Are you using a Mac Or a Windows machine?

[Gonidae]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I am in contact with a software company making veterinary practice management software and I want to show them that there is a market for mac version of their softwares. please vote at the poll and post any comments that you might have.
also post links to known mac practice management software if you know any and or use them.

 

[dyachei]

I am in contact with a software company making veterinary practice management software and I want to show them that there is a market for mac version of their softwares. please vote at the poll and post any comments that you might have.
also post links to known mac practice management software if you know any and or use them.

I use a Mac, and at least 10/66 people in my class do, too. It got pretty popular when people needed a new computer and they were handing out iPods.

 

[Gonidae]

thanks for the replies, keep them coming,
they need to know we have a voice.
remember, it isn't a competition, i'm just trying to show that there is a market....

 

[rugbychick16]

K-state gives us notebooks with windows, onenote, etc, that are required to be used in all of our classes (and by gives, I mean we pay for with our student technology fee).

So we don't have much of a choice there, but a few students do have Macs at home that they use.

 

[TheFamilyDoc]

Windows 7 Home Premium

 

[jackrussel]

sorry to say but I'm not a big fan of Macs. I think I'm so used to PCs that macs seems unusable.

 

[ORvetgirl]

I love my mac...though I do wish there was one note for macs. I would say at least 10 out of 56 people in my class use macs, possibly more.

 

[HopefulAg]

Not sure you're gonna get a big enough sample size here but I use Windows 7. Macs are pretty much a rip off based solely in advertising and trends. Graphic design is about the only thing they're 'better' at.

 

[Ben and Me]

I'd say between 1/3 and 1/2 of the folks in my class use a mac.

 

[OtakuVet]

Just to speak up for the pc users who hate macs (I was one too!)-
As a techy, I can tell you that yes Macs are expensive but I want you guys to compare the normal $600 system with your current Mac book pro. It killed me to buy this thing but I have my reasons and number one is durability and number two is customer service. Yes you are slightly paying for a little less firepower, but you are also paying for silent fans, wide screens and a year of complementary apple care. As a girl who has been using pcs all her life, I can tell you this getting through tech support is always the worst ever and probably should be avoided if you know slightly about computers. But the difference is with most computers evne with their limited warranties through the first year of the warranty there are always these hoops to jump if something goes wrong that you cant fix. You cant just go to a store and get it fixed you have to send it off somewhere in the country and wait 3-6 weeks and hope that they would fix it. So far with the mac as long as I have apple care, they will fix or REPLACE my entire system in three years time. Ive never had that with pcs ever. Even if you bought a warranty rarely do I see a clause that they will actually replace your system. One thing that is cool about newer macs is the intel processor. Now-a-days you can get either an intel processor or the cheaper but just as good AMD. Im not quite sure if AMDs can be put in macs since they do not give you the option to do so. But with Macs they can actually use Windows pretty comfortably. So here are the things I think you are paying for, overall quiet system, customer service, the ability to dual boot, pretty nice wide screen lcd screens and a few other things that just makes them I dunno, Spiffy? Oh and current macs can use Windows 7.

 

[McVillesMom]

I use Windows and was so relieved when the computer lab here at school got new machines last year and they were all Dells.

I have worked in one practice that used Mac - don't remember what practice management software they used, but I was not a fan (nor would I have been if it had been PC based - the problem was not the platform, the problem was the software itself).

 

[causticus]

Just to speak up for the pc users who hate macs (I was one too!)-
As a techy, I can tell you that yes Macs are expensive but I want you guys to compare the normal $600 system with your current Mac book pro. It killed me to buy this thing but I have my reasons and number one is durability and number two is customer service. Yes you are slightly paying for a little less firepower, but you are also paying for silent fans, wide screens and a year of complementary apple care. As a girl who has been using pcs all her life, I can tell you this getting through tech support is always the worst ever and probably should be avoided if you know slightly about computers. But the difference is with most computers evne with their limited warranties through the first year of the warranty there are always these hoops to jump if something goes wrong that you cant fix. You cant just go to a store and get it fixed you have to send it off somewhere in the country and wait 3-6 weeks and hope that they would fix it. So far with the mac as long as I have apple care, they will fix or REPLACE my entire system in three years time. Ive never had that with pcs ever. Even if you bought a warranty rarely do I see a clause that they will actually replace your system. One thing that is cool about newer macs is the intel processor. Now-a-days you can get either an intel processor or the cheaper but just as good AMD. Im not quite sure if AMDs can be put in macs since they do not give you the option to do so. But with Macs they can actually use Windows pretty comfortably. So here are the things I think you are paying for, overall quiet system, customer service, the ability to dual boot, pretty nice wide screen lcd screens and a few other things that just makes them I dunno, Spiffy? Oh and current macs can use Windows 7.

Ditto to all of this. I have had great experiences with their service dept as well (thank you, Genius Bar for my free replacement iPod, no questions asked!) I've also been impressed with their tendency to last FOREVER...we have several ancient Macs (I think 1-2 of them are over 10 years old) that are still going strong. Also no worrying about spyware! 😍

I used to be exclusively PC, until about 5 years ago when my 2.5-year old PC crashed so hardcore that I couldn't even turn it on to get the data off. 😡 I used to have the same arguments about Macs before my "conversion experience" - hard to use, confusing, expensive, etc... My husband talked me into getting a Mac Mini by telling me he would only troubleshoot my computer for me if I got a Mac. So i gave in, and never looked back. Maybe it's just me, but everything seems much more intuitive. I'm not much of a computer person, but I can troubleshoot more things for myself on my Mac than I ever could on my PC.

 

[HopefulAg]

It killed me to buy this thing but I have my reasons and number one is durability and number two is customer service. Yes you are slightly paying for a little less firepower, but you are also paying for silent fans, wide screens and a year of complementary apple care.

You get all that with PCs too. Toshiba's customer service, for example, is exemplary. Never had a problem with them and they've fixed my laptop under shoddy excuses and reasons from myself (Playing with a ninja star in my room and missing the target, hitting the screen of the laptop and puncturing through it and out the back of the computer. They replaced the screen free of charge, no questions asked as to why there was a hole in my laptop).

So here are the things I think you are paying for, overall quiet system, customer service, the ability to dual boot, pretty nice wide screen lcd screens and a few other things that just makes them I dunno, Spiffy? Oh and current macs can use Windows 7.

Meh, my laptop is quiet. My desktop is quiet.

Again, you can get good customer service.

You can dual boot with Windows as well. People do it all the time to run Windows, Linux, and Leopard all on their PC.

Wide screen LCD is obtainable.

And all for a fraction of the price!

 

[turnandburn]

I'm also a PC person. I don't really care if other people use PCs or Macs! The thing that turns me *off* to Macs are the rabid Mac users themselves who go on and on and on about how great Macs are and how everyone should buy one. Who cares?!?!?! Why do you care what I use?? I'm perfectly happy with my PC, thank you. You dont' see ME trying to convert YOU to use a PC! 🙄

 

[PrimalMU]

Macs are pretty much a rip off based solely in advertising and trends. Graphic design is about the only thing they're 'better' at.

Couldn't disagree with you more. The build quality on my first gen Macbook is stellar. In the nearly 4 years I've had my Macbook I would have easily gone through 2-3 Dell/Toshiba/HP/Gateway laptops. Nearly every PC laptop I've ever used has been bulky and flimsy. When you look at it from a durability point of view, the Macbook comes out way ahead. $1000 over 4 years is a lot cheaper than $600-700 every 1 1/2-2 years.

And no, I don't baby my Macbook either.

Plus, since Macs can run Windows now, you get the best of both worlds. I use Windows 7 on my Mac (meaning I'm not an OSX fanboy), so my opinion is based solely on the quality of the hardware.

 

[PrimalMU]

You can dual boot with Windows as well. People do it all the time to run Windows, Linux, and Leopard all on their PC.

Your average PC user isn't going to be enough of a technophile to figure out how to install OSx86 on their PC laptop. 😉

And all for a fraction of the price!

Initial price, maybe, but when they have to buy a new laptop after 2 years, this logic goes out the window. I've personally seen it time and time again with my friends who have bought PC laptops. Their average lifespan is around 2 years.

 

[HopefulAg]

If you don't take care of anything, it's going to have a short life span. Don't change the oil in your car, your engines gonna complain. Don't maintain your computer, and it's going to complain. My laptop is going on 6 years now and works fine with just periodic virus and malware scans. People just need to learn how to take care of their stuff.

Besides, once the market share becomes larger and larger Mac, more and more viruses, malware, etc. will be written for that OS and suddenly you'll have a $1000 machine that lasts no longer than the PC. The architecture of the system won't be enough to save it at that point.

 

[PrimalMU]

If you don't take care of anything, it's going to have a short life span. Don't change the oil in your car, your engines gonna complain. Don't maintain your computer, and it's going to complain. My laptop is going on 6 years now and works fine with just periodic virus and malware scans. People just need to learn how to take care of their stuff.

I'll agree with you there, but even the laptops I've used that have never been carried around seem flimsy by comparison.

Besides, once the market share becomes larger and larger Mac, more and more viruses, malware, etc. will be written for that OS and suddenly you'll have a $1000 machine that lasts no longer than the PC. The architecture of the system won't be enough to save it at that point.

You do have a point about the "security through obscurity" issue, however you're overlooking that OS X's foundation is BSD, which will allow Apple to beef up security VERY easily should they need to in the future.

 

[HopefulAg]

No, I included that. "The architecture of the system won't be enough to save it at that point." I highly doubt that beefing up the security will deter determined ne'er-do-wells. It'll get rid of the script kiddies, but then again, a basic firewall/antivirus/knowledge of computers will get rid of that as well.


Either way it really doesn't matter who uses what, I just wish people were more informed about their decisions and not so quick to snap judgment based on hear-say and flashy advertising when it's more often than not an ID-10-7 error: aka the smuck between the keyboard and the chair.

 

[JuniorJumper]

Florida Veterinary Specialists uses all Macs at their (huge) practice. They may be able to tell you what software they're using if you call them up. 🙂

I have a Mac. Can't say I love it...the HD has crashed twice since 2006 and nothing could be recovered either time (bye iTunes library!). They did send me a free external HD after the 2nd crash. The housing also cracked, no fault of my own as they admitted it was a design flaw on the first generations. I also had to get somethig else replaced due to it overheating. I have to keep it on an elevated surface so the bottom of the computer doesn't overheat. I was also not impressed with my first generation iPod, that thing died in a year. I think the trick to Apple is waiting for second and later generations to come out. Hopefully I made the right move by waiting for iPhone 3gs.

That said, my next computer will be a Mac because I like eveything about the ones that work lol 🙂

 

[PrimalMU]

No, I included that. "The architecture of the system won't be enough to save it at that point." I highly doubt that beefing up the security will deter determined ne'er-do-wells. It'll get rid of the script kiddies, but then again, a basic firewall/antivirus/knowledge of computers will get rid of that as well.

I bet Yahoo and any number of corporations that use BSD for their servers would hate to hear to say that. Besides, those "determined ne'er-do-wells" probably won't be focusing their efforts on consumer laptops anyway. 😉

Either way it really doesn't matter who uses what, I just wish people were more informed about their decisions and not so quick to snap judgment based on hear-say and flashy advertising when it's more often than not an ID-10-7 error: aka the smuck between the keyboard and the chair.

Agree 110%.

 

[PrimalMU]

Florida Veterinary Specialists uses all Macs at their (huge) practice. They may be able to tell you what software they're using if you call them up. 🙂

I have a Mac. Can't say I love it...the HD has crashed twice since 2006 and nothing could be recovered either time (bye iTunes library!). They did send me a free external HD after the 2nd crash. The housing also cracked, no fault of my own as they admitted it was a design flaw on the first generations. I also had to get somethig else replaced due to it overheating. I have to keep it on an elevated surface so the bottom of the computer doesn't overheat. I was also not impressed with my first generation iPod, that thing died in a year. I think the trick to Apple is waiting for second and later generations to come out. Hopefully I made the right move by waiting for iPhone 3gs.

That said, my next computer will be a Mac because I like eveything about the ones that work lol 🙂

Not all 1st gen Macbooks were buggy. I've got one that I've been using for nearly 4 years with no problems at all.

 

[JuniorJumper]

Not all 1st gen Macbooks were buggy. I've got one that I've been using for nearly 4 years with no problems at all.

I understand that and I wasn't implying all first gens are lemons; clearly that is what I got but the company has essentially rebuilt my computer to make it right. However, it is becoming a more and more popularly held belief that waiting for later generation Apple products is a wise decision since bug issues are much more common in the first run machines 😉

 

[nymeria1]

I <3 <3 <3 my mac. Probably 2/3 of my undergrad has a mac...

I shadowed at a small animal vet clinic that used Mac software but I was only there for a few days so I completely forget what it was called. I do remember being impressed/excited that they were using Macs, though.