Mac, Soldat & Boot Camp. (and other Mac things)

[Dusty]

(Not sure if this is the right section.)

I'm starting college in about a month, and I'm moving to my mum's. I thought about buying a new computer, precisely a notebook. Now I've come to the decision, that I will buy a Macbook sooner or later, not sure if I'll wait for the newer version to come or just buy the latest one. The new version will probably come out in a month or two.

Yes, I'm pretty well aware that Mac OSX might not be the best OS out there, and I do know that probably most of you think that it sucks because "everything you can do with a Mac can be done with a PC." But no, I'm not going to change my mind about this, and by making this topic I'm not looking a war between Apple and Microsoft. So please, keep the bullshooos about PCs away from this topic.
So, let's start with the questions! 
#1 Do you know a thing about Macs?*
#2 Have you ever used a Mac?*
#3 Do you or does someone close to you (a relative, a friend...) own a Mac?

#4 Does every Mac OSX have the same languages available?
#5 Have you ever used the Boot Camp system? (pros/cons)
#6 Is the Windows which is ran trough the Boot Camp system "a real Windows?"
#7 Does XP run on the Boot Camp like it would run on a PC? (Bugs etc.?)
#8 Does games and programs run on the Boot Camp like they would on an equivalent PC?
#9 How does the other Windows emulators (Crossover, Parallels...) differ from the Boot Camp?

#10 How customizable is the Mac interface?
#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?**

#12 What is your own opinion of Macs?***

*If your answer in either of these questions is No, please, consider your usefulness in this topic.
**I'm sorry if this is against the forum rules. Admins, be happy to remove the question if so.
***If your answer is going to be "It sucskz asz!!" (or anything like that) don't post at all.

I'd like to make this clear, again. This post is not made for fighting about the best OS! So no comments like "PC rulzz u dun need a Macrap!"

So, feel free to comment and add your own questions. I hope this thread will be helpful for not only me, but for those who are considering to buy a Mac.

[Clawbug]

One question, why the mac anyway? And.. which college? ...and where does your mom live?

Why not to get some small, nifty laptop? like MSI Wind or ASUS Eee PC? Why laptop anyway?

[Dusty]

I'm pretty sure that you know which college I'm going to. To the best of the city of course... And my mom lives next to Aapeli. I hope you can't find her by using only this information luls.

The reason I'm not buying a desktop computer is that I'd like to carry it along myself wherever I'm going, and that would be quite hard with some big cased oobercomputer.

And for the Mac... I wan't a Macbook just because I want one. No other excuses. I like Apple anyway and I don't think it's such a big loss for me because we have a computer which runs XP here at home. Also my mom does own a notebook but it's getting a bit too old for me(us) to use.

[Shadow G-Unit]

I love Apple, and I'm glad you're getting one since Apple now-a-days are aiming for mid-level university students, like yourself. I would like to wish you the best of luck in college, you'll need it I'm sure.

[8th_account]

#11 - No, but Vuze (formerly Azureus) is pretty popular

Oh, and in college you'll end up emulating Windows more often than booting up Mac, since nothing the school offers and requires will be compatible with Macs.

[Mistercharles]

If you're not a mac person before college, don't try and become a mac person FOR college. If you've never really owned one before, college is NOT the environment to learn a new OS. Sure, they're clean and to the point, but the way they hide information (like the way they make it so that they in a way never want you to look at your hard disk directory and instead just use the "applications," "music," or "documents" folders, and the way the wireless works) can be frustrating for long time PC users and abusers.

My sister tried bootcamp. She followed every single instruction, and it fried her hard drive.

However, if you just want it for college stuff, such as word processing, video editing, and sound production, then Macs do just fine, and in certain cases are much more efficient. Take note though- iTunes is the worst thing since Windows ME.

[Mangled*]

#1 Do you know a thing about Macs? - Yes.

#2 Have you ever used a Mac? - Yes.

#3 Do you or does someone close to you (a relative, a friend...) own a Mac? - Yes.

#4 Does every Mac OSX have the same languages available? - Almost certainly.

#5 Have you ever used the Boot Camp system? - No.

#6 Is the Windows which is ran trough the Boot Camp system "a real Windows?" - Yes.

#10 How customizable is the Mac interface? - As customizable as Windows is really. There are lots of user made themes and skins you can find on websites and you can pretty much arrange everything how you like it.

#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?** - Probably... and if not you can always use Wine or something to run them. So yes. By the way, p2p software is completely legal, it's only the content shared using them that often isn't.

#12 What is your own opinion of Macs?*** - They have their uses, they particularly used to hold advantages over windows with regards to being able to run faster on less memory which meant they were used almost exclusively in industries such as animation and graphic design. But these days the PC has caught up and over taken and is more popular because it's less expensive. The real advantage to the Mac is still virtually complete immunity from viruses and hackers, but that's more to do with Macs being a tiny percent of the computer market.

[Clawbug]

Actually viruses are mostly due to stupid users, regardless of the platform/OS used.

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?** - Probably... and if not you can always use Wine or something to run them.

I didn't know Macs had a program like Wine...

[FliesLikeABrick]

#1 Do you know a thing about Macs?*
#2 Have you ever used a Mac?*
#3 Do you or does someone close to you (a relative, a friend...) own a Mac?

#4 Does every Mac OSX have the same languages available?
#5 Have you ever used the Boot Camp system? (pros/cons)
#6 Is the Windows which is ran trough the Boot Camp system "a real Windows?"
#7 Does XP run on the Boot Camp like it would run on a PC? (Bugs etc.?)
#8 Does games and programs run on the Boot Camp like they would on an equivalent PC?
#9 How does the other Windows emulators (Crossover, Parallels...) differ from the Boot Camp?

#10 How customizable is the Mac interface?
#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?**

#12 What is your own opinion of Macs?***

1) yes
2) yes
3) yes
4) I don't know, probably
5) yes, it gives you windows for things you need windows for.  Personally I would use parallels  instead of using boot camp.  Soldat should run perfectly in parallels.
6) yes, it is really windows installed on your mac
7) it runs better on a mac than on most normal PCs
most games run better on a mac than on normal PC hardware.  I know a handful of hardcore gamers at my school who use boot camp for their games
9) Parallels creates a windows environment within OSX, it integrates very nicely with OSX so it is almost like you are running both at once.  If/when I get a mac, I will definitely buy parallels
10) "somewhat" I think.  The default interface works fine for me, you just need to get used to it.  Overall I think it is better than the Windows interface, if for no other reason than it doesn't lock up like Windows locks up hotkeys and the start bar

11) yes, and you don't need parallels (the kick-ass wine-like software for OSX).  There are many, many good clients out there for torrents and other networks that run natively on OSX.
12) they kick ass.

[El_Spec]

#1 Do you know a thing about Macs?
#2 Have you ever used a Mac?
#3 Do you or does someone close to you (a relative, a friend...) own a Mac?
#4 Does every Mac OSX have the same languages available?
#5 Have you ever used the Boot Camp system? (pros/cons)
#6 Is the Windows which is ran trough the Boot Camp system "a real Windows?"
#7 Does XP run on the Boot Camp like it would run on a PC? (Bugs etc.?)
#8 Does games and programs run on the Boot Camp like they would on an equivalent PC?
#9 How does the other Windows emulators (Crossover, Parallels...) differ from the Boot Camp?
#10 How customizable is the Mac interface?
#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?
#12 What is your own opinion of Macs?

#1 - Not really, but a decent amount, like how to use one and what is compatible and what isn't.
#2 - I think everyone who has access to school or computers has used one at least once in their live time.  Used it at school when the school used them until they were replaced with Dell desktops with Windows XP.
#3 - Good friend of mine, he used to be a Windows user than suddenly over night he became a total Apple fanboy.  Rest of my friends hate Apple to their guts.
#4 - I'm not sure.
#5 - No, but my friend has.  States it runs fine on his laptop.
#6 - No idea.
#7 - They all run on the same hardware, so it shouldn't have any differences in performance.
#8 - Yes, my friend tried it.
#9 - No idea.
#10 - Never thought you could, no idea.
#11 - They run fine, uTorrent, Limewire, and other popular P2P programs run fine on Macs.
#12 - They're highly stable and have good performance.  But I think the pricing on them are ridiculous.  You could buy 2 or 3 good laptops or desktops running Windows XP and have the same hardware.  Lack support for many games since it doesn't have DirectX support and uses OpenGL instead.  It really depends on what you use your computer for.

[Snow]

If you're not a mac person before college, don't try and become a mac person FOR college. If you've never really owned one before, college is NOT the environment to learn a new OS. Sure, they're clean and to the point, but the way they hide information (like the way they make it so that they in a way never want you to look at your hard disk directory and instead just use the "applications," "music," or "documents" folders, and the way the wireless works) can be frustrating for long time PC users and abusers.

My sister tried bootcamp. She followed every single instruction, and it fried her hard drive.

However, if you just want it for college stuff, such as word processing, video editing, and sound production, then Macs do just fine, and in certain cases are much more efficient. Take note though- iTunes is the worst thing since Windows ME.

Actually, just so you know. Only very crucial files on your HDD are hidden away. Crucial OS files are definitely hidden away so you don't muck up your OS. I did managed to delete a crucial hidden file once that crashed OSX hard. It was by accident too. Macs unlike PC's store any data in predefined folders/places. PC's tend to store data like cookies in multiple places. Windows 98 was one of the worst versions to create duplicates of temp files/folders. Security is also excellent on a Mac. There are virtually no bugs, trojans, virii, etc for macs (tho, some do exist) and you have the ability to protect your data or securely erase it with DoD standard settings. If you're selling your machine, that helps to ensure none of your personal files, stuff that contains credit card info, adresses, etc can be read by anyone else. The best thing about Macs that I find or rather the operating system: OSX, is that if you want to clear space, it is very easy to find every single temp file, cookie, cache, etc. The explorer application: Finder has an excellent search function and is super quick.

[Captain Ben]

do you just want a mac to fit in

why would you want it if you don't even know how to use it especially if you're going to university with it... it just seems like a giant waste of time because right away you're asking all these questions but your minds already made up because you're like "I'M GETTING A MAC THAT'S IT"

why would you bother with bootcamp or whatever? why not just use windows to run your pc programs instead of going through all the trouble of doing pc stuff on a mac when theres a million-and-one things that could go wrong? is it really that smart to get into all that during university when you need a guaranteed working computer?

macs are horrible pieces of crap they're like linux times ten they can do like 2 things well but the rest is just pure novelty shit that isn't needed... they make everything hard to do and crash whenever you're in the middle of something important- i hell want to find the guy who invented macs and punch him in the dick... if you know nothing about them and just suddenly buy one then you're going to be frustrated, especially if you spend a decent amount of moolah

no joke stick to what you know

[JFK]

#1 Do you know a thing about Macs?*
#2 Have you ever used a Mac?*
#3 Do you or does someone close to you (a relative, a friend...) own a Mac?

#4 Does every Mac OSX have the same languages available?
#5 Have you ever used the Boot Camp system? (pros/cons)
#6 Is the Windows which is ran trough the Boot Camp system "a real Windows?"
#7 Does XP run on the Boot Camp like it would run on a PC? (Bugs etc.?)
#8 Does games and programs run on the Boot Camp like they would on an equivalent PC?
#9 How does the other Windows emulators (Crossover, Parallels...) differ from the Boot Camp?

#10 How customizable is the Mac interface?
#11 Can you run good P2P programs on a Mac?**

#12 What is your own opinion of Macs?***

#1. Yes
#2. Yes, several. I own a MacBook Pro Myself
#3. Yes, like.. almost all of my classmates (Music-Technology)

#4. Afaik yes, and else it sure is downloadable
#5. Yes, you can also run parallels, then you'll be able to run both at the same time. It will cost a bit more resources, but afaik it works a 100%. Using Bootcamp will force you to restart your computer know and then. My experience is that i mostly run windows on my mac.
#6 Absolutly
#7 I NEVER EVER ran windows xp so smoothly.. but do read story below..
#8 Absolutly
#9 Like i said, i think parallels is kind of the same, it will run a COMPLETE instance on windows NEXT to MacOS. You might wanna try it out. I never did, but one of my classmates is very happy with it. Crossover however is an 'emulator'. It runs on MacOS and try's to act like windows, which will not always work. There are a few games which are 'crossover'-compatible and some simple programs will also work (i use it for ARSSE). However, if you want to make FULL USE of Windows, go for parallels or even better BootCamp (restarting, though).

#10 As much as you like, but believe me, you'll love it the way it is (Download QuickSilver!)
#11 Vuze does it for me (set it in 'old' interface mode and make it look like azureus again). There are more p2p programs making use of different networks, lots of choice.

#12

K, here we go. If you're not high on cash, forget it. You can get the same power out of a pc for less money. However if you want to be ensured of a PERFERCT WORKING configuration, go for a Mac, for sure!
Now here's a little con story: I have my macbook for almost a year now and a few days ago i got my first blue-screen on windows. After that my screen wouldn't go on anymore. Thank god that macs have a 'tracking'-modus (something a pc has not), which made it possible to get all data of the mac using a fire-wire cable.
But since it has been less then a year, i was hoping i could let it be repaired cost-less, but no. My macbook has been dropped one or twice (without serious problems) and has some bruises. Now the quarantee is no longer valid and I will prolly have to pay big-time.. again. There is NO WAY you can repair a macbook yourself, like you might be able to try on a regular PC, you're always depending on the service of Apple. Great service btw, but not cheap.. not cheap at all.