Ah the age old question amongst computer nerds. You will see very passionate reasons for both sides when you talk to people. I am different from most. I am a user. I use what is in front of me. In fact I use both macs and windows machines on a regular basis. I will try my best to show some reasons for both here.
Macs
First I should tell you I am using a mac to write this. I have a mac book pro that I use for my personal stuff. I really do like it but it does have some limitations. First it's strengths.
1. It is easy to use. I like the clean interface and for the most part I don't have to worry or think to much about maintenance. It takes care of everything for me.
2. The screens on macs are always nice. In fact when you get a mac you are getting a high quality machine. I will exclude the mac mini here since you buy your own monitor and keyboard.
3. The customer service is outstanding. Just yesterday I was talking to them and my laptop is older and they still helped me out for free.
Windows
Windows is an excellent operating system. Windows 7 is anyway. They are not supporting windows xp any more and I will never use Vista. I am running windows 7 on three machines I use. It is an outstanding OS. It is secure and easy to use.
1. There is a ton of software out there for windows. If you are looking for an incredible range of choice windows is great.
2. There is a good range of prices. There are a lot of different machines that run windows 7 out there. So you will have a wide variety of choices when buying one. (A note here though I don't buy cheap computers as my mom used to say "you get what you pay for!")
In short I think both are great and I don't mind using windows at all. I do prefer my mac but that is because I love the keyboard and screen.
I think the best reason for making a choice is your phone! If you have an iPhone and or an iPad I think you should take a serious look at a mac. To put it bluntly they integrate the phone and computer better than windows. If you are not using an iPhone or iPad then I would look at a windows machine. My house we are invested into the iPhone and iPad so running a mac makes sense. I do have several machine that are windows here as well though. My son just got a computer that he paid for and he wanted a windows machine because he wants to play a game that doesn't run on a mac. A good reason from my point of view.
I guess it comes down to what are you going to use it for. Remember if you talk to someone at the store they may or may not know a lot about macs. Most IT guys are trained heavily in the windows side of things. To keep an open mind I always do my own research (I love the internet).
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tower Vs Laptop
It was my son's birthday this last weekend. He wanted a new computer for his birthday. He originally wanted a laptop but as we discussed the pros and cons of this he changed his mind to buying a tower. This got me to thinking "I wonder how many people have this same dilemma?" So here are my thoughts on the subject.
Laptops
Laptops are great if you need a computer that you can carry. So most of the time this means a machine that you will be using at work or school. So it needs to be portable and enough power to get your work done. If it is your only machine you will want a 15" screen. I have one with a 17" screen and found it is a bit to big. At the time it was my only computer so I got an "entertainment laptop". What this means is that is has a bigger screen better sound and more power than a normal one. I am not sure I will do that again. In the future if I buy a laptop I will be going for the 15" screen. I also want one that would be able to provide a lot of battery power. This means I want to be able to run it on battery for several hours at least 6 hours. Most of the time I will never need this but once in a while it is nice. When I am at a convention or something like that 6 hours is a must.
The bad thing about laptops is that upgrading the machine is more difficult and expensive. This is also why I don't like the all-in-one computer systems.
So my son didn't need a machine for school, he is in grade 6, so getting a laptop was silly.
Towers
Not portable at all you are working at one place. They can have the same abilities as a laptop. In general they are cheaper. Actually what this means is that you can get more machine for your dollar. One of the best things about a tower is that I can change parts. My son's birthday gift is an excellent example.
His uncle found an older tower for him. It had some good parts in it (power supply, case and hard drives were great). My son, smart kid, asked for cash for his birthday from his grandparents and others. I then took the cash and upgraded everything else on the tower. We spent about $500 on it but in my opinion we got about a $1000 machine out of it. Okay I admit we saved a lot of money on it because I know how to put together a tower and repair it. I also had a old monitor laying around and his little brother bought him a keyboard and mouse. So my son is sitting with basically a new computer.
Summary
So it all depends on if you need to carry your computer. If you don't I really would not recommend a laptop. As a side note I hate all-in-one computers. They only way I would buy one is if I was really short on space. Okay I would never buy one.
Next post I will tackle apple vs windows. (I don't have a preference)
Laptops
Laptops are great if you need a computer that you can carry. So most of the time this means a machine that you will be using at work or school. So it needs to be portable and enough power to get your work done. If it is your only machine you will want a 15" screen. I have one with a 17" screen and found it is a bit to big. At the time it was my only computer so I got an "entertainment laptop". What this means is that is has a bigger screen better sound and more power than a normal one. I am not sure I will do that again. In the future if I buy a laptop I will be going for the 15" screen. I also want one that would be able to provide a lot of battery power. This means I want to be able to run it on battery for several hours at least 6 hours. Most of the time I will never need this but once in a while it is nice. When I am at a convention or something like that 6 hours is a must.
The bad thing about laptops is that upgrading the machine is more difficult and expensive. This is also why I don't like the all-in-one computer systems.
So my son didn't need a machine for school, he is in grade 6, so getting a laptop was silly.
Towers
Not portable at all you are working at one place. They can have the same abilities as a laptop. In general they are cheaper. Actually what this means is that you can get more machine for your dollar. One of the best things about a tower is that I can change parts. My son's birthday gift is an excellent example.
His uncle found an older tower for him. It had some good parts in it (power supply, case and hard drives were great). My son, smart kid, asked for cash for his birthday from his grandparents and others. I then took the cash and upgraded everything else on the tower. We spent about $500 on it but in my opinion we got about a $1000 machine out of it. Okay I admit we saved a lot of money on it because I know how to put together a tower and repair it. I also had a old monitor laying around and his little brother bought him a keyboard and mouse. So my son is sitting with basically a new computer.
Summary
So it all depends on if you need to carry your computer. If you don't I really would not recommend a laptop. As a side note I hate all-in-one computers. They only way I would buy one is if I was really short on space. Okay I would never buy one.
Next post I will tackle apple vs windows. (I don't have a preference)
Friday, May 25, 2012
Windows 8 Consumer Preview
So this morning I downloaded and installed the new windows 8 consumer preview. It has been an interesting ride so far. I had windows 7 previously installed. Here are my thoughts so far on windows 8. Please keep in mind this is still in beta so I am sure they are going to be making fixes as they go along.
Metro
The first screen you see is the metro style screen. Essentially what this is, is a replacement for the start menu you had in previous versions of windows. You can really feel and see that Microsoft was going for a tablet feel with this interface. I think it is going to be the same interface they are going to use for windows 8 tablets. I have read a lot of reviews on the internet where people do not like it. It is different and most of the time people don't like things that change. It does the same thing as the start menu but it uses tiles. In my opinion it looks like most people's desktops with their 50 or so icons all over the screen. This is nice and clean. I can see my parents liking this. The one thing I figured out so far is that it relies heavily on search. All you do to search is start typing what you are looking for. The first thing I was looking for was the control panel. It look me a few minutes to figure this out. You just type in control panel and it shows up. You can then pin it to your start page if you want. You can customize all the tiles you want in metro. I think I am going to like it but it is going to take me awhile to get used to it. The most important thing for me is that it just has to work!
Metro
The first screen you see is the metro style screen. Essentially what this is, is a replacement for the start menu you had in previous versions of windows. You can really feel and see that Microsoft was going for a tablet feel with this interface. I think it is going to be the same interface they are going to use for windows 8 tablets. I have read a lot of reviews on the internet where people do not like it. It is different and most of the time people don't like things that change. It does the same thing as the start menu but it uses tiles. In my opinion it looks like most people's desktops with their 50 or so icons all over the screen. This is nice and clean. I can see my parents liking this. The one thing I figured out so far is that it relies heavily on search. All you do to search is start typing what you are looking for. The first thing I was looking for was the control panel. It look me a few minutes to figure this out. You just type in control panel and it shows up. You can then pin it to your start page if you want. You can customize all the tiles you want in metro. I think I am going to like it but it is going to take me awhile to get used to it. The most important thing for me is that it just has to work!
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| Metro Layout |
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| Searching for control panel |
Thursday, May 24, 2012
This is my first post on this blog. As the title suggests this is probably a bad idea. I am going to use this to write about the things I am interested in. My friends are probably thinking Holy Crap Russ please don't subject anyone else to your weird ideas. Well to bad I will inflict my ideas on the world.
One of the main reasons for this is that I was diagnosed with cancer in March. I have since had the tumor removed and gone through radiation therapy. Not my idea of fun. However I am now sitting at home recovering from this. I don't like sitting around and doing nothing. So here I am.
One of the main reasons for this is that I was diagnosed with cancer in March. I have since had the tumor removed and gone through radiation therapy. Not my idea of fun. However I am now sitting at home recovering from this. I don't like sitting around and doing nothing. So here I am.
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