• Folks who use Windows (including myself) are complainers. They do not consider this a reflection on their judgement. Windows is, shall we say, eccentric. It does things we don't expect, but once we learn how to work around (or fix) the problem it goes away and we have earned the badge of pride that comes from defeating balky software.

• Folks who use Macs can't say enough good about the whole thing. The OS sparkles and the platform does everything but perform well in bed (and I suppose there's someone working on that little shortcoming even as I type ). They don't want surprises and they don't get them. At least not as often as Windows users. I don't know if any will admit it in public, but several Mac users have confided to me that there can be the occasional "problem" (no, Frank isn't one of them). Still and all, if you want trouble free computing, you can get it with a Mac. Open the box, plug it in, and begin.

What we have here is a conflict that I am intimately familiar with. Having grown up in an automotively aware household, this sounds a lot like the conflict (low level though it may be) that, well, not raged, but simmered, anyhow, between those who viewed automobiles as passionate creatures and those who viewed them as transportation appliances (judging by my phraseology, can you guess what camp I subscribe to?)

For example, those who drove a particularly reliable brand (usually upscale and expensive) would wonder aloud why anyone would drive a (low scale and cheap to buy) car when there were so many better cars to choose from. When you don't have a mink-lined wallet, you tended to choose whatever you knew how to fix (and back then they ALL needed fixing, some more often than others).

The other fellow might opine that only a passionless creature would be caught driving that reliable, boring (and somewhat premium-priced) object of transport. Sure, driving "Brand X" meant there would be a little more time invested in repairs and maintenance, but the savings in money meant more or better groceries on the shelf and a little extra left over for other passions.

Of course, not every expression of automotive passion came cheap (in fact, few did). I remember a guy who LOVED his Jaguar XKE, but did a complete tune-up every weekend. Was it 12 or 24 sparkplugs? I don't remember, but it was a 12-cylinder car that didn't just ooze sexiness, but spouted it like a fountain. Simply driving it down the main street was the automotive equivalent of wild, passionate sex in the town square. But I digress.

The main point of this ramble is that folks who are loyal to Macs are convinced, just by listening to the Windows users, that Windows is the software equivalent of the Antichrist. It will crash every five seconds. Your hard drive will self-destruct. Your children will be born with three heads (well, mine wasn't, but I heard about this guy in Cincinnatti...).

Windows loyalists Are just as convinced that the MacAddicts are loony. They're concealing from the world the pain they feel for having been duped into buying that overpriced Windows wannabee. Windows users are perfectly congizant that NO computer system could possibly work as well as the Mac users say. Their daily experience has convinced them that every computer will eventually wipe out at a crucial moment. At least with the Windows system, they know just what kind of digital mayhem to expect, and many of us either know what to do to recover or have friends who can help us out when it happens.

Conclusion? I know how to fix mine. It's cheaper than a Mac. If mine breaks I can fix it. I can bend it to my will. I can't say the same thing about a Mac, and any recommendation from a Mac user is suspect, because no computer could possibly be that good.

More conclusion? It's pointless to recommend a computer to anyone who already has a preference. It's rude to tell someone they're an idiot because they use a Mac (or a Windows-based computer). You'll use what you like to use, and you'll pay a premium to get it. In the case of Mac users, the premium is the initial outlay and smaller selection of software from which to choose. In the case of Windows users, the premium is in the form of having to exorcise the demons that come prepackaged with almost every new bit of software.

There are bonuses, however. Mac users don't want to dominate their computer. They just want it to do what they ask. Windows users, on the other hand, bear the pride of someone who has transformed an uncooperative boat anchor into an obedient servant (one that, admittedly bears watching). What you get depends largely upon what you want.

--Baloo

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"Tourist comes into town, big seafood buff.
He gets into a cab, asks the driver, "Where can I get scrod?"
Cabbie turns around, looks at him. "Bud," he says, "I've been asked that many times, many ways. But that's the first time I ever heard it asked for in the pluperfect subjunctive."
-- Old Joke
http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/

[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited April 06, 2000).]
 

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"Goverment exists to serve, not to lead. We do not exist by its volition, it exists by ours. Bear that in mind when you insult your neighbors for refusing to bow before it." J. Richmond, UB Student

If you want the easiest, most stable OS, Mac is better all around. If you want the OS you can do the most with, albeit with a bit of trouble, you want Windows. Yeah, Mac crashed on occasion, but usually due to third-party software, in my experience.

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You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend far too much time reading this sort of trash.

 

Aside from that, Macs are for beginners with computers, Windows are for people who want a challange.

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"Life's a bitch, then you die"
-USS Vanderbilt, Vanderbuilt Class starship

 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

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"Goverment exists to serve, not to lead. We do not exist by its volition, it exists by ours. Bear that in mind when you insult your neighbors for refusing to bow before it." J. Richmond, UB Student

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

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"We set sail on this new sea because their is new knowledge to be gained and new rights to be won" John F Kennedy

members.aol.com/mfwan/index.htm

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

I, for one, use them all the time. Especially when transferring from my computer to a Lab computer.

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"Goverment exists to serve, not to lead. We do not exist by its volition, it exists by ours. Bear that in mind when you insult your neighbors for refusing to bow before it." J. Richmond, UB Student

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

Frank, many people use floppies because they come with the computer (PCs) and the disks are cheap. Newer PCs come with optional ZIP drives, but to buy an external one is rather pricy. Sure, they may be better and all, but many people (such as myself) can't afford it. Sometimes I get sick and tired of you, Frank. You always brag about Macs and you have all the latest technological gizmos. A lot of people can't afford that. I'm damed lucky I even got a computer for Christmas. I have no idea what kind of mess this thing put my parents put through with the bank, but they got it for me anyway. Not everyone can afford everything like you can, Frank. Accept it.

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Star Trek: Leeds
Creator, Producer, Only Writer
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

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Star Trek: Leeds
Creator, Producer, Only Writer

[This message has been edited by Fabrux (edited April 07, 2000).]
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

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Star Trek: Leeds
Creator, Producer, Only Writer
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

quote:

---

Frank G: "Let them eat cake!"

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Oops! Sorry! That was Marie Antoinette.

(I wish I could get this many responses to my ship posts!)

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"Just because you know you're right doesn't mean you are."
-- Me
http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

I have a box of 3.5" floppy disks that I used way back when I had my first computer. Over the ten years I have had them, only three have bit the dust.

I use ten for archival purposes (school projects, documents, spreadsheets, web page material, and pictures). Four I have used on a daily basis for almost a full year. One of those four I have been using several times a day for the past month.

A floppy disk fails after a week? Never seen it happen. My mother's office uses nothing but the floppies. She says she replaces them after about a year or so.

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694 consecutive rejections by women since January 1993.

On the Win/Mac thingee I can only say that I have more experience with Windows and eagerly await the release of Win-Millennium, but could take a shot at MacOS-10 and the new stuff it brings, no problem. And I probably will, soon.

I wouldn't say Mac is for rookies but in my experience it can't match the feeling of a newly tuned -98, bent to your will and smooth as a melon-seed. Now if only I could shorten the boot-time!!

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-At least I can get it up without biomechanical pumps.
-Try falling into a pit of lava, Moffy. Then see how horny you feel.

 

Also, floppes are over twice the cost per megabyte than Zip drive media, and over twenty times the cost per megabyte than Orb media. The notion that floppies are cost-effective is questionable at best.

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

You haven't, but other people use them still. The same is not the case with 8-tracks. Completely invalid comparison.

"Fine, let's say that you use floppies to transfer files to another computer every day. Floppies are about $0.60/ea. Assuming a failure rate of one per week, you'd need to buy 52 floppies, which is about $30 a year."

Err, I've never bought a second set of floppies in my life. (Mind you, they're only about three or four years old.) Seriously. And not a single one has broken. I've lost a couple, but never have they broken.

And these weren't expensive floppies at all, either.

How often do I use them? Well, I always have at least one to carry back and forth to school everyday. For what files? Usually just word documents (My printer is dying and has been doing so for some time ), but I've used them for 1.2Mb+ stuff often enough.

I don't think that Siegfried and I are freak exceptions, either.

And I have friends who split files onto 3.5" disks for use over and over, too.

"And, again, whenever I used floppies, if I used files of ~1MB in size, the disk would usually fail after one use."

Must be a Mac thing.

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"Warning: The contents of this Physics lab are 100% matter. Should the lab come in contact with antimatter in any way, a catastrophic explosion will occur."
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

Nah...Macs are perfect! They never have anything wrong with them!

But s'pose its possible. I've never had floppies fail on me when I used them daily. Actually, its when I let them sit for long periods of time to they get messed up.

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"Goverment exists to serve, not to lead. We do not exist by its volition, it exists by ours. Bear that in mind when you insult your neighbors for refusing to bow before it." J. Richmond, UB Student

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

Of the 200, 10 work. Of the 20 or 30, almost none work.

So I have to agree with Frank about floppies being unreliable, but of course I disagree with his Macloving tendancies.
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

On the subject of Windows vs Mac, I probably wouldn't mind using a Mac, but I'd never give up the joy of computer games for a simpler computer.

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"One more day before the storm
At the barricades of freedom!
When our ranks begin to form
Will you take your place with me?"
--Enjolras, "One Day More," Les Miserables

 

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No I'm Spartacus!

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

And also, Frank, seeing as many of us find floppies to be decently reliable, may we ask where you get your horrible ones?

"But the most convenient part is that EVERY computer, old or new, has a floppy drive (except you-know-what). We do have a ZIP drive at home now, but it's useless to me (my brother uses it) because there are no ZIP drives in my school's computer lab."

Aha! Ziyal beat me to that point. Oh well.

I do use the Internet to transfer files often enough, too, but we're not supposed to do that.

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"Warning: The contents of this Physics lab are 100% matter. Should the lab come in contact with antimatter in any way, a catastrophic explosion will occur."
 

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Frank's Home Page
"People don't mind if you speak a subset of a natural language, especially if you are a child or a foreigner. (Except in Paris, of course.)" - Larry Wall
 

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Well I'm a Bada$$ cowboy living in a cowboy day wicky-wicky-wak yo yo bang bang
me and Artemus Clydefrog go save Selma Hayek from the big metal spider
Wicky-wicky-wak wicky-wicky-wicky-wak
Bada$$ cowboy from the West Si-yiide

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"Just because you know you're right doesn't mean you are."
-- Me
http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/

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Well I'm a Bada$$ cowboy living in a cowboy day wicky-wicky-wak yo yo bang bang
me and Artemus Clydefrog go save Selma Hayek from the big metal spider
Wicky-wicky-wak wicky-wicky-wicky-wak
Bada$$ cowboy from the West Si-yiide

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Frank's Home Page
"It's easy to learn to drive a golf cart, but it's hard to express yourself in one." - Larry Wall
 

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"Just because you know you're right doesn't mean you are."
-- Me
http://www.geocities.com/cyrano_jones.geo/

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"What did it mean to fly? A tremor in your soul. To resist the dull insistance of gravity."
--
Camper Van Beethoven

 

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Well I'm a Bada$$ cowboy living in a cowboy day wicky-wicky-wak yo yo bang bang
me and Artemus Clydefrog go save Selma Hayek from the big metal spider
Wicky-wicky-wak wicky-wicky-wicky-wak
Bada$$ cowboy from the West Si-yiide

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"Sometimes I wish the planet would be scoured with cleansing fire. Other times I just wish Frank would be."
Sol System