Looking for a laptop...

[Meat_]

I know where to get some, remember I worked for Micron... http://www.crucial.com/

2.5 hrs with the 6 cell battery... pretty short, but for my uses I'll have an outlet nearby most of the time.

It'll work for my needs.

That was before my time. FYI more ram chips will shorten the battery life.

 

[Steve French]

That was before my time. FYI more ram chips will shorten the battery life.

Also should make it a little warmer. Not much but a little.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I know nothing about Mac's, we were a Mac family until Windows 95 came out and we bounced, I havn't touched one since.

I too have a Dell, Candace has one too, both of us have been extremely please with ours. I run alot of graphic intense software programs on mine (Solidworks, Cosmos, etc) and it does everything I have ever needed it to do, and its almost 3 yrs old now. For me the mac vs. pc debate was simple, the software I needed to run is always supported in pc versions, and those with macs have had a difficult time running it.

I was hoping to see EZ's comments here. He made the Mac jump and I have never heard so many cuss words out of his mouth when it freezes up, loses an entire Compass Magazine and has been sent for warranty repair several times

 

[Seth]

Same here. I do graphic design for a living, 3D renderings, and web development... on a PC. How is the workflow faster on a mac?

Most of my stuff is 2 dimensional. Logo development, package design, etc. It is faster for me just because I can work on a logo, take a quick screen shot ( of just the artwork) email it with that attachment without ever needing to open different apps, it can all be handled by the OS. Or another example is the ability to develop a full presentation folder in illustrator , photoshop or any application for that matter and command P (print it) as a pdf, and attached to an email or save it as a finished assembled file without needing a combine files in Acrobat. It is nice to work on full size documents ready for print and be able to generate the same file at low res for web automatically.

3D stuff I have no experience with. And most of the web stuff I do (excluding the pretty pictures for sites) is on the server side, so in that respect it is all about the connection.

 

[mbryson]

Most of my stuff is 2 dimensional. Logo development, package design, etc. It is faster for me just because I can work on a logo, take a quick screen shot ( of just the artwork) email it with that attachment without ever needing to open different apps, it can all be handled by the OS. Or another example is the ability to develop a full presentation folder in illustrator , photoshop or any application for that matter and command P (print it) as a pdf, and attached to an email or save it as a finished assembled file without needing a combine files in Acrobat. It is nice to work on full size documents ready for print and be able to generate the same file at low res for web automatically.

3D stuff I have no experience with. And most of the web stuff I do (excluding the pretty pictures for sites) is on the server side, so in that respect it is all about the connection.

I'm pretty sure you can do all that stuff very similarly if not the same on the Winders platform. The Adobe stuff is mostly identical between the two platforms.

 

[Caleb]

I'm pretty sure you can do all that stuff very similarly if not the same on the Winders platform. The Adobe stuff is mostly identical between the two platforms.

well in windows I know you can't print to a PDF unless to have Adobe installed or some other third party app. Also the screen shot feature of OS X is lightyears ahead of windows. I'm sure there are third party apps that can do the same things in windows but the point is, OS X handles it all out of the box without third party apps. As far as workflow, I think more than anything it's a personal preference, if you are more familar or like how OS X handles its better then it will be quicker to use OS X, if Windows is your bag of tea then it will be quicker for you to use that.

Also, the adobe stuff has the same features between the two platforms but it's quite often acheived in different ways, but the end result being the same. Again, like I said its a personal preference on the workflow, whatever works for you is likely best for you and your uses

 

[Seth]

I'm pretty sure you can do all that stuff very similarly if not the same on the Winders platform. The Adobe stuff is mostly identical between the two platforms.

That's the thing.. It's not in Adobe's programs. The last time I was working on a PC there was no option in the print dialog for "save as PDF" let alone the other options that are built into the Mac OS. ( I could be completely off base since I spend very little time on a pc) Adobe is mostly identical between the platforms that is true. One can work on photoshop on either platform and not notice a much of a difference. But moving files between applications to get the final result can be time consuming. Why do that when the OS can achieve the same result much faster and without waiting for for file conversion and the like.

But if you love pc's, by all means stay with them.

 

[Meat_]

..The last time I was working on a PC there was no option in the print dialog for "save as PDF"..

There is. IIRC you choose acrobat as your printer, I don't have it installed (I HATE acrobat) though so I can't check.

 

[Caleb]

That's the thing.. It's not in Adobe's programs. The last time I was working on a PC there was no option in the print dialog for "save as PDF" let alone the other options that are built into the Mac OS. ( I could be completely off base since I spend very little time on a pc) Adobe is mostly identical between the platforms that is true. One can work on photoshop on either platform and not notice a much of a difference. But moving files between applications to get the final result can be time consuming. Why do that when the OS can achieve the same result much faster and without waiting for for file conversion and the like.

But if you love pc's, by all means stay with them.

I'm pretty sure on PC it's not "Print as PDF" like on OS X, its in the "Save-As" menu. You do have to have Acrobat (not reader) installed or some other third party app (I can't think of any others off hand but I know there are a couple others that will allow it on Windows).

 

[mbryson]

well in windows I know you can't print to a PDF unless to have Adobe installed or some other third party app. Also the screen shot feature of OS X is lightyears ahead of windows. I'm sure there are third party apps that can do the same things in windows but the point is, OS X handles it all out of the box without third party apps. As far as workflow, I think more than anything it's a personal preference, if you are more familar or like how OS X handles its better then it will be quicker to use OS X, if Windows is your bag of tea then it will be quicker for you to use that.

Also, the adobe stuff has the same features between the two platforms but it's quite often acheived in different ways, but the end result being the same. Again, like I said its a personal preference on the workflow, whatever works for you is likely best for you and your uses

You do have to have Adobe installed to save to PDF (or print to it) as Microsoft has/had a competitive product that no one knows about. (and what's more 'secure' than a native office document? ) If you're working with Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign, you're hopefully working from Creative Suite and you'll have Adobe installed by default.

From what I've seen, the Creative Suite works almost identically (that's pretty impressive IMHO) on each platform. It's interesting to get one of our designers on my PC sometimes to fix a document for me. They are QUITE surprised at how similar the programs are. We've seen the same thing with Dreamweaver.

I work on both platforms daily. Honestly the best choice boils down to what you're used to. They both have their issues. I try to work on my MAC more and more, but a lot of things just aren't built for it so I don't see the PC on my desk going away anytime soon.

 

[Caleb]

I try to work on my MAC more and more, but a lot of things just aren't built for it so I don't see the PC on my desk going away anytime soon.

Like??? The only things that I have honestly found that aren't avaialble (or don't work nearly as nice) for OS X are GPS Software (but according to Garmin that's going to be changing) and Gaming stuff (it's never been apple's intention, thats no ttheir market). For adminning and tasks like that you can't beat a MAC, IMO. Once configured you can connect to just about any system OS. Like has already been mentioned though, whatever you're used to is likely the best solution for you

 

[mbryson]

Like??? The only things that I have honestly found that aren't avaialble (or don't work nearly as nice) for OS X are GPS Software (but according to Garmin that's going to be changing) and Gaming stuff (it's never been apple's intention, thats no ttheir market). For adminning and tasks like that you can't beat a MAC, IMO. Once configured you can connect to just about any system OS. Like has already been mentioned though, whatever you're used to is likely the best solution for you

Unless you have a web admin tool, they don't have network management stuff.