so last night i go looking for a new desktop computer to replace the one i had for 5 years. found the one i wanted with help from my son whose degree is in computers. and then it happened......

"you need to purchase a protection plan....you need to get this anti-virus system... if you don't, and there's a problem, it will be an expensive fix...you'll have to send it back to the factory, etc..."

i hate this stuff. to be honest, i don't know how people in the computer industry can sleep at night. everyone i talk to has issues with their computers, yet we keep buying them. if you don't pony up extra bucks, good luck getting help.

i challenged the young man, asking how much they pay him to badger customers about these plans, and he says he gets nothing. i am sure he gets graded by his company during his reviews on how many of these plans he sells. his bonus is that he keeps his job.

honestly, it took me less time to buy my latest guitar..... anybody else hate this too?

My answer is always NO, I don't trust you enough to work on my laptop so I won't be giving you extra money for something I can do way better than you. I've been in IT for over 15 years, so it's no big deal for me...

I buy refurbed boxes and swap out what I really want. The chances are likely that if anything is going to go wrong, it will be my fault anyway.

These days it's pretty easy to swap out the guts...kinda similiar to swapping out guitar and amp parts.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Most IT people would tell you just get a MAC. I was always amazed how most of the IT support people at the university recommended Mac's over PC's when the University has thousand upon thousand of PC's but for certain groups. Now I have Mac's and I no why. Spend the extra money!!!! MAC'S RULE!!!!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I've never owned a Mac just doesn't fit with most business application... but you will find them mostly in Marketing depts. Now for personal use, sure why not.

My IT department would tell you to get a Linux-based machine. They are really into Ubuntu right now.

I was about to mention the same thing, but wanted to keep things simple

+1 I just bought a iMac for my business. I'm a professional photographer.
I'm new to the land of Mac and it's seriously intuitive and easy to use. It's extremely fast will take up to 16 gig of ram and has a beautiful led backlit display. It runs all my graphic programs without so much as a hiccup. The keyboard and mouse is wireless and I have yet to get any spyware or viruses. It's a constant problem with my pc's. I've never gotten this kind of performance out of my PC's. It takes up very little space on my desktop. Everything installed effortlessly. My external drives, Wacom tablet two printers and two scanners. It also does spreadsheets, and most stuff MS Office can do and it even reads Word files.

On top of all that, it has Garage Band!

Most Graphic Art Studios and tons of Video and Recording Studios use Mac.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Universities like Johns Hopkins would never go Linux! Though RED HAT has been looked at. Ubuntu never. I am sure of the 100+ IT they have would recommend various systems but most seem to like Mac

For Photography,Music, Video, Video Chatting, Iwork, all the fun things you can't beat Mac's plus no virus protection needed!!!!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

This is such a small percentage tho, the rest of corporate America is on Windows... IT guys like to recommend Linux but it's not for the average user... I wouldn't recommend it.

I can run multiple OS in VMware, on my laptop, running Win 7, proper security software, great hardware, and never have a problem, no virus no crash. My laptop has a SSD, so it boots up in 5 secs, you won't hear me complain about it ever being slow and I bet you it didn't cost me as much as a comparable Mac

I tried the Linux route way back. The biggest problem I had was with hardware drivers. I haven't tried it in a long time.

The thing I found was no virus protection is 100% effective. Most of the horseholes who write viruses go after the masses which is PC based. I can't afford to have my computer or my work compromised anymore. It just depends on your needs. There's not as much software for Mac, but Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator, In Design etc flies on this thing. It's nice working in real time on large files and not hoping the computer won't freeze.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

You're doing the right thing, Mac fits your business needs... but I wouldn't get too comfortable with the whole no virus thing, Mac OS is no longer completely immune to viruses. They've gotten hit in the past as well. I would still spend the money to protect your system... 3 things that are very important specially for a small business that get overlooked: firewall, anti-virus, and backup!

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I very well might be) but isn't Linux just another name for a GUI version of Unix? And isn't Leopard also a GUI version of Unix? Also, isn't it true that you can run almost any Windows based software under both Linux and Leopard?

Enquiring minds want to know .....

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Linux started off as a free clone of a Unix kernel. Along with the GNU tools (and any other bits and pieces you might like to include) it is a complete operating system and can be run with or without a GUI - it just depends on what is required by the apps you're running. There's more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux

You can definitely run Windows aps under Linux. There is WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) or several virtualisation apps (I prefer VirtualBox). Macs have their own ways of doing things but can also run Windows aps.

As always, YMMV (your mileage may vary) when using these.

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Steve

And I get much more enjoyment out of my guitar