Completely NSR - Mac Users?

[mmglobal]

Many of you know that in my past life, I made my living as a computer operator, programmer, systems analyst, and that for the last dozen years of my computer career, I was an independent computer consultant�. Global Software Associates. (That�s where mmglobal comes from.)

My career started back when computer storage was stone tablets� actually magnetic tape. A 300 baud terminal was lightening fast. The new fangled hard disc devices were the size of a top loading washing machine and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for storage measured in K(ilobytes), not Mega�s, Giga�s or Terra�s. A computer was booted by manually inputting the loader program in machine code, via a bank of toggle switches. Then, the operating system could be loaded from mag tape.

In the early 80�s one of my bosses went to an event at Apple computer (a company that made odd machines for propeller-heads and schools.) He came back all excited about a machine called the Lisa, with a GUI (graphics user interface) that let us look at data in windows and pixels and resizing and working on multiple things at once�. All beyond belief.. all too good to be true. (Remember that at the time, we all had pictures on our office walls�. Moonscapes with astronauts� all printed by over-striking characters to make rows and columns seem like pixels. We taped multiple sections of line-printer paper and created masterpieces. (I still have a 9-track tape with these pictures on them. So, if the tape is readable and if anyone has a 9-track tape reader�. I�ll make you a deal.)

In the late 80�s some people I knew had Macintosh�s. These computers and it�s OS were obviously superior. While I was worrying about IRQ, device addresses, interrupt levels for advanced devices like the new 1200 baud (not kilobaud) modems (4 times faster than the dinosaur modems)� my Apple buddies simply plugged in new devices� the OS recognized them and started to use them. What a bunch of simpletons those Mac people were� they didn�t know squat about IRQ�s. Since I needed to make my living with computers and since Apple products and software were more expensive and since none of the companies I worked with really focused on Macs� I have been on IBM Compatible PC�s since my first 64K on the motherboard, original PC. (I had a really cool one with 2 floppy drives� both upgraded to 360k instead of 1 smaller drive� the upgrade cost for this massive amount of storage, almost � of a megabyte, was about $1000. The entire machine with printer cost $6,000 (in 1983 dollars) including the extra $59 for a box of 10 floppy discs.

My Mac friends faded away because they will not associate with people who use PC�s. That was OK� they were an odd bunch anyway. Moonie types are always a bit off� no matter what their passion is.

Well, I just got my first Mac. Actually, it�s an iMac G5. MAN OH MAN, IS IT AWESOME!!! All those years wasted in conformity, bowing to the Microsoft God. What an idiot I was. I hope that my old Mac buddies will forgive me. I�m on my way to the tattoo parlor now to get an apple plastered on my forehead. Farewell to all I know who use PC�s� if you become enlightened, perhaps we can talk again.

OK� I�ll stop now.

The guy who set me up warned me that it would be a serious disadvantage� starting on a Mac, but knowing and still using DOS 1.0 commands. The purpose of this post is to seek help from my new Mac friends.

> Any tips or tricks that you want to share

> Any whiz bang devices that I must buy?

> Where do I send my Mac tithe and is 10% enough to make up for all those years?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Sincerely,

Mark

PS � Can we set up an ADR Support forum only for Mac users?

[ans]

Mark, sent you a PM.

Congratulations. I love Macs.

Allan

[Jim M2]

I've been an grumpy PC user ever since I was exposed to Macs back in the early nineties. Microsoft is garbage. People used to say "Windows 95 is as good as a Mac." No way!

I'm glad to hear the Mac are still nice to use. Maybe I'll get one the next time I upgrade.

[ans]

Jim,

Actually Macs and PC platfoms have "borrowed" a lot from each other (e..g hyper-threading, other tidbits). I think Macs are pretty as the OS; in time, Macs should run almost as fast as PC's if the emulation system doesn't slow it down too much. Apple has good customer support. There's rumors that both OS's w/be able to run on the forthcoming Mac's with the Intel chips. I would wait for the second or third revision of the Intel processors but the iMac is a pretty and fairly fast machine. What I most like about Macs is that I can do a lot of troubleshooting on my own, and I'm a computer idiot; I dont' know what's out there aside from Norton Utilities for Windows which is good but crashes Mac systems.

Good luck - Allan

Edit: I sent Mark a long note - too long for this forum. But if anyone's interested in Macs, I can paste from it. It's just the basics to get one running. I think that if one works with a machine for a long time, that aesthetics matters; even Dvorak in the PC community who hates Mac's chided engineers for not making their computers pleasing enough (but I sure dig the Viao).

[Mariaa]

Mark,
My husband bought a Mac around 2 years ago..he's enchanted also~ however, I know even less about what the Mac than I know about my PC so all I can say is "congratulations"!

[Fortitudine]

I don't know enough to really appreciate my Mac iBook,but my cousin the Mac consultant is always available to help me, while I can never find a reliable PC support person.

But I'm waiting for someone to kill MS Word and invent an intuitive wp program!

[ans]

Apple has its horrid AppleWorks but they're working on a word-processing program. I'd rather have a new iBook as they're "tougher" than PowerBooks. I'd like to tinker with it but given that you're in Canada...

Basic home maintenance: Cocktail and Tech Tool Pro. Anyone can do it.

Sometimes my hand hurts from the trackpad so I got Appple's optical "Mighty Mouse" which absolutely rocks.

Not on Apple's payroll, they've got pretty good support and if they keep botching a job, you'll get a free computer - the latest of the models.
Allan

[Jim M2]

Allan,
I guess my beef is less about the technologies PCs and Macs share, and more about the thoughtfulness behind menus and commands, i.e. intuitiveness.
Here's a list of gripes.

- on a PC I can't remember how to do something I've done 100 times before. On a Mac I might think, gee I'd like to do something I've never done before and I don't even know if the Mac can do it. If it can do it, it would probably be here... hey look I just did it!

- In the old draw program for making charts (Claris?) the Mac would take my mouse/keyboard commands as fast as I could work. If you click too soon in MS Powerpoint it dosen't listen.

- In the old draw program for making charts the handles for graphical objects and text boxes were easy to grab. It always grabbed what you wanted, not everything except what you wanted. Using a Mac it was like my brain became directly connected to the screen to manipulate the figure. It was awesome.

Microshaft is the standard now and I accept it as a necessary evil.

[ans]

Jim,

Some people bemoan the switch to OS X like here http://thalo.net/groupee/forums

I love the OS, it hardly crashes, and when it does, I can fix any software problem w/different tools - so far. I understand that the older Mac system was big on Human Interface Guidelines; maybe less so but regardless, there's a learning curve. I'm anxious to see how Mac's perform on new Intel chips coming up soon. I don't see $MS as a necessary evil since I can get any program I want except for real specific ones or for gaming, Go to an AppleStore for fun and let me know what you think.

Best, Allan

PS Just compare a PC desktop in aesthetics vs. the iMac:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/...=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Vs: http://www.apple.com/imac/

But serious Power Users have to be careful w/Macs; not for long 'tho..

[JeffreyD]

Mark,
Welcome to the Mac enlightened. Glad you finally broke away from the evil empire (Microsoft).
Rent "Pirates of Silicon Valley" (Jobs-"But, Macs are better computers!!!!".......Gates-"It doesn't matter."), crack open a cold one, and enjoy your freedom.

-Jeff