Probably the biggest mistake of my life!

[Ukuleleman]

Sick of the blue screen of death and tired of fighting Microsoft Windows for years, from '98'
thru 'Millennium', on to the best to date IMO '2000 Pro' and finally to XP, I took the plunge and paid an obscene amount for a state of the art Mac Pro Desktop, nothing works on it.

Forget Photoshop/Finale/Xara Extreme/flight sim/Adobe Audition/Links2003/Superbike etc etc, what a nightmare, nobody knows how to get round problems, I can receive mail but can't send it, and my Canon software displays completely differently, with options missing such as downloading pictures using a card reader.

Are there any of you guys out there who make one of the things work for you as photographers? (I know I can get Photoshop for a Mac, only about $1100 (Sterling 560 pounds) but IF I can get my old programmes for a Mac and they cost that much, this bloody computer is going to put me in the poorhouse.

Anybody with good news, please step forward!

[the_incubus]

you can get windows on your mac and use that for all your old programs. Some programs dont work on mac. Its not apples fault. Also things are gonna look different. You have to adjust. i dont have Windows on any of my macs but im sure it works well. I love all my macs and have been using them for years. Im sure you will learn to love them because windows just doesnt compare. Do that and you should be fine :D. Hope i helped.

[tiktaalik]

For Photoshop you'll have to contact Adobe and ask for a 'cross-grade'. It will only cost you the price of shipping you new disks. (They will also make you upgrade to CS3 if you have CS2 or earlier.)

I don't know why the Canon software is not downloading from a card reader. I had to go on a search and destroy mission because my Canon software kept trying to automatically download everything for me. I prefer to do it myself and just drag the files to where I want them.

[the_incubus]

^^^^thats pretty cool that adobe does that! Learn something new every day.

[Bootsie]

For Photoshop you'll have to contact Adobe and ask for a 'cross-grade'. It will only cost you the price of shipping you new disks. (They will also make you upgrade to CS3 if you have CS2 or earlier.)

I don't know why the Canon software is not downloading from a card reader. I had to go on a search and destroy mission because my Canon software kept trying to automatically download everything for me. I prefer to do it myself and just drag the files to where I want them.

I didn't know that Apple did that either, that is great, it is why i have not made the switch yet.

[tiktaalik]

I didn't know that Apple did that either, that is great, it is why i have not made the switch yet.

Well, actually it's Adobe ;)

It's an easy process. I just called Adobe and they emailed me a 'letter of destruction' saying that I had removed CS3 from my PC and destroyed the PC disks. I signed it and faxed that back to them and then they mailed me the new Mac disks. They'll let you do this five times in your life.

[forno]

Yeh, its apples fault your pc didnt work

[JDubya]

Mac is all I use. I can't stand Windows, at all. Most everyone I talk to that switched from windows to Mac and didn't like it at first ended up loving it after a while. I suggest you stick with it (and set up Mail correctly :p ).

[cosworth]

Exact opposite for me. I used to be an advanced Mac user. I supported proprietary relational databases on Apple platforms for a living. I went through the OS X rollout and when I went PC, I was pretty darned happy. Happier now that I don't support software...

[deadpass]

get boot camp or parallels for your mac and you can fun all your PC programs.

[Ukuleleman]

Yeh, its apples fault your pc didnt workuh?

Thanks for your replies guys, I appreciate all your comments apart from the one in quotes above, get a life forno.

I find that Incubus is right, I can run XP on my machine, which sounds like a good solution to my problems, the main one being my photography programs.

I got 'Mail' configured correctly yesterday and things don't look as bleak as they did.

All I have to do now is buy XP again, (I think) since I believe that you cannot install it on 2 machines, (well not if you want it verifying when you come to download the service packs.

Thanks again guys

[rhys]

I would rather Apple edited its OS so that it'd run on any PC. I think then that people would all go Apple.

[Tony-S]

I would rather Apple edited its OS so that it'd run on any PC. I think then that people would all go Apple.

Not with Stevie running the company. OS X is really his baby - modified NeXT from his old company after he lost his job with Apple. He squished the licensing of Mac OS when he resumed his old duties. Of course, OS X is open sourced, so you can run it on x86 machines. The problem, though, is that the interface ("Aqua") isn't. But a few hackers have already broken the Leopard installer DVD (http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/leopard-hacked-for-intel-pc-consumption/) to put it onto non-Apple computers.

[the_incubus]

I would rather Apple edited its OS so that it'd run on any PC. I think then that people would all go Apple.

But it would cut down on the people buying the computers.

[forno]

uh?

Thanks for your replies guys, I appreciate all your comments apart from the one in quotes above, get a life forno.



Re read your first post and see how it comes across;)

[kniteshade]

I would rather Apple edited its OS so that it'd run on any PC. I think then that people would all go Apple.

The 'minor' issue with that is drivers. Generally the main reason windows will crash is poorly written drivers. And the reason we use dodgy drivers is becuase just about EVERY person's computer has different hardware combinations. Windows is expected to work on every single one of them

Apple on the other hand locks you into a set of hardware configs (ie their laptops/desktops) and they have well tested drivers that only work on them. Thus is is more stable.

Apple could make their OS work on your PC - but your graphics card probably wouldn't work properly, nor your sound card, and you didn't need network or a modem did you ?

[rhys]

The 'minor' issue with that is drivers. Generally the main reason windows will crash is poorly written drivers. And the reason we use dodgy drivers is becuase just about EVERY person's computer has different hardware combinations. Windows is expected to work on every single one of them

Apple on the other hand locks you into a set of hardware configs (ie their laptops/desktops) and they have well tested drivers that only work on them. Thus is is more stable.

Apple could make their OS work on your PC - but your graphics card probably wouldn't work properly, nor your sound card, and you didn't need network or a modem did you ?

As I understand it, Apple doesn't use drivers.

[lakiluno]

As I understand it, Apple doesn't use drivers.

A driver is simply software that tells the operating system how to use a piece of hardware. All operating systems use drivers. Because OSX only legally runs on a few computers, apple can build in all the drivers for all the computers they've made in the last 10 years. The reason you need to install drivers for your motherboard and graphics card etc on a PC is because the hardware varies so much. Apple knows exactly what hardware they've used, and writes good drivers for that hardware.

When you try and run OSX on a PC - ie a computer without apple-known hardware - then you have a problem. There is some third party drivers for that kind of thing, but they're often buggy or hard to install.

As for other hardware, apple have lots of drivers built in, like windows does. USB Mass Storage devices will load automatically (because they have a standard driver which is built into the computer). However, if you buy an obscure piece of hardware that runs on a mac, it will almost certainly need drivers.

[rhys]

A driver is simply software that tells the operating system how to use a piece of hardware. All operating systems use drivers. Because OSX only legally runs on a few computers, apple can build in all the drivers for all the computers they've made in the last 10 years. The reason you need to install drivers for your motherboard and graphics card etc on a PC is because the hardware varies so much. Apple knows exactly what hardware they've used, and writes good drivers for that hardware.

When you try and run OSX on a PC - ie a computer without apple-known hardware - then you have a problem. There is some third party drivers for that kind of thing, but they're often buggy or hard to install.

As for other hardware, apple have lots of drivers built in, like windows does. USB Mass Storage devices will load automatically (because they have a standard driver which is built into the computer). However, if you buy an obscure piece of hardware that runs on a mac, it will almost certainly need drivers.

There we are - OSX doesn't need drivers. It has the protocols built into the OS.

Now, if Apple was smart, they'd say to peripheral and add-on manufacturers: these are our protocols. You want your gizmo to work with our OS then you design it to work with our protocols.

There is no reason on earth for there to be drivers. It was a bodge by Microsoft in the early days of Windows that cursed us with drivers.

[lakiluno]

There we are - OSX doesn't need drivers. It has the protocols built into the OS.

Now, if Apple was smart, they'd say to peripheral and add-on manufacturers: these are our protocols. You want your gizmo to work with our OS then you design it to work with our protocols.

There is no reason on earth for there to be drivers. It was a bodge by Microsoft in the early days of Windows that cursed us with drivers.

Not what I said. OS X has the drivers included in the install. Windows does the same for the majority of hardware, but there's too much available for them to include all the drivers. The difference between the two is that windows stores the drivers in the windows folder - they're an integral part of the system - while OSX (as I understand it) allows drivers to be built into applications...

If OS X doesn't need drivers, why does apple have an OS X driver website? http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/

[neil85]

i forget how (buddy with a mac showed me) but you can do a dual boot type of deal where you either boot it up with the MAC OS of the windows OS

[bieber]

There we are - OSX doesn't need drivers. It has the protocols built into the OS.

Now, if Apple was smart, they'd say to peripheral and add-on manufacturers: these are our protocols. You want your gizmo to work with our OS then you design it to work with our protocols.

There is no reason on earth for there to be drivers. It was a bodge by Microsoft in the early days of Windows that cursed us with drivers.

Yes, Mac OS X does use device drivers. Most of them come pre-installed, but you still have to install them for more obscure pieces of hardware. And no, they're not a "bodge," they're fundamentally necessary to allow operating systems to interface with hardware that the OS itself isn't coded to interface with.