Comments on: Hasta la Vista. It’s Windows 7 or Nothing

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 01:35:42 +0000

I haven’t had any trouble with Vista on my laptop since I bought it a year and a half ago. I guess it’s just luck – in your case, bad luck.

By: David Hersh

David Hersh — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:58:14 +0000

My Vista works great with a 64 bit system, never a problem

By: Pam R

Pam R — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:34:04 +0000

I am with Joe – get rid of Vista now! On my home computer, it has slowed down the simplest of operations and I regularly get a complete freeze bacause it is trying to deal with the updates and heavy memory requirements. Good riddance! (And all you MacFolks have got me thinking ….)

By: Irme Chan

Irme Chan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 01:35:10 +0000

I have to disagree with you Marta. We use Macs exclusively at my work, and speaking to my friends in the science community, across Canada and at conferences most of the computers in their labs and networks, especially for bioinformatics, are Macs. Apparently, the best software for their work is designed for Macs.
I think there’s something to be said for scientists and designers, who really push their computers to the limits individually and collaboratively, being such strong advocates of Macs. Also, the reason we have a Mac lab at Humber is for the graphic design students, so I think that the reasons Macs exist in the business environment (besides being cool) are application-driven.

By: Zoey Castelino

Zoey Castelino — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 01:34:20 +0000

I’m also awaiting the arrival of Windows 7 – although I must say my luck with Vista hasn’t been bad at all. (I guess I’m lucky for once!) However, if there’s something new and shiny and it promises to be good, I’ll give it a shot. I should be in the market for a new laptop by then!

By: Marta Warner

Marta Warner — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:10:47 +0000

I agree with you Joe, insofar that Macs may be ideally suited for the individual user versus a large network. This summer I switched from a Dell to a Mac (my PC was archaic – 5 years old, at least) and fell in love with the speed and ease of its operating system. The learning curve was minimal and in about ten days I was an expert.
At Humber College where I am a student, I have access to both a PC computer lab and a Mac computer lab. Where the PC lab manages to maintain its speed regardless of other users on the network, I find the Macs slow down. The Macs are still quite efficient, but don’t function with the same zest as my own Macbook.
I’d be interested to see any corroborated proof of this differential, and whether it could become an tangible marketing tool for Dell, HP or other Pc manufacturers to target large businesses with.

By: Martin Edic

Martin Edic — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:51:37 +0000

Joe,
The time saved not screwing around with Microsoft’s installs, viruses, crappy printer drivers, etc., more than offsets the price difference with Macs. I’ve been using the same MacBook for two years and have never needed to contact Apple for anything.
It’s hard to believe your designers are not on Macs- that’s just silly. Look at the iMacs- an equivalent very high quality monitor alone would be $500, giving you a very powerful computer for $700 ($1200-500).

enough fanboy stuff…

By: Jim Lane

Jim Lane — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:22:28 +0000

I’ve had no Home Office Vista problems at all. I guess Vista must not like you and your problems with it are personal!

All kidding aside, if you think 7 will be any different, you are being a bit Pollyanna-ish.

And there is a far superior system available, Linux – of course, that assumes you are good enough to use it.

By: CT Moore

CT Moore — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:23:52 +0000

Apparently a Mac has a life expectancy 3 times longer than a PC — i.e. in terms of how long it takes to become obsolete. So when you start thinking about price-point and value-proposition, Mac’s are not really more expensive. You also don’t have to have invest in anti-virus, which is nice.

Oh, and did I mention that they just work…

By: Joseph Thornley

Joseph Thornley — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:00:46 +0000

Bryan, I consider Macs frequently. In fact, the 76Designers are constantly lobbying for Macs.

I looked at it again as recently as December. And I just can’t make the business case for Macs. They’re more expensive to buy initally. Apple’s service seems geared for the single user, not for the Enterprise. I’ve found that Dell’s service really works for us. And when your system is not working, prompt troubleshooting is a life or death matter. Finally, mixing Macs into the environment would add another level of complexity that ultimately would make it more costly and time consuming to troubleshoot problems when they do occur.

So for now, we’re staying with PCs. Of course, I expect that I’ll continue to review that situation periodically so long as I work with designers and developers.