Mac or PC? Forum

[zonto]

Got XPS 15 L502X yesterday from Dell Outlet and there is a tiny black mark on one corner and a couple scratches on the bottom is all!

i7 2720QM, 8GB RAM, 750GB 7200 RPM, 540M 2GB, B+RGLED 1080p, 6150 WiMAX

WEI:

Processor - 7.7
RAM - 7.9
Graphics (gaming and desktop) - 6.9 (guess it used nVidia on both though Optimus is set to auto detect)
Hard Drive - 5.9

Installed all the updates and SP1, uninstalled McAfee, and it looks like the only "bloatware" I have is the Webcam Central software and another little Dell utility. I will still format and do a clean install of 7 when I get an SSD though.

So far I'm very happy with the system, and the two blurays (Dark Knight and Up!) that I watched last night looked amazing on the screen!

Not sure why people diss on the looks so much (or the weight). I think the machine is very sleek looking, and I am very happy with the looks. The backlit keyboard is great too, and I had a 14mbps download and ~3mbps upload speed with my 6150 card.

Not bad at all for my first laptop and $1000!

[crossingforHYS]

whats wrong with a dell lattitude?

[whymeohgodno]

whats wrong with a dell lattitude?

It's a dell?

[Hippononymous]

...the BSD based operating system is simply much more useable from the command line then the command shell that exist in Windows...

Bash can eat my nuts. chown, chmod, and chgrp are pointless for consumer use, and are the bane of my existence.

[haus]

...the BSD based operating system is simply much more useable from the command line then the command shell that exist in Windows...

Bash can eat my nuts. chown, chmod, and chgrp are pointless for consumer use, and are the bane of my existence.

But you like CACLS.exe, SUBINACL.exe and the like, REALLY?

[ResolutePear]

...the BSD based operating system is simply much more useable from the command line then the command shell that exist in Windows...

Bash can eat my nuts. chown, chmod, and chgrp are pointless for consumer use, and are the bane of my existence.

But you like CACLS.exe, SUBINACL.exe and the like, REALLY?

Regardless, the average consumer shouldn't need to use the commandline. I doubt lawyers make their own powershell and bash scripts - so I'm pretty sure this is a moot point.

[Hippononymous]

It's not about the practicality of one command line vs the other for law school use, it's simply an aversion I've developed to anything bash because of permissions nightmares I've had in the past.

[sfxx]

just bought a Mac for the first time 2 days ago, never going back to a PC laptop again

hth

[haus]

It's not about the practicality of one command line vs the other for law school use, it's simply an aversion I've developed to anything bash because of permissions nightmares I've had in the past.

On almost any platform that offers anything vaguely like security options, messing around with user/file permission if you do not know what you are doing has the potential to ruin your day. That being said the Linux/Unix/BSD style permissions are fairly easy to figure out.

[ResolutePear]

It's not about the practicality of one command line vs the other for law school use, it's simply an aversion I've developed to anything bash because of permissions nightmares I've had in the past.

On almost any platform that offers anything vaguely like security options, messing around with user/file permission if you do not know what you are doing has the potential to ruin your day. That being said the Linux/Unix/BSD style permissions are fairly easy to figure out.

You haven't dealt with system admins who are overzealous with sticky-bit usage, I take it.

[haus]

It's not about the practicality of one command line vs the other for law school use, it's simply an aversion I've developed to anything bash because of permissions nightmares I've had in the past.

On almost any platform that offers anything vaguely like security options, messing around with user/file permission if you do not know what you are doing has the potential to ruin your day. That being said the Linux/Unix/BSD style permissions are fairly easy to figure out.

You haven't dealt with system admins who are overzealous with sticky-bit usage, I take it.

Come on, at least come up with something a little challenging. Such as changing file attributes on remote file shares that have an underlined file system, that is not fully supported by the end node.

But none of these things such be an issue for a personal laptop, unless you allow a wannabe-geek that hates you play with your system.

[ResolutePear]

It's not about the practicality of one command line vs the other for law school use, it's simply an aversion I've developed to anything bash because of permissions nightmares I've had in the past.

On almost any platform that offers anything vaguely like security options, messing around with user/file permission if you do not know what you are doing has the potential to ruin your day. That being said the Linux/Unix/BSD style permissions are fairly easy to figure out.

You haven't dealt with system admins who are overzealous with sticky-bit usage, I take it.

Come on, at least come up with something a little challenging. Such as changing file attributes on remote file shares that have an underlined file system, that is not fully supported by the end node.

But none of these things such be an issue for a personal laptop, unless you allow a wannabe-geek that hates you play with your system.

Reread my post. I suspect that the majority of people don't hire system admins for their home computers.

[haus]

Reread my post. I suspect that the majority of people don't hire system admins for their home computers.

Re-read mine, that is why I explained that your point was irrelevant.

[ResolutePear]

Reread my post. I suspect that the majority of people don't hire system admins for their home computers.

Re-read mine, that is why I explained that your point was irrelevant.

So, in your view:

OSX(FreeBSD) is better because of the security options. But,

you shouldn't need to use security options. Nor,

should we take into consideration anything outside of this narrow circumstance.

Thanks for the clarification.

[haus]

No Pear,

It is not that you should not use security options, you should not be blindly mucking around with their setting if you do not know what you are doing. In this case Windows is no different, the last Win OS that did not have a support for user and group permissions was Win ME. I strongly advise against the us of Windows ME as an OS for a user going to law school, or for that matter I would suggest that Windows ME not be used for anything, other than perhaps a target box for those who want to get started at breaking into systems.

Pear, I do not want to make you feel left out, please feel free to randomly change any security settings that you want on your own box, I am sure that it will be fine for you.

[ResolutePear]

No Pear,

It is not that you should not use security options, you should not be blindly mucking around with their setting if you do not know what you are doing. In this case Windows is no different, the last Win OS that did not have a support for user and group permissions was Win ME. I strongly advise against the us of Windows ME as an OS for a user going to law school, or for that matter I would suggest that Windows ME not be used for anything, other than perhaps a target box for those who want to get started at breaking into systems.

Pear, I do not want to make you feel left out, please feel free to randomly change any security settings that you want on your own box, I am sure that it will be fine for you.

This has no relevance on sticky bits or our discussion on OSX/BSD. Lets stay on topic and stop with these tangents.

No law school student would be using Windows ME.

[sundance95]

RP's lolwut avatar has been very appropriate for the last eight posts or so.

[ahduth]

No Pear,

It is not that you should not use security options, you should not be blindly mucking around with their setting if you do not know what you are doing. In this case Windows is no different, the last Win OS that did not have a support for user and group permissions was Win ME. I strongly advise against the us of Windows ME as an OS for a user going to law school, or for that matter I would suggest that Windows ME not be used for anything, other than perhaps a target box for those who want to get started at breaking into systems.

Pear, I do not want to make you feel left out, please feel free to randomly change any security settings that you want on your own box, I am sure that it will be fine for you.

This has no relevance on sticky bits or our discussion on OSX/BSD. Lets stay on topic and stop with these tangents.

No law school student would be using Windows ME.

Pear:

Last night one of my computer geek friends told me that linux geeks were buying Macs lately, because they have BSD preloaded essentially.

Can you comment on that?

[ResolutePear]

No Pear,

It is not that you should not use security options, you should not be blindly mucking around with their setting if you do not know what you are doing. In this case Windows is no different, the last Win OS that did not have a support for user and group permissions was Win ME. I strongly advise against the us of Windows ME as an OS for a user going to law school, or for that matter I would suggest that Windows ME not be used for anything, other than perhaps a target box for those who want to get started at breaking into systems.

Pear, I do not want to make you feel left out, please feel free to randomly change any security settings that you want on your own box, I am sure that it will be fine for you.

This has no relevance on sticky bits or our discussion on OSX/BSD. Lets stay on topic and stop with these tangents.

No law school student would be using Windows ME.

Pear:

Last night one of my computer geek friends told me that linux geeks were buying Macs lately, because they have BSD preloaded essentially.

Can you comment on that?

I like to call it BSD on training wheels. Not to offend anybody, but it's a poor implementation of it.

One of my biggest pet peeves about osx is the fact that I'm confined to their filesystem. I would like to have rfs or ext4 and not have to wait 5 years for Apple to implement features into their filesystem.

[IamAskier]

Anyone ever made the jump from MAC back to PC? I have an older 15in. macbook, and I'm really considering buying a Lenovo thinkpad over a new Macbook pro for LS this fall. I just don't want to ever have to deal with software compatibility issues both during and after school, plus a loaded thinkpad runs at around $700 compared to $1200+ for the Macbook.

[kalvano]

I use both. It's not hard to do. Windows 7 is badass.

[haus]

Other than a minor adjustment period, I doubt you will have many problems in making the adjustments.

Although I would suggest avoiding high stress/low free time periods to kick off such a switch.

[niederbomb]

I have both mac and windows xp (7 works the same) running at the same time on my mac book pro. You can drag/drop between windows and use the same "My Documents" folder.

http://www.parallels.com/

Recommended to my whole class this semester which requires PC only software, no one had issues. Only $40 for the software + windows + whatever else you want to put on there. Best of both words at your fingertips.

Tried this on my 2007 Macbook, and it became virtually unusuable. Also, bootcamp was a pain in the ass to switch back and forth, and synchronization is not automatic. I think I am going back to PC if I have to buy a new laptop for law school. Also, as someone who rarely if ever pays for software, there is a ton more free stuff available for the PC.

I like Mac a lot better than Windows, but there are some aspects of the system that are awfully inconvenient. PC is better for the frugal. I've come to that conclusion after using PC for 3 years and Mac for the past 4.

[KevinP]

If you want to tinker with your computer a bunch, get a PC.

I disagree with this point, I have been in the IT industry for a long time (~15 years), working on my Masters in IT, participate in Open Source projects, I tinker endlessly. I prefer Mac to Windows for tinkering around with, primarily due to the BSD based operating system is simply much more useable from the command line then the command shell that exist in Windows.

In case any WIndows command line geeks actually read this forum, yes I know about Power Shell, but I still prefer bash.

I just wanted to point out that the usability of the command line with Mac has very little to do with BSD. Most of the command-line utilities were written for the GNU Project which includes Bash. The Free Software Foundation deserves most of the credit. It's just another open-source project Apple took and incorporated into its proprietary system.

BSD or GNU/Linux are much better for tinkering with systems.

[ResolutePear]

If you want to tinker with your computer a bunch, get a PC.

I disagree with this point, I have been in the IT industry for a long time (~15 years), working on my Masters in IT, participate in Open Source projects, I tinker endlessly. I prefer Mac to Windows for tinkering around with, primarily due to the BSD based operating system is simply much more useable from the command line then the command shell that exist in Windows.

In case any WIndows command line geeks actually read this forum, yes I know about Power Shell, but I still prefer bash.

I just wanted to point out that the usability of the command line with Mac has very little to do with BSD. Most of the command-line utilities were written for the GNU Project which includes Bash. The Free Software Foundation deserves most of the credit. It's just another open-source project Apple took and incorporated into its proprietary system.

BSD or GNU/Linux are much better for tinkering with systems.

Well, when you get down to the technicalities, OSX is just a "lite" version of BSD(an unsecured netBSD?) with a fancy windows manager.

I say, if you want to nerd out.. you go with Slackware or Gentoo.. making your own distro would take it to the max.

Though at this point, even Ubuntu is looking great.