Are you a Mac or a PC (or a penguin)?

[gb2000ie]

Clearly we all use some kind of computer to access this site - so, what kind is it?

At home I'm a Mac, in work I'm a Mac, a PC, and a Penguin (i.e. I use Linux).

B.

 

[diklik]

At home I am a PC, with security and very robust firewall provided via a feedthru box, and there I am a Penguin. At work, totally PC. I did learn computing on a Mac, back in the days of the original Macintosh with no hard drive and two floppies. Such fun loading software!


NOTE TO NILSTREET - As for tablet computing, there are some tablets already available that run on Intel chips and use Windows 7 OS.

 

[loveless92]

Mac, it's required for my major, and to be honest, I prefer it as much as a pc now.

 

[brenden]

Used a PC until the end high school. Freshman year of college I got a Macbook Pro and never looked back!

^ Required for your major? What major is that?

 

[loveless92]

Game Design

 

[brenden]

Nice! I wish I had the talent for something cool like that. Instead I'm majoring in math lol.

 

[loveless92]

My mind will not comprehend math beyond algebra

 

[Ascareus]

i use dual os
windows and linux
i am not clever on mac

 

[loveless92]

I do have a Windows XP partition for gaming.

 

[tomba]

Awww....Linux (I use Mint) has no votes? I use a PC too and voted for that before realising I couldn't also vote for Linux. I'd happily use Linux 24/7 but there are still too many driver issues and software gaps.

 

[gb2000ie]

Ah thanks. So that's probably what we will be using in a near future. Even better for me since I know zilch about Mac.

iPads are nothing like Macs at all - so no need to worry there. I don't think I've ever seen a more intuitive interface than the iPad/iPhone. Even my computer-phobic mother was able to just pick it up and use it without needing help!

The Win7 tablets are not so good. Windows 7 was designed to be used with a small precise mouse, not a big stubby finger! The idea that you can just replace the mouse with a finger and get a good interface is laughable. There have been windows tablets since WinXP, and they have never taken off because Windows is just not a tablet OS. Love Apple or hate them, they did they right thing to design a whole new interface for their touch products, and thankfully Blackberry and others are copying that lead, so even the Apple haters will be able to get nice usable tablets.

Finally - with a tablet you REALLY want batter power - if you run a full desktop OS with all those background properties and stuff, you physically can't get near the iPad's 10 hours of real-world battery life.

If you're lucky - you'll get an iPad for carrying around - it sounds like it would suit your job perfectly.

B.

 

[diklik]

The Win7 tablets are not so good. Windows 7 was designed to be used with a small precise mouse, not a big stubby finger! The idea that you can just replace the mouse with a finger and get a good interface is laughable. There have been windows tablets since WinXP, and they have never taken off because Windows is just not a tablet OS.

B.

You might check out the new line of tablets from Motion --
http://www.motioncomputing.com/

The medical profession is raving over these and they are very touch-friendly running windows 7 - lots of custom written secondary screen-ware that seems to (according to reviewers) do a good job of allowing finger friendliness.

 

[anteius]

Penguin because of safety reasons.

 

[angjogr]

i use dual os
windows and linux

 

[c750dt]

Windows 7 and OS/2. Then there's my old 486 system running Windows 3.11; I just use that for games and music though (it also gets taken apart a lot too, I'm always trying to find ways to improve it, it's a fun project box).

 

[dada0003]

Mac

For years I was PC(am still at work) but I've never looked back after the iphone the natural transition was a Mac book

 

[gb2000ie]

So you recommend the iPad? I was afraid it would need some special training for the employees to be able to function with them. Most employees are local people without any degree, so... We're in the middle of the Pacific ocean, so these kinds of trainings are very expensive to get down here, and that's without counting the price for about fifty units that would be needed.

I can't promise no one will need a small helping hand, but what I can say is that I've never come across an easier to use computing device than the iPad. I've been using computers since DOS, and since then there have been two major leaps forward in usability - first, the invention of the mouse and the Windows/Mac style graphic interface, the second is the iPhone/iPad and the touch revolution. You need to understand so little to use the iPad to do so much that it's the perfect computer for people who don't want to have to spend time learning to use a computer, but just want to go straight to getting things done.

Apple were the first to popularise the mouse & GUI, and they're doing the same again with touch, but they are not the only people going this way. They have lead, and loads and loads of others are following.

If we spend money, we must guarantee it will better the service and, of course, the incomes. Batteries are not really a great problem since the tablets would be for work use only and we have electricity about everywhere on the island. My main question now would be about the use of programs that would be compatible both with the iPads and our main system, which is PC. But oh well, we'll see when it's here.

You can't run windows apps on an iPad, so you can forget about that. Most systems these days have a web front-end, in which case, they'll work just fine on an iPad or indeed any other tablet device. I know nothing about your exact system, so I can't really give specific advice. Before making any big decision, I always think it's important to get an expert in to lay out the options with their pros and cons so you can make an informed choice.

As strange as it sounds for an Apple product, the iPad is actually leading the field in price with the iPad! If you're buying many of these things, that can be significant too!

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

You might check out the new line of tablets from Motion --
http://www.motioncomputing.com/

The medical profession is raving over these and they are very touch-friendly running windows 7 - lots of custom written secondary screen-ware that seems to (according to reviewers) do a good job of allowing finger friendliness.

Just look at the picture on that web page - those tiny little icons, that teeny tiny start menu - no one would design an interface like that if they were starting with a finger as the main input device.

The custom interfaces sound good - but, they prove the point that Windows is the wrong choice. They would have done a lot better to build those custom interfaces on top of a real touch OS like iOS or WebOS or Android, which are much more efficient, and hence allow smaller, lighter, longer-running devices. With iOS you also get a major security improvement over Windows, and indeed WebOS and android, because of the compulsory enforcement of digital code signing.

Even if you live only in the Microsoft world, you can see the advantages of a real touch OS in their new line of Phones. They'd get a far better tabled experience if they used that touch OS as the basis for their tablets rather than trying to beat a square peg into a round hole by trying to tag touch onto their desktop OS. I think MS did a great job with Windows 7 - but it's not the right choice for tablets.

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

Windows 7 and OS/2. Then there's my old 486 system running Windows 3.11; I just use that for games and music though (it also gets taken apart a lot too, I'm always trying to find ways to improve it, it's a fun project box).

Awe - Windows 3.11 - the memories!

You might be interested in a cross-platform app called DOS Box - it lets you run all the old DOS/Windows 3.x games on modern version of Windows, as well as on Mac and Linux. I use it to play the old Commander Keen games which I just loved as a kid.

http://anonym.to/?http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1

B.

 

[Haplo]

It's always been PC for me, but Vista usually gets on my nerves quite a lot...