Ever since I was young, I had a PC, before that I had a Commodore 64.
However, partly because of all the Mac commercials, and partly because of all the work involved with maintainng a PC and trying in vain to stop it from getting slow from all the bloated software, I’m considering getting an Apple or Mac.
Apple products also seem more good at doing creative things like editing and posting videos, or designing marketing materials.
So my question to WCR world. What are the advantages or disadvantages of Apple products. What is the difference between Mac and Apple? What kind of computer should I get. How much would it cost?
I’m not a super creative guy, but I’m good at writing, and I suck at art. I’m looking for a computer that is fast, doesn’t get bloated, doesn’t require tons of maintenance in terms of defragmenting harddrive, and deleting old programs etc. I don’t want to spend tons of money, but I also want a computer that will last me 5 years.
You don’t need to answer all my questions, you can take one or two.
So my question to WCR world. What are the advantages or disadvantages of Apple products. What is the difference between Mac and Apple? What kind of computer should I get. How much would it cost?
I would just get a 13" macbook or a 20" imac starting at $1199.
I’m not a super creative guy, but I’m good at writing, and I suck at art. I’m looking for a computer that is fast, doesn’t get bloated, doesn’t require tons of maintenance in terms of defragmenting harddrive, and deleting old programs etc. I don’t want to spend tons of money, but I also want a computer that will last me 5 years.
Dude I haven’t even turned my macbook pro off in like 9 weeks… It runs so perfect and you need to do zero maintenance to it…I will never ever ever buy another PC again. All WCR staff uses macbooks. Because of Service Ceo ACWC has to run pcs.
[B]It just works… I had to use a pc the other day and it was dreadfully slow… and bogged down…
You should just go to the apple store park yourself in front of one of the Macs and play around for a couple hours… See what you think.[/B]
[B]looks like there are a couple apple stores in Toronto
The last Apple I used was a apple IIe. That being said I too am looking towards the macs. I have always used PC’s and being a old computer tech that I am I can’t fix them when they break. I hear Mac’s don’t break very often. PC’s get virus’s, I have heard mac’s cannot. It has been a long time dream for me to become a entertainer. I can’t afford studio time. One thing I love about macs is that they have the incredible ability to record and master sound. My PC can do the same thing but not nearly as well. I think if you are willing to go through the learning curve of a new mac or apple you will be happy. I would not shop by just price alone, I can find PC’s that are just as much as a mac. One thing with computers is that you get what you pay for(with in reason). The first thing I would do before buying a computer is decide what you are using it for. Gaming, internet, just work, audio/visual…ect. My point is if you are just going to use word and excel a machine built for gaming is going to be overkill and pointless and you will be spending more than you have to. Once you know what you want it to do go around and find one that meets your needs. hope this helps…
I’m probably going to upgrade soon, the one I’m using is around 7 years old and the one my wife is using is 11 years old. Both work great for Photoshop and stuff but I need a faster computer for video projects I’ll be taking on in the near future.
Mike, just call me and I’ll give you the complete report including any negatives (yes there are a couple).
Chris is right, ive had a macbook for over 5 years. Never had any virus issues, never ran a virus protector. And ive never had any maintenance issues. After the 4th year owning one I was a big time believer and bought another one. They are so headache free.
I haven’t turned my laptop off in like over a few months.
Best computer in the world.
Pricey? Oh yeah…worth every penny?..ummmm. YES YES YES!
PC has a funny commercial where people go out and try to buy a computer under a $1000. All the people see the Mac computers and say “OH that’s expensive, guess I’m not cool enough to be a mac person”.
Then they find some Shoty PC for like $500 and look into the camera and say “I’m a PC becasue I get exactly what I want”.
PC’s were once the King, now Mac stepped up and knocked that punk off
Same thing all the biys are saying been using Mac for 2 years now by far better and less matinance than a pc. Also the best customer service out there. got to a Apple store and they will help you decide what you need.
I use a mac too. ditto on what everyone else says. If you are using quickbooks, you should note that the program for the mac is quite a bit different than on pc and you will have to do some adjusting. I for one just open my mac up in windows xp mode when I do quickbooks because I couldn’t stand the learning curve of Quicbooks 2009 for mac.
Even with that small difference the mac is just a way better computer. You won’t be buying a new one every year.
Also of note, there is always the mac-mini for around $500 if you want to get in cheap and use your old monitor and hardware…
I recently converted a new Acer Aspire netbook from XP to Linux Ubuntu.
Linux runs so much faster and smoother. I keep it in the truck to do estimates and invoices and just net stuff, nothing major, but XP was so slow - which was strange considering it was a brand new computer with 1.6 ghz atom and a gig of memory… it runs great on Ubuntu now.
But now that I’ve tried something different then windows, my next computer will be a mac… I don’t have much experience with them besides when I used one in school, but just the feature of the charging port on the laptops is worth the extra expense. It’s magnetic, so rather then there being enough stress to break the jack, it just falls off.
It’s sounds like everyone here has had a good experience with Mac and that’s great but if you go to any Mac forum you’ll see thousands of people experiencing crashes, glitches, and hardware failures.
I owned one mac in 2001 and I wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t bad but neither was it this mythical creature that lived forever in the forest of trouble free computing. In fact my young son crashed it by dropping all the desktop icons into the trash and unlike windows there was no recovery mode. Not impressed. Also, I have an ipod touch and I’m less than impressed with some of the goofy ways it handles simple tasks. Very clunky and hard to navigate.
Secondly, my cousin and I have both been running our businesses simultaneously for several years and he uses Macs for his office. Every secretary and salesperson he hires has this added learning curve because so few people are familiar with the OS. Add all the time he spends on the phone with them telling them how to do stuff and I wonder why he bothers.
As far as the price goes, I would rather have two PC laptops than one Mac. That way I have a back up in case I leave a $600 computer on the roof of my car and drive away. All in all, I remain unconvinced that Mac is so spectacular, but they definitely raise your coolness level five notches.
My suggestion: paint your PC white and put an apple decal on the back - same result.
PS: Here is a small sampling of the latest Mac forum threads:
[B]White goo macbook ram slot jamed[/B]
[B]Weird green tint on macbook screen when laptop isn’t on[/B]
[B]Battery Not Charging… no signs of life
[/B][B]MacBook fan runs at 6200 RPM HELP!!!
[/B][B]Macbook Start Up Screen Issues
[/B][B]Trackpad Problem
[/B][B]iBookG4 Problems
[/B][B]Macbook dvd drive troubles
[/B][B]Macbook wont connect to network suddenly
[/B][B]WT? Help with display problem please…
[/B][B]MacBook Unibody has ‘Tearing’ distortion when scrolling
[/B][B]MacBook becoming unresponsive upon update to .8[/B]
[B]Help! Macbook won’t power on… possible keyboard/cable problem[/B]
[B]
Etc…
Etc…
Etc…
[/B]
Macs are REALLY nice, and have the ability to run PC software on them too…but really, for the same price you can have a really nice PC that will do things that the Mac cant. Right now at Fry’s, there are some Dell desktops that come out the box with 8 gigs of ram and a terabite HD (sata).
Windows 7 will be out next year and is gonna be so much better then crappy Vista. You can actually build your own system online at Dell.com that is ready to handle whatever you throw at it.
Customer service at Apple IS topnotch.
But, so many more applications for the PC and my being able to do alot with the PC, and not wanting to take the time to learn the Mac keeps me with PC.
I love linux too. I only have a pc to run quickbooks on thats it. everything else is done on a PC running Linux operating system. Its like a mac only cheaper. But i do ahve to admit there is something crazy cool about a mac. Its the quality of hte build and the software that you get that are full version included not trials, and its just so smooth. my next computer for work will be a mac. but for everything else its linux
