I would like to conduct an unscientific survey and see if the majority of users of the forum use a MAC or Windows Computer. I'll start by saying that everything I have is MAC, iPods(2), iPhone 3Gs, and 1 27" desktop and 1 13" Mac Book.
Windows 7 PC I built from parts. I do have an iPod touch and use MOTO Droid with VZ service. It works with the bluetooth in the car just fine.
I've run nothing but Mac's since my original Mac Plus in 1985, 10 inch screen FTW! Currently running the last of the Power PC Macs, G5 with dual Power PC processors. This computer is liquid cooled and actually has a small aluminum radiator. I'd upgrade, but that would spend money I could use on the car
Flyin' fast with a new Acer laptop running Win 7 (my direct step from a Win98 desktop) ... and a Palm Centro (probably going Pre next summer).
Sony Vaio Desktop: Windows XP HP Mini 1000 netbook Windows XP (I shun Vista and W7) iPhone 3G + Klipsch S4i
HP Quadcore desktop 8GB RAM Windows 7 Premium 64-bit And 1 Mac G5 that I turn on once a month + a bunch of other Dells running Windows XP Pro
I agree that Vista was little better than an overreaching virus. I couldn't wait to purge my system of it. But Win 7 is a whole different ball game. For the first time in years, I don't actively hate a current Windows OS. It is that good.
I only had Vista briefly on my HP (that's what came with it and I had to endure it until my free Windows 7 upgrade came in the mail) and I can see why so many people hate it (myself included). Having said that, on a decent machine with tons of horsepower, it runs decently but I never bothered with it with my old Dells since XP ran just fine on them and there was zero need to move up to Vista. Now, Windows 7, even though I just installed it, I'm liking it a whole lot.
To truly hate an MS product, you had to experience Office 2007. Inane, stupid keystrokes and multiple drop down menus to do previously simple actions (Office 2003 and previous). Yes, I'm one of those engineering weenies with incredibly intricate spreadsheets for data analysis. The transition to Office 2007 was similar to forcing a draftsman to use a crayola crayon. Sad, so incredibly sad.
I'm still running good old Office 2003 and am quite happy with it. I'll probably wait until the next release before I consider upgrading and hope that MS will have learned from their mistakes.
Dell Vostro 1500 running Vista, although running seems more like dragging along sometimes. AMD is building a 2 billion dollar chip fab across the street from our house, so I suppose I will have to support them for increasing the value of my little town home someday.
At work, I had Office 2003 reloaded to have something functional for both spreadsheets and presentations. What used to be a PowerPoint template is now a "theme" and heaven help you on where they are stored. IMHO, Office 2007 is the software equivalent of i-drive. In both cases, they addressed non-existent problems with pain-in-the-but solutions. I've even tried OpenOffice as an alternative.
I run a Bosch Motronics ECU with a Dinan chip. I also have a home-built (piece of crap) Intel Dual-core / 32-bit Vista machine and use a Blackberry Bold.
Oh jeez, someone HAD to go and start a technology thread. Now you've got me going... Why do you shun Windows 7? Have you tried it? When answering this, please remember that it is completely irrelevant whether you've tried Vista, because while Windows 7 may be built on Vista, it is leagues better. XP? Gawd, it does a horrible job managing RAM; I start my work laptop in the morning and it takes a solid 5 minutes for it to be useable. I was perfectly happy with my work laptop running XP (and 2GB of RAM), until I installed W7 on my home PC and couldn't believe how well it uses the hardware available. I start my computer up, and the second I see my desktop, I can click on ANYTHING and it will open up (and I kid you not) IMMEDIATELY. When was the last time Microsoft made an OS that could do that? Never, that's when. See, the problem here is that MS was trying to make it easier for new users of Office to use it. Personally, coming from Office 2003, I found 2007 to be a vast improvement in terms of finding things. Based on all the opinions of people I have talked to, I seem to be one of the only people that actually likes the thing, mostly because I could never find things with the Office 2003 layout where everything was a drop-down and text only. With '07, everything is categorized, with the most common options being right there in front of you, and whatever isn't as common isn't nearly as hard to get to as I found with 2k3. But, I suppose some people just don't like change once they're used to something, and it seems about 98% of people are that way. Oh well. I'm really starting to sound like an MS fanboy here, eh? Well I'm not. I had a Macbook Pro 13" for 2 months until I sold it. It was a nice machine and everything, but it just didn't serve me well for how I use my computers. I needed third-party software for a lot of things that I could oh-so-easily do in Windows, such as viewing and copying files to NTFS-formatted external hard drives (which is all I have), and don't get me started on getting Network drives to work properly. I have to admit, the OS X Snow Leopard I had was good in most respects, but actually slowed down my productivity. I'm the kind of person who learns something very quickly, and while I learned the OS quickly enough, I still couldn't do things as quickly on it as I could on my W7-based gaming PC. Also, the laptop suffered from ergonomic issues, and I absolutely hate touchpads, so I couldn't live with that either. It was an excellent machine and would recommend it to non power-users, but that's just my opinion. That, and my Server running Server 2k3 hasn't been rebooted in months since a hardware replacement and is running just perfectly, running 24x7. I am a diehard ThinkPad fan: T400 14.1" LED-backlit screen 1440x900 Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz 250GB 5400RPM HDD 4GB RAM DVD-RW 6-cell battery Windows 7 Pro x64 ATI HD3470 switchable graphics I could throw this thing across the room and it'll still work. And most importantly: a good ol' fashioned Trackpoint, which manufacturer's unfortunately are straying away from... But, slightly better hardware than the Mac but for $500 less. You just can't beat that!
Botond, I'm all for product improvement. However, with Office 2007, MS seems to have taken away my nice fountain pen and forced me to write with that large diameter pencil I had in first grade. It's simply clumsy, especially, in the case of Excel and PowerPoint. Word is pretty much unchanged. That, of course, is just my opinion.
