I'm debating whether to replace my IBM clone / WIN XP Home....with the latest offering from ******** or who ever, or go to Machintosh OSX,
along with the latest TIGER upgrade and 80gig h/d.

Price is not my main consideration...stability is though, and I am just about sick 'n tired of blue screen and GPF's .

Any one using Mac wanna chime in ?

How's about the Mac Mini....is it as good as they say ?

My primary use is running my small shop, web surfing, Ebay, and e mail. No games or music.

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[http://languageandgrammar.com/2008/01/14/youve-got-problems-not-issues/ ]

"A liberal is someone who feels they owe a great debt to their fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money."

Not much experience with Macs or Windows XP, but i've been using windows 2000 for years now and i never get any blue screens, and rarely do you get any crashes of any kind.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Either will suffice. I have a house running Panther, Win2000 and XP on the same network and each has their own strenghs and weaknesses. Maybe I should add a Linux box and see how they all play together.

I am a dedicated PC user although for your purposes a MAC might be more attractive than a plain PC. A well sorted XP machine is plenty stable and more upgradeable (As long as the components are good) but a MAC might be more eye pleasing. For comparison I have run windows 2000 machines which is the basis for XP for nearly 6 months without a restart...the restart was for a virus update patch.

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

Either one will work. I prefer OS X.

If you stay Windows, I'd recommend XP Pro over XP home.

If you go Mac, do NOT be among the first to get Tiger....similar thinking to not getting new cars their first years, except that OS issues are resolved much quicker.

If you go Mac Mini, buy some RAM from MacMall or OWC, install it yourself, and sell the "old" stick that came out of it after you've verified your system runs OK (you'll know in a couple of days' use).

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1990 190e 2.6 - The only one I can really call "My Car".

1987 190e 2.3 - The donor car's up and running, only mods are Euros and a Sony headunit. My Dad's runabout now.

1990 300e 2.6 - The parents' ride.

I don't think the Mac Mini will take full advantage of Tiger; the Powerbooks and G5's are Tiger ready.

The Ibooks are also very nice machines for home use, plenty of power. If you like easy to use computers get an Apple, even Jessica Simpson was able to set up an Isight camera on her Mac

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

I second the XP pro edition. We have many flavors here and the XP pro is winning me over from the WIN2K. Any good P4 machine will do if you load it up with ram and hd. Dell has some deals that are too cheap to believe. Just be carefull as they don't tell you what their machine does NOT include unless you ask. Avoid the non P4 Intel chips.

I looked at the Mini, but unless you need the small footprint, isn't it just a laptop without a keyboard, screen and mouse, at $499? Just as I wouldn't recommend an entry level Pentium PC, I wouldn't recommend an entry level Mac box.

Hey,

Well i'm a Mac OS X (10.3.8) i'm using an iBook G4, I love it. My grandma just got a Mac Mini, she seems to like it. The biggest problem with Macs though is programs, but other than that I like them. Anytime anything has gone wrong with mine it's been fixed, well expect for when I broke the logic board in my old iBook, oops, not my fault. Yeah at that point I could replace the logic board or just get a new one. But I think in your case a Mac Mini would be great. If you have any questions feel free to ask me or go to Apples website, www.apple.com

Good luck,
spencerbandit88

We switched to the MAC OS two years ago due to all the virus and spyware issues. The MAC OS isn't a target, so it has been great. I find that the MACs also seem to have better graphics and they seem to run faster than the numbers would suggest (except for gaming). You can run Windows applications on Virtual PC, but they are a bit slower (not enough to be a bother for me). My daughter stuck with Windows and is running XP Pro. She has been attcked by spyware twice in the last three months and has to reload the OS after. A pain in the rear IMHO.

I use XP almost exclusively at work. Only problems I've had are with Leica's, "Imagine" and ESRI's ArcMap. Both have registry and memory issues and both promise fixes. I had to go back to earlier incarnations of the software because I just couldn't wait.

For mail we use Lotus Notes. A very nice program. Rarely have problems.

For office work we use "Office". It is rock solid.

For statistical analysis we use SAS. It's good.

For video and presentation graphics I use the Mac at work. PC's suck for that application. Counter-intuitive and buggy.

At home I use Mac only. We use "Panther OS" and have never had it completely crash. The only program that ever gives me problems is "Safari", Apple's browser. It's just so easy to use that I overlook it's drawbacks. For office work at home I use, "Office". It is much better on the Mac than on the PC.

My kid just bought an iBook & iPod and she figured it all out on her own and has had no problem. She can either plug into our home LAN or pirate onto neighbor's LAN's that are unsecured. She's told them but they don't care.

My next home purchase is going to be a G5. Apples do everything I need done at home and most of what I need at work except for some really high-end GIS which is standardized around 3-4 packages all for Unix or Winders.

My next office purchase is going to be a big-ass XP workstation for the reason mentioned by Tkamiya--the specialized software at work is either Unix or PC. If you're going to do lots of artsy-fartsy graphics and video and audio, don't waste money trying to buy and configure a PC. Save heartache and time and money and get a high-end Mac with high-end software.

Not directly related to the topic but the local newspaper had an article about Apple refusing to take back computer LCD monitors which only have a few defects.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002221758_btdeadpixels28.html

Yet another sign of a manufacturer standing belligerently between their production failings and the consumer who they expect to accept and pay for defective goods.

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

I run windows xp pro on my home system, and have not had a problem with it.

I also run mac os through pear pc just for kicks.

Both are good, I prefer windows, because of what software I use with it.

I like macs too, for business use, PC's are generally the norm, but macs do get used by some businesses.

It's up to a matter of preference. Macs run great, and a good pc with xp pro properly installed and configured can run great too. but it all comes down to which you like to use btter and what software you need to run.

Alon

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon