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Posted on 01/02/10
In the category Apple
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Why I bought a Mac

Well we all know of the OS wars, Windows? Linux? Mac? Which is better? Here is my reasoning behind buying a mac, after using Windows 7, and the latest Linux distributions.

Ok, let’s start with good old Windows, and I must say that the latest version is on the right tracks, Microsoft are certaintly learning from the mess that was Vista. It’s quite pretty with it’s nice glass effects and the ability to change to colour is nice, but it does still take its toll on the hardware. You’ll want a decent graphics card for it.

As for features, well, it’s similar to Vista, User Access Control (UAC) mimics the super user password popups in Linux, but seems to do so in an irritating way.At least Linux lets me choose when to type the password in, Windows forces you to click then and there. Networking is nice, and stable, no major problems really, and drivers are starting to get better.

But it just seems slow. I’m not sure what exactly it is, but Windows gives me the (possible) illusion of sluggishness,  it feels like it takes me a while to do anything.

Linux, I’m basing this on Fedora 12, my favourite distribution, but I’ll save that choice for a later post. It’s often quicker, and some people may not like it, but I often find things easier from the command line. Basic file management, cp, mv, ln -s etc. And installing programs in your repositories is easy, and very nice, once you know what you’re doing. Graphics however, are hit and miss, it really depends on your hardware and how good the drivers are. Gnome and KDE themes are easy to install and there are some good ones, and more eye candy is avaliable throught compiz-fusion, albeit sometimes confusing and awkward settings.

Networking is ok, also depending on your drivers, my Asus EeePC for example, has a Realtek rt2860 wireless chipset, which doesn’t play nice with most WPA encryption, especially the scary protection the university uses.

But when things go wrong, and they undoubtly will, there can be serious problems. The netbook’s currently out of action as I fix some kernel errors…
And there still don’t seem to be many good applications, especially for audio/video, and interestingly twitter (I’m having problems with Adobe Air too, so no TweetDeck).

Now Mac OS X is nice, clean and resembles Gnome, or vice versa as the case may be. I love the dock! It’s quick and has many useful features. Installing applications is quick and easy and there are few hardwars issues as everything inside the box is designed by Apple themselves. Yes it’s very closed, and you can’t hack it as easily as Linux, and yes they’re very expensive, but I think it’s worth it. You’d pay loads more for say a Mercedes over a Ford Focus, if you could afford it, wouldnt you? Especially if you drove around lots for work. The same applies here. I’ll be sat infront of this machine for ages, so it makes sense to make sure it’s a good one.

I’ll make a full review of it when it arrives. Stay tuned.