PDF Creator

[Ropy]

Can anyone recommend a good PDF cteator other than acrobat???

[sandor]

if you just need to do a few, you can do up to five for free at http://createpdf.adobe.com/ .. actually you can create multiple logins and do more than five ... but that might be a hassle

[GodKid]

the only other PDF creator I know of is Preview .. it allows the MAC user to save the print preview of ANYTHING as a PDF .. it also saves screenshots as pdf... but I won't rant anymore.

I think it may e available for downlaod from the apple website ...

*** I think I may be wrong in thinking that this is a function of the Preview app, it may be a part of the OS, but check it out anyway ***

[pigeonflight]

under Linux, KDE programs and OpenOffice allow you to "print to pdf".
Kword can also import pdf files (that's sweet).

I figure you'll begin to see these features in Windows in 2 to 3 years.

[Spaz]

The Folks over at FinePrint Make one
http://www.fineprint.com/products/pdffactory/

[Ropy]

tnx for the feedback fellaz. If any oh these don't suite me I might just take up your offer GK.

[jamrock]

Godkid,

You seem to be really into the Mac. Do you use it at work or at home?

What kind of stuff do you do with it?

I know the Mac is really good on graphics.

[GodKid]

YUPS Jamrck

funny thing is I've only been really into MAC for a month now since I got my G4 .. but MAC has always been the superior platform, and I have always known it.. just that popularity is a hard thing to go up against.

I use it at home for ewb design, graphic design and video... gonna start some internet game development and animation soon

interested in one? ;)

[Ropy]

Count me in for the anime GK, I have some tough ideas that I want to pu into play....

[jamrock]

The Mac is just awesome when it comes to graphics and design. I once assisted an advertising firm with some stuff. I was amazed at the things they could do with their Macs.

I have issues with them on networks though. I have seen them in a few places. They tend to freeze too often. Especially during printing. No one could tell me why.


interested in one?

I have zero artistic skills. I once decided to try web design. I learnt how to write HTML okay but just couldn't create anything of beauty.

I gave up and decided to stick to networking. I have come to accept my limitations.

[GodKid]

"The Mac is just awesome when it comes to graphics and design."

yeh.. but it's awesome for just about everything else as well...

there isn't a windows app out there that can match productivity or utility...

to create a raid array under OS X all I have to do is install a senond or third drive.. run disk utility and tell it to create an array... literally drang n drop... same thing for partinioning..

for office apps there are GREAT open source applications.. and if you want to spend money you can get Apple Works for a third of the cost of the cheapest office bundle... plus you can throw in Keynote.. which is the UNDISPUTED champ of presentation ware

the architecture of the MAC lends islef to multimedia on a whole... AUDIO as well as visio... trust me

Its also perfect for the developer..just like Linux.. remember OS X (Darwin) is just another flavor of UNIX .. soooo if you're a linx fan...then you'll fit right in with OS X

with regards to networking.. i'd have to say the person that set up the network probably didn't know how to config apple talk properly.. which is why they'd freeze up :)


to wrap this up...

EVERY version of windows has been a stripped down version of an ealier MAC OS. want proof? look at Win XP and MAC OS 9 .. and now longhorn and MAC OS X ... you'll see ALOT o similarities..even functionally (to some extent)

but i'll stop spouting now.. i'm a switcher.. i'll let you decide on where you stand ;D

[jamrock]

Hmmm,

I have three customers who use Macs as their primary O/S. I have helped out two other companies who use Macs.

I would use it for specific tasks. I use Linux for specific tasks and I use Windows for specific tasks. Each O/S has its own strengths and weaknesses.

In one location, the customer uses Macs primarily, but needs a specific Windows application to do a specific task.

They purchased two Windows 2000 servers and we set up the Windows app on the network. It has been running well for over a year now.

I am not tied to any one O/S. Just the best tool for the job.

[Xenocrates]

GodKid is right. Everything that we know as Windows is approximately 7 years behind what a Mac currently is. In fact, Windows 95 was touted as Mac OS '87...

It is Macintosh technology that is behind the powerful graphics processing systems of the Nintendo 64 - which at the time of it's release, was equivalent to a Pentium 3 in sheer processing power. At the time, Pentium 2's were still on the drawing board. :o

Furthermore, the Macintosh gave birth to several new technologies such as:

1) The mouse
2) The flatbed plotter
3) Bubble jet printers
4) Universal Serial Bus (USB)
5) Firewire
6) Computer Generated Images (CGI)
7) Multi-threading for graphics interfaces
8) Adobe Photoshop...oh yeah... they started on the Mac....

As if that wasn't good enough, it was on a Mac that the first computer generated graphics for a movie was ever created. This was done for the movie The Abyss, in which an alien lifeform possessed a body of water that took on a lifelike persona. This was further outdone by the liquid metal man in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The Dinosaurs for Jurassic Park were also rendered on a Mac! :o

...and to think, that was done LOOOONG before Pentium technology ever existed. In fact, when Jurassic Park was released in 1993, the Pentium chip was still on the drawing boards... :o The Pentium processor was released later that year.

Remember the company Pixar? responsible for giving us such movie hits as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Antz & Monsters Inc.? All those movies were done entirely on Macs!!!

[Xenocrates]

What killed the Mac's popularity was greed. When Microsoft had entered a licensing agreement with IBM and a host of other hardware manufacturers, Apple Corp refused to license their operating system to run on anything else - hoping their deliciously drop dead gorgeous operating system would sell their PCs.

As a result, since software is ultimately more popular than hardware, (which was responsible for making hardware popular), Microsoft dominated the PC market by the mid 80's, because Microsoft's products ran on SO MANY PC platforms. At the time, the biggest contendors were NCR, Motorola, Intel, IBM and Apple Corp. Microsoft had at least ONE product that ran on all of those systems.

The Microsoft innovation quickly absolved the Macintosh's novelty in the PC market. Not only was Microsoft's product cross-platform compliant (unlike the Mac OS, which only ran on Macs), because they licensed their products to run on different hardware platforms, the Microsoft products were also more affordable (unlike the Mac OS, which was (still is) prohibitively expensive). In fact, Silicon Graphics workstations were really just souped up Macs...but no one could afford one.

It got so bad that Bill Gates had to buy out Apple Corp temporarily in order to save them from bankruptcy in the mid nineties. The CEO of Apple Corp (Steve Jobs) and Bill Gates have known each other since childhood. He (Bill) just couldn't watch his friend's company go down. Besides, he liked the competition - however little of it there was.

Apple got back on their feet after that, and now even have Microsoft Office running on their PowerMac systems. Apple corp has learned the licensing trick and is quickly gaining popularity in the market. That's why we now have such things as:

1) Adobe Photoshop
2) Adobe (whatever else you can think of)
3) Firewire
4) USB
5) Maya (written originally on a Mac, but at the time, had no formal name)
6) ...and the "Start" button

...along with a host of other goodies, on the IBM PC compatible.

As for PDF files.... that was ALSO invented on the Mac.... back when Microsoft Word never existed, and Microsoft Works (the grand daddy of Microsoft Office) was a DOS office tool. ;)

....it's a pity they were not as smart marketers as they are innovators. Cuz if they were, Microsoft would be a name long forgotten and it would be Apple Corp and Linux duking it out for supremacy. It's really quite sad :'(

Forgive me folks... I should've started another thread for this... :-\

[jamrock]

Yeah... Right...

Look here now. The average consumer is not concerned about how technologically superior an O/S is. The average consumer is concerned about how well the technology is going to solve business or personal problems.

Consumers want solutions, not technology. It is very easy to compete with companies that want to sell technology and not solutions.

The consumer makes or breaks computer companies by choosing whether or not to use a specific item of technology. If you have the best technology in the world, and you have 5% of the computer market, I say big deal.

I saw a report last week that expects Linux on the desktop to pass Apple on the desktop soon. In my opinion, Linux on the desktop is still a work in progress in many areas. It should not just sweep by the Mac like that. Apple has been doing some wrong stuff for a long, long time. At least Microsoft is making Linux work hard to get market share.

I would use a Mac for specific functions but I will not use it exclusively on my network. Better solutions exist for many tasks.