Do you like MAC computers?

[Jammed]

My computer is old and slow and will eventually need to be replaced. Several poeple have told me how much the like Mac computers - better performance, no need to do virus scans or regular computer mantainence like deleting temporary files. I like the idea of a computer that might be easier to mantain since I'm not good at fixing them when there are problems.

The only problem is the MAC computers are much more expensive than other computers and don't seen to go on sale. Is the MAC worth the price - is it really a better computer - or is this just hype?

[AngelinaCatHub]

Do I like Mac? NO!

I have 40 years in business machines, mainframes, minis, and micros.

Mac is extremely proprietary. You cannot get off the shelf parts. It is not true that Macs need no virus protection. They do. Temp files are not used by operating systems as much as applications. Word is written into a temp file so that it can be "UNDO" at times as well as others. The memory management swap file is a temporary file. Mac uses this too.

If my PC gets hit my lightning and my either net port goes out, I can turn off the port in the BIOS settings and install a ten dollar NIC card. If a Mac gets hit, you get to buy a main board.

Mac is a good operating system, true. It does well in graphics, true. For normal use, you would be far ahead in any PC based item. Only my (professional) opinion. 'Hub

[floridian]

years ago, i swore by macs... then friends would send me slick programs and stuff and the mac wouldnt open them... no more macs for me, as i use my computer mainly for internet stuff..

[HRx]

The OS on Macs are solid.

[AngelinaCatHub]

The OS on Macs are solid.

Yes, so was MSDOS. Means nothing in that the virus attacs are on Macs as well. The hardware is just a vulnerable as any PC or any other plugged in electronics.

Hopefully, Microsoft will get it together with Windows 7. Vista was the "ME" of the 'NT" environment. I stuck with 98 until they got XP right. Now I will stick with XP SP3 as long as I can as it has proven stable and reliable.

Having had three major lightning strikes, I have recovered at least 70% hardware for very little money. A Mac is a dead dog on a lightning strike. You may as well purchase a new unit.

Only my opinion. 'Hub

BTW, the PC (IBM open architecture) was never the best. It was only a name as well as popular and they did not copyright the buss work as they did "Micro Channel" for servers. NO ONE now uses Micro Channel that was extremely fast and efficient. Reason? Proprietary. 'Hub

[danaf]

I'll buy into this thread since I've been looking around for a new laptop. I've been thinking of going with Dell Inspiron 15. Any opinions on good laptops in the $600-1000 range?

[backtoschool]

I am a TOTAL mac girl. (I am typing this on a 15" macbook pro)

I have 3 macs. An old macbook (about 1 1/2 - 2 years old, the first generation aluminum macbooks) hooked up to an old mac cinema monitor (2005) in my bedroom, a last generation (1 year old) 15" macbook pro in my living room, and a new 13" macbook pro that I take to school. I got the newest one on a mandatory fellowship grant that could only be used for a computer.

I would NEVER use pc's.

I do photography and use the adobe stuff quite often and that works much better on a mac.

[lindsay2181]

I was forced to use MAC's in college, being an advertising major...I hated them. It was very hard transitioning after having learned everything on PC's. Haven't used a MAC since. There are some things that MAC's are more "appropriate" for but I can do just fine without them!

[Aaaaah!]

OK, I just know I'm going to sound like a geek, but I've been helping a lot of friends and family to do this and it's dead easy. If you use your computer for stuff like email, internet, writing letters, picture editing, etc., you'd be surprised at how easy Linux is to use.

I buy a refurbished computer off of overstock or something and then install linux -- "Linux Mint" is my favorite right now. It's completely user friendly and you'll be very pleasantly surprised by how easy it all is. It's budget friendly (Just got my mom a $300 laptop -- you can get a desktop for <$200) and very nearly impervious to viruses (I actually open emails I know to contain viruses, just because they can't do anything to my computer.) Seriously, I've got my mom, my grandmother, my brother-in-law and a cousin up and running and they're all really happy.

Here's info on the OS: http://www.linuxmint.com/

Actually, if you do have an older computer (and you're thinking of replacing it anyway) you can actually install Linux on it -- usually Linux revives older computers and keeps them "alive" for several more years. In any case, it might be a good last ditch effort to 1) See if you like Linux and 2) See if you can save your old computer.

OK, now I'll turn off the geek switch. Good luck, regardless of what you decide.

[AMISLANDER]

My computer is old and slow and will eventually need to be replaced. Several poeple have told me how much the like Mac computers - better performance, no need to do virus scans or regular computer mantainence like deleting temporary files. I like the idea of a computer that might be easier to mantain since I'm not good at fixing them when there are problems.

The only problem is the MAC computers are much more expensive than other computers and don't seen to go on sale. Is the MAC worth the price - is it really a better computer - or is this just hype?

I just bought an imac. I am so freaking thrilled with it! I got a great deal through Best Buy, 18 mo. no interest (yes, Best Buy gave me a line of credit!). I got a 20" imac desktop for under $850.00! They've now come out with a 21.5" so mine was a leftover; no worries....

I think you have to assess what you want in a computer, do your research, and then make your purchase!

[viking64]

I used a PC for 13 years, and then switched to a Mac. I'll never look back.

'Hub is right, of course, about the proprietary issues and costly repairs, but my Mac is much more intuitive for me. I have fewer crashes and I can do more with (believe it or not) less expensive programs. I'll take the $79 iWork suite (word processing, basic desktop publishing, Keynote - a powerpoint type program, and a spreadsheet) over the several hundred dollars I'd have to pay Microsoft to get my hands on Publisher Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and to be frustrated.

As a photographer, I swear by Aperture, but Adobe's Lightroom is probably just as good. You can get PHotoshop Elements for both a PC and a Mac, but I like the Mac versions better.

For hobby video/photography enthusiasts - the iLife suite stuff (iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, etc.) are the best out there for ease of use and integration.

Yes, I drank the Kool-aid - but 5 years later, it still tastes good.

However, one Caveat - definitely by the 3 year service plan (you can buy it anytime into your first year of ownership, so it helps to spread the cost). I"v never had a Macbook that didn't need the logic board replaced - sometimes twice. And the cost would have been $1200 each time.

However, my first Macbook is two years beyond it's 3 year warranty and is still chugging just fine.

Ultimately, for me - it just works, and works better. I use a PC at work, but bring my Macbook in for the prep work and just finalize and print from the PC (since it's the one everything is connected to in the office).

[ChaseDidThis]

I used winblows for about 20 years, then switched to a Mac 2 years ago and it has been a whole new world. I will never go back to PC's again, I have to help support them at work and help friends out but that's it.

Do Mac's freeze up sometimes - Yes, but when you tell the program to force quit it really does. Viruses, well all i can tell you is about a year ago i intentionally downloaded files onto my mac that were infected, and my machine could care less, it did nothing, I have used a Mac for 2 years and never use an anti-virus program, so for now I think viruses are a non-issue on a Mac.

Mac's also allow you to run windows if you want to, either in a separate partition, or under a software program like Fusion or Parallels. They are solid Applications that run pretty much all windows apps except games.

When looking at prices, you need to compare the specs of the machines, most of the time the PC prices are cheaper because they are using cheaper components, and if you look at the apple refurbished store you can find some good deals that come with a full warranty.

Now, having said all that if you decide to get a windows pc, Make sure you get 4GB of RAM, and virus protection, I would recommend AVG FREE, I used it for years and it works very well.

To Hub with all the Lightning strikes, I would have that checked out, and also buy a surge suppressor to protect electronics, and you can get one to protect ethernet as well.

[AngelinaCatHub]

To Hub with all the Lightning strikes, I would have that checked out, and also buy a surge suppressor to protect electronics, and you can get one to protect ethernet as well.

Greetings 'ChaseDidThis: I have worked on mainframes and many other types of computers for near 40 years, 34 with NCR. NCR was one of the first companies attempting lightning arresters and Transtech was a partner. Florida IS the number one target for the Worlds lightning strikes. No surge arrester is 100%. Even a lightning strike 20 miles away, the electo motive force, crosses many wires. This in it's self caused spikes that are from 100 to several thousand volts. It takes 40 volts to knock out an IC pack, and about 100 to kill a modem isolation transformer.

I would venture that whether a PC or Mac were hooked up to the same either net, none would survive in the strikes here. Electronics are electronics, no matter who assembles it. We in Florida have terrible lightning and it is documented in the vast amount of microwave ovens I see on the side of the road. (I pick them up, put a fuse into them, and give them away).

Mac is a fine product. It is no more superior than a PC, hardware wise. My complaint is that the Mac ego has stifled their market share. If they offered open architecture, they would be far richer and more popular.

The reason Mac is less virus bound is, there are less targets for those jerks to attempt to attack. That is all. It is not a 'fail safe' OpSys.

BTW I have not only SPM's, surge arresters, and isolation transformers, but when you have a wire 25, 50 feet, you have a grand antenna for EMF.

Just my opinion.

BTW, the IBM concept was NOT the best. Like Beta vs. VHS, the shake out was only in name. There were better concepts but marketing killed them. Just like Micro Channel, IBM did not open that to all. Micro Channel a VERY fast bus, died. 'Hub

[ChaseDidThis]

Good evening Hub, I didn't realize the huge lightning problem in Florida, but I do basically understand EMF, when the magnetic field collapses, it can generate thousands of volts, as one of our techs at work found out at work when he fried 2 channels in a $12,000 Oscilloscope, and all he did was de-energize a 34 volt coil without a diode package in parallel, so i can only imagine what lightning can do.

Mac is a fine product. It is no more superior than a PC, hardware wise. My complaint is that the Mac ego has stifled their market share. If they offered open architecture, they would be far richer and more popular.

Now that they use Intel I would agree with hardware being the same. The Mac ego is a given but there are a bunch of us that are more than willing to help newcomers. Open architecture i'm not so sure of, Apple is very good at giving its users an enjoyable experience when using one of its products, and it can only do this because it controls both the hardware and the software. I've seen a lot of cheap windows computers that give a user a terrible experience because it uses the cheapest components around to keep the cost down so they will make the sale, and this gives windows a bad name when that part is really not their fault, as they can not control the hardware that their software is put on.

2 1/2 years ago I bought a Macbook for about $1100.00 and my MIL bought a windows PC for about $650.00, My Macbook ran circles around her machine. Just last month a friend ofmine bought his father a new windows 7 PC the day it was released. It cost him about 685.00 and it came with 4GB of RAM and it ran windows 7 pretty good, I was impressed with the performance but when I was checking the specs of the machine, it had the same processor in it that my Mac had and my Mac is 2 1/2 years old. So my point is when you buy a Mac it will probably have a longer lifespan than the windows computer because most people opt for the cheapest thing out there, they sell windows pc's with up to date hardware, you just have to pay Mac prices for them.

The reason Mac is less virus bound is, there are less targets for those jerks to attempt to attack. That is all. It is not a 'fail safe' OpSys.

Might be some truth to it and if so I say lets take advantage of it while we can, but i also feel that Mac OS X, with its Unix-based file system and kernel, is harder to infect with a self-replicating program.

So what i am trying to say is lets not compare some cheap net book to any mac, they are not even in the same class. Do your homework on the specs of the computer that you are purchasing and be honest with what your needs are, I actually recommended one of those cheap netbooks to my father last year because all he was going to do was check his email and a little surfing while traveling across country last year, How can you go wrong when he picked it up for like $260.00. small and easy to tote around so it fit the bill. I do have to say though that I wanted to recommend an ipod touch as he could have done the same thing with that. (Ha,Ha) I couldn't help myself to think that as i'm a Mac Fan.

Have a goodnight All and to the OP good luck with your computer purchase.

[justbroke]

The Mac vs PC world is the same as the Coke vs Pepsi world. They are just different worlds.