Macbook pro - stop me
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ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Crispy said:Yes, but I shouldn't really have to, was my point. Those things are fundamental competencies for me, it's why I own a computer, so for it not to work by default put me right off.
Plus, it's got no photoshop or indesign
But that's the fun bit! The fiddling with it to make it work!
I loved learning how to use linux.. all that fucking about, brilliant.
As for photoshop, The Gimp works for me.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Crispy said:Yeah, it's that 'once configured' bit that's the kicker
I tried ubuntu earlier this year. I couldn't figure out how to:
a) Play MP3s
b) Play DVDs
c) Output a signal to my TV
d) Get the screen resolution higher than 1024x768
I'm sure these things are possible, but despite searching through the builtin help, nothing was making itself clear. I gave up, as those are four core things I like my computer to do.
My mac did all of the above right off the bat. I'm particularly impressed with the way it handles the TV - when you plug an external display in, it auto configures and then pops a box up to choose a resolution if you want a different one. And you could select a PAL widescreen res - shock fucking horror! And it remembered the settings for next time! I couldn't even get XP to pull off this trick.
I never thought I'd say this, but you're just not geeky enough mate
stdPikachu
Plughole in bathtub curve
Crispy said:
Just out of curiosity, what hardware was this on? Your mac or your old computer?
My gf asked me (!) to install Ubuntu on her laptop so she could try it out, and whilst MP3's and DVD's didn't work out of the box (that's cos of legal/patent wrangles and not Ubuntu's fault), when I tried playing them it gave me a "doing this requires this-and-that software, install it now?" which I thought was reasonably simple.
Graphics drivers are another issue, as AFAICR only Intel cards will work with proper acceleration out-of-the-box as they're the only current ones with open source drivers - both ATI and nVidia cards need binary ones that, again, Ubuntu aren't allowed to legally distribute bundled with the install. And ATI drivers still suck donkey balls for Linux so I doubt your TV-out would have ever worked.
Anyway, I digress. OSX was the right choice for you, and I'm not trying to convert you or owt. I just don't like to see things slighted for things that are pretty much out of their control. Achilles' weakness was his heel, but it wasn't his fault...
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
ChrisFilter said:I never thought I'd say this, but you're just not geeky enough mate
I made a conscious decision to be less geeky, to be fair
pika: I know it wasn;t his fault, but that still doesn't make achilles a good contender in a shin-kicking competition. Basically, XP was fucking me off and I wanted an alternative. Ubuntu gave me trouble too, so I thought sod it. Although having a hardware failure that meant I had to get a new computer right then did help a little bit
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
XP doesn't support DVDs out of the box either (iirc) though most pre-installs usually have a driver in there already. As well as a lot of other crap.
But there are a lot of little UI details to OS X which make things so much faster for me; being able to move files simply by dragging the icon in the top bar of on an open document window for instance (or open any directory in its tree), super-easy interfaces between applications where you can drop thumbnails from one app onto another one and it realises what you're trying to do, Spotlight, Exposé... individually quite small, but it all adds up.
But there are a lot of little UI details to OS X which make things so much faster for me; being able to move files simply by dragging the icon in the top bar of on an open document window for instance (or open any directory in its tree), super-easy interfaces between applications where you can drop thumbnails from one app onto another one and it realises what you're trying to do, Spotlight, Exposé... individually quite small, but it all adds up.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
God damn this fucking thread... now I'm seriously considering a new laptop.
The Groke
hot hail/Paging Dr. Beat
lunatrick said:
I want to upgrade my router to "n" standard wireless as the Macbook supports it. I found wireless streaming for video files over 802.11g to be too clunky. SO I would say it depends on your network really.
As an aside, I got parallels desktop working with my bootcamp Vista Business install last night......well impressed - excellent bit of VM software. Also impressed at how well the Mac can run 2 OS's at the same time!
I will be upgrading to 4Gb RAM when Leopard arrives - bet it will fly then.
Swarfega said:I want to upgrade my router to "n" standard wireless as the Macbook supports it. I found wireless streaming for video files over 802.11g to be too clunky. SO I would say it depends on your network really.
As an aside, I got parallels desktop working with my bootcamp Vista Business install last night......well impressed - excellent bit of VM software. Also impressed at how well the Mac can run 2 OS's at the same time!
I will be upgrading to 4Gb RAM when Leopard arrives - bet it will fly then.
thats pretty crap 802.11g should handle streaming of audio / video no problem......hmm my router is .g - may have to rethink....
stdPikachu
Plughole in bathtub curve
*Should* handle, but remember the following:
54Mbps is a theoretical maximum throughput - this decreases with distance from the access point, interference from objects, and of course network overhead
Wirless is currently not a switched medium, meaning the bandwidth is shared between all machines on the network
In reality, I've never seen a wireless connection that could handle a sustained transfer at 54Mbps, and hence it's unsuitable for streaming high bitrate video, such as DVD-quality MPEG2. It's usually OK at streaming lower bitrate formats such as H.264 (although of course they can also be done in high bitrates).
I'd still use wired for streaming stuff in-house if at all possible.
54Mbps is a theoretical maximum throughput - this decreases with distance from the access point, interference from objects, and of course network overhead
Wirless is currently not a switched medium, meaning the bandwidth is shared between all machines on the network
In reality, I've never seen a wireless connection that could handle a sustained transfer at 54Mbps, and hence it's unsuitable for streaming high bitrate video, such as DVD-quality MPEG2. It's usually OK at streaming lower bitrate formats such as H.264 (although of course they can also be done in high bitrates).
I'd still use wired for streaming stuff in-house if at all possible.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Might have just gone out and got the Dell I was on about
Structaural
in Chatsubo
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