A question for the 'Mac-ies' out there

[81xsproject]

Tired of tech support combined with blame of all future problems, I talked my folks into replacing there old PC with a mac. Personally, I don't care for the trendy-ness of macs. But, when it comes to the computing needs of the computer illiterate (my folks), they are perfect.

My question is that I talked them into getting a mac mini 2.0 and nothing else but am now questioning myself (and what I told them). Well a regular pc type monitor, mouse, and keyboard work with the new mac?

[Crazcnuk]

Yes, it's best to get a computer that doesn't do anything for beginners.

Harder to screw up that way!

[DiverRay]

The Macs run all USB devices, so the keyboard and mouse WILL work. The monitor is also a "standard", so a good flatscreen would probably be best, as it will not take up much room.
Be SURE to train them to use the "shutdown" on the Mac, as the older OS would trash the drive if it was just powered off.(shades of windows!!) You will NOT need any anti virus for a Mac, one of the nice points.

[mastan]

I made the switch last year and couldn't be happier. The mouse and monitor are fine, but I highly recommend getting the Apple keyboard. It's the best keyboard I've ever used.
Mark

[81xsproject]

This is a brand new edition of the mini loaded with Leopard, so hopefully the shutdown thing won't be an issue. I doubt thier keyboard is USB, maybe the mouse...

I haven't gotten an angry call from them yet about how thier periferals won't work, so that either means everything is cool, or they haven't set it up yet.

[kjohnson]

The Macs run all USB devices, so the keyboard and mouse WILL work. The monitor is also a "standard", so a good flatscreen would probably be best, as it will not take up much room.
Be SURE to train them to use the "shutdown" on the Mac, as the older OS would trash the drive if it was just powered off.(shades of windows!!) You will NOT need any anti virus for a Mac, one of the nice points.

While the vast majority of viruses are targeting windows machines, Macs are just as easy to take down and do have their own viruses and exploits to worry about.

IMHO, thinking that because you run an Apple OS or Windows or any variation of *nix your are safe from virus or male ware attacks is pretty naive.

[egleaves]

kjohnson is right. A mac is only inherently resistant to viruses written to attack windows machines. The false sense of security comes from the extremely small number of viruses written to attack mac's. Apples share of the market is expanding and someday soon the authors of these viruses will find it worth their while to step up attacks on the mac OS.

[Crazcnuk]

Nice part is there aren't many Mac viruses. Since Macs don't do anything important, and hardly anyone uses them, what would be the point to a hacker/

Leapard is basically Windows for Mac, so it has ALL the same issues. It's slow, prone to hacking etc.

People have been buying Macs to get away from Microsoft, but even the suite of apps on the FIRST Macs was all Microsoft!

If it wasn't for Bill Gates and Apple's Music rights, Apple Computer would have been out of business a few years ago.l

[81xsproject]

Mac almost went down years back. Then Steve Jobs took over and pulled it out of the crapper. With Jobs' recent retirement due to health problems, I expect the same. And, until the 'functional' world (big business, government, infrastructure, etc.) of computing runs on Macs (which it won't ever), there will continue to be little if any viruses written to affect Macs. Folks who write viruses want to do as much damage as possible. Shutting down trendy wireless Internet surfers with little glowing apples on the backs of laptops in cafes windows doesn't have much impact on the computing world.

[yadada]

But do Macs turn blue if they get too hot?

[Ivan]

The answer is that none of the peripherals will work with a mac, unless they have a very snobish and nonstandard air to them. Anything that is common or makes sense will not work on a mac. The reason they havent called to complain to you is because they have now joined the ranks of elitist computer snobs and are too busy powerleveling their WoW toons. They probably are also addicted to energy drinks, and coffee houses where you snap instead of clap.

Also, Steve jobs didnt retire due to health reasons. Someone finally figured out that the GNU copyleft holds some legal presidence in Belize, and is afraid of being sued for pirating a free OS and making gobs of cash from shared intelectual property. He is also addicted to energy drinks and plays HALO in his undies for days on end, and farms china gold for a living now that his itunes account takes up all his earnings.

thats all true. I never make stuff like this up. :P

[Jerry]

So much bad information...

I've been running Macs since 1985. The last few generations of Macs have run Linux (Open Source) since OS 10. Many PC components will work fine, although most of the newer Macs have wireless keyboards and mice which are nicer to use than the USB style. Use a Mac keyboard; the CD eject key is built in along with some other nifty functions. Mac was the first to ship optical mice as standard equitpment, again nicer to use than the old ball-style mouse. Hard drives and memory chips are now the same ones used in standard PCs. Flash (thumb) drives work equally well on both platorms and can be moved from one to the other.

Most popular application is Microsoft Office for Mac, it will create files that are Mac and Windows interchangeable. I often work on PowerPoint files on my Mac and present them on my work PC. Sun's OpenOffice is also available and it is a free download. Newest version claims to be fully Microsoft Office 2007 compatible.

PhotoShop Elements works great on Macs, as it does on Windows PCs, for basic photo editing. Files are compatible with PCs.

It is true that there are fewer apps and utilitites avalable for the Mac, but the stuff that is out therer tends to be higher quality than the Windows stuff. There are even programs that will let you run Windows apps on your Mac if you need that functionality.

There are Mac specific viruses out there, so get a good virus protection program. I use Symantec Anti-Virus for mac, but there are others as well.

IMHO the mac is a higher quality platform than most Windows boxes; is easier to learn and easier to use. The OS is more robust.

When I was in retail, we sold Windows boxes to make money and Macs for fun. It often frustrated the shop owner, who would hire PC salesmen only to find a few months later that they would have Macs on their desks. Very few who ever switch from a PC to a mac go back to the PC...I run both as my work requires it. I'm and IT manager.

Windows is basically a copy of the Mac OS, since Apple was the first to have overlapping windows - Xerox PARC did not - and the first versions of Windows could open only 1 window at at time. I clearly recall Microsoft users telling me the windows / mouse combo would fail, as "...if it can't be done from a DOS prompt it is not worth doing..." on a computer.

Since every Windows box on the market today includes a mouse and overlapping windows, everyone is basically using a Mac, or at least the philosophy that created it. Apple still does it best, IMHO.

[Ivan]

Hehe, I remember the first game I bought, Privateer that required a mouse. I remember thinking, "what a rip off." I was among those that thought the mouse would never take off. I am still a trackball guy myself,although the wife has it on her comp now.... argh.

[CatatonicBug]

Apple invented the windows concept anyway. Microsoft was just a lot smarter with the licensing of software, and that encouraged the application designers to write stuff for MS instead of apple. I remember when Mac first came out (before Windows 3.1), with the single monitor/CPU unit with the little 3.5" floppy slot in the front. The monitor was only black and white at that point, but the graphics was already incredible! Mac has always made a better computer, but Microsoft was able to make them mre appealing to the masses, and make them cheaper too. If I could justify the cost of a new computer (I just upgrade parts in my whitebox PC), I would go with a mac for sure.

[cywelchjr]

Apple invented the windows concept anyway. Microsoft was just a lot smarter with the licensing of software, and that encouraged the application designers to write stuff for MS instead of apple. I remember when Mac first came out (before Windows 3.1), with the single monitor/CPU unit with the little 3.5" floppy slot in the front. The monitor was only black and white at that point, but the graphics was already incredible! Mac has always made a better computer, but Microsoft was able to make them mre appealing to the masses, and make them cheaper too. If I could justify the cost of a new computer (I just upgrade parts in my whitebox PC), I would go with a mac for sure.

I used to work as an apple tech back then and one of the things we did on every single one that we sold was to open it up and make sure the screen was adjusted to spec (almost none of them were out of the box) part of the reason they were considered quality so much was because of dedicated dealers that wanted to make sure they their customers got the best possible experience when they got home.

Our service dept was also very good at quickly fixing the common cold solder joint problem on the flyback transformers on those macs. We could usually turn them around in an hour or so, customer could drop it off, go shopping at the supermarket just down the shopping center from us and come back and pick up their fixed computer.