Cheap way to run a Mac?

[Sprite]

My experiance with XP has been a mixed bag, while its easier on the eye than older versions of windows, ive found stability a problem, my pc was purchased with win 2000, then I got win xp because I was having networking problems with a flatmate, so to make life easier I purchased xp home, not more than two months of having it up and running it was BSOD every five minutes, it even happend at the end of the course and I thought I had lost all my work, but a few dvd back ups later and a fresh install of 2000 and it was running slicker than snot and no more problems, I guess no matter what you use there are always going to be problems.

dont get me wrong I loved my pc as it did everything I wanted it to do, but its dead now and im not going back to windows, so I chose to give apple a go, as it offers me more software choice for what im going to be using it for, plus i have no interest in playing pc games anymore, and the only game I have that I want to play will run on my mac easy.

(also when i stated that the macs i used at uni had problems, they were thos old I Mac, and it was a MS bit of software that kept crashing them )

 

[JNasty4G63]

That's all I was trying to say. Macs aren't what they used to be. People used to choose them for stability and solid hardware. Now they have neither.

And, as I was trying to say before, I've had MANY Macs over the years, along with quite a few PCs, and all but one of my Macs has been nothing but reliable. The one I DID have problems with, the G4 Cube, was known for its overheating, which mine did, and thats why it didn't last long. But, I've had problems here and there with my PCs as well. But, they were all home-built by me, and most of the problems were because of me, and fixed. So really, in all of my 22 years of computing, I've had very few problems with any of my computers that weren't self-induced. As long as you treat a computer right, PC or Mac, they will generally return the favor. As mine have.

Hilg

 

[Burnout]

I'm not calling foul here, or anything like that, so please don't take it that way. But, are these computers that are in a lab, and used by many people a day, for most all of the day? If so, that could explain quite a lot. I went to school at AIPX, and every one of the labs we used had problems. The PCs, the Macs, and the few SGIs we had. They all had their problems.

But, when you have hundreds of students going through them on a daily basis, its hardly shocking when things happen. Again, I don't doubt you have problems with them. But, if they are lab computers, I wouldn't exactly call those a 100% representation of anything, except hard use, and sometimes abuse.

Hilg

Completely reasonable question; thing is though, they're brand new (I think this is maybe the second semester of students that is using them). On top of that, they 'wipe the computers' every semester. The applications installed are all 'trusted' applications (Adobe and what was Macromedia). Aside from that, only Apple software is installed (and there are rules in effect to guard against users installing software). They also constantly update them, and are consequently using all of the newest version of the install applications. The other thing is that the school is not very large, and the graphics section even smaller. The Macs are only usable by the graphics students as well.

As you can see, if any Macs in a educational use possition were to be stable, these would be them. Flash and Photoshop will crash on my for no reason whatsoever (please note that I'm saying they crash every time I use them, that would be a lie. I only mean to say that they crash more than my Windows computers). What does crash on me on a consistant basis however is Safari. Do not like that browser.

That's all I was trying to say. Macs aren't what they used to be. People used to choose them for stability and solid hardware. Now they have neither.

👍

I don't want to sound like a Microsoft elitist. I'm just saying, they're not rock-hard stable machines like everyone claims. If anything, they're less stable than a properly configured and updated Windows machine.

 

[JNasty4G63]

Completely reasonable question; thing is though, they're brand new (I think this is maybe the second semester of students that is using them). On top of that, they 'wipe the computers' every semester.

Right. But, what I was getting at was just the ammount of use, and the people using them. Brand new, nearly new, or very old matters little. If there are a lot of people going through them in the course of a day, that is more chance for problems. Again, I'm not making excuses, or anything like that. I just don't think lab computers are a good measure of a brand.

When I was at school, we got a full lab of then brand new "Blue" G3s just about right when they came out. And, within weeks, some started having problems, or so they thought. It was later realized that it was user errors causing the problems. We had a good ammount of students, and quite a few of those were not what I would call "computer literate" in the slightest. So, its easy to see where problems can come from.

Either way, I'm sorry to hear about your problems. Maybe I've just been very lucky with all mine. I've had very, very few problems with basically all of mine. And, my one other Mac friend here in town is the same. He doesn't have the Mac history like I do, but he's been using them for the last 7-8 years, and he's had next to no problems. Its a bummer when things like that happen, though.

Hilg

 

[Jondot]

I was talking to Matt yesterday and he said if he's getting a Mac he's seriously considering selling his PC for a Mac.

But then again I can't remember anything very clearly right now.

Seriously? Wow. I wouldn't risk that, especially when he has a pretty decent pc to begin with. If he finds he doesn't like macs half way through, he's gonna miss his PC. Then again, with bootcamp, I guess he could still run windows.

Simply untrue. I run XP at home and work and it's stable enough to be up for weeks on end without any issues.

Ditto. I've very rarely had problems with this, and when I have it's been because of my dodgy webcam. In a whole year, this has only crashed twice and had start-up problems once. Today, infact...