Anyone have any advice, I might be doing it this summer, I am just sick of all the crap associated with my Toshiba laptop, and might be looking to switch to a Mini mac or possibly an IMAC.
What kind of crap? Nothing against you, but I think a lot of times people get pissed at their computers (PC and Mac) because of what they do. "Oh look, i'll download a file from an untrusted site! Now I have a nasty virus! PCs suck!" Some people probably think that just having the anti-crapware software on the computer is enough, even though they haven't updated or used the program in several months...and they wonder why their computer is slow. Maybe they're using Firefox 2.0 instead of the newest one...you get the idea. The switch goes fairly easy. If your favorite programs aren't available for Mac, there's certainly a similar program that is. If you need that Windows-only program, look into Parallels which allows you to run Windows inside Mac OS. From what I hear, it's better than Apple's Boot Camp software.
Depending on what sort of Toshiba you've got you could also try converting it to Linux. I've tried various versions, (distro's, they're called), but have ended up with PCLinuxOS on my small, old Toshiba laptop and Ubuntu on my 'main' desktop PC. No particular reason... just how it ended up. You can also run Windoze programs on it Virtualbox. Big advantage... it's all free... PLUS there's no viruses You can try it with a LiveCD which is essentially just a writable CD that you can create yourself from a free download and try the product without installing to disk. Of course this makes it run veeeeerrryyyy slowly, (compared to him it will run normally), and you can't save anything on the hard disk but it gives you an idea of what to expect. Of course, you'll need to install it on your hard disk for day to day use. Also, you can leave your windows partition on there and resize it with the software that comes with the LiveCD and have both windoze and linux available as boot time options. One other interesting possibility is that you can have a small linux installation with a virus checker which you can boot from and let THAT check your windoze partition thus avoiding the possibility of the virus installing and stopping your detection of it. Personally I think everyone should have a small linux partition on their hard disk for this purposes even if they never intend using it for anything else. Anyhooo... just a thought. http://www.pclinuxos.com/ Move your mouse over the 'Get PCLinuxOS' and select download for a local source to download. Write it to a CD with nero or whatever as an ISO image and away you go. Did I mention it was free
Watch these videos (scroll down a bit to see them): http://www.apple.com/mac/#switcher http://www.apple.com/mac/#movetomac http://www.apple.com/mac/#anatomy I bought an iMac in February 2006 after years of using Windows PCs. It was a wonderful decision and I love my computer. It's 3 years old now and hasn't slowed down a bit, even after upgrading from Tiger to Leopard and loading my iTunes full of 32 GB of music. I still have to use Windows XP at work and it's painful. Much nicer to come home to my Mac in the evening.
T_H, I made the switch last August when Microsoft stopped selling XP. I hate Vista and decided to get an iMac instead of paying for any more Microsoft crap. Vista was the tipping point. The switch has been wonderful in so many ways. First being able to go into an Apple Store and have real people answer your questions in person, instead of dealing with an hour wait on tech support. The iLife applications are great. I'm now hooked on iTune, iPhoto and iMovie, and make calendars and home movies all the time. The only hard part of the transition is not being familiar with the Mac directory structure. You might want to switch away from MS-Word. If you want to boot Windows on Apple hardware, I recommend Boot Camp. Except for a glitch during the install, which was handled expertly by rep at the Apple Store, it works flawlessly. We are next planning on getting a Mac Mini which will be our second Mac computer, and attach it to an HDTV and use it as the core of a media center. I'm also soon going to replace my NetGear wireless router with Apple's AirPort wireless router, and get the iWork'09 suite (only $79) so the kids can do homework. The only thing I can say about Microsoft is - "The fear of switching is the base of Micro$oft's customer loyalty. Take that fear away and they have nothing."
There is no shortage of advocacy for superior Macs over crappy PCs on the internet; Apple's own website offers "switcher" advice on how to migrate your old data from a crappy PC to a marvelous Apple computer. Better still, there are ways that you can still use buggy Windows on a glorious Mac; Parallels among others. Should you select either a Mac Mini or an iMac your life will become fulfilling, enriched, and full of meaning; but why not, praytell, go all the way to true heaven with a MacBook, a MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro to replace your crappy Toshiba laptop? One suggestion - first - however on whatever you do though... back up all your data first and foremost... best of luck...
Why did this convince you to switch? Did you need a new computer anyway, and couldn't find a spare copy of XP anywhere? I was unaware that XP was no longer offered for sale. Of course, it's also been a long time since I hit up my local computer store for a pre-built PC with everything on it. And really, you can't expect someone to keep offering a product forever, can you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on 30 June 2008, although it is still possible to obtain Windows XP from System Builders[5] (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) until 31 July 2009 or by purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate or Business and then downgrading to Windows XP No, but it might be nice if the thing they offered to replace it with actually worked properly
I think this summer (depending on whether or not I get the internship i'm going for.....) I'll buy myself a Mac Mini (as much as I'd love an IMac and a 19inch monitor from Dell or somewhere, along with a external hard drive to move all my music and junk to the new comp. Thanks for the advice guys.
If you already have the monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, and all the other stuff you need, just get the Mini.
So i'm guessing it's not so much the fact that these people don't have a copy of XP (which they should, anyway), it's the fact that Vista is a repeat of ME...a trumpeted release of something which doesn't live up to the hype. I think MS is screwed no matter what they do. Do they release something that's not quite yet ready, and then release the updates as needed? Or do they wait, and wait, and wait to release something, and make everyone impatient? You're right though -- a major overhaul and re-write of Windows is needed. I think they might even be working on one now. That could just be a UI re-write. I've heard rumors about them going away from the current look and either going to a dock like what Mac has, or some sort of pie graph thingy. The bad thing about these re-writes is that they take a lot of time. There's millions of lines of code that have to be re-written. There really is no option other than to work on the old code as you're working on the new code. Honestly, I think the best thing to do with any piece of software is this: 1) Ask yourself if you really need the upgrade. 2) Look at your current version. Is it still suiting your needs? 3) What about the newer version do you need? 4) Wait a few months after release. Let the lemmings go out and find all the bugs. Meanwhile, you're happy with your older software. Sure, it may not have the newest bells and whistles, but it works. 5) When a lot of the bugs have been fixed, and maybe after the first service pack has been released, then go out and buy it...you may even get a lower price than those who bought it in the first week. Remember, there were a lot of people using Windows 98 long after 2000 and ME were released. Sure, it was an older piece of software, but if it suited their needs, then what was it in it for them when they upgraded to something they didn't need? Maybe it's just me, but I think sometimes the lemmings get what they ask for.
Well said... and I agree. I think the REAL problem here is that the business model that MS employs, (selling software at a rate necessary to fund a massive business like they are now), isn't really viable any more. It's more suited to a development industry where each new product is radically different in form and function from the previous one. The fact is that the features of MS Word or Excel that people used back in, say, the mid 90's are almost exactly the same as the ones they use now. Other business packages such as accounts packages and MRP are, again, exactly the same for the obvious reason that business requirements don't change and are, in the case of accounts, largely dictated by statute. The truth is that we don't NEED a new version of windows. We just need the one we've got to work properly. That's why I prefer Linux. The model they started with was pretty good in that it was reliable and the user account system was secure by it's very nature. It works now pretty much the same way it did when it was first devised back in... well, it depends what you mean. I'd say it's based on unix which was written back in the 60's and 70's but the kernel was developed by Torvalds in the early 90's. Whatever!!! It was a while ago. The point is that it's been devised by people to meet the requirements they have... not what someone else THINKS they have as has been the case with windows. Thus MS came up with the brilliant idea that a user should be able to easily install software without having to type in a superuser password... thus we have one million computer viruses and other malware, (and counting!!!), which have made operating a computer massively more complex than simply typing in a password every so often which was the alternative. Let's be honest, how often do most people actually install software anyway? Once a week or month at the most. I know it's not quite that simple but the fact remains that decisions made by MS, sometimes years ago, have made the use of computers a lot harder than it need be.
And it's not just with operating systems, but with other programs as well. I've been visiting another website fairly regularly since 1998 or so. The guy who runs it bought an HTML editor back in 1997. He finally ditched that editor for a new one in 2005. The website itself isn't that fancy. It's more like a blog, actually. (Blogs existed in 1997, we just didn't have the word invented.) Why upgrade if the thing does the job it's supposed to? Ok, so the new editing program made his life easier, but if you don't see an apparent need to go for the new version, and if the old one makes sense, then stick with the tried and true solution.