tech: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:12 PM

Macs and Sun Microsystems (now THERE's an adventure!) at work (I'm a journalist) and PC at home. I found the Mac I had at home until just recently to be a lot more user-friendly than my new PC, which seems to just toss out error messages willy-nilly for no good reason other than to see a non-computer-type-woman dissolve into tears of frustration and rage.

But... frankly, that might have something to do with the computer support person who shall remain nameless but set my machine up for me and seemed to have made an operator error or two.

One thing I really hate, however, is that my Mac will read just about any IBM disc that it's asked to, but the IBM won't read any Mac discs. I have all my old articles and columns archived on my Mac discs from my previous home computer and, well, I"m sorta screwed unless I want to go somewhere and have each individual file converted to an IBM disc and document. If anyone out there in Mudcatland has a better idea how to do it, I'm game...

WW

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Craig
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 10:04 PM

I use an old mac quadra 660 and down loaded the digital tradition to it last year. We love it. My wife has her music files on her mac G3 powerbook and we're hoping for a system 8 upgrade of DT sometime soon. Thanks

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 08:56 PM

dick:

amen, Amen, AMEN.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 07:41 PM

well, I am convinced that Macs simply 'work' better, are more user friendly, graphics clever and generally a saner design...but I am going to get another PC this time. Why? Because I LOVE all the little 'extra' stuff that gets written for PC..wierd printing programs, file searchers, graphic converters, audio players...etc...For every program written for MAC, there seem to be 27 for the PC, and I can pick & choose. And the popular 'chat' programs..IRC, ICQ...etc...are always slower to be done for MAC, and have fewer features when they DO arrive!..( I have a friend who LOVES her MAC, and is constantly searching for the neat things I take for granted on my OLD PC with Win3.1!)

I bought Beta instead of VHS, SyQuest instead of ZIP drive, a lathe that has the only known 1 1/8X12tpi thread pattern in the universe, so I can't buy attachments for it..etc...all good products, but not easy to find parts or products for...and I will stick with PCs until I am convinced that I can get the bells & whistles I want...please MAC, prove me wrong..I'd LOVE to use your neat machine...make me LOTS of toys sor it, and I will!

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 05:28 PM

Mac at work, PC at home. I'm an old-fashioned type; I hate it when computers do things I don't tell them to do. IMO, both Mac operating systems and Windows (any flavor) are essentially gussied-up training wheels that unnecessarily interfere with computer operation, and function mostly to sell ever-more-powerful computers.
Bah

Humbug

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: John of the Hill
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 05:23 PM

I use a Mac, unashamedly and unapologetically. Several of the people I work with are also home users of the other platform. I am amazed at how often they ask me how to deal with a problem, and I can only say "I don't know, that doesn't happen on a Mac. John

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: bbc
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 05:17 PM

I'll third amo & Bat Goddess. Although I don't speak from personal experience, I've always heard that Macs were more friendly for graphics. I do know that, several years ago, before Windows, I (a non-programmer) found Macs less threatening & easier to use than PC's. If I were a programmer & needed to do "stuff," I suspect I'd want a PC. That's all we have at my house, anyway. I'm surrounded by techies, so I've learned to cope.

bbc

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 04:56 PM

Mac at home; Macs at work. I'm a professional graphics person, too. It used to be easy when someone asked what I do. I'm a typographer. Now I have to define myself as a digital prepress production technician. And I have to deal with those other platform boxes that do things so wierdly backwards. ("If this was a Mac, I'd be done by now.")

BTW, Illlustrator rather than Freehand.

Linn the Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Deacon
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 03:19 PM

Someone pointed out the inconsistency of my liking both computers and 1880s' banjos so I went out and got an Underwood No. 5. Been having a hard time finding a modem for the dern thing so I try to use my mac at home. At school people only speak Windoze but the connection is quick. My mac, Underwood and Fairbanks/Cole will sail into the new year without a worry. We'll see about NT.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 02:36 PM

Rick, I don't think it's a question of which is "better" or "easier." Both will be debated endlessly. The fact is that Steve Jobs did a brilliant job of creating a culture out of the Mac. To be a Mac user became, and is still, something of pride.

I used to work at a place that was one of the early Apple dealers in the country and the fanaticism - maybe devotion is a better word - used to amaze me.

I am a martial artists and the PC/MAC debate always reminds me of the "Which martial art is better" conversations that abound. The answer in both instances is that everyone swears by their own.

Lesley,
Who uses a PC...

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: amo
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:43 PM

My favourite is the mac - of course - because I come from the "graphic-side". When I started whith computers, the macintosh was the only thing for good typing. I worked as a trainer for mac-software , and as a supporter with different machines. I think: The only important thing is, what you want to do - sometimes a pencil would be enough. (Isn`t the most important question: Do you prefere Illustrator or Freehand? --- or should I say: Which game do you want to play?

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Peter T.
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:14 PM

Somebody once said that Macs are for people who like Emmylou Harris, PCs (well Windows) are for Dolly Parton fans. (I like both women for many reasons).
The most recent Microsoft products have made PCs superficially more user friendly, but if you try and do anything even remotely complicated, you discover that the "mental maps" that operate the underlying software systems are completely different, and drive people nuts. I used PC's for years, and then switched over to Macs not by choice. I would never, ever go back: you will have to pry my machine out of my dead hands. Macs are much simpler for human beings, make logical sense for users (not technical experts) and they can connect up to everything easily. They are a dream for children. I have colleagues who are almost completely stuck having to do nothing but wordprocessing on their PC's, because once they step out of line, nothing makes any sense. I work with people who are working on PC's all day long, and the struggles they go through are pathetic -- trying to find system files, documents, printer files. The only good things about PCs are those they stole from Macs, and the fact that they own a large part of the market, so there is some convenience in that.
They are both going out the window with Linux and the Internet anyway, so the dispute is becoming like that between Protestants and Catholics.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:09 PM

Rick, I think the different aspects of the two types of computers/operating systems appeal to different people. Some people just like Macs, some people just like PCs. And each person's opinion is the only correct one.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:09 PM

I use Macs at home and at the office.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Bert
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:07 PM

I'm with you MMario, You just can't GET AT the damned things. Where's my command line???

I used to be a real Apple fan when I had my old 'II Plus'. But Apple made so many mistakes when they came out with the Mac that I never did like it.

They split their resources trying to build three differerent machines at the same time, The IIE, IIC and the Mac.
Just think where they'd be now if they had gone for one machine with the best of everything. The open architecture and system of the IIE, The Mac software, all in a box the size of the IIC.

Bert.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Alice
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 01:03 PM

sorry I asked (I love my Mac for reasons I won't go into here - I donated my PC to a worthy cause, an agency for homeless kids who needed another office computer)

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:58 PM

Rick - seriously, having been in computer support for over 13 years now....

about a year - maybe 18 months ago people were leaving apple in droves...including upper echelon executives and department heads...which made people antsy....

Macs are good machines, but I have a problem with them personally as I am "icon -challanged" - I can NOT figure out what most of the "pretty little pictures" are suppossed to mean, and I function much better with a keyboard then I do a mouse. I HATE graphic desktops....

As a technician, I dislike Macs because I can't fiddle with them. With PC's there are lots and lots of back doors that I can fix things through. With Macs, practically none.

And I have yet to find anything not program specific that can be done on Mac that I cannot do on my PC

MMario

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Easy Rider
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:57 PM

I always thought a Mac was a high calorie, high colesterol, fast food sandwich. Aren't those things bad for your heart?

EZR

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:51 PM

Please, this is a serious question, not one of my "tongue in cheek" things.
Why do computer-knowlegable people re-act so strongly about PCs and Macs? Is this just the same as we guitar nerds, when we talk about Gibsons and Martins? Last year when we bought this (PC) every expert(?) we talked to said "don't get Mac - they'll be out of business in a bit".

If someone does answer this, please use really simple language. It's still as confusing to me as a Db7/b5 is to some others. Thanks.

Rick

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:48 PM

I have the little Imac and love the thing>>>I desighn pottery for Smith and Hawken CO and the use of a digital camera saves alot on UPS and plane tickets to both Mill Valley and MY guilds in Wissconsin and Honduras.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Nogs
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 12:41 PM

Mac at home, other type at work.

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:50 AM

I generally use a Mac too (out of choice!) but can also access Mudcat from the other type.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: MMario
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:38 AM

*shudder* I won't say it, because everything else I have heard about Alice makes me respect her. *biting tongue very hard*

Subject: RE: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Will Bakker
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:35 AM

me too.

Subject: How Many Mudcatters using MACs?
From: Alice
Date: 12 Aug 99 - 11:17 AM

The thread regarding Mediaring prompts me to ask this question. How many Mudcatters are using MAC platform computers? (count me as one)

Alice