This will shock the Mac Users
 

Ok, I have decided its finally time to go over to the other side and purchase a Mac Book. Now im not made of money and I do have a visual impairment, having said that is the difference between the 15" and 17" Macbook Pro considerably different? Explain all the Pro's and cons please. I do play games but only really the Sims 3 which is Mac compatible but would it run?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Sims will run on any Macbook. The difference between the two models you mentioned is 2 inches. The screen resolution improves with each step up the range but the price goes up too.

Compare the specs here:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...mco=Nzk2MDc0Mw

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Thanks for that Chris, anything else I should know regarding Mac OSX?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

You don't need to know anything about it ... it just works. ;)

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Macs crash like any other pc.

The accesibility options on the mac are very good the screen magnifier and screen reader are /almost/ as good as the zoomtext I use.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Well ... apps crash sometimes, but the core OS is protected against that sort of thing. I'm sure I've had to press and hold the power button for a hard reset on this machine in front of me at some time or other, but I really can't remember when that last happened. And when it does it's because some application or other has gone haywire and has eaten up all the processors and memory, meaning I get bored waiting for the 'Force Quit' dialogue box to appear.

I've never had a kernel panic under OSX and I never saw the 'bomb' message under OS9. I know they can and do happen, but I don't think statistics would bear out any claim that OSX is equally as crash-prone as Windows in its various incarnations.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

I guess you never tried running Internet Explorer and Outlook Express at the same time, then. That was pretty much always guaranteed to make OS 9 bomb.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Incidentally, this is what the Mac's version of a BSOD looks like. Take a good look, it's rare as hen's teeth in the wild. :D

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2009/09/22.jpg

---------- Post added at 13:38 ---------- Previous post was at 13:37 ----------

Nope, I was a right zealot in my early Mac days. First thing I did when I got my original iMac was install Nutscrape. I used it for browsing and email.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Interestingly I never said it was. But equally a claim that it 'just works' is also false ;) Perhaps it just works 'most of the time' may be more accurate.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Interestingly, I worded that very phrase you bolded deliberately so as not to aim it at you. ;)

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

I have a fair few crashed on my 'mac' but I assumed they were due to the way it was being run. My friends mac has fewer but he still has them and his has a proper one and only a couple of months old.

Personally I think that getting a mac can work out cheaper if you have a visual impairment as you don't need to buy the specialist software you do for windows. (Well, unless you have windows 7 ;) but that's a whole other story).

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Debatable as the hardware spec you get for a mac can be got as a PC of the equivilant spec far cheaper.
On the software side, Yes, the OS is clearly better.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

HHHmmm a laptop that's going to run Sims 3 well and also have a £500 program on it and still be cheaper than a macbook. I guess it could be done, but I'd still prefer the macbook.

As for a clearly better OS, I don't think so. I use mac os and I find it just as good as windows, just as prone to problems. It's different not better in my opinion. I can only speak from the experience I have in using it though.

Having said taht I wouldn't say no to a 'proper' mac and I never said I wouldn't either ;)

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Just thought about Wireless, I have a wireless Linksys Router, and I know the MacBook has built in Wireless, but do I require an Apple Airport as well?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Nope. It'll work with your Linksys router.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

As Chris says, it really just works - well!

Been a PC user since the mid 90's, and I have kicked hard against getting a Mac for two reasons. Since getting a Macbook I have to say its a great machine, and I am surprised how quick I have picked things up.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

My macbook pro has the same wireless, and works perfectly well with my linksys router (as you can tell as I'm posting from it) And from my opinion, any games that say they work with macs, do work (i have sims 3 running on my mbp and it runs brilliantly). It can also work with windows games (in various ways VM in parallels, bootcamp [dual boot] or with CrossOver [a prog that allows win programs to run under osx]) Though out of all 3 I would suggest bootcamp as all of the hardware works as it should that way.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

I would probably use Cross over, to run my Windows Games, cos otherwise it means spending an extra £70 on a copy of Vista. By the way thanks Lew for letting me know about the wireless without the airport, that will save an extra £179. What does the airport do though?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

You still need to buy a copy of crossover though. Although for £45 quid I guess its half the price of vista.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Wayne, Airport is just Apple's brand name for their own wireless router. IIRC it does have a couple of extra bells and whistles for integrating with iTunes and Apple TV but in essence it's just a router, and you don't need it so long as you already have one. Apple has been implementing standards-compliant wired and wireless networking for donkey's years.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Just thought, what about my iTunes Music. I have got an external drive but thats formatted in NTFS, so wont be recognised by the Mac. I could copy from the iPod to the Mac but the iPod is formatted for Windows use only. Dont really want to spend the money on rewritable DVD's. Anyone got any suggestions?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Well you could copy them to your PC running Vista, and then drop them into your Mac when you get it. Vista has no problems reading the Mac hard drive (well for me anyway) :)

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

The Mac will read your NTFS drive Wayne so you could always copy everything onto the Mac's hard drive and then reformat the drive into something it can also write to. If you insist on keeping the drive in NTFS then there are 3rd party extensions for the Mac that will enable it to read/write to it.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Oh right. I have tried to look at the contents of my PC on my Mac but it doesn't seem to pick up all the files and folders. I admit I haven't tried and external HDD.

Could you point me in the direction of those extensions please Chris?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Cool thanks Chris, at least I haven't got the worry of plugging it in and wiping the drive lol

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

MacFUSE

NTFS-3G

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Thank you kindly :D:tu:

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

My mums going to Lakeside tomorrow evening to get it for me. :D

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Im using my new Mac :D

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Quick question althiugh I have the DVD supplied in the box my Mac has 10.5.8 at the moment, does that mean that I have to install Snow Lepard myself or does it start at 10.5.x and update to 10.6. and if I do have to install it does it boot from the DVD automatically?

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Wayne, you haven't told us what's on the DVD. Can you read the label and post what it says. It will tell you what version of the OS it contains.

TBH given the likelihood that the store at Lakeside has had stock in for a while, the DVD could itself be one of the later revisions of Leopard (10.5) rather than Snow Leopard (10.6). If that's the case, sticking the DVD in will do you no good at all.

In general, Apple's Software Update service will give you a free download of any incremental revision of any Apple software (e.g. from OS X 10.5.7 to 10.5.8) but it will not automatically update to an official new product release. With OSX, all versions of it have been 10 since it first came out, official upgrades are the second number, which also relate to the project code name (.4 is Tiger, .5 is Leopard, .6 is Snow Leopard - always a big cat) and the third number denotes a significant stability/security/bugfix update.

10.5.8 is the latest release of OSX Leopard so you will not get any updates to it from Apple's Software Update service.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Seeing as you mentioned Sims 3 - I saw this and thought it may apply Madgamer...

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/96855.page

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Mac OS X Snow Leopard version 10.6. Sorry its taken so long to reply I have been on placement all day

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Make sure you read through my link above before using it then.

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Read it already Thomas before I upgraded to 10.6. I'll wait for an update before installing TS3

Re: This will shock the Mac Users
 

Good stuff, just saw that and though it may have been usefull :)