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Mac vs Windows

jgohlke

jgohlke

My other hobby
Joined
Sep 15, 2004
Messages
990
We recently replaced our family computer (Gateway P3 500Mhz Pentium machine we bought in 1998) with a new 20 inch Apple (Intel) iMac. So far the transition has been kind of rocky. We are long-time Windows users and it's been a tough transition. Plus the new iMac is really slow. In head to head competition, the old machine is sometimes faster loading applications. Using MS Office for Mac, both my wife and I can outtype the iMac in MS Word (it's like being on dialup).

The screen is very nice and some of the stuff is pretty cool, but we've both been kind of disappointed with the performance.

Anybody else using the new iMac? Any thoughts? Is the new Intel iMac just not ready for primetime?
 
:D Mac's make great furniture and that is about it. LOL :p
I feel for you in your time of need. :cool:
 
upgrade to at least a gig of memory,that will make a huge difference in application loading, and you will use a smaller swap file on your hard drive. where is moki when you need him?
 
The thing about the new Mac OS is that it's based off of Linux/Unix. Extremely powerful. Like Rob said, you probably just need more memory. It shouldn't be that slow.
 
I work in a multi-platform office. The art department swears by their Mac's as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The accountants and the rest of us use PC's. Seems that the Mac's original use was for more artsy applications and truly excel in that arena, while the PC's were originally designed with and for the bean counters, and seem to handle those functions quite well.

I am sure that properly setup and with the most optimized systems and programs, they will both perform admirably, I just learned on and am much more comfortable with a PC.
 
Mac all the way!!!! That being said I own a windows laptop as it was about 900 bucks cheaper than a powerbook. So I am not really against or for either. But with an unlimited budget. Mac!
 
Agreed, upgrade your RAM and that thing will kick your old computers a**. I'd say at least a gig.
 
jgohlke said:
We recently replaced our family computer (Gateway P3 500Mhz Pentium machine we bought in 1998) with a new 20 inch Apple (Intel) iMac. So far the transition has been kind of rocky. We are long-time Windows users and it's been a tough transition. Plus the new iMac is really slow. In head to head competition, the old machine is sometimes faster loading applications. Using MS Office for Mac, both my wife and I can outtype the iMac in MS Word (it's like being on dialup).

The screen is very nice and some of the stuff is pretty cool, but we've both been kind of disappointed with the performance.

Anybody else using the new iMac? Any thoughts? Is the new Intel iMac just not ready for primetime?
Click to expand...

No way that machine should be that slow -- how much RAM do you have in it? The only possible scenario I can think of is that you've got 512mb RAM in there, and it's paging to/from disk. There's just no other possibly way it could be slow as you describe.

mhortsch said:
Agreed, upgrade your RAM and that thing will kick your old computers a**. I'd say at least a gig.
Click to expand...

This is the 1gb RAM you want:

http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.As...9&WSPN=CT500622

Definitely buy it, you'll be glad you did. One other thing to keep in mind is that Word is still emulated; Microsoft will be coming out with an Intel-native version soon, which will boost the speed further.

In the meantime, grab the extra 1gb or RAM.
 
Moki's RAM recommendation is solid; Crucial (Micron OEM) is some of the best, most stable RAM in the industry. Your machine should be lots more responsive than you describe. Modern OS's loaded with GUI's really make good use of up to a gigabyte of RAM; that's what my and my wife's main machines have in them. A Gb should be considered "standard" for modern machines, IMHO...

As far as the MAC / "WinTel" issue it's a situation of familiarity, and what you do with your machine. I'm far more familiar with Windows, and the apps I run are by far and wide best represented on the WinTel platform. So, that's what the three in house workstations have on them. Believe it or not, my wife and I LAN game a lot (Unreal Tournament 2004) and so the OS on our two primary machines is Windows. I do have a blade server in the garage I'm "playing" with that dual boots XP and RedHat Core 5. The next OS I'm going to get familar with will be Linux as I see that having some very concrete advantages.

Long and short of it - use what you like. I don't buy the "....Mac's are more stable...." arguement for a second as I've helped friends with Mac's having issues. My current XP install has been running strong for a long time, runs months without a reboot, with no stability issues. Religious arguements aside, there are solid reasons and advantages / disadvantages to both.

My $00.02 - B.B.S.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Long and short of it - use what you like. I don't buy the "....Mac's are more stable...." arguement for a second as I've helped friends with Mac's having issues. My current XP install has been running strong for a long time, runs months without a reboot, with no stability issues. Religious arguements aside, there are solid reasons and advantages / disadvantages to both.

My $00.02 - B.B.S.
Click to expand...

I agree with the latter statement; disagree vehemently with the former. MacOS X and Linux, unless misconfigured, are infinitely more stable than Windows XP... and infinitely less prone to spyware, adware, viruses, and the nonsense/hassle of keeping said malware off of your computer.

That isn't to say Windows XP can't run well... but we run a mixed network at the office, and Windows XP is by far more problematic on a day in, day out basis for our IT staff.
 
Some applications like MS Office arent coded for OSX Intel yet. OSX uses a program called Rosetta to basically translate it to "Intel code" on the fly. Thats why Office seems to be slow, as well as the RAM issue.

All of the "Universal Binary" programs are coded for both Intel and PPC and should be much, much faster. Congrats on the new Mac and enjoy it! :thumbs:
 
Thanks guys. I've recently read all about the emulation issues withe new Intel iMacs (Rosetta issue) and it's pretty clear that some of the software we are using just isn't optimized for the Intel iMac (like MS Office for instance).

The "get more memory" recommendation is solid and echoed by the folks on the Mac forum as well. The 20 inch iMac that we bought ships with 512MB and it just isn't enough. We'll add at least another Gig.

We are getting the hang of it (slowly)...it's really different than what we are used...maybe intuitive if you don't know computers, but hard if you have to "unlearn" windows.

Appreciate the help.

Joe
 
I use a XP desktop computer, but I can be found frequently using my buddies iBook. Personally i think that the Macs run circles around XP and all this Microsoft crap.

This might however stem from my hatred of Bill Gates. Enjoy what you like, both will be good systems.
 
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