Going from PC to Mac...Should I do this?
- Thread starter Mack Entertainment
- Start date
As a general rule, buy crap, get crap. That said, even Dell makes crap. They also make some mid grade and higher end stuff too. 10 year old machines are usually not the norm in a State or Fed dept any longer (no support) - and hasn't been for several years. In IT, a device that's 10 years old is antiquated.
I don't know much about Dell's consumer grade computers, but their business grade computers are pretty good. In state government, budgets are very tight. You learn to do more with less. As new computers were purchased, I salvaged the old computers and refurbished them for replacements or used them for parts, depending on condition. My agency was in better shape than some. While we had many 10 year old computers, there were agencies who would have loved to have our old GX-260's. We were ultimately forced to replace many of the older computers last year when support for XP expired, but many of those computers were still running fine. We could have put a new version of LINUX and kept them going another couple of years, but we sent them to salvage where they were likely auctioned off to the public.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Fed Gov't budgets are tight too - and the ever growing IT requirement makes that budget worse. For the State / Fed offices I have been in, most are auctioned off to the public and are most likely still in use. The 'lifetime replacement' on most Fed / State machine is about 3 years, though I have seen some still there around 5. With everyone having to meet IT Policy requirements and regulations on security, you will see it changing if you haven't already. One of the coming (if not implemented already changes), most systems contain no hard drives any longer.
Yep... All hard drives are removed and destroyed before being salvaged. In Oklahoma, the State has a contract with a company that uses a giant wood chipper like machine to pulverize the hard disks.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I had a Dell laptop from 2005 that needed the CMOS battery replaced. Easy fix...a $5.00 watch battery. NOPE...it was soldered into the motherboard and the entire motherboard needed to be replaced just to fix that dang little battery.
So that old laptop became a door stop. It was my 3rd backup unit anyway...
So that old laptop became a door stop. It was my 3rd backup unit anyway...
The same thing is highly recommended for higher end copiers.
They also have hard drives that makes copies of everything you copy or scan and that destruction process is also used.
Actually it's pretty cool to watch and hear...costs about $250.00 per drive.
I guess I struck a nerve. My point is that all platforms get patches/updates, and you're right, some more than others. Certainly Windows gets more - a much larger user database. Updates are usually good - often more efficient code for less CPU load.
There is no magic here. A computer is simply a tool to get a job done. However, the organizing of a gazillion zero's and one's is usually done with the "Normal User" in mind. We DJ's are a very small segment of the computer world - anybody who thinks that our very specific software will always be plug-n-play (perhaps with the exception of the tight Serato/Mac combination), whether running Mac or PC, is barking up the wrong tree.
Many laptops (not just Dell) had soldered CMOS batteries. I suspect you had an Inspiron, but even older Latitudes (pre D810) had them. I guess laptop manufacturers did this to ensure the battery would not come loose when being transported. I'm not trying to defend Dell. I never owned one of my own, but used them at work for many years and they were not bad. I managed a team of technicians that had to support about 1100 of them across the state, and I can attest that support of the hardware was pretty easy. Dell's warranty support was excellent, and their online support was better than most.
My personal preference was IBM ThinkPad's, but now that Lenovo owns the line, I can't say if the quality is as good. I bought my wife a Lenovo ThinkPad a couple of years ago and it's a nice laptop. I use an Acer for my DJ business. I used it for my very first event (a wedding) and it worked fine, but it's only used as a backup now. Still, I'd have no concerns about using it for an event if necessary. I recently used it for a small Christmas house party.
Last edited:
If you already have a MBP, just try it. Download DJAY PRO or VDJ free until you decide to buy VDJ PRO. you may even be able to request a Mac Download for same license as your Windows version. If you bought VDJ PRO. I will tell you that you will absolutely love OSX once you get used to it a bit. I started out using Windows before Win95 and went all the way to XP and loved it too. But I cd I went Mac, I only use a windows laptop for Tag&Rename cause there is no Mac app that can touch it. Otherwise, I have forgotten all about Windows. I have 2 MBPRO's and 2 iMac 24" and an iMac 22" with 2 iPads and an iPad mini as well as iPhone 6plus and 6 and a few 4s phones as well as an appletv. I even have a power mac from 2007. Nothing is better. I am convinced. I was so tired of windows issues. Even though I ran clean machines. There are countless things we all can say that Windows has failed us. But remember, Apple products are only hardware as well and will fail too. But their OS is magical.
I also have all the DJ apps a too. Serato, tractor, VDJ, Megaseg and on and on. VDJ works excellent on OSX. THEY ALL DO. I have a bit of love hate with megaseg cause of how it imports files slowly but it it rock solid as a DJ program.
I've been preaching this for years! Except the new ones have the dumb whole-back-of-laptop hinge crap, so all of the connectors are on the sides. I'm likely boycotting those, myself. But it's really hard to beat a T-series Thinkpad, that's for sure.
Toshiba... *scoffs*
Personal side, I use alot of Toshiba's as well. The mid grade / higher end Satellites are nice.
Work side, the latest machines we have are the Dell 6530's / 6540's. We've had them less than 6 months and already had a few of them serviced under warranty.
Work side, the latest machines we have are the Dell 6530's / 6540's. We've had them less than 6 months and already had a few of them serviced under warranty.
Another difference. DOS is the OS for PCs, Windows is just the GUI. With Mac the GUI is part of the OS, it's built in. That may be the reason that Windows has to update so often. I can't remember the last time I did any software updates on my imac, so I just checked to see what updates are available. There were four. One was for itunes, one for Safari. The others were security update and remote desktop client update.
That's true for older Windows machines (Win 3.11 / 95). Not so much since Windows XP and beyond. Win7 was a rewrite, so alot changed with that too. You can still get to a command prompt, but it's not the same DOS of old.
Your point is valid though - Traditionally, Apple has been a hardware based GUI whereas Windows has been a software based GUI.
Part of the reason for all the Windows updates is the user base. MS is the premiere attacked platform in the world. By design, Windows has not been as secure an OS as Unix and its variations, Linux, OSX, etc. Add in that the users are not being proactive in protecting their systems properly (users have Admin acct, etc).
Your point is valid though - Traditionally, Apple has been a hardware based GUI whereas Windows has been a software based GUI.
Part of the reason for all the Windows updates is the user base. MS is the premiere attacked platform in the world. By design, Windows has not been as secure an OS as Unix and its variations, Linux, OSX, etc. Add in that the users are not being proactive in protecting their systems properly (users have Admin acct, etc).
Last edited:
I just checked and my external DJ hard drive is formatted NTFS so I'm going to have to but a new drive, format it on the Mac. And copy the files over. It may be a while before I go mac lol.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You are correct Mr. Ittigger! Most people mistakenly think the command prompt is DOS, but it's actually derived from the Win32 CMD from Windows NT. Windows has not been layered on top of DOS, or even included DOS in more than 15 years.
Also, the command line interface (CMD) is a positive, not a negative for Systems Administrators and the like. Sometimes the GUI is too cumbersome.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk