[tgrundke]

During a discussion with three friends yesterday about computers the topic inevitably came up of Apple, Macs, and software.

Now what is important is that this came up because we were discussing Rise of Nations, a new game by "Big Huge" and Microsoft (which, IMO, is freakin' awesome if you haven't played it yet, DO SO). This is a game that most likely will never be released for Mac (very sad) anytime in the near future.

Now, Rise of Nations is just an iindicator of my tendency to increasingly be 'dual use' in my computers. I have a cheap, homemade PC for many tasks, and my Mac is increasingly my 'media controller' and my choice for web browsing, music, video, CD-recording, et al.

My round-about discussion above is intended to ask people around here what they use their Macs for, and how many tend to be 'dual use' and how you would break down your time between PCs and Macs? That, or how many are Mac only and will stay Mac only. What might make you switch away, or what might make you go dual use?

[Powaqqatsi]

I'm Mac only, I'm not interested in games, Photoshop all the way baby ! And it will be that way forever probably.

[OptimusG4]

Mac for work, Gamecube and PS2 for play.

[Steve]

Mac for playing, custom-built PC for any actual work (albeit Photoshop, writing papers or doing design work) or gaming.

[voodoo]

Mac only (iBook) and my other computer is also a Mac (original iMac).

Games don't intrest me as much as science, philosophy, theology, human nature and politics.

[iT4c0]

Originally posted by Steve:
Mac for playing, custom-built PC for any actual work (albeit Photoshop, writing papers or doing design work) or gaming.

design on the PC!!!
GASP!

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Steve:
Mac for playing, custom-built PC for any actual work (albeit Photoshop, writing papers or doing design work) or gaming.

uh huh.

[Vanquish]

Originally posted by Steve:
Mac for playing, custom-built PC for any actual work (albeit Photoshop, writing papers or doing design work) or gaming.

You only use your mac to play with and you are a mod in a Mac forum ?

[MindFad]

Originally posted by iT4c0:
design on the PC!!!
GASP!

Yeah, Photoshop's a *blast* on Windows (see: window-in-window apps). Blech. I'll take the slow ass OS X version any day.

[Kilbey]

My other computer is a 200+Cyrix Win95 computer I built quite a while ago. I keep it to take up space in the closet. I hate having empty closets. Actually, I keep it because I was going to use AutoCAD for designing woodworking furniture projects. However, it took up too much valuable desk space and when we moved I put it in the closet and forgot about it until now. I will probably drop it in the garbage tomorrow. Then my second computer will be my Newton which I use to play black jack and solitaire when my wife drives on trips.

I switched from Windows when the first iMac came out. My friends thought I was nuts. Now most of them have bought a Mac too.

[schep]

my other computer is a Mac Plus and i don't use it for any thing at all

[Mulattabianca]

macs only. os x only.

[:XI:]

My other computers are:

An Intel Pentium MMX 200 with 32mb RAM, 3.4gig disk, cd-rom, cd-r Win95.
I keep it around for scanning and printing, I do so little of either it's not worth the expense of buying new for the mac.

A standard Amiga 600.
I bought this to transfer my files over to the pc. But I can't really be bothered

A Playastaion.
It's chipped and I keep it around to play the few copied games I've got. It doesn't see light often.

A PS2.
For games, used almost daily.

An IBM P70.
386SX (no fpu) 4MB Ram 60meg disk, windows 3.11.
I keep it around because it was my first PC and it's got an orange plasma screen! I've got pics someplace, I'll post them if I can find them.

[funkboy]

iMac, iBook, beige Power Mac G3. I feel so gluttonous typing that... I'm like all those other people on message boards saying, "Yeah, I've got a couple G4 towers lying around, not being used." Give them to me!!

...but now I have ... well... all my computers are being used on quite a regular basis, actually. Airport is the reason for some of their existence, even

My gaming is done on a GameCube or a friend's XBox... I'll avoid buying one of those, thank you very much.

[bradoesch]

iMac DV for the iApps and some web browsing, P2 233 MHz for games, web browsing and whatever else I need Windows for. The PC also has BeOS on there which sometimes gets used.
I actually do quite a bit of web browsing on the PC. Scrolling is quite a bit smoother and it just feels faster.

[mark9939]

I own 1 Mac, 3 PCs, and 2 consoles. The PC's are for fun or used to serve/store a lot of large files.

1 Power Mac G4 1 GHz/1 GB RAM
1 Vaio P4 2.4 GHz/512 MB RAM
1 HP P2 400 MHZ/192 MB RAM
1 Packard Bell Pentium 90 MHz/32 MB RAM
Xbox
Gamecube (which I regret purchasing now...)
(The Pentium is just for sentimental value )

I do most of my school work/photo work on my Mac, but sometimes on my Vaio.

All my gaming is on my Vaio and Xbox.

Macs are never going to get into the real gaming world, so PCs all the way for that.

[Scotttheking]

Ti550 - my laptop. Used for general light stuff, and taking it with me.

G4 400 - my desktop. Soon to be faster. Has a radeon 8500, around 140GB of HD space, and 1GB+ ram. Used for games, when I need to write research papers that are easier with dual monitors, etc.

iMac G4 800, 15" superdrive. Sister's computer, used for AIM and surfing. It's overkill.

iMac G4 1ghz, 17" superdrive, fully loaded. Brother's computer, used for AIM, surfing, and an occasional game when he manages to get one of my games. Spends most of it's time off.

G3 400 - Print server. It runs two of the three printers on my network. One of these days it may get OSX Server for me to play with.

PM 8500 G3 300 - My old powermac, it now runs linux and is my network's proxy server, as well as doing a little backend processing for a website I run.

Athlon XP 2000 - my gateway, firewall, and everything web server (DNS, email, web, ftp, etc.) Runs linux.

Athlon XP 2100@2400 - backend server, does a lot of the processing for a website I run. Runs linux.

Athlon XP 1800 - Runs win2k right now for one application I need, but I won't need to be running that anymore soon. I'm going to get a removable HD bay and use the machine for win2k tinkering, win2k3 server tinkering (MS gives 180 day eval copies, I wish apple did that), and as a linux tinkering testbed.

Tbird 1.2GHz. It's been sitting off for a month, too slow to be worth turning on It's a network boot machine, used for testing netboot setup, which I don't have running right now.

P2 400 - work laptop, runs Win98SE

I've got a few other old macs sitting in storage.

Oh yeah, and a gamecube for some games. But, I never use it. I don't know why I bought it, but it sits next to the TV incase I ever decide to use it.

[Earth Mk. II]

Celeron 500: headless, running FreeBSD. I use it to play around with various services.

[Eciton]

My current rig:
P4 2.2GHz, 512MB RAM, 160GB HDD, GeForce 4 MX 440, Audigy, 19" CRT, DVD, CD-RW. SuSE 7.3 and Win2k Pro.

My old laptop:
PIII 650MHz, 256MB RAM, 30GB HDD, ATI Rage Pro 8MB, 15" screen (Dell Inspiron 7500). RedHat 9 and Win2k Pro.

My old desktop:
PII 450MHz, 512MB RAM, god knows how much hard drive space, TNT 16MB, 19" iiyama visionmaster. SuSE 7.3 and Win98

My even older desktop:
P200, 64MB RAM, about 8GB, S3 Virge 4MB, Ensoniq Soundscape, 17" CRT. Win98

And my first desktop, which I don't have any more:
P90, 32MB RAM, 15" screen, that sort of jazz. 4x CD-ROM . Win95.

And in other machines:

Amiga A500 and A1200, SNES, PS2, GameCube, GameBoy, Atari Lynx...

and of course a whole range of PDAs, SmartPhones and phones generally

Yes, there's no Mac in there yet - but soon, soooooon!

[Worst. Episode. Ever.]

Computers that I use:
G4 Dual 1Ghz - work desktop
G4 400 - home desktop
iBook 600 - take everywhere

All above running OS X.

For gaming, I have a PS2 and a Sega Dreamcast.

Computers sitting in my closet:
2 beige (pre-G3) PowerMacs
1 Hewlett-Packard PC, Windows 98 installed.

[MacGorilla]

My main machine is a dual 1 Ghz Mac G4. I do all my work, gaming, etc, on it.

I also kind of a geek so I have other boxes around:
Dual Pentium Pro 200 Mhz, 288 megs of RAM. This one runs QNX. I actually use it a lot to write when I am upstais, away from my Mac. Kind of makes me feel like an uber geek running this necause QNX ain't an easy OS to configure.

SGI Irix. I don't know what speed its MIPS chip is. Its mostly useless. It boots up to Irix but is dog slow.

Sun Sparc. Low end, no floppy. Its in my closet.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Vanquish:
You only use your mac to play with and you are a mod in a Mac forum ?

Right... and I use OS9 (by choice) on the Macs around the house (DVI Ti, new iBook)...

[MacManMikeOSX]

I have my Cube but secondary my blazing fast 700 mhz P3 - PC

[macvillage.net]

Desktop:
B&W G3 (400MHz, 256MB RAM, 40GB+12GB HD).

File Server:
Beige G3DT (266MHz, 256MB RAM, 120GB HD)

Laptop:
IBM Thinkpad (1.8GHz P4M, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD)

Desktop
Gateway MT (1GHz P3, 256MB RAM, 30GB HD)


All wireless networked.


Not a bad setup. Wouldn't mind getting a G5 as a new desktop, promoting the B&W to file server, and retiring the Beige G3.

[wdlove]

I have a Power Mac G4 450 at home running 9 by choice.
My wife has a iBook 400 at home running X.
Both us PC at work!

[BLAZE_MkIV]

my othermachine is a 8500/150 running Apple Video Player and AppleShare IP
and i have it hooked up to a $50 vcr,

[crazyjohnson]

[family guy joke] My other penis is a vagina. [/family guy joke]

[fourstarcltv]

dual g4 450, 768meg ram, os x v10.2.

amd 2.2ghz athlon, 512meg pc2700 ram, 40gig 7200 rpm seagate, lite-on 48x cdrw, win xp sp1.

both hooked up to a sony g420 19" crt (allows input to be changed by switch, very nice).

i only recently picked up the pc, it's used for autocad, soulseek and lame mp3 encoding (now, all i need is somewhere to put the mp3's... an ipod perhaps?)

[kiwibabe]

At home I have a Blue RevB iMac running X.

At work I have a Red RevB iMac running 9

My boss is just about to buy us a Powerbook, I have already made my preference clear, 17" superdrive ..... mmmmm drool ...... I will use it the most YAY

[Kenneth]

My other 'puters...
Performa 6116CD with 136MB 72-pin SIMM RAM, 256k L2 cache, 4GB SCSI HD, 2MB HPV card for dual display and SETI@home station... running 9.1.. one fan located inside the power supply..

iBook 800... 32MB Radeon 7500.. 640MB RAM.. 12.1" display.. boot to 10.2.6 even though OS 9 works...Airport

iBook Rev. A Blueburry, 544MB RAM, stock 3.02GB HD, and running 10.2... no fan.. but noisy HD......Airport

custom-built AMD K6/200 PC, 64MB 72-pin SIMM RAM, 8MB PCI video, 10MB Ethernet, 6GB HD... WinXP Pro.... 2 fans (CPU + Power supply)

custom-built P2/266 PC, 160MB SDRAM, 4MB AGP graphic, 2GB + 4GB HDs... Win98... 3 fans (CPU, Power supply, and case)

2 PCs are barely used since noiser than my FW800 even with 4 fans in it.

[trusted_content]

Toshiba Satellite 4010CDS laptop
Blazing fast Pentium II 266 mhz. processor
Whopping 160 mb. of RAM
Insanely expansive 4.1 gb hard drive
Red Hat 9

[ism]

[Tatran68]

I also own a Sony Vaio SR17k. 2.98 lbs, 750mhz, 20 gig hd, firewire, USB, and it's smaller than a notebook. Like a PAPER notebook. I like it.

- Ca$h

[Agasthya]

My Mac: Dual 450 with 120+45GB of space and 576MB of PC100 RAM

My 'other' Computers: Athlon XP 1700+ with 80GB of space and 512MB PC2100 RAM running Windows XP

XP 1600+ with 10GB of space and 512MB of PC2100 memory running Windows 2003 Server (180 day eval).

I take my Mac to school with me and the two PCs stay at home for the family to use.

[iXavier]

My Mac: My G4 Cube (which is currently on its way to my house).

My other computer: A homebuilt P3-800 that usually stays in the closet, but is being used right now to post this message. I miss OS X, hopefully the Cube will come tomorrow.

My other, other computer: I have an old 7500 that sits underneath my DVD player in my entertainment center for decoration. It works, but its keyboard/mouse and monitor are in the closet. It's there to match the theme of Apple posters throughout the room.

x.

[daimoni]

.

[dampeoples]

iMac for photoshop, FCE, 3D, etc
iBook for iChat, IRC and macnn

[Gul Banana]

Main machine:
Sawtooth G4
1 GHz processor (upgraded)
Radeon 8500 (upgraded)
960 MB RAM (upgraded)
160 GB HDDs (upgrad.. you get the idea)
SoundSticks and iSub
Apple 17" CRT

My "other" computer is an iBook

At work, lots of varying macs, since I'm the IT person for a Mac-only company. At uni, mostly Linux machines. Windows is like a distant dream. Nightmare, whatever

[dn15]

My other computer was a home-made PC which I put together for fun: 1.3 GHz Duron, 512 MB, 40 GB, CD-RW, onboard video, network, etc. It ran Mandrake 9 and it was mainly used for web browsing, AIM and as a computer for visiting friends to use. I sold it because I didn't use it a lot, but now I kind of want to build another.

My "real" computer is a "Digital Audio" Power Mac G4 / 533, 640 MB, 40 GB, GeForce4 MX, DVD. It was and still is used for almost everything, like the digital hub stuff, email, etc.