Why good platforms ignore mac?

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by val1, Apr 11, 2014.

  1. rieszrep

    rieszrep

    The Mac Pro's SSD is not a "mediocre PCI-E one" as you stipulate. See public benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/12

    Please open a > GB size .csv in Notepad and look at the process memory usage if you're really interested to have a discussion with me that is not driven by senseless fervor.
     
    #61     May 14, 2014
  2. it hardly makes a difference. Get over it dude and move on. MacPro : 3000 USD, similar PC 1500 USD. The rest are negligible performance differences where the MacPro sometimes shines, at other times the PC. And this is, to get back to the main topic, a big reason people do not buy many. (as evidenced by the negligible market share of MacPros). If, as you claim, the price differential was 300-600 dollars, everyone, myself included would buy a MacPro because of its sleep design, think for one second why that is not the case. This was my last reply to you.

     
    #62     May 14, 2014
  3. rieszrep

    rieszrep

    All you've proven to us is that:

    (1) Your standards of "similar" are very low - the $1,500 PC that you described has the specs of an old-generation MacBook Pro/Air. (SATA SSD, i7 quad-core processor, regular memory, single commodity NVIDIA GPU or USB external video card).

    (2) You have a shaky understanding of the concepts of sequential read/write and memory access.
     
    #63     May 14, 2014
  4. Macs are cheaper than pcs.

    Why?

    You buy a Mac, use it for 4 years without any problem, and you can still sell it for 40-50% of the original purchase price on ebay.

    Try that with your Windows Dull after 4 years.
     
    #64     May 14, 2014
  5. I do not need to try that because I would upgrade a component here or there every now and then, hence, I would always have a target-spec machine at a fraction of the price of a completely new system. Try that with a Mac!!! ;-)


     
    #65     May 14, 2014

  6. I am sure there are fools that buy 4 yr old mac for 50% (never mind all the problems with 4 yrs old computers), but the problem is that you can the latest pc for the same amount of money.
     
    #66     May 14, 2014
  7. Exactly, and so far I still have not heard a single argument that speaks in favor of using Macs, not a single one (except of course the looks and design of the box). Not even the OS is worthy of any praise, it is currently quite out-dated and really does not impress at all. All the reasons why there are less viruses and attacks on Mac OS have been mentioned and none are because the OS is in any way better than Windows (compartmentalization of user specific access? Can do in Windows ... virtualization/separation of concerns? Can do in Windows...)

    As I have brought forward all arguments and showed detailed pricing that positions PCs of equal performance stats at 1/2 the price of comparable Macs for me it comes down to the reasoning of brainwash: Some by nature were educated or conditioned to hate Microsoft. They grew up during the I-have-a-right-to-get-everything-for-free and ironically those are the very same ones that are completely caught in the commercial Apple web that was spun around them inside the Microsoft-haters tin can. Most have completely missed the giants steps Windows has made with Windows 7 and many of the .Net technologies. You will be extremely hard-pressed to find C or C++ algorithms that significantly outperform C# algorithms, given both are written by very capable coders. Unless one engages in Ultra High Frequency Trading there is hardly a single reason left why Linux or non .Net languages should provide more fault tolerance, safety, latency, or convenience. On the other hand the huge advantage of Windows/C# is the rapid speed of development, the incredible resources when debugging and performance profiling. I will never understand how someone can come forth here and honestly claim that a text based editor or a console window is a better utility to debug and profile code. The claim that someone can write code faster and hence solve problems faster on a Linux system with C or C++ over Windows and .Net is ludicrous, the opposite has been proven in most investment banking and hedge fund environments where it takes a multiple of times to complete projects in non-Windows based and non-Java/non-.Net based languages.

     
    #67     May 18, 2014
  8. Baron

    Baron ET Founder

    Ok, so here's one: Exceptional engineering. From the feel of the keys on keyboard to the convenience of the app store to the incredible resolution and quality of their displays to the stability of the unix-based OS..... it all screams exceptional engineering. So if you're the type of guy who appreciates exceptional engineering, you're going to buy a German car and own a Mac. If you're the type of guy who's value conscious and likes to tinker with things, then you'll buy the American car and be the DIY computer builder using a variety of 3rd party parts. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with either type of person.

    Tell that to anyone under the age of 35. Personally speaking, I can honestly say that I don't know of a single person under the age of 35 who owns a PC.


    Yeah, we were conditioned to hate Microsoft because their operating system crashed, because it got viruses, and because hooking up 3rd party peripherals was more often a nightmare rather than not.

    Do you really think that IDEs are only available for developing, debugging and testing Microsoft products? I sure hope not.
     
    #68     May 18, 2014
  9. Microsoft crashes? Have had no crash for years. Viruses? What is that? There is the possibility of closing unnecessary ports, using Virtual environments like VirtualBox, VMware, Sandboxie. There is the possibility of finding women/girls/chicas out there instead of visiting porn sites (without software condom). There is the possibility of getting a (additional) job to buy software instead of going the route of downloading cracked malicious softwares because of the amount of money being too insufficient. Hardware firewall is better than (cracked) software firewall. As previous poster mentioned if Mac OS would be so good why do people feel the need to use Windows within Mac? BTW I know quite lot people under 35 who use PC. Smart decision since those people want to do some serious work.
     
    #69     May 18, 2014
  10. a) I am German and am used to exceptional engineering. Aside the design, which I praised and possibly the display (which by the way Apple had zero input in, the screen manufacturers are all third parties and Apple does not hold a single patent in any of the screen technologies, at least not major ones). Keyboards are good? Well, maybe you want to try Cherry Key equipped keyboards then we can talk keyboard quality. If you pay for a quality screen you get the same retina-like quality on non Apple screens as well, in fact the new 4k displays blow away any retina screen by a wide margin. The OS is good? Are you kidding me? Sure if you can live with all the bloatware that comes preinstalled and much of which cannot even be uninstalled. Apple ITunes? I have hardly ever experienced a clumsier music/app/movie repository and streaming library than ITunes. Have you every tried to move countries and wanted to access the market of a different region. Ever changed credit cards? Then you know what I am talking about.

    If you have never met a guy under 35 who is using a PC then you probably should get out of your office a little more often. But then I think I get your point and I believe we can agree that a much larger share of the population that defines itself as 80s or 90s generation has an incredibly hard time to sit his/her butt down to learn a new field from the ground up, the understanding of hard work is seems to most extent completely lost on anyone younger than 30. What everyone, however, seems to be willing to bend over backward is to become the next billionaire within 5 years of work. (Work being defined as schmoozing around in coffee shops, being seen with smart glasses and a mac laptop roaming the bookstores and bar venues, ..., I guess you get where I am trying to get to. Just because some in our society use mac and Apple to mostly defined themselves and their image does not make them productive nor role models wanting to imitate. Of course a number of mac machines are put to productive use but I would argue that 90% of all Apple laptops are used for leisure browsing and music listening. So, if that is your representative group or the group you define yourself belonging to then I am happy for you. Then you are most likely right that the majority of your peers use macs.

    Your cited Microsoft nightmares were maybe a story of the past. And sure, you must have experienced nightmares with all that downloaded porn and pirated software and all the worms and trojans that came along with them. I cannot second your agony with Microsoft products. Sure they have come a long way but I cannot share the pain you are describing especially not recently. You may want to give it a fair second-look

    Yes I believe so. But maybe you can point me to a Linux based IDE that comes close to offering even 10% of the capabilities of Visual Studio, to name only a single Windows based IDE. I am curious.

     
    #70     May 18, 2014