup process, it basically asked for some simple settings and then came back with an error. To mess with the security settings and the rest you had to start over actually inside os x, not exactly a great start.

i agree with you on this point. a lot of the settings seemed really simple and basic and even dumbed down.

 

[dpaanlka]

I haven't had a blue screen of death in about 3-4 years. XP is fairly stable. On another note my MBP crashed hard yesterday. It would freeze 5 sec after a reboot. I was able to save it in safe mode however.

I'd really like to see one of these rock-solid PCs one day.

 

[Demoman]

I'd be disappointed if I was in your shoes too- I'm hoping my macbook purchase in a week or two is a positive experience or I shall have to return to the world of windows.

I wonder reading many of these 'horror stories' how many are true. I am convinced some are disinformation. Regardless, based on my own observations, the odds of you having a bad experience are pretty small.

I have developed software since 1982 and am now an IT manager. I bought my first Apple right after Panther was released (4 years ago?). My company gave me $10K as a bonus to buy any technology I wanted. I was dabbling in video editing, so this seemed like a good choice. I bought a PM G5 2.0 x 2 and tricked it out. I also bought 2 23" Apple Cinema Displays.

It took me a few days to figure things out well enough to feel comfortable, although I quickly went to a 3 button mouse. This is the same computer I am typing on right now. It has NEVER crashed. I have had a few applications terminate and/or hang. But, these have been extremely rare and I have always been able to kill them when necessary.

Since that time, I have added a 2nd PM Quad, a Mini (wife) and a PB G4. The only issue I have had with them is the PB would not boot after the 10.4.6 update. Apple tech support was outstanding. The problem was easily solved.

I have a large family and they all had computers that were continuously being eaten alive by viruses. I got very tired of rebuilding their systems for them. I tried a couple Linux installs, but they hated the Linux OS/desktop. So, now they ALL have Apples (mostly iMacs) and everyone is happy. Most only needed iLife and iWork. I bought Office:Mac for two that needed Excel.

I also make all of the IT purchases for my company. We now have 15 Mini's, 5 iMacs and 2 PM's. To run our windows-based applications, the Mac's run them using Citrix. We have had zero problems. If Apple had a competitive product to Excel, included with iWork, I would probably be at 80% plus with Apple.

So, what I took a long time to tell you is if Apple had issues beyond those one would expect, statistically my experiences would not be possible. And using OSX is pure joy. Sure, there is a short learning curve to cover the basics. There is a much longer learning curve to really discover the full features of the marvelous OS. It is the best, hands-down!

One piece of advice I would offer to anyone upgrading to Apple for the first time, especially those with high-technical skills in Windows, Linux or Solaris; just be a little patient. Do not think you can just fire up an Apple and have the same competency. It is really just a matter of adapting to some new terms and understanding the layout. After that, it will all fall into place for you. But, do not allow yourself to get tunnel vision for doing things the MS way. You will miss many of the powerful features of OSX.

 

[cb31]

As this therad has reappeared and being the original poster I thought I'd give an update.

Plus points
With an extra gig of ram making 1.5Gb it is much snappier, well recommended.
Love automator
Still love the design
Spotlight is amazing, use it all the time, even for launching apps
It is fast and multitasks well
Sleep is great
Expose superb

Minus points
After a sleep my network shares to my server PC never re-attach. Very annoying, if they are connected automatically at boot time why wouldn't I want them after a sleep? Crazy
Driver support a bit lacking. My canon scanner only has drivers for PPC OSX not Intel. Not necessarily Apples fault but annoying nonetheless.
Can't get my canon printer to share out to my pc. The pc can see it but never prints, maybe another driver issue again.
Applecare support is worse than useless. Calling regarding the network drive and scanner I may have well called MacDonalds. Indian call centre that knew nothing and kept me on the phone for ages telling me completely irrelevant things.

Overall it is very positive and I will be getting a mac laptop next year when the Santa Rosa chipset and Robson cache is available, assuming they sort out the heat issues - I can't see the point of having a laptop that you can't comfortably put on you lap.

However I haven't completely switched. I will also be buying a new PC server next year running Vista for the home entertainment facilities. I will have a couple of digital tuner cards in it and use it as a music/video/storage system for the whole house. Come on Apple give me an alternative!

 

[generik]

I'd really like to see one of these rock-solid PCs one day.

It is already here, it is just not called a "Mac" or an "Apple"

1) Buy a Dell for half the price
2) Install Ubuntu
3) Enjoy the next year with no whines, no reboots, not even the 4 viruses that MacOS has, and no heat issues.

Oh, and by the way if you drop your Dell and has the Dell equivalent of Applecare, they will fix it for free.

These guys have used Macs since before you are born, now they are gone..

Want to know why? Sorry, but using the sorry EULA in MacOS trying to foist people into buying inferior hardware for twice the money and receive half the service can only cut it for so long.

 

[solvs]

After a sleep my network shares to my server PC never re-attach. Very annoying, if they are connected automatically at boot time why wouldn't I want them after a sleep? Crazy

Drives me nuts too sometimes. I dragged the shortcut to my Dock so when it disconnects I can just click it and most of the time it'll just open back up. Sometimes you have to reautheticate, but I have my password saved and it seems to work ok for me. Sometimes sleep kills my net connection too, but that happens on my XP laptop too, so it might be the crappy router.

 

[andy89]

I feel sorry for you guys, I have been using macs for years and years and the only problem I had was a HD die in a g3 (but I havn't got any intel ones yet, so that may change)

 

[RacerX]

I wonder reading many of these 'horror stories' how many are true. I am convinced some are disinformation. Regardless, based on my own observations, the odds of you having a bad experience are pretty small.

I don't know how many of these are true stories, but I can tell you that I wish even a fraction of these would start happening to my clients. I really had a lot more business (with fewer clients) back in the Mac OS 9 days.

While I personally enjoy using Mac OS X, it has been a real damper on the service side of my business. In the last six months I've done mainly system setups and upgrades, I haven't had more than a couple calls that required more than pointing the person in the right direction over the phone.

I guess Apple doesn't ship any of these nightmare systems to Minnesota.

 

[dpaanlka]

It is already here, it is just not called a "Mac" or an "Apple"

1) Buy a Dell for half the price
2) Install Ubuntu
3) Enjoy the next year with no whines, no reboots, not even the 4 viruses that MacOS has, and no heat issues.

Oh, and by the way if you drop your Dell and has the Dell equivalent of Applecare, they will fix it for free.

These guys have used Macs since before you are born, now they are gone..

Want to know why? Sorry, but using the sorry EULA in MacOS trying to foist people into buying inferior hardware for twice the money and receive half the service can only cut it for so long.

I would have to be a complete nerd, have zero intention of doing anything important, and also have no sense of style to trade in my 17" PB and Tiger for a Dell running Ubuntu. That setup is as far from being a serious consideration as you can possibly get. I actually chuckled at the thought for a moment.

 

[RacerX]

3) Enjoy the next year with no whines, no reboots, not even the 4 viruses that MacOS has, and no heat issues.

I enjoy that type of stability now with ten times the functionality of any Linux distribution.

And to date there are no Mac OS X viruses... there have been a few poorly executed attempts at trojans, but little else.

But you are right about one thing, if I set one of those systems up it would most likely be completely trouble free... unused and trouble free.

 

[dpaanlka]

But you are right about one thing, if I set one of those systems up it would most likely be completely trouble free... unused and trouble free.

My thought exactly (see above two posts).

 

[dextertangocci]

As this therad has reappeared and being the original poster I thought I'd give an update.

Plus points
With an extra gig of ram making 1.5Gb it is much snappier, well recommended.
Love automator
Still love the design
Spotlight is amazing, use it all the time, even for launching apps
It is fast and multitasks well
Sleep is great
Expose superb

Minus points
After a sleep my network shares to my server PC never re-attach. Very annoying, if they are connected automatically at boot time why wouldn't I want them after a sleep? Crazy
Driver support a bit lacking. My canon scanner only has drivers for PPC OSX not Intel. Not necessarily Apples fault but annoying nonetheless.
Can't get my canon printer to share out to my pc. The pc can see it but never prints, maybe another driver issue again.
Applecare support is worse than useless. Calling regarding the network drive and scanner I may have well called MacDonalds. Indian call centre that knew nothing and kept me on the phone for ages telling me completely irrelevant things.

Overall it is very positive and I will be getting a mac laptop next year when the Santa Rosa chipset and Robson cache is available, assuming they sort out the heat issues - I can't see the point of having a laptop that you can't comfortably put on you lap.

However I haven't completely switched. I will also be buying a new PC server next year running Vista for the home entertainment facilities. I will have a couple of digital tuner cards in it and use it as a music/video/storage system for the whole house. Come on Apple give me an alternative!

If you want to share a printer with a mac and a pc, you must have bonjour for windows installed on the pc. Just download it, follow the instructions of the installer, and your pc should be printing a a few minutes

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/62822

 

[netdog]

However I haven't completely switched. I will also be buying a new PC server next year running Vista for the home entertainment facilities. I will have a couple of digital tuner cards in it and use it as a music/video/storage system for the whole house. Come on Apple give me an alternative!

If you are buying it next year, you might want to see what Apple puts forward as a media server/hub. My guess would be that it will be introduced in January at MacWorld, and will probably be 64-bit. There may (or may not) be some clues in August when we find out about the new extensions to ship with Leopard. Of course, like MS, they may also choose to roll out Leopard Media Edition in January, and hence we wouldn't then have many indicators in the August Leopard announcements.

YMMV, but I have found Windows Media Player for Vista to really be crappy. Then again, Front Row is equally crappy.

 

[netdog]

If you want to share a printer with a mac and a pc, you must have bonjour for windows installed on the pc. Just download it, follow the instructions of the installer, and your pc should be printing a a few minutes

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/62822

I think he is saying that Canon has not made a driver to work with his Intel Mac, which would be rather pathetic. My HP WiFi LaserJet, originally bought to work on my PC network, works perfectly with the Macs. Bonjour, however, won't get his printer and scanner going if Canon hasn't gotten a proper driver built.

 

[alnikopol]

I don't know how many of these are true stories, but I can tell you that I wish even a fraction of these would start happening to my clients. I really had a lot more business (with fewer clients) back in the Mac OS 9 days.

No mate, the problem seems to be just with the Intel Macs, and only with some of them. In fact, rumour has it, at least in Germany, that the white ones are more proned to be buggy. We bought 3 of them and the other two seem to behave so far, it's a little bit of a lottery here, I guess. So your past experience with the Macs has nothing to to with these things. Mac still has a good name, and it will keep it, if they'll address the current problems fast enough.

 

[generik]

My thought exactly (see above two posts).

Sorry, I just don't enjoy playing russian roulette with my purchases. Be it I walk into an Applecentre, or mail order one, or get it from the online store, but I really fail to see why the experience of receiving the consignment from Apple should be filled with dread rather than tingling with expectation.

 

[generik]

No mate, the problem seems to be just with the Intel Macs, and only with some of them. In fact, rumour has it, at least in Germany, that the white ones are more proned to be buggy. We bought 3 of them and the other two seem to behave so far, it's a little bit of a lottery here, I guess. So your past experience with the Macs has nothing to to with these things. Mac still has a good name, and it will keep it, if they'll address the current problems fast enough.

That's a big if mister... Remember the PBG4 from last year, oh right, still not resolved.

 

[benthewraith]

Never a Blue Screen or crash in 3 years??

Have you ever actaully turned on these windows machines??
Thats awesome if you have gotten those results, but I have never heard of such a thing

Surprisingly, I've never had these screens with my Dell. I've had Firefox crash a bunch of times, but never had the Blue Screen of Death. Then again, I only used Office, IE7 with security raised a bunch, etc. I never used Photoshop, but now I'm using GimpShop (Photoshop CS 2 clone). For a period of time I did have Paint Shop Pro, but that's nowhere near CS2.

One thing I dislike about iWork is that the more I type, the more the program begins to lag. However, I expect this to go away when I upgrade to 2 GB for my birthday.

 

[plinden]

Surprisingly, I've never had these screens with my Dell. I've had Firefox crash a bunch of times, but never had the Blue Screen of Death.

But have you ever had unexpected reboots? Maybe not, but many people forget what the default behaviour on an XP system crash is.