PC or Mac?

[bnicolette]

I know, I know, this has no place here, BUT just in case somebody out there in Mooney land was ever curious I thought we at least have something about it here in our back yard.

My computer (PC) died about two weeks ago after I left it in the trunk of my car all day while I was at work.  Apparently, it did not like the heat at all and when I went to turn it on, all I got was a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left.  Tried it again after it cooled down and same result.  SO, it was either try and get it fixed or just go out and buy another computer.  Being that the hard drive was already full and I found myself erasing things here and there to make room for newer items, I just decided to upgrade my computer.  I headed over to Best Buy with a computer in mind that I had found online in the $700 range but upon closer inspection found that they now don't come with any amount of software included.  Being that I have already drank the "Apple Kool Aid", I decided to just mosey on over and have a peek at the Mac's.  They are definitely a bit more expensive but I have to say that after a week now of playing around with it and learning the differences between using a PC and a Mac, I am sold on yet another Apple item.  Everything just seems to be seemless and very intuitive, not to mention they just seem to be more sturdy.  Even making videos of our summer vacation was a snap compared to making them on the PC.  For those of us that use iPhone's/iPad's syncing will be wireless pretty soon between the computer and mobile devices, if you're into that sort of thing.  Thank goodness I used Carbonite and I had all my stuff on the last compter backed up somewhere besides the hard drive.  Best $5 a month I have ever spent. 

If you don't use anything to back up your computer, I highly reccomend Carbonite and it works like a charm.  I would have hated to lose all those pictures and videos of the kids.  You can even access it from your mobile phone if you need a picture, document, or whatever you decide to back up while away from the compter.

Blue skies,

B~

[Jeff_S]

I know from 27 years of experience (yes, I had an original 128K Mac) that Macs also perform really well LOP!

[DaV8or]

I have always used Macs since the Apple II. I've had many. My wife only used PCs because of her work environment and because of that we had a PC at home for a while. Long story short, the PC went away and she is now a convert. I use Dropbox for cloud storage. Really like it because I have multiple machines operating at different locations and it allows the data to always be synced. Best part is, it's free.

[LANCECASPER]

Same here, I bought an Apple IIe in 1983 and then a Mac in 1984 and have had Macs ever since. They aren't perfect, but having used PC's at work, they are much less frustrating - they just work. I traveled a lot for work and when I would plug into a strange printer in someone's office I could get it to print, without them to go and get the install discs. I have VM Ware running XP on my mac just incase I have to use PC software for something. Having said all this, I installed OS X Lion last week and am finding a few programs that crash, mainly my old MS Office. I can still get my files to open in OpenOffice, Pages or Numbers though.

[henrylarry6]

[rob]

Why do you say you can't upgrade your Mac?

[jetdriven]

Nah, LOP will burn up your hard drive!  Electricity is cheaper than hard drives!

[dcrogers11]

It makes perfect since that a Mooney driver would own a Mac.  The similarities are uncanny.  They're both fast, well built, cool looking, and have a cult following that swears they wouldn't own anything else.  

[bnicolette]

Hey Don, Just the justification I needed to stop feeling guilty about spending that much money for a computer.  Perfect!!

I am loving the Mac so far.  I guess I am going to have to Boot Camp my harddrive though so I can get EZ trends for my JPI to run on it.  JPI has no intentions on making their software compatible with the Mac.  Has anybody done this Boot Camp thing and how difficult is it to set up?  Should I buy the new Windows 7 or search out an older copy of Vista or XP?

[mooneygirl]

I am a Mac Girl too.  From waaayyyy back.  I love, as you probably know, IMovie and making fun videos.

[dcrogers11]

Quote: Bnicolette

Hey Don, Just the justification I needed to stop feeling guilty about spending that much money for a computer.  Perfect!!

I am loving the Mac so far.  I guess I am going to have to Boot Camp my harddrive though so I can get EZ trends for my JPI to run on it.  JPI has no intentions on making their software compatible with the Mac.  Has anybody done this Boot Camp thing and how difficult is it to set up?  Should I buy the new Windows 7 or search out an older copy of Vista or XP?

[bnicolette]

Thanks for that Don.  I will just use my wife's or kid's computer to do the JPI stuff.  I appreciate the warning and really I have no need for windows other than the JPI yet as far as I can tell, but we have some laptops around here that I will just use instead of messing around with mine.

B~

[Ned Gravel]

Quote: dcrogers11

It makes perfect since that a Mooney driver would own a Mac.  The similarities are uncanny.  They're both fast, well built, cool looking, and have a cult following that swears they wouldn't own anything else.  

[231Pilot]

I switched to Mac in 2002 after 10 years of PC use, and have never looked back.   use my work PC to handle my Jeppup grades to my Garmin Datacards.  I would not contaminate (and slow down) any of my Macs (my laptop, my wife's laptop, our iMac) with Boot Camp or any other emulator software to run Windows.

[dcrogers11]

As fast as they are coming out with Apps for i(insert apple product), they will probably have an app that will monitor our engines and do upgrades to our firmware and software.  I'm thinking that I had seen an app for ipad that is close to monitoring, but don't recall the product.  

I had the pleasure of taking a "first timer" back to there home after they had visitied us and she was asking how I was able to navigate and what would happen if i "lost all my instruments".  I went through the normal routine of navigation w/o instruments. I then pulled my Iphone out of my pocket, pulled up one of my several favorite flying apps and showed her how a phone would get me to the ground should all else fail.  

I think you're going to find that the purchase of your first Mac is only the begining.  Like most who have drunk the Koolaid, you'll be back in the Apple store looking at Ipads as they have revolutionized our flight bags and the flying apps are being added almost daily. I wouldn't be without my Iphone either and have done away with my old Garmin GPS and now use my phone when navigating on the ground.  

Good luck and happy computing.

 

[bnicolette]

Hey Don,

Oh yes, I have drank the proverbial "koolaid".  I have been using an iPhone since the "3" was introduced.  We have been using the iPads in our flight department and cockpit for the last year and seeing how great those are, when my PC laptop died, I just couldn't help but replace it with a Mac.  Everything about it so far is just amazing.  I don't even need to keep a power cord close by anymore.  Just sit the computer on the couch and once in a while I come by open it up and it's ready to go with plenty of battery left.  At night time I take it back up to the bedroom where the power cord is and plug it in.  I'm hooked for sure.  And now have an app store for my computer???  Holy cow, it's just awesome.

[richardheitzman]

I run a I7, 6 gb ram, 2 gb vid, quad core scream machine home computer and love every second of it. liquid cooled, push / pull quite fans and in the months that I have had it, it has performed flawlessly.

No Macs in the house, unless you want McDonalds.

[dcrogers11]

Quote: richardheitzman

I run a I7, 6 gb ram, 2 gb vid, quad core scream machine home computer and love every second of it. liquid cooled, push / pull quite fans and in the months that I have had it, it has performed flawlessly.

No Macs in the house, unless you want McDonalds.

[richardheitzman]

I'd have to change the W & B on the aircraft LOL.