Mac Or PC

[Macdemon]

You didn't go for an iMac then???

[flatcat]

A good choice

I'd always go for HP/Compaq

Though I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather have an Apple if they could afford one (over a PC) :p

[David 8]

Though I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather have an Apple if they could afford one (over a PC) :p

Errr me :p

[slider]

Though I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather have an Apple if they could afford one (over a PC) :p

must admit I have never used an Apple (except SWIMBO's iPad which I can't get excited about)

[flatcat]

I suppose they are a bit flashy, and hard to use with anything else

But they are so cool

['daiking']

(except SWIMBO's iPad which I can't get excited about)

You've clearly never played zombie gunship

[Babs]

Errr me :p

Me too!

[Raf_]

Me too!

And me!!

[flatcat]

What, so you would all rather have a pc than a Mac or Macbook! :wonder:

[David 8]

What, so you would all rather have a pc than a Mac or Macbook! :wonder:

Yeah, why not

[flatcat]

Oh, on my own then! :p

I'd never buy one as they are too expencive

I'll stick with my Compaq!

[gac]

Though I don't know anyone who wouldn't rather have an Apple if they could afford one (over a PC) :p

Me. Although it's not that I don't want one, I'm just waiting for the current fad to pass so that I can buy one without everyone instantly thinking I'm a smug arsehole, as they're the only kinds of people I've ever met who use Macs

[j0hn]

....I can buy one without everyone instantly thinking I'm a smug arsehole, as they're the only kinds of people I've ever met who use Macs

And designers

We have an iMac and for ease of use of design software (CS stuff mainly), they do seem to be best.

It's wasted on me - I use my £300 laptop for Internet, iTunes and emails although if I got serious about home recording, the mac would be the obvious choice.

[gac]

True, but in our case they're smug arseholes as well. For example, our web designers use Macs. So they send us out some CSS templates which didn't work on our standard corporate PC image (due to rendering differences between IE7 and Safari). I asked them for help, and just got "well it works for me, so I can't really help" and that was it. Not even an offer to borrow a PC to try it, and fix the rendering for corporate desktop users on campus (so, like, 95% of our computer fleet and the only supported operating system). In the end I found the dodgy bit of CSS, fixed it, and let them know what the fix was. But the next time they sent us anything it was broken again, just because "it works for them".

And that's not to mention the number of times I (as IT support) have had the following conversation:

"I want to buy a Mac"

"OK, but they're unsupported, and since no one will buy me one to learn on, I know literally nothing about Macs"

"That's OK, I'll support myself, because they just work. I won't need any of your help"

......time passes......

"I wondered if you could just give me a quick hand with something"

"Yeah, OK"

"My Mac won't.....but you can fix that cos you know about computers, right?"

Really annoys me the number of times people will say "I won't need your help". Which is perfectly true, UNTIL it doesn't work, and then they're suddenly all over me and get arsey when I say "I told you so"

[Aspman]

(l)user - "I wanna iPad"

me - Give me a business case to justify it over a cheaper supported windows laptop

(l)user - "......"

Never had a reply yet other than "just because".

There is a possibility that we might get Iphones at some point in the future but only because they're easier to control (for now) than Androids. And they'll be so hobbled the user will wonder why they've asked for it.

My in-laws picked up a pretty good deal on a Lenovo desktop with a 20" screen in Currys the other week. Nothing fancy but will do them for a while and just as cheap as online.

[gac]

We've tried that. Someone came in yesterday wanting to buy an Asus laptop which is blatantly designed for lounge use at home (18.6" HD screen, big speakers, etc). My boss refused to approve it because it's not from a uni-approved supplier, it's not a supported model or even an approved manufacturer, and costs £1900. The guy in question flounced out saying "I think you're just being very difficult and very childish about this, I'll go to [head of department] and get him to make you approve it."

As far as I know, head of department has now approved it, and what he says goes even if it flies in the fact of our departmental purchasing policy/procedure, which are slowly becoming not worth the paper they're written on.

[Aspman]

With us if your Head of Service will sign off on something like that then IT will not support it other than to reformat it and stick it on the domain. So right now if you come in with your wizzbang Windows 7 64bit úber laptop the only way you're getting to use it is to have it reformatted to Windows XP and if it breaks it's your problem. Oh and I'm going to encrypt it with something really feckin difficult to use too.

Using your own hardware is coming and it's not necessarily a good thing for the end user.

Products like Excitor DME and Good For Enterprise will get used first so user can use their own smartphones.

[Waplord]

Actually i have in the past 2 years primarily moved my computer use at home from pc's to macs, initially i bought the iMac as i wanted to try a machine that was a bit different but since getting the Macbook Pro too I'm really enjoying using computers a lot more, i find it really hard going back to my work laptop sometimes when i've got things like gestures so ingrained.

[Mort]

And that's not to mention the number of times I (as IT support) have had the following conversation:

"I want to buy a Mac"

"OK, but they're unsupported, and since no one will buy me one to learn on, I know literally nothing about Macs"

"That's OK, I'll support myself, because they just work. I won't need any of your help"

......time passes......

"I wondered if you could just give me a quick hand with something"

"Yeah, OK"

"My Mac won't.....but you can fix that cos you know about computers, right?"

Really annoys me the number of times people will say "I won't need your help". Which is perfectly true, UNTIL it doesn't work, and then they're suddenly all over me and get arsey when I say "I told you so"

I usually get it the other way round with any of my calls to our IT support:

"I need the IP address of the exchange server so I can set up mail"

"Go into outlook..."

"No, I have a Mac. I just need the IP Address"

"Sorry we don't support Macs"

"That's ok, I just need the IP..."

"Sorry we can't help you with Macs"

"I don't need your help, I just need the IP address"

"Sorry, we don't know anything about Macs"

"I do though, and I can set it up if I just have the IP address"

"But we don't support Macs"

...goes away and wastes a day with network utilities guessing IP addresses and exchange setups...

[SnailUK]

My mum is a die hard Apple addict, yet somehow, she manages to break every single piece of Apple kit she gets, if theres a known fault with an Apple product, she will have experienced it.

Apple products do seem to be very good at doing the basic stuff very well. Products seem perfectly designed to do what you need to do, but the moment you venture outside the pretty exterior, its always a pain in the parts to find out whats wrong.

It does seem PC owners aren't willing to pay the extra money for a piece of software as well designed as a piece of Apple stuff, so you either get cheap functional stuff, or stuff like MS Office, that is very good, but tries to do everything ever, and thus becomes cumbersome.

Me, im a geek, so i prefer Windows.

[mannyo]

I switched from Windows to Mac 18 months ago, and currently sit here in the office using a Macbook Pro surrounded by windows workstations.I run all my day to tasks in OSX, but have a Windows 7 VM running for some support tasks that cannot be achieved in OSX.

You can do everthing windows can much easier in OSX.

I have a 27" 2011 imac at home for home use.

[ukcruiser]

I ran PC's when i was younger... i Have a BSc Degree in Computer Science...

... But you'd have to prise my Mac's out of my cold dead fingers!

I have an iMac in the office, and a MacBook Pro for when i'm on the road - Yes, Ok, so I'm a full time Photographer, and yes, the Mac is the best operating system / complete package that offers me what i need.

Ok, yes, i have an iPad too, which is used for client meetings etc. I also shoot wirelessly to it when i'm in the studio as i find it's easier than shooting to the MacBook for Clients.

If i had the funds, i would not consider a PC in the future - All of the components are made to work with one-another, not like a PC; a random box of random stuff made by multiple manufacturer's with an Operating system on it which (albeit almost a copy of Mac OSX) has to try and control all the different hardware components from many, Many different suppliers. - Yes, it's cheaper, and the competition between manufacturers is the reason why. (And they dont have the sex appeal of a big Apple logo either)

Al.

[gac]

I usually get it the other way round with any of my calls to our IT support:

"I need the IP address of the exchange server so I can set up mail"

"Go into outlook..."

"No, I have a Mac. I just need the IP Address"

"Sorry we don't support Macs"

"That's ok, I just need the IP..."

"Sorry we can't help you with Macs"

"I don't need your help, I just need the IP address"

"Sorry, we don't know anything about Macs"

"I do though, and I can set it up if I just have the IP address"

"But we don't support Macs"

...goes away and wastes a day with network utilities guessing IP addresses and exchange setups...

Yeah, times like that I wish I worked for a proper company with rules which were enforced. As it is, we have various "policies" that can be bent on a whim. The guy in question has sent a pretty ****ty email to my boss now accusing him of bearing a grudge, being dictatorial, etc. So eventually, he's probably going to get his own way, then start acting all smug about it because he's got his whizz-bang Asus laptop and we'll not be allowed to touch it to flatten/reformat it to a corporate standard. And then he'll come back with it full of viruses, trojans, spyware, and because it's a University computer, I'll be expected to fix it. It's nonsense, really

[drcarlos]

Corporate VDI makes having a company supplied and supported laptop irrelevant. All you need for VDI is a browser and a plugin and away you go, no special hardware needed.

This is also a Skoda forum so falls into the more sense than money area for the Apple argument, after all Apple is just PC hardware in a fancy shell running a skinned version of BSD Unix.

Carl.

[gac]

Our users (at least in our department) often have a need for local computing power though. Simulation of radio properties of wearable antennas down to sub-micron levels, etc. Yes, it could be done on a farm of VDI servers but IMO they get quicker results locally with dedicated CPUs, plus better graphical performance. There's a thin client project going on, but really it's going to be targetted just at clerical staff.

That's quite apart from the fact that I wouldn't want any non-standard machine on a work network in whatever insecure state it may be in. Yes, the VDI browser and plugin is all they need for work, but I don't want their copies of Limewire and KaZaa and all the "videos" they've downloaded in .exe format for home running rampant all over the place...