The Serpent and the Apple

[izmeina]

Izzie is looking for assistance from the resident apple eaters and geeks.
Since the end of January, the Goblins have finally realized that the evil Izzie has graduated and tossed her out from her favorite online portkey.
Discovered this when instead of being instantly transported to Cyberia on submitting student number and password, the damned machines kept requesting the password again and again.
So Iz is now cast out into the big bad world of nasty net cafes and paying for internet access. (so you haven't been seeing much of this serpent lately and that's the way it's going to remain for the forseeable future )

Since there's tons of stuff you can't do here like reading pdf files or email attachments, it will only be a matter of time before the Iz will have to just bite the bullet and fork out her hard earned gold galleons for her own personal portkey.

So the Izzie question - having been subjected to five years of MS slavery at the Ministry, the Iz is seriously considering getting either an iMac or Apple laptop and is wondering what sort of software is available for them. So much stuff out there seems to be designed for Windoze only.

So - the Iz is looking for advice to ask what to look for and what reasons can possibly justify all Mac stuff being so much more expensive than the PC versions.

As far as the Izzie is concerned, the Mac stuff is so so much better looking (elegant and all that) but that is NOT in itself sufficient justification enough to dump Windoze.
(PS - can you use Mozilla Firefox on Apple computers?)

Comments

[cat-irix.livejournal.com]

Hey, you might consider posting a question in some of the LJ Macintosh communities ! (search by interest)

As for me I admit being quite ignorant about apples, however I've heard the rumours that their software (not only hardware) is also more elegant and better looking, not to mention better reliability and security (than windoze). The catch is that 1)it's extremely visual-point-n-click oriented, so it's a pain to use command-line and text-based tools 2)a lot of GUI functionality is different from windows/linux, so it requires re-learning the user skills 3)it's much more difficult to find software for macs, especially free and/or non-mainstream (AFAIK all the basic stuff exists such as Office, Firefox, and of course the Photoshop) (the majority of computer games are Windows only)

I haven't used a Mac for a few years ever since we had one in our lab (an old one used primarily for printing and scanning), I loathed every minute of using it, the interface felt (for me) horribly weird and uncomfortable. But please don't consider it anything more than a personal opinion :) I've a feeling that the Mac vs Windows arguments (at least concerning the usability issues) are of the "holy wars" kind such as Catholics vs Protestants, Coke vs Pepsi, Harry Potter vs LOTR ;)

[cat-irix.livejournal.com]

*update* I just talked with our Mac expert, she says that the current Mac operating system (Mac OS X) is based on Unix, so it's a Good Thing - I reckon it's not as awkward as it used to be years ago, and it's easier to manage it and to port software to it...

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Izzie has been lying low lately in Cyberia. Still drooling over those Macs and got to thinking that the Cat really would hate them since the whole thing is just so visual - especially the little icons on the bottom getting fatter when the mouse passes over them. Izzie wonders if there is any version of this OS available for partially sighted folks - also the traffic lights in the left corner instead of the microsoft cross and minus and square in the opposite corner. So it's not exactly user friendly for colour blind people.

It's funny - this whole pretty little page and lots of graphics is exactly what the Iz finds so attractive. Typing in commands gives you much more control but Izzie is lazy and most certainly not a nerd so we likes the smoke and mirrors.
Now it's down to deciding whether it will be an iMac or an iBook. The bit Iz does not like about the laptop is that they are more likely to have stuff ups than a desktop and are more difficult and expensive to get repaired. Iz can either take a chance and hope nothing happens after the first year or else pay an outrageous $$400 to get the parts, labour and support warranty extended to three years.

*Nestbeschmutzerin sagt "hallo"*

[(Anonymous)]

Wollte nur Hallochen sagen, ich hoffe, Sie finden sehr bald wieder Internetanschluss. Bei mir war Radio die billigste und auch die verlässlichste Möglichkeit - es muss doch sowas auch in Ozland geben!

Es gibt noch jede menge tolle Jelinek-Werke die jetzt wiedergedruckt werden - haben Sie "Bambiland" gelesen? Theaterstück, Riesenskandal, von der Kritik als "antisozial-psychopatisches Mist" bezeichnet - also nettes Zeug :D

Liebe Grüsse aus Erika-Land!