Stuff, things, & Mac vs PC, what do you think?

[sapphohestia]

Sunday I lost my bid on a condo. The only good thing that comes of this is that I'm no longer working with my realtor. Although our contract doesn't officially end until Midnight tonight, I've found another Realtor and spoken to her about what I'm looking for in a place, and we'll start actually looking for stuff tomorrow

Comments

[kendokamel]

If you're looking to save money for the time being and don't want to buy a top of the line computer until you've recovered from your down payment... I actually got my "new" laptop last year from HCDI Trading. They do certified Dell refurbs, and I got my whole laptop (with XP not Vista, thank goodness!), a warranty, plus shipping for under $500. I've had absolutely no complaints about it, whatsoever.

[sooper]

Yes, if you are able to get a laptop with XP instead of Vista, go for that. Windows 7 isn't available yet commercially, but there is a beta version. I wouldn't go with a beta OS unless you don't mind it failing spectacularly, which is only really for us dorks who don't mind completely rebuilding our computer every three to six months just for fun.

[moonandserpent]

Actually the version available now isn't the beta, it's the actual release version. And it's the most stable OS I've used this side of DOS. That said, I think they just stopped giving out activation codes for the free version, since the real version is shipping in Oct.

Many PCs you buy from Aug-to Oct will have a free upgrade coupon, or you could just wait till Oct 22nd, if you can.

I say stick with PCs, and not just because Apple is bunch of douchebags.

[sooper]

Yeah, though of course, sometimes Microsoft releases an OS and it works worse than a beta version would, like Windows ME. But I have heard a lot of good things so far about Windows 7.

And yes, a lot of the people at Apple are douchebags.

[sooper]

For most people, there's no reason to switch to Mac. Unless you're doing heavy HEAVY graphic editing, there's really no huge benefit. Even the previous reasoning of Mac enthusiasts that "We don't get virus infections" isn't true anymore because the people who create those virii are specifically targeting Macs now because Mac users have been bragging about how safe they are for so long

[sidhedevil]

Sooper speaks wisely. Macs are great for heavy graphic design and for building that ridiculous dream e-library of movies and music and everything else that you might want to hoard and play across your computer and TV and iPod and such.

If you're not big into graphic design, though, and you're not trying to integrate your computer with just about every other electronic device in your home, PCs are just fine.

Then again, I'm a hard core PC person, so YMMV. :P

[sooper]

As it is, I don't even really completely buy that you need a Mac to do video editing. I've done almost all of my video editing on a Lenovo/IBM laptop, and a little bit of it on a desktop PC that I built from the ground up, and never felt hindered. Real pro video editing is done on stuff far more advanced than a home computer anyway, Mac or PC.

[sidhedevil]

I absolutely agree. I used to work for a huge ad agency and Royal worked in a post-production house so I know firsthand what the real editing systems look like.

Macs are great for stuff like AppleTV, or using a scanner attachment to scan all UPC codes of your books/music/DVDs and keep them all on file electronically -- stuff like that. From what I've seen, they're bigger in the Uber Media Dork niche which, I guess, kinda stands to reason if they're also big on the heavy graphic design side. I imagine the two niches go together like peanut butter and chocolate. :P

[satinalien]

What the dickens is going on with all your health issues, girl??

Glad you're not going to have to work with the old realtor.

Honestly, I'd stick with the PC. But that's just me.

[gipsieee]

If cost is a factor at all, stick with a PC.
I love my teensy-little mac, but PCs are generally more back-compatible longer IMHO, and they're much less expensive.

My (2003) mac laptop is 2 versions of the OS behind (10.2 instead of 10.4 or 10.5) and it cannot even SYNC with my iPhone. I am peeved*. My PC works just fine with it. Maybe this is because the recent windows OSs have sucked enough that people stuck with the old/varied ones so back compatibility is a fluke of the OS being ratty, but whatever the cause, that's my experience.

Yes, there was a processor change in there to the Intel chips, and maybe that's what's going on, but since they're still making iTunes updates that run on my computer, why not make iTunes capable of at syncing the iPhone... oh, wait, I'm supposed to be an alpha-geek shelling out over 2K for a computer every at least every 3 years.And at this point, I have a lenovo R61 for school that I like well enough. There are some annoyances that I wish it were my mac for, but I'll probably stick with PCs

[unforth]

Can't help at all with computers, other than to say that I've been thinking seriously about switching to a Mac once I've got the money to buy a new laptop (which keeps getting put off).

However, I'm sorry to hear you lost the bid, but glad to hear that you've finally switched realtors - hope the new one works out way better than the last one did!

And congratulations on not needing surgery! Woot!