Thinkin of switchin...


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"Wanting to" is not a compelling reason. "Wanting to" would more appropriately be a "frivolous reason".

By definition, the word "compelling" means.....

1 : to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly

2 : to cause to do or occur by overwhelming pressure

You're completely missing the point, Dazzla.

skinnylegs,May 5 2003, 00:58] "Wanting to" is not a compelling reason. "Wanting to" would more appropriately be a "frivolous reason".

By definition, the word "compelling" means.....

1 : to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly

2 : to cause to do or occur by overwhelming pressure

You're completely missing the point, Dazzla.

How about I like iMovie and there are no other app that i tried on the PC that is as easy to use? :D

How about I like iMovie and there are no other app that i tried on the PC that is as easy to use?

I respect that, Macster. I have never used iMovie but I understand it's a great program. Personally, I'm toying around with the new Movie Maker but the verdict isn't out yet. For DVD burning etc., I use Pinnacle.

Compelling, Compelling ...yada! ... Look mate, people get interested into OS X, and Mac's ... that's cool ... but no matter what we "mac user's" say, the person in question really cannot say whether he will lead a more productive lifestyle, via a Mac, or not, without trying one out. i am sure there are many people who have liked OS X, and the hardware, but found it wasn't for them ... so handing out all this crap really doesn't matter, we are generalising ... but every has personal preference and such, and we can agree, not every will like OS X ... much like many users might not like XP ..

If he wants to take an interest, thats cool, if he asks questions, we answer them... But all you seem interested in, is comparitive issues ... everytime anything is suggested, it is added to your list of things forgotten about, and then proceeded with ... "i still look for this compelling reason" ... We get these threads in here, many days of the week, if you're so curious for reasonings ... go lookup 'Search' in this forum, and i am sure you will find many points of view, for which have not be replicated in this post ;)

Hmm...compelling reason. Well, lets see...I switched because I wasn't happy with Microsoft or Windows XP, I didn't feel that the hardware required was justified by the "features" offered by XP, and I don't like the general direction that Microsoft is headed in. I like Linux, but as yet, I didn't feel that linux was a viable alternative as a desktop OS for fulltime usage on my primary home system. I was also dissatisfied with the constant "buy hardware and it's obsolete by the time I walk out the store" infinate loop that the PC platform had locked me into. Yeah, you don't *have* to upgrade, doesn't mean it doesn't drive you freakin' batty trying to stay cutting edge and wanting to. My answer, I got a Apple iBook, and I've been content for 6 months now, with the same system, no desire to upgrade, no reason to want to, and I can still use the same apps (Office v.X, for instance) that I'm required to use because of my job. As for games, I have Gamecube and a PS2, so I'm not left out in the cold in that department, and most of the PC games I played were real time strategy games, so I have WC3 and various others to tinker with.

Compelling reasons, for me, yeah. For you, dunno, don't care. I use what I want, and for me, that justifies everything else.

But all you seem interested in, is comparitive issues

Common sense would dicatate that if someone is considering switching, comparisons would be in order. You seem to be missing the point as well. Let me state one more time that I am not a Mac basher. If you have a Mac and find that it does what you want it to do, who am I to argue with you. On the other hand, if you post on a forum and state that you are into gaming (as the thread starter did) and are wondering if it's a good idea to switch from a PC to a Mac (as the thread starter did), I'm gonna' answer him honestly.

skinnylegs,May 4 2003, 09:58] "Wanting to" is not a compelling reason. "Wanting to" would more appropriately be a "frivolous reason".

What about liking the hardware. There aren't many full-featured PC-notebooks that run 5 hours on the battery, certainly not with the physical characteristics of Apple's line of portable computers.

Then there is the ability to run X11 applications along side your OS X programs with ease (1 command to download/install), a scripting language for the OS that's as easy to write as english, drag+drop installations, zero-configuration networking, iapps, and peripheral support (what is supported works perfectly).

Wanting to use a tool is a compelling reason. If I want to use OS X I'm going to complete my tasks quicker and enjoy doing them much more than if I was using an OS I don't like using. I also don't trust Microsoft OS's: 10 years of crumby experience is not easily forgotten - no matter how great people say Windows is now, I don't want it on my network any more than I want a "reformed" pedophile in my neighborhood.

Wanting to is not compelling? I disagree, and I argue that whether you want to or not is a very important consideration for all purchases/decisions. Why would you purchase something you don't need if you don't want it?

skinnylegs,May 4 2003, 17:58] "Wanting to" is not a compelling reason. "Wanting to" would more appropriately be a "frivolous reason".

By definition, the word "compelling" means.....

1 : to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly

2 : to cause to do or occur by overwhelming pressure

You're completely missing the point, Dazzla.

It is a compelling reason because my desire is greater to use OS X which will increase workload. Preference of OS is of course a compelling reason. I could name other reasons like Final Cut Pro being leading edge software and me not being happy with any alternative on Windows/Linux but that's not the point. The OS alone is a compelling enough reason for me.

You're just being an ass about it.

[LOF]skinnylegs, why would you want a compelling reason to switch to Mac? why in the hell do you care what the guy wants to do with his money? whats worth the money and whats not depends on how the person value things. i think $50 for a movie is worth it but you might not. my friend even thinks i'm crazy to buy a DVD for $30. do i have to convince him it's worth it?

well you want a reason, i'll tell you my reason. it might not be compelling to you but to me, it is. BECAUSE APPLE MAKES THE BEST LAPTOP IN THE WORLD, DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE WISE. okay? don't start with me about how Dell laptops fly, speed is not the only aspect i care. i totally understand that some people really don't give a **** about look, they want to get the cheapest stuff available no matter how ugly it looks as long as it does the job. but you have to understand that a lot of people care about look as well, they would pay $1000 for something that pleases their eyes. is that wrong? is that stupid? i sometimes get ****ed off by people saying how cheap they bought the same stuff that i bought, i'm stupid because i paid a higher price blah blah blah.. give me a break man..

[LOF]skinnylegs, why would you want a compelling reason to switch to Mac? why in the hell do you care what the guy wants to do with his money? whats worth the money and whats not depends on how the person value things. i think $50 for a movie is worth it but you might not. my friend even thinks i'm crazy to buy a DVD for $30. do i have to convince him it's worth it?

well you want a reason, i'll tell you my reason. it might not be compelling to you but to me, it is. BECAUSE APPLE MAKES THE BEST LAPTOP IN THE WORLD, DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE WISE. okay? don't start with me about how Dell laptops fly, speed is not the only aspect i care. i totally understand that some people really don't give a **** about look, they want to get the cheapest stuff available no matter how ugly it looks as long as it does the job. but you have to understand that a lot of people care about look as well, they would pay $1000 for something that pleases their eyes. is that wrong? is that stupid? i sometimes get ****ed off by people saying how cheap they bought the same stuff that i bought, i'm stupid because i paid a higher price blah blah blah.. give me a break man..

c'mon man. tell us how you really feel.

;)

Want to be welcomed every morning with ...

"There are new Security Updates awaiting Download, Proceed?"

heh...

Hmm considering there are about 40 times more Windows users than Mac users the likely hood of bug hunters finding a bug in Windows is more likely than a Mac.

If MacOS were to be as popular as Windows security experts would be all over it too. :yes:

Another lovely thread full of ........ never mind, I will be nice. :rolleyes:

skinnylegs,May 4 2003, 12:58]"Wanting to" is not a compelling reason. "Wanting to" would more appropriately be a "frivolous reason".

By definition, the word "compelling" means.....

1 : to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly

2 : to cause to do or occur by overwhelming pressure

You're completely missing the point, Dazzla.

You want some compelling reasons to switch to a Mac? I'll give you a few of mine, thats if you don't mind of course?

- The OS. OS X is the number one reason in the last two years people have turned their heads to the Mac platform after years of Windows. The GUI of OS X right out of the box is beautiful, simple, and makes working comfortable and productivity better. If I ever have to do work on Windows I hate it, I actually can't stand the GUI and the way things work. It is so much simpler in OS X. All you have in front of you is your work, and you get it done better and enjoy doing it. Nothing beats it...

- iLife. No one has come close to what Apple has done with their iLife suite. iTunes is the best music player out there. It organizes your music automatically, smart playlists, wonderful options, and now you can downlaod high quality, instant music right their in iTunes for ?99.

- Mac software developers. There are so many third-party programs for Windows that are to say the least pure crap. Transmit, Adium, Proteus, Unsanity.... are just a few of the many third-party programs for OS X that are solidly made without any extra crap and most importantly, do an excellent job.

- Apple, the company. This is one company that you know will continue to strive to be the best and lead in innovation as the rest of the field tries to keep up with their new and amazing technology. Apple is not afraid to take risks, whether they fail or not, to make our computing experience even better. You have MacWorlds every 6 months and I don't think we go hardly a month without something new from them.

That is how I feel. Is that okay? You don't mind? Am I okay to keep using the Mac that sits in front of me?

Wow...this thread has taken an interesting turn. Dazzla, I'm surprised at your response. I would expect that a "mod" would read the thread from beginning to end before making statements such as you have made. Let me save you the time. The first post is as follows:

Okay, I might be thinkin of switchin to mac, altho, I have some questions.

I know you can emulate Windows on a mac (That's cool), but can u run Windows games properly on a mac?

Just that I'm a good UT2003 player, as well as Quake Engine-based games (MOHAA,...), so will I be able to use em?

I could have tried on my school's iMac (G3 500 Mhz), but trust me, it's already slow enough on OSX... lol

Now...can you honestly say that the best choice for this guy is a Mac? If so, you are ignorant. Gaming is obviously important to this young man or he would not have brought it up in his second sentence. That being said, a PC would be his best choice. Once again, I stated his best choice. Games that require 3D acceleration are unplayable using programs like Virtual PC. There are, of course, many games that are available for the Mac but if someone is really into gaming (for whatever reason), a PC is the obvious choice.

If you read through the threads, you will note that I was aksing for a compelling reason for this guy to switch to Mac. You and others have taken offense with my assertion that given this young man's needs, a PC is the best choice.

Make no mistake, Macintosh makes a great computer and from what I have seen, OS X seems like a great OS. However, it is not the rig of choice when it comes to gaming.

It appears that you are happy with your computer and your OS and that's a good thing. I would hope, however, that you would be able to offer objective advice to those who post in this forum.

gatorzx2......

See above post. If you want to tell us how much you like Mac, start a thread and call it, "Why Gator loves his Mac." On the other hand, if you are posting in a thread where a young man asks if he can play PC games on a Mac with programs such as Virtual PC, keep it relevant.

It is impossible to run any DirectX games even on Virtual PC

I dont even think OpenGL games work

damn... I guess I'll stick with a PC then, I really need my games for work....

Altho, as soon as I get money, go for a Mac! :D

[LOF]skinnylegs, take a look.

the guy has said that he'll stick to PC, as soon as he gets the money, he'll buy a Mac.

and then you came in..

The obvious question which I don't think has been asked or answered yet is.....why would you want to switch to a Mac????

again i have to ask, WHY IN THE HELL DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?

he obviously makes money from building computers and he's interested in buying a Mac. and he didn't say he'd throw away his PC because he obviously needs it for work! YOU are the one who didn't read from the beginning and keep WHINNING for a compelling reason.

skinnylegs,May 5 2003, 08:38] gatorzx2.....you are flat out wrong and I don't appreciate being told what I said. I would highly recommend that you re-read through this thread.

i would strongly suggest you read aStRaLgOd's posts. i feel that you only read about the first post that he used the word SWITCH. read the following posts for god's sake.

well, what ima do, is keep my PC and add a mac to my collection :)

[LOF]skinnylegs, in case you couldn't find his post, i've quoted it for you!

and yes, this was posted BEFORE you whined for a compelling reason. ;)

edit: btw i got a lecture to catch, i'm soooo looking forward to hear from you. laters. :)

skinnylegs,May 4 2003, 17:38] gatorzx2.....you are flat out wrong and I don't appreciate being told what I said. I would highly recommend that you re-read through this thread.

I did not tell you what you said, I simply showed you what you said. You clearly stated what "your point is". You came in here asking all of us, who already have Macs in the Mac forum, for a "compelling" reason to switch to a Mac? Honestly tell me what do you think is going to happen. Of course we are all going to give our opinions, thats all you can do!! This thread is nothing but opinions. You, yes you asked for reasons to switch, not the poor guy who started this thread. So why don't you go start your own thread in the Windows XP forum asking "Give me a compelling reason to switch to a Mac". Then you will here what you want to, PC users saying stay on the PC for your games, 4 billion software titles, and whatever else there is.

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It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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