I've had my Mac for almost a year so I feel now's a good time to put together my review of it. I put each aspect into categories:
Video Game Emulation
- SNES. Much like the Windows version of Snes9X, the Mac version does not emulate sound and music at a near-perfect level. It displays the darker end of gradients in a distorted way. It refuses to render the screen whenever a high resolution font is used (Seiken Densetsu 3, Treasure of the Rudras, Romancing SaGa 3), which results in the screen constantly enabling/disabling the screen render. It still lacks full Super FX support. - Mame. I love MacMame more than the Windows version. I think its easier to use and organized better.
- CD-based gaming. The available PSX emulator has terrible compatibility. I am especially disappointed that there are no available emulators yet for Sega CD and TG16-CD.
- Everything else. I am disatisfied with all of Richard Bannister's emulators. They offer little features and I've encountered tons of game-specific bugs.
Music
- I dont see what's so special about iTunes (Mac's default music player). Is it the built-in store where you can get whole albums in MP3 form for only $9.99? I get most of my songs for free by checking out music CDs from the public library. All of its other features exist in Windows music players, plus they load faster.
- I mostly listen to video game music via SPCs, NSFs, PSFs, etc. The only available player for Mac, Audio Overload, is very simple and has little features. Plus it is lacking support for other formats like 68000 MDX, TurboGrafx16 HES and Playstation PSF. I very much prefer WinAmp for Windows. Plugins of every video game music format are available for it so it can play anything I want.
Programs
- Excluding professional design programs, I am very disatisfied with what Mac has to offer. FTP programs, DVD players, image viewers, CD burners, file compressors... they are all simple and offer little features.
- AOL for Mac is severely outdated.
- Safari (Mac's default Internet browser) still has bugs and does not yet have support for all forms of HTML and java. For example, setting up an auction on eBay is missing several things.
- Quicktime is good (Mac's default media player). I loved it even more after installing the DivX plugin.
- "Grab" is nifty. (captures the desktop like Window's Print Screen button but offers some nifty features to make the task easier)
The OS itself
- The startup group is the cause of most of the software-related problems with Windows, and Mac doesn't have one, so its easy to say that its more stable than Windows. However, experiencing the Mac over a long period of time had led me to think otherwise. Macs do crash. Most of the lock-ups I've encountered have been rock solid, forcing me to manually restart. I think both Windows and Mac are generally the same when it comes to stability.
- I like it that you just need to click on a file to rename it, but, most of the time, I do not need to be renaming a file! >.< Its so annoying when I click to open a file and I accidentally click on the file name which results in the rename feature being activated.
- File browsing lacks the feature that allows you to list files in multiple columns.
- The dock with all the program shortcuts is so cool! The only drawback is that the dock gets crowded quite easily. I've had to move all my vg emulator shortcuts to the desktop.
Printers
- I've just had to plug in the printer's USB chord and BAM its installed. O_O That's amazing! With Windows you would need to install the printer's drivers and all that jazz to get it to work.
Display & Graphics
- Squishing 1024x768 into a 800x600-like size was a great idea! The graphics are nice and sharp and crisp. I like it very much.
iBook specific
- I like it that it tells you how much time you have left with the battery. My Windows laptop doesn't do that.
- The TV chord is great! I have to go through a lot more steps to set up my Windows laptop to the TV.
- The speakers are crap.
Conclusion
- I am generally satisfied with the Mac OS and look forward to using it with my future career in the field of design. However, when it comes to personal use, I definitely will not use Mac as my preferred OS. Having it as a secondary computer is good enough.
- Would I recommend Mac to people? Nah. Most of the people I interact with are classic gaming fans and anime fans. Windows offers the best and most efficient programs for people in that area of interest.
==============================================
...so that's my review. I posted it in a popular Mac forum and I got flamed horribly for saying such blasphemies. ^^;; Especially for my comment on Mac's stability. I can summarize the whole Mac community with these lines:
(Background info: Richard Bannister is responsible for most of Mac's available vg emulators. They're just ports from not-so-good Windows vg emulators.)
Richard Bannister: "Here's a new release of my vg emulators! Enjoy!"
Mac-users: "OMG they rule!"
Windows-user giving Mac a try: "Eck, these vg emulators suck!"
Mac-users: "No they don't! They rule!"
In other words, the emporer's new clothes. No one complains about Mac's vg emulators, urging the programmers to be more competitive with Windows vg emulators, so what they come up with sucks. If anyone says anything negative about Mac's vg emulators or regular Mac programs then they get their @$$ wiped on the floor. Even constructive criticism would not be taken easily. So take this as a word of advice, if you ever come across a Mac community then do not say anything negative about anything related to Mac. x_x
Video Game Emulation
- SNES. Much like the Windows version of Snes9X, the Mac version does not emulate sound and music at a near-perfect level. It displays the darker end of gradients in a distorted way. It refuses to render the screen whenever a high resolution font is used (Seiken Densetsu 3, Treasure of the Rudras, Romancing SaGa 3), which results in the screen constantly enabling/disabling the screen render. It still lacks full Super FX support. - Mame. I love MacMame more than the Windows version. I think its easier to use and organized better.
- CD-based gaming. The available PSX emulator has terrible compatibility. I am especially disappointed that there are no available emulators yet for Sega CD and TG16-CD.
- Everything else. I am disatisfied with all of Richard Bannister's emulators. They offer little features and I've encountered tons of game-specific bugs.
Music
- I dont see what's so special about iTunes (Mac's default music player). Is it the built-in store where you can get whole albums in MP3 form for only $9.99? I get most of my songs for free by checking out music CDs from the public library. All of its other features exist in Windows music players, plus they load faster.
- I mostly listen to video game music via SPCs, NSFs, PSFs, etc. The only available player for Mac, Audio Overload, is very simple and has little features. Plus it is lacking support for other formats like 68000 MDX, TurboGrafx16 HES and Playstation PSF. I very much prefer WinAmp for Windows. Plugins of every video game music format are available for it so it can play anything I want.
Programs
- Excluding professional design programs, I am very disatisfied with what Mac has to offer. FTP programs, DVD players, image viewers, CD burners, file compressors... they are all simple and offer little features.
- AOL for Mac is severely outdated.
- Safari (Mac's default Internet browser) still has bugs and does not yet have support for all forms of HTML and java. For example, setting up an auction on eBay is missing several things.
- Quicktime is good (Mac's default media player). I loved it even more after installing the DivX plugin.
- "Grab" is nifty. (captures the desktop like Window's Print Screen button but offers some nifty features to make the task easier)
The OS itself
- The startup group is the cause of most of the software-related problems with Windows, and Mac doesn't have one, so its easy to say that its more stable than Windows. However, experiencing the Mac over a long period of time had led me to think otherwise. Macs do crash. Most of the lock-ups I've encountered have been rock solid, forcing me to manually restart. I think both Windows and Mac are generally the same when it comes to stability.
- I like it that you just need to click on a file to rename it, but, most of the time, I do not need to be renaming a file! >.< Its so annoying when I click to open a file and I accidentally click on the file name which results in the rename feature being activated.
- File browsing lacks the feature that allows you to list files in multiple columns.
- The dock with all the program shortcuts is so cool! The only drawback is that the dock gets crowded quite easily. I've had to move all my vg emulator shortcuts to the desktop.
Printers
- I've just had to plug in the printer's USB chord and BAM its installed. O_O That's amazing! With Windows you would need to install the printer's drivers and all that jazz to get it to work.
Display & Graphics
- Squishing 1024x768 into a 800x600-like size was a great idea! The graphics are nice and sharp and crisp. I like it very much.
iBook specific
- I like it that it tells you how much time you have left with the battery. My Windows laptop doesn't do that.
- The TV chord is great! I have to go through a lot more steps to set up my Windows laptop to the TV.
- The speakers are crap.
Conclusion
- I am generally satisfied with the Mac OS and look forward to using it with my future career in the field of design. However, when it comes to personal use, I definitely will not use Mac as my preferred OS. Having it as a secondary computer is good enough.
- Would I recommend Mac to people? Nah. Most of the people I interact with are classic gaming fans and anime fans. Windows offers the best and most efficient programs for people in that area of interest.
==============================================
...so that's my review. I posted it in a popular Mac forum and I got flamed horribly for saying such blasphemies. ^^;; Especially for my comment on Mac's stability. I can summarize the whole Mac community with these lines:
(Background info: Richard Bannister is responsible for most of Mac's available vg emulators. They're just ports from not-so-good Windows vg emulators.)
Richard Bannister: "Here's a new release of my vg emulators! Enjoy!"
Mac-users: "OMG they rule!"
Windows-user giving Mac a try: "Eck, these vg emulators suck!"
Mac-users: "No they don't! They rule!"
In other words, the emporer's new clothes. No one complains about Mac's vg emulators, urging the programmers to be more competitive with Windows vg emulators, so what they come up with sucks. If anyone says anything negative about Mac's vg emulators or regular Mac programs then they get their @$$ wiped on the floor. Even constructive criticism would not be taken easily. So take this as a word of advice, if you ever come across a Mac community then do not say anything negative about anything related to Mac. x_x
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