Snow Leopard coming soon

[Rik]

It should get there tomorrow.

[Den]

A Mac is three times the price of a PC but I am not convinced it is three times better. When a person is set up for Windows on all their computers I can't see the point of changing over on one. I will give Windows 7 a chance and see how I get on. I took a lot of persuading to move from an Amiga 1200 to a PC and have been with them ever since and must be one of the few people that admit that I like Vista and think we owe a great debt to Microsoft for making computing available for the masses.  

[Rik]

Computing always has been since the mid 80s, Den, MS didn't do that. It was just a question of which OS won the war and, initially, that was Windows. I sense a turn in the tide, though, and I believe that Macs and Linux may yet come to dominate outside the corporate world.

Put another way, I think we owe more to Intel than MS.

[Den]

I used to love the Amiga Workbench and thought that Windows 95 was pinched from it. Until Apple stop being greedy and sell the Mac for a realistic price then I believe it will always be a bit player. Yes it is superb but not three to four times better than Windows 7 and as for Linux that is in the main for Geeks.

I know that it is the inthing to slag off everything that Microsoft do but I don't subscribe to that. I have noticed that if anyone updates their program then it's a good thing but if Microsoft do it they are criticised for having a faulty product. I much prefer IE8 over Firefox and I am forever being told how good Opera or Chrome is, but in the end we stay with whatever suits us.

[Rik]

I'm not arguing against your choice, Den, just saying that the real innovation has come elsewhere. Like Amstrad, MS know just what they are doing.

[Sebby]

A Mac is three times the price of a PC but I am not convinced it is three times better.

You're right, it's significantly more than 3 times better.

[Simon]

The Mac itself is bad enough, Den, but replacing all the software and fonts is where the pain really comes.

I know you're into your typesetting, but how many fonts do you actually use on a regular basis though, Rik?  I must have at least 150 on my PC, and have never used probably 95% of them.  As far as programs goes, my essential would be MS Office, but if it came with an image editor equivalent to Photoshop, and a sounds editor equivalent to Sony Soundforge, or Adobe Audition, I could probably get by on the rest.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to go out and buy one.  They are prohibitively expensive for what would essentially be a new toy, given than I have a perfectly good computer as it is, but in a couple of years, when this one has had it's day, I would certainly look seriously at a Mac.

You're right, it's significantly more than 3 times better.

Anyone who's laid out that sort of money for one would say that! 

[Sebby]

No one forced me to lay out the money - I had a perfectly good PC. I've seen the light, you will one day.

[Steve]

From my own perspective I am doubtful whether I would buy/use another MS OS unless it was all I could afford. I have to decide in the next year whether to change another PC to Mac. My wife struggles with the two different OS's i.e work MS and at home mac whilst the youngster likes his games and a PC surely for gaming makes economic sense

[Rik]

I know you're into your typesetting, but how many fonts do you actually use on a regular basis though, Rik?

I restrict the number of active fonts to around 100-120, and those are used regularly. When I'm doing any setting, though, I will augment or replace. As a bare minimum, I could probably get by with a couple of thousand now.

[Steve]

Is this site any use http://www.erik.co.uk/font/ ?

[Rik]

Not for me, thanks, Steve. The fonts I use are professional ones, for example they all have kerning tables supplied. Amateur fonts lack these and, usually, the extended character sets, ornaments and alternatives which are bread and butter to my use of type.

[Steve]

Its all Dutch to me anyway

[Rik]

Their fonts are not too different. Now Farsi fonts are a whole new ball game.

[Tacitus]

No one forced me to lay out the money - I had a perfectly good PC. I've seen the light, you will one day.

The interesting thing is that most Mac users use them as a matter of choice, not because it's what they were given at work, or because it's on offer at PC World/Tesco wherever.  First thing most PC users tell you is how much (little) it cost, closely followed by, 'do you know how to fix....'  A Mac user will tell you of the interesting things he/she can do with it...

The real reason for the dominance of the PC is not because they were better, but because of the amount of pirate software that was around.  Buy a Mac and you had to factor in the cost of software since there was little, if any, pirate stuff for Macs.  Buy a PC and in effect all you paid for was the machine - software came 'free'.  

Those of us old enough to remember the history of computing are far less inclined to regard Gates as a genius.  A rapacious businessman maybe, but not a genius.

[Rik]

Those of us old enough to remember the history of computing are far less inclined to regard Gates as a genius.  A rapacious businessman maybe, but not a genius.

With business practices not that far removed from those of the Mafia.

[Tacitus]

With business practices not that far removed from those of the Mafia.

Absolutely.  It's the drug dealer's method.  Allow piracy (free drugs) until it becomes indispensable (addicted) and, then ratchet up the price when you have no option but to buy.  Kill all opposition - literally in the case of the drug dealers or, in the case of MS, the famous 'knife the baby' saga when they threatened Apple with the withdrawal of Office Mac in order to kill Quicktime so that MS media had a free run. 

Or of course there's 'plays for sure' with our 'partners' who were unceremoniously dumped when MS brought out the Zune.  Anybody ever seen one in the wild?

Now of course it's Saint Bill as he goes round the world giving to charity.  Some of it useful, other, like free computers loaded with MS products more in order to cement his monopoly.  As someone said, if you're really interested in charity you don't feel the need to issue a load of press releases to publicise the fact.  Doing good is its own reward. 

Ethics and Gates don't belong in the same sentence.

[Rik]

Unless Pearly is also present.

[Steve]

Well I've done the Macbook and the iMac via the upgrade method and apart from one mail plugin (widemail) not compatible all seems well. The desktop and finder performance increase is very noticeable 

[Tacitus]

Don't know if anyone's seen this.  It might be of interest not only to Mac users, but also to anyone interested in the history of computing.

[Edit]  Just checked to place my order (!) and, as it's a US import it may not play on UK DVD players

[Rik]

Link asleep right now.

[Tacitus]

Link asleep right now.

Looks like it's back as of 19.09 pm.

[Sebby]

Well I've done the Macbook and the iMac via the upgrade method and apart from one mail plugin (widemail) not compatible all seems well. The desktop and finder performance increase is very noticeable 

Same here. I'm hoping Widemail is going to be updated soon.

[Rik]

Looks like it's back as of 19.09 pm.

So it is.  

[Steve]

Same here. I'm hoping Widemail is going to be updated soon.

Letterbox is the same as well, both are promising to update,although I am having to use Entourage still as works exchange server and SL don't like each other,in fact it crashes the mail.app when you try to setup the account