Mac vs PC (split from Netbook thread)

[JohnC]

Macs all the way. I've been all over the hardware/software landscape, and no other package gives me less headache. The WAF (Wife Approval Factor) is high, both with her Macbook and our Mac Mini HTPC. The Time Capsule "just works" to back everything up. The iPhones (mine is provided by my job) "just work" syncing to the laptops and playing on our local network. With my (work-provided) MBP, I can hack everything from assembly to C to Java to Ruby with very little effort, at the bash or zsh prompt that I've been comfortable with since my first days with Linux back in the nineties.

Maybe a Windows 7 PC can do those things cheaper, maybe single people eat crackers. Either way, I don't know and I don't want to know - I've found what works well for my situation and I'm happy to stick with it.

[Mike]

the general theme seems to be we're all switching to macs as we get older. age certainly isn't the driving force, but the attributes that come with age most likely are... we have money, we're no longer [as] hard headed...

[HAULN-SS]

Or linux, is what you really mean to say

[Mike]

we have money, but not time... why would we go linux?

[Apoc]

the general theme seems to be we're all switching to macs as we get older. age certainly isn't the driving force, but the attributes that come with age most likely are... we have money, we're no longer [as] hard headed...

I think that's a correlation based on the interoperability and market penetration of Mac, not a causation based on age/maturity. There is no denying that Mac is a driving force in many developments in the industry and that they work for many, many people... they're just not for me.

[Evan]

It's the overall design that makes them more reliable. How you tie the components together has a lot to do with their longevity. Cooling design, protecting components from shock, all that kind of stuff. The latch, the power connector, the buttons, Apple just does it right first and a few years later everyone's doing it. And if something weird they tried didn't work out (it happens!), they correct it for the next gen. I'm not saying there aren't PCs out there that aren't as well thought out, I'm sure there are, but they tend to cost more.

like exploding batteries, chronic overheating, random shutdowns, busted keyboards, screen problems (nice roundup of other problems in that one too), etc , etc (and lets not forget Johns FreezerMac )
thats a hell of a way of getting it right

I think this comes down to economics and preference. if you like macs and the price difference is worht it to you, then by all means buy a mac, but dont think you are getting any better value or build quality or anything else for your money.
Personally I can do anything (and more) that I want to do on a windows PC very quickly, efficiently and reliably, much cheaper and with better future upgradability.

[BLINGMW]

All I can say is I've never had a problem like that with any of the macs I or my parents ever owned. :dunno: Back to our first Apple IIe, no Mac we've ever had has been retired because it broke. And I've fired up a ton of old macs, ones kicked to the curb, and I just couldn't throw any of them away, because they worked. I'm sure plenty of PC people can say that too, so it's just anecdotal. But so are the links you have there. I'm sure the same stuff can be found about any PC manufacturer.

Now if their build quality has gone down in the last 5 years, and I and the people I know are just lucky, well ok. Yes, John's had a mobo problem, he got unlucky. Every few years, one Apple model ends up like that. Some fatal design or manufacturing flaw that pops up after the thing's out of warranty. I guess since it hasn't happened to me, it hasn't soured me.

FWIW, I usually don't buy the newest latest and greatest thing, whatever it is. And when Apple makes some new design, yeah, I wait. I wait for rev 2 when they have the bugs worked out. Or I wait to get it on sale or refurb. So if there's something wrong with it, I let someone else figure it out. I think the last thing I bought the first day it was released was the PS2. :lol:

But my first couple jobs were installing and/or servicing, Macs, but also plenty of PCs for schools. I can say without a doubt, that at least then, and we're talking 10 years ago, I'd install or handle like, a thousand brand new powerbook G3s, and ONE would have a bad CD drive or something. Went through close to a thousand original iMacs too. I think one had a display problem. But the results when installing just one lab full of HPs or Dells was a whole different experience. So until Apple proves otherwise, which they haven't to me, well yeah, I'm a customer fo life!

I love me a good 'ol fashioned, useless Mac vs. PC debate! Didn't we do this on here a couple years ago? Let's just copy and paste from there so I can get back to work. :lol:

*edit*
I checked consumer reports, just because these personal stories are kind of a waste of time. Looking at laptops, difference in reliability is within statistical noise. As stated by CR, "Differences of fewer than 3 points aren't meaningful.":

~4 years ago:

~2 years ago:

and the most current chart is:
Toshiba 16
Sony 17
Compaq 18
Acer 19
Apple 19
HP 20
Gateway 20
Dell 21
Lenovo 21

So, we can say a Toshiba or Sony laptop are better than a Dell or Lenovo. But that still leaves Apple in the noise. For desktops, Apple is ACTUALLY ahead OMG:

Apple 13
Compaq 18
eMachines 19
Dell 20
HP 21
Sony 22
Gateway 23

So we fanbois aren't completely crazy when it comes to reliability, but it's mostly a wash. We should probably stop beating that horse, reliability is just one part of our eternal love. :mrgreen:

[D_Eclipse9916]

My MAC had a dead battery within a year, has freezing problems once in a blue moon and battery life absolutely sucks.


Somehow still better than any PC ive had in terms of reliability. I still aboslutely love my Sony Viao desktop, everything plugs straight in from fireware to any type of memory card etc. Media center has also been an awesome TIVO with full cable hookups. Video card died after 4 years, threw in a new one and the thing runs flawlessly. I am not so sure my Macbook will make the second year.

[Maengelito]

I dont really care what kind of computer YOU buy but I've never had a problem with any PC I've ever owned dating back to our old school 386 with like 128k of RAM running DOS 5.0. Okay, thats not true, I had a CD drive stop working and a hard drive stop working. I do attribute that to being made by Lite-On and Western Digital respectively and even then, the hard drive was probably spinning constantly since I hardly ever turned the computer off for like 5 years. I'm sure those same companies probably make the same peripherals for Mac or PC. That being said, I'm sure Macs are all good and fast and happy and shiny and will save the universe but I personally dont see any reason to drop double or even triple the amount of money on a computer that recognizes my router 3 seconds quicker, takes me to the same internet at the same speed through our cable modem and does everything I need it to do.

Now keep in mind I'm not a programmer and I dont do much with my comp aside from internets, email, photoshop, youtube/videos/mp3s and the occasional word document/excel spreadsheet but I'm sure 80% of you use it for the same stuff and not much else. I know its not exactly scientific or really even close to anything resembling a valid argument but in my observations, I generally notice a lot more status updates on facebook that talk about Mac problems than PC problems. And generally they are almost always like this: "OMG my Mac is doing something weird!" Then "Its okay because I scheduled a service appointment at an Apple store next week because it was the first available." Then "the Apple store said it was a bad something-or-rather and shipped it off to get fixed. What am I gonna do for a week?" But they got it back the week after that and "it worked like it was brand new. I love Apple customer care!" Whereas PC problems I generally see are "WTF?!? Why isnt this working? I hate my PC!" Lots of their friends comment "You should buy a Mac, I love mine!" Then a couple hours later: "I downloaded the proper drivers for (whatever new thing I plugged in) and now it works. UGH! How annoying, I hate my computer, I was so inconvenienced for that hour."

[BLINGMW]

Okay, thats not true, I had a CD drive stop working and a hard drive stop working.

I can agree, hard drives don't count. Desktop CD drives don't either.

[mrbaggio]

[Mike]

Only fair I share my past two weeks.

I have two Macbook Pros from work. They have been great and are both 3-4 years old with heavy use and travel. They run as quickly as the day they were originally purchased, which means a modern machine doesn't really squash them.

Last week my 15" stopped powering up altogether. I know what this means... it needs a $400 repair. Fuckit. It belongs to work. They can deal with that.
Today my 17" decided to stop waking from sleep. Apparently if conditions are right, it can get caught in a loop when you close it, overheat, and fry. It boots just fine, but no internal or external display... I have an appointment at noon tomorrow. Should be fixed for free, but I'll likely be without it a few days.

And yet I'm still likely going to buy a new 15" next week after they announce new cool stuff because I need one at home.

I write this from my PC that I built for $500 a couple years ago. No fans, no noise, plays all the latest games, but runs Vista...

I hope you PC boys enjoyed this.

[Sijray21]

I hope you PC boys enjoyed this.

nice to know that the macs are fallible

my hp actually went into a loop where it couldn't wake up from sleep, probably due to low battery power. after trying to hook it up with the power cord it still wouldn't boot-up. no external display, but the lights were flashing. i then disconnected the battery while the power cord was hooked up and pulled the cord out for a quick shut down. i then booted it back up only with the power cord and it booted up fine. i then hooked up the battery and haven't had an issue since. i don't think you can remove the battery with the Macs, but is there another way to try and duplicate this to see if that will get it to boot up?

ps - anyone know why this would resolve the issue i had? seems similar to an ecu flash.

[Mike]

haha everyone thinks "i don't think you can remove batteries from macs." yes, you can, they're like any other battery. there's maybe a mac or two model EVER in which you can't remove the battery, but their regular laptops? yeah.

i've tried EVERYTHING. nothing is going.

[Mike]

just an fyi, this appears to be an issue reported on the net as a faulty nvidia chip. they are always replaced free of charge... i just got lucky and mine lasted this long.

the nice thing about diagnosis w/ apple (since they control all the hardware) is they'll plug my machine in, grab some system data, and know within a minute what the issue is.

[Mike]

On the flip side, I just received a Dell D620 from a customer. 2GHz Core 2 Duo w/ a GB of RAM or something along those lines... It's got the typical "Windows hasn't been reinstalled in a few years, you should reformat" thing going on. No processes are eating processor, not fragmented, nothing abnormal going on... it simply runs like a dog.

Regardless, the D-series was a classic from Dell. I wouldn't mind a 6xx just to have around... they're silly cheap. Why did they make the E-series? What a pile.

[Evan]

on a related note,

Windows 7 just surpassed all versions of OSX combined

[Mike]

AHHHH BLUESCREEN! FML.

[Evan]

my first D series had a failed motherboard at 2 weeks old.

my 2nd D series crashes whenever I try to play a movie or sound file. Although that does make the incredibly noisy headphone jack not much of a problem.

Id take a mac over a D series :p

[Mike]

Haha... I know a lot of people had problems with the Ds. I personally never have...

Can we all just agree laptops are a crapshoot? When purchasing, read reviews, try them out, and get the one that works best FOR YOU.