Comments | burnfor: Sam's dying.

burnfor

Sam's dying.

Dec 14, 2008 14:33

Whoo, I made it to the end of the semester! My laptop (Sam), rather. It's definitely futzing on me right now. I have a Toshiba laptop at the moment, and it's several years old. I've been looking at a Macbook or a Windows (PC) laptop as a replacement, but I don't have much experience. I grew up on PCs, so have no idea how difficult a transition it ( Read more... )

Comments 15

quarterwhore December 14 2008, 19:59:21 UTC

I switched to a Mac last spring, and after a few days of fooling around with it, I am pretty much in love with it. It's very different, but very functional. But sometimes it's a pain in the ass to not be able to DL windows formatted stuff, but there's Mac stuff you can't download from a PC, so I guess it evens out. Also, there's no right click on my Mac, which might not have anything to do with anything, but it's just something that it took me a while to get used to. In the end, I think you should go with whatever fits your needs and budget. Both Macs and PCs are great, I've had good experiences with both. ^_^

benitle December 14 2008, 20:12:19 UTC

Sorry for butting in, but you CAN right click on Macs. You'll have to hit CRTL and then click and then it's just like a normal right click. ;-) Plus, you could use a mouse that has a left and right click and the Mac OS would recognize it and would allow you to do both. :)

But as you said, Macs just work. I've had mine for 1.5 years and would never want to switch back to a PC.

quarterwhore December 14 2008, 20:14:38 UTC

See, I didn't even KNOW that. I'm still learning. *headdesk* Thanks for the info, benitle! ^____^

benitle December 14 2008, 21:15:58 UTC

You're very welcome. I actually found O' Reilly's Pocket Guide extremely helpful. I'm on OS X Tiger (you're probably on Leopard?) and they come with a lot of handy, little tricks. :)

Thread 6

death_ofme December 14 2008, 20:31:01 UTC

Macbooks are more user friendly and you'll find a lot of actions a lot less of headache. Like deleting applications or files for instance. You don't need to go hunting down everything and deleting them or uninstalling - you just drag to the trash can.

But, as you're pretty nifty with computers and you're used to manually fixing any errors and all that - the Mac will be a bit more stubborn. A lot less fiddling around you can do.

btw - HOLY FUCK I SAW THE TORCHWOOD EPISODE WHERE JOHN BARROWMAN SNOGS JAMES MARSTERS AND THEN THEY BEAT EACH OTHER UP OMG HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT

(...I miss you D: ....)

burnfor December 15 2008, 04:55:09 UTC

Hm. See, that's what everyone says (the whole user-friendly thing) and that's the thing that's really tempting me in the Mac direction. Applications uninstall like that!? Then there's the whole uni student budget I'm working with.

I'm not actually that nifty with them. A lot is just from open source stuff.

AND OMG, IKR? I loved that ep.

(Four more days! And then I'll be home, omfg.)

death_ofme December 15 2008, 05:49:08 UTC

(REALLY?! OMG I'M SHOWING UP ON YOUR DOORSTEP FOR REAL YO, SO LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU ARRIVE)

Yeah, uninstallation is just dragging to trash can and emptying trash. However, there are a lot less programs and applications that work on Mac. But Mac also gets less viruses.

There's pros and cons for everything. It really depends on what you need it for, and what you also like to have.

That ep...so hot...omg...I love it when they hurt each other...( 0_0 *realized how that sounded*)

souliesoul December 14 2008, 20:47:42 UTC

I vote Mac, but if you go for a PC, beware of Acer and their technical support - whatever I sent it in for (and it had to go in several times) I would receive it back restored to factory settings with all my data lost. Considering that once it got sent in because it wouldn't turn on and thus couldn't back up, I have lost a lot of data to Acer in the past. (I know, regular back up routine, but I've never met someone who actually carries one out often enough for data loss to not be a problem.)

Macs are serious love though; when I get a job I'm going to start saving towards replacing Sam (hehe) my aging PC with a Mac Mini. She just doesn't have the processor or RAM to keep up with my demands, and I'd love to get another Mac. They don't squawk messages and complaints at you every few minutes, they work brilliantly, you can get all the same programs (or different ones that do the same job) and they look beautiful while doing it :P

burnfor December 15 2008, 04:58:08 UTC

Eww Acer tech support. That sounds like hell! I have a lot of my stuff on an external HD, but I mean, it's still one copy.

I have to say I couldn't help laughing out loud at our naming. (My) Sam consistently squawks at me. Or ignores me. Edging on 5ish years now, I think. It's a fairly old model that I inherited from my mum. Definitely the OS and the appearance of the Mac is what's appealing to me.

(The comment has been removed)

burnfor December 15 2008, 04:58:56 UTC

Silly you. You already know what I'm writing. 'Cept by now, we've already discussed that and beyond.

*grin* Yeah, I've been away from LJ for way too long. I haven't signed in in ages

rubymiene December 15 2008, 01:29:47 UTC

You can get dual operating systems on a Mac and use Windows for your Windows-only stuff.
Macs tend to be more expensive for the same specs than PCs, but quality can vary a lot with PCs. I personally prefer Sony Viaos, but they're very expensive. Get something lightweight ~4 pounds (this pretty much excludes 15 inch models). I recommend the extra large battery if available.

burnfor December 15 2008, 05:08:32 UTC

The dual-ness sounds good. What I'm worried about is the cost of the extraneous stuff that comes with owning a laptop (especially Macs, it seems? From what I've seen on their site, at least).

Portability isn't too much of an issue for me - I don't tend to take my laptop to too many classes (since I have stuff like Linguistics where it's practically impossible to type up). Sony Vaios are pretty, and I've always admired from afar. How much do they tend to be around (by the time all the odds and ends are purchased?) Extra large battery? I've.. never heard of that?

rubymiene December 15 2008, 18:06:22 UTC

I think a good Viao is about $2000. It's usually cheaper to buy it with lower amounts of RAM and install extra. Also, they tend to let you pick really high-end parts like video cards and solid state drives, so you can go really crazy. I'm not sure what extra stuff you buy. The only thing I get is an extended battery (if you look on Sony's webpage, it's an option, I don't know who else does it). I already have a mouse. Mac accessories do seem more expensive though.