Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: Gizmo on March 13, 2011, 03:14:52 PM
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Hi all.
Could people with experience with windows 7 share their experiences of its reliability and how susceptible it is to viruses.
I am currently looking to buy a laptop. Was hoping to keep to a £1000 budget. Now I could just buy a 13" Macbook pro 2011 for £916 (i get a discount) or I could buy a dell 17" XPS for £880 with a better spec then the £1,550 15" Macbook pro 2011!!
Im really torn between the two options. Reliability is a big thing for me. My work laptop (although with XP) has had 3 viruses in 3 months which has needed IT at work to repair it. This will be my laptop and i'm not adapt at sorting out viruses.
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It really depends what you want to do with your laptop as to what kind of spec you need. Yeah, kinda obvious, I know, but it bears repeating.
I mean, I use my Macbook for writing and surfing. The only things I'd want to put on it, in terms of games, are emulators, but since they're... dodgy, I haven't and I'm not going to. [I might possibly get CIV IV, but that's about it.] Oh, my mistake, I play Doom. No, not doom III, just the OSX version of Doom.
Oh, and I watch Chii's Sweet Home on it as well. And use it to get music on to my iPod.
[For games, I have my PS, Xbox 360, and DS, which I'm playing Final Fantasy VI on...] [I really must check out the old games on XBox Live]
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well tbh most of the time it will just be surfing and music. Will be getting some recording software for basic recording but nothing requiring a high spec laptop.
I too also tend to play xbox 360 for games but i just feel that sony & dell etc just offer better laptop specs for so much less money so feel like i'm paying 50% more for an operating system that wont get viruses, which is a massive selling point but its still a kick in the nuts. i mean the 13" model still is using a 5400 rpm hardrive and low res screen. its just insulting but its the only option if I want a virus free laptop around £1000?
hence my original question. windows 7 + norton or similar = fairly safe? just wondering if the apple is only option.
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currently running windows 7 ultimate & have been since it came out, not 1 virus as yet! W7 is actually really, REALLY good & is everything that vista should have been....however, I want something like garage band & that's where it fails IMO.
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Unless you're using FCP or other mac-only software I wouldn't bother. They're overpriced for the performance you get, but do look very nice.
Been running Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) for over a year now and still not had one blue screen or virus/other annoyance. I run it on the same machine as a "hackintosh" (with a legit copy of Snow Leopard) and the performance between the two is near on identical. Preference is Windows 7 as I actually find it cleaner and easier to use.
Virus software, I don't even bother with it much any more - it just slows everything down if you have it on constantly. Do a scan probably once a month (microsoft security essentials is good and free) which never seems to pick up anything bad. I think that the "windows pcs are virus ridden" thing is blown way out of proportion! Unless you're always on dodgy sites you won't pick up a serious virus.
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+1 for win7
its more stable than mac from my past experiences, not a single blue screen, no viruses and its also a lot faster if the spec of the machine is right.
You also have a lot more flexibility too
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have you considered dual booting windows 7 and ubuntu ? I currently use ubuntu studio as my 2nd os, no need to worry about virus' and some nice music production software to boot.
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Really? i haven't used Ubuntu for quite a few years now i think it was on feisty fawn last time i used it and it was a bit pap for anything other than web browsing.
I may check it out again if its better now
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it has improved alot, although I probably wouldn't use it as my only os or for vital work applications as, although it is quite stable, a lot of IT folks these days won't touch linux with a ten foot pole.
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I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.
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I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.
well its is cheap being free :)
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I have win7 home ultimate on my dell studio 17 laptop (about 12 months old), and win7 starter on a little notebook (2 months old). Both are very reliable!
i did have one major crash on the main laptop about a month ago - but i am fairly sure it was my own fault for downloading dodgy stuff. Even when i thought all was lost (due to me not backing up), a reinstall of win7 was damn easy compared to previous versions of windows and it automatically created a backup folder to allow me save the files i needed
its also quite a reliable gaming machine for a mid-level dell
the netbook is really snappy, and win7 starter takes up very little room on the hard drive without feeling like its been stripped down too much... ok, not as many bells and whistles as home premium - but i never use that cr@p after the first few days anyway!
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I can't get into using Ubuntu/similar. It just feels like a cheap horrible product.
I use Ubuntu as my main desktop.
16 virtual desktops, 20 odd applications running, including 35+ firefox tabs split over 14 firefox windows, and I haven't had to reboot in over 18 months.
ol@ol-desktop:~$uptime
13:57:34 up 579 days...
ol@ol-desktop:~$
Nice!
Ol.
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I've been tri-booting Win7 64Ult, OSX Snow Leopard and Ubuntu on my main machine for a while now, and can honestly say most of my time is spent in Win7.
My file server and HTPC boxen are very definitely Ubuntu, though.
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(http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/linux_user_at_best_buy.png)
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:lol: awesome!
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funny !
I've always been a Mac user for over 10 years, and have been very glad of it generally
I dont game , and my interests are photography and music and mainly it's web use and email other than that
I do use Aperture and Imovie/Final Cut
I hear lots of good things about Windows 7 and it would be the first time I'd be happy to have a Windows PC (not that I intend to switch but I may do a parallels type thing so I can use Corel Draw which is windows only
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Talking of windows v osx v Linux and I have to show you my favorite ever tech image!
(http://www.techdigest.tv/pcmaclinux.jpg)
Got to love tron guy!
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BAhahahah +1 for linux guy
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Talking of windows v osx v Linux and I have to show you my favorite ever tech image!
(http://www.techdigest.tv/pcmaclinux.jpg)
Got to love tron guy!
this is hard evidence that linux wins, when I get around to building my PC it will be linux all the way, tron is the best!
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If it's a choice between Apple and Dell, I'd probably suggest Apple (doesn't sound like you're a gamer, and anyway there are recently loads more 'windows' games also available on the Mac).
BUT - that's just because I'm horribly biased against Dell. If it were a different PC manufacturer, I'd say get the win7 laptop :)
I have used Mac Pros and Macbook Pros (I'm currently writing this on my work Macbook Pro), and build my own windows machines for home. In my experience, windows 7 has been more stable than MacOSX, and I find windows 7 also boots and runs faster than MacOSX.
I like Apple's design (more than any other laptop manufacturer I've seen so far), I like that it's built on a Unix subsystem, and the OS is not too bad, but my personal opinion is that Microsoft are doing a better job at the moment when it comes to stability and speed of the operating system. I have had various problems with various versions of MacOSX, and it irks me that these are happening on the very limited and overpriced selection of hardware which Apple uses. The move to Intel hardware was a good one (PPC = evil), but the unwillingness of Apple to indulge system builders out-of-the-box is irritating. Sure, you can build a hackintosh, but what you get is the worse OS (in my view) in a worse looking box (again, in my view).
One aspect of the Macbook Pro I absolutely love is the high def matte screen. Yes, you pay a lot more for the mac, but in some areas they really are good.
If I was buying for myself, I'd get a PC with Win7 on it.
For reference, I use Microsoft Security Essentials (free from M$) on my machine at home and have had no problems with viruses since I built it over a year ago. I have used a variety of paid-for antivirus software in the past, and found them slower than Security Essentials (although just as effective).
I also do a lot of photography and music, and find myself doing these on the PC more and more - especially now I have reaper (although I think you can also run that on a mac, but I've not bothered as my firewire box just sits on my PC at home).
I've not seen too much M$ advertising, but what I've seen from Apple really really annoys me. They seem so smug and eager to tell my why M$ is so bad. Sorry, but I wouldn't spend my own money on a company like that out of principle :) I realise I'm a freak in this regard though!
Roo
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Nope the smug Apple advertising really annoys me as well. As does the way they tout their product as the "greatest thing ever" then come out with the "next greatest thing ever" which just has a different processor, camera added and more options to waste even more money on accessories (iPad 2 anyone?)! Great business strategy for them though, they know people are stupid enough to fall for it :P
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I have a new PC with Windows 7 for a few months now.
The only problem I had was that some (older) game controlers don't work properly. The windows 7 drivers you can download from the manufacturer for those are often flawed.
The Logitech controlers have Windows 7 drivers supplied with them.
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Essentially I think it depends on how tech-savvy you are. Very - Buy a PC, medium - Mac.
I'm relatively confident with computers, but I've had relentless bother with every version of Windows (up until 7, which I've never used), started using Macs three years ago, not one problem ever. They just work. I've only ever had one or two issues with Windows machines that needed to go to a paid repair character, everything else I would have pals that could sort it in five minutes, but I've never even had to google a problem with the Macs I've had.
So yeah, if any issues arise are you happy enough you can sort them out yourself? Get a PC, save the money and get higher spec. If you worry you wouldn't be able to, Mac, because the problems likely just wont ever arise in the first place.
Again, all my experience is prior to Windows 7, though.
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I got a windows 7 laptop from work, and I find myself disliking it more and more as the weeks go on! I find that a lot of applications crash (including Outlook, Excel, IE etc.), and everything is very different to the days of Windows 2000 (which was the last time I properly used windows, have been Mac for the last few years). I've not been impressed at all from my experience, but a lot of people are saying that it is a good system these days.... to be honest, if it wasn't for a few of the application i need only being Windows compatible, i'd be bringing my macbook into work!
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I got a windows 7 laptop from work, and I find myself disliking it more and more as the weeks go on! I find that a lot of applications crash (including Outlook, Excel, IE etc.), and everything is very different to the days of Windows 2000 (which was the last time I properly used windows, have been Mac for the last few years). I've not been impressed at all from my experience, but a lot of people are saying that it is a good system these days.... to be honest, if it wasn't for a few of the application i need only being Windows compatible, i'd be bringing my macbook into work!
For Windows (or other OS) on a Mac check out VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/
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I got a windows 7 laptop from work, and I find myself disliking it more and more as the weeks go on! I find that a lot of applications crash (including Outlook, Excel, IE etc.), and everything is very different to the days of Windows 2000 (which was the last time I properly used windows, have been Mac for the last few years). I've not been impressed at all from my experience, but a lot of people are saying that it is a good system these days.... to be honest, if it wasn't for a few of the application i need only being Windows compatible, i'd be bringing my macbook into work!
For Windows (or other OS) on a Mac check out VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/
Good call-- i'm actually using VirtualBox at home, but I don't think it'd be wise to use it for work-- one of the main parts of the job is updating firmware of broadcast consoles in the field... If there was a slight issue with VB (very unlikely, i know!), there's a chance that it'd kill some of the hardware, and that wouldn't be good ;) Ta for the suggestion, though!
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the best thing to do is to get a high spec pc or even medium then you can install any operating system you want including osx
Im currently running the following on my laptop
Win7
Snow Leopard
Ubuntu
I mainly use Win7 though as its just more familiar to me.
If i'd never used a pc before or had little experience i would definitely go with a MAC then PC and i would totally avoid linux as it isnt the most user friendly environment
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If it is the look od the MAC you like the new I Macs run windows natively. My wifes MAC we used bootcamp and run windows 7 fine. If we need to we can boot into OSX.
Andy
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CrQjfgvqJQ
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ive used OSX for 4 years now with no problems.. i had no interest in Vista so didnt ever consider it.. win 7 looks to be very good... but in the end.. both will do what you want recording wise..maybe not using the same DAW in the end.. but you will be able to do it using the various tools available to each. get which you want.. if i had the money id get mac.. if not id get a win 7 system.
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My i7 iMac and all the software, Midi Processor, Audio/Midi interface, Kore2 controller worked first time and every since with no conflicts at all. Its a dream set up for me. I tried the midi guitar it of on an XP PC and it was shitee.
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Windows all the way!
on a separate note - how on earth did you manage to get so many virus's!?
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Mac! They've gotten cheaper, too
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when i can buy a top spec mac for the same as i can build a top spec pc ill consider them!
not saying i haven't in the past but its purely been based on lust over those 27" HD displays everytime i walk past one
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Yeah you make a valid point. Although unless you're running extremely high intensity programs the top of the line specs are probably more than necessary. If you're doing three dimensional graphic rendering or video editing it might be worth it though. I've found that music recording and editing works just fine on my MacBook Air, which only has an 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. It runs like a computer with a slightly faster processor because of the solid state hard drive, but it still isn't top of the line by any means.