Cruising with a Mac

Decided to go into work with my mother at her new job... she has to use one of these G4 Macs.

wtf is with the giant one click mouse? The whole damn thing is the button, it's like it's for people with some form of disorder that I don't feel like looking up... you put your hand on it and it clicks on something totally random.

It's extra backwards! Although iTunes is kinda bitchin.


Just thought I'd share..

they're cool cuz they're clear! and they're for computer illiterate people who can't handle the concept of a 2 button mouse. macs are dumb tho, i can't stand them. even the really nice ones that are supposed to be super-amazingly-cool.

mac's are gay, you have to shut down with that stupid button on my key board. what if that button breaks? then you gotta pull teh plug every time.

^^ I agree. Thats all we had in high school were Macs and I just didnt car for them at all. I do agree with Matt that itunes ar pretty kick ass though.

Well, I got kicked off of the Mac. Now I'm on somebody's Lappy.

Now I'm using the dreaded touch pad... man, I'm having a hard time using it. I keep reaching for a mouse when I get done typing something. There isn't a mouse there... not even a mouse pad... there's a cup full of paperclips. As amusing as paperclips can be, they don't control this Lappy very well. Regardless of how much I ask them to.


Mad respect for the d00ds that play Counter Strike or any other first person shooter with on a Lappy using the touchpad. Those guys are hardcore.

Mac's are good for media programs, and recording. I really don't like them otherwise.

Agreed, they have an amazing ability to process a shit-ton of visual/audio media.

Windows based computers are slowly catching up with case specific software like Maya 3d animation... which I used years ago in highschool... it was godly then, some 5 years later I can only imagine how sweet it is now.

^ohh yea, and +1 for the touchpad on the laptops, those are a BITCH...

First time I ever used a Mac was at college, because thats the only thing my English professor used. She used to own nothing but Windows but then she was forced to use Macs for some class. She said once you learn how to use it, it is so much better. Ever since then, she has only owned Macs.

But for me, I never really liked it, but then again in only used it for AIM and Safari, didn't get to use all the things it has to offer so who knows.

i also hate macs. dont you love scrolling... since the mouse has no scroll wheel. that pisses me off with them more than anything.

i used to play tribes with a touchpad, that was the shit.

I love my scroll wheel mouse for my Windows computer, even if the Mac was better, I'd still use my Windows for the scroll wheel.

Even if the Windows computer sent an electric shock to me each time I scrolled using the scroll wheel, I'd still use it... saves so much time than having to scroll manually with the side bar...

Filthy Macs.

i used macs for years at my highschool, and at college still. and i still hate them

i used macs for years at my highschool, and at college still. and i still hate them


They have nice internals, but the layout of the OS and the one button mouse are teh suck.

The first vid is definitely a repost, but very appropriate:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6553260189868317794&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2231050780177790445&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2282754844569110939&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1426799135617071352&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3749986480915719134&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-314689867701585018&q=Mac+video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1167073383764759963&q=Mac+video

Haha, yeah, definately a repost but it is great.

I've shown that to so many people in the past. Great Stuff.

i only have a laptop to use and i can't even win the games in the AF arcade. maybe cuz i suck at games but i still prefer to blame the touchpad.

good luck playing commando to a cup of paperclips matty :thumbsup:

Now I'm using the dreaded touch pad... man, I'm having a hard time using it. I keep reaching for a mouse when I get done typing something. There isn't a mouse there... not even a mouse pad...


learn to use your damn tab key. every function on the computer can be done without a mouse. Its pretty nifty too. on a PC i can operate just as fast without a mouse often times and im hella faster on a lap top with out one if the lap top has a shitty pad.

oh yeah, :)


and macs are ghey, super ghey. the only reason people still buy macs are because htey are either supid or they are stupid and its an iProduct.

macs are made for stupid people, cave men, and al gore.

I remember when the former "RedNeck383" posted that originally. That was some good entertainment. And on a side not: Quteasabutten, did you try and spelly your screen name correctly, and be honest. "Cute as a button"...no?

how i feel about macs

http://www.geocities.com/peacemalion/iproduct.gif

http://www.zippyvideos.com/1799937672130846/spuds/

quteasabutten comes from my aim sn. i had to butcher the spelling to get something without numbers cuz i'm just anti-numbers in my name. and yes it does mean cute as a button :)

i hate macs, i hate ipods (mine lasted a grand 5 days) and i hate itunes.

PC FTW.

^I was about to ask if anyone had seen the Mac Gamer done by the RvB guys, but you beat me to it.

learn to use your damn tab key. every function on the computer can be done without a mouse. Its pretty nifty too. on a PC i can operate just as fast without a mouse often times and im hella faster on a lap top with out one if the lap top has a shitty pad.

Homie, I know how to use my damn tabkey.


Hush.

I love my scroll wheel mouse for my Windows computer, even if the Mac was better, I'd still use my Windows for the scroll wheel.

Even if the Windows computer sent an electric shock to me each time I scrolled using the scroll wheel, I'd still use it... saves so much time than having to scroll manually with the side bar...




you know the arrows on your key board scroll to

Homie, I know how to use my damn tabkey.


Hush.

well then get some crunk in your system and trash whoevers mac that is.

http://www.bomben.se/blogimages/barbaro/ROFL-LIL-JON.jpg

you know the arrows on your key board scroll to

but, does it work on a mac? thats the question.


the other thing you can do with a laptop is just buy an ibm laptop cause they are the shit. they have this little red mouse thing in teh middle and when you push the middle mouse button you can scroll with it too. its the shit. IBM FTW!

I hate laptops. I can't type for shit on them. And the worst part is, my school recently 'suggested' (i.e, if you want any help from the tech desk at all, you have to buy it) that every student purchase some sorta Laptop. So I looked up the laptop, its a Toshiba...AND THE MOST GODDAMNED EXPENSIVE ASS ONE THEY MAKE!!! WHy the fuck do schools always opt for the expensive ass shit. Oh wait, thats right, because they don't have to pay for crap, the students do...

I hate laptops. I can't type for shit on them. And the worst part is, my school recently 'suggested' (i.e, if you want any help from the tech desk at all, you have to buy it) that every student purchase some sorta Laptop. So I looked up the laptop, its a Toshiba...AND THE MOST GODDAMNED EXPENSIVE ASS ONE THEY MAKE!!! WHy the fuck do schools always opt for the expensive ass shit. Oh wait, thats right, because they don't have to pay for crap, the students do...


That's when you bust out the #2 pencil and some post-em notes.

And give your teachers the big fuck you.:p

but, does it work on a mac? thats the question.


the other thing you can do with a laptop is just buy an ibm laptop cause they are the shit. they have this little red mouse thing in teh middle and when you push the middle mouse button you can scroll with it too. its the shit. IBM FTW!

actually the arrow keys do work to do down....i am typing this on the ibook as i type. i thought id go on my moms laptop and see y i ahted it again. now i kno. and for god sakes it needs more ram.......damn thing cant have itunes, IE, and Mail all open at once. i still say she shoulda bought a ibm, hp, or toshiba laptop.

That's when you bust out the #2 pencil and some post-em notes.

And give your teachers the big fuck you.:p

x2

my physics teacher said it would be a good idea to have at least a TI-83 and if we are planning on taking (or are currently taking) AP Calculus that it would be best to buy a TI-89... He also said it would be a good idea to take notes.

I passed with the 2nd highest grade (i lost to an asian girl who didnt get valadictorian because she took honors physics and the validictorian took an AP class so his straight A GPA got weighted justa tad higher) with a $12 Casio calculator and my notes consisted of a scrap of paper about the size of a 3x5 note card for formulas. :tongue:

x2

my physics teacher said it would be a good idea to have at least a TI-83 and if we are planning on taking (or are currently taking) AP Calculus that it would be best to buy a TI-89... He also said it would be a good idea to take notes.

I passed with the 2nd highest grade (i lost to an asian girl who didnt get valadictorian because she took honors physics and the validictorian took an AP class so his straight A GPA got weighted justa tad higher) with a $12 Casio calculator and my notes consisted of a scrap of paper about the size of a 3x5 note card for formulas. :tongue:

right on, thats the way to do it. theres nothing better for you than actually learning what the hell is going on in the equations rather than just knowing what buttons to push on a calculator. i applaude you.

cassiesman, just get an ibm instead of a toshiba. the mouse pointer on here is way more convenient than the pad, i mean its not even close in comparison. and it has air bags :naughty:

I'm not gonna get either, I don't need a lap top till I'm in law school (which is actually only about a year away...), and even then, I dunno. I was told in a computer class I took that four months after a computer is purchased, becuase of the advances we are making, it is obsolete. So that would make my PC...obsolete times three or four.

yeah computers become obsolete very quickly, but it really doesnt matter that much. i mean if you buy a top of the line computer your going to be able to run any program that comes out for atleast a couple years.

meeh. i built this computer that i am on about 4 years ago. the only thing ive upgraded was the graphics card, ram, and grabbed another hard drive. i am on my really old amd processor overclocked at 2.8....so i guess im good for now. just need to battle the heat. ive honestly thought of buyin a small fridge, and placing the computer in it.

^ lol, that's not a bad idea... store your cold drinks and cpu components.

Not only that, it's a dust free environment.

1 problem that came to mind. condensation. idk how the mini fridges work to keep cold. i know that they dont run on just air. there has to be something. i'll probobly try it in the mac that really sux, but works to see if my plan will work. then maybe patent it and sell.

Just have to worry about energy consumption, running a 'fridge' and a high powered cpu would use a lot of energy.

One way to get around that is to peel the Energy Star sticker off an old monitor and slap it on... bam... it's energy wise now.:)

I really cannot stand macs due to their vertical market system caused by vendor lock in. Also right now many mac programs such as Photoshop run very very slow on the new macinteltoshes due to the fact they run on the rosetta emulation layer. One nice thing though is the sudo system that controls the user priviledges they imported from the *nix world. i use the same system on my Ubuntu boxes and its very useful, better IMo than the regular su.


Chiquae07 those small fridges work by sing a peltier system. Also using a fridge as a cooling syetm would eb a very very ideea due to condesation as you said. Thr proper way to do it is using something like a vapochill system, it will only cool your core directly and they oftem come with heating elements to keep your surounding pins and pcb warm.

And then you run into other OC problems, for example most CPUs have their multiplier locked so you have to increase the FSB or use a muiltiplier. increasing the FSb leads to stressed memory, chipset etc. The extra voltage often applied to the CPU can lead to overheating MOSFETs which when you use something like watter or cryocooling don't receive the airflow needed for cooling unless you add extrans fans. Anyway all this often leads to major spending sprees which would've been better spend on upgraded components.

The Guru has spoken, all heed his words... or tempt fate and piss him off by buying a Mac and boasting about it. :lol:


"omg.. they come in so many colors!!! I got orange!!!!"

^lmao^

right on, thats the way to do it. theres nothing better for you than actually learning what the hell is going on in the equations rather than just knowing what buttons to push on a calculator. i applaude you.

Thanks. I actually turned out to like physics almost as much as chemistry which probably helped a lot. To anyone who is having problems in school, just make yourself interested in the classes, you WILL get better grades. If only i could do that in honors english :( 3.215 unweighted GPA FTL :(

CPU cooling? though i wouldnt think you would need it on a 2.8 Pentium 4 (im geussing that is what you have) they to make water cooling systems. Basically have an exterior resivior and it works like a radiator or a liquid intercooler.

You may also want to bust open the case and clean all of the dust off of the heat sink and get a larger fan or a larger heat sink and fan. You could also try putting new/more thermal greese on the contact patch.

CPU cooling? though i wouldnt think you would need it on a 2.8 Pentium 4 (im geussing that is what you have) they to make water cooling systems. Basically have an exterior resivior and it works like a radiator or a liquid intercooler.

You may also want to bust open the case and clean all of the dust off of the heat sink and get a larger fan or a larger heat sink and fan. You could also try putting new/more thermal greese on the contact patch.



he was considering a more extreme form of cooling due to his OC. A 2.8 is quite a bit for an old AMD that he mentions he has. Its probably a throroughbred or barton core (doubt he could get a palomino that high without some exotic cooling)

Water cooling is more of a fad right now than necessary. Yes in theory should be far superior to air cooling however most kits on the market are poorly integrated and often surpased by top notch air cooling sytems such as the CPNS 9500/scyte ninja/thermaright si120. Only a top quality (read expensive) watter cooling is worth the money and it would be better to spend that on upgrades anyway. Plus water cooling has many disadvatages: pain to install, need maintenance often, nonconductive low viscosity liquids are expensive, they don't cool mosfets etc...

That doesn't mean dorks like me don't use sometimes water cooling, but we do it more for the "cool" factor than anything else.

Also you certainly do never put more thermal grease. You always remove the old one fully then procced to apply a very very thin and small layer of thermal grease, its a very common mistake to think more is better (funny enough some of the new macbooks were found to be overheating due to apple instruction to aply a full syringe of paste to the cpu). Otherwise you end up creating more thermal resistance.

you dont have to tell me about thermal paste. However ive seen older CPU's have a little dot...not even covering the entire contact patch. entire contact patch > little dot.

as far as watercooling, its a last resort thing IMHO. Like you said, a good copper/aluminum sink with good airflow should be adiquite.

you dont have to tell me about thermal paste. However ive seen older CPU's have a little dot...not even covering the entire contact patch. entire contact patch > little dot.


Are you refering to little square thing in the middle of the cpu packaging? If yes that is the cpu core and its the only part that needs to contact the heatsink. It also requires only a small "grain of rice" sized thermal paste. The rest of the cpu must not have any thermal paste touching it since some versions of it are electrically conductive.


Same goes for theCPUs with a built in heat spreader and a much bigger contact patch. still all you need is a small "grain of rice" dab of paste right above the core.


http://www.arcticsilver.com/images/p4_as_dab1.jpg
CPU with a large metal heat spreader, put a small amount of Arctic Silver onto the center of the heat spreader as shown in the photo.

Only a small amount of Arctic Silver is needed

P4- About the size of an uncooked grain of short-grain white rice or 1/2 of a BB.

Athlon64- About the size of one and a half uncooked grains of short-grain white rice or 3/4 of a BB.

did you know theres companies out there right now experimenting with 300/400ghz processors right now. air cooled....

i dont have any links to it or specifics. my brother and dad who work in the AFRL (Air Force Research Labs) were talkin about it yesterday.

did you know theres companies out there right now experimenting with 300/400ghz processors right now. air cooled....

i dont have any links to it or specifics. my brother and dad who work in the AFRL (Air Force Research Labs) were talkin about it yesterday.


Yes nothing new stories like this are almost daily things on slashdot. However those proccesors are hardly anything more than a few proof of concept generic designs meant to show off working prototypes of some new transistor design or such.

They are nothing in complexity compared to a modern Conroe/San Diego core use use in PCs. Most of those designs never even make it to production phase since they start failing once you apply them to real world architectural designs.
Also as even Intel had to admit MHz can mean little nowadays.

Trust me what we get now its the best of what it can be produced to function reliably. The military does not have anything better, all they have is specific implementations. Such as emt resistant parts, custom software and for massive computing power they just use huge clusters of cpus be it opterosn/xeons or power pc architectures.



That is not to say the some of the design ideeas from those 400 GHZ procs won't make it into a unit many years from now, its just simply not worth getting too worked over.


PS. Sorry to sounds cynical but this is what you get from experience. For the forseeable future the CPU clocks will continue to climb much slower. That is not to say they will not continue to advance at the same rate through architectural advancements, however for now the MHz clock race is effectivelly over. Its las hero was the long pipeline netburst architecture which was just killed by intel. All hail the new core:conroe ;)

Are you refering to little square thing in the middle of the cpu packaging? If yes that is the cpu core and its the only part that needs to contact the heatsink. It also requires only a small "grain of rice" sized thermal paste. The rest of the cpu must not have any thermal paste touching it since some versions of it are electrically conductive.


Same goes for theCPUs with a built in heat spreader and a much bigger contact patch. still all you need is a small "grain of rice" dab of paste right above the core.


http://www.arcticsilver.com/images/p4_as_dab1.jpg

yes that is what i am talking about, and a dot that big will spread out when installed.

However, i have seen dots maybe the size of a half of a dime AFTER it has been installed.

We where working on a computer that kept freezing up even when we where just hunting around in the bios. we tried chilling the sink and all and it still kept locking up, we then remove the CPU to replace it. We saw what a small contact patch it had, cleaned it and applied a larger ammount, and reinstalled it. That fixed the problem.

Yes nothing new stories like this are almost daily things on slashdot. However those proccesors are hardly anything more than a few proof of concept generic designs meant to show off working prototypes of some new transistor design or such.

They are nothing in complexity compared to a modern Conroe/San Diego core use use in PCs. Most of those designs never even make it to production phase since they start failing once you apply them to real world architectural designs.
Also as even Intel had to admit MHz can mean little nowadays.

Trust me what we get now its the best of what it can be produced to function reliably. The military does not have anything better, all they have is specific implementations. Such as emt resistant parts, custom software and for massive computing power they just use huge clusters of cpus be it opterosn/xeons or power pc architectures.



That is not to say the some of the design ideeas from those 400 GHZ procs won't make it into a unit many years from now, its just simply not worth getting too worked over.


PS. Sorry to sounds cynical but this is what you get from experience. For the forseeable future the CPU clocks will continue to climb much slower. That is not to say they will not continue to advance at the same rate through architectural advancements, however for now the MHz clock race is effectivelly over. Its las hero was the long pipeline netburst architecture which was just killed by intel. All hail the new core:conroe ;)

well obviously the technology cant be used now or it would be. guess i should have clarified. however i bet within the next 4 years processors will be atleast this fast. they actually have liquid cooled processors approaching one terrahert also.

All I know is that Vista lets you do stuff that I've only seen in movies, so I want it, lol.

well obviously the technology cant be used now or it would be. guess i should have clarified. however i bet within the next 4 years processors will be atleast this fast. they actually have liquid cooled processors approaching one terrahert also.


No they won't be. As i said, this is a fact: the clock race is over for the near future, they will still climb slowly but its doubtfull we'll even see 10 GHZ in 4 years let alone 400.

You don't belive me look at AMD or Intel road maps. The architectural focus is on numbers of instructions per cycle and paralellism.

All I know is that Vista lets you do stuff that I've only seen in movies, so I want it, lol.


if you have a god system grab vista and join us in the vista beta 2 thread.


CBFryman we all know you cannot be ever wrong so i will not waste my time arguing.:rolleyes:

I dont know what your problem is. Im telling you what solved problems. I only sort of kind of work in a shop that does nothing but computer sales and service for business and government agencies. :screwy:

Of course what Ive observed makes no different in the PC god's mind :rolleyes:

Im not saying apply it like butter to a fat man's biscut... im saying the correct ammount makes the differnce. Too little and you WILL have overheating problems.

basically im running my computer into the ground. i have 3200+ amd. rated at 2.2 ghz. i am currently running it at 2.8. i changed the mulitplier to like 12.5x instead of 10x and increased the voltage. basically im runnning my cpu at like 120F constant. i wonder what its at now? too bad i dont have the azus utility. i have a really olda azus motherboard and stuff. just cant wait till this runs into the ground. get a new motherboard, cpu, graphics card, and start all over again.....

i wonder hmmm.....too many ideas, but most wont help the computer at all.

anyone know of a really great motherboard that should be really good the the future with ddr2 slots and w/e kind of graphics cards they are going to advance in? ex agp, pci express, that stuff...and ill prob go amd since they are soo ez to overclock. any ideas? this would be a hard core computer. probly about in the range of maybe 1200 max. that is w/e the monitor, keyboard, all that stuff. just the case.

if you have a god system grab vista and join us in the vista beta 2 thread.

God system?

I'm slightly more computer litterate than your average user, so you have to use small computer words with me. Oh, and the Toshiba that my school wants me to buy, after the discount, still costs $2300. It has a folding screen that you can write on.

basically im running my computer into the ground. i have 3200+ amd. rated at 2.2 ghz. i am currently running it at 2.8. i changed the mulitplier to like 12.5x instead of 10x and increased the voltage. basically im runnning my cpu at like 120F constant. i wonder what its at now? too bad i dont have the azus utility. i have a really olda azus motherboard and stuff. just cant wait till this runs into the ground. get a new motherboard, cpu, graphics card, and start all over again.....

i wonder hmmm.....too many ideas, but most wont help the computer at all.

anyone know of a really great motherboard that should be really good the the future with ddr2 slots and w/e kind of graphics cards they are going to advance in? ex agp, pci express, that stuff...and ill prob go amd since they are soo ez to overclock. any ideas? this would be a hard core computer. probly about in the range of maybe 1200 max. that is w/e the monitor, keyboard, all that stuff. just the case.

Auch 120F i a bit on the hot side, i woud lower the OC a bit IMO or see if you can still run stable at that freq with a lower voltage core. Ofcourse I personally don't like to run my systems into the ground before i get a new one just because I like recycling them into new uses. You can make a cheap linux box, a NAS etc...(if you don't care about this then burn away, just keep an eye out for data degradation so you won't loose any important info)


BTW quick question were you lucky enough to get your cpu with an unlocked multiplier or did you do the L1 bridge trick?

As far as getting a new system 1200 just for the box can get you some fun stuff unless you get something like dual 7900GTXs.

Anyway on the 23rd or so Intel will put out the conroe and as much as it pains me to say it, AMD will be behind at least till Dec when the 65nm revG core comes out if not till they update the architecture to the K8L cores early 2007.

So right now to easily stay in the budget you can get a new 2.4 GHz conroe paired with something like a 7900GT a nice raptor on a nice intel or aftermarket board.

of course since the Core 2 is coming out AMD is rumored to slash prices a lot ~50%. So a good dual core AMd would prove a very good budget option.

God system?

I'm slightly more computer litterate than your average user, so you have to use small computer words with me. Oh, and the Toshiba that my school wants me to buy, after the discount, still costs $2300. It has a folding screen that you can write on.


Yes the God system. You have to worship it at least twice a day and offer it a mac a month for sacrifice. Ofcourse it could be that i missed an "o" and mean "good" ;)

Anyway i hate when schools force you to blow so much money on a system like that when for around 1000 you can still get a very good dualcore Core:uhoh: (sounds retarded doesn'it stinking Intel and their names) laptop. At least the tablet functionality should prove fairly useful.

I dont know what your problem is. Im telling you what solved problems. I only sort of kind of work in a shop that does nothing but computer sales and service for business and government agencies. :screwy:




Kid how many times I have to tell you. You think you know far more that you do. Your posts have clearly showed your lack of experience regardless of where you work.

Take this for example:



CPU cooling? though i wouldnt think you would need it on a 2.8 Pentium 4 (im geussing that is what you have) they to make water cooling systems. Basically have an exterior resivior and it works like a radiator or a liquid intercooler.


Are you even vaguely aware that for the past several years (yes years) the Intel P4s Prescott cores have been considered the joke of the industry due to how HOT they run? Their nickname was Preshotts. Due to this bad design Intel had to eat humble pie while watching AMD take more and more of both desktop and server market. Its quite interesting you missed all this while you work in a computer shop, oh wait you "only sort of kind of work" there guess that explains it.

And you actually claim that a 2.8 P4 should not be that hot? :shakehead

PS. I just love how you got to the conclusion he is running a P4 2.8 when he quite clearly stated he is running an AMD and his cooling issues are due to an OC.

Should not be hot enough for a water cooling system...read it in context.

so all ive got to say is derkader and get off your power trip :screwy:

Should not be hot enough for a water cooling system...read it in context.

so all ive got to say is derkader and get off your power trip :screwy:

Pardon? you crapped all over this thread with your incompetence, I've corrected you and all you gave me is BS. And now you are telling me to get off my power trip.

See ya in a week. I highly recomend to use this period to revize your arogant atitude.

Yes the God system. You have to worship it at least twice a day and offer it a mac a month for sacrifice. Ofcourse it could be that i missed an "o" and mean "good" ;)

Anyway i hate when schools force you to blow so much money on a system like that when for around 1000 you can still get a very good dualcore Core:uhoh: (sounds retarded doesn'it stinking Intel and their names) laptop. At least the tablet functionality should prove fairly useful.

Yeah, its the whole...well, we don't have to spend our own money on it, so lets find the most expensive thing possible. As soon as I get some cash, and back on my own computer (I'm using my father's for the summer), I'm gonna look into Vista.

Yeah, its the whole...well, we don't have to spend our own money on it, so lets find the most expensive thing possible. As soon as I get some cash, and back on my own computer (I'm using my father's for the summer), I'm gonna look into Vista.
quite, btw as i said be careful Vista is far from finished, so don't use it on a vital system such as one needed for schoolwork

Btw one thing I'm significantly more impressed than in vista is Office 2007, the new interface is IMO revolutionary. i just wish they would've taken the same chances with vista's interface.

------------------------------------------

Anyway back to the mac discussion here is avery good article from a rather high profile mac user which recently switched to Linux (Ubuntu to be specific):
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/06/02/when-the-bough-breaks

FYI in case nobody noticed I'm a huge Ubuntu whore, its the best distro in years and IMHO the most promising one. In a few years even Microsoft might feel its power in the desktop space and redhat in the server domain.

Oh and a small pice of trivia Ubuntu is developed by Mark Shuttleworth one of the coolest and smartest guys out there (fist space tourist in human history) and its programed in the Isle of Man so it has Clarkson's seal of aproval.

Inside sources also have informed me The Stig runs on the Ubuntu server kernel. Which clearly explains why he had to be shipped at the Isle of Man as seen in my sig (need to upgrade to the latest kernel 2.6.xxx to asure hardware compatibility with the high tech M6 he drove later on).