I appreciate all the ideas and advice that have come back on this list regarding this subject. However I never meant for this thread to go into which system was truly better then the other or lead to a flame war, since that's something that will never be agreed upon. I also apologize to those that feel that this thread should not be on this list. I felt it was valid since my primary concern regarding Mac was for graphic and image editing purposes and if it makes you happier I do use images created in my Pentax and Minolta cameras for backgrounds. So far I've not heard anything that gives me the impression that one system is really better then the other. Windows went through a lot of growing pains, but upon the release of windows 2000 (which is what I run most of the time since XP wastes too many resources for my taste) and XP things really started looking up. During that previous time, Mac may well have had a superior more, stable system. As I never ran them at during that period, I can't say for sure. I'm sure I can learn to operate a Mac properly with a little time. In class we have very little time to do our assignments, thus most of my work is done at home on PC. I could drive down to the college and use their systems, but the available time in my lifestyle puts a crimp on this and I truly question the validity of learning OS 9x. I doubt that running a Mac is harder then running Linux, which I also do when I get bored or upset with Microsoft. I am trying to keep an open mind even though part of me rebels hugely, especially over the missing right click.
The important concerns here for me are do I need to be competent on a Mac to be competent in the industry? (Yes, I probably do) Which system will give me a more productive workflow specifically working with graphics applications? I build my own PC's, can I do the same effectively with a Mac? When a component gives me a problem, can I simply buy one to replace it myself, or am I at the mercy of repair service at Mac, their schedule and their parts prices? On my PC's if I have a hardware problem, normally the part can be replaced and back up and running the same day.(No, I haven't had the time to properly research this yet!) If it was justifiable and needed, I would work towards obtaining a G5 10.3 OS(Panther) system. I could build more then a couple awesome PC's though for the amount of cash I would need to outlay to do this. I always run at least 2 physical hard drives (not just partitions) for backup safety's sake. Since the drives are not named "C" etc, does Mac support this? Is it like Linux where different drives or partitions simply have different directory names? On PC I can completely lose my OS and reformat if necessary without losing any data (throw back to win 98, hasn't been an issue since Win 2K, however a drive can still fail), can I do this on a Mac per the 2nd hard drive? Note: PC's with factory restore disks are a total waste of time as well for data salvaging on partitions. In regard to the saving of files in Freehand 10 as .eps that some of you find totally laughable. First of all, we are running Mac OS 9.2 at the college with the Freehand 10 version, not Freehand 9 or Freehand MX(11). Secondly, I don't think I made the problem totally clear as per the responses. What I'm referring to is when you have a group of objects either all selected, or grouped and the single group selected. Now what I want to do is, save that group or object separately from the rest of the page or document as an .eps editable image file. I don't want to save the entire page or document, only one graphic that retains full vector graphic properties. Thus it can be imported separately into another page or document and reduced or enlarged, ungrouped and edited in any way that I desire and still retain all the excellent printing properties of an enlarged vector graphic. If you enlarge and print a graphic that is not a true vector graphic it loses considerable quality. On PC I can do this, on the Mac's at school it always saves the entire page or saves the object in a format that is no longer editable. Yes, the page or document is editable, but is a larger file size and requires a couple more steps for me to accomplish my goal. According to my instructor, this is an issue that is about time and money in a working studio environment, not whether or not you can get to the same place or not on a Mac. Is my instructor competent? Well, that does seem questionable at the moment, however she is quite charming and good looking too... :), not to mention she does run and operate a successful graphics studio with some quite major accounts. In some of the documentation links that have been suggested, it talks about repairing the machine that has problems saving as an editable file, however from what I can discern, they are still talking about an entire page or document, not a single graphic. Most of this documentation seems to be targeted at Freehand 9 and claims these issues were fixed with the Freehand 10 release anyways. Yes, I could google it and come up with the answers to many of my questions, and I have, however I find it educational and interesting to discuss these things in a group environment. If the majority of the group feels that this type of discussion is wrong let me know and I'll cease and desist from further posts about such matters. Possibly this is not the group for me. Regards David Miers
