Last message on previous page: Lukebird I hear you about the keyboard and desktop. I use a razer lycosa keyboard, I can design in complete darkness with it because all the keys light up, or the WASD for gamers. The keys are also programable and have a lovely sticky feel to them. I also use a 7 button razer copperhead mouse, only using about 4 of them regularly because I mainly use the spacepilot to navigate with. This system works for me.
As for 16 desktops etc I don't know how exactly you use them with a handfull of programs but once again vista aero "switch between windows" button works for me fine with up to 8 applications running. I also use the desktop to navigate with and have all my applications shortcuts on there. The gadgets sidebar in vista is also a nice touch always allowing me to find people, links etc with a single click.
Anyhow, thanks for a more pleasant than usual exchange, nice to know some mac people aren't angry 24/7.
Lukebird I hear you about the keyboard and desktop. I use a razer lycosa keyboard, I can design in complete darkness with it because all the keys light up, or the WASD for gamers. The keys are also programable and have a lovely sticky feel to them. I also use a 7 button razer copperhead mouse, only using about 4 of them regularly because I mainly use the spacepilot to navigate with. This system works for me.
As for 16 desktops etc I don't know how exactly you use them with a handfull of programs but once again vista aero "switch between windows" button works for me fine with up to 8 applications running. I also use the desktop to navigate with and have all my applications shortcuts on there. The gadgets sidebar in vista is also a nice touch always allowing me to find people, links etc with a single click.
Anyhow, thanks for a more pleasant than usual exchange, nice to know some mac people aren't angry 24/7.
I'm glad you understand the 'ergonomics' point, it can sound like a rather contrived comment, but even for me (I'm not a designer, but work in a design & development department) it makes a big difference having a decent desktop set-up.
With regard to the multiple desktops (called 'Spaces'), I was very scheptical of them initially, but it really does make a difference! At first I didn't use them, but the moment you start using a few programs together (as I said, like I do with CS3) it is so easy to not have to flick between a load of windows on the same desktop a la XP. It's one thing I notice more than most in comparison between XP and OS X. It's quite odd, but it works wonderfully and is so simple to use. I'll see if I can screenshot it (I think you can...) to give you an idea. But think of having all of your programs open at once you're using at that time, but all fully open and ready to go, press one key, select your desktop and there you are, whatever program you wanted is there.
Oh and apologies for some of my earlier replies, things became a little heated, eh?
Apologies chap...
Very true, but I made my Windows based PC myself.
If it was practical to build an OS X based laptop, I would build one, but it isn't, so I haven't.
It's a shame with Tom's that people are so narrow-minded to anything other than a hand-made PC. Anything else is "****" and gets slated...
We've been this way since Delphi ( I came shortly after), thats many moons ago now, But Tom himself used to bash Apple on a regular basis so its pretty well ingrained in most of us. I personally like to get into mud slinging over the topic (or anything I can) just because I dont get to post very often and my time is more limited than 7 years ago. I generally mean no offence I just like stirring the pot from time to time especially when I know the mods don't care all that much (specifically Apple related).
In many ways Macs are easier to design on because of the ergonomics physically and within the OS. The keyboard for instance is much easier to use for long periods than most generic PC keyboards (more so than my pricey Logitech one) which, yes, I agree is something you could change on the PC, but I've yet to come across an after market keyboard like a Mac one.
A lot of keyboards are crap. The ones that come with inexpensive OEM desktops are absolute garbage and even ones that come with expensive OEM desktops are typically not that great. I have used many keyboards and have found Apple desktop keyboards to be very mediocre. They have a very light, squishy keystroke that I do not like. They are also less durable than a decent other OEM keyboard if my relatively limited sample of a hundred or so Macintosh keyboards in a few computer labs over five years is any indication. Apple keyboards used to be pretty decent though as I used the ones on Apple IIs, LCs, and PowerPC 60x Power Macs and they were fine- it was when Apple went to the polycarbonate-shell units and the horrible puck mouse of the first iMac that the quality went way downhill. Probably the best OEM keyboards I have used recently are the ones Dell ships to be abused on OptiPlex business computers, but even those are only so-so. If only IBM hadn't been an idiot and stopped making the Model M keyboard- that was the best OEM keyboard made, bar none. They have a very nice key weighting, good tactile feedback, and the suckers are DURABLE. I'm currently using one that had been abused for many years in a university computer lab, then stacked in a big pile and left to sit for over five years before I was able to snag it before it was thrown out. It works perfectly and has served me well for the last two years, which is about the time that it took some of the the rubber dome switches on my previous Logitech keyboard to squish their last squish.
Don't even get me started on laptop keyboards. Apple and Sony have the worst laptop keyboards out there. The "Chiclet" style keyboard in the MacBook died out in the mid 1970s for a reason- they were HORRIBLE. But yet Apple and then Sony decided to bring them back. They are absolutely terrible to type on, even compared to the rest of the manure pit that is the laptop keyboard selection today.
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Also the way the OS handles multiple programs is far, far beyond what XP or Vista can do. That's one area where OS X really is ahead of Windows. On my PowerBook I have 6 desktops, I can leave anything I want in each one and can drag and drop windows into each one. I can have upto 16 as well. It may sound like an utter waste of time, (and I did think it was initially) but when you're using several programs it's much easier being able to flick between a desktop than minimise all of your current windows to open several more!
Virtual desktops were introduced in X11 desktops on Unix a long time ago. Apple just inherited it when they bought out NeXT and based OS X of NeXTstep. MS does support virtual desktops on Windows through the MS Virtual Desktop Manager power toy. It's clunky compared to the desktop switching on Unix, particularly if you use a hardware-composited desktop and get all of the eye candy, but it's still there.
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When I was doing some design work at work, I had Photoshop open in one window, Fireworks in another, iTunes in another, MSN Messenger and Safari in another and Dreamweaver in another. It was far more pracitcal than having a load of tiny icons in my taskbar. OS X is far more integrated into design work than a PC, because a PC has to be a compromise between many different functions. If you don't agree with me, so be it. But there is more than one reason for you.
All right, I'll try to do my best to summarize why somebody might want to buy a Macintosh over another brand of OEM computer:
1. You want to run MacOS X. 2. You like how they look compared to another computer or want one for the cachet. 3. You qualify for some discount on Macintoshes that makes them less expensive than another OEM machine of identical specifications.
Otherwise, a Macintosh computer is virtually identical to an OEM computer from another vendor. They all use the same processors, same chipsets, and many of the other internal components are similar if not identical. It's not like it was in the past where Macintoshes had different processors inside.
I wonder if apple's sales would increase if they provided a free chocolate egg and a stuffed toy wearing a "you are creative" t-shirt with every mac sold?
We've been this way since Delphi ( I came shortly after), thats many moons ago now, But Tom himself used to bash Apple on a regular basis so its pretty well ingrained in most of us. I personally like to get into mud slinging over the topic (or anything I can) just because I dont get to post very often and my time is more limited than 7 years ago. I generally mean no offence I just like stirring the pot from time to time especially when I know the mods don't care all that much (specifically Apple related).
A lot of keyboards are crap. The ones that come with inexpensive OEM desktops are absolute garbage and even ones that come with expensive OEM desktops are typically not that great. I have used many keyboards and have found Apple desktop keyboards to be very mediocre. They have a very light, squishy keystroke that I do not like. They are also less durable than a decent other OEM keyboard if my relatively limited sample of a hundred or so Macintosh keyboards in a few computer labs over five years is any indication. Apple keyboards used to be pretty decent though as I used the ones on Apple IIs, LCs, and PowerPC 60x Power Macs and they were fine- it was when Apple went to the polycarbonate-shell units and the horrible puck mouse of the first iMac that the quality went way downhill. Probably the best OEM keyboards I have used recently are the ones Dell ships to be abused on OptiPlex business computers, but even those are only so-so.
The new iMac keyboard (the flat, aluminium one that macgirlfriend said about) is a great keyboard, I completely agree with you over the polycarbonate shelled one, that was a godawful keyboard! Utterly horrid, didn't like it at all...
Don't even get me started on laptop keyboards. Apple and Sony have the worst laptop keyboards out there. The "Chiclet" style keyboard in the MacBook died out in the mid 1970s for a reason- they were HORRIBLE. But yet Apple and then Sony decided to bring them back. They are absolutely terrible to type on, even compared to the rest of the manure pit that is the laptop keyboard selection today.
See for me, my PowerBook keyboard is fantastic, but laptop keyboards are generally far worse than even a mediocre desktop one.
Virtual desktops were introduced in X11 desktops on Unix a long time ago. Apple just inherited it when they bought out NeXT and based OS X of NeXTstep. MS does support virtual desktops on Windows through the MS Virtual Desktop Manager power toy. It's clunky compared to the desktop switching on Unix, particularly if you use a hardware-composited desktop and get all of the eye candy, but it's still there.
Sorry, should have clarified, I know it was nothing new in the world of OS's (but new to OS X). I was just comparing the main two OS's in the home/desktop environment (no doubt you're going to tell me all of your computers run Ubuntu! ). I didn't know that MS had a virtual desktop, never even heard of it. Which tells you pretty much all you need to know about it really...
All right, I'll try to do my best to summarize why somebody might want to buy a Macintosh over another brand of OEM computer:
1. You want to run MacOS X. 2. You like how they look compared to another computer or want one for the cachet.
3. You qualify for some discount on Macintoshes that makes them less expensive than another OEM machine of identical specifications.
Otherwise, a Macintosh computer is virtually identical to an OEM computer from another vendor. They all use the same processors, same chipsets, and many of the other internal components are similar if not identical. It's not like it was in the past where Macintoshes had different processors inside.
That's where you're wrong. My Mac doesn't use any components you could find in any OEM machine.
My PowerBook is a Power PC based machine (the forerunner to the MacBook Pro), as you said, an older Mac.
I have no desire to buy a Core 2 based machine, none at all. I bought mine because I had very little knowledge of OS X and wanted to use it more (because I'd enjoyed using it on my housemates eMac and new iMac), in exactly the same way I want an eee to mess around with Linux. I do indeed like the look of my PowerBook, cracking looking machine and very well made. Utterly solid! And as mine was an older machine, the discount point is not applicable. That and I wouldn't be eligible for any of the discounts anyway! (Not including an old university pass I still have that's still valid for a couple more years. One they never took off me when I quit! ).
Macintosh Keyboards are cool but their mice..........
Me has Apple Keyboard (flat new one) and a Microsoft Comfort optical mouse 3000. Do have a logitech tho....... used to use a Microsoft Keyboard as well but a free Apple Keyboard is still good.........
I think my lycosa and blue tempest copperhead would be a fine combo. I love the lycosa because I can design in total darkness which makes my cad models really come to life etc, but really I wouldn't call it a typest dream. The keys have are fairly flat and my old microsoft cheapo keyboard was a better typer, other than that including the programable keys etc, it rocks on!!
You know what sucks for both PC and Mac zealots? The lack of application specific hardware, I mean I love my spacepilot, but it cost $500. Aside from that there isn't else thats really for the CAD market. Like there isn't specific hardware for photoshop etc. Why not, I mean if I was running logitech, microsoft etc I wouldn't be letting full time designers sit around doing nearly nothing. Belkin has a couple of interesting gadgets. I mean why not embrace the idea of two handed computing? Why not make a mini programable keyboard that is used instead of shortcut keys? Or a central "pad" that is something between a wacom and a keyboard and mouse? Come on people!!
). I didn't know that MS had a virtual desktop, never even heard of it. Which tells you pretty much all you need to know about it really...
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