Cathleen Colson

A question came up on the quilting board about computers. It seems better to have it here under General Chit-Chat. I love my Mac computers! I've always owned PCs before, used Apples at work. Now that I've retired I bought an Imac for my husband to use and a MacBook Pro for me! Will never go back to PC! The Mac lets you concentrate on your work without having to know the inner workings of the program or the computer. It is intuitive, fast, reliable, few viruses or error messages. My husband was very reluctant to switch, but after only 2 days, he started to say "I love my Mac" everytime he sat down at the computer. I usually work in the dining room and the printer is in the living room. I send my pages wirelessly to the printer. I set up our wireless network myself in just a few minutes! Photos are easy to organize. I labeled with a name one photo of each of my 5 grandkids. Now when I search for "Emily" it brings up all her photos thru a face-recognition system! The only thing I miss occasionally is my Electric Quilt 6 program. I wish they made a Mac version. I'd have to buy Windows to run it on a Mac and I don't use EQ enough to warrant the expense and hassle of Windows.

AlwaysQuilting

Have you had any problem running other software like EQ7 or something?
I've been thinking of making a switch to Mac also but I have alot of things that are (supposedly) made for a pc.
Nadine

Candace

That's the problem. I've only EVER owned Macs, but many software programs only run on PC type operating systems:< The way around this is to run the PC software through Virtual PC, BootCamp, Parallels, etc. I run quite a few PC type sofware on my Mac this way such as the Bernina software and a special database type software I have.

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

My friend is just crazy over that face recognition software.

erstan947

I think that I would get an inexpensive or old PC so I could run those programs that Mac can't. Just put the pc somewhere out of the way for access when you needed it.

amandasgramma

I wish I could afford one! I trained people on Macs when working. The computer guru dept decided all of us would have to change to PCs. I went to a meeting about it. They told us it was because Macs couldn't do the BIG dollar calculations that PCs do...HAH...I took a sample of my spreadsheets (I managed a budget of almost a billion dollars on it!!!) and I had a database that rivals MONEY on PCs.....they didn't listen and made us change..I SOOOO hated that!!!!
We're looking into going into Macs next.

quilter711

I was a dedicated PC Windows user. My son converted me and I will never go back. Please inform software companies to write programs compatible with PC and Macs. Has anyone found a way to save embroidery designs to the MAC without using Boot Camp? I think the Virtual PC opens your system to the viruses that are out there. Anyone know more about this?

Quilter 711

lab fairy

Basic business applications like spreadsheets will run on a Mac. Ask it to do complex math functions (vector calculus, linear algebra, anything with an imaginary variable in 3 dimensional space) and it becomes a paperweight. None of my software will run on Mac O/S or a virtual environment to allow a Windows application to run on it. The memory requirements for this type of thing make it far easier and cheaper to own a PC. I'm pretty sure my AutoCAD only runs on PC as well which might explain the EQ running on windows. They have a lot of similar programming characteristics.

quilter711

I guess I will have to look for a used laptop or have the old pc fixed! Thank you lab fairy for your help!

Quilter711

lab fairy

I'm not sure I helped much. This is an old and very hotly debated arguement. There are always going to be people who love their Apple computers. (In the lab, we call them a piece of fruit. :lol: ) The void between PC and Apple is narrowing but until it is seamless it will come down to the processor. I will never deny that Apple makes dealing with graphics very simplistic but I need more out of my computers.

This is one of our form vs. function debates. Choosing a computer is one of those personal things. What are you using it for...surfing the net, wordprocessing, or something else? I rarely find a program that only runs on a Mac but find a LOT of programs that only run on PC. Please make sure you chose a computer because YOU want whatever features it has not just someone's opinion. It takes me forever to decide on one (You should see the decision matrix from the last time, too funny.) My husband just sits back and waits for the data to settle before being dragged to a store. We built the last two because we needed capabilities that you just don't find on a ready built machine.