Why Apple

I've never had problems with my last 2 laptops? I don't understand why windows gets so much flack? I've had one BSOD last year on my XPS, and that was due to some dodgy drivers I was trying myself. Mac OSX looks great, nice simple interface. I just like Windows. Plus I can get a machine with better spec for a cheaper price. Simple. I do drool over my mates Macbook Pro though, then remember how much it cost him!

 

I don't think I've ever had a BSOD. People think they are common...when it's really very uncommon. But I think a Mac is still a great idea if they can keep up the quality and support.

 

BSODs are not common unless you consciously do stupid things like me, xD

 

Isn't this old hat yet? "Why is Mac so much more expensive"?! Sure, that PC equivilant is cheaper. it has a 3 year old processor, 2 year old ram, and a HDD that's worth $40 on the open market. Whether or not it's viable to justify the extra expense, when that 3 year old processor will still run your word processing software is a personal question you need to answer for yourself. BSODs? irrelevant. boot times greater than 45 seconds? Forced use of antivirus and antispyware? Much MORE relevant. Each has an argument for and against, and they've been rehashed OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Mac products overly locked down? Valid argument. Vista a complete and total piece of crap? Just as valid. Windows Vista reloade. . .er. . . Windows 7? I throw that in for dramatic effect, but it *IS* fact. Only YOU can determine what you need, and what is worth the price to upgrade to/purchase in the first place.

Why Apple for me? Because I don't have to screw with registry settings for hours and risk bricking my entire machine to get sub 1 minute start times. Because with my mac, I don't spend half my time running cleanup/defrag in an effort to keep that extra .005 seconds of boot time from coming back. Because, ultimately. .. . It *DOES* "just work" . . . .even when i'd rather it not. Your mileage may vary

 

I didn't screw with my registry either, run defrag and cleanup everyday, I still get a responsive fast boot up system.
But I did wrote a script to clean up my system temp files weekly automatically in the background.
Again an over exaggeration of the Windows Maintainance Myth.

 

I recently had to work on my mother's PC because it was running slowly. Her browser wold take about 2 minutes to load and programs kept crashing on her. I ran a registry check and found 346 errors that needed to be corrected. Spybot search and destroy found 136 problems as well. After 2 hours working on the system I had to call it a day and will have to go back. I didn't even get a chance to defrag the hard drive or uninstall some of the junk on the system. Once again, this may not happen to everyone. Every time I work on a friend or family member's PC that has these same issues I love my Mac more and more. These people don't search sites or download funky programs, they are just regular users who over time have issues. Installing and uninstalling programs, not setting up automatic defrag, not knowing to run a spybot program all cause problems on a PC. I'm not saying a Mac is perfect but it doesn't have as many issues.

 

I never had a BSOD either. And Apple products are also great. My husband has a Macbook, an ipod video and an ipod touch.

 

You cannot really compare the MBP to the likes of the Dell Inspiron as the build quality of the MBP is a lot better.
Normally the MBP compares very well with the Sony SR, Z and Dell Studio 1340 in pricing.
However, with the launch of W7 just around the corner and new notebooks due out soon some of these notebooks have been reduced. It is not that fair to compare the MBP now to these discounted prices.

So far the OP has not responded to this thread, i wonder what they make of some of the points.

I have owned a few Macs. I don't now as the hardware does not meet my needs and i am fine with Vista.

I had to do a few clean installs when i owned a Mac, i cannot say i found anything easier but it is more secure than Windows and that is an advantage for some people that are not so tech savvy.

I don't have any virus protection installed and i am careful what sites i visit. The only time i had problems with Vista was when i disabled UAC and went to some computing blog website that tried to take over my controls. I have never had a BSOD. I now have an SSD installed and get sub 30secs boot up with only doing a semi clean install of Sony's bloatware. My boot up was less than a 1min with my standard HD.

I actually like Vista. MacOSX offers an alternative package that works well for many and is the best for their needs. You can also install both operating systems and have the best of both worlds.

Get what suits you best, if it doesn't look elsewhere.

 

I think the best apple to apple comparison is the mbp to the new HP envy.
Almost identical in looks and form factor, and guess what, the HP is most definitely NOT 50% cheaper.

The reality is that quality (no matter what brand) will always command and deserve a higher price, for some people this extra quality is worth the price premium for others its not, end of story, so can we stop these weekly waste of point threads yet?????
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It's also twice as powerful. And still manages to be cheaper.

 

^^^
the 13"mbp is alot cheaper then the Envy, and spec wise there isn't alot of difference between the two.
The 15" starts at $1799 and the exact config of that system is not set in stone as far as I can tell as its yet to be released, so at this stage its impossible to say that its cheaper, all you can say is that it definitely isn't a $500 notebook, and the point I was trying to make was that it is a well designed, high end notebook that is priced in a similar ball park to the mbp, both are great machines. Thus this whole price argument is pointless.
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The Envy 13" is considerably better. Switchable graphics, thinner (at .8", just a bit above the air), better LCD, though worse processor. The Envy 15 on the other hand, is leaps and bounds better. Core i7 (2x the cores, better architecture), HD4830, up to 16GB RAM... And of course both don't have OSX.

The point is that even though the price is in the same ballpark as the MBP, as you say, it's a whole lot more powerful. That's not to say that there's a problem with going with an MBP. Most people don't need all the power in a MBP, let alone the Envy 15. They may be better served by going with the MBP with OSX. Though 7 isn't too bad either.

 

The HP Envy 13" is closer to the MBA in performance than it is to the 13" MBP.
The Envy not only has a worse processor than the MBP 13" but the graphics card in the MBA/MBP 13" is better than the 4330 that is in the Envy.
I think the MBP 13" compares well to those notebooks that i mentioned in my previous post.

 

You do realize you're comparing a product that was last refreshed over 3 months ago to one that isn't released yet, don't you?

 

The Macbook Pro's are probably the BEST laptops out there. They aren't the FASTEST, but they are the most well built and well supported. They are also overpriced, but that comes with the territory. I'm not saying an M15X, or an HP, or one of those aren't powerhouses, but for my money Apple seems like a good bet.

 

Let me give Apple credit for limiting its product line to a small number of very well engineered products.

As a Lenovo user, I can't help but be occasionally concerned when I see a whole new line of Thinkpads (the SLs, for example) come out. Or Dell, which now has six different notebook lines (Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Vostro, Latitude, and Precision). Do these PC makers really have enough engineering talent (and enough time) to get the bugs out of these systems before they hit the market ?

On the other hand, the Apple ads criticize PCs of a decade ago. I haven't had a BSOD since I got XP back in 2001. And Vista is OK too, if a bit bloated.

 

They are the SAME.
16 streaming Processors (Divide the number in ATi by 5) operating at 450MHZ
And the Envy uses Low Power Processor the TDP is much lower with the power consumption.
You are comparing Apple to Orange over here.

 

The OP wanted a justification for Apple computers, that's all. I also am anxious to see the Envy.

And this is why the Envy 15 might be my next baby even though it's overkill. It allows me to return to Windows (though I'm admittedly getting accustomed to OSX), and while the hardware is hugely overkill for my purposes, it carries over many of the things I like about the MBP.

 

Frankly speaking you are giving too much credit to OEM Vendors here.
Do you really think they do lots of testing?
IMO it is just like Desktop, throw a bunch of parts into a casing and sell em.
While making sure the whole thing fits.

 

I was thinking about this for awhile, the only reason OSX is great that not so many people use it, so hackers wouldnt bother making viruses and such for it..Like i worked at Radioshack all computers are Windows work at Verizon computers are windows based. Chase computers are windows based, so hackers are more likely to concertarte their resources on windows because they can hack it and get something out of it..If this changes OSX will become more vulnerable than Windows.

 

You might be on to something there, Sherlock.

But seriously, the "security through obscurity" is only part of it. Yes, I'm afraid as Apple continues to gain market share it will attract more and more malware creators but I don't think Apple's market share will ever rival MSFT's so we should be safe. But do consider that there have been many attempts to create malware for OSX and that's not something new but at the end of the day the best they've ever come up with is something that requires admin user input to activate so safe computing, for now, is still the very responsible thing to practise even on a Mac.

 

That's a hell of an assumption. "More vulnerable than it is at present," maybe. "More vulnerable than Windows?" I dunno about that.

I guess I see the thought process -- ~10% market share or whatever it is now presents a smaller target, thus potentially leaving security "issues" unaddressed -- but still.

 

Meh, one last comment from me XD. I'm no software engineer either but AFAIK threading plays the largest role, especially following the increased adoption of Core i7 CPUs which once again utilize Hyper-threading.

+1.

Edit:

What about malware like Leap-A?

IMO you give Windows too little credit. If the market shares were suddenly reversed, a patched Windows installation may begin looking more and more attractive in terms of security than the same for Mac OS X over time. Mac OS X is far from being impenetrable.

 

Well, OSX is gaining market share, if Goldman and Sachs and Banks didnt use windows and started using OSX, hackers are more likely focus on OSX and less on windows since those computers will have Millions of dollar transactions going on..So yeah it can become more vulnerable than windows, but i doubt such a market change will happened not for a very long time or at all...MSFT is a monopoly..

 

Oh, don't get me wrong. I have no disillusions about OS X (or any other OS, for that matter) and think quite highly of Windows. I don't prefer OS X to Windows in the first place; just figured I'd give it a try. Coming to appreciate the fonts over Windows (small things, small things...), but I'm still missing Win7.

Agreed, that's kind of what I was saying. I just don't necessarily think that OS X would become innately more vulnerable than Windows, if that makes sense.

 

This thread is getting pointless.

 

It was pointless from post number 1 - topic has been exhausted, 'yet here we are.

Expect more of the same topic.

 

Back buttons on browsers can take away the pain, y'know. But yeah, I kind of agree.

But not from post #1. The OP was asking a legitimate question; yes, it's been beaten to death, but hey, he got what he asked for.

 

I will put this one to a close.