The mac thread so the question thread won't get hijacked

[aquaphase]

Mmmm. Mac talk.

I used macs almost all my life until I started doing hardcore Microsoft-based programming. When the iMac came out squeezle and I got a revision A (in the classic Bondi Blue). Then I ignored macs for years and years. Recently a mac was to be put in my office to help the Marketing department implement a portfolio library and the helpdesk folk hit me with a Mini. One week later I bought one for home. The most awesome thing is that I have it hooked up to our TV at home. Squeezle and I have used it to stream our iTunes library through the surround sound system (several of you have actually heard this in our living room), and watched 2 HD quality seasons of Veronica Mars.

The Mac Mini is the perfect addition to your home entertainment system! In conjunction with a TiVo, it is damn near unstoppable.

Now I just need to find a new spot for my aging iMac. The desk space is just too valuable, and that CRT is a real monster.

[NerfHerder]

If nothing else, the comment I get most often on my iMac is how small and compact (and yet powerful, I assure you) the machine is.

One of the interesting draws is that in the space you would normally have taken up by a flat-panel monitor, that is the space taken up by the entire computer. The monitor is the computer is the monitor is the computer. Everything plugs into the back. CDs load on the side.

"Where's the rest of it?" People will ask. And you will say, "There shouldn't be any more. This is how a computer should be."

[mere1975]

And you will say, "There shouldn't be any more. This is how a computer should be."

Yes, I have heard that the Mac comes equipped with an air of superiority for the Mac owner at no extra charge.

I know I'm getting one. I'll just have to decide which level of supreme awesomeness I need and/or can pay for at this point. . .

- Mere "spoiled by the Power Mac G5s at school, but I'm a slave to their sucky lab schedule" 1975

[sam]

Yes, I have heard that the Mac comes equipped with an air of superiority for the Mac owner at no extra charge.

There's an extra charge at the entry level for mac-ness. At the high end it is more comparable, I think. The big G5s still sport PowerPC processors, so it will probably be best to wait until the Intel Mac Pro comes out as they will be faster and no more expensive. Oh yeah, and the Adobe products haven't been rebuilt to run correctly on the Intel processors so they aren't as fast either. A confusing time for the Mac shopper.

[katie]

my iBook brings all the boys to the yard.

my friend has a powerbook and it's even more fabulous but i'm not too jealous cause my computer runs flawlessly. never once crashed, never once gotten a virus or spyware, and runs exactly as it did on the first day i got it (roughly 6 months ago). were this a pc, i'd already have more spyware than i knew what to do with and it'd be running at a glacial pace.

[NerfHerder]

It's just the little things that will get you when you're using a Mac, Mere.

Volume/Brightness/Eject CD keys on the keyboard.

YOU'LL BE FREE OF DRIVERS!

Widgets!!

And the intense personalization. I couldn't even begin to go through all the features. But they're just better than the bones they throw you when you're running Windows. (I CAN SET UP MULTIPLE USER ACCOUNTS? WHAT AN INNOVATION! THANKS WINDOWS!)

[sam]

And it only took them ten years to add a second button to their mouse. What innovation!

It's just a tradeoff between a highly proprietary platform and a mostly open one. Proprietary guarantees integration and reliability but costs more money and limits options. If you want to buy RAM at Radio Shack or peripherals at Wal-Mart, you have to give something up.

[NerfHerder]

The two-button mouse thing is totally overrated.

Ever since I got a Mac, I've been using commands LIKE A FIEND!

Anyone who doesn't love a Mac when they use it deserves to be Apple-Qed.

(That's the command to quit a program for you Windows Lame-Os)

[mere1975]

Volume/Brightness/Eject CD keys on the keyboard.

Yeah, that took me a few weeks but I finally found them on the Macs at school. I felt like a real douche.

- Mere "who needs a right-click when you can hit the mouse and the Ctrl key? (or is it the Apple command key? I think it's Ctrl.)" 1975

[ifihadahifi]

I felt like a real douche.

I was thinking the other day that I've heard several women say it's hot as balls outside. I thought "They have not idea what hot sticky balls feels like! Humph!"

But then you just made me realize.... I have no idea what a douche feels like and I hear guys say that all the time.

So I guess it evens it all out.

[katie]

I was thinking the other day that I've heard several women say it's hot as balls outside. I thought "They have not idea what hot sticky balls feels like! Humph!"

hey, you have no idea what kind of balls we women have felt. don't judge.

[NerfHerder]

- Mere "who needs a right-click when you can hit the mouse and the Ctrl key? (or is it the Apple command key? I think it's Ctrl.)" 1975

Ctrl? Did you ever think about how stupid that is? We all know it means control, yes. But it's just four letters in reality. That's the kkktterrrll key. And, of course, you can't spell kkktterrrll without kkk. Mac's keyboards clearly display the full word "control" without threatening the moral fabic of our nation and world.

(And yeah, control click is the same thing as a right click)

[katie]

- Mere "who needs a right-click when you can hit the mouse and the Ctrl key? (or is it the Apple command key? I think it's Ctrl.)" 1975

Ctrl? Did you ever think about how stupid that is? We all know it means control, yes. But it's just four letters in reality. That's the kkktterrrll key. And, of course, you can't spell kkktterrrll without kkk. Mac's keyboards clearly display the full word "control" without threatening the moral fabic of our nation and world.

(And yeah, control click is the same thing as a right click)

my mac keyboard says ctrl. in lowercase nonetheless.

[NerfHerder]

GAWD DAMMIT! Thanks for ruining my argument.

I hate macs forever now. Bill Gates, honey, will you ever let me suckle at your bosom again?

[sam]

The two-button mouse thing is totally overrated.

Absolutely not. I use keyboard shortcuts with the left hand, regular clicking with the left mouse button, context sensitive menus with the right mouse button and zooming with the scroll wheel all more or less at the same time and it makes my life at work way, way easier.

In fact, I think context sensitive menus are the only real innovation in GUI design in the last ten years. Making rounded silver borders around your windows is not innovation.