Should I buy this MacBook?

[The_Gnome_]

There is A LOT still wrong with macs, and probably always will be. There is a reason why they lost the pc war, and some people forget that.

There's a lot wrong for you, and maybe for most people. But for those of us who are happy with our Macs, there's a lot right.

 

[ttaylor0024]

Macs are for people that dont really know much about computers, no offence. People who know more will lean to PCs, and some like linux-because it is open source and they can make their own programs.

My problems with Macs-
*Wayyyyyy overpriced.
*5 years down the line, you literally have to throw it away. With PCs, you can upgrade, or do what I am going to do, and combine them (in my case, 5 from work) and make a supercomputer.
*OS itself- read IOWA's post
*Apple in general- saying their product is the best, when its clearly not.
*Apple again, saying its virus proof. Again another example of apple lieing. Give me a week to learn apple OS and I could program a virus for it. They just have less viruses because there is less apple computers around.
*If the app isnt on the dock, its a pain to get to.

Now, before you say anything, know this- I work for a school that has both iMacs (new and old, intel/no intel), and Dell Optiplexes 280, 560, and 720s. I GREATLY prefer the PCs. Once you get used to it, it is simpler to use than Macs, and really the only way to get a virus is to either download porn, or download un-trusted programs (random pop-ups that say that you have a virus). Little simple things can save you from viruses.

Apple knew their Macs were dieing, thats why they let windows be made for it. Still, windows-macs are nothing compared to a windows PC.

Oh yea, one more thing. Go to newegg.com and look at just how many PC options are out there. You can literally buy all the parts and build your own PC to YOUR specs, not from the manufacturers. Save lots of cash too. $750 for a good core i7 system. Do THAT with a Mac.

 

[The_Gnome_]

Macs are for people that dont really know much about computers, no offence.

None taken, but that's quite the generalization.

People who know more will lean to PCs, and some like linux-because it is open source and they can make their own programs.

Fair enough. I've got 2 windows machines in the house, a Macbook, and 2 running Linux distros. App development is much easier for the Windows and Linux environments, no doubt.

My problems with Macs-
*Wayyyyyy overpriced.

No argument that they come with a price premium, but IMO it's more than offset by the longevity of the product. Of course, everyone's experiences will vary, but my Macbook runs better today on the newest OS than it did the day I got it.

*5 years down the line, you literally have to throw it away. With PCs, you can upgrade, or do what I am going to do, and combine them (in my case, 5 from work) and make a supercomputer.

Very good point - PCs have a huge advantage in customization, part swapping, etc. I haven't had a need to upgrade anything beyond hard drive and RAM in my Mac, and I know that if I ever did, it would mean a new machine. That's a risk I was willing to live with when I bought it.

*OS itself- read IOWA's post

I personally quite like OS X. Is it for everyone? Of course not, but neither is any operating system.

*Apple in general- saying their product is the best, when its clearly not.

EVERY company claims to have the best 'something'. Cellular networks, car companies, dish soap, fast food burgers, etc. It's advertising.

*Apple again, saying its virus proof. Again another example of apple lieing. Give me a week to learn apple OS and I could program a virus for it. They just have less viruses because there is less apple computers around.

I've never seen Apple claim OS X is virus proof. There's a big difference between virus proof and less susceptible to virus attacks. Like you said, the reason is because of the tiny market share - developing a Mac virus would be a waste of time.

*If the app isnt on the dock, its a pain to get to.

Sure, if you don't want to learn OS X. Spotlight makes it simple to launch anything - app, document, song, video, contact, etc. Cmd-space, then start typing what you want. People could argue that applications that weren't on the desktop in Windows were a pain to get to - of course, we've learned our way around because of the intimate familiarity with Windows.

Now, before you say anything, know this- I work for a school that has both iMacs (new and old, intel/no intel), and Dell Optiplexes 280, 560, and 720s. I GREATLY prefer the PCs.

Awesome, you've found what works for you. Doesn't mean others can't enjoy Macs, or that they're wrong for doing so.

Oh yea, one more thing. Go to newegg.com and look at just how many PC options are out there. You can literally buy all the parts and build your own PC to YOUR specs, not from the manufacturers. Save lots of cash too. $750 for a good core i7 system. Do THAT with a Mac.

I don't think anyone has ever said you could do that with a Mac - why try to put down what others enjoy?

This thread started as a question for opinions on whether or not to buy a used Macbook. Shame it's degenerated into PC/Mac wars - I use and enjoy both, and just feel it's unfortunate the way people try to slam the other side (and that goes both ways). Both have their advantages and fans, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[ttaylor0024]

Gnome, you are right, idk why I posted on this thread anyway...lol

Anyway, I would not buy any laptop-mac/pc/linux/android whatever. I, however have a plan. In a couple years, when my current laptop becomes even more obsolete (7 years old now), I will build my own desktop, and then get a netbook. With android tethering, make my netbook be able to access my desktop anywhere, and just remote in to do stuff I cant wait!

 

[The_Gnome_]

Gnome, you are right, idk why I posted on this thread anyway...lol

Anyway, I would not buy any laptop-mac/pc/linux/android whatever. I, however have a plan. In a couple years, when my current laptop becomes even more obsolete (7 years old now), I will build my own desktop, and then get a netbook. With android tethering, make my netbook be able to access my desktop anywhere, and just remote in to do stuff I cant wait!

Sorry dude, I wasn't jumping all over you (or didn't mean to)....just felt we need some balance and tolerance - everyone has their own tastes and finds what works for them. What is perfect for one just isn't so for someone else.

As for your plan - that's pretty sweet! The only comment I'll make is - who knows what's going to be around 7 years from now. Maybe we'll be plugging our Android devices right into our brains via USB 5.0. LOL

 

[ttaylor0024]

Sorry dude, I wasn't jumping all over you (or didn't mean to))

Your fine. I just realized I get tired of iPhone fanboys, and its kind of like the same thing, except from me....haha

via USB 5.0. LOL

I cant wait for usb 3.0.... i think...ha

 

[IOWA]

While the "macs are for people who don't understand computers" is in fact a generalization, it is a very accurate one at that.

And usb 3 is going to be real nice. 1tb thumb drives here we come.

 

[rhodzy]

I personally would buy it, I love everything mac and that does seem like a good price. I have the dual core macbook and that sometimes runs slow but even when running slow does not crash like windows!

 

[IOWA]

I personally would buy it, I love everything mac and that does seem like a good price. I have the dual core macbook and that sometimes runs slow but even when running slow does not crash like windows!

Lol @ misinformation. I've seen just as many mac crash as I have windows. Now that's saying something, being there are 100x more pcs.

 

[Slug]

Lol @ misinformation.

It's not misinformation, it's a personal opinion.

This thread has been derailed far enough. Please continue the PC vs Mac debate in a separate thread; I doubt this is helping the OP with his/her decision.

 

[El Blacksheep]

Having used PCs exclusively for the last 20ish years, if I were to buy a new laptop it would most likely be a MacBook Pro. Specifically this current version, whenever the next version arrives (thus dropping the price to something a little more reasonable)

People get so caught up in specs they need to take a step back and ask themselves "for what?"

A co-worker of mine makes a hobby out of building PCs. He's pretty arrogant and considers himself the expert of all experts. Every day I see him browsing newegg, frys and microcenter's websites looking for good deals on bleeding edge tech. So one day he's ranting about RAM latency and how it's a bottleneck on many systems. I ask him "so what major resource intensive applications are you running that requires so much computing power?"

His response?

"Oh I don't run any software, I just browse the web."

I just sorta chucked under my breath. But this is exactly the kind of idiot people are becoming. The only real use for bleeding edge tech is to run games at max settings or multi-tasking with massive resource intensive applications. Which is exactly why I bought a netbook instead of a laptop a year ago.

Now, about all the mac crap:

* Yes, they're overpriced spec-wise
* Yes, if you take a mac and a PC with equal specs, the mac will outperform the PC
* Yes, if you take a mac and a PC with equal retail value, the PC will outperform the mac
* It only took forever for apple to realize mice should have more than one button

In a netbook, the key factor is mobility. It's meant to handle the majority of computer use (web browsing, simple document processing, music/video playback), so it doesn't need killer specs.

In a PC, the key factor is longevity. What's good now is mediocre tomorrow, so you want to invest in something that will last a long time without overspending.

In a laptop you're kind of stuck. You sacrifice some mobility to gain some power. In general though, you won't be upgrading anything on a laptop other than the HDD or RAM, so you need to get something that will last without needing new hardware. That's exactly what macs do.

 

[IOWA]

Having used PCs exclusively for the last 20ish years, if I were to buy a new laptop it would most likely be a MacBook Pro. Specifically this current version, whenever the next version arrives (thus dropping the price to something a little more reasonable)

People get so caught up in specs they need to take a step back and ask themselves "for what?"

A co-worker of mine makes a hobby out of building PCs. He's pretty arrogant and considers himself the expert of all experts. Every day I see him browsing newegg, frys and microcenter's websites looking for good deals on bleeding edge tech. So one day he's ranting about RAM latency and how it's a bottleneck on many systems. I ask him "so what major resource intensive applications are you running that requires so much computing power?"

His response?

"Oh I don't run any software, I just browse the web."

I just sorta chucked under my breath. But this is exactly the kind of idiot people are becoming. The only real use for bleeding edge tech is to run games at max settings or multi-tasking with massive resource intensive applications. Which is exactly why I bought a netbook instead of a laptop a year ago.

Now, about all the mac crap:

* Yes, they're overpriced spec-wise
* Yes, if you take a mac and a PC with equal specs, the mac will outperform the PC
* Yes, if you take a mac and a PC with equal retail value, the PC will outperform the mac
* It only took forever for apple to realize mice should have more than one button

In a netbook, the key factor is mobility. It's meant to handle the majority of computer use (web browsing, simple document processing, music/video playback), so it doesn't need killer specs.

In a PC, the key factor is longevity. What's good now is mediocre tomorrow, so you want to invest in something that will last a long time without overspending.

In a laptop you're kind of stuck. You sacrifice some mobility to gain some power. In general though, you won't be upgrading anything on a laptop other than the HDD or RAM, so you need to get something that will last without needing new hardware. That's exactly what macs do.

Mac of the same spec will not out perform a pc, especially when it comes to heavy duty applications and especially gaming. Anything that needs a decent amount of graphics processing does not do well on a mac. I have done about ten different benchmark tests with g5's and g4's with comparable pcs. Pcs won every time.(granted the pc did have a top end graphics card, and I would have put one in a mac to keep it fair, but wait, you can't.)

 

[Fonseca]

Some of the people who have said Macs claim to be virus free, they don't. The claim is Macs do not get Windows viruses. Which is true, but a bit tricky. But hey, that is why corporations pay their marketing guys money.

 

[dmodert66]

This thread is in the wrong forum. This is the "Computer and IT" subforum. According to Steve Jobs, Macs are "works of art", so please have a mod move...

Kidding aside, if you are set on a Mac, at least make sure to get a Core 2 Duo at minimum...

 

[SoulTerror]

Ugh I hate those old iBooks. They look like crap and perform like crap. I hate Mac's, would never buy one. I'll take a PC with Windows or Ubuntu any day.

 

[IOWA]

Ugh I hate those old iBooks. They look like crap and perform like crap. I hate Mac's, would never buy one. I'll take a PC with Windows or Ubuntu any day.

Win/Ubuntu Dual boot =D