something i've noticed at school

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:47 am

it seems that the female students use apple computers (particularly laptops) much more than their male counterparts. i have my explanation, but what do you think is the reason behind this

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:17 am

Easier to use? Prettier?

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:18 am

u kiddin me, PCs are far easier to use.

i used an apple in bio lab (the professor somehow thought apple computers were more secure and safe to use than pcs), and it took me forever to locate files on its file managing program.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:19 am

lockharte wrote:u kiddin me, PCs are far easier to use

Not really. I find that it's easier to learn how to use a Mac than to learn to use a PC.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:21 am

meh, i guess it's like the old emacs vs vi debate

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:25 am

Well, what's your guess?

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:31 am

fashion, really. i admit the apples do have an appealing aesthetic.

but you could just as well package a pc in a pretty tower as well.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:35 am

lockharte wrote:fashion, really. i admit the apples do have an appealing aesthetic.

but you could just as well package a pc in a pretty tower as well.

Aren't we talking about laptops?

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:37 am

oh yeah, that's true. anyway, i think hp probably makes the best laptops, aesthetic wise.

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:11 am

at the risk of sounding sexist, they are mainstream. It's like the iPod, it's advertised as cool and easy so it's less threatening to less hardcore computer people.

not to mention that they are the same company. Apple is penetrating the younger crowd a lot, and so for people who were never really into computers or who don't want to deal with set up, this all comes together in one box.

Of course the reality of it is that most any computer or PC comes pretty much foolproof now days, but this is not how they are advertised.

Plus they seem new, trendy, and different. Maybe it is just a trend, one girl gets one and then it's a ripple effect. Like previously stated, it is pretty and has a good basic design.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:24 am

Trendy and different? All the people who want to be trendy and different get them. I guess that doesn't make it very different, does it?

I can see why you would buy a Mac desktop (if you buy a Macbook you are a tool, I'm sorry), but their whole "COOL people buy macs. lol are you cool? and "we don't crash. You run Windows? You clearly crash your computer every 10 minutes" and "Windows is for businesspeople. Macs are for trendy people" marketing scheme has pushed the Apple marketshare as high as its going to go.

If they want to grow, they gotta rethink some things, and get rid of the high and mighty stink they hold on to so dearly. Microsoft got where it is for a reason, and that's buy listening to Computer buyers and doing what they want, to a certain extent.

Apple, on the other hand, tells you what you want. "You want eye candy. You want a pretty white box. You want to be different than Windows users." Really, I don't.

And asking developers to support FOUR different CPU arches is stupid. They need to start listening to developers too.

Joe Camacho · Post by **Joe Camacho** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:07 am

I want a macbook, I'm seriously sick of windows, and I'm not as tech savvy as I would like to start to use linux.

I have used a cousin's G4 powerbook, ibook and macbook, and they are pretty easy using machines.

The only thing I fear is that, even if Mac OS X is as stable as a rock, if the hardware fails, it's awfully expensive to replace.

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:20 am

what do you mean 4 different CPU arches?

PowerPC is pretty much dead for apple.

The thing people need to know is this: Apple is user focused in their designs.

Post by **badinsults** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:03 am

If there was decent support for wireless on Linux, this would all be a moot point. But since that is not true, I would be more willing to give a Mac a go over a Windows laptop. You have to give Apple something, and that is that they don't fuck up in the hardware department.

Jikmo · Post by **Jikmo** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:19 am

badinsults wrote:If there was decent support for wireless on Linux, this would all be a moot point. But since that is not true, I would be more willing to give a Mac a go over a Windows laptop. You have to give Apple something, and that is that they don't fuck up in the hardware department.

Ubuntu has pretty decent wireless support for most people.

Of course, it didn't work "out of the box" for my laptop; i had to to use ndiswrapper with the windows version of my wireless driver to get the wireless to work.
Also, since Ubuntu was still trying to load the linux native driver, i had to comment out that part. That took me a while to figure out. The problem with Ubuntu is that since it doesn't have the Do It Yourself mentality as the rest of Linux, that the several problems that it does have, are a little more difficult for most people to fix themselves even though it takes the same amount of work to do as on another distro just because most people are afraid of breaking something. Once I got over that, it was all really very simple though to get everything working. Of course, for other reasons, I got rid of it and installed Arch.

All in all though, getting wireless on Ubuntu took about 15 minutes. You can install ndiswrapper straight from their package server with their package download GUI and then go to wiki sites to find the proper driver. There is even a pretty nice GUI for ndiswrapper in there. Also, I think in a newer version of Ubuntu, they added the option to disable the default wireless driver.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:49 pm

Macs do have the usability going for it. However, Apple commercials fail miserably at countering the PC counterpart (especially when it is an expensive PC in reality)... plus the annoying excessive+aggressive marketing to boot.

sjoecool1991 · Post by **sjoecool1991** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:07 pm

I prefer PC only because they support more games.

DOLLS (J) [!] · Post by **DOLLS (J) [!]** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 6:53 pm

lockharte wrote:...it took me forever to locate files on its file managing program.

Did you even try spotlight?

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 7:38 pm

badinsults wrote:If there was decent support for wireless on Linux, this would all be a moot point. But since that is not true, I would be more willing to give a Mac a go over a Windows laptop. You have to give Apple something, and that is that they don't fuck up in the hardware department.

Get a Centrino-based laptop and Ubuntu will work out of the box with it.

They don't fuck up in the hardware department becuase they are the only maker of their hardware. Kinda makes it easy to support in the OS.

And Macbooks have amazingly poor reliability. I know 5 people with Macbooks, and every single one of them have had them in for repair more than once. One guy was on his second motherboard, second battery and third HD. Another guy is on his second mainboard and second battery. Its 5 months old. All this from a laptop that costs more than twice as much as its competitors? HOW CAN I LOSE?

And Spotlight is a band aid on the massive wound called Finder. Its worse than Nautilus.

casualsax3 · Post by **casualsax3** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:27 pm

lockharte wrote:meh, i guess it's like the old emacs vs vi debate

Nano.

lockharte · Post by **lockharte** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 8:39 pm

DOLLS wrote:
lockharte wrote:...it took me forever to locate files on its file managing program.
Did you even try spotlight?

no, i used the default managing system that came with the OS. i don't believe spotlight was available on that computer.

Firon · Post by **Firon** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 10:04 pm

casualsax3 wrote:
lockharte wrote:meh, i guess it's like the old emacs vs vi debate
Nano.

vim

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:04 pm

Firon wrote:
casualsax3 wrote:
lockharte wrote:meh, i guess it's like the old emacs vs vi debate
Nano.
vim

ee

SquareHead · Post by **SquareHead** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:10 pm

As the old quote goes: "VI is truly the heart of EVIL."

DOLLS (J) [!] · Post by **DOLLS (J) [!]** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:56 am

kevman wrote:And Spotlight is a band aid on the massive wound called Finder. Its worse than Nautilus.

It works nonetheless, it's a blessing for unorganized people and people who have to give support to unorganized people.