The Official Macintosh Users Thread!!

[postalblowfish7]

ok, i don't know if there's even enough mac users on this forum to keep this topic going, but hey it's worth a shot. i've been a Mac user my entire life. i was born in 1984 - the year of the Mac. my dad was the major influence, as the same year he picked up the original 128k Mac. later on in the 80's he upgraded to the Mac Plus, still with that tiny B&W screen and classic all-in-one design. my first exposure to computers was MacPaint, my dad had me on his lap while he started making circles and boxes with that old waffle pattern. "look james, i'm making waffles!" he said as i looked on in wide eyed wonder. i couldn't believe what i was seeing.

later, in elementary school, he upgraded once more with the Performa 550 (33 mhz! soooo fast!!). it had a 640x480 max resolution color screen, and one of the first on board CD-ROM drives. of course, you had to put the CD in this bizarre cartridge thing that you then inserted into the 2x drive - but still, it had a CD Player program, and came loaded with edutainment/multi-media software. i was the envy of all my schoolmates as the computer came bundled with the Apple ColorWriter, which allowed me to lay out and print in full color awesome advertising posters for my comic book company i 'ran' at the time. the computer was also powerful enough to let me run the most mind blowing gaming experience i had ever conceived - Myst. just remembering that that game is so old that this is the machine i first played it on is a testament to how revolutionary it truly was.

once i hit middleschool we were upgraded once again - this time to the Performa 6400/180. this was the first apple tower - never before had there been a mac that wasn't an all-in-on, or laid horizontal with the monitor on top. Mhzs had blown past the triple digit mark, and i remember being so impressed with the 180Mhz i sent a letter to apple, telling them how much i adored their machine. it also had some 3D processing power - Decent came bundled with it, and i passed many hours away in that dark computer room, headphones on, eyes blistering, flying my way through those tunnels and blasting those awesome looking alien ships (which lucas ripped off for some of the spaceship designs in EpIII IMHO ). this is also the computer i played Marathon on (Bungie's Mac-only FPS flagship, until they were bought out by the evil microsoft and forced to make the lame Halo series. killer app my ass ). the third installment came bundled with a level/physics/graphics editor - basically a FPS developers kit, and it was one of my first forays into game design.

this was, however, a bleak time for apple. apple's CEO, gil amelio, was starting to run apple more like a PC company than the proud, stand alone golden-city-on-the-hill it had been. he licensed out the operating system, for the first time cheap Mac clones started to appear on the market. Mac OS 8, or Copeland as it was codenamed, was terminally delayed. Apple's ISP eWorld (on which i had an account - and still have the installer discs somewhere ) was a massive flop that cost the company a lot of money. there were whispers on wall street about apple going out of business - i had to put up with constant "mac-in-trash" and "Macs-Always-Crash" jokes from my PC using classmates. but i stood my ground - Windows 95 was such a freakin joke compared to OS 7. it was still just a facade for DOS - in fact, my PC using friends were still running games in DOS. a freakin text based operating system. i shrugged it all off and continued to put faith in the company that, until this time, had never let me down.

then the world changed. steven jobs, like some sort of divine intervention, came back to apple. he put a stop to the Mac clones, and promised the world something "Insanely Great" - the same words he used to describe the original Mac when it was released in 1984. then the iMac came out. oh my the iMac. love it or hate it, there's no denying that the iMac completely revolutionized home computing. what?? no SCSI??? no floppy disc drive???? what the fuck is USB???? these were my, and a lot of people's, initial reaction to this bondi blue tear drop of a computer. but when i finally got one in my home, it soon became clear what a huge leap it was. suddenly USB products came out a dozen a day - everything started to ship in cool transparent blue plastic to match the über-style. floppy discs became archaic, outdated technology, and Mac OS 9 started blowing minds. it was like a Mac renaissance.

the next Mac in my journey was a lime green iMac - the second generation was even faster, more solid, and now you could choose from 5 different 'flavors'. Yum. suddenly EVERYTHING, not just computer related, started coming out in candy colors. apple was leading a product design revolution who's effects are still being felt today. apple's stock rose every time steve jobs so much as opened his mouth, and finally i didn't feel like a leper amongst other computer users.

my first Mac that i was able to call my own was the iBook - the sleek, white, classy iBook mind you. at this point i was recording music and editing digital video (pre-iLife - i used pirated copies of Final Cut Pro and Digital Performer 3) - and the iBook amazingly kept up with the high-demand processing of rendering video and bouncing multi-tracked recordings soaked in digital effects. but my lust for power brought me to pick up the final generation G4 tower - dual processor 867 Mhz, with the Apple Pro Speakers and the 17 inch studio display. it's a classic set up, and was the icon of Macintosh power computing up until the G5s finally came out.

to this day, that dual processor 867 Mhz Mac is STILL the compy i'm rocking - and it's still a beast of a machine. for you PC users out there who might scoff at 867 Mhz, understand that 867 Mhz on a G4 is the equivalent of about 1.5 or more Ghz on an Pentium chip. the dual processor architecture in the final generation G4s was so eloquent, so perfect, that this computer doesn't feel dated to me at all. i'm still able to do massive video renders and process audio files with softsynths stacked from here to the moon at impressive speeds, and i'm able to play World of Warcraft at full resolutions with high quality textures and environments (largely due to the 128meg ATI that my G4 came with).

and now there are Macs with intel processors. as resistant to the idea as i was at first (when i was a kid i used to sing "i hate intel" to the intel jingle every time i saw a PC commercial), it's clear to me that it will only mean faster, and more affordable Macs in the long run. i'm not foolish enough to pick one up in the first generation - but in a year or two i can see myself getting an apple loan and upgrading again. my G4 is perfect for now - and will forever be a testament to the top-of-the-line PowerPC chip computers.

I still have most of the aforementioned computers - and some other cool things, like the first generation PowerBook 100, and the first generation 5 gig iPod - the only one no longer around is, tragically, the original 128k Mac.

so that's my journey with the Apple Macintosh. i'd like this thread to be a place where any Mac users on this board can feel at home - so please share any fond memories you have of your experiences with Apple products, or discuss all the excitement going on at Apple these days.

however, please DO NOT come in here running your mouth about how "Macs suck" or how superior you've fooled yourself into thinking your PC is. this is a thread for Mac users and Mac supporters, NOT A PC vs. MAC DEBATE! so please, enjoy and discuss! if i'm not the only Mac user around that is...

[Secret Azn Man]

I only recall two other known Mac users here at TFF. Both no longer post here.

As for me, I've been a Mac user since the Bondi Blue iMac with it's quirky puck mouse. I currently use a dual 800 MHz G4 Quicksilver with 1.5 GB of RAM which was alot back in 2001. It felt great to be one of the first to be able to burn DVDs.

I consider myself a die-hard Mac fan and used to take down any idiot who dares spread FUDs about Macs. Now, I no longer waste my time doing that unless I get nostalgic.

[Maridia]

I'm a fan of both actually. I own a Sony VAIO latop and it's great. My brother though owns a Mac Mini. Sometimes if my laptop is acting up I'll go on to his. I like PC's but they get viruses and after enough time just automatically falter, and then you have to get alot of work done to it, just to get it back to where it was. I mean I have virus protection but there's still stuff that gets in to the computer. Macs on the other hand just don't. Once in a great while it may lag, but that's pretty much it. They don't get almost any viruses and they're just as easy to use as PC's. If I had to choose I would want a Mac laptop, but those are a grand more. But if I had to buy a new computer I'd get a Mac, no question about it, Macs rule!

[postalblowfish7]

Originally Posted by Secret Azn Man

I consider myself a die-hard Mac fan and used to take down any idiot who dares spread FUDs about Macs. Now, I no longer waste my time doing that unless I get nostalgic.

haha i know what you mean - for a while there is was really tough to be a mac user as there was a lot of amunition stacked against us. but now a days Macs are generally respected as the top-of-the-line powerhouses that they are. even the people that were hessitant to think OSX ws worth anything are now biting their toungues as they reformat their Windows XP machines for the 3rd time - well my friends at least hehe.

not to get into PC bashing (as it's really no better than Mac bashing) but am i the only one that thinks it's funny that Windows XP proudly rocks the disgusted smily (XP) as half of its title? hehe

I'm a fan of both actually. I own a Sony VAIO latop and it's great. My brother though owns a Mac Mini. Sometimes if my laptop is acting up I'll go on to his. I like PC's but they get viruses and after enough time just automatically falter, and then you have to get alot of work done to it, just to get it back to where it was. I mean I have virus protection but there's still stuff that gets in to the computer. Macs on the other hand just don't. Once in a great while it may lag, but that's pretty much it. They don't get almost any viruses and they're just as easy to use as PC's. If I had to choose I would want a Mac laptop, but those are a grand more. But if I had to buy a new computer I'd get a Mac, no question about it, Macs rule!

i've been highly tempted in the past to get a VAIO myself - but it'd be basicly spending thousands of dollars for a game console and nothing else - i just can't justify it. my Mac does absolutely everything i'd ever need a computer to do - besides play games that aren't the pathetic handful we're thrown (sans Blizzard, who has always fully supported our platform). but man, to be able to play EverQuest II or FFXI... oh well hehe

[Secret Azn Man]

My brother recently bought a VAIO laptop. It looks nice and it's thin but it's specs are anemic, has no anti-glare coating on the screen, and costs just as much as a PowerBook/Mac Book Pro.

Hwe's satisfied with it but then he doesn't realize the crappiness that an integrated graphics chip set is.

[Gorath Sodom]

While I do not own a Mac, I have worked with them. Never did I experience an app go non-responding or the O/S crashing. It is quite a solid system.

I'm wondering if this whole converting from Power PC to x86 controversy is just. While Intel procs are inferior to the G5 or Athlon 64 (hopefully Apple will offer AMD proc-based systems one of these days), it will, as Postal said, make Macs cheaper and easier to develop for. At the same time, I imagine OS X caused a lot of controversy as they dumped the old Apple kernel and jumped on the UNIX bandwagon, though UNIX is known for hardcore robustness, evident now that Linux (as well as many other open source apps) are gaining momentum.

[LocoColt04]

I've worked in publishing for years. It's safe to say that I've worked with Macs... or, as I like to say, APPLES, because Macintosh is merely the OS.

While many of my co-publishers or staffers or whichever situation it applies to... umm, lost track of my sentence. Anyway, while many of the people I've worked with absolutely loathe Apple computers, I simply cannot understand why.

Okay, before OS9, Macintosh wasn't producing a very solid OS for Apple. Granted, it was still better than Windows OSes (depending on how you treated your systems... Win98 was pretty stable, after all), but they had their faults. OS9 brought stability, and OSX brought power and style.

When Macintosh released OSX, I nearly wet myself. Programs like Pagemaker (which has a nasty habit of crashing at random intervals) ran far smoother than they did on the systems before, regardless of actual system hardware.

But one of my favorite features of the Macintosh OS is its ability to lock programs. Something crashes? It doesn't take the whole computer out with it. Merely abort the single program, and carry about your business. Simple, and effective.


I have many, many stories and rants to contribute to this thread.
For now, however, I'll keep them locked in my brain.
Don't want to overload all of you, that is.


Oh, and for the record, I do not actually own an Apple computer, mainly because I'm forced to use Windows for the programs we're required to use at school. Plus, my laptop handles games really, really well. My next desktop, however, will be an Apple.

[Secret Azn Man]

To be honest, I don't see any reason for Mac prices to drop due to switching to Intel processors. It has been reported that Apple had to pay a bit more for Intel; processors than Power PC chips. Even if Intel chips were cheaper for Apple, I doubt Apple will pass on the savings to it's consumers except for entry level Macs. Instead of cutting price, Apple would add more features. That's usually what they do. You'll rarely see price cuts.

As for developing for Intel Macs, at first, it would cost more because developers must support both PPC and x86 architecture. That means double the QA and customer support. But, porting apps from Windows to Intel Macs might be cheaper if you ignore PPC support. Though, you'd be stupid if you do.

While I'd love to see a Mac with an AMD processor, I doubt it'll happen anytime soon. The reason Apple chose Intel are many but here's a few:

Intel is more than capable of supplying Apple and other companies its chips. Look at the Core Duo and Core Solos. They were announced in January and the iMac with Core Duo were ready to ship that same month and the Macbook Pro just recently shipped with faster processors than announced. Contrast that to Motorola's notorious inability to even muster a speed bump regularly for G4 processors as well as IBM's broken promise of a 3 GHz G5 within a year after the G5's debut. AMD is a niche player focusing mostly on high-end desktops and low-end servers and workstations. They can not supply Apple what it wants fast enough.

IBM failed to produce a Power970 varient that consumes less power and runs cool enough for Apple's thin laptops. Whiile it was possible to slap a Power 970 FX into a PowerBook, it would run way too hot too fast, and battery life would be impractical. AMD's processors aren't known for being frugal and cool either. But Intel had demonstrated with the Pentium M that it had what it takes to create an acceptable mobile processor. And Intel proved it again with the Intel Core series.

Maybe some day Apple will put AMD processors in its high end prosomer Macs biut we'll see.