This whole Windows v Mac debate...
 

... is kind of long in the tooth now, and - dare I say it - BOTH operating systems have their pros & cons.

However, I run a small office. Got 2 killer-spec pcs on one side. 2 Mac G4s on the other. All got 21" plus displays. But whenever I get a visitor theyall ignore the pcs and stare at OSX with ill-disguised lust. Without fail. Interesting, eh? :)

I run Win2k, OS X and Gentoo Linux. Yes, each has their pros and cons, and I believe in using the right tool for the right job.

Moving to the Coat Room...

Use a PC for an hour, then use a Mac for an hour. See which one you choose to use after the second hour is up. ;)

In all fairness, PC's do have their advantages though.

I frequently move back and forth between OS X on a dual screen G4 and WinXP on a Laptop. For me the tradeoff is dead simple. I use the XP box if I must because there is a lot of Windows software that cannot be had on a Mac. After running Windows in Virtual PC for a while, I know that's not realistic. You've gotta have a PC box.

If software is available for both machines, I buy the Mac version; always. Nonetheless, having both gives me two functioning machines to work on all the time, it gives me an easy way to preview web pages prepared on the Mac as they appear on a PC, etc. They both have their uses, but I love the Mac - I just use XP because I have to.

There are a couple of tools that make this mix easier, too. Timbuktu lets me see the PC on one screen of the Mac while using the other for the Mac. I can run the desktop Mac over a wireless connection from the XP laptop from anywhere in the house. Crystalfire Wormhole lets me move files back and forth very easily (drag and drop into a tiny window) with the benefit over file sharing of filtering out the hidden Mac files that file sharing and Timbuktu pass on to the confusion of XP's file system. Finally, KMremoteControl is very useful when the PC screen is right next to the Mac screens - it lets you use the Mac keyboard and mouse to run the PC (or vice versa) instead of switching keyboards and mice all the time.

My girlfriend and I started living together about three months ago. She brought her Sony VAIO laptop and I brought my 17" iMac. The VAIO is now gone and a new PowerBook is on the way....

Enough said.

The PC has come a long long way since the days when the Mac looked like this when the PC still looked like:



Retry, Fail, Abort?
A:\

:)

Be that as it may, I don't need one, don't own one, and don't anticipate needing to own one.

This has been going on for years, ever since I can remember... and I remember when all this was fields.

I've only owned a mac for 2 weeks, and already I prefer it over Windows XP. But like others here, I run a Windows XP machine that also dual boots into SuSE linux.

However, I have to say that OS X is by far the best OS I've ever used.

I agree. Over a long career (I'm retired), I've used and programmed Rockwell 64 machines in Forth, a home-built based on a Z-80 in assembly, an Apple ][ (can't remember what the OS was called), a Radio Shack TRS-80, 286, 386, 486 and Pentium PCs running DOS through XP, plus 512K, SE/30, 7100/66, 3400c, Beige G3, and B&W G4 Macs, and I've worked on a variety of Digital Equipment VAX mainframes (VMS), a Control Data mainframe (running NOS), and a couple of IBM mainframes (mostly IBM 1130s). Of all of them, Mac OS X (Panther) is the operating system I've enjoyed and appreciated the most although I would have to say that VAX VMS was the best documented.

I and my wife use my Mac for video, photo restoration & archiving, CD creation and general home internet and email. Fast User Switching has made this usage a dream.

Our PC box is used for gaming and homeschool (since their internet site will ONLY work on Windows IE--stupid!)

I love the way OSX looks, however, the PC operates in a more "snappy" manner with very few waiting periods. For example, right click menus popup in no time on the PC, but there is a 5 second wait for CM on the Mac.

Hmmm . . . I get an instant response, even with my old Pismo. Just tried it on several different apps and the desktop. Something's not right with that response time, Schneb.

After a few experiments I can get "instant" or "5-sec" responses - it depends on whether the CM is resident in memory or swapped out. I presume that XP (which is snappy about it) keeps the CM in memory - Windows tends to do that - that is keep itself fully loaded and compromise other things.

I think that it also varies with how many CM's you have installed and how well they are written. A buggy one can even crash the Finder, and I imagine that it could slow things down as well.

Maybe a stupid question or I just missed a line or two... but what does CM stand for in this case ?

CM stands for 'Contextual Menus', available upon holding down the control key while clicking on something with the mouse. The third party ones which you might install in ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items are the ones I was referring to.

Thanks... now your comments all make lots more sense :D
Personnaly I only use the buitl-in ones to Panther so not much new to add.

However I do work as well in a mixed environment... winXP and Panther... and as others said... both have their advantages but I'd say personnaly that when it comes to cons, windows has more for the simple fact that its not as stable as Panther...

i get the 5 second delay CM too, sometimes, and your theory on it being swapped out of memory, sounds to me exactly what it could be! is there an option of keeping them in memory. I use it requently, and it really bugs me when i control click expecting to find something in no time, then have my computer stall, where i easially could have used another alternative.

There is software for twiddling with process priorities but I've never used any of it because I'm very reluctant to play games whose rules I don't understand. I haven't a clue what the trade-offs might be.

If it looks like a memory buffer problem, maybe putting the vm disk on a second HD may improve CM speed. I'm saying this as it does help for general performance.

Another significant delay, however, results if you have "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" checked in the Energy Saver Preference Pane and a sleeping disk has to start up before VM is available. I wish there were individual settings for multiple disk machines because the slowest startup rules the roost.

I leave this checked because I never put the computer to sleep (or shut it off) - I have cron tasks scheduled in the wee hours but the disks don't have to be spun up all the time. One of those disks is an ancient 2 GB SCSI disk with an old system on it that I use occasionally for testing purposes which takes forever to start up so I usually dismount it, and another is a 12 GB middle-aged disk with Jaguar installed on it that I can't dismount. My normal system volume is a partition on an 80 GB Maxtor.

Another poster is correct. I do have additional CM scripts installed and they may be the slower-downers. So I guess my only beef with OSX is its supreme lack of native CM options.

One CM I am using is very valuable to me. It touches the "creation date" on multiple files. Many photos I import from Windows tend to be created in 1967. I don't think photo creation that defy time and space will be available till OS XI. ;-)

for me its dead simple.. my windows box is for gamming and burning ****.. my mac laptop is for taking to work, chatting, surfing, downloading.... and my linux box runs my webserver and shoutcast server...


think about it...you got the huge number of game titles with the windows.. you got the ease of use and functionality of a mac for the laptop which is what you want a laptop for anyways.. and you got your linux running your server which needs to be stable and running 24/7 (currently my linux box is working on 6 months uptime without 1 restart or shutdown).

Sounds reasonable. I will say that OS X makes for a darned good server as well. I've had to do very few restarts and it's much easier to set up than Linux, imo.

Actually, it is opposite with me. My home unit (which is shared with my wife right now) is a G4 iMac. My PC is a portable. I too use it for games, but I got tired of lugging a big ol box to the LAN gaming gatherings. That and laptops are the only boxes that stand-by without fans running all the time.

If only they made those games for mac... People on PC would probably grind their theeth when they see you come in with a G4 1.5 ghz 17 inch laptop, and see you laugh a bit at them who have to carry a huge pile of **** to be able to have a machine that performs as well as yours does... :D

Funny, one of our LAN gamers came to me for advice on a laptop Mac for doing video. You would have thought he hit a beehive with a rock. Actually, it wasn't that bad, but some said, "PCs can do that!" We walked outside and talked. I basically told him that PCs can do video, but they were not really designed to do it like a Mac is. I advised him on what to get. He got it, and I have never gotten a support question. In this case, no news must be good news.

The same goes with computer unsavy family members too... Calls went from 3-4 times a week (onbe person only) to once a week, but for questions that are actually not bothersome.. Like what program I can recommend to do this or that... but no questions like: The screen just went blue when I started Word and now its frozen and I can't do anything (Ok ok... a mean example, but hey, are we on an MS loving forum ? :D )

unfortunately, many people underestimate the mac as a webserver. As X has the best of both worlds. Which I will be turning mines into(well, having most of the things a webserver have, but not sharing).

For the most part, everything I need & want, my mac has it. So I haven't had the need to use anything else. But soon I plan on building a linux box, cause it's cheap. :cool: