# Macintosh OS vs Windows Vista



## Darya (Feb 10, 2010)

Hello good people,

I have a dilemma to solve. I am about to buy new laptop and can't seem to decide whether to choose mac or smth more traditional with windows (vista 64 bit).
As the main purpose of having laptop is working with pictures (using Lightroom and DxO Optics Pro) wherever I find myself during travelling I would like to ask for your opinion/experience? As a user of windows vista/Toshiba I am bit scared (of unknown) of switching to mac for obviously it's a completely different OS , but I am quite fed up with slowliness and unpredictable behaviour of windows vista.

Any opinions?
Thank you.


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## sizzlingbadger (Feb 10, 2010)

This will cause some debate !  I switched to Mac about 5 years ago and have never looked back. I much prefer it over Windows but that is my experience and opinion and there are many things to consider when deciding what to buy. Google is a good place to start. I would say that one is not better than the other just different.


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## James Lagden (Feb 10, 2010)

Why go with windows Vista?
If you are in the market for a new laptop, it will most likely come with Windows 7 which is faster than Vista. It will resolve your issue with the slowness and unpredictability of Vista and be far less daunting than switching to Mac OS.


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## Darya (Feb 10, 2010)

Sorry i meant windows 7. 

To James and sizzlingbadger:
Would be interesting to know why You prefer mac to windows (or the other way around). That's the main reason i started this post.  Thanks.


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## James Lagden (Feb 10, 2010)

I have used both for some time, but Windows Vista put the final nail in the coffin!
I do have Windows 7 installed in Bootcamp, but that's just for occasional gaming and applications needed for work.
To be honest, once you are in the application you could be using any OS, so its not that big a deal.
If a macbook is within your price range then there's nothing stopping you. You could always install windows in Bootcamp while you transition over.


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## sizzlingbadger (Feb 10, 2010)

The main reason I like it is because I don't have to worry about installing Virus software. It comes with nearly everything I need straight of the box. It integrates and shares all my stickies, bookmarks, widgets, contacts with my mac book automatically. The interface is clean and simple and just makes sense. The hardware is well made (though you do pay for that). I use Linux / Unix at work so it makes a lot more sense to me under the covers. I just like the whole integrated package, I seem to get more done on my mac with less fuss.


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## Victoria Bampton (Feb 10, 2010)

At the end of the day, they're both tools, and they'll both do the job.

Yeah, I'm a Mac user, and I wouldn't switch back. I spend all day staring at these machines and I want to enjoy what I'm doing - and I enjoy the Mac OS more than Windows. On the other hand, Windows 7 is a great improvement over earlier Windows OS's, barring the overzealous security.

Take a trip down to your local Apple store and book an appointment with one of the experts, and have a play. It's a personal decision and it's got to be right for you.


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## ajpl (Feb 13, 2010)

A simple answer - DX Optics Pro seriously lags behind on the Mac compared to the PC version. 5.3.7 Vs 6.12 on PC. So stay with PC if the programme is important to you. 
I use both systems and both are very good and both are also very annoying in different ways. And Macs despite their marketing are certainly not more reliable and just work. OSX is very buggy, Snow Leopard for example initially caused PS issues and my new MacBook Pro's wireless had just packed up.


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## ajpl (Feb 13, 2010)

[quote author=sizzlingbadger link=topic=9155.msg6167'#msg6167' date=1265788316]
 I just like the whole integrated package, I seem to get more done on my mac with less fuss.
[/quote]I dislike the integration as it can be limiting and I find my new Mac slower than my old PC at times. I also use my PC or Bootcamp to Filemanage at times as Finder is so shockingly awful -probably the worst programme I've ever had to use. Though I use PathFinder to bypass it as much as I can.
Never understood why people never acknowledge that Macs are just as flawed as PCs.


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## sizzlingbadger (Feb 14, 2010)

I found Finder a pain when I first moved from Windows but once you know what you are doing with it it's actually pretty good. It's just different and takes some time to get used to. The best thing about Mac's for me is the fact they are unix based... I work with unix all day long so when in the Terminal I can do almost anything with a few commands.

Macs are just as flawed as PCs ! there you go.... I just prefer the Mac flaws to Windows


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## edgley (Feb 15, 2010)

Made the switch to Mac 18 months ago; wont be going back.
In the first year of owning two Macs, one only crashed (hung) twice. I think that speaks more about stability than anything else.

I used to like tinkering with PCs, now I like using tools, and that is what the Mac offers. Sure, there were problems getting SL to work properly with the first release of it, but anyone using their system as a professional tool wont have upgraded until the first patches where released. 1'.6.3 is just around the corner, so anyone whom is still seeing issues with SL should soon be happy.

One thing that might be of interest is how much longer a Mac goes without needed to be replaced, and the fact that when Apple release a whole new OS, like SL, it looks just like the old one, so no need to go re-learning something that should just be in the background, the OS.


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## ajpl (Mar 6, 2010)

[quote author=sizzlingbadger link=topic=9155.msg618'7#msg618'7 date=1266137995]
I found Finder a pain when I first moved from Windows but once you know what you are doing with it it's actually pretty good. It's just different and takes some time to get used to.[/quote]
It's a crippled piece of garbage that makes many easy things really, really hard to do. I know how to use Finder and yet I still think it is awful. I can do some tasks iin minutes in a Windows file manager, that would take literally days in Finder. If I couldn't bypass Finder, I'd simply never use OSX again.
To my mind thinking Finder is pretty good is like thinking MacDonalds do Haute Cuisine! 



> The best thing about Mac's for me is the fact they are unix based... I work with unix all day long so when in the Terminal I can do almost anything with a few commands.


 I always find this sort of comment regarding terminal and how wonderful/useful/powerful it is, to be completely missing the point of why most people buy Macs. They are sold on ease of use and Mac users tend to be even less likely to be able to deal with command line nonsense than PC users. Terminal use is for geeky types who really know what they are doing. Having to type in commands seems so 198's.



> Macs are just as flawed as PCs ! there you go.... I just prefer the Mac flaws to Windows :icon_biggrin:


But as you think Finder is pretty good, anything you say will now have to be taken with a pinch of salt.


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## ajpl (Mar 6, 2010)

[quote author=edgley link=topic=9155.msg61865#msg61865 date=126623'178]
Made the switch to Mac 18 months ago; wont be going back.
In the first year of owning two Macs, one only crashed (hung) twice. I think that speaks more about stability than anything else.[/quote] Yet both of mine have been quite problematic, beachball of doom is a regular fixture and the desktop went through a phase of crashing completely for a while and then just as suddenly stopped, poss with the 1'.5.8 bug fix. OSX 1'.5 was pretty ropey until 1'.5.4 and iffy again a few updates later. 1'.6 had terrible problems with PS for example, which was fixed with 1'.6.2 bug fix. I'm not installing SL on my desktop until at least 1'.6.4. Even one of the Genius at my local Apple store says he never installs the new OS until the 4 or 5th bug fix, just like PC savvy types don't install Windows until SP1.



> I used to like tinkering with PCs, now I like using tools, and that is what the Mac offers. Sure, there were problems getting SL to work properly with the first release of it, but anyone using their system as a professional tool wont have upgraded until the first patches where released. 1'.6.3 is just around the corner, so anyone whom is still seeing issues with SL should soon be happy.


In other words just like a PC!



> One thing that might be of interest is how much longer a Mac goes without needed to be replaced, and the fact that when Apple release a whole new OS, like SL, it looks just like the old one, so no need to go re-learning something that should just be in the background, the OS.


I'm using a 5yr old PC laptop alongside my much newer Macs and it does very well thank you and been reliable too, never had to go back to shop unlike my Macs. And new Mac OSs can vary as much/as little as new PC OS versions do. Panther, Tiger and Leopard had distinct looks and tweaked UI/behaviours. Leopard and Snow Leopard haven't changed that much just as Vista + W7 aren't much different.


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## ajpl (Mar 6, 2010)

Here's some Victoria said in another thread about corrupt catalogues.
"Your USB might now be a cable issue - talking to an engineer a while back, he unofficially said that the majority of unexplained corruption cases were on usb drives on Macs, simply because the usb implementation in OS X wasn't as stable. So, FWIW, it might be worth considering copying the catalog to the local drive when you're working with it, or switching to firewire instead."

Just don't believe the "Macs just work' myth, no less problematic than any other computer kit, despite the higher price.


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## sizzlingbadger (Mar 6, 2010)

If you hate the Mac so much then why not just use PC's ? You are obviously happier with a PC.


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## Victoria Bampton (Mar 6, 2010)

End result, there are pros and cons to both. This is an old thread and the OP is no longer involved.

Mac vs PC threads get heated, and this is not the place for it. It at least started out as quite a balanced thread, in the spirit of this forum - shame it didn't stay that way.

I'm going to close this thread now and we will say no more.


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