I have joined the dark side

[Cadaverous Pallor]

With how buggy Vista is, I kinda wish we'd made the same move, but we couldn't resist the fact that we could spend far less and get much more storage and speed.

[Alex]

I'm curious what buggy you're having with Vista. I've been running it for quite a while now and haven't run into a single one and at one point had the machine running for 48 days before a software install required a reboot.

I do like the concept behind the Mac that NM bought and when we moved recently I did look into something similar for PC without success (we've gone back to computers in the living room). But in looking at it in person at the Apple store I don't care for it visually in person. Something about it just looks toylike to me.

Plus, the irony would ignite the house if, now that Lani has made the big switch from a lifetime of Apple usery to PC, I were to go the opposite direction.

[Moonliner]

You are dead to me now.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Alex

I'm curious what buggy you're having with Vista. I've been running it for quite a while now and haven't run into a single one and at one point had the machine running for 48 days before a software install required a reboot.

The biggest issue we've had is with the photo gallery, especially as to how it deals with networked served image files. It's more performance inefficiencies than bugs, per se, with extreme lag despite no network congestion. However the keyword tagging through Windows photo gallery does seem to be buggy, but that may again be related to the general network/sync problems it seems to have. The OS is overall sluggish and tends to hang up on context switching between users. A 3 year newer, significantly more powerful machine is performing like (or worse than) our old laptop. It's frustrating.

We're also running Vista on the server machine, which doesn't see much day-to-day use from us users, and with that I've been very satisfied. It has never crashed and, as you said, requires reboots only for updates.

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by Alex

But in looking at it in person at the Apple store I don't care for it visually in person. Something about it just looks toylike to me.

Curious about what led you to think that, as it was quite the opposite for me. The real aluminum fascia, aluminum stand and glass screen with piano black bezel made it look more solid and industrial than any other consumer PC product. The cheap-o plastic cases that IBM-clone makers are still using really eventually drove me away.

It was the visual quality of the iMac, especially the new Al one that really sold me. That and the aluminum keyboard is pretty trick too. A couple PC makers (Sony & Gateway) have tried to develop a similar solution, but they don't match the performance of the iMac and still lack the elegance of the Apple design.

And I am certainly no fanboy of apple. I am one of the few that god forbid thinks the iPod has flaws.

Cherny - Yeah. Apple for some reason, even with an Intel-based chip, can't seem to manage decent game performance. I don't get it. But, I haven't played a computer game since college so it didn't weigh heavily into my decision.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by NirvanaMan

Cherny - Yeah. Apple for some reason, even with an Intel-based chip, can't seem to manage decent game performance. I don't get it. But, I haven't played a computer game since college so it didn't weigh heavily into my decision.

Chicken and egg scenario. Because it's historically not a game system, no one is spending much time, money, effort to develop for it, even if the system architecture might be catching up/have caught up to PC.

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Chicken and egg scenario. Because it's historically not a game system, no one is spending much time, money, effort to develop for it, even if the system architecture might be catching up/have caught up to PC.

Well that's the odd thing. Now that you can run Windows on a Mac, you can run PC games. But they don't perform well. And the system architecture is actually stronger for less money than comparable all-in-one pc systems nowadays.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by NirvanaMan

Well that's the odd thing. Now that you can run Windows on a Mac, you can run PC games. But they don't perform well.

That much isn't surprising at all. It may be more similar to PC architecture, but it's still got plenty of proprietary stuff that is not optimized to run PC-programmed software (or, from a different view, PC-programmed software is designed to take advantage of different efficiencies than are available in Mac hardware).

[ozron]

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that this discussion left me in the dust long ago. (He said, confidently typing away at his ten-year-old, Windows 98-equipped Gateway PC) My experience in this debate is purely anecdotal.

The decay of my marriage can be traced to the day my wife bought her first Mac. Suddenly, I found myself in a mixed marriage, like a Mormon married to a druid. Her new circle of friends was strange to me - insular, elitist, superior and not a little stand-offish. Their commitment to this equipment bordered on fanaticism. I was baffled. It was just a computer!

Suddenly she and I spoke different languages. She had extensions. She was unimpressed by my ability to right-click. We rarely interfaced. The whole experience left me with an undeniable axiom.

A PC is a tool. A Mac is a lifestyle choice.

Damn cult.

(I now remove my tongue from my cheek before I hurt myself )

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Chicken and egg scenario. Because it's historically not a game system, no one is spending much time, money, effort to develop for it

I disagree with the poultry assessment. Back in the old days, Apple was deliberately game un-friendly. They were directly responsible for the lack of Apple games and it's only snowballed since then.

I too am a gamer and have no use for a Mac. In addition, I absolutely despise the way Macs handle mice/cursor acceleration. Yes, I know it can be adjusted, but no amount of tinkering has ever helped.

But what I really hate about Macs are Macolytes. The religious-like fervor too many Mac users display makes me want to gag!