Prius Owners and Mac Users

Thanks Sid! I appreciate the info.

It's an interesting situation: my folks have one of the old, "desk lamp" flat screen iMacs. Dad is going to buy a new Mac later this year, and Mom will get the old one. I plan to set up a wireless Airport Extreme network for them.

I've been researching what Dad's new Mac should be while they're on vacation (assuming he doesn't want a laptop) -- i.e., an eMac, a G5 iMac, or a Mac mini.

What's interesting is how close the performance of these three models is. Take a look at the Macintouch Performance Comparison.

If you're not running your iMac at High speed, and you look at the high-end mini, the three models really do come rather close, overall. The eMac does better on disk speed; iMac on graphics. But they're not very different. And the prices (if going for the low-end iMac) are pretty close, too.

I think it will come down, in the end, to the type of screen Dad wants: the eMac's relatively small screen (clearer at different resolutions because it's a CRT, but not large) vs. the G5 iMac (I've not been as impressed with the smaller G5 iMac screen; the 20" is pretty pricey) vs. getting a nice Samsung 19" LCD monitor for the mini.

Opinions welcome!

 

The enemy. :mrgreen:

Some related humor: http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/autos.htm

I got this from an article on engadget.com, in case anyone was curious.

 

I use one, but only 'cause I got it for free from work. I don't plan on buying one for myself - my PC is far, far more powerful and has all of the software I commonly use.

 

I'd argue the "far, far more powerful" (and would really argue it when the Intel Macs make it out the door); but if you've got many Windows apps you really use, the move wouldn't make a lot of sense (and would be painful). I was able to make the jump with a minimum of pain -- about the only software I've bought has been Office for Mac and VirtualPC.

Re: VirtualPC, I run it only for two programs (one of which I use about once a year); it's useful, but runs very slowly. And, I want to get away from the Mac, so I use it as little as possible (once a week for an hour.)

Again, when the Intel Macs come out, VirtualPC is going to become a much more interesting program -- should run at native speeds.

 

BTW, my parents got one of the new "iSight" iMacs -- they like it very much. Thanks for the help, Sid!

I went down there over the holidays and got the new and the old iMac hooked up wirelessly via Airport. Absolutely the easiest network installation I've ever done -- kudos to Apple for the Airport Express firmware.

 

I didn't read through all 17 pages of this so if this has already been posted please forgive me. Here is an older poll that shows somewhat different results:

http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=7158&hl=

I suspect the reason for the difference may be that when people who use Windows or Linux read this topic title they are tempted to think it only applies to Mac users, so they don't read the topic and hence don't answer the poll. Anyway the point is well taken that the percentage of Mac users is quite a bit higher among Prius owners.

 

That is a very good point. Polls need to be designed properly to avoid biasing the results.

A recent poll on smart key usage asked contradictory questions in the title and poll question. This puts the results in question.

 

I'm a graphic designer & photographer, so it's all Macs for me. Love 'em.

 

For my home PC, I do video editing. Adobe Premiere and Photoshop come in both versions, but the hardware card for advanced graphics would have cost me over 5 grand vs the PC version at 1 grand. Also, I use titling and motion graphic software only available on the PC. The audio edit software that I like also only on a PC.

Then there are the games. I like high graphic fast games and these are mostly only available on the PC.

Oh, and the PC as move way beyond the 2 button mouse. Mine is 5 buttons plus side to side scrolling. Oh, and I like my game pad too and it only works on a PC.

But really, doesn't that Mac Mini just look cool?

[snapback]90437[/snapback]​

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PC here too, for video editing, email, business.
Running one analogue editor with Nt, one
digital editor with win 2000 pro, connected to two other 2000 pro machines
via hard wired network as well as the Nt machine. I have a friend with a Mac
who has used it for editing and for me it's too hard to configure, too hard to
find fixes and just not easy to learn. I built all my machines except an
Amiga which I have with Video Toaster (switcher only) (for sale. anyone?),
but I still was able to add a hard drive
to the Amiga, and add a cd rom drive. I wouldn't have a clue to do that
with a Mac, they are so rare around here I have not had a chance to learn
anything about the hardware.
Rod

 

They do have a two button mouse. It's called the mighty mouse. It also has a scroll ball that works as a scroll wheel in horizontal and vertical directions. Although on the outside there doesn't appear to be two buttons if you press the right or left side you'll get the left and right mouse buttons. There is also buttons on the side to toggle other Mac OS functions, like rapid shrinking of all applications and then click to maximize the window you want.

 

I also kind of got a sense is that there's been a breaking up between Intel and Microsoft. I think both companies felt like they could do better if they sort of "divorced" their dependency upon the other, otherwise each side of the "marriage" could try and get the upper hand. So Microsoft wanted to get into the game market and ditched Intel for the PowerPC chip. Initially Xbox developers had to develop on Windows 2000 that Microsoft ported to work on Macintosh G5 desktop computers. Very likely the situation is the same.

Microsofts move to take up the the PowerPC chip than had a side effect of pushing Apple off the priority list. IBM is now in the drivers seat pushing for newer PowerPC chips and the Microsoft XBox has more clout than Apple Macintosh computers so they've kind of put Apple on the back burner for the past 2-3 years. So IBM and Micosoft got hitched and dumped Apple.

Apple needed to find a new suitor that would take them more seriously. I think Intel put in the extra effort to attract Apple to their side. AMD maybe didn't have enough clout and reputation to attract Apple to them instead of Intel.

In the grand scheme of things MIcrosoft would like to be on every computer or OS on the planet. So if Windows runs on Intel, AMD, PowerPC, on a Web Browser, or on a virtual computer on Unix, Linux, or Mac OS X, Microsoft could care less. They still get the same royalty.

Oh by the way Microsoft owns 10% of Apple. They can't own more or else they'd look more like a monopoly. In fact it's been argued that keeping Apple alive is a necessary to provide token competition to fend off anti-trust arguments.

 

1) Their stock ownership is non-voting. So they can't control at all what happens at Apple -- very important!

2) That whole "investment" was really a settlement for M$ ripping off Apple's QuickTime with Windoze Media Player.

 

*boot*

 

Holy cow. This is an old thread.

I answered yes, but that doesn't mean I don't use a PC either.

I have a Mac Mini and a bunch of PCs at home. At work, I have 1 PC + 4 Macs (2 ghz Power Mac G5 dual proc, 20" Intel Core Duo iMac, 1 ghz 17" iMac G4, and a PowerMac G4 933 mhz [getting rid of it, too slow and noisy]) and currently work on Mac software for a living. However, I'm a die hard PC guy and have been using PCs since 1983 (DOS was up to version 2.0 and the XT had just come out).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Jun 3 2006, 11:21 PM) [snapback]265489[/snapback]</div>

So it is, but I am a new poster! I am curious, and this thread made me wonder--how many cars have such a dedicated bunch of, um, tweakers (by which I mean people who are so devoted to reprogramming it and so on)? It makes me think of all the people who got furbies and reprogrammed them to do all sorts of stuff the developers never seem to have imagined? I must say, I am indeed grateful--the backup beep would have driven me mad within the first week had I not discovered PruisChat ! It DOES make me wonder a bit though about the Mac/PC split here--I am a PC user from way back, and use Word for most work stuff--since most places I have worked have done so. However, for my own stuff, I still use WordPerfect--because WP allows me to tell IT what I want it to do, whereas Word has many more of its own ideas. It makes me think of the furby/prius programmers and Mac/PC. I can use both PC & Mac, but PCs in general allow me to tell the computer what I want to do, whereas the Macs make me do things their way--I do NOT like computers that make me use the keyboard to eject a disk, for example, still less do I like a computer manufacturer forcing me to buy an external drive if I wish to do anything as obviously ridiculous as making an external backup of my data. So, if so many more (percentage wise, so VASTLY more) people who drive Priuses (IS it Prii?) are Mac users--are Macs more programmable than they seem?

 

Word.

write letterz and shit yo

 

My first computer was a DOS box in college. I loved it, the way a kid loves a junk car. I took it apart and learned the hardware. Learned to program. Tried to learn assembly. Enjoyed the command line. Didn't mind the frequent freezes, because it came back up quickly.

But from the first day I came into contact with macs in the late 80's, I have been a mac fanatic. Number one reason was the human centricity that was so apparent: from the 'welcome to macintosh' splash screen, to the humor. Second reason was the attention to detail, and aesthetic. Third reason was the overall high quality of the apps, especially of the shareware.

Nowadays I just know macintosh so well, that a barrier to entry exists for other OS. I have a linux box at home that I use for web browsing. But if I want to actually get something done, it is all on my powerbook.

My most severe critiicism of windows circa 2006 is that I don't enjoy using it. It lacks the small things that make an acquaintance into a friend. It lacks subtely, it lacks finesse, it lacks grace. It lacks the things that some people will never see or miss.

Among other things, Prius has an attention to detail that says that an improvement is worthwhile no matter how small; because in aggregate it makes a difference. I found that really appealing.

 

I guess I should join this thread.

I worked at Apple Computer from 1979 to 1991 in System Software. Started there working on the Apple ][, worked on the Apple ///, then I did the ROM changes to create the Apple //e, worked on A/UX (Mac/Unix), went to Taligent (Apple/IBM spinoff), back to Apple in servers, then MacOS X for four years.

There are some details of the Apple //e days on my web site at http://www.cfcl.com/rick .

 

Yup, I'm a Prius owner and a Mac user - I love my Mac! We only have it because it was a freebie in return for helping out a friend (it was a lot of help...), and now I would only gets Macs for myself.

I also have the little Apple on the car window at the back

 

MacPro = DAMN....

That's one powerful machine... I just hope I can afford one in the next year or so... spent all my money on my Prius!! :lol: