Mac or Laptop

[Goldstone Rapper]

A similar question to yours on Yahoo received a response to try Windows Live Photo Gallery - Windows Live Photo Gallery. I'm not sure if this runs locally or in the cloud. If cloud based would do the job for you, Google's Picasa is often spoken about favourably.

Thanks. The photo software I seek would have to run locally rather than cloud-based as I work in a children's nursery. Windows Live Photo Gallery seems to be cloud-based.

Digital pictures are taken by staff to go in children's profiles. At the moment, photos are copied from the camera card to ever-increasing number of new folders in a Pictures folder. It's a mess. I would love the simplicity of iPhoto for organising the photos on the PC.

 

[disgruntled h blocker]

I was 'brought up' using an Apple (IIe to be precise), one which pre-dated the Mac era, and I think it's rather sad how the fan-boi/image conscious brigade have taken it over.

For the cost of a Mac, you could get a much faster PC, or a similarly specced one with a better screen. If photography is your main use of the machine, the screen is the main concern, making sure it has a good ICC colour profile and a high contrast ratio. There are also other factors, such as if you use a high resolution, it may be worth you using DisplayPort or HDMI instead of DVI or VGA port connections.

Remember that Photoshop is a lot more expensive in the UK than the US, so it may be worth taking a holiday over to the states and buying a copy over there.

 

[Spanish Seagulls]

I now have a MacBook Pro & it is easily the best laptop I have ever used. It has Word, Excel & far superior in screen quality as well as having the power to do just about anything you could possibly want from a personal computer. When i first tried switching about 4 years ago I found it a bit annoying because of the slight differences in operating & found myself going back to a pc but I wouldn't want any other computer now. Just persevere & you will be hooked because they truly are superior.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

I have a 17" PowerBook laptop that is still going strong after 5 years along with a hard drive upgrade and extra RAM added. It now sits permanently on my desk, although originally I was travelling with it for the first couple of years of ownership.

The reason I went with the Mac was the instability of Windows at the time. I had a Dell Inspiron laptop which hardware wise was pretty good but I just got fed up with Windows and it's quirky crashes, software not playing well with each other, and spending time updating patches / fixes / virus scans, etc followed by reboots. As my Mac is a personal machine, I value my time.

If you do get a Mac laptop, I highly recommend getting AppleCare for peace of mind, and a spare hard drive / Time Capsule for backing up your machine.

 

[Beach Hut]

We switched to a MAC in February and never looked back.

 

[El Presidente]

I've got four Macs (iMac, 17 inch Macbook Pro, 15 inch Macbook Pro and 13 inch Macbook, I do a lot of podcasting and Apple are very generous to me) and four PC's (Desktop, Tablet and two netbooks), and they all have their uses.

Windows 7 is a huge leap forwards, and I couldn't cope without my tablet (for lecturing) and Excel (for teaching investment banking), so as Bozza said are the default for work based issues, but Mrs Pres is a keen photographer and uses the large screen on the iMac for editing photos, and I use the Macbooks for running my student support website. I know nothing about how to design a website, but iWeb does it all for me, and leaves me to concentrate on content.

I'm lazy, and want my computer to be like a car, in that looks do count for something, I don't give a shit what happens under the bonnet so long as when I press the key it works and doesn't break down, and the Macs have delivered on that far better than PC's in my experience (I'm on my fourth IBM/Lenovo tablet in four years).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This is a bit like asking 'would you like a punch in the face or a ten pound note?'

 

[Gwylan]

This is a bit like asking 'would you like a punch in the face or a ten pound note?'

Well not really is it? Both Macs and PCs have their pros and cons, it's really a question of what you want from a computer.

But what's the pro in a punch in the face? Or the con in a free £10 note?

 

[Scampi]

I love these debates. The Appletards don't half over sell their favourites and the PC nerds all come across like luddite trogs.

Anyway imo
Apple - nice design, slightly easier to use, less prone to external attack

PC - Considerably cheaper, more software.

 

[The Great Cornholio]

Get Linux as what self respecting NSCer wouldn't want to use GIMP for their photo editing needs?

 

[The Great Cornholio]

I love these debates. The Appletards don't half over sell their favourites and the PC nerds all come across like luddite trogs.

Anyway imo
Apple - nice design, slightly easier to use, less prone to external attack

PC - Considerably cheaper, more software.

Distilled perfectly. Mac vs PC fanboy arguments are just as tedious as their PS3 v XBOX360 counterparts.

 

[adrian29uk]

I was 'brought up' using an Apple (IIe to be precise), one which pre-dated the Mac era, and I think it's rather sad how the fan-boi/image conscious brigade have taken it over.

For the cost of a Mac, you could get a much faster PC, or a similarly specced one with a better screen. If photography is your main use of the machine, the screen is the main concern, making sure it has a good ICC colour profile and a high contrast ratio. There are also other factors, such as if you use a high resolution, it may be worth you using DisplayPort or HDMI instead of DVI or VGA port connections.

Remember that Photoshop is a lot more expensive in the UK than the US, so it may be worth taking a holiday over to the states and buying a copy over there.

I could not agree more. The thing that used to make Mac appealing was the fact, that is was different. It was stable and you would not even have to think about installing anti virus. Also ever since they moved over to Intel processors for me they have lost their appeal. The G3, G4, G5 processors where special. Now Macs are Intel I am constantly comparing the prices, because you can get a lot for your money if you buy a PC. You might as well just go and install Ubuntu.

 

[adrian29uk]

Not true anymore, simply a myth now. Calling Dells rubbish is stupid, why else would they be the biggest sellers world wide ?

Correct. I would rather run a Dell Server with Apache than use an OSX server with Apache. Dell servers are good quality, and there top range desktops PC's are also very good. Of course if you pay 299.00 for a dell laptop you will be get cheaper plastic. You get what you pay for.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Well not really is it? Both Macs and PCs have their pros and cons, it's really a question of what you want from a computer.

But what's the pro in a punch in the face? Or the con in a free £10 note?

The world is made up of people who covet Apple products and liars.

 

[bhaexpress]

Correct. I would rather run a Dell Server with Apache than use an OSX server with Apache. Dell servers are good quality, and there top range desktops PC's are also very good. Of course if you pay 299.00 for a dell laptop you will be get cheaper plastic. You get what you pay for.

It's a fact of life that the majority of servers are Intel based, rightly or wrongly. Apple took their isolationist policy a bit too far in the early 90s as people had problems integrating Apple talk with Novell and NT. That's not the case now of course but but it shaped most organisations networking policy (ask IBM). A lot of people now though are using Linus as a network operating system as it is as reliable any Microsoft operating system but markedly cheaper.

 

[Bozza]

It's a fact of life that the majority of servers are Intel based, rightly or wrongly. Apple took their isolationist policy a bit too far in the early 90s as people had problems integrating Apple talk with Novell and NT. That's not the case now of course but but it shaped most organisations networking policy (ask IBM). A lot of people now though are using Linus as a network operating system as it is as reliable any Microsoft operating system but markedly cheaper.

As with most of your stuff on these debates, unfortunately it is 100% irrelevant to someone who is considering the purchase of a machine for home use.

And there's no "rightly or wrongly" about Apple's past. They made massive mistakes (that's "wrongly" to you) and all but brought the company to extinction.

Then Jobs was called back and the rest has been a brilliant success story that has led Apple to be, today, the most valuable technology company in the world, of higher value than IBM, Microsoft and Google etc.

The market have definitely voted as to who they see as driving the future of technology...

(Your beloved) Dell has a market cap of c$23bn
(My beloved) Apple is worth around ten times that at c$230bn

 

[gripper stebson]

Recently bough a refurbed Laptop from Hotlips69 and cannot recommend him highly enough.

I paid £365 for a laptop that retails at about £800.

PM him now.

 

[bhaexpress]

As with most of your stuff on these debates, unfortunately it is 100% irrelevant to someone who is considering the purchase of a machine from home.

And there's no "rightly or wrongly" about Apple's past. They made massive mistakes (that's "wrongly" to you) and all but brought the company to extinction.

Then Jobs was called back and the rest has been a brilliant success story that has led Apple to be, today, the most valuable technology company in the world, of higher value than IBM, Microsoft and Google etc.

The market have definitely voted as to who they see as driving the future of technology...

(Your beloved) Dell has a market cap of c$23bn
(My beloved) Apple is worth around ten times that at c$230bn

Well thanks for making up the facts to suit yourself, you must enjoy looking foolish, For a start if you look I was making a comment on another post which was talking about servers. As far as me loving Dell well another bit of Bozza imagination, I mentioned them as being the biggest sellers that's all, still don't let facts cloud your opinions. As a matter of fact I use an HP which I prefer because of build quality however as you've started this ball rolling why doesn't somebody produce a cheaper clone Mac ? If there was such a thing there would be a hell of a lot more 'Mac' users as the fundamental complaint about Macs is their cost.

Got that ?

 

[Bozza]

why doesn't somebody produce a cheaper clone Mac ? If there was such a thing there would be a hell of a lot more 'Mac' users as the fundamental complaint about Macs is their cost.

I don't get it. Is that a rhetorical question?

 

[Husty]

Windows 7 is a very polished operating system, it is fast and well featured, plus any software you can get on a mac, you'll either find the same software, similar software or better software on a PC.

In terms of aesthetics macs win hands down, and if your looking for a fashion item then a mac's your only choice.

However, you said you want it for photography in which case you'll want a good screen, and depending on your opinions on software piracy some editting software that doesn't come cheap.

You could spend £1500 on a mac, or you could spend £700-800 on the same spec hardware, and put your savings into buying a really great high resolution monitor, and some software like photoshop.