Mac and image editing

Just thought I'd post this... not wishing to start a fight or anything

I am seriously, seriously considering switching to Mac for my image & music needs. It's like this - I work all day with Windows machines, writing code and firefighting Windows stuff, and when I get home I want to just play. I want my machine to just work - without all the updates/fixes/patches/hangs/crashes etc. Plus I am fed up with the Microsoft upgrade cash feed machine

I'm used to Linux (e.g. RedHat, Suse, Ubuntu) - but I haven't the time or energy to setup all I need. When I've had my sticky mits on a MacBook Pro I had almost no problem working my way around things and using Logic Studio (wow - what a breath of fresh air!). I just want to do stuff, not spend time setting the computer up!!

Also, I need a very compact machine - and the iMac just about fits the bill.

There are still legacy apps I need to run occasionally, and it seems that either CodeWeavers "CrossOver Mac" should run most of them (and Parallels may do the rest. I 'ain't runnin' BootCamp!)

At the moment I'm not sure about RAW conversion - Silkypix, or Lightroom (I should be able to 'cross-grade' either or both), or Aperture. I use Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator a fair bit as well - so a cross-grade to CS4 Mac wouldn't be too painful.

I did also find PixelMator for Mac - which looks interesting, especially for $59!

I'd appreciate some comments from you Mac users out there... and whether it's worth waiting for Snow Leopard before taking the plunge

Thanks all!
Matt

do you already have a decent monitor? if so don't rule out the Mini or the macbook.

try aperture, once you learn it, I think you'll like it.

Snow Leopard... if you get a new mac, now, upgrading in a few months won't cost much, hardly worth holding off on, if it gets released sooner, you'll like get a free upgrade.

I think it is basically gonna be a business biased release with little new features for the typical consumer...
I'd wait till after the first major bug fix/update before jumping in on that one.

I just spent 10 mins typing out a reply, then IE crashed and lost it all, I'll do it again when I get home!

And I've just upgraded to IE V8 and noticed that I can't right click and open in new tab anymore! Bloody PC's arrgghhh!

I think what Unlocker is trying to say is "I want a Mac too!"

Matt, I first used an Apple in college back in the late 80's, and have purchased a few since then.

I'm running a G5, that, although a year or two old, still suits my needs, although I do fancy one of the new 24" models

I have been using PC's for work since my college days, mostly in engineering functions, and have two laptops and a desktop unit, all work supplied, I see them as, 'just tools'.

Never actually bought a PC and can't see any reason to either.

My Mac does all I need. I even find I do work related stuff on the Mac then transfer it to the PC.

By the way, in the last 10 years, I have NEVER had any virus protection software on my Mac

( Although that may need to change as so many windoze users are switching over )

PhotoShop, Lightroom etc., etc., all seem to work flawlessly, as do lots of other photo / music related software. Apple did invent the iPod after all.

So from someone that uses both PC's and Mac's daily, I bought Apple.

If nicking Creative's patents is the same as inventing it... I
suppose they did... unfortunately

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5280394.stm

shim

Matt,

I can not praise my Mac enough. I work on windows machines all day and get fed up of the blue screens and all the other driver, bug fix issues. I have had my macbook for nearly 3 years now, never had a virus, never had to reinstall, never crashes even with iTunes and CS3 running. It starts up faster than my 6 month old dell laptop and has less than half the ram (it uses it better)

I even dropped it once, whilst it was running, from about a meter onto concrete and it still works fine even with a corner chunk missing. I am told this is due to a sensors inside auto shutting it down on excessive movement!

The switch was easy from windows as it is intuative and with neo office (free download)all office files can be opened.

Would I go back to a PC - No, I happily pay the extra for Mac.

I did dual boot (boot camp) for the web site program I used to use, with out issues.

I have been playing with the new Windows 7 Release Candidate which is free to download for everyone.

I must say that I am really impressed with it compared to Windows XP and Vista.
Until now it has been running rock solid. I must say that I didn't have many crashes from XP but '7' seems to be running smoother and more stable.

The only thing is that switching from XP to '7' was for just as difficult as switching from XP to Kubuntu for example.

Thanks for all the comments
Golfdiesel - yes, that's exactly as I'd expect, and exactly why I'm planning on jumping

And I was checking out the Xserve as well. Wow! That looks a nice piece of server and a lot easier than manually setting up a comparable Linux server.

I'm nearly sold....
Matt

The only thing which is holding me back for a Mac is still the pricetag.
If I take a Mac with comparable hardware the price would be about 4x of that what I payed.
I know that you can't compare it directly, but because it is coming out of my wallet I can compare it.
I build a PC myself (easily done, took me 4 hours including OS installation) and that isn't possible with a Mac.

The thing I would really like to see is that Apple will release their OS under a license which would allow installation on non-apple hardware. Then I would immediatly buy the OS for my PC.
I tried to unofficial way of installing OSX to my PC but that didn't work because it doesn't like my Motherboard at this moment.

All Mac users should be grateful to PC Users for keeping the cost of their monopoly down. Without the PC it would probably be 10k plus for a Mac.

shim

I do so love some of these patents, basically, if you read what the patent infringement is, Apple have 'stolen the idea' of organising songs by artist / album / song, and by attaching metadata to them. Seriously, come on, not exactly rocket science is it? Think I could have thunk that one for meself, but then I would have to pay $100 million to use it?

Regardless of what goes on behind the scenes (and I do not agree with some of it!), and everyone does it in the tech world it seems, especially Microsoft, your example actually shows one of the main reasons as to why I use Apple products! A different level of thinking!

Microsoft's effort at a music store / player combination included an original music store, where music that was purchased from there would not work on a Microsoft Zune player! You had to rebuy the music to do that! But you couldn't if you were on Vista as they were incompatible with Vista when they were released!

Apple organised a simple to use music store, with simple to use software, with a simple to use music player and did it well with everything being compatible with everything else. The simple point being they created a great user experience with a complete solution from one end to the other.

And this user experience is what using a MAC is all about, for me at least, it just works. It's not perfect, there is the odd bug here and there, and there are even the odd few things that I don't really like, but for personal use, just because of useless simple things like what happened earlier in this thread (and they were genuine!), I will always buy a MAC as my computer of choice over Windows.

(20 minute break for dinner, nothing has crashed or gone wrong and everything I typed is still here!)

Just shouted at the telly, as you could probably guess it was a Microsoft advert! They were trying to show how easy PC's are and had a 7yr old playing with photos, then declaring that he was a PC and he was only 7. Well guess what, the software he was using didn't even come with his PC, it has to be downloaded first, and was not available when Vista came out, and how would you know that it was available and free! Macs have had a suite of programs called iLife installed on every MAC free of charge for years so you can just get on and use it, simple, and like I said, a better user experience.

Anyways, rant over, I'll get on with answering the OP now!!

Just a couple of techie questions:

1) What NTFS support do you get/have? I have external USB2 drives that are NTFS formatted.

2) Are there any issues connecting to Windows network shares? (ie SMB/Samba)

3) Any experience on the LCD quality of the 20" and 24" iMac? (Preferably the newer one...). I'd use ArgyllCMS on it in anycase.

4) Any comparative reviews of PC vs Mac with: (a) bootup time, (b) Photoshop CS2/CS4 startup from cold, (c) Silkypix performance, etc?

Matt

Yes, one of the main benefits of switching over to a MAC is that you don't spend half your time fighting against the machine, you can just come home, sit down and use it.

Aperture is great, and there is still a great more that I haven't found out yet! I use Aperture exclusively at the moment and find that anything I do with the RAW file seems to happen instantly. The only downside I have found so far is that it does crash occasionally when searching very fast through photos, but then my library is over 110 GB in size !

Swapping Adobe suite over to MAC from a PC Macromedia suite was a painful 3 weeks worth of fighting with Adobe's woeful customer service, but it got done, and Fiona is now using Photoshop occasionally, although I haven't got round to using it myself yet!

Other issues really revolve around Microsoft and Adobe software crashing a lot, Adobe updater never seems able to update, and Microsoft Entourage (Mac version of Outlook) crashes constantly and is becoming painful to use, so avoid that one, I wish I had never bothered!

Don't rule out using bootcamp though, I'm very much of the train of thought that if you are going to use Windows on it, let it run natively rather than emulated, it will run much faster. I do have Vista 64 running on boot camp, and it only gets used for the odd poker program that doesn't have a Mac version yet! For those that want to know, my Vista 'score' is 5.9!

If you are still undecided, I would still wait for Snow Leopard though as it does seem that it is due very soon, think we will find out more at the WWDC in early June. If the release date is soon after that, I don't see the point in getting one now then upgrading in a couple of months or so, especially if your current setup can get you through fine til then.

Don't forget to use an Apple Store if there is one near you, the staff were invaluable to us when we were doing the 'switch'. Unlike other computer stores, there is no pressure to buy, and the extended warranty is actually worth it as the 3yr cover also includes 3yr telephone support, not just for the OS but for all the other software that it comes with. They will even help with your transfer of files from PC to MAC. The stores are very, very useful, so use them, that's what they are there for!

If you needed to spend more time with one, you are always welcome to come spend some time with mine, although it may be a trek!