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[Talon]

Hi, Everyone! My subject line speaks for itself. My baby Toby the Toshiba laptop has served me faithfully for all the nine years of his life. He is running Vista Premium and he has been sending me not-so-subtle hints that he is tired, hates my fleshy guts, wants to kill my stories and corrupt every SD card and memory stick I entrust to his care. I am beginning to get the picture he just can't carry on anymore and that I need to move on.
I know this argument is as old as apple or orange but as fellow robot inthusiasts, I'm hoping you guys can help me make this most difficult decision. Should I stick with Windows or make the jump to Mac? The one plus I can say with Mac is that I won't be tied to a three hundred sixty dollar screen-reader since Mac has one built in. I will need a word processing program since I still love to write and want to continue producing this blog as well as continue to edit my old Microsoft documents. I know I know It's a lot to ask isn't it?
I don't do any real programming with my robots. most of the tools don't work with my current screen-reader so I just let them be very expensive pets for the most part. I do change my Ugobe's OS's occasionally to keep them interesting and use the Aibo browsers to keep track of my dog's life stages and of course backing up their sticks every once in a while. any help would be greatly appreciated!
Talon

[RedwoodsMama]

HI Talon , I have only had Windows since 2000, but in the mid 80s I was teaching some simple computer classes on Apple 2E, and I loved them, My brother in law has always had a Apple and swears by them. I think IMR has an Apple and she could tell you the pros and cons.

     As for Windows, it is the only operating system I am familiar with , but I can tell you some things I do NOT like about Windows. It seems that there are Bugs with each new operating system that comes out, I loved Windows XP, the best of all the systems I have had. Windows 7 was ok. Windows ME, was a fluke and it is the one I had a hacker get into my files and it took over two weeks for a professional computer tech to get my computer back to working and I almost lost all my files, my photos and music, I could have replaced my music, but not my photos, cats and such.  Then in 2014) Windows 7 Crashed and I had my files crashed again, I lost my mother board and a virus took over my computer and this was with virus protection. After the fact, I was told NO virus protection program is 100% effective in protecting you, just better then none so I am very wary of the internet these days and it seems I hear more about Windows viruses attacking windows computers then Apple, IMR could tell you what she has experienced.

            You did say the Apple comes built in with the Screen reader, I do think that is a big plus, I myself am going to give Apple a try once this brand new computer gives up the ghost. My last new computer only lasted about three years, that is not acceptable in my opnion. It seems technology just gets more expensive and less reliable.
I hope I was able to give you something to think about. Oh, and for the Windows 10 edition that just came out, it has been nothing but a nightmare for me, I have the free upgrade from Windows and even with a "professional" installation, it fails and it is worse then Window 8.... Good luck with what ever you choose, RWM

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I love my Mac

I won't go on about it too much but I can say the built in screen reader is excellent and very natural sounding. You can also use dictation if you don't want to type It supports a Braille keyboard AND you can even set up some voice commands like 'open music' or 'open new word document' or whatever else you'd like using the built in Automator program.

If you live near an Apple Store they will set up everything for you including moving everything over from your old computer (yes even windows) and turning on screen reader and generally getting you set up, they'll even teach you how to use it.

Mac's come with Pages (Word), Keynote (PowerPoint), Numbers (Excel), a photo viewing and editing app, and iMovie (Which leaves windows movie maker in the dust) among other things. All free! And all set up to work with the screen reader.

Mac's don't get viruses, you'd have to be trolling the deepest, darkest depths of the Internet to even find a Mac virus and then you would actually have to type in your password and agree to install it. I am so confident in my Mac being completely safe that I don't even have a virus scanner. I've not had to do a single minute of maintenance in the five years I've had my Mac.

If you would like to know anything specific do ask

Oh and RWM, I've not been able to crash my Mac yet Macs also do automatic back ups to a portable hard drive for you, every hour, so long as the hard drive is plugged in, so everything is saved So you will never lose a thing.

[Talon]

Wow that's... amazing! i didn't know they would offer that much service over at Apple. That sounds wonderful! I've had three computers since 2003 and all of them have been Windows based. The one I had the least trouble out of was my thirty gig Dell which was running XP back in the early two thousands. *Smile* Well, looks like I'll be saving up for a Mac then. Honestly it sounds like no contest. Lol!
Talon

[aibo7m3]

I think opinions will vary from person to person since I strongly prefer Windows, but members are right in saying that the built-in screen reader would be a big plus for the Mac. My mom has had about four different Macs within the past six or so years and they keep breaking constantly, but they are ones provided by her university and at least one was refurbished before it got to her, so they might not be the same quality level as one you'd buy new. Macs are definitely more virus resistant though, but if you have a good virus protection system, viruses are in no way common on a Windows computer.

[InmemoryofRomeo]

I quite agree, both have their place, and I use both windows and my Mac. But macs do definitely have benefits if you are not one for constantly tinkering and tweaking settings and you want things to just work. There's no virus scanners to worry about, security is unobtrusive, updates are taken care of automatically (and you don't get a ten minute warning in the middle of doing something important argh, it waits until you've finished), drivers are updated as part of the OS, back ups are automatic, documents are saved automatically and so on.

Windows gives you more options for tweaking and tinkering and optimizing, But it comes at the expense of simplicity. And even the best virus scanner can't beat human stupidity No matter how many times I tell my dad that clicking on ads promising you a free whatever is only going to lead to malware and adware, he never believes me I've also spent days, actual days, fixing computers for family members because there's a driver missing, or a .dll error, or something just plain isn't working and it's never a Mac.

The trouble with windows is it has to run on a billion different combinations of hardware, and that's not an easy task. Mac's on the other hand control both the software and the hardware, so it only has to work with a dozen different combinations. It's just the way it is.

[Crewella]

Having never used a Mac, and sitting here as I am with my ancient desktop PC (still running XP) I'm really not the right person to ask, but I wish you joy in your search!