Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: number 6
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 08:36 AM

good one melodeonboy ....which prompts me to post the following excerpt from "Big Shot" by the Bonzos.

"A punk stopped me on the street. He said, "You got a light, mac?"
I said, "No, but I've got a dark brown overcoat."

and as Kendall says .... "The point is moot, the die is cast"

I say adieu to this thread and will await for the next thread here on the Madcat in the ever ongoing Mac vs Pc debates.

biLL .... ;-)

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 07:44 AM

The point is moot, the die is cast.

The moving finger writes and having writ moves on,
Nor all your piety and wit can lure it back
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it. (Omar Khayyam)

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Andrez
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 06:56 AM

Hey Kendall, apart from all the ease of use and freedom from the hordes of viruses and malaware that continually plague PC's running Microsoft operating systems, no one seems to have pointed out that you can run any brand of Windoze from XP to WIn 7 on an Intel Mac either as a dual boot set up or using a virtual environment like Parallels. For that fact you can have a Linux set up running on the Mac as well so you can use any existing music or business or graphic design software you might already have. The Mac Laptop I am using to write this post is set up exactly as I have described above.

That means one computer for several software environments which is serious versatility and value for money by any standard.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Musket
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 04:10 AM

That'll be me then.

Especially since getting my cookie back...

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: melodeonboy
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 03:21 AM

Well, these days there are plenty of other suitable coats on the market to help one cope with inclement British weather. Furthermore, macs do have a somewhat unsavoury association with dirty old men!

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: GUEST,Ian Mather sans cookie
Date: 31 Jan 12 - 03:07 AM

Mac, every time.

Been using them for years, even when a company I had box built PCs as a division, the company IT was mac, despite the abundance of cheap trade price parts for PCs.

Price? What's the cheapest car on the road and why don't we all drive it?

Backward compatibility? Only once, and in the latest Lion OSX, has the older non intel based software been ditched. Even then, you can dual boot with your old OSX if you must use very old software and won't upgrade it. Windows has had far more legacy moments.

Thinking on, probably spend far less than when PCs meant upgrading or crawling, although the rate of "speed" has slowed recently on both platforms. My recent iMac purchase of £1k was the first since my mac mini in 2004, which was £550. Not bad over 8 years

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: John P
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 11:37 PM

Uh, Macs were made to do music. Can you say Pro Tools? Digital Performer? Logic? I've been using MIDI with Macs since the beginning of the digital age (not so much anymore -- I mostly just record stuff these days instead of bothering with trying to program it). Why in the world does anyone think a Mac can't do anything a PC can do? It's a COMPUTER.

The biggest difference for me is that you don't have to be a geek to use a Mac. I take care of the Windows-based network at work, and it's a constant pain is the ass. My Macs have always been hassle-free -- for about 27 years now. No PC I've ever worked with (lots of them) has measured up.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: gnu
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 09:03 PM

If ya can get one with a FOUR year warranty that is the only way to go no matter what it is. Ya made the right choice.

Of course, that still doesn't end the he said she said. I bought this NEW HP with a 22" screen two years ago with a free Windows 7 upgrade (that I never installed) for $650. Works fine. A Mac woulda cost three times that. I'm cool. But I have two backups... older machines on which I do all my important stuff and they NEVER never get connected to the internut.

My first setup for my enginering office in 1996 cost me over $20k for harware. Today... under $3k.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:29 PM

The decision is made. The man has started on the project.
I didn't choose a mac because the last time I checked I could get one for 600 bucks. Now they have gone way up.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: s&r
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 06:11 PM

Sibelius and garage band 2 main programs. Midi controller no, but download and export midi



Stu

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Greg B
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 05:54 PM

After some years of building my own boxes, I now simply find something like what I want at the "Dell Outlet." www.dell.com/outlet

You have to take what they have in stock--- which is a lot. The machines are better than new, in that some of Dell's better stateside techs have figured out what minor issue (probably an infant-mortality hard-drive) kept them from working, and fixed it.

The price is about half what it would otherwise be. I've bought a lot of these guys, from desktops to servers, for home and work and never got a dud. Can't say that for the "full price" models. I've sent some of them back (to be sold later in the outlet no doubt).

I just can't get close to that kind of deal anywhere else, on the same quality.

The only down-side of Dell is they tend to put in power supplies that are just enough to run the stock machine. If you want a super fancy graphics card, you may have to upgrade the power supply as well.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 05:48 PM

I have a 3 year old Acer laptop and it has never given me a moment's trouble.

It interfaces beautifully with Panasonic camera, Sony Handycam, Samsung Galaxy tablet and networked super easily with Desktop PC and printer.

Permits me to VPN access work drives, folders and email.

Having said all that... I still covet Macs.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 05:29 PM

No back-slidin' now, Kendall. You said you'd get a Mac! Why not borrow or lease one first...to try?

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 05:12 PM

One of the b % w should be a secondary hard drive to act as an automatic backup device with no need of intervention. That way, if you experience a hard drive failure, you still have clean copies of everything.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 03:34 PM

I have had one serious thought. AFAIK when MAC upgrades an OS it simply ditches the idea of backwards compatibility so that nothing that worked with the old OS works with the new one.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 02:40 PM

I'm saving a thousand dollars, and I don't have to learn a new different confuser. Keeping up with this one is hard enough. I feel like a freekin' Dinosaur stumbling around looking for the tar pits.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Bert
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 01:09 PM

Apart from price. I didn't buy a Mac because it won't run Microstation.

I recently bought a Compaq laptop fro $250 new.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 12:28 PM

s&r, what music software do you use on your mac?

Do you use a MIDI controller (piano keyboard type?)

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 12:15 PM

The only reason I can come up with is this: If you buy a Mac, Shane might steal it when he gets out of jail.

It's a small risk, though.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: number 6
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 12:02 PM

Very good ..... :-)

I hope you have better luck with this one.

biLL

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 11:47 AM

I met with my friend, who is my computer Guru, and he's going to build me a PC with all the bells and whistles, including a DVD burner for half the price of a refurbished Mac.And it will have a 4 year warrantee.
Problem solved.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: number 6
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 11:16 AM

Kendall ... for that price I assume that Mac is used, why did it's original user get rid of it? .... A used Mac for $600 .... no warranty .... whew .... you can get a good new PC for that price ... with Windows 7 and a warranty to boot .... don't forget kids, Macs, and PC's are consumable items and these days they are made to last 3 to 4 years, after then they start to burn out and/or become redundant with the ever rapid evolution of applications (hidden and otherwise) that require more and more horsepower and disk resources.

biLL

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: s&r
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 10:10 AM

No problem with any of that on my mac leenia, or any thing else for that matter.

And it works. Consistently. I had pc's for years, then bit the bullet and bought a mac.

I keep an old pc for one program that I can't find a mac equivalent - if anyone knows of one tell me so I can relegate the pc to a doorstop. The program? Chord Pro Manager.

Stu

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: EBarnacle
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 10:03 AM

As was touched on above, computers are becoming more and more generic. I was given a sick Acer to refurb and the guts were made by the same people who make everyone else's stuff. The only things I salvaged from it were the hard drive and the RAM chips. The Hard drive is in this machine, running Windows 7.

I have had several cheap machines and several higher end machines and, truthfully, there seems to be little difference in the hardware. The differences seem to be in the support and the software.

So far, I have never bought a new laptop, preferring to get used machines for little or nothing and refurbing them. The most I have paid for a laptop has been about $200 for software on this machine.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 09:50 AM

I recently had the same question and ended up buying an HP DV76163 laptop for Frank. It uses Windows 7, which took awhile to get used to, but no problems so far. NO PROBLEMS. Bought it on sale at Staples and also got a rebate, so the price was pretty good, and it has all the power of a desktop, at least for our needs. When we eventually replace my desktop, it will be with a good laptop.

On the other hand, I notice my iPhone (isn't that Apple?) is getting slower and crankier every day. Possibly because of increased traffic from more people getting iPhones and clogging up the networks. Possibly because I'm seeing all the "easy" adjustments that I cannot do with it, because all those settings are "done" for me and I can't find how to change them readily. And just try to navigate around iTunes to backup your iPhone or change any defaults. No thank you very much. I'll stick with a PC, because I've already paid most of the dues learning my way around it.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 09:38 AM

I download, edit and compose music on my PC using MIDI software. I don't think you can do that on a MAC. I think any person who's really into music needs a PC, not an apple product.

(Merely downloading other people's performances and listening to them on yer ipod does not constitute 'being into music' for me.)

I believe that when the idea of using computers for music first came up, that Apple decided that the market for that was never going to be big, and to just let IBM do it.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: pdq
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 09:04 AM

I just checked craigslist in the Reno area and there are several Mac G5 units starting at $85. One guy wants $350 for the G5 (that is 1.8 gigabytes) with OS 10.5.8 loaded plus 2 monitors and two keyboards. He will also deliver (of course, not to Maine).

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 09:01 AM

It usually isn't the PC that fails. It's usually Windoze. And I'm told that 7 is more stable. You should back up data anyway.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:38 AM

I just answered my own question. Talked to my computer Guru and he told me Apple is raising hell with vendors in court...lots of computereze and gobbledegook. He suggested I buy a refurbished Mac, so I went looking. A thousand to 1500 for a USED mac? No way.
Surely there has to be a dependable PC somewhere?

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Stu
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:24 AM

"no need to shop around since Apple controls the retail price ... the vendors don't."

Wrong! I haggled an excellent deal on my new Mac that undercut the price on the Apple site considerably, all via a third-party vendor. You can haggle for anything if you take the time:

1) Cost the Mac up on the Apple site.

2) Get as many quotes from third-party vendors as possible.

3) Play them off against each other until they begin to get huffy and there are only two left. Buy the cheapest with full Apple warranty.

4) Buy your luverly new mac!

Third-party vendors will be able to offer cheaper versions of RAM, hard drives etc and bring the cost down. Believe me, I saved a fair few quid when I did this in September.

Get the 27" iMac and enjoy the best screen ever put on a computer I've ever seen, even after 25 years as a graphic designer working on Macs and those godawful PCs. Even working in pre-press I never saw a screen as good as the iMacs.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:16 AM

number 6, I have had half a dozen PCs and I've had trouble with all of them. I've spent more in repairs to this piece of shit, Acer, than a new Mac would cost me, and when I see the feed back on the forum my mind is made up.
I have a friend in the business and he can get me a Mac for $600.00 that will do everything this Acer will do.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 08:08 AM

Actually, there is one reason. They aren't Macs any more, now they're using Intel processors.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 06:41 AM

mac! yesterday a friend with a new Mac asked rhetorically why he didn't get one before! He's had 6 PCs over the years.

sandra (very satisfied iMac user)

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 04:05 AM

There will always be those who are pro-Mac and those who are Pro-Windows. Not a lot of difference there to some discussions on Mudcat :0)>

I can but say this. I have a colleague who ridiculed my affection for the Mac. It was Windows this and Microsoft that...look at this gizmo...look at that gadget.

...then his work gave him an iPad. True road-side conversion! Don't you hate a new convert?

My windows computer is needed for work. But the hassle. One example. My Windows PC keeps losing the wi-fi. No network blah-blah. The Mac is on the desk as well. Same spot. 100% connection. No contest!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Crowhugger
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 09:24 PM

If there isn't something else to need to spend the price difference, and if the software you want to use is Mac-able, there isn't one. Go for it and report back, wouldja? I, for one, want to know if the grass is always greener or if it actually works better for longer with less bother etc etc.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Amos
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 09:06 PM

The only reason not to own a Mac is that it is a computer. But if you want a computer it's the one I'd go for.


A

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: number 6
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:52 PM

If your not happy with PC's then go spend your your $$money$$ on a Mac .... maybe you should .... as this isn't the first time you've complained about PC's here in the Madcat.

if your are unaware of the cost of a Mac just the link below .... no need to shop around since Apple controls the retail price ... the vendors don't.

B & H Macs

Remember computers are consumable items, they don't last forever (they are not like guitars or even a fave automobile) ... and yes, a Mac is a computer. Apple is marketing company. Their genius is to make you feel you must have one.


biLL

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Bainbo
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:13 PM

Janie, if you just want to create a text document, you can write it in TextEdit. Going to File > Save As allows you to change the file format to Word Format.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Janie
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:12 PM

Kendall, there is one important area (at least for a technophobe like me) where Microsoft is several hands above Apple, and that is with their help menus and instructions.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 08:05 PM

Apple Business???

Not that Apple is any worse than the others.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:55 PM

The combined wisdom in the mudcat is a source to be relied upon.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:35 PM

Well done Kendall.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:32 PM

It is unanimous. Mac it is. I've had half a dozen PCs and they have all been troublesome junk. Thanks folks.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: pdq
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:24 PM

I went to the Acer website and it said "we recommend Windows 7". Perhaps somebody should read the directions.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Janie
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:12 PM

What Q said. What Bill said.

Most of the software that comes with things like cameras and printers doesn't seem to have as much functionality in OSX as it does in the Windows versions. It could be that having learned on a PC and coming late to Mac I simply have never learned to navigate as well. Also takes some extra steps and downloading special (freeware) programs for the Mac to interface with stuff like uploaders to flickr, etc.


Also, I did not purchase the software to run Office on my Mac and end up using my ancient PC laptop when I need to create a document or spreadsheet to e-mail to some one.   I do use Open Office on it, but the formatting often gets a bit rearranged when the receiver opens the document or spreadsheet with an MS Office application.

But for general putzing around on the 'puter, the Mac has been much more problem free and requires much less "maintenance" (remembering to run freeware antivirus programs, etc) than the PC.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 06:32 PM

I love my Mac and cannot give you a reason not to get one. ♬

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 06:29 PM

If all were done sensibly, everyone would use a MAC.... but I never got started, and now simply have too many 'toys' that aren't written for MAC. (Yes...I know you can do everything 'important' on a MAC, but I have fun with my extraneous extras)

Linux? Well, if they'd just either leave it alone, or make installing and managing less geeky I'd do more. (I do have some 'live CDs' I play with)

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: gnu
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 06:15 PM

"Help" with a Mac? I thought you didn't need any.

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 06:10 PM

Apple offer refurbished (current) models at reduced prices, same guarantee as for new machines. Also worth checking out used models. Most Apple users look after their expensive new machines, so they'll still be in good order a couple of years down the line. Even a ten-year old G4 Mac will happily deal with internet, word-processing, etc. You might need something more recent and faster for music-production or graphic processes.

Whatever machine or operating system you go for, I would heavily recommend the appropriate manual from the "Missing Manual" series or something similar. The Apple "help" facility is extremely frustrating to use - unless you come up with the identical phraseology that they have used, your chances of reaching the information you need are small - much the same as I have found with Microsoft products - strange, that.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: One good reason to not buy a Mac
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 05:41 PM

no ¢

Charley Noble