Comments | diaphanous: Tech Question

diaphanous

Tech Question

Jun 15, 2005 09:59

Despite the fact that my tuition is paid in full by my company, I did what pretty much everyone else who works here does and took out a student loan anyway - because I want a shiny new computer. (This is much more mature and responsible than what I did with my last student loan check in late 1996, which involved a tattoo based on a design from an ( Read more... )

Comments 25

jesterly June 15 2005, 17:14:13 UTC

PC: All I use it for, for burning, ripping dvds/cds, mpeg 2 video conversion, and whatever else, all have free and often updated and easy to find versions online. MACs just don't seem very huge with the free and open software crowd.

jesterly June 15 2005, 18:44:20 UTC

Oh and I'll only go with what I can build by hand, so macs are out (unless that's changed)

Document conversion shouldn't be an issue between any system, there's always something you can export it to, and these days there's no floppy drive bullshit issue since you can just email something or use yousendit to just hold a doc/rtf/txt file

diaphanous June 15 2005, 21:28:05 UTC

Yeah, building my own computer is not on my agenda either way : )

uterdic June 15 2005, 18:57:33 UTC

often updated and easy to find versions online

on a mac, this is all part of the operating system so you don't have to search at all for versions of it.

No there aren't as many (craapy, poorly designed) free software out there, but you can find everything you need and it works well with every mac not just some computers because "this" soundcard isn't compatable with "that" piece of software.

ainjel June 15 2005, 17:35:39 UTC

running a 12" powerbook G4, never looking back.

i also have an iMac, which i still love.

PCs have their advantages, but for what i do (multimedia, sound, graphic design), mac is best. plus, OS X kicks ass. :)

ainjel June 15 2005, 17:48:11 UTC

...and i never had a virus in the 7 years i've had the iMac, by the way.

chanceholiday June 15 2005, 17:56:59 UTC

I agree with Ainjel a billion trillion times. I have a clunky old beige G3 monster at home, and I wish I could bring it in to work so I could have a stable machine to work on, even if it is lightyears older than the windows box I'm currently trying to use.

speaking as a former student who bought a Mac tawdryjones June 15 2005, 17:53:02 UTC

Macs are great and I love mine. HOWEVER, they are tough if you want to, say, write a paper, save it to a disk and then work on it at your school computer lab. Macs are really good for downloading photographs, organizing music and other right-brain activities but when it comes to writing papers and logging in to online classes, the PC is vital.

Re: speaking as a former student who bought a Mac diaphanous June 15 2005, 18:04:19 UTC

I've thought about those things... I know Mac has Office for Mac, including Word, Excell, etc. Kai has it loaded on his. I've never tried saving something from Mac Windows on a disk and trying to open it on a PC. I might have to experiment with that. Regarding my online classes, we have two ways to access them, one of which is Mac compatible. The other way I can get to from my work PC, which I do all day every day anyway. School obviously is my first priority with this, as is freelance writing, so Word is a big one.

Re: speaking as a former student who bought a Mac ainjel June 15 2005, 18:07:58 UTC

i have word for mac. so far it seems to make the conversion just fine, and if nothing else, you can copy the text, paste it in the body of an email, send it to yourself, then download and convert wherever you are (that's what i did before i had word). a little bit of a pain, but it's still better than a PC. ;)

Re: speaking as a former student who bought a Mac diaphanous June 15 2005, 21:27:04 UTC

Do you write music on Garage Band? I was playing arond with that the other day and it seems pretty cool.

Thread 9

onepart_lullaby June 15 2005, 18:25:54 UTC

I have an iBook G4 and i loooove it. I grew up using Macs, so I'm definitely biased. I have Microsoft Office for Mac and it takes care of my academic work.

Plus, Macs are way prettier than PCs.

uterdic June 15 2005, 19:07:05 UTC

Finally, I'll just mantion: I worked on a PC for 15 years. DOS-NT 5 and now that I've been on a Mac for the last 4 years, I'll never go back. I don't get crashes, or viruses, Everything just works and I don't have to consistantly have to download drives and updates. I can easily transfer stuff to my Mac from a PC. Now, whenever I have to use a PC, I get really frustrated because thinkgs don't just "work" I have to troubleshoot stuff for a really long time before I can get anything done. I get all the spyware crap, it's nothing but annoying. Yes, you can get a PC that is cheaper, but the speed is significantly slower than the slowest mac. You get what you pay for.