What benefits would a Mac give me?

[CJ Master]

Wow, are there really no benifits to having a mac? (Besides playing mac apps.) Eh... well thanks, keep it coming!

[igknighted]

Unix-like. And Windows gives you that as well if you install Windows Services for Unix.

I hate to be a stickler, but OSX is actually certified UNIX.

As for Mac vs. others, I want to pick up a used mac to be familiar with it (as an IT pro), but having used them before, I just don't see any great advantage of it. The only one I can think of is that you can most of your linux apps, as well as many commercial apps, all on the same platform.

[LaRoza]

Wow, are there really no benifits to having a mac? (Besides playing mac apps.) Eh... well thanks, keep it coming!

Well, it depends on what you mean by "benefit". If you use as much free software as you can, and have no need for proprietary software, Windows, Linux and OS X work. The question is, which one is the best for you? You can use your Linux apps in it probably, so you'd only be getting hardware (which you must ask yourself, do you need it?) and a new platform for running your software.

There are "benefits" to some people, but I don't think they'd apply to you (or me).

I hate to be a stickler, but OSX is actually certified UNIX.

I was going to say that as well.

[joninkrakow]

Wow, are there really no benifits to having a mac? (Besides playing mac apps.) Eh... well thanks, keep it coming!

There are, but those advantages come at the cost of buying the hardware and software. As always, it comes down to software, but OSX has some nice benefits, but some of them are more subjective, or rather, may not be considered benefits by some. For myself, I like the Dashboard, and the fact that I can simply use it without having to configure it first. I know there are imitations out there on Linux, but so far, I haven't tried them, because I must install them, configure them, etc. On my Mac, I just start using it. Same thing with Expose. Expose works out of the box. I don't need to enable it or configure it. Spaces, however, is not like Linux's multiple desktops, and I don't use either much, if at all, so that's a non-issue with me. However, some things I miss from OSX in Linux are things like "Services." All Cocoa apps have Services without doing anything, and any Carbon app can also enable them. The Services menu is a sub-menu of the App menu, and contains all sorts of goodies, and any app in your Applications folder can add its own. Some uses. Hilight a word, and look up its definition. Hilight some text, and send it to a text processor, to your email, or, if it's a url, open it in your web browser. If it's an email address, create a new email. Send text or a file in the Finder to a BlueTooth device, search the text with Google, etc. Some application specific tools I use is to send text to Skype, look up Bible references in MacSword, send text to TextMate, insert date and time, reformat text (I have some that changes caps, removes the ">" characters from quoted email. It's a little thing, but it is quite useful, and there's not equivalent I have found for Linux, because it's system-based, and system-wide.

I also still prefer the OSX Dock over anything I've found in Linux, and Spotlight is useful (but no longer unique--although I think it seems to work better). I like the unified menu bar, but in Linux, I don't (go figure) There are other, little things, but as someone else said, lots of it comes down to what you are used to. I find it easy to switch to the Gnome and xfce ways of doing things. However....

There are some apps I use on OSX that are just top-of-their-game. Macintosh developers are a picky bunch, and value excellency very highly. Because they tend to charge for their work, and because they tend to be small shops, with just one or a handful of people working for them, they also tend to be very devoted to their products. I have in mind people like Nisus, OmniGroup, BeLight Software, the guy who does TextMate, and several others. Nisus is my absolutely favorite word processor. It's weird, when they transitioned from OS 9 to OS X, they totally rewrote everything, including the user interface. It was nice and efficient before, but somewhat confusing. Now, it's both efficient and elegant, yet powerful. If it could do a little more, I could use it for probably 99% of my work, but as it is, I need several other apps to fill in the gaps. I should at this point also give a shout out to the OpenOffice.org people. Version 3 is also very excellent, but not quite as efficient as Nisus. I love Omniweb, and have gladly paid for it, even though it's "only" a web browser. I use Firefox in Linux, but had to add several extensions to replicate the function I get from Omni out of the box. I could go on, but I won't. Suffice it to say, OSX has some nice benefits--enough that I installed it on my Wind for those times I need it.

You might ask, why do I use Linux? Well, I like/love Linux as well. I like to have a chest full of tools, and Linux is an excellent tool. I try to help in my tiny way to improve it, including getting others using it. I use it 90% of the time now, and find it an ample replacement. I can't imagine ever using Windows, however, and for all my Windows-using friends, when they get frustrated with Windows, I offer to help them with Linux. Most would never try a Mac, and would be lost with a Mac, but Linux is a good half-way point, and manageable for them. In any case, I see no reason that one has to use one instead of the other, or consider them rivals.

-Jon

[CJ Master]

Hmm... so it really seems up to preference rather then features. Well, in that case I'll probably keep my $0 ubuntu.

[Saint Angeles]

there is only one thing i miss abut my OSX days... GarageBand.

its such an amazing DAW (digital audio workstation). It includes a crapload of free loops you can legally add into your songs and its so freekin easy to use.

i know we have programs like ardour with every feature I could ever need... its just really complicated to use.

also, idvd was a very easy DVD burning program. i think these programs are included in the iLife bundle.

is anybody else tired of the i(insert name here) naming scheme? its like, yes. we get it.

[CJ Master]

Well when I was creating this post I was thinking of major disadvantages and such, for example if I was using windows and made a "what advantages would ubuntu give me" I'd get major responses like Tiny amounts of virus,spyware,practacally no fragmention, ect.

It seems like the two major responses here are iLife Pack and Garageband (which I belive is in iLife, but still.) Oh, and being able to run Mac programs.

I'm still surprised there's not a "WINE" except instead of 'emulating' windows it does it for mac.

[Dixon Bainbridge]

Operating systems are the gateway to apps. The best OS's get out of the way and let you work, they don't intrude or impact on the apps ability to run. On this count OSX fails miserably I'm afraid.

An OS is not about eye candy, gadgets and widgets and all the other crap in the marketing.

I run a Mac because I need Capture NX2, Lightroom and PS3. You should choose a platform on the basis of the apps you need, not the platform itself. In a shoot out between Vista and OSX I'll take anything over Vista. But it was hobsons choice really. Both are dog slow and get in the way of my workflow far more than I'd like.

Linux stays out of my way and lets me get on with my work. Unfortunately, I can't run the apps I need on linux, so I use linux for my main job, office work, web work. For that its lean, efficient and unintrusive.

When choosing an OS, think about what you want to run on it and go from there.

[billgoldberg]

Yes I realise this should go under the reacuring topics section, but I can't post there.

Now I searched around and found quite a few Linux vs Macs, but most people replied speaking about Linux itself and not the main GUI for it.

So what I'm wondering is what benifits would I have using a mac when I'm using ubuntu? I've barely even scratched a Mac before.

The only benefit you could have using a mac is the apps.

If you need photoshop or something, you could use OSX (or windows).

Besides some apps, there is really no reason to switch from Linux to OSX.

But there are negative things about OSX. The price, the security isn't as tight. You pay for upgrades, not that much customization possibilities, ...

[BGFG]

I just can't get past the mac interface. When i use it i feel remedial and awkward.I also find apples' pricing scheme in general to be 'tres ridicule'