Public Enemy #1 for 2008

[jziegler]

Put Linux on her machine for free and teach her how to use it. If all she wants to do is check email, she won't care. I am never going to use Vista. I will either move to the next MS OS or buy a Mac for the home machine.

+1 on this. There are a number of very simple Linux distributions out there that will work just great for this. I'm putting together a machine for my in-laws, who are not at all computer savvy. They want to check their (web based) email, watch you tube videos, and not much else. So they will get Linux. I'm going to use Gos (good OS), which has lots of google integration. It is simple to install, and when I was playing around with the beta version, it worked well. I just need to figure out how to have it automatically log in for them.

Jim

[cgallery]

I've been a Mac user for about 20 years. and have never experienced even a bit of trouble in all that time (well. more or less).

Servicing both PC's and Mac's, I've seen my share of Mac issues.

They aren't immune.

[RAFlorida]

Linux

+1 for Linux. There will be a day that the hackers will get linux, but as long as M$ is making their o$, it'll be a long ways off.

[herb fellows]

[QUOTE=Bruce Cohen;379448]David,

I've been a Mac user for about 20 years. and have never experienced even a bit of trouble in all that time (well. more or less).

As a graphic designer, I utilize usually 4-6 applications per project and getting all of these dissimilar stuf to play well together is incredible. Yes, we do have our share of crashes,but nothing like any of the Microsoft products. In fact, there is a conspiracy theory that MS products made for the mac are made to screw your Mac. (just a rumor - like "black helicopters".

In a business were even a half-hour downtime could mead missing a deadline and losing a 10-20 million dollar account really does exist, the Mac is the only to go.

The big rub about the Mac was that software manufacturers were not making stuff for it, because it was a minority player in the market. I know that's the reason I went with MS, way back when. All you 'older gentlemen' surely remember the deal with Sony Betamax vs VHS. The Sony product was deemed better in every test that was ever held, but the fact remained that the guys who were making the movies did not want to make for a minority share of the machines that were out there. Popular titles, no problem, it was cost efficient, but if you wanted any movie that was the least bit obscure, good luck finding it in Beta.
On the plus side, Mac was supposed to be a no brainer if you did any kind of graphics. Also had better 'luck' with 'bad things'. Because it was a minority player, less people wrote malicious stuff for it.
I'm beginning to wonder if the old maxims still hold true? In terms of what you actually use, how much would one be missing if they went Mac?
What is the honest down side to owning a Mac these days?

[LinuxRandal]

If you can read my name, you know I am bias.

XP doesn't allow you to use 64 bit and maybe not all the cores (of course that may not be important to you, and you may not even notice).

I would however look into what is known as Vista downgrade license. You may be able to put XP on it yet.

[OpaDC]

All you 'older gentlemen' surely remember the deal with Sony Betamax vs VHS. The Sony product was deemed better in every test that was ever held, but the fact remained that the guys who were making the movies did not want to make for a minority share of the machines that were out there. Popular titles, no problem, it was cost efficient, but if you wanted any movie that was the least bit obscure, good luck finding it in Beta.
I bought the Betamax and loved it. But...

I'm beginning to wonder if the old maxims still hold true? In terms of what you actually use, how much would one be missing if they went Mac?
What is the honest down side to owning a Mac these days?

Wife uses Mac at school and so I have become very familiar with it. Most people really only use email and browse the web and a couple of other things like word processing and maybe balancing their books. All can be done on Mac just fine. For me, the only real problem has been figuring out where Mac puts everything. (I'm one of those that uses my Windows Explorer and puts things in specific places for my convenience. [btw, I started this stuff with ZDOS]). That being said, once I got used to Mac, I don't have too many issues with it. Biggest problem I have had is hardware drivers sometimes. As for Linux, for me not a problem but I wouldn't dare put it on my 85 year old Father's computer. Don't care how easy or convenient it might be, just the fact that it looks different would upset him.