Why good platforms ignore mac?

I know little of Apple products, but I don't know of anyone that trades with one screen. Personally, I have 4 screens dedicated to one computer, can the same be done reasonably with a Mac?
 
volpunter said:
I think we should keep the discussion honest. It is not about what is popular or cool or hip , but the question was about which platform is more useful and why software developers often ignore Mac.

I have to agree with hedron that a PC is way more versatile and useful than any Mac for the following reasons:

* Someone claimed building/buying a PC with similar specs than a Mac would be more expensive. I think that is simply wrong. Take the top of the line Mac (I think it retails for 12-16k USD and you can easily build a PC with similar specs for the half the price. PC -> price advantage

* You can completely customize a PC which you can hardly do with a Mac. Virtually EVERY piece of hardware is exchangeable. Can you, for example, run monitors through USB 3.0 port (USB monitors or via adapter USB -> HDMI/DVI on Mac? Hardly any adapter is available that runs on Macs. I am just listing one out of uncountable use cases. Anyone who claims that a Mac can be FULLY customized is not even aware that he/she already ended up with a PC with an Apple logo printed on it. In many ways the two groups are merging more and more, and at some point even Apple realizes that all it has left in terms of the computer business is an Operating System.

* Windows OS definitely does not run faster on a Mac than on a similar spec PC. Why would it? There is no technical reason why that should be the case. Nor does a Windows OS run more stable on a Mac than on a PC. Complete bollocks of anyone who claims such. (Please cite SPECIFIC reasons if you refute this)

* Windows Instability? Well, guess what, if I want to moan about Windows 7 (which never crashed for me, nor have I had a single intrusion, malware, or other attack) then I can just run a Linux version on my PC. What most Mac prophets ignore when they complain about Win OS instability is that the 10-20 software programs that run on a typical Mac are far outpaced by the about 50-100 installed programs on a typical PC. Which brings me to the last point...

* Software compatibility. Not only do most Mac users have to wait way longer for the newest releases (wait, Office for Mac newest version 2011? Lol. Oh, I get it, you can use the Windows Office version, which makes you have Windows OS as well, which makes me wonder why you would have a Mac in the first place ;-) Games (not that I play at all) for Mac? Pacman? Oh, need Windows OS again? Funny. But hey, you can at least rely on all the Java based apps, and web apps.

* And let's not forget, if you run On OS X and want to run Windows software it takes WAY LONGER on the Mac to start up the application than starting it natively on the PC. Sure, if you already run the virtualization and have it started then it is essentially as fast as on a PC. But then you would be running 2 OSs in parallel, doubling system resource take-up (or at least greatly increasing the resource footprint).

* Last but not least, keep in mind that Safari is one of the least supported browser of all when it comes to web applications and web services. There are uncountable online web services and applications that are optimized for Google Chrome and IE. On the other hand, there is hardly any web app out there that I would know of that Chrome or IE cannot handle. But I am sure Facebook renders just fine on Safari ;-) (sorry my being ironic)

Now, do not get me wrong, I think the design of Macs is slick (though the OS looks ridiculously basic and outdated) and yes, sure, if you run your 10-20 apps (and never surf porn) then it is most likely pretty stable. But what other benefit does a Mac really have? I run systematic trading applications on Windows servers for over 10 years now and guess what, hardly ever have I had issues that originated with the OS itself. I also need to concede that there are specific niche use cases that lend themselves to using Linux. If you operate high frequency trading algorithms then Win OS is a huge no go. Having said that for the mainstream case I do not see the point why anyone would want to purchase a Mac in 2014

P.S. I think I have sufficient insight into both platforms as I started with an Apple 2e when I was in my low teens, coded Turbo Pascal, C++, Assembler on this machine and later Macs and have until recently followed the newest Mac releases (seriously considered a 12 core version). I was not convinced mostly for software incompatibility reasons.
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+1 from a programmer with 15 yr professional programming experience.

Mac is a close system by design where Windows is an open system. And windows is no longer just a GUI on top of DOS.
 
just21 said:
Have you sen the Intel next unit of computing NUC? Smaller and more powerful than a mac mini.
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I believe the fan makes a lot more noise. Lenovo has a small version that is OK but I do not like the ventilation design. Our little Mac Mini are sitting on motorbike air-intake ventilation foam which keeps a lot of dirt out.

However we're actively keeping our eye for some other options, not married to a specific brand or product as long as it meets the requirements.

Not happy about still having old technology plus internally the Mac mini's are fragile - you have to be very carefull not to dislodge some of the connector sockets which then requires a new logic board. Neither happy about the temperatures these machines can reach when running large CPU loads for extended times.

We're using a single 27" and 29"screen on each Mac mini but each can drive two screens. Why I would need more than one screen?
 
volpunter said:
Having said that for the mainstream case I do not see the point why anyone would want to purchase a Mac in 2014
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Still searching for an alternative although at this stage starting to consider going back to a laptop and hooking up an external monitor. A laptop on its own is not going to comply with our requirements - screen size is just too small. Fan noise in a laptop is another issue.

We moved to the Mac mini from top of the range IBM Thinkpads when the laptop was four - five times the price of the Mac mini however prices of laptops have come down considerably and no longer needing the fastest laptop gets an very respectable laptop in a comparable price range.
 
Xena said:
I believe the fan makes a lot more noise.
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What "believe" in your sentence above is based upon? There are quite a few reviews out there with the noise numbers in dB. I have 2 NUCs in front of me. Cannot hear them. 2nd and 4th generation. Dell Precision M4700 laptop is the loudest in my office, it may be the culprit . Oh, the Quiet PC folks also endorsed Intel NUC. And one can install MacOS on it and claim it runs faster than on an Apple hardware piece.
 
apdxyk said:
What "believe" in your sentence above is based upon? There are quite a few reviews out there with the noise numbers in dB. I have 2 NUCs in front of me. Cannot hear them. 2nd and 4th generation. Dell Precision M4700 laptop is the loudest in my office, it may be the culprit . Oh, the Quiet PC folks also endorsed Intel NUC. And one can install MacOS on it and claim it runs faster than on an Apple hardware piece.
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You can get fanless cases for Intel NUC.
 
Thanks for the feedbacks on the NUC. Information that I found 6 months ago was that the NUC had an audible hum at approx 32 dB at idle whereas the Mac mini is around 15 dB @ 1 meter.

I would be interested in fanless since with a fan always dust accumulates inside. Any recommendations for a fanless design will be greatly appreciated since I have enough of Apple.
 
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