Why should I buy a Mac??

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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Where are the inspirational posters and corporate propaganda?

I must be the only person in the world who's had problems keeping a Mac from freezing, losing all my work, and having to restart it. Several different machines, G4 tower, G5 Tower, Quad core intel tower. Several different points in time, OS9 and OSX. Frustrating as hell.

Sucks to be the only person to ever have problems with a Mac. Nobody believes me. I honestly sort of dread having to put together any video, because I don't want to have to get pissed off and destroy something out of Mac frustration.

Never had remotely as many problems with a Windows PC.

Wow, I've heard of someone's Mac failing them, but multiple Macs? Remind me not to loan you my powerbook...not that you'd want to borrow it anyway.

My girlfriend has a macbook 1.83 and I have a PC laptop, we use them both all the time.

I don't see any difference in the crash-proofness of the mac. It crashes all the time, well I mean as much as a PC does. Browsers freeze, apps lock open, etc. Just like any other computer.

My PC right now is pretty solid, but I know what people mean when they say PCs are buggy, and I have had plenty of them. I wouldn't argue there.

IMHO, Macs have a more pleasant interface at the cost of raw efficiency.

I think the big reason for Apple's continued success (the iPod/iPhone are the halos) is simplicity in design.

You walk in the store and the selection is limited to a few lines with few variations and they're latest and greatest. MacMall and Apple's website expands the selection, but it's still limited to the lines. They aren't selling last years stuff and telling you it's new.

If you don't really know what you're doing when it comes to computers, you'll still leave with something pretty good even at the price you pay. They'll walk n00bs through the entire process and even teach you a thing or two. You can't get that kind of service with any other brand and you certainly can't count on the PC retailers being much better. The best you'll get at Best Buy is them telling you which gets returned the most.

I have to echo Artisan Fan on customer service. I don't know about you but I'll go out of my way and pay a little more when I know I'm getting treated well from certain stores, sales people, restaurants, etc...

A disturbing trend I've noticed at retailers like Best Buy is that they don't tell you the components in the systems they're selling (forget asking either, they'll lie). They all say Dual Core, Ram and HD space, like that's all the matters. What's the clock speed? What's the processor series? Video integrated(it almost always is there)? Etc... If you don't know what you're doing you might leave with a T25XX with 3gig of Ram and 200gig HD for $800. That's not going to happen at the Apple store.

OS X's UI is simplicity at it's finest. You can't beat it for that. Behind the scenes, the Unix command line is simplicity at it's finest for the technical too. One only needs to look the the iPhone/iPod for examples of this. Sure, you can get something with more bells and whistles for less than an iPhone/iPod. I've yet to find anything that can even come close to how well they work though. If I could get one on Verizon, I would buy an iPhone right then and there. It's the only reason I'm still using a BlackBerry.

The design of the machine... the cleanest lines of any computer that isn't made by Sony. Props to Sony for actually doing it first. Would it kill the other manufacturers to make laptops that have a better form factor and build than a little kid's toy?

I'll probably get **** for bringing up the aesthetic of the computer, but it really matters when you're lugging your laptop everywhere you go everyday and travel a lot like I do. I exclude the 17" MBP.

I think Mac is great as minimalistic approach.


Is this about Mac OS vs Windows vs Gnome vs. Kde vs whatever?

or is it about the hardware?

For hardware the parts are almost the same. Some of the other brands (sony, NEC, etc) has stylish and great cases/pacakages/support too. I have had a old G5 Power and the case is excellent and first class, but it's not like there's no comparison in PC. Laptop i would probably go Panasonic/NEC > Lenovo > Mac > Sony> Toshiba if it's not for work.

You can't always just compare a Mac to a ******* dell/gateway (it's not even in the price category after u loaded up the services).

All Apple cares about is aesthetics. They only put the bare minimum they can get away with. Take a look at some of the other laptops on the markets, they come with hdmi port, standard dvi port, more than 2 usb slots, fingerprint reader, and memory card readers.

Apple = form over function
Most other manufacturer = function over form

Originally Posted by huy

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All Apple cares about is aesthetics. They only put the bare minimum they can get away with. Take a look at some of the other laptops on the markets, they come with hdmi port, standard dvi port, more than 2 usb slots, fingerprint reader, and memory card readers.

Apple = form over function
Most other manufacturer = function over form

Only the Air I can agree with you on.

I don't need any of those things for my system to be functional.

Originally Posted by huy

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All Apple cares about is aesthetics. They only put the bare minimum they can get away with. Take a look at some of the other laptops on the markets, they come with hdmi port, standard dvi port, more than 2 usb slots, fingerprint reader, and memory card readers.

Apple = form over function
Most other manufacturer = function over form

I don't think this is accurate. Apple also has many innovations that lead the industry in function - better screens, magnetic power cord attachments, solid state drives, green materials, bundled suites for music, photo, and dvd creation, built-in video cameras with scanning abililty, slot cd readers, etc.

If I had to choose I would want form and function. That is the strength of Apple.

Originally Posted by JoeWoah

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Only the Air I can agree with you on.

I don't need any of those things for my system to be functional.

Sure you don't need them but they sure make it easier to work on a laptop with more usb ports, card reader and a standard size dvi port. I don't know about you but I don't want to carry lots of dongles around with my laptop.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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I don't think this is accurate. Apple also has many innovations that lead the industry in function - better screens, magnetic power cord attachments, solid state drives, green materials, bundled suites for music, photo, and dvd creation, built-in video cameras with scanning abililty, slot cd readers, etc.

If I had to choose I would want form and function. That is the strength of Apple.

Apple does not have better screens. Look at the last gen macbooks for an example. They are also not the first to have led screens and now they don't even have a matte option. Apple did not invent ssd nor were they the first to use them in their laptops.

The magnetic power cord is a nice innovation. Macs cant be used at full power without the battery in and only running off the power cord. This is speculated to be because of cheap cables. I will agree that Apple was probably the first to put in a camera.

Apple is a green company but they are not the pioneers of green components either nor are they the most green.

Yes Apple does have some cooler software and are not packaged with lots of junk like a lot of manufacturers.

i dont think macs are worth the price premium simply because im not sold on the absolute superority of the OS

that being said the build quality and ergonomics beat the vast majority of other manufacteruers

Originally Posted by huy

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Apple does not have better screens. Look at the last gen macbooks for an example. They are also not the first to have led screens and now they don't even have a matte option. Apple did not invent ssd nor were they the first to use them in their laptops.
Apple may not be the first, but they are generally very fast at adopting new technologies that they like across their entire range of computers. Regarding the quality of the displays, the Macbook is certainly not a contender for any prize, but the Pro has a much better display. How it compares to other computers, I do not know.

The magnetic power cord is a nice innovation. Macs cant be used at full power without the battery in and only running off the power cord. This is speculated to be because of cheap cables.

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It's because the size of the power adapter. Sometimes Apple goes too far in its desire to make things thinner, smaller and lighter. But I don't get why you'd want to remove the battery.

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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Sucks to be the only person to ever have problems with a Mac. Nobody believes me. I honestly sort of dread having to put together any video, because I don't want to have to get pissed off and destroy something out of Mac frustration.
It's pretty well known that MacOS 9 and the early versions of OS X was volatile. Later versions are much more stable, but I've still had about four system crashes in the two years I've had this Macbook. I daresay I had less BSODs in the last two years of Windows XP before I switched, but far more other problems. Still, care to name some malware?

Originally Posted by danyllau

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For hardware the parts are almost the same. Some of the other brands (sony, NEC, etc) has stylish and great cases/pacakages/support too.

I agree. I said that before but too many people have bought into the hype.

Apple's greatest strength has always been its marketing; even when that marketing is the amount of BS they spread in their "I'm a Mac" ads.

You can't always just compare a Mac to a ******* dell/gateway (it's not even in the price category after u loaded up the services).

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Again, agreed.

Originally Posted by huy

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All Apple cares about is aesthetics.

...

Apple = form over function
Most other manufacturer = function over form

I don't agree. I think that's a big part of it but Macs have a certain ease of use going for them in the software department and, for the most part, their hardware is well built even if it's not the best and there are other machines out there with more options/better parts.

Originally Posted by Artisan Fan

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I don't think this is accurate. Apple also has many innovations that lead the industry in function - better screens, magnetic power cord attachments, solid state drives, green materials, bundled suites for music, photo, and dvd creation, built-in video cameras with scanning abililty, slot cd readers, etc.

Many computers have those, and as was pointed out, Apple was not the first to include most of those things. I've also read many articles on the gadget blogs about complaints about Apple for not being green.

Originally Posted by Zandros

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Still, care to name some malware?

Why? What is your point?

Originally Posted by Mauby

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Wow, I've heard of someone's Mac failing them, but multiple Macs? Remind me not to loan you my powerbook...not that you'd want to borrow it anyway.
Yeah, its a *****. Whatever, I'm perfectly happy with my rock solid and stable Windows operating system which is completely free of malware and has never crashed, thereby making me lose what I'm working on. Sometimes I wish FCP would run on my PC, but there are better things on the horizon already, so I guess I'll just hang out for a while.

Originally Posted by Zandros

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It's because the size of the power adapter. Sometimes Apple goes too far in its desire to make things thinner, smaller and lighter. But I don't get why you'd want to remove the battery.

You remove it so that your battery doesn't always stay fully charged. This is only if you leave your laptop charged for weeks/months.