Which platform do you use?

Experiences on both?

I have used a Mac platform to edit video and multi-media for almost 10 years.

Thank God Almighty that Premiere Pro was finally released.

CYA Mr. Jobs ... your platform freaking sux.

The OS is buggy and unstable and heaven help you if you have a motherboard issue ...

Just bought a new Mac....had them all my life....

Long story, but I had them all my life...NEVER had a PC until two years ago...my wife, who is a CPA, always bitched she couldn't get her work stuff to work at home on the Mac...even though it would work....she just didn't like doing it that way... ...so...new computer time and SHE FORCES ME to buy a pc laptop so she can use it more at home for work....

....two weeks later she gets a job at Apple and had the top of the line Powerbook... ...me no happy....

Flash to two weeks ago...she is quiting Apple...but in a parting gesture, we buy a sweet Powerbook, network, etc. for home...AT THE FAT EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT ...all wireless....it is cool....got the iPod, iTunes, all my CD's will be put away now...run my stereo in the living room with the Powerbook...got the iPhoto and iMovie thing going to....got lots of video to edit....me happy now...

The new operating system is something to get used to after "converting" for the past two years, but I am getting used to it....

to each his own...

Linux

I do use a Windoze PC sometimes, but most of the time it's Linux or Unix (Solaris, HP/UX).

I just don't get Macs, and don't know many engineers that like them. OTOH, My artist friends wouldn't use anything else.

Mac OS X all the way.

My servers run linux.

PC is only at work. Where all the frustration is.

My home has been MS free since 2000.

I've had linux in my home since 1997.

In 94-97 I was the biggest MS promoter on the planet next to BG himself. Then when I was two years into a CS degree I realized what an idiot I was.... I downloaded linux and put it on a old machine.... then on a new machine... then canned the MS box... when OS X came out I bought a iMac which has been flawless.

Now my dual 2Ghz, 2gig ram, 700gig HD is my server/devel box and my Mac is the daily cruiser.

Windows is for solitaire.

Diehard Mac OS X user here. I've been using various forms of the Mac OS for the past fifteen years. Certainly the older Mac OS 7,8 & 9 versions were getting quite a bit long in the tooth and if you didn't play witht he extensions properly, you would have something about as stable as an old sway-bar less Corvair. My daily Mac OS X bruiser is a much modified Power Mac 9600, so there is quite a bit of life left in something from early 1997!

Like many others, I do have to deal with various flavors of Windows at work. I really shouldn't be so critical of Windows, as it's collection of problems has afforded me the cash to buy the race car and race tires :-). I will say that Windows XP finally is getting to a point of parity with the Mac OS, but it is still saddled with a User Interface that confounds. Also, despite what the Microsoft Certified Solitaire Engineer's (MCSE) say, there is a wide variety of pro's who could really troubleshoot things when Windwos goes bad. What kinda stinks is that our company java programmers like to use MS's interpretation of java and then wonder why their retail products don't work so well for our Mac users.

Other that that, I have a Solaris x86 server that the Macs connect to.

I'll jump on the bandwagon, but Mitch already knows I'm a diehard OS X fan. Been using Mac computers since '91 or so... stopped in '97-'00 - still used the hardware, but ran linuxppc. OSX brought me back.

Glad to see so many advocates here...

Dan

OS X did stabilize the operating system. That I was happy for.

The problem was, none of the software would run reliably on it.
It required a MAJOR investment in upgradwed software to use OS X.
Hello ... backwards compatibility ... Hello, McFly ...
Now, if I were a believer in conspiracies ... (that was for you, Randy)

I now have a nice G4 I'm gonna use as a wheel chock

No more of that Jack Russell Terrier icon thing at the bottom of the screen.

And I absolutely hated that optical mouse. The mouse jumps all over the screen.
It was like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks, sometimes.

I'm not on either side, but I've only been using PC's so far. At work, the workstation I operate uses its own proprietary software, but does run on Windows NT. I have a PC at home that runs on XP and I love it.

I have used Macs to transfer files at work. I don't like it, but it's because I only use Macs when I need to , which is not very often, so I'm not familiar with it.

The composer that I work with is a Mac guy all the way, and his Mac crashes ALL THE TIME! He's using his Mac at its limit though, and he works A LOT.

We have 1 Pro Tools at work that runs on Mac, and all the rooms will eventually have it. I had to ask my boss not to convert my room yet, not until I finish the season. Then I'll learn this Mac stuff. So far I'm not liking it compared to my current workstation, but I'm comparing apples to oranges.

5 Macs at my house! (and several others long gone) My wife does graphic art production. A lot of people at Apple and Adobe are sending their kids to college thanks to her...

Apple does have some cool hardware ... except for that infernal mouse. Add a few buttons to it and I might be able to accomplish something.

As it is, though, with no right mouse button AND no command line, I'm nearly paralyzed on a Mac.

That explains a lot ....

I cant believe how many mac guys are on this board!

anyways, i use xp at home, 2000 at work. I have pretty much no problems with xp, now older ms os's were big problems for me though.

anyways, i would just like to reinforce how much the mac mice SUCK, and other than that, I havent used them much, nor am willing to learn. I guess i'm rooted in the pc. Having said that, as a gamer (or at least WAS, since i never have time anymore), the mac is pretty much useless in that area.

I've breifly tried linux for a small fileserver at home, and I havent had the time to really set that up. For me, I cant spend time learning something new i guess.

also the security issues suck for windows if you don't lock down your pc and keep from installing bad crap and going to bad sites.

and I'm along with sgarnett, I can accomplish alot mroe with my 5 button intellimouse explorer (yes i know you can upgrade the mac mice, but why would they cripple that machine from the factory with that garbage)

since i build my own pc's, i kind of like the upgradeability of the pc platform, although i do end up doing reinstalls after motherboard changes usually. Also, nowadays there are lots of products to make your pc quiet, which i've spent some money on in the last year.


it'll be windows for a while for me,

....hey....with a name like Mackintosh....what else would I own....

Heidi had a few exchanges with 'ol Steve over the name though..... ....I made her quit because the cheap bastard wouldn sponsor my habit...

Wow there are a lot of Mac users! Personally I'm a PC man. You'd be surprised how much time you can cut off video processing times when you submerge your computer in mineral oil, water cool it to below freezing, and run the stock 2.4 ghz P4 at 3.4 ghz!

My Computer

SuperCricket, you've just reminded me of the other thing about pc's, if its your thing, its a very modifyable platform, just like our fbodies.

I've played around with overclocking a bit, and mine is more mild than yours, an xp-m 2500 from 1.8ghz to 2.2ghz, but still on regular air cooling. i've overclocked all of my video cards, i used to use ps2rate to increase the sampling rate of my mice (when i was using ps2 mice), and in the past i just plain tried tweaking everything.

I was surprised the other day to find that you can overclock TI calculators! I have to say, i read the article, but i'm not about to do that, i need more features and resolution out of it before processing speed. too bad they cost over 100$ for those silly calculators.

I got another story, my chemistry instructor uses his powerbook to do powerpoint presentations, and he keeps complaining about how he cant convert certain symbols and whatnot from the pc version to be displayable on the mac. happens every class and he always says something like "oh vell, i still vill not change to vindows vorld. I love my mac" in his romanian accent. thanks buddy, thanks to you, there are 75 students in your class that cannot solve these problems since you cant show them how to do it (sometimes he'll use the blackboard, but seldom).

anyways, its a problem that can probably be solved easily, but he cant do it.

Heh, I guess it is what you get used to. I am more at home with a Mac on the desktop. We have a mix (primarily due to work requirements) at the home office. The servers are Linux/Solaris. The last place I worked at provided WinTel boxes for the desktop, but when I knew I was going to get laid off, I got an iBook. Used it in the office for the last couple of months of employment. The great thing about the machine was it just worked. Mere seconds and a couple of mouse clicks, and I was accessing the company Sexchange server for email, doing their VPN for network app access, and utilizing ssh and X11 to access all my servers in the datacenter. And, for when I _had_ to use a Windoz app for something that didn't have a parallel app in the Mac world (Visio was the big culprit at the time), I fired up Virtual PC.

The thing just ran. I used to day I work on Windows PCs for my job, but to get my work done, I use a Mac.

But I find myself on anything from Win98->Win2K, Mac OS8-> OSX, Linux 2.4->Solaris10, so I run with just about anything. I do like the way OSX looks and feels, but most of my formative years were spent in front of a Macintosh. And, throw away that factory mouse and plug a Micro$oft optical Intellimouse to that OSX box, you will be glad you did. :-)

At home I have a Dell PC (Celeron 1200, 512 RAM, Radeon 7500, boring) running Win2K and a Sun Ultra 10 (440MHz, 256 RAM, 64-bit, Creator 3D) running Solaris 9. I use the PC for email/Internet, and the Sun box as a file server, web server, use wget to download large files, and for whatever else. Both are connected to a Sun 21" monitor, but I usually don't run a window manager on the Sun box and just ssh in.

I have an HP laptop at work, and work on Sun boxes from Netra T1's to SF6800's.

Do you need any help? :-)

Yes we do, unfortunately we can't get any headcount approved

The last time I even sat down at a Mac terminal to use one was my freshman year in college, 1985. I suppose things might have changed since then, but it's PCs for me. I have no desire to change to anything else. I've never worked at a place that used Macs for anything but graphics design.

And that seems to be quickly changing.

I've been editing video and multi-media in the corporate world for 24 years. Over the last couple of years, the PC side seems to have made great strides in creating an interface that rivals what the Macs had a strangle hold on.

Dual monitor support, processing speed and memory management are just a few things I've noticed coming a long way.

And once Adobe launched Premeire Pro, it was over the top.

Of course, there will always be those die hards who proclaim flouridation is a communist plot, Iraq has WMD and Macs are the best at graphics work.

But those types are usually on the west coast (another jab at Randy).

Also, there's an element of "best tools for the job". There are some things that win apps do best, a lot of things that Linux or Linux apps do best, and some things that other unix flavors do best (meaning non-open source apps that haven't been ported yet). I switch between them frequently depending on the task, though I use Linux most of the time.

I'm simply not artistic enough to have needed any of the Mac's best-in-class apps. However, I think a lot of schools are using Mac's so when my daughter gets old enough I may have to add one to the mix so she'll be multi-lingual.

FYI:

any mouse will work with Mac OS X. No drivers needed. I took a iBook to CompUSA once and tried ALL the mice and trackballs on the rack. No problems.

With the stock mouse hold control and click -- that is right click.

For command lines try "Launch Bar" it is a command line on crack. It'll pick up your programs abbreviations/shorthand/nicknames automatically.

Personnaly - I use the stock mouse. (It is not so bad. I just got over the right clicking with the control+click.) Launch Bar is awesome. I never drill through folders - ever.

This image below pretty much sums up my thoughts about Mac's. Luckily we only have one here at the plant and it will be the last. It is used for graphics work, but it is an absolute POS from day one.

And there is NO ONE locally that can work on them or knows how to fix all the operating system crap that is always messed up.

When it dies we are going back to a PC, since it will do everything we need done only easier.

....yeah us west coast types....dumb as fences....we find and settle down in a place that doesnt have hurricanes, tornadoes, or bury us in frozen water EVERY STINKIN' YEAR.... ...(oh, and before you go on about earthquakes....the last one of ANY significance was in 1906....I WASN'T AROUND THEN... ) the weather is shorts and t-shirts for 8 months of the year, and....oh yeah...SOMETIMES I GO TO WORK IN SAID SHORTS AND T-SHIRTS... ...

...and we realize PC's suck....had my PC for just over 2 years...crashed twice....lost EVERYTHING....that happened ONCE in over 15 years of "Mack" ownership....no viruses to speak of either...course now my Mac will crash HARD, and get a virus.....

...only problem is...it costs so damn much to live here, and you non Californians KEEP MOVING HERE

Is there a Mac store near you?

You can take it there and they can fix it. I took my iMac to a Mac store when the DVDR/CDRW went flaky and they replaced the part. No problems since. Apple covers hardware AND software. That is why you pay a more for the product.

OTOH, I can't take a bug to MS and get it fixed.

To each his own though.

Sorry so late to the party. I have used Macs since 1990, being in the graphics art business it is mandatory.

I had a friend of mine build me a PC for gaming (Macs suck for gaming) and still use both. The Printing company I represent use Lotus Notes, bad for PC worse for Mac.

I prefer Mac for ease of use and immunity to viruses.

DOOM 3 Rocks! :drive:

....I thought Microsoft WAS a bug.....hmmmmm....

I took my G4 into a shop with a heat related lock up.

$2500 later, I had a new motherboard, processor set and memory.

I understand a new Mac can be bought for that. However, purchase new comes out of capital budget and repair comes out of O&M budget. I have plenty of O&M money, but capital money is scarce.

BTW, as I understand it OSX is basically FreeBSD (another unix variant) with a Mac-like user interface grafted on top.

Is it possible to get "under the hood", so to speak, and use BSD directly instead of installing a ppc linux port?

I have been told that you can pull up a terminal window and run normal UNIX commands, but have never done it.

What the F..ck are ya'll talkin' bout?

...yup...use it in conjunction with Unix at work all the time....had to download software on the PC to do that....

I don't think we are talking about the same thing.

I THINK you mean using the PC or Mac as a remote terminal for a Unix system, not accessing the Unix system that's buried under OSX (but not the earlier Mac OS or Windows).

I am talking about accessing the underlying OS command line on the OSX machine. As I understand it, all OSX is the UNIX OS with a MacOS like window manager in front of it. Unlike Windows, with *NIX you can run different window managers, or none at all (all command line on the console).

Of course you should be able to access other machines from the terminal on the OSX box. I am sure that telnet and ssh are supported, and I would hope you can run X apps from another host if you wanted to.

I have a cat

Yes, but regarding Randy's post (whichever way he meant it) there are two big deficiencies in windows (among many others):

Windows does not inherently provide an X server, though there are 3rd party solutions. Actually, neither does unix, but it's almost always included. For that matter, there's no ssh client included with windows either.

Windows is NOT running any form of Unix underneath

At any rate, the point was that with OSX a Mac could potentially be two machines in one (without dual booting): warm and fuzzy, but with some very useful and powerful features under the hood for those who need them. Heck, the windows emulator seems to be fairly good on Macs too.

And a mouse, I presume.

Prior to OSX, Macs had their own unique operating system (with a user interface stolen from Xerox). Starting with OSX, Macs are really running Unix. The user interface is Mac-like, but it's Unix.

DOS 5.0 & my 286 with 512kb ram ownz j00!

Stolen? Seams Harsh

Not harsh at all - true.

Xerox was developing it in a lab but their execs didn't realize the value of what they had.

Meanwhile, one of the Apple guys toured the Xerox lab, DID recognize the value, and stole the idea.

I use Win2K on almost all my desktops, XP on one desktop and one laptop.

I hate Microsoft and their products.

With that being said, I have very little problem with Win2K, much more so with XP. I manage computer networks for a living and have more than 120 users at my site alone. One of these days I'll get off my butt and learn Linux but for now I'll stick with Windows. At least I'm comfortable with it and have learned how to make it more stable and secure.

Networks... I use and have always used Novell's NetWare. Infinitely more stable than Windows. Now NetWare is being ported to Linux so I have no reason to change. Yes, I have Windows servers running Oracle and SQLServer but that's pretty much all they are used for. Now one really logs into them. We have more than 140+ locations and 600+ Novell servers and without Novell's eDirectory (ie, with Windows and ActiveDirectory) management would be monumental.

My own web server is NetWare 6 running Netscape Enterprise web server, Apache, and Tomcat application server. It runs Novell's GroupWise for email and Novell's iFolder for remote file sync'ing. It's as stable as anything could be, secure, fast, and is running on a 2.4Ghz Dell Dimension desktop computer. Oh, and it also stores all my 17,000+ song music library.

I would like to learn Linux, I go way back to the command line days so I'm sure I could get use to it, but I guess I'm spoiled now.

Actually, I've found that even on networks NOT running Novell, a lot of Windows network problems magically go away when the Microsoft's Netware protocol driver is installed.

Steve,

You sound like me to a point. I have 3 computers at home on Windows XP (and I'm not a Bill Gates fan either) and one running Linux (with the ssh server on it and nearly every other package, I think the Linux install was about 4 gigs or so). I started learning linux and then got busy with my recent move and got away from it (and promptly forgot most of it). So, I am starting over. It is a neat OS, much more stable than Windows. However, it is a little on the non-friendly side. Even software installation can be a challenge (or I just suck). If you need a copy, I can send you the last Redhat on CD (though it is no longer supported by them, it is and was free and works well) if you need/want it.

Kevin

I know nothing of Mac...and I'll see Mitch's cat and raise him 3 more.

Perhaps you mean Steve???

Heh, story of my live!! That, or no money in the budget!

Steve who?

Fixed it. It's been a long morning already....glad it's over.

I use and prefer XP. Mac's have never really appealed to me-things just seem less intuitive. I mainly use mine for ordinary stuff: MS office, dling dvd rips, copying dvd rentals , and a little gaming. Sometimes autocad, but that's been a while. For me Mac's are just harder to use, although I've never used OSX. That and my gaming friends would never let me live it down.

Nope... Not for at least 100 miles.