why are they so much more expensive? also, is the processor speed the same or different? i mean it seems for an apple you will play alot more for the same processing power.how does this compare with windows pcs with lower processing power? thnx
Because "Mac's" get the bleeding edge hardware. And they are design specific, unlike Compaq's or Dell's that are just a bunch of hardware thrown together. Mac's run Windows just the same as Dell's or any other computer. Additionally, Mac's run OSX too. OSX is better than Windows and once you get used to it, you don't have any desire to use Windows for much of anything.
yea, but. is a barebones dell laptop with a 2ghz processor the same speed as a barebones ibook with a 2ghz ?
No. An iBook is of the PowerPC architecture. The Dell is of the 32-bit PC architecture. A 2GHz PPC (Power PC) is a lot faster than a 2GHz PC. Oddly enough, there is no such thing as a 2GHz iBook. Unless someone has overclocked an iBook somewhere. A 2GHz Power PC would actually be a G5 system. The iBook made a 1.33GHz G4 processor and maybe a 1.5GHz and stopped. What you want to know is if the 2GHz MacBook is the same as a 2GHz Dell. That all depends on other factors suck as cache sizes, RAM speed in MHz, and other factors like the logic board. You can't measure a computer's speed by the processor and GHz, alone. If that is clear then I can proceed to tell you which is faster. Considering that Mac specializes each and every computer for optimal performance, a 2GHz Mac would deffinately be faster than a 2GHz Dell. They may even use the exact same processor from the exact same factory and die but the Mac will perform better due to the other hardware around the processor. For one, Mac does not go cheap on logic board design. Dell tries to push out the cheapest thing they can to sell as many as possible. Mac's only consumer goal is to produce the best hardware a consumer will need. Now if you asked if Windows or OSX is faster, I could easily answer that question. OSX is always faster than Windows no matter what the architecture is.
It doesn't take as much computing power with Macs because of the architicture of OSX. If you were to give Windows and OSX an identical task, likely the OSX will draw fewer computer resources to do it. Back 10 years ago, almost all digital editing for film and movies were done on Macs because Ibm machines were just low power wannabe's. That gap has now closed for the most part, so now Mac's main selling point is fewer virus infections than Windows machines. Parts are expensive for Macs too. I'd just soon have an Ibm box with Linux on it now. Mainly because they're easy to work on. Nothing wrong with Macs. And they still have a strong following in professional fields. I predict Linux will overtake them someday though. x
Define "better" I work with Excel. There are some VBA functions (Replace,Join,Split to mention the most annoying) that are not avaliable on Mac. Similarly ActiveX controls. I cannot work with some of the spreadsheets that I receive if they use these features. The emulators mentioned above probably will allow Office 2007 to be on my Mac. (Is this really a good thing?). But the Lib functions that allow direct access to memory locations? I don't know. The Mac is a better piece of engineering, but if you need to interface with others, compatablility is not going to be perfect.
Firstly, you dont need an emulator to run Windows on a Mac. Secondly, Microsoft makes Office for the OSX operating system without needing an emulator. Thirdly, Mac's office applications can and will do your stuff in Excel. Forthly, OpenOffice will do it and run on any Operating System for free. Fifthly, NeoOffice is just like OpenOffice or Microsoft Office that runs specifically on OSX for free.
I'm shocked no one has said "PC's are better than mac just because!" lol The only reason I regret getting my macs is that there aren't many games for 'em. But the library's getting better. Mostly 'cause more games are getting released for OS X, and Parallels is getting better and better at running Windows graphic APIs. Oh, on paper, the specs may seem like you're getting ripped-off, but you're not. My old computer is 3.6 Ghz, 1 MB L2 cache, 800 Mhz FSB, 1 GB RAM. And my mac is 2 Ghz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 Mhz FSB, 1 GB RAM. Right now my mac is sounding kinda slow compared to my old computer, isn't it? When I installed Windows on my mac, the thing almost felt as if it could fly off my desk! Every thing responded VERY fast! It all loads pretty quick compared to my old computer with Windows, but I think OS X loads stuff faster. And on top of that, you get small hardware! (Unless you get the beastly Mac pro) I like my computer inside my screen!
see what i thought from a hardware sence is that all computers are the same. i thought a mac pc and a windows pc have the same hardware basicly. i built my computer using all standard parts. but after i built mine i bought windows xp pro because i didnt want to be illegal or mess with vista yet. i could have just as easily gotten OSX and installed it on my built computer and then id have a mac computer. i dont think there is really a big "difference" between mac hardware and pc hardware. but if ur talking about company wise its confusing like dell for example they make cheap computer with cheap hardware. dell just puts windows on it which they get tons of copies for from microsoft for cheap. but as far as i know all mac branded computers since they use mac OS use better quality components. since macs try to pack everything into one package (like the monitor) the hardware needs to be made smaller maybe similar to a laptop or something. well to sum up my opinion of hardware everything basicly uses the same components. some examples are like processor, ram, hard drive, motherboard, powersupply, etc. all of these are fairly standard but they just are made smaller for macs and laptops. you can installed OSX on a dell with the hardware thats inside it. and also u can install windows on a mac but with that its better to just install windows onto the OSX. then ur actually running mac but u can load up windows inside it. i always thought that was cool beacause theres less worry about viruses and crap. sorry for all my rambling but i thought this would explain maybe what the OP was trying to ask
There are API functions that (through Visual Basic) can be used to directly read or change the computer's memory locations. (The equivilant of PEEK and POKE.) They are useful because redirecding VarPtr is faster than setting variables. (especially with mulit-dimensional array to 1D array situations and delimited strings.) PC's (Windows) has this capability. Seriously, do you have a link or other information on how I can get that functionality to my Mac. (I have Office 2004 on a iBook G4). (I doubt it, Mac doesn't support regular language, Dictionary and other intersting features avaliable to PC users.) Thanks.
What are you talking about? Macs are PC's. When you say API functions, I think you mean macros. Macros can be very fatal to a Windows system if they contain a virus or even a bug. Unless you wrote the Macro yourself, you shouldn't even have the file zipped on your Windows partition. The reason iWork and OSX office versions don't do what you want is because they don't use Visual Basic. Trust me when I say that's a good thing. Visual Basic is probably the worst mainstream language know to man. Here is a link that describes Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and Visual Basic macros working on OSX. It is possible but is fading out. Visual Basic is not a secure language and will be proven useless in a few years. I have heard of people writing macro-like code for iWork. I don't remember the name of the language or how it works. It is possible but who really cares. Normal office users don't write macros in Visual Basic. *edit* Here's your link: http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20070123002532149
Up until recently, mac hardware was very different from PC hardware. Mac hardware is still fairly different from PC hardware, but now it's similar enough that Windows and most other PC operating systems can run natively on a mac with proper drivers. If you want to remain legal, don't install OS X onto your PC. Also, unless your CPU supports SSE2, SSE3 and SSE4, OS X will run like crap, if it even works at all. Even if you have the proper CPU, motherboard and other required hardware to run OS X, I've heard it doesn't run as well as it would on a real mac... I have no idea why! So don't ask! lol One more thing... I don't know if you just described it wrong, I misunderstood, you're confused or what. But Windows on a mac is just as vulnerable as Windows on a PC. Even if it's in a virtual machine.
I'm talking about doing this kind of stuff on a Mac rather than a Window's based platform. (the platform issue is with the CopyMemory instruction) http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/UB_Pointers_In_VB.asp?df=100&forumid=30362&exp=0&select=1618057 My earlier teminology was vauge because I stuck this in the back of my memory, but the claim that Excel for Mac could do everything that Windows versions could led me to ask "How do you do this on the Mac, please."
