I also get rid of everything from McAfee and Norton/Symantec. They seem to be the cause of many issues.
Windows 7 laptop vs. Macbook Pro/Air
- Thread starter N918KT
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I also get rid of everything from McAfee and Norton/Symantec. They seem to be the cause of many issues.
JimNtexas
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Jim - In Texas!
I love OSX. The GUI is clunky though.
Last I checked, there's all sorts of files all over the place when you type "ls" in the Terminal.
...
Sure, and if God had wanted man to fly he'd have given us wings.
Windows finder is an excellent tool, far better and faster than anything on OS-X.
Command line is fine for servers, not so much for productive software development.
jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
Funny, I know a lot of software developers, myself included that would disagree. Step away from the large enterprise and Microsoft stack. You'll find an awful lot of developers doing some pretty serious development in vi or emacs.
denverpilot
Tied Down
Haven't seen a GUI that could write code yet. Some tools like Eclipse type long object strings for you, and help with initial layout of GUI objects, but good code is still written in text, no matter the language. I'd love to know what software engineers you know who don't.
SkyHog
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Everything Offends Me
Couldn't agree more. Some forms of coding is easier in a GUI, but often its just quicker and more reliable to use nano to write the code in the environment it will run in. Anyone that claims that a GUI (or an IDE) is necessary has drank too much "Visual Studio" Kool Aid.
Topic at hand: I have had more failures than I care to admit on my iMac. But I have also had it for years now....5 years, maybe? And its still a relevant PC. I can't remember the last time that I had a Windows or Linux PC still run with relevance 5 years after I put it together. I may hate Apple with a passion, but they do know a thing or two about stability.
But - I will never buy the "Hardware is the best ever!" argument. I have had too many failures of Apple hardware to believe it (iPhones, MacBooks, and my iMac have all had a LOT of hardware failures).
My Sony Vaio is in year 4 now.
us AAirways
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us AAirways
If you like your current computer, you can keep it....
FastEddieB
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Fast Eddie B
If you like your current computer, you can keep it....
But can a new one save a typical family $2,500/yr?
Seriously, my experience has been that Apple hardware has been far more reliable than Windows machines we've had.
I have an older iBook that mostly sits now but still works.
In the same time frame, went through three Windows laptops - an HP, a Fujitsu and a Compaq. Each failed between 2 and 3 years in, with the $300+ repair cost making the purchase of a new machine (and selling the broken one on eBay) the most reasonable choice. Finally a Sony VAIO seemed to have "legs", and was given to our son when we no longer needed it.
To be fair, my late 2008 15" MacBook Pro had its optical drive gradually fade away, but with external replacements less than $40, not a huge deal, especially since I rarely use CD's or DVD's with it any more.
Multiple iDevices and our AppleTV and Airport devices have been bulletproof. So far.
Having access to the Genius Bar is a very nice feature. And several times they've gone above and beyond expectations, replacing items out of warranty (swelling battery in the MacBook Pro, an well used set of earbuds that stopped working, a bad iPad charger - that sort of thing).
Just our experience - yours may vary.
And for full disclosure, we do own some Apple stock, along with Amazon and Google among others.
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Bob Noel
I suspect it's a jab at one of many lies from those touting a controversial program.
silver-eagle
En-Route
Compare HTML code written by hand vs code written by a GUI interface like Microsoft Expressions. Not only is the code written by hand cleaner and less complicated to read, but it actually does exactly what the programmer coded. Gui provides a point and click world with drag and drop but in doing so, adds far too many extra lines of code (many redundant lines).
Give me a command line and an editor if I'm doing some serious work. Gui a quick HTML.
momalley
Line Up and Wait
I have a Dell Studio XPS 9000 that is about 5 years old and still a kick ass PC
Expressions is a piece of crap. Dreamweaver is nice in that it gives you both the GUI and the code side by side. The auto generated code isn't too ugly.
silver-eagle
En-Route
Expressions does as well. It was cheap. It was what was recommended by the USCG AUX. What can I say.
silver-eagle
En-Route
Lenovo came from old IBM stock. I have MANY in the house. One I bought, the rest supplied by the company. None I would ever buy myself. The one Lenovo I bought, the case sprung. Apparently all the glue separated.
The ASUS I have is okay. It does occasionally bluescreen. I think maybe thermal but do not have a gauge to check it with.
Toshiba had harddrive issues from day one.
HP should have stayed with printing and NEVER done a PC.
The DELL netbook is okay with linux but I wouldn't want to have to work on it too long.
Brand X systems were the best. Built from parts I picked so I could only blame the manufacturer. I argued and complained to myself quite often but at least I knew what I had.
The ASUS I have is okay. It does occasionally bluescreen. I think maybe thermal but do not have a gauge to check it with.
Toshiba had harddrive issues from day one.
HP should have stayed with printing and NEVER done a PC.
The DELL netbook is okay with linux but I wouldn't want to have to work on it too long.
Brand X systems were the best. Built from parts I picked so I could only blame the manufacturer. I argued and complained to myself quite often but at least I knew what I had.
N918KT
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Hello all. Thanks for the responses.
Now let me ask you guys a different question.
How well does Microsoft Security Essentials protect Windows 7 laptops from viruses, malware, etc? I have that antivirus program in addition to the freeware version of Malwarebytes and Symantec Endpoint Protection (my college's network policies requires me to download this program in order to go on the Internet at my college).
Now let me ask you guys a different question.
How well does Microsoft Security Essentials protect Windows 7 laptops from viruses, malware, etc? I have that antivirus program in addition to the freeware version of Malwarebytes and Symantec Endpoint Protection (my college's network policies requires me to download this program in order to go on the Internet at my college).
Use Chrome or Firefox as your browser, avoid questionable websites, don't download/run anything you're unsure of. Don't open attachments from emails unless you know the source.
Do these things and you should be fine. I have Avast anti-virus installed on windows and generally run with it disabled because I'm smart enough to avoid doing the things that get people infected in the first place.
Going all the way back to the 90s windows 3.1, I have rarely used anti-virus software and I've never had a problem. Common sense will protect you.
Do these things and you should be fine. I have Avast anti-virus installed on windows and generally run with it disabled because I'm smart enough to avoid doing the things that get people infected in the first place.
Going all the way back to the 90s windows 3.1, I have rarely used anti-virus software and I've never had a problem. Common sense will protect you.
That seems to work for me too, except that once I had set the options to require permission to run ActiveX, Internet Explorer has been OK too.
charheep
Cleared for Takeoff
We use Lenovo for the ~200 outside sales people. Only the T series laptops. They also get an Ipad to use as well. I would say we get about 1 malware/spyware infection every other month on the laptops and about 1 defective Ipad every 3 months(usually the cell data or personal hotspot feature goes first, dont get me started on IOS 7 reboots though). We have the laptops on a 2 year replacement cycle, now extending it a little longer with SSD's in them and replacing Ipad 3's with the Airs as they break or fail. So having used both "camps" I can say one is not head and shoulders above the other, however I have not used any Apple laptops. I have used the Lenovo T series for about 8 years and they have seemed decent The trackpad in the T440s I am using does seem like its more picky than earlier models though. Oh, and no virus/spyware, been working on Microsoft machines since Windows 98.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
Short answer: No.
If you're interested in going that route, buy it straight from Apple. They have a REALLY good refurb program, and I've bought them in the past - Only way I could tell it wasn't "new" was the box was a different color. It's not a "used" machine in this case either, it's a machine that had some part that was DOA and was immediately returned. Part replaced, testing done, and back out it goes.
Go here: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
What are you talking about? iOS pretends there are no files, Mac OS does not do any such thing.
How so?
I use both every day, and I don't see a whole lot of difference. I actually prefer the Mac Finder, but that's likely due to familiarity.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
I've been hearing about this "Apple Tax" since the 80's. It's BS - Since the advent of the web, every time I've bought a new Mac I've configured an as-equivalent-as-I-can-get-it PC. The price has been within $150 every time except one, and the Mac has been cheaper on a significant majority.
That said, Apple does not make cheap hardware. Yes, you can buy a Windoze PC cheaper - But it won't include nearly as many features. You do get what you pay for.
BTW, I've seen people go with Apple laptops solely because of the magnetic power connector. It's a very nice feature, and these power adapters with it last WAY longer than the non-magnetic ones - No springy parts to get loose.
flyingcheesehead
Taxi to Parking
There actually was one on the NeXT computers back in the day. It was amazing - They were actually able to create a flight simulator with it. Dunno what happened to it, but it seems to have fallen by the wayside somewhere along the way. I think it may have briefly survived the jump to Apple, as I do remember my watching my brother create a web browser in under 5 minutes without writing a single line of code. Pretty cool.
MadseasoN
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Any hand coding is going to be cleaner. No tool can know exactly what you want so most tools try to be 'everything to everybody'.
docmirror
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Cowboy - yeehah!
Before I start, this is my opinion, and not the only way to do things. If you don't like this way, then go find another but this way WORKS, and has worked for me on a Dell, Lenovo, and HP laptop running Win 7 with both Chrome and FF browsers.
Since you have MSE along with your symantic endpoint, which is what I have you should be able to configure it this way.
Click on the start icon, select control panel, select "action center" which may have a little blue flag. The action center window will open. Along the left side will be a link for "change action center settings", click on that text and the action center settings will be displayed. At this point you can configure how the security and maint settings are done. I have all my checkboxes marked. This will download security fixes automatically, and check for updates regularly. I have never had a virus, but then again, I don't visit porn sites and don't download sketchy stuff.
One more time with vigor; this is how I do it. There are many, many other ways to do things, and I am not advocating one over another, just the way that works well for me with Win 7.
denverpilot
Tied Down
This has changed on their high end laptops. Some time ago, in fact.
The HP EliteBook Workstation laptops are rugged and can be ordered with plenty of horsepower. Their docking stations are tons sturdier than post-IBM Lenovo stuff too.
The machines and the accessories are built like the tanks the IBM stuff was in the early 2000s.
Problem is, that also means you'll need a wheeled bag to lug around the laptop in if you want to not have shoulder problems after 20 years of transporting them. They're heavy as hell. They're also not cheap.
They tend to rival MacBooks on similar hardware for a similar price, but 5 lbs to 10 lbs heavier.
Csoechting
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Charles Soechting
I don't comment often but my two cents. I was a partner at a big law firm and now have my own. I had always used window based systems and do not go places I shouldn't but still......viruses, locked up computer etc. 3 years ago when starting my firm I said we are an apple product only firm and went out and promptly spent a bunch more than I would have some window stuff. 3 years later I would do the same. We are Mac computers, travel to trial with Mac Book Pro and I travel with Air and Ipad, all of which I work well with the Iphone. It's worked well for me..as long as you have an IT guy who can get the systems set up right.
wsuffa
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HP should have never merged with Compaq & their proprietary parts.
(There, fixed that for you)
I've seen several ratings that show MSE as performing much more poorly compared to other solutions.