Apple Mac laptop

[spro]

I'm thinking Apple or what Mac. These MS laptops are suffering and near burning out before they quit entirely. Sometimes I think it is a loaded bomb of a battery which does cause harm. MS has tightened up but there seems to be something else. This requires all types of AV and constant protection.
Side note: I thought the Pentium Dual Core was so fast. Tain't right now. Too much to absorb when you aren't really looking for it.
Some other OS. Please help me make a decision 2019.

[NP317]

I've used Macs for several decades and have NEVER had a crash that damaged files. Never.
That defies logic, but that's my truth.
I do periodic backups of the computer to an external hard drive, but have never needed to use it to restore my computers.

Some info first, then the punch line...
My Father managed the development of the very first banking computer for Bank of America (project named IRMA) in the 1950s, at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA..
Those strange shaped routing and account numbers on the bottoms of your checks came from his office. They were magnetic ink for character recognition, now optical.
He went on to found the University of Washington, Seattle, Computer Science College in 1968. It remains one of the premier institutes today.
He never owned a personal computer until he retired. He got an Apple Macintosh. I asked him why? and he answered:
"They use a minim of internal software translation layers, resulting in superior reliability. And they provide the superior human operating interface."
He was never a fan of the Windows operating systems. He should know.

And my Macs have NEVER crashed.
Yet...
~RN

[mihit]

I've used Macs for several decades and have NEVER had a crash that damaged files. Never.
That defies logic, but that's my truth.

It doesn't defy logic. Mac use a journalling file system, and kernel that "backs up" everything you do, on a rolling basis of about 3 seconds.

I would recommend you find a young fella that can set you up with a linux system. Or if you're interested in learning yourself, download a "Live CD" and have at it.

You may find that your old machines are still perfectly viable and will run linux off into the sunset.
Fedora and Ubuntu would be the most common and "user friendly" versions of linux.
I would say the KDE, cinnamon, mate or LXDE desktop will all feel reasonably familiar.
GNOME is more "like" mac, and, to my mind, more dumbed down ("user friendly"? )
(Ubuntu ships gnome by default, not sure what fedora is up to now days - you should have the option in the downloads, or alternate downloads section of their websites)

There will be a learning curve, but if you don't need windows-bound software there is really no reason at all to suffer Microsoft issues.

MacOS (or whatever they call it now) is *nix based.

[mihit]

Never, ever, Windows 10. If you can find an old PC, even up to 10 years old, it can be made to run pretty fast without all the windows bloatware.

If you're running a new small multi-core laptop "emachine" netbook type thing, I would advise get rid of it and buy a 1,2, or max 4 core machine.
(more than 2 cores will be useless for most things you do - windows wastes them just cos they're there)

[RONALD]

I’m a long time Apple user, started with Apple IIe when they first came out, then Apple IIgs until 2002 (17 years).

Had no Internet, so to get it I bought a MAC G4 in 2002.

It is still running but only for Photoshop CS2, I do not need to pay their cloud fees!

Last summer I purchased a MacPro, partially because I was fascinated by the technology of that round cylinder, and, of course, to update to the latest OS.

My wife runs a Mac Book Pro, and I also have an iPad Air.

In all those years, we never had a a real serious fault with the product, but luckily, just in case, an Apple Store is just a few miles away in the Deer Park Shopping Center; try to find one for a PC!.

[NP317]

Over the decades computer users have complained that Macs cost more, ignoring the a Mac arrived with all the required peripherals internal, when PCs needed those items purchased as extras. In the 1980s I worked for a medical device company, as we were setting up our Service Department computer system. We had a local computer store provide costs of equivalent systems in Mac and PC. The Mac system came out 5% more expensive that the PC system, and with better operational capabilities! We went Mac.

More revealing, the company supported over 1000 desktop computers, linked together. 30% were PCs, the remaining were Macs. We employed 10 full time IT specialists, 8 for the PCs and 2 for the Macs. Rather revealing from a corporate perspective.

The other argument against Mac is that they cannot support the heavy-duty software that PCs can. Yet the Macs can run as a PC, in parallel with the Mac OS. That's how we have our home Macs set up. But... I find most of the software I need in Mac-compatible format. That has never been a problem.
And with today's Mac OS being (U)nix-based, it is even more capable.

Just some thoughts.
~RN











mac

[jcfx]

I thought the Mac vs PC debate ended along time ago !

Spro, you may need to take into consideration any licensed software you have before switching over to a Mac
some programs are PC only, but there are many that are both, Adobe's software comes to mind as being available on both
platforms, you will need to cross grade to keep using what you have if you get a Mac.

One of the biggest security problems on both computing platforms is Flash, with security patches almost every week.
disable it, get rid of it, one less security update.

Another observation I have is laptops seem to be built for wireless and everything set to ON out of the box,
if you're experiencing slow response you could root thru the settings and turn off stuff you don't need.

Time and the internet wait for no man, so last year I bought a Mac Mini because the https protocols were breaking the browsers I use
and Firefox stopped issuing updates for the older Mac OS I'm using. I was sorely disappointed at how slow it runs, compared to the other
Macs I have which are very peppy, the aforementioned is a rant for another forum, but my Mini is a stock configuration so the
RAM may be insufficient and the HD a little too slow, which brings me to this point concerning slowness, you might want to look into
getting more RAM and a larger faster internal HD and seeing if that speeds things up for you.

Don't have much to comment on batteries, name brand batteries seem to be better than generic ones, all of my Macs are desktops
iMacs, Mini and one ancient Apple Cube.

[SteveHGraham]

If you disable Flash, you can pretty much forget about using the Internet.

I have considered getting a Mac because supposedly, working with video is much faster. Still true?

[spro]

Thanks all ! I have read closely and considered each reply. I'm definitely in better position to decide than I was. Appreciations !

[mihit]

If you disable Flash, you can pretty much forget about using the Internet.

I have considered getting a Mac because supposedly, working with video is much faster. Still true?

To the first: Not at all. One of my favourite browsers is W3M
https://www.google.com/search?q=w3m+screens

Youtube etc wont work obviously. I keep one GUI browser for my most things with HTML5, java, flash etc all disabled.
And then a practically sandboxed browser for everything else, no cookies, cache, history etc, it all disappears into a black hole. I also block connections to/through known dodgy places at a kernel level, so nothing in my OS can inadvertently be connected to them.
Am I paranoid? maybe. Have I lost anything because of dodgy internet connections? No.

To the second. Yes. Apple's *nix backend (AUX derivative) is just as good as regular nix, with the added benefit of being supported by hardware manufacturers (though closed source and proprietary) and is just so far ahead of Micro$oft and DirectX that there's really no comparison. If graphics card companies and game coders would open source their code, M$ would disappear overnight.

[SteveHGraham]

"Youtube etc wont work obviously."

In other words, you can pretty much forget about using the Internet, unless you want to take measures most people will never be sophisticated enough to take.

[jcfx]

"Youtube etc wont work obviously."

In other words, you can pretty much forget about using the Internet, unless you want to take measures most people will never be sophisticated enough to take.

Completely false !
I ditched that malware magnet Flash years ago, and Youtube works fine for me and 99 99/100 percent of websites
I deal with work fine too, if the website doesn't I don't need to do business with them.

Your browser needs to be HTML5 compatible to go Flash-free, Adobe has set 2020 for EOL for Flash, can't come soon enough, good riddance !