Comments on: Can Windows 7 convert a Mac user?

By: car dvd

car dvd — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:02:52 +0000

The real difference between PCs and Macs is the software. If you want to do architecture, you need a Mac. Not because there isn’t software for the PC, but because nobody uses it.

By: Billy

Billy — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:58:38 +0000

Well having waited for the new imac / mini i simply could not justify £1700 for a new 27″ imac with a quad core, nor £500 for the base line mac mini, so i built myself a hackintosh, similar spec to a mac pro, for the price of a new mac mini. apple only got my money for a copy of OSX snow leopard, very reasonable at £29, and microsft the cash for a student copy of win 7 pro, again £30. now i have best of both worlds being a graphic designer i have access to all the apps i need on the mac side… yes i know adobe do PC, just the mac versions are more efficient memory wise and feel snappier. But i must confess i also like win 7, and wil;l stick to that for the odd game and 3DS Max… macs still cant do 3D Max, well in boot camp, but i preffer to run native with no hardware abstraction layer. In short each OS has its merits, its downsides and a hell of a lot of commonality. I just wish apple would hurry up and put out a Generic version of OSX for base intel hardware, without us having to jump through hoops to fake an EFI (yes i can update direct from apple)… And i would still use win 7 as well, both have a deserved place on my hard drive

By: Hugo

Hugo — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:32:31 +0000

The real difference between PCs and Macs is the software. If you want to do architecture, you need a Mac. Not because there isn’t software for the PC, but because nobody uses it. If you want to do engineering, or statistics, or business, then use a PC.
The Mac interface has improved the PC interface through competition. The PC hardware and price has done the same for the Mac.

By: tibbs

tibbs — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:44:06 +0000

Any fair hardware / software comparison MUST also be worth around the same retail price.
If your laptop is 1/2 the price of a Mac, then its as useful a guide as a comparison as:-
Dell Precision M6400 Covet £4,715 inc VAT
Vs
MacBook Pro £1,949 inc VAT
(both prices are from PCPro own review listing).

By: MCDC

MCDC — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:58:20 +0000

I had to make a transition from PC to mac (because of logic audio)… on top of that had to get a 17″ as I needed expresscard slot… which weighs a ton! I miss my pc… ical sucks, address book sucks, safari really sucks and the new blackberry sync really really sucks!!!… I miss office for windows, especially outlook (entourage sucks!)

So I’m buying a sony CW for my office work…

Now I see why most of the world uses pc…

By: george bush

george bush — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:53:34 +0000

Speed reading this I misread “if consumers were forced to buy Macs in order to ‘be compatible’ with other people” as “consumers were forced to buy Macs in order to ‘be popular’ with other people” How ironic as that’s why people buy macs.

By: yonsito

yonsito — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:48:57 +0000

I’m very interested in the outcome.

I don’t know whether you are allowed to install software to make win7 more “mac-like” but if you are:
Switcher adds exposé-ishness. KatMouse let’s you scroll whereever your mouse is (instead of where the focus is).

By: JulesLt

JulesLt — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:55:53 +0000

We price up PCs regularly at work, and in my experience the Apple markup is round 10-15% for the same spec compared with Dell.

£800 is still what we would classify as a high-end machine – you can get a usable laptop for about half that price, if all it is going to be used for is email and MS Office.

Looking at the Dell custom build pages, it’s clear that the main thing that changes the price is the CPU – and that’s poorly understood (people still focus on the Ghz number, when there is a low more to the performance / watt balance).

It’s also the real difference between the MacBook models – between the £800 quid MacBook and the £1000+ ones.

Ra – it’s definitely possible to install OS X on a standard PC – with variable results. But I don’t see where the EU and free competition comes into it – Apple develop their own operating system for their own hardware – and there is plenty of competition in the computer systems market.

There might be a good argument for splitting the software and hardware divisions if there was real evidence that competition was being adversely affected – say if consumers were forced to buy Macs in order to ‘be compatible’ with other people – if there was some Mac-only software as popular as MS Office or Internet Explorer.

But they are not – so it is little different argument from saying than Nintendo should be forced to sell any manufacturer the Gameboy firmware (like a PC you can buy the components and make your own Gameboy- there’s not any special sauce in there other than the software).

Firms do not have an obligation to meet a demand for their product. And free competition from OS X is what’s giving us Windows 7 (and Unix/Linux competition drives Windows Server).

By: Hans

Hans — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:02:45 +0000

When comparing prices i think it would be fair to include the cost of the programs that you get with the computors. I mean full versions not trial versions.

By: Sir Roderick Spode

Sir Roderick Spode — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:34:16 +0000

Namlish Ou: Snap on the 4.77MHz, although ours had a Turbo mode to take it to 8!

Ra: Have a look at the article about EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) on Wikipedia. Macs have an EFI rather than a BIOS. If there is no EFI, OS X says “aha this is not a Mac” and won’t install. That’s not to say that there are not ways around this issue.