Please help me fix this BS

[haifen]

So then, dear Nellynell, you do agree that macs suck?

[Skadi]

You obviously don't use it enough.

Some people don't need their hand held by their OS.

Oh dear, Narmy can't follow a conversation. I was trying to point out to jeebus that perhaps finds 7 easy to use because he doesn't use it much. I fight with 7 all the time but prefer a windows machine since it's mostly for gaming and ARRRING. Why the fuck would I want my hand held by an OS? Again, if it wasn't for the gaming aspect I'd be on linux.

[wizard_merlin]

You obviously don't use it enough.

Some people don't need their hand held by their OS.

Oh dear, Narmy can't follow a conversation. I was trying to point out to jeebus that perhaps finds 7 easy to use because he doesn't use it much. I fight with 7 all the time but prefer a windows machine since it's mostly for gaming and ARRRING. Why the fuck would I want my hand held by an OS? Again, if it wasn't for the gaming aspect I'd be on linux.

I use Windows 7 all the time for gaming, photo editing, video editing, and anything else that needs doing, and I don't have any problems with Windows 7 and don't fight with it at all, Visat was a different kettle of fish.  I got my Windows 7 as soon as it was publicly available.  Perhaps if you are fighting with it constantly, it might be something else you're running that maybe disagrees with Windows 7? 

Windows 7 is no different to any other OS, from any company, there are always people who see it as a dream and easy to use and never have a problem with it, while other people seem to have no end of problems with them.  I know people who use and hate Windows and seem to have no end of problems with it.  I also know people who use Macs and absolutely hate them while having problems that they can't get sorted.

Personally I prefer windows, and always have, I simply hate how closed the Apple systems are to customising to your own use, and how limited and restricted hardware upgrades are.  Before building my last windows machine I fully investigated Macs and settled on a windows machine as a better solution for myself.  Many years ago Windows was gaming and business, while Macs were multimedia and business, these days they both perform all functions quite well without many problems, which makes brand choice a personal preference.  The problem is that underspec'ed Macs won't work any better than underspec'ed windows machines when it comes to running games, or any other program for that matter, and the OP that started this is using a borderline spec'ed machine which means TS3 will perform poorly, and would would behave much the same way on a similar spec'ed windows system.

[Hitch]

Am I the ONLY one who finds Windows easy to use, intuitive, and reliable; who has never had a major problem with it; and who has almost never wanted to bash his PC to smithereens?

I've had major problems with Windows. I've had my fair share of breakdowns and problems. I've found Windows to be extremely complex, convoluted, and abstruse at times. But, not once have I felt the need to go to an Apple dominated web forum and say, "Can someone please help me figure out how to run your software on my Windows computer."

[Narmy]

Oh dear, Narmy can't follow a conversation. I was trying to point out to jeebus that perhaps finds 7 easy to use because he doesn't use it much. I fight with 7 all the time but prefer a windows machine since it's mostly for gaming and ARRRING. Why the fuck would I want my hand held by an OS? Again, if it wasn't for the gaming aspect I'd be on linux.

It sounded to me like a sarcastic comment like "Windows 7 sucks, you just don't know it yet." I'd think that the more you use an OS, the more familiar and easier it is to use, right?

There's always so many conflicting reports between people having tons of errors and problems, and people having no problems at all. The most logical explanation I can think of is that user-error is more of a factor than computer-error.

[dragoness]

Am I the ONLY one who finds Windows easy to use, intuitive, and reliable; who has never had a major problem with it; and who has almost never wanted to bash his PC to smithereens?

Nope. Well, Windows 98, sure, but XP was fine, and Win7 has been lovely. I don't understand the people who freak out over how crash-prone, awful, unreliable, and so on Windows 7 is. It's performed brilliantly through both normal use and my occasional floundering about with advanced settings, obscure emulators and other poorly-documented piracy. Hell, the one time I was deliberately trying to make it crash, it wouldn't.

[Darby]

My problem with Microsoft OS's is the ever increasing bloatware each new one comes with.  Even if easy to use, I resent having a bunch of shit I didn't ask for and can't easily remove being part of the install. 

[BaronElectricPhase]

Am I the ONLY one who finds Windows easy to use, intuitive, and reliable; who has never had a major problem with it; and who has almost never wanted to bash his PC to smithereens?

Since Windows 3.11 and all the way to 7  

(well, ok, I did skip Vista)   


What's the trick?  dunno...  <shrug>
I can only guess that it's because I have always used an over-sized swap file, instead of a system managed swap file.

[trenchmouth]

Since Windows 3.11 and all the way to 7  

(well, ok, I did skip Vista)   


What's the trick?  dunno...  <shrug>
I can only guess that it's because I have always used an over-sized swap file, instead of a system managed swap file.

Same here, except I skipped 2k/Millenium (I went from 98 to NT until XP came out), and the failure that was Microsoft Bob.  I did run Vista for a couple of years, but that was because an old system's hardware went into a string of catastrophic failures, and I had to have a replacement quickly, so in came a bargain PC that shipped with Vista.  Even Vista didn't give me too much trouble, outside of whining about the "features" that I disabled.

[Jeebus]

I found Vista mostly tolerable except for its habit of hanging at inopportune moments (which has thankfully disappeared in 7).

[witch]

I've gone from '98 lite to XP. I will have to go to 7 when I make a new machine, but for now, it's fine. Windoze mostly behaves itself for me and I mostly know how to fix stuff. MAC OSs are really pretty, but all the bouncing and zinging and 'OMG, look at me' stuff make me want to smack it.

[Narmy]

What's the trick?  dunno...  <shrug>
I can only guess that it's because I have always used an over-sized swap file, instead of a system managed swap file.

Nah. You don't even technically need the page file if you have enough RAM (8GB+), but of course it's nice to have in certain situations. I recommend leaving it on system managed, or you're just wasting hard drive space.

[Skadi]

My current set of issues related to 7 thinking I didn't have authority to change certain folders on a secondary drive. After trying to set permissions and having fun in safe mode I took the easy way out and reformatted the damn drive. In my experience people who do normal day to day things on their PC don't normally have issues. It's when you start trying to kludge stuff and get certain programs to do different things that you get to really mess with the OS. Plus it is also fun trying to fix win 7 machines that my customers break.

[saraswati]

Macs are like FWD/SUVs.

For every informed decision made RE: owning one and using one, there's a dozen folk who have one because they're shiny.

I work with Windows all day every day. I work in tech support for a living with a generally Computer-illiterate user base. After four years of supporting Windows machines, I went out and bought a Mac laptop and I haven't regretted it for a moment. I've still got my Windows pc which runs Windows 7, but I use my Mac for everything barring gaming. Macs aren't great for gaming but if someone is only a casual player, it seems pointless to have a second machine just for gaming if you're happy using your Mac for everything else.

We place far too much emphasis on the Mac Vs Windows debate and it's largely nonsense. Mac, Windows and Linux each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Linux is outstanding from a security point of view, if it matters to you to be able to upgrade your graphics card/RAM etc, it's much better to buy a Windows machine and Macs are extremely easy to use for creative tasks. IMHO, people should do some research before they get their machine and buy the machine that suits their needs.

But as to your comment about Mac users liking them because they are "shiny", I haven't met a Mac owner who has bought their machine for that reason. Most Mac users buy them because they're easy to use and they don't want to waste time figuring out how to use a machine when it's not their priority, which is their right. Computers are not an endurance test and it is not a badge of honour to struggle with an OS or a piece of software because someone tells them that they "should" do so.

[Seqkat]

But as to your comment about Mac users liking them because they are "shiny", I haven't met a Mac owner who has bought their machine for that reason. Most Mac users buy them because they're easy to use and they don't want to waste time figuring out how to use a machine when it's not their priority, which is their right. Computers are not an endurance test and it is not a badge of honour to struggle with an OS or a piece of software because someone tells them that they "should" do so.

While I am not particularly interested in getting involved in the whole debate, here is some more super-useful anecdotal evidence for you: I have in fact several friends who will happily admit that they bought their Macs because they were 'pretty' or 'looked more fun' -> shiny. If you don't really know what you need a computer for, or indeed you know that you don't need it for something like gaming, and so aren't really looking into specs etc., it is very easy to make choices based on marketing or something as simple as which product you prefer the look of. The fact that you don't know anyone who has done that doesn't really mean anything at all - it is a recognisable effect.

[cannedsarcasm]

Pretty much what Seqkat said. Like one of my favourite lecturers likes to say, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

[jezzer]

From some of the comments I've seen from Mac users, I don't think they were aware that it wasn't a good choice for gaming when they bought it.  Apple doesn't exactly highlight that feature in their advertising.

[saraswati]

From some of the comments I've seen from Mac users, I don't think they were aware that it wasn't a good choice for gaming when they bought it.  Apple doesn't exactly highlight that feature in their advertising.

cannedsarcasm and seqkat, I would point out that there are many Windows users who go into Harvey Norman and buy a machine because it looks shiny as well. You only have to look as far as the BBS, there are generally no end of computer users with many different kinds of systems who don't have a clue what they're doing. An illiterate user is an illiterate user, regardless of what type of system they've purchased.

There are large numbers of doctors and allied health professionals (some of my user base at work) who buy Macs, purely because they find them easy to use. I've worked out why this is, you will often hear them say that they love their Mac because "they just work". They're intelligent people, they're just not all that interested in computers, their whole lives are people focused and in the half an hour or so a day they spend on their machine, they don't want to fight with the machine to get it to work.

Most Mac users I know swap information because you want to get the most out of your system. I started thinking about getting a Mac a while before I went out and bought the machine. I was warned by friends who've used Macs for years to run XP from Boot Camp and install the Windows version of the Sims because trying to install a game through the Mac OS doesn't work too well. Mac users know the limitations of their Mac, we put up with it because we get so much more out of it in other ways. For one, the Apple versions of Photoshop and Office (Aperture and iWork) are far more user friendly than the equivalent Windows product.

Again, people should be talking to someone who they trust and getting advice to buy a system that suits them and which is in their price range. It doesn't matter much whether that's Windows, Mac, Linux or even a crappy ex-Government machine, as long as it suits your needs.

[cannedsarcasm]

You're obviously passionate about the subject matter. To put it bluntly, I'm not. I'm pretty sure that we aren't even disagreeing about anything major - but I didn't really finish reading your post. I know that there are plenty of people out there who make informed decisions about what they buy, I said that at the start. There are a lot of people who don't. That's how humans are, the end.

Feel free to write another bunch of paragraphs on the topic, though. It's possible that someone around here has a remote interest.

[soozelwoozel]

saraswati wasn't laying into you or getting on a soapbox. There's really no need to respond like that, cannedsarcasm. If you want to contribute to a conversation, then you should actually read what you're replying to. Otherwise, we don't fancy listening to your lazy, I'll informed replies. If you don't care about a subject, why chime in? Or were you just showing off your edumacation, in which case *golf clap*.

[cannedsarcasm]

I wasn't taking the response as an aggressive or soapboxy one, because it isn't. I'm sorry if it came off that way?

Based on the ratio of paragraphs to post, it's pretty obvious that sarasati has strong feelings about the issue, but the point of my post was that I don't want to debate with them, and I'll not be lured in by a bunch of paragraphs about the topic at hand. They have their opinion and I have mine, both of which are derived from personal experiences with people and their selections.

I don't think saraswati is wrong, and I'm quite aware that there are oodles of noodles with systems that were purchased because they didn't do the research, didn't want to do the research, or didn't know that they should. I knew that beforehand and learnt it quite some time ago: since saraswati's post appeared to be a case of preaching to the choir, I elected to skip over the rest of the post. I'll use better judgement next time, 'spose. As to my choice to contribute (or in your opinion, fail to contribute), I generally respond when I'm directly addressed - otherwise, I lurk. That's been the for the past few posts in this topic, and that's really all there is to it.

FWIW I don't really care to debate with anyone over much of anything, so if you want you can take this post as a concession or a yield. Forum squabbles are not my thing.

[jezzer]

Otherwise, we don't fancy listening to your lazy, I'll informed replies.

You'll inform what, MacSooze?

[Simulate]

Best thing about a PC over a Mac. You can upgrade it whenever you need to.

Mine is about 10 years old (well the case and FD and CD drives)  and currently runs XP, (I did not upgrade to a more recent OS - so I can stilll play older games etc.).  But I change parts when needed, Motherboard, Graphics card etc.

I have no problems with the Sims  3  game or its add-ons.

If I need a better Graphics Card or more memory, no problem.

Can you do this with a Mac. ?

[kissing_toast]

In all fairness most Mac users have no idea what you're talking about or have no idea how to do what it is that you're taling about. Most not all.

[Jeebus]

It's not really true that all Mac users are retards.  For instance, my CS major brother (and his friends, it seems) greatly prefers Macs to PCs, although it seems that it is more the quality of the hardware, not so much the OS, that he is the real attraction for him.