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new virus/addware for the new year

  • #41
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Outsiders71 @ Jan. 05 2006,10:23)]Is there a pricewatch.com of the mac world?
Yes, as it happens, it's called pricewatch.com.
As for benchmarks, just do a search. I have come to distrust them, though, as everybody manages to fudge their tests in favor of their preferred OS. I don't think much of any benchmark test that isn't performed on identical machines, varying by no more than one part (or type of part, in the case of things like arrays of RAM) or piece of software. Apple always publishes the benchmarks run with number-crunching science apps and specially tuned versions of Photoshop, because they benefit greatly from the dual-processing of which Apple is so fond, as well as the special vector processing commands in the G4 and G5 chipsets. Windows types like to look at things like games, which don't often benefit from Apple's special enhancements and - I suspect - run slower in general on Macs as a result of being ports which weren't written with the Mac OS in mind. (For example, some DirectX games utilize hardware acceleration that simply isn't available on Macs because there is no DirectX for Mac.) I think that, in general, the only valid way to compare two systems with so little in common as a Windows and Mac machine is to perform precisely identical operations, such as adding long columns of numbers. Otherwise, you can always argue that one machine underperformed due to ineffcient or otherwise differing code (or hardware, I suppose.) The interaction of the OS, the hardware, and the benchmark applications is too complex to make many objective judgements; you can get notably different benchmark results on identical systems for reasons as benign as time of day and variance in user input.
But maybe you're talking about benchmarking components, and not systems, in which case Xbench is the way to go for Mac stuff, so far as I'm told. But if I feel compelled to examine my system's performance, I like to use BLAST, GIMP or my old programming projects, because they're more fun to play with than something that just draws lots of colored squares on the screen.
~Joe
 
  • #42
I was looking at pricewatch and noticed some mac parts but I did not see a G5 processor?

Also I was not talking about cross platform benchmarks, I'm talking strictly MAC vs MAC benchmarks. Anandtech.com is a great source to check out, they run multiple tests from multiple categories. I don't believe the fudge anything, THG.com has been known to side for intel. Also a lot of programs these days on PC are taking advantage of multiple-threading.
 
  • #43
Not sure about G5 upgrades; Apple's "no clones" strategy also includes discouraging CPU upgrades, which means that you can't just pull your processor and pop in a new one. However, it hasn't stopped third party vendors from creating PCI-borne CPUs and such. XLR8 makes a lot of cards like this; xlr8yourmac.com. However, when Apple switches to Intel chips in the upcoming years, I suspect they will be even less able to control the upgrade market.
As for multithreading on PCs, yeah, that's where it first hit the consumer market to begin with; it just didn't receive a lot of attention in advertisement until Apple made it into a marketing ploy. But now that owning a multiprocessor machine is a status symbol, everybody is optimizing their apps for threading. Apple was actually years behind in supporting threads, protected memory, and strict timeslicing, which was where a lot of the lousy performance from Mac OS 8 and 9 came from.
~Joe
 
  • #44
As a game-maker who's PC games have all been Mac AND PC, I can say this: The greatest challenge in porting our games to the Mac is not the internal capabilities. It's the darn one-button mouse that you have to assume the users have! Otherwise, the games run great, and you wouldn't know the difference playing them.

However, the Mac game market is sufficiently small that unless you have a serious hit on your hands, it just doesn't make sense to spend the money to port to Mac. That's mainly why there aren't as many games available. Most developers are on tight budgets and schedules, and the time just isn't worth it.

Personally, I think both are great machines. PCs are cheap, do everything, and everyone makes their software for PC. Macs are of much better build quality, easier to deal with, have fewer headaches, and is better with video, but not all software is available for it. And that darn one-button mouse! Mice need at least three buttons, and should have a wheel. This isn't the stone-age anymore! People are comfortable with mice! But other than that, if my needs were met by a Mac and I could afford it, that's what I'd buy. Fewer headaches, greater reliability, and they're not the great Satan. However, my needs are not met by Mac, so it's PC all the way for now. Frankly it's very good there are competing platforms. It keeps both on their toes.

Capslock
 
  • #45
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Capslock @ Jan. 07 2006,12:41)]... if my needs were met by a Mac and I could afford it, that's what I'd buy.
Well you just may get one of your wishes tomorrow (the ability to afford it one) - Link to Thinksecret

Also, I'm typing from Linux right now (something I do a couple times a week from my external hard drive) and while I can't say that everything about it is better, at least to me, it's the little things that count. For example, when a new program or window opens up, the one I was working on or typing into isn't sent to the back which may force me to issue the new window commands I don't want to as happens in Windows. Windows also never seems to let my laptop touchpad work quite the way it's supposed to when I also use a mouse; linux has no issue there.

~ Brett
 
  • #46
HOW did I miss this topic?!  lol  I'm a Mac supporter and user...always been a Mac supporter and user...will always be a Mac supporter and user.  They took away my Mac at the office and I cried.  I hate this PC.  Everyone said, "Oh you'll get use to it."  Get used to it?  Sure...I HAVE to use it, but I'd take my Mac back in a heartbeat!  My Mac at home has always been stable and problem free.  (That's not to say it doesn't have some problems due to needing some upgrading... but that takes money I don't have.)

As some have stated here, most PC users have never used a Mac over a period time (I'm not talking about fiddling with a Mac in a store or over at a friends house.)  I don't know anyone who's used a Mac that would choose a PC over it.  Apple's downfall was not licensing their OS many, many years ago.  That allowed IBM to get its clones out by the zillions.  The ratio of Macs to PCs has nothing to do with Mac vs. PC quality.  Although price is sometimes a stumbling block.  But you get what you pay for.  
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To each his or her own, but don't go knocking Macs unless you know what you're talking about.  And it is true that Mac viruses are rare.  I really don't have to worry about it too much at home.  Not like PC users do.

Ok...Schloaty...I hope you get your...*cough*...PC fixed.  That sucks.  My advice?  Get a Mac.  
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p.s. I never did understand why you need more than one mouse button...
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I find it irritating to have two.
 
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