OT: Is it just me or is Dell sliding in quality gear?

[Daddy Dee]

Am I understanding this correctly? On a Mac track pad there is only one button? There is no right click? But there is right click if a mouse is used?

So use of a mouse is required on a Mac notebook computer if right click is desired?

No flames please, I'm just trying to comprehend.

[synthfreek]

Daddy Dee I think you can have 2 fingers on the pad and press click for a right-click. You can customize all those things in the preferences. I love my macs and hate touching pc's. Once you get going on one you'll be like "Why was I ever even messing around with pc's?"

I am a firm believer that a mac is the perfect machine for a newbie because of how intuitive its OS is. I don't even have to read the instructions most of the time. You can just look at a piece of software and figure out how to use it.

[mas]

Am I understanding this correctly? On
a Mac track pad there is only one button? There is no right click? But
there is right click if a mouse is used?

So use of a mouse is required on a Mac notebook computer if right click is desired?

NO

On the trackpad while you you can Ctrl clik to effect the right mouse button, but that is not necessary. That was the method that has ALWAYS been available with the Mac.But you are no longer limited to this method.

Instead, with the current designs all you have to do is place two fingers on the mouse pad and click.

And you can scroll my sliding your 2 fingers together.

The trackpoad on the Mac is MUCH more capable than a traditional Windows trackpad. And the new trackpads are introducing even more capabilities aka the iPhone interface! Additionally, Sidetrack has been available since 2004 that adds still MOR functionality! (See below for details)

And their mouse is much more capable than a traditional mouse.

No flames at all! But what I do find humorous is listening to so many who are not familiar with the machine criticizing it based upon erroneous assumptions and misunderstanding!

If you want to limit your thinking about Apple's technology to making it fit the tradtional limited approach of Windows, feel free. And you will be frustrated if you simply try to make OSX function like Windows.

The fact is that the Mac design has consistently pushed the envelop and been the first to intoduce the new technologies. It is humorous to listen to so many who pride themselves on how a Windows machine works lament the advances that Apple makes that they have only adopted in retrospect! In other words, Windows is late to the party to adopt the technology and then the users lament that Apple has moved forward yet again, and you criticize Apple for not 'staying' with the older technology

Come on guys! If you want to limit your thinking to traditional PC technology, you certainly can.

Additionally, if you want to use a particular peripheral design, you certainly can. You have the full range of options - with still more introduced by Apple that many machinese do not have.

But I get a kick out of some who complain about the Mac based only upon conjecture and supposition. But then guess one could find many problems with the world based upon one's assumed fantasies.

And the same is true of the operating systems. OSX Leopard offers many options that Visa just doesn't have. Period.

Use Windows if you like, and you can certainly run FULL BLOWN NATIVE WINDOWS on the Mac! You lose NOTHING!

The fact remains that the Mac is a PC that ALSO runs the most POSIX compliant version of UNIX on the market in addition to all of the other OSes available on the traditional PC, and runs them ALL NATIVELY!. And it will run them at the same time with the built in fuctionality of Parallels in OSX and you can have still more additional options when run under VMWare Fusion.

Here, you can look at some of the ADDITIONAL features offered by VMWare Fusion:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

Be sure to drill down into the post and look at the specific features it offers - don't just read the front page synopsis!

With the Mac you lose NOTHING and you gain additional options.

But for those who find this too intimidating, you might want to stick with a machine that can only run Windows or the even more arcane Linux. []

Rather than listen to the misinformation being spread by folks who are not intimate with te machine, go down to the local Applestore and let someone show you the capabilities of the machine and how tightly integrated and easy the features are to use. And remember, you can run whatever version of Windows you like with NO CHANGES - at the SAME TIME with NO reboot required!

** Sidetrack details:http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20854

Product Description:

SideTrack is a replacement driver for the Apple MacBook, PowerBook,
and iBook trackpads. With SideTrack installed your standard trackpad
becomes a powerful multi-button scrolling mouse.

Leave your external mouse at home and take full control over your trackpad:

• Vertical scrolling at left or right edge of pad.
• Horizontal scrolling at top or bottom edge of pad.
• Map hardware button to left or right click.
• Map trackpad taps to no action, left click, left click drag (with or without drag lock), or right click.
• Map trackpad corner taps to mouse buttons 1-6 or simulated keystrokes.
• Extensive control over accidental input filtering.

[Gilbert]

*cough* ((mac)) *cough*

Mac's are darn good machines, their OS is supremely clean when compared to a Microsoft OS. If only there were some decent mac programs for my line of work, I'd ditch Microsoft so fast it would make your head spin.

I experimented with Vista for about a year, and recently said astalavista to Vista. It is pure garbage. I went back to XP-Pro, which is still their only reliable OS, but XP is fragile when compared against the Mac's OS.

About 3 months ago I purchased the familys first Mac. It is a 24" iMac like the one shown, and so far it's been a fast, reliable machine. I am not running a firewall, or any anti-virus software on this system. This Mac purchase is more of an educational experiment than anything else. So far, so good. Not one complaint from my girls (ages 5 & 7), who seem to have figured out how to move around pretty quick on the system. Add-On aftermarket software, so far, does not seem to contaminate the OS. There are no "Control Panel" - "Add-Remove Program" - "Re-Start" routines necessary to go through when removing programs. There is no need to do a "Regedit" registry editing command. Removal is clean and simple, no contaminated machine bogging parasitic performance robbing add-ons to deal with, none, nada, zip. However, the HD is still less than 10% full. Time will tell, but things do look favorable for us to purchase another Mac in the future.

[Groomlakearea51]

If only there were some decent mac programs for my line of work, I'd ditch Microsoft so fast it would make your head spin. .... I went back to XP-Pro, which is still their only reliable OS

Interesting.... We buy quite a few PC's and laptops for the office during the year. Lately, they were pre-loaded and shipped with Vista....

Major problems, some even with MS Office, and especially with Word Perfect and a number of other applications that are not "Vista compliant" (per the MS tech that returned a call after we waited for 2 weeks...) The tech said that it's not's MS fault that we are using other 3rd party software, and that maybe we should just use the latest MS products that do the same thing. Other than the sales pitch, of no value what-so-ever.

The vendor, meanwhile, told us that Vista was what was on the machines when they obtained them for us and the source (manufacturer) of the machines no longer loads XP..... Apparently MS is "forcing" Vista to be the default OS whenever they can via their licensed vendors.

So,.... a number of us simply had the IT bunch wipe out Vista and re-install XP-pro (which was site licensed for multiple installs anyways)

In many cases, the choice between Mac and PC is really cost based. The Mac's, generally, are just more expensive, and boils down to a $$ decision. Somebody mentioned on the forum that any high school "geek" (no insult intended) can slap together a good PC for ~$400 that would retail from Dell, HP, etc for $650-700. Can't do that with a Mac. I believe that it's their proprietary topology and OS that prevents "Mac clones" from being made, thus from taking a chunk of the "PC" market.

My wife loves Mac's, but her company finally gave up because of the necessity for a primary 3rd party software necessary for what they do that is simply not available for Mac's. She has a Dell in her office and a new Dell laptop.... Oh well.

[Gilbert]

Still clueless.

Vista and Windows DO run NATIVELY on the Mac!!!!!!

They do Mas. It's a slick feature, but with new Mac's you can toggle between a Mac OS or microsofts XP (you don't want Vista, trust me), it's as simple as pressing a couple of keys.

It's still a bit premature for me to comment on, because it's new to me, and I'm still experiementing with it. But I am running the XP Pro OS and some engineering design software (RISA, SAP and SAFE) on my iMac. It is an impressive, and clean machine.

[BEC]

For seti or mas,

Does either of you know the status of a project I heard about sometime back that allows Windows applications to run directly inside the MacOS without the need to install Windows?

Bob

[mas]

Bob,

I seem to remember talk of that, but I am not intimate with that.

But OSX can read Windows data (realizing that this is not the same thing...)

Gilbert,

Just a small note - with VMWare you can literally have multiple OSes (the number is limited only by system resources) open at the same time in different Windows without even toggling.

So, for instance, you can have Windows XP (I agree with your eval of
Vista!), OSX and say RedHat or Ubantu or SUSE Linux open all in
different window simultaneously.

(Another reason to get one of the Matrox DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go monitor adaptors for your laptop to drive 2 or 3 momitors simultaneously! BTW, these accessories rock for ANY laptop or desktop regardless of make or OS!)

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/home.php

The neat thing about the Mac is that YOU decide what environments you want to have...it is not dictated to you. (That being said, i do wish that Apple would release OSX unsupported for use on generic PCs - as it is definitely a Linux killer.)

And as far as price, the $599 mini Mac is a steal, and the 24 inch iMac for $1799 is not only competitive, it is best of breed. And for $2800 the MacPro with DUAL QUAD-CORE PENRYN XEONS, a 320GB SATA drive, and and ATI 2600HD graphics card - there isn't a better deal anywhere for this amount of power! The notion that they are overpriced is utter nonsense.

For more detailed Mac related specs, check out:

www.everymac.com

[mas]

For seti or mas,

Does either of you know the status of a project I heard about sometime back that allows Windows applications to run directly inside the MacOS without the need to install Windows?

Bob

Bob,

While Parallels and VMWare Fusion allow both the Windows OS and applicaions to run natively on the Mac, there is indeed an alternative available.

This may be that to which you are referring... Codeweaver's Crossover allows you to load and run Windows applications on the Mac from within OSX without the need to have the Windows OS.

Codeweavers' Crossover for Mac.is a commercialized version of Wine, an open source software package
designed to let applications run faster by re-implementing the Win32
kernel inside Mac OS, thereby allowing Windows apps to operate in
native mode directly inside Mac OS..

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/