The Great Mac vs. Windows Debate

[Estevan]

Well, took the plunge...I ordered a new Macbook 13.3 2.4gz in white, kinda didn´t think the black one looked as nice and I can just imagine the fingerprints ugggg. I´d be wiping it down several times a day.:eusa_doh: Now I just gotta wait..Taking back the Viao I bought yesterday, overpriced and I can´t stand Vista! :rage:

 

[pgoat]

A new problem...with printing.......

Good luck Steve. We are liking our new Mac !

Meanwhile, trouble in the pgoat control tower....

We have the new iMac and old PC set up with internet access via the Time Capsule. All systems go there.

We also have the one HP printer plugged into the single USB port on the Time Capsule, in order to share the single printer with both machines.

The iMac has printed just fine since we hooked it up.

The PC printed with this setup after a little tweaking on the first night.
However, the next day, it no longer worked. Several weeks later, we still cannot get the PC to print. We've tried messing with ports (we have it set on the TCP/IP), the sharing status on both computers, reinstalling the drivers on the PC, etc etc. No good.

We're stumped. If we simply never got it to work, that'd be one thing - but the fact that it worked fine for a few hours and then stopped with no further adjustments we know of (It worked when we went to bed the first night, but not the next morning....) is a unsolved mystery....

Any ideas on solving the riddle and getting both machines to print?

btw, I tried just plugging the printer straight into the PC's USB as we did before buying the Mac and it set up and worked fine in a matter of seconds....so it's simply does not seem to be talking to the printer via Time Capsule. We installed the Bonjour software on the PC, and it LOOKS ok, but something still is not right.....

 

[Estevan]

Thanks Pgoat, sorry, I don´t have a solution for you. FYI, my MacBook arrived the other day and I really couldn´t be happier, my only complaint is the Airport lag to the router. It appears to be an ongoing problem with Apple, but they have yet to fix it. My download sppeds are blazing, but when it comes to plain old surfing it takes forever. My old HP Laptop blows my Macs doors off. Well, what it lacks in internet cruising speed it makes up for in performance in other areas. I really like it and as soon as I get this little problem fixed I´ll be one happy camper. :eusa_clap

 

[pgoat]

I've noticed that as well - we actually get a 'you're not connected to the internet' message for the first 3-4 seconds when first opening a browser. After that it works fine but as you say, it isn't the fastest....

I WAS quite impressed with hooking up a second external HD up via the FireWire 800 - holy fast, Batman!

Sadly, the reason I hooked that external up to the iMac was because I had to migrate all my folders from the old PC (seen at right in the pics above), which is rapidly dying - we are getting a very odd thing where it will shut itself off, and after rebooting (which has become extremely difficult - last night it took 1/2 hour, this morning I couldn't even get it to start up! ) we get a message in safe mode, stating there was an 'improper CPU hang' or some such nonsense, and that the system needs to reconfigure to the proper frequency (it always says 866 mHz, which is what our processor is....)[huh]

On the bright side, looks like we won't have to worry about that printing problem anymore.... But I hate not knowing what went wrong with it. I think the problem started when we installed a new PCI slot 2.0 USB card about a month ago. The old 1.1 USB card was still there (It's actually hooked up via a cable), and the connection of the 2.0 (used for the afore-mentioned external HD) ran fatser at first but seemed to be lagging as of late...

ugh

 

[miserabelle]

I'm a mac girl, I've been using them since I was a wee one so I'm kinda used to it now. Plus they're ultra fast for my design work so that's a definite plus, I bought my first mac last year, I'm in love. xx

 

[Harley Quinn]

PC-BSD.... bascially Mac without the bloat ware...

 

[pgoat]

If Dr. McCoy could see our PC.....

...he'd say "It's dead, Jim"

 

[RIOT]

I'm a mac girl, I've been using them since I was a wee one so I'm kinda used to it now. Plus they're ultra fast for my design work so that's a definite plus, I bought my first mac last year, I'm in love. xx

They are great aren't they. I hug mine every night before bed. Seriously.. I can't say enough about MACs, they just make life easier.

 

[scotrace]

...he'd say "It's dead, Jim"

Why the pouty face? You got it replaced in time, right? You replaced a Pinto with a BMW and you frown?

 

[pgoat]

Don't be fooled by the frown - we are SO happy about the new Mac in general - not to mention our perfect timing!:eusa_doh: If we hadn't bought the new machine we'd be in deep doo doo today. I managed to migrate pretty much everything onto an external too, a far cry from the last two times that old machine blew up - that was full-blown panic!

I am just sorry to see it go....plus I am getting more and more into tinkering/fixing the computer as the years go by. I was 100% terrified of being in the same room as a PC ca. 1990, let alone rolling up my sleeves and poking around under the hood. So I am just having some (sad) fun diagnosing - or maybe better called forensics at this point

I am suspecting bad capacitors on the Motherboard...I'll have a look see when I get home tonight.

PS Scott - thanks for moving the Widmark thread to Moving Pictures - I was too bummed to be thinking straight when starting it here.

 

[RondoHatton]

One works for the PC, it does not work for you

The PC at work is almost as good as the MAC I had last decade. Quark is even quirker, requiring work arounds, PhotoShop does not work as well, so many annoying things, where to start? Would like to bring in a MAC on my own and run with it to shame the powers that be, who I am told refuse to realize the MAC is the default graphic dept. machine. The PC demands that you work for IT; the MAC works FOR and WITH you. I'm gonna kill that damn search dog with that damn paper clip thing and bury them both in a landfill one day.

 

[dr greg]

graphic nouvelle

Exactly, in my experience, those who run any graphic applications on a professional level MUST have a mac, those who mainly use word/spreadsheet apps are better off with PC, I've been using PC's since the Amstrad days and Mac's drive me insane in about 3 minutes.....horses for courses.

 

[pgoat]

Exactly, in my experience, those who run any graphic applications on a professional level MUST have a mac, those who mainly use word/spreadsheet apps are better off with PC, I've been using PC's since the Amstrad days and Mac's drive me insane in about 3 minutes.....horses for courses.

kind of another reason I wanted to keep our old pc around. I use Word and Access a lot, for work and personal reasons. I can get around using other word processing apps with the Mac, but replacing Access is tougher....

I worked for a company a number of years ago that was all Mac and they were obviously great for the photo imaging stuff we were doing - but when I had to manage our client contact databases it was really clunky - I was wishing for my PC at that point.

 

[scotrace]

No, The "business" apps that are now made for mac are superior to the MS Office suite, at a small fraction of the cost. What you say about macs for graphics, wintel for business was true ten years ago, maybe even five, but is not so today.

Edit: Pgoat has a good point. No MS Access.

 

[anon`]

No Access.

I personally prefer Org Base for that kind of work, but I'm honestly not certain that projects are transferrable between the two...

 

[pgoat]

And again, the only major problem I see there is when you absolutely need to send someone else something MS specific, as with Access.

As far as the Word processing stuff goes, Scotrace was right on - with a very short learning curve, we have used either Apple's "Pages" to open Word docs with no problem (we are basically ignoring the free trial MS Office that came with our new Mac) or created PDFs, to name two quick solutions. Btw, Pages opened various word docs with little to no changes in formatting - good deal!

Finally, as Dr. McCoy said when he healed the Horta ("I'm a Doctor - not a bricklayer!!") - "I'm beginning to think I can cure the common cold!" I got our old PC up and running last night by simply taking the battery out and replacing (same battery, just allowed defaults to reset automatically and manually reset time/date). No bad caps on the mobo (one was leaning a bit) and I pulled the new 2.0 and original 1.1 USB cards. It ran fine all night and this morning. (Fingers crossed - I am putting the 2.0 card back in tonight ) Interestingly it appears the processor is running at half-speed - again, not something I set....dunno why but am not questioning this as it is working, albeit more slowly than before.

I needed to put our external HD back on the PC, as I was getting some issues using the HD with the new Mac - certain folders were 'locked' (?? I didn't lock them[huh] ), and I could not delete them from the Mac - they went to the Trash okay, but couldn't Empty Trash, even holding down the Option key....eventually I wound up moving them from trash back to the external, though that created a mess with duplicate files on the external....

Now I need to clean up the external drive, so I am using the old windows soldier to do this (hence putting the 2.0 card back in - I already miss the Fire wire 8 on the Mac tho!! )

 

[Girl Friday]

Simple

If you want to play games you need a PC, they don't make very many for Mac.

If you use graphics programs, and don't want viruses and other stuff like that, you want a Mac.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

When the debate is over, and Mac won.

My new MacBook just arrived.

Converts/long-time users: any tips or advice for me? Anything would be much appreciated, including the best way to transfer files and shortcuts and tricks.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

My new MacBook just arrived.

Converts/long-time users: any tips or advice for me? Anything would be much appreciated, including the best way to transfer files and shortcuts and tricks.

There is a widget you can download on dashboard that shows the "Leopard trick of the day." I find it very helpful.
Congratulations on the new computer! New computers are so much fun.
If I think of anything, I'll post it.

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

There is a widget you can download on dashboard that shows the "Leopard trick of the day." I find it very helpful.
Congratulations on the new computer! New computers are so much fun.
If I think of anything, I'll post it.

Thanks! I'll dl it right now.