Mac Users: I need an opinion

[docholly]

I have a friend who wants to buy my son a Mac for graduation but we have NO clue as to what to get.

The programs he currently uses on the PC are PhotoShop & PSP but wants to expand his graphics capabilities with Quark and poser.

For someone starting out, what one of the many fruit books would be a good option, in your opinion. Most likely he'll be just using this for school and the graphics but will still use the PC for gaming etc.

Cleo???
anyone else???

Thanks in advance.

[Cleo]

If there is an Apple store nearby then that is the best place to go otherwise the online Apple store is a good place to shop.

Any of the Mac books would probably be fine but for the programs I like the Visual Quickstart Guides.

[cd34]

If you get one, I would suggest making sure you get one with the NVidea graphics chipset if you're thinking refurb -- all of the newer ones have the NVidea cards. My previous one had the Intel embedded one and my nephew tried WoW on it and it was quite sluggish. On the one with the NVidea card, it performs better than his current PC.

The white polycarbonate cases are not nearly as durable -- mine didn't last two years. For $149 I can replace the keyboard 'tray' which is the part that cracked. The laptop itself is still in working order but has the older Intel card and switching windows and screen redraws were slow.

The base aluminum macbook is a pretty good unit. The aluminum case on mine appears to be much more rugged. Put in the extra ram - their ram isn't the cheapest, but, you get the refund on the 'old' memory which you would throw away if you did the upgrade yourself.

Whether you go for the Pro is more a screen size and budget thing. The small boost in cpu horsepower wasn't enough to entice me -- the larger screen meant less portability for me. Simon probably still hasn't gotten his new one yet.

There are refurb Airs for $999 which are decent IF the limitations are able to be worked around. If you were going to do USB, needed to connect to a wired network from time to time, and had wifi with a reasonable battery life and didn't mind the smaller form factor, the macbook is a pretty decent machine. With bootcamp, he could dual boot windows and Mac os/x for his games. If you wanted firewire, I think you have to go to the Pro which has the larger screen.

Also, there is a rumor that apple is going to reduce the cost of some of their machines early soon. I would suspect the white polycarbonate machine and possibly their imac's are going to have their entry model price lowered.

openoffice.org is a very decent Microsoft Office replacement and does well.

[nate]

Quark and poser also run on PCs. Poseer, being a 3d app could run better on a PC because of the commercial-grade 3d cards like the FireGL work with PCs but not macs.

If he does get a mac, make sure its one of the the ones that can run windows if he decides to bail from macos later. macos might be an interesting way of getting his feet wet in a unix-like setting if he's never messed with linux or *BSD.

[Cleo]

Nate really needs to use a modern Mac and not base his views on old information.

[bDok]

you have two choices really... get the macbook, if a 13" screen will work or go macbook pro and get bigger screen and more horsepower.

air is out of the question if this is going to be his main machine.

[Cleo]

I wasn't sure if Docholly was looking for a laptop or desktop Mac.

The Mac mini is decent for the price, especially if you already own a display. The iMac are very nice, surprisingly powerful, machines too. Most of the print shops and design studios that I know use Mac Pros but they are mammoth expensive machines.

For an entry level laptop the white Macbook is a decent laptop. The aluminum Macbook has a nicer case but no firewire port which might be a problem if he is working in design since firewire is used extensively. The Macbook Pro has everything including a better screen, backlight keyboard, firewire, and a cardbus slot.

For students Apple has special deals.

[docholly]

Thanks for all the great advice..

Cleo..it's entry level and laptop so the macbook is a def. on the list.

His main machine will still be a PC..but using the mac to expand his graphic abilities.

We're still "noodling"..

[Cleo]

Just saw this today.
Consumer Reports Takes a Shine to Apple

By STEPHEN WILLIAMS
Hitting for the cycle is a rare event in baseball, and rare as well in the pages of Consumer Reports.


So when you go three for three—as Apple has in the recent laptop computer-ratings issue—and score highly in other categories, it’s worth at least a nod.

Whether you purchase religiously at retail based on the opinions of CR tests or pooh-pooh their findings altogether—I fall into some middle ground there when it comes to electronics—an educated consumer might do well to examine the charts in the current June issue, just released.

In laptops, Apple MacBooks rated first in the 13-inch category, the 14-to 16-inch size, and the 17-inch list; Dell, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard were also-rans. The 15-inch MacBook Pro was rated overall with a score of 75 out of 100, ahead of a 64-rated Toshiba Satellite (the Pro costs $2,000, the Toshiba $700).

Among desktops, the Mac mini finished second to an H-P Pavillion Slimline, and the iMac placed second behind a Dell XPS One.

CR surveyed its readers about computer tech support. Apple trounced the field in both desktop and laptop categories.

For shoppers on the cusp of a purchase decision, I’d suggest holding off another month or so. There’s a buzz about, detailed at Apple Insider, that price cuts may be imminent for some of their desktop (as in iMac) and portable (low-end MacBook) models.

Also, it’s a good bet that Apple will again offer a back-to-school promotion for students this summer; last year, the company gave away iPod touch models with most computer purchases. That promotion usually starts in June and runs until September.

[nate]

I didnt say anything bad about them, just that they arent supported for the really high-end 3d cards. I think the macos they have now is pretty cool at least in theory, I mean, it is unix-like. And it runs on Intel CPUs now, which is definitely a plus. I really have nothing but praise for the newer hardware, but I dont much like the company and that used-car-salesman that runs it.

I wish windows was more unix-like so I could have real paths instead of r:\whatever.

Which leads me to a funny story. Last evening I installed Win2ksp4 (which is by no means outdated) on a P133 laptop... and get this, the extra memory had popped out of its holder and the computer was running on 16 MB of ram. It took a while to install, but it did, AND it ran sort of OK after I turned off lots of services. Thats a pretty awesome feat for an OS with the capability of Win2k. Of course, it runs lots better with the other 64MB of RAM shoved back into place.

Edit: as of 2007 it looks like macos is a genuine unix, so I shouldnt have called it unix-like. Thats pretty cool.

[MadCat]

If you want something portable, stick to a regular Macbook. Do try to get the more recent model (the one-hunk-of-aluminum case), since the graphics card in there is fine for most things you want to pull with it.

Macbook Pro's are nice too but are bulky, and run hotter than hell so if you put it on your lap while working, you're going to cook your nuggets... (I should know... I've got an MBP hehe)

[Peedy]

Macbook should do nicely

[saucygirl]

Whatever mac he gets he can get Virtual PC for Mac, which runs windows based applications on macs.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by saucygirl

Whatever mac he gets he can get Virtual PC for Mac, which runs windows based applications on macs.

Actually, he won't need VirtualPC unless for some reason he buys a pretty old used Mac with the PowerPC processor. (Note: don't do that.)

All new Macs have been able to run Windows and most Windows apps right out of the box via the included "Bootcamp" since Apple switched to the Intel chipset some years ago. There's also Parallels Desktop which allows you to run both OSs (and others) at the same time without needing to reboot.

HTH

[docholly]

I "think" we are going with the Macbook Pro for long term use. It will only be used for graphics and some other related programs.

1 fruit in a sea of PCs. thanks for all the helpful advice.. and Cleo.. great article.. i put it on a share on FB, for her to read.

[burntfilm]

mac's take some time to get adjusted to, the last thing you want to do is rush to install vista out of frustration. It's good for new mac users to go grab a few classes at the apple store. It helps avoid a ton of frustration and the development of bad user habits based on trying to do things "the windows way".
The more general problems people have upon switching to mac involve windows formats that don't work without installing the proper programs and problems adjusting to the finder browser. Both easily fixed.

Adobe suites are a dream to work with using the magic mouse and hot keys in mac osx, and I can say that not only do I never open up in windows anymore, but when I do use a pc machine, i experience the inverse frustration of what I felt when I first got a mac.