I think I'm a traitor....

[phildo]

I just finished school for Information Technology in June...I have several Microsoft Certifications. I'm now going back to the same school for Web Dev & Design...and they (imagine this...) use macs.

I never EVER thought I would say this...but I'm buying an iMac. I feel so dirty. Is Microsoft going to send unmarked black helicopters and humvees full of guys in suits to my house? lol.

But seriously...does anybody know any good blogs/websites for apple info? So far I've found appleInsider...but are there any better ones?

 

[Soot]

AND you expect us to talk to you!

I've no idea about Macs any more - used them 15 years ago and they were better graphic machines than PCs then. I could ask my 17 year old upstairs ... hmmm ... perhaps not. I need a drink before entering his room!

 

[phildo]

Does it count if I say I'm going to keep my pc? I can't give up my 28" monitor...for anything. A 24" iMac would be a downgrade in screen real estate...but doing homework would be problematic with macs at school...and pc at home. I assume that...I really don't know that much about macs unfortunately. The last apple computers I used were Apple IIgs and first gen macintoshes in kindergarten.

The word is, and has been for quite some time that macs are better for graphic design...I wonder how much truth there is in that...and how much is just brand loyalty.

 

[dc2k08]

i dunno phil even microsoft's latest ad campaign was put together on a mac. they had to scrape the meta data when someone pointed this out recently. i used a mac when i was learning design as the college all used macs but only because apple practically paid them to in order to get us locked in. as soot said back a few years maybe a mac was better designed for running the software but these days, there is not much in it. and pc's are way cheaper and so was the last machine i bought.

what ever you get, make sure you take advantage of adobe's educational packages. you shave about 75% off the price you would pay for the exact same software just by flashing your student card at the till. - a bargain.

it's true that some macs come calibrated to suit the apps designers need but as far as being better suited for design in general, this is an myth. you can easily hook-up a desktop to be far better than a mac with the right gear for a pittance of the price.

and yeah the larger screen you can get, the better. get two if you can and run them in tandem, you'll need them for all the windows and menus you'll have open.

 

[Grumpysanta]

LOL, I've been a traitor for ages, I use Linux and windows, right now I prefer Linux, it's quicker, cleaner, and does not need a colossus to run it. Hell I'm using Linux now.

 

[dc2k08]

i would use linux if only the software i need would run on it. it really does seem brilliant and no constant virus fears. I hope linux prevails and becomes the standard OS. but MS are worse than the tobacco industry in terms of dirty pushing tactics.

 

[BadSeed]

LOL. I don't know much about Macs, but I know enough about Microsoft Windows to be running Linux at home.

 

[phildo]

Interesting because with macs using intel based stuff now...it would be extremely easy and way cheaper to build something that would outright destroy the specs on any of the imac line. The main it really comes down to is file compatibility. I'm going to be doing classes in Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, After Effects etc etc. So I'm planning on buying the software....so say I save my projects from school on the macs...and I bring it home...and use them on the pc version of the software...are they compatible? I would like to think they would be....but stranger things have happened. In my experience cross platform stuff gets ugly. I suppose it all comes down to what kind of monitors apple puts in their machines...I don't suppose they could be that much better than what you can buy for a pc.

As far as linux goes...I've tried several flavors and it's just not my thing. There was a linux server at the college that I would have liked to go all office space on... but I do think linux will be a great thing...one day. Right now...no. It's the right idea but the whole package just isn't there to me. I don't like fiddly crap...and there is alot of fiddly crap in linux. And yes...that is an absolutely horrific generalization...but I like it.

 

[BadSeed]

That's cool phildo. I used both Unix and Windows growing up, going to University, etc, and Unix just makes so much more sense to me. Linux is effectively Unix (without officially being it) on my machine. It suits me to a T. Obviously different requirements for different people. You won't find Photoshop on it for example (although GIMP is pretty close).

 

[Grumpysanta]

I understand what you are saying when it comes to the fiddly stuff on Linux, most people run if the see a command line dos box, I'm lucky I grew up with DOS so it doesn't bother me. Nothing wrong with people just using computers, it's like driving a car without understanding the mechanics of the car.

 

[BettyRedondo]

I have an e-mac (quite old now) and a mac book, although I did partition the hard drive on that to run windows, I think they now call it parallels, and a little eee pc which runs on windows. I love my mac's there are so much easier than windows. I only surf the net on the eee pc and would love mac to bring out a netbook so I could only use macs, I suppose I am a mac girl through and through

 

[dc2k08]

you should be able top open any of those file types on mac or a pc phil as far as i know as long as you have the same fonts installed on each etc, but i never have to actually do it that often so i'm not 100%. the one good things about macs are, that they come with an app for configuring your screen to match the real colors and i think you can set them to show you what your designs will look like on a lot of different monitors. a dark wine can appear bright red on some. on a pc, it's a little more costly as you have to purchase extra software. i was tempted to buy a truelife screen this year but you have to use them in the dark unless you like to shave while working. i heard they were bringing out skins to tone down the mirror effect though.

 

[phildo]

I grew up using dos too grumpy, so I don't have a real problem with command line...especially on server stuff...but the linux/unix command line just really bothers me. I've never quite gotten the hang of it...don't know why, just haven't. Isn't OS X command line based on unix as well?

And BadSeed...my pic was made using GIMP...it is awesome.

 

[frazzledglispa]

But seriously...does anybody know any good blogs/websites for apple info? So far I've found appleInsider...but are there any better ones?

Apple, Mac, iPod and iPhone News, Reviews, Help and Tips | Macworld - the grand daddy
www.macobserver.com is a good one
Ars Technica generally has quite a bit of Mac content
Daring Fireball
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) The unofficial apple weblog - tends to be pretty anti-m$

Apple insider is more of a rumor site like macosrumors and think secret.

I've been a mac user for many many years - it was part of my teenage rebellion. My father worked for IBM. This was before they made up and created the AIM alliance with Motorola.

 

[scrubadub]

Interesting because with macs using intel based stuff now...it would be extremely easy and way cheaper to build something that would outright destroy the specs on any of the imac line. The main it really comes down to is file compatibility. I'm going to be doing classes in Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, After Effects etc etc. So I'm planning on buying the software....so say I save my projects from school on the macs...and I bring it home...and use them on the pc version of the software...are they compatible? I would like to think they would be....but stranger things have happened. In my experience cross platform stuff gets ugly. I suppose it all comes down to what kind of monitors apple puts in their machines...I don't suppose they could be that much better than what you can buy for a pc.

As far as linux goes...I've tried several flavors and it's just not my thing. There was a linux server at the college that I would have liked to go all office space on... but I do think linux will be a great thing...one day. Right now...no. It's the right idea but the whole package just isn't there to me. I don't like fiddly crap...and there is alot of fiddly crap in linux. And yes...that is an absolutely horrific generalization...but I like it.

Welcome aboard I made the switch a couple of years back and have no desire to go back to Windows. I'm a web developer and the Mac tools are much nicer to use than anything I've had on the PC. It sounds like you're doing similar stuff so check out Textmate for your editing. With Boot Camp and/or Parallels you can have a windows installation running on your Mac if you ever need to go back to it for anything. That said all the file formats you mention there will work cross platform with no problems.

As for sites there's The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) for Mac news and features and macosxhints.com - OS X tips and tricks! for tips and tricks. Also do a search on digg.com for OS X and beginners and you'll find tons of stuff.

There's also a book called OSX: the Missing Manual which is excellent, especially if you are are switching from Windows. It has an appendix called 'Where did it go?' which maps all your old Windows shortcuts to the OS X ones for you.

 

[BadSeed]

I grew up using dos too grumpy, so I don't have a real problem with command line...especially on server stuff...but the linux/unix command line just really bothers me. I've never quite gotten the hang of it...don't know why, just haven't. Isn't OS X command line based on unix as well?

OS X was based on BSD, which is a UNIX derivative.

Berkeley Software Distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bertrand]

the one good things about macs are, that they come with an app for configuring your screen to match the real colors and i think you can set them to show you what your designs will look like on a lot of different monitors.

Whatever monitor and operating system you have, if you want to calibrate it, you will need to get a calibration tool to read the hue, saturation and intensity of its actual colours. Eg. Amazon.com: ColorVision Spyder2 Express Win/Mac: Windows & Macintosh: Software

This doesn't tell you what "the majority" of monitors will look like, though - 99% of monitors are out of calibration. It just gives a (much) better guide to how it will look once you send it to get printed. Do an offset print run of thousands and it pays for itself the first time you don't screw up the colours. Macs use a different gamma setting by default, so in fact out of calibration Macs will probably give you LESS idea than a PC than how it will look on different monitors.

 

[dc2k08]

bertrand i thought the macs had a system display calibration utility in the system preferences ready to go and you didnt have to purchase something like colorVisions spyder2pro studio ? and if your designing something for the web, cant you use it to calibrate the display to see how it would look like on the different screens out there ?

 

[Bertrand]

bertrand i thought the macs had a system display calibration utility in the system preferences ready to go and you didnt have to purchase something like colorVisions spyder2pro studio ? and if your designing something for the web, cant you use it to calibrate the display to see how it would look like on the different screens out there ?

Impossible to work. You need to read the actual light coming out of the screen. Adobe has a similar fairly useless application that comes with their products - I think it's called Adobe Gamma or something. Designing for the web is a little different to print design, and as I said, virtually all monitors are out of calibration, so you have no idea how it's really going to look for your users. I guess you could randomly fiddle with the knobs on your monitor.

If you have a bunch of paper cards with known intensities and hues, etc. you could do it (less well) by eye, but really - it's not a particularly expensive device, so why bother? btw: there are more expensive devices, but it's been shown you get minimal improvement using them.

imo PCs are much better for web design in that you can have IE5,6,7,8, Safari, Firefox 1.5-3, chrome all loaded up to see how the different rendering engines disfigure the css and the different dom interpretations break your javascript. The reality is that 80%+ browsers are still IE6/7. Even some mac users tend to use firefox, since they get sick of various things not working on safari. I usually only test for safari if I'm told macs will make up a large proportion of the users for some reason. I doubt I'm alone in this.

 

[dc2k08]

i think adobe discontinued gamma. i use those pantone refs myself for print.
for testing websites you should check out:

Cross Browser Testing. Pick a browser, Pick an OS, Test website
It beats loading all the browsers and they have a free option that lets you get 5 mins per session and then some other paid packages. It's not bad at all.

also I have been meaning to try this one out, but it only tests versions of IE:
My DebugBar | IETester / HomePage