iMac

[JoeImp]

Well, my friend recently purchased an iMac. When I say friend, I really mean friend, cause I would never buy one Anyways, it's the newest one, I think with a G5 and OS X. I don't know anything about them really. He says that when he is surfing the web, it's pretty much hit or miss whether a movie will work. He says he'll click on a link for a movie, and 50% of the time quicktime will open and play it, the other 50% of the time it does nothing. He says that he installed windows media player for mac, and it does nothing. He he also got a plugin for quicktime that will allow it to play windows media files. He got all this, and there's a 50% chance that a movie he clicks on will work. I know absolutely nothing about macs. Is there any advice you guys can give him? (Other than don't buy a mac )

[elfprince13]

Is he using Safari or IE Mac.....fyi Safari is one of only 2 browsers to pass the Acid2 test for conforming to Web Rendering standards. Macs are far more reliable and efficient. my 533mhz iMac G3 runs noticeably faster than a 2.5 ghz Pentium4 at school and has crashed twice in the year and a half since we got it used....RAM is the same. Schools computers are brand new and crash repeatedly each day. he shouldnt have to get a plugin because Windows Media Player come built into mac under the utilities folder in applications.

[Brazucs]

My TI-73 runs faster than the 2.5ghz Pentium 4 at school. Don't base yourself with school computers; they're loaded with all kinds of crap.

[NETWizz]

That actually depdends on what school you go to and who are the Administrators!

At the District I work for, our computers rarely crash. I have even seen one that was running XP for 69 days without a reboot.

As for crashing, most do not crash. If they crash and are loaded with all kinds of crap, it was from the people that used them not from us!

Maybe the comptuers at your school are loaded with all kinds of crap, but they aren't where I work.

[elfprince13]

ditto....well except for Deep Freeze, and Windows, but all the computers have that....

anyway this is getting off topic, and Mac vs Windows is old debate and the windows people never come up with anything new...always "Mac sux cause its not windows." anyway, give us more details on your friends computer....what version of OS X is he running.....what browser......etc

[koolmansam375]

What kind of video? avi? Its most likely a missing codec then. I dont know where he would find a codec that works but something like a DivX for Mac (if there is one) would be the best.

edit: there is: http://www.divx.com/divx/mac/




and lastly imo Camino is far better (read: faster) than Safari, http://www.caminobrowser.org/

[Brazucs]

[Arcane Wizard]

And to compare the 533mhz iMac would have to be loaded with a similar amount of crap, obviously it wouldn't perform as well as the P4.

[NETWizz]

Agreed.

To be honest, a P4 2.4 is a pretty slow computer. At least they are still livable though.

I can definatly agree that DeepFreeze is Crap. We don't use it.
I mean it will do exactly what it is supposed to do, but it would be a waste of money.

I don't think DF would work for us. We automatically remotly install software. Obviously Deep Freeze would get in the way.

Here is a list of stuff we run:

Windows XP SP1 or SP2
Acrobat Reader 5, 6, or 7 (6.0.x is our standard)
GroupWise Email Client
Media Player 9 or 10
MS Office XP /w Word, Excell, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage, and rarely Publiseher (SP 1, SP2 (most common), or SP3)
Java JRE 1.4 or 1.5 (We are going with 1.5 a.k.a J2SE 5.0 Update 2 right now)
Novell Client for Widnows 4.90 (very rare), 4.90 SP1a (Rare), 4.90 SP2 (Most common), 4.91 (In our latest Imaging)
Zenworks 6.5.1.0

The above is all that is on each workstation. Our Internet Browser is IE.

Now, using ZenWorks, we can automatically install software remotly simply by assigning it to containers, groups, users, or computers.

Using Zenworks:
We automatically install Symantec Corp AntiVirus with site specific update server.
Automatically configure the email client and Network Client for the site.
Teacher's Get things like Making the Grade
Administrators and Clerks get Aeries (A student DB program that really sucks)
Students get things like Inspiration (An brainstorming product for organizing ideas)
Labs get appropriate software such as Mavis Typing, A+LS for reading and Math labs...

What I am trying to get at is that all our computers are generic and automatically configure them self based on the network they start up on and who longs in. Obviously overtime the comptuers accumulate software and user profiles. Obviously if a teacher logs in on a library computer, Making the Grade gets installed and left on the computer even after they leave. However, it doesn't matter because no links are left behind and the grades are not stored locally on the computer.

Instead of Deep Freeze, we use Group Policy, which is included with Widnows.

We build and test each computer image before using it. Then we use it for months before rebuilding or updating it.

Our latest is as follows:
XP Pro under Volume Licencing with SP2
Acrobat Reader 6.0.3
Office XP SP3
Groupwise Email 6.5.0
Media Player 10
J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 2
Novell Client 4.91
Zenworks For Desktops 6.5.1.0

We will likely upgrade our base image after the summer to have Acrobat Reader 7.0x, Groupwise 6.5.4, and Java Update 4. We will also probalby add additional Wireless drivers as well as a display drivers to the image.

Currently, the Image will run on any Dell OptiPlex 1 to 280 regardless of Network Card, Display Adapter, Hard Drive Controller, .... All the drivers are in the image including SATA and ATA. It takes only 7 to 15 minutes to re-image a computer and another 5 for it to automatically install and update itself to run on whatever network we put it on.

[elfprince13]

[Brazucs]

I know you can Ctrl-Click on the Mac... I watched the Photoshop CS training videos
I was jk man. Lighten up, my dad's got a Mac.

[AlienCC]

[elfprince13]

Allright, Ive used, Linux (Mandrake distro), Mac (Classic and OS X), and Windows. I am just as proficient in Windows as I am on Mac, and Ive taken the time to learn the OS. how many of you Mac-bashers can say the same? I use Windows as regularly as Mac. Ive noticed the all the Windows bashers actually bash windows, from experience, not from hearsay. All the Mac bashers Ive seen either have never used mac, or have had a bad experience with schools have Perfoma's running Mac OS 6 or 7. Duh it sucks, its 8 years old, but its better than the Windows of the same era (3.1....95). Have you used OS X? do you use macs on a regular basis and still truthfully say that you think they suck..i dont think so </flame>

[Arcane Wizard]

Who's bashing Macs?

[elfprince13]

JoeImp and Brazucs.....of course this also applies to everyone who bashes Macs.

[AlienCC]

elfprince13 you completely missed the message in my post, go back and re-read it.

This thread will now be closed.

--AlienCC.