Microsoft has worst year ever, Apple has best year ever

[Magister Lajciak]

When considering what makes most people think macs are better I think we are definitely in psychological and intangible territory. It's brand reputation, not actual performance.

I think it has more to do with simplicity. Not everyone is a control-freak/tech-geek who cares about or would even use/utilize all the stuff that pc's supposedly are "better" for. (Edit: ie, they don't care about "performance" but functionality/ease of use in what they use a computer for, and that's it ) Now, I'm just generalizing here...I'm sure there's lots of Mac users who pant "ooo pretty," as well as those who want more Mac software support and like to tinker, but well .. then they'll either buy a PC as a 2nd rig or switch to the type of computing that works better for them.

 

I think this is spot on. Most computer users are not gamers, they just don't care about raw performance. They just want to get their Excel spreadsheets and Word docs done, upload photos to Facebook, surf the Web, check their email, sync music to their iPod. They just want a system that is responsive and does not get in the way. For them, performance is not how fast their video card renders triangles, but how quickly they can get things done on their computer.

 

In fact, ever since I stopped gaming, I move closer and closer to this category of users and I see where they are coming from. If I tinker with systems all day long at work, sometimes it can get very tiring, so I begin to just want everything to work out of the box and not put a tiny bit of thought into making it work.

 

 

As an side thought, the fact that most people need so little from their computers actually explains the emergence of netbook market.

 

Yes, but I just don't see the ease of use argument going in favor of the Mac, although it's oft repeated as some sort of eternal truth. When I tried to use a Mac, I did not see any improvements to its ease of use over a normal Windows-based computer. For me it was actually considerably more difficult to use the Mac, because I was not aware of where anything is located - even the "x" for closing a window was on the other side of the window. Sure, that is just dependent on what the person is used to, but if we were to take somebody without any experience with computers and thus not used to either system, the ease of use factor would be about the same for both PCs and Macs.

[Hurlshort]

I've been trying to figure out some good PC versions of Garage Band and iMovie, because my wife needs that software for work. It's not looking very good, and basically I might have to buy her a Macbook. It hurts me deep inside.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Looked at Mixcraft?

[Hurlshort]

Looked at Mixcraft?

 

Thanks, I'm having her play around with that now. It just might work!

[Walsingham]

Some people are weird. A substantial number would prefer buying by upholstery over engine. If I were capable, I would vomit on them.

[Humodour]

Some people are weird. A substantial number would prefer buying by upholstery over engine. If I were capable, I would vomit on them.

 

And a substantial number would prefer buying both upholstery and engine.

 

Unix is such a joy to use compared to Windows.

[Killian Kalthorne]

Yes, but can Unix run Fallout 3?

[LostStraw]

Straight out of the box with Wine, nope, not yet anyway. If you feel like working with Wine a bit it is possible to get it set up running though (with issues). http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?...TestingId=40010