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Why should I buy a Mac?

P

pedro nicoli

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 2, 2006
50
0
Brazil
now is the change for all of you to convence me that a apple notebook is better then a windows notebook...hehe

I'm a photographer, and the mobility provided by a notebook to me is priceless.
but i need power to work with large image files.

I was on the way to buy a Macbook, but...
i'm a PC user for all my life so far, but i do use macs on my work.
so far, photoshop has been great on my desktop pc, exepc the time i have to format it due virus infections and windows bugs(that only happens cos my sis and my father use the same pc as me)
If I have a notebook for myself i guess those problems would barely happen.

so...why would a mac be better? (macbook vs other coreduo notebooks)
if u say cos it doen's crash...well, lets face it..it does crash..and most of times we don't know why.
my apeal to the macbook is cos it's defnely the best desgin out there, and Apple marketing make us believe that apple is better for image processing so I fall into that category..hehehe

but...sometimes i like to play games (but i'm no Hardcore gamer, just sometime to relax)


so...please guys...help me to decide...heheh
trow your opinions here
 
They're both PCs, so they will both run Windows -- so you can play all the games you like.

But only the Mac will run Mac OS X effortlessly, and all the nifty little apps Apple include work.
 
Do you enjoy using your macs at work? Don't you find that they crash less often and run far more smoothly without viruses and spyware? This alone seems like a great reason to buy a mac... photoshop and of course iPhoto run on macs. Macs are excellent at autodetecting usb and firewire cameras you plug in. Your mac won't turn into a spam sending zombie or become a whore for spyware. The time saved by not reinstalling windows, cleaning up spyware and viruses, and constantly resetting the computer was enough of a reason for me to buy a mac. Well, to buy two actually :D

P.S. - No stupid AOL or Yahoo toolbars automatically installing themselves. And no system tray full of stupid useless programs to run on startup.
 
Since you need Photoshop I'm going to be honest and say at the moment a Windows notebook is probably better for you than a Mac. IMO this will be the case until Adobe get off their a$$es and release the universal version of CS for OS X. Should this stop you buying a Mac? Probably not since you can dual boot or run Parallels. So it really comes down to your personal preference, I have a MacBook Pro here and I'd never consider another notebook. I love this thing. Nearly everything I use is either an Intel or universal binary, the stuff that isn't I just run in Windows via Parallels Desktop and it works perfectly. As soon as the OS X versions go universal I'll remove Windows and Parallels.

As for your comments about Macs crashing well my MacBook Pro HAS NEVER CRASHED so I don't know where you got that idea from, having said that most Windows notebooks I've used work perfectly too.
 
Other notebooks in this price range generally don't come with a dedicated graphics card, either, so it's not like the MacBook is crap in comparison with the competition.

You can also buy a Mac and just run Windows XP 100% of the time if you want. ;)

It's also a very sexy machine.
 
Here are my pointers, coming from another photographer.

--- Adobe has Lighroom Beta out only for Macs at the moment. One of the best RAW workflow programs out there. Apature is a mess at the moment, wait till the Final Cut Pro team have their way before considering that program. Did I mention the beta is free until January 2007? :D
It will be a while until the PC beta comes out...
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

--- Adobe develope their programs for Macs first. Adobe software tend to run faster on Macs than their PC equals. Although right now I'm unsure if CS3 (First Adobe CS to be released as Universal Binary, 2nd Q next year) how that will turn out but my bets are they run faster compiled for Mac OS X.

--- As harsh and superficial as this is going to sound its very true, first impressions last. Apple == Design. They go hand in hand...
If a client sees that you are using an Mac to do your photography then they have their minds settled that you are actually serious about your work. Unfortunatly this doesn't happen with PCs.

--- Blackbook is supurb! Looking at digital photos with Lightroom and a Blackbook is sweet! It acts as a frame for your photographic works.
 
nickel said:
Here are my pointers, coming from another photographer.

--- Adobe has Lighroom Beta out only for Macs at the moment. One of the best RAW workflow programs out there. Apature is a mess at the moment, wait till the Final Cut Pro team have their way before considering that program. Did I mention the beta is free until January 2007? :D
It will be a while until the PC beta comes out...
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

--- Adobe develope their programs for Macs first. Adobe software tend to run faster on Macs than their PC equals. Although right now I'm unsure if CS3 (First Adobe CS to be released as Universal Binary, 2nd Q next year) how that will turn out but my bets are they run faster compiled for Mac OS X.

--- As harsh and superficial as this is going to sound its very true, first impressions last. Apple == Design. They go hand in hand...
If a client sees that you are using an Mac to do your photography then they have their minds settled that you are actually serious about your work. Unfortunatly this doesn't happen with PCs.

--- Blackbook is supurb! Looking at digital photos with Lightroom and a Blackbook is sweet! It acts as a frame for your photographic works.
Click to expand...


So, as a photographer, do you think the glossy screen will afect my work? i mean, won't the pics looks sooo more saturated then in real life then when i print it, they'll be washed out?

PS: I know this kind of thread is always showing up, but i had to ask it.
this Mac x Pc issue is realy killing me.

I do enjoy using Mac, but i also use Skype with webcam a lot, and MSN...
Is there any apps that works fine doing webcam chats between mac and PC? (this is kind of crussial to me..hehe, I chat with my GF by skype all the time)
 
Sun Baked said:
They're both PCs, so they will both run Windows -- so you can play all the games you like.

But only the Mac will run Mac OS X effortlessly, and all the nifty little apps Apple include work.
Click to expand...


This is perhaps one of the best features of the new Intel based Macs- the ability to run Windows & Mac OS X. :)
 
What I like about Mac laptops?

1) MacOS is just so much more stable, seriously even on my old Thinkpads it is such a bitch reinstalling Windows. And I do like to keep my computer *clean* at all times, but Windows just tends to f*** up so easily

2) Superior suspend to ram support. Nothing suspends and resumes better than a Mac notebook! Window's equivalent is pathetic at best.

3) Well.. that's about it really, it looks cool :p

Mainly I'd go for a Mac laptop for 1) and 2). Don't need heavy computing on the road anyway, and there is nothing a Mac laptop can't do that a PC laptop can.

Edit: And in comparison to other PC laptops, the hardware/software integration of macos really shines through. This aspect is not as apparent in desktops, but for most laptops where you see tons of third party drivers and helper apps clog up your system tray, a mac equivalent is simply bliss!
 
pedro nicoli said:
So, as a photographer, do you think the glossy screen will afect my work? i mean, won't the pics looks sooo more saturated then in real life then when i print it, they'll be washed out?
Click to expand...

If you're really concerned about how photos will turn out and colour saturation, you need to calibrate your screen. SuperCal is a free app that'll take care of the job, although it's not perfect. It's still better than nothing, mind you.

I calibrated my screen using a program called Gretag MacBeth. It's like $300 or something in US dollars, I think. I don't know. It's probably cheaper in the US.

Every pro requires a properly calibrated screen. It's just a fact of life when using LCDs. Video and photography professionals use it. I do some amateur photography, and my friend designs magazines for money from 2 regular clients. If you don't calibrate, then neither a matte or glossy screen is accurate.
 
pedro nicoli said:
I do enjoy using Mac, but i also use Skype with webcam a lot, and MSN...
Is there any apps that works fine doing webcam chats between mac and PC? (this is kind of crussial to me..hehe, I chat with my GF by skype all the time)
Click to expand...

Skype with video for Mac should be out very soon. There's already an unofficial beta floating around that supposedly works well. In the meantime, Yahoo Messenger supports webcam chats from Mac<->PC, as does iChat (via AIM).
 
pedro nicoli said:
now is the change for all of you to convence me that a apple notebook is better then a windows notebook...hehe

I'm a photographer, and the mobility provided by a notebook to me is priceless.
but i need power to work with large image files.

I was on the way to buy a Macbook, but...
i'm a PC user for all my life so far, but i do use macs on my work.
so far, photoshop has been great on my desktop pc, exepc the time i have to format it due virus infections and windows bugs(that only happens cos my sis and my father use the same pc as me)
If I have a notebook for myself i guess those problems would barely happen.

so...why would a mac be better? (macbook vs other coreduo notebooks)
if u say cos it doen's crash...well, lets face it..it does crash..and most of times we don't know why.
my apeal to the macbook is cos it's defnely the best desgin out there, and Apple marketing make us believe that apple is better for image processing so I fall into that category..hehehe

but...sometimes i like to play games (but i'm no Hardcore gamer, just sometime to relax)


so...please guys...help me to decide...heheh
trow your opinions here
Click to expand...


There are no Mac viruses. Period. Zero. Zip. None. There is one trojan but it is so rare your chances of getting it are practically zero and you actually have to deliberately download it and install it and it's not even written properly so it doesn't do what it is supposed to.

There are no Mac viruses in the wild, so you will not have to deal with virus infections.


You can install Windows on the MacBook, and have both Mac and Windows installed- hold the Option key to start in Windows, and boot normally for Mac. It works very well, and you can still use your old programs. But the operating system, Mac OS X, is so much better than Windows, it is worth buying the hardware just for the OS.

It rocks.
 
mduser63 said:
Skype with video for Mac should be out very soon. There's already an unofficial beta floating around that supposedly works well. In the meantime, Yahoo Messenger supports webcam chats from Mac<->PC, as does iChat (via AIM).
Click to expand...

Does it happen to support iSight?

Cos I have this impression that very few third party apps do that apart from iChat.
 
I have one very good reason.

On every mac......

There is a wonderful.....

Picture of an......

Apple.....

:D
 
So, as a photographer, do you think the glossy screen will afect my work? i mean, won't the pics looks sooo more saturated then in real life then when i print it, they'll be washed out?
Click to expand...

Most PC laptops today have shiny screens. The saturated colour doesn't do that much harm since you never get the colour you want from screen to paper anyway. Unless you use a system like Pantone.

At work we use Color Spyder2s to calibrate the monitors so that at print time they come out as accurate as possible although there are times when the colour doesn't match. What you have to remember is these issues are on both PC and Mac.

If you use MSN try Adium. There is an Mac version of MSN but I find Adium gives more flexability if you have many different IM accounts.
http://adiumx.com/
 
generik said:
Does it happen to support iSight?

Cos I have this impression that very few third party apps do that apart from iChat.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried it myself, but quite frankly I'd be shocked if it doesn't. It's a new application and although they're not good about keeping feature-parity between Windows and Mac versions, Skype has been good about making a real Mac application.
 
Resources

I am in no way a photographer however, being both a PC user and a Mac user, the Mac wins hands down. Having just purchased a Toshiba s4004 laptop (Core Duo, 1GB of RAM, 100 GB, integrated 128 MB vRAM) it is not as responsive as the laptop in my sig. Combine with two other facts: 1. you obviously want a Mac since you are posting on a MacRumors website :); and 2. it took me three hours to remove all of the crap-ware on the Toshiba and make sure the anti-virus/spyware was set up correctly. I guess my best possible advice would be if you want a cheap laptop, PC's are the way to go and if you want something that will be better in the future (when CS3 comes out, no spyware/virus' yet) buy the Macbook...

Apmonia
 
There are many reasons, but i think that most of them have already been stated, so im just going with the simmple answer: THERE AWSOME:D
 
i'm 99.9% into a macbook, but...
i still want to be sure that stain and moo issues are gone..hehe

i'll probably go with the 1.83 with 1.25gb Ram. (i wont miss the DVD burner ..cos 4x sucks!)

but then again...is apple going to release the 64bits processor soon?
should i wait?
 
pedro nicoli said:
i'm 99.9% into a macbook, but...
i still want to be sure that stain and moo issues are gone..hehe

i'll probably go with the 1.83 with 1.25gb Ram. (i wont miss the DVD burner ..cos 4x sucks!)

but then again...is apple going to release the 64bits processor soon?
should i wait?
Click to expand...

Intel is planning to release Merom, a mobile 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor, in August/September. When Apple will put it in the MacBook, don't ask me.
 
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