Leopards and lions.

[FoxDanFox]

Hello! As you may have already guessed, in this thread I would like to know your opinion on Mac computers (only computers, not talking about iGadgets except for iMac). Also it would be great to know your opinion on Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion Operating System. Thank you in advance!
Dan.

 

[Runefox]

I'm not gonna post anything too long right now (have to leave for work soon), but here's my thoughts.

Apple computers in general are well-designed and well-engineered. The components they use (CPU, RAM, HDD, etc) are the same as what might be found in other computers, but they likely get preference for higher quality bins from the OEM's that make them. The battery life on the entire MacBook line is phenomenal, and for the most part, the computers are very powerful for their form factors, considering the cooling required for some of the higher end graphics chips on the 15" MacBooks. You can find more powerful computers for less (sometimes far less if you want to go with Acer), but most will have no access to Thunderbolt (this is changing), and will come in a fully plastic design, which limits durability. Many also won't come with a sudden impact sensor (Toshiba is one brand that does usually have this) to park the hard drive in case of sudden motion.

As for Mac OS X, I'm pretty pleased with the current incarnations as of Snow Leopard and onward. They take a little getting used to at first, but if you've ever used iTunes, you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Coupled with Parallels, there isn't really much that Mac OS X can't do, including gaming (many games are now being ported / bottled with Cider (a WINE fork) for Mac OS). The built-in programs are pretty great, too, and if you have an iDevice, particularly an AppleTV (where you can wirelessly stream your display, another feature that's relatively uncommon still on PC's and requires a separate receiver), there's really no better companion computer for them.

On a budget, though, Apple's hard to justify. That said, the computers retain their value well beyond the purchase date, with some 2007-2008 baseline (13") models still fetching $500 on eBay. Most PC's by comparison tend to lose their value fairly quickly. I've seen at least one person who buys a new set of Macs ever six months, sells the old ones, and basically never actually pays much if anything for a continuous upgrade.

 

[FoxDanFox]

I'm not gonna post anything too long right now (have to leave for work soon), but here's my thoughts.

Apple computers in general are well-designed and well-engineered. The components they use (CPU, RAM, HDD, etc) are the same as what might be found in other computers, but they likely get preference for higher quality bins from the OEM's that make them. The battery life on the entire MacBook line is phenomenal, and for the most part, the computers are very powerful for their form factors, considering the cooling required for some of the higher end graphics chips on the 15" MacBooks. You can find more powerful computers for less (sometimes far less if you want to go with Acer), but most will have no access to Thunderbolt (this is changing), and will come in a fully plastic design, which limits durability. Many also won't come with a sudden impact sensor (Toshiba is one brand that does usually have this) to park the hard drive in case of sudden motion.

As for Mac OS X, I'm pretty pleased with the current incarnations as of Snow Leopard and onward. They take a little getting used to at first, but if you've ever used iTunes, you'll pick it up pretty quickly. Coupled with Parallels, there isn't really much that Mac OS X can't do, including gaming (many games are now being ported / bottled with Cider (a WINE fork) for Mac OS). The built-in programs are pretty great, too, and if you have an iDevice, particularly an AppleTV (where you can wirelessly stream your display, another feature that's relatively uncommon still on PC's and requires a separate receiver), there's really no better companion computer for them.

On a budget, though, Apple's hard to justify. That said, the computers retain their value well beyond the purchase date, with some 2007-2008 baseline (13") models still fetching $500 on eBay. Most PC's by comparison tend to lose their value fairly quickly. I've seen at least one person who buys a new set of Macs ever six months, sells the old ones, and basically never actually pays much if anything for a continuous upgrade.

Thanks a lot for sharing! But the point is... I have an 15" MBP already with ML OS, I am just interested in opinions!

 

[LycanTendencies]

Well what kinda opinions? In my opinion, you should be torrenting the heck out of the most expensive programs you can find. Down at your local, public, Internet hub and never at home of coarse

 

[greg-the-fox]

I stuck with Snow Leopard and didn't bother upgrading because for my needs, Snow Leopard is complete. By far a better OS than anything that came before it. Lion changed a bunch of stuff that annoyed me and I didn't see a reason to pay for it. But any recent Mac OS is good.

 

[KatmanDu]

Anecdotal evidence: Every mac I've had has lasted longer and given me far fewer problems than any PC I've owned or used. But that's just me- I have a friend who has constant issues with his mac... although he has constant issues with anything electronic smarter than a toaster. I'll happily pay the "Apple Tax" as long as it means not beating my head in when I get BSODs because my printer driver is out of date.

Leopard: A bigger change from Tiger, but with some issues. Snow Leopard: Fixed a lot of those issues. Lion: A lot like leopard, generation-wise. Mountain Lion: Fixed a lot of the issues with Lion. I've upgraded my Macbook Pro to ML and have been happy with it; there's a lot of features I consider useless, but I don't have to use them so I don't. The Mac Pro is still on Lion, because I can't upgrade to ML without upgrading my video card and fooling it to think it has a 64 bit EFI. (Mac Pro 1,1- it has a 64 bit processor, but for whatever reason, a 32 bit EFI. It will run ML with an updated video card and some tweaks; I just haven't been able to afford the video card yet.)

Realistically, any of those versions will work just fine; although there are a lot of "under the hood" improvements in each iteration. Keep in mind that Apple seems to have an unofficial policy of only supporting up to the last 3 releases... 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, right now; although they haven't stopped updating 10.5 yet. Not that your computer will suddenly become a useless paperweight if apple stops updating the OS; but you might miss important security or stability updates.