Home Computer

[Lynne]

I'm making the jump from 8 to 16 gigabytes of RAM on my desktop this week. I'll let you know if I notice a difference.

An Apple computer is probably fine if you want an absolute no-brainer computing experience: Youtube, Netflix, and Word. Otherwise.... good luck. Explaining the difference can be as frustrating as explaining the difference in car performance to a billionaire who thinks his Ford Pinto from the '70s is as good as a Rolls Royce. Or, when I failed to convince my stepdad that DVD picture quality was better than VHS. He went to his grave thinking that DVD's were a step backward.

I made the jump from DVD to Blu-ray in 2008. It's 2015 now, and I'm still practically the only person I know who uses them. Everyone else thinks streaming movies onto their laptop with the tinny speakers or earbuds is good enough. WTH?

Going from 8 to 16 GB of RAM  <--- excellent!

My husband had to twist my arm to go to HD...extra monthly charge, different (new) receiver... Grrrr Wow! I see old (I mean 1980s) baseball clips on TV... They're really crappy.

My laptop has a Blu-ray DVD player. Even I can see the difference.

[Kaesekopf]

I made the jump from DVD to Blu-ray in 2008. It's 2015 now, and I'm still practically the only person I know who uses them. Everyone else thinks streaming movies onto their laptop with the tinny speakers or earbuds is good enough. WTH?

Right?

[The Curt Jester]

Oh, and it's tough. We've got a plastic case on it and it survived a tumble down a flight of stairs with no adverse affects. Yes, my lovely wife seems to be attempting to slowly kill off all our electronics.

This is an excellent argument in favor of a desktop computer.  If you get one with a large, burdensome, heavy case and all the extra stuff that goes with it (monitor, speakers, etc.) I guarantee your wife won't be trying to cart it up and down the stairs.

[Archer]

More customizable. Phones are a hard sell to be honest, because I don't use my phone for a lot more than texting, basic internet browsing and sports updates - but I can say that developing apps is/can be far more complicated for Android and are less lucrative, so for developers iPhone wins hands down.

But that's what I want a phone to do. It's got to be reliable, make phone calls, text, get online well, and offer an easy to use/updated operating system. I don't need or want a phone that's going to offer 18 million+ customizable combinations. That's just stupid; anyone who needs that many options in their life probably should get out of the fast lane.

PCs however, are far superior, in my humble opinion. To each his own, but a Mac is just an overpriced PC that you can't do anything with. Sure, it's great for video editing and the like, but so are PCs with the right software. PCs are better for gaming. It's easier to set up multiple screens. It's easier to share online etc. You can upgrade parts of a PC instead of buying a full on new one - can't do that with Macs.

Iunno, I don't really care because I have a cheap laptop that I only use for internet only basically, but if I were to shell out dough for a proper computer, it'd be a PC for sure, so I could game (Flight and Train simulators whaddup). If I was really rich I'd get a gaming PC and then a Macbook too, but I'm not rich so there.

I guess we need to define parameters because I don't game. 

[Archer]

You're not locked into the Apple ecosystem, for one.  As a prime example of why Apple mobile devices blow...  my coworker wanted to get more music to her iPod device.  The ONLY way you can do that is via a computer that 1) has iTunes and 2) has that device registered with that computer.  We even tried getting "legal" music on that thing, but it was not possible due to over-strict DRM.  For my Android, all I do is plug it in and drag and drop.  That's it.  No goofy software, no registering my device, no nothing.

Also, how expensive Apple products are.  You pay a lot for something you could reasonably build/design yourself.

Yes. I agree, the apple ecosystem is a legit limitation. But if all you're using it for is an "absolute no-brainer computing experience" (thanks HK lol) that limitation probably doesn't affect you much anyway. 

[Archer]

Oh, and it's tough. We've got a plastic case on it and it survived a tumble down a flight of stairs with no adverse affects. Yes, my lovely wife seems to be attempting to slowly kill off all our electronics.

This is an excellent argument in favor of a desktop computer.  If you get one with a large, burdensome, heavy case and all the extra stuff that goes with it (monitor, speakers, etc.) I guarantee your wife won't be trying to cart it up and down the stairs.

Believe me, after the incident with her phone and then the computer that desktop sounds real good, lol. When our kids get a bit older we'll have one in a central location. They're young right now and we use it to stream movies so the portability is a nice feature to have. 

[james03]

The computer's speed is dependent upon its CPU, not its RAM.

To get great speed, you need a SSD (solid state drive), and something always overlooked, you need to check out the memory bus speed, or memory (RAM) speed.  A top-of-the-line processor won't help much if you have slow memory.  Same if you have 16 GB of RAM.  Won't matter if you have a slow bus.

[The Harlequin King]

Nothing wrong with wanting a no-brainer experience, as long as we can realize it. I don't want to drive with a manual transmission, for example, but other people swear by it.

James: true. I made the jump to SSD not too long ago. It's wonderful.

[Gardener]

PC and Android ftw...just saying

Why? What makes them so superior?

Fanboys of Mac hate.

A very good friend of mine is an IT security guy, degree in EE, and overall just rainman with electronics... he has a Mac as his personal computer. I asked him once why he did, since he could totally rock a killer PC. Reply?  "I deal with broken computers all day. When I get home I want it to work." He also has Android devices, Windows devices, his son runs Kali Linux as his main OS, etc. So, take it for what it's worth. His phone is an iPhone6, though.

The IT professors at my college, 9/10 times, run Macs with dual-boot and/or virtualbox. They can run whatever the hell they want. They run Macs. Chew on that for a while.

Also, it's possible to dual-boot to Windows on a Mac.

For really cheap, yet functional, just go Ubuntu.

I have:
* an old Macbook that still runs great, but I pounded the crap out of it so it's only really usable with an external keyboard and mouse
* two laptops running Windows 8.1 (Dell and Samsung): with a slew of virtual machines on one.
* two netbook deals; one runs Kali Linux and the other runs Ubuntu.

Will have:
* A desktop which will be my lab environment for all manner of lab work, from networking multiple OS/environments to hacking/hardening practice.

Main aspects of my computer use? Email, basic net browsing, YouTube, etc. like 99.9% of America. I don't play games. I could care less about the latest in video resolution. And at the end of the day if I have to work on it, I'm pissed.

The key is to find what works for YOU. If the Mac works for YOU and YOU are happy with it, then forget anyone and anything else. Ultimately, the computer is a luxury. Insofar as that goes, luxury should serve YOU, not YOU serve luxury. If that means you invest once in a Mac, by all means do so!

[Chestertonian]

so far i am liking my chromebook i can't use the buily in keynpwrd but if im home and able to sir at a desk