why not buy a mac?

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: joecool
yeah, i tried that once ... for some reason my wife didn't appreciate my 8-year-old getting fragged by dad at serious sam!

Play co-op. Also try Lego Star Wars.

 

[Tyhr]

I do most of my work in Windows, but I'm not a fanboy of either OS.
I do however find many of the arguments against Mac to be quite interesting:

1. Too expensive.
- I don't see too many people complaining about spending the "extra" money of "trusted name brand" power supplies.

2. Too slow.
- How is this measured? I'm sure benchmarks of 2 working computers would be on the side of Windows/PC. But is this the real world?
How about these 2 measurements of speed:
1. Stopwatch the time it takes from opening the box to connecting to the internet.
2. Time how long it takes to do both audio and video editing for an entire movie. Yes - you must include the time when the PC crashes and/or driver conflicts.
My money is on the Mac for that one - stability is key.

3. There are fewer games.
- not a problem for me because I don't play games. Buy a console. But seriously, if you're justifying your $2000-$3000 purchase just to play video games...more power to you.

4. I don't like the Mac commercials.
- When Pepsi mentioned Coke in their commercials, and vice versa - I was so offended and hurt I had to stop drinking cola all-together.
If ppl are really that pained by the commercials, then they're definitely as uptight as the PC in the commercial. Relax ppl - it's just a humorous commercial. Now if you were upset with the "caveman bashing" commercial - I'll understand.

Me? My PC runs Windows XP. And OSX. And Ubuntu. I use XP the most. I originally put OSX on my PC just to bug my Mac friend and to impress the chicks I put Linux on to impress geeks. I overestimated their reactions on both counts. Chicks don't care and geeks never leave their parents basement (except me - I left...they were hogging my bandwidth...) For NLE editing, Final Cut Pro on the Mac trumps anything PC's have. But I do most of my work with vfx - and the sw I use is Windows based.

On the plus side of Macs (or negative for many gamers), I've never seen a "riced-out" Mac. No window and neon lights, no spoilers or fancy stickers or whatever else they put on them. They look like professional and clean computers that aren't made by Fisher-Price.

On the negative side of Mac - I can't afford/justify one. Plus if I buy a Mac, then Mac ppl are happy.
With running OSX on my PC, I can p1ss off both PC and Mac users. Ever since I had my Amiga back in the day, it just seems like a natural reaction.

Bottom line: buy whatever you want - be happy - and leave everyone else alone. Besides, competition is healthy, and M$ needs Apple to push them further, much like Intel needs AMD. Otherwise, single-choice monopolies suck for us consumers.

 

[oldman420]

Macs are superior at photo, video, and sound reproduction and editing as far as I can tell and the PC is far better at gaming and general functionality. That said for me it is a tossup heavily weighted by my budget.

 

[miniMUNCH]

OS X does crash... kernel panic.

I experienced more crashes on OS X in one year than I have on linux and windows combined in the last 5 years. That's just me...the OS X kernel panics were no big deal. I didn't lose any data, just like on win/linux... just an annoying reboot.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: 1Cheap2Crazy
I have my new LCD monitor so I don't want to pay Apple for one.

Monitors (like mice) are Plug & Play. You do not need an Apple brand monitor (or mouse) to use with your Apple brand computer. The reason to buy that stuff from Apple is mainly for aesthetics; it looks nicer when everything is the same color.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: Tyhr
if you're justifying your $2000-$3000 purchase just to play video games...more power to you.

Your statement is the entire basis of the PC argument; no [reasonable] non-gaming PC actually costs $2000. Just a few months ago I bought what was basically the fastest computer available (without SLI), and it was only $1600 canadian. Don't say I saved money by building it myself; I bought it at a local computer store and they assembled the whole thing for me.

 

[secretanchitman]

since my pc is dead (video card is under rma), im using my dads macbook. while its fairly nice, i wouldnt completely switch on over to it yet. first off, paying 1500 (he has the black one with applecare) for a mac when i can build a faster, more capable machine is not appealing to me. 2nd, while osx looks nice and has these small knick-knacks (expose, hardwaregrowler, etc), my pc can do all that too. i dont want to reboot into windows just to play some game. parallels doesnt have 3D capabilities (yet), and there arent many universal games out there that appeal to me.

i like to overclock as well...not just a little, but as far as it can go. besides...just the fact of building a pc to your exact specs makes it all worthwhile for me. windows may be inferior for some, but its definitely not inferior for me.

600 bucks can get you a lot in the pc world. you're paying 600 bucks for osx with pc internals.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

reasons not too:

the 12" laptops that cost 3000USD
GAMES
GAMES
GAMES
Customizability(lol that a word?)
lack of programs
lack of overclocking
lack of coolness

reasons too switch

porn

 

[ShawnD1]

Why did you put cool on the side of PC and porn on the side of Mac? Isn't it the other way around?

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Why did you put cool on the side of PC and porn on the side of Mac? Isn't it the other way around?

bcuz you get spyware from porn, and you dont want to bog your pc down with spyware, and pcs are cool because you can play games?

 

[ShawnD1]

Since when do avi files install spyware?

 

[HybridSquirrel]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Since when do avi files install spyware?

i didnt say avi files install spyware, but assuming you download them legally off of a website like bangbros.com they do

 

[StopSign]

That's why you stick to other methods that are somewhat less than legal. No malware there.

Originally posted by: oldman420
Macs are superior at photo, video, and sound reproduction and editing as far as I can tell and the PC is far better at gaming and general functionality.

That's just an old stereotype from the PowerPC days. Macs and PCs use the same hardware so explain to me how that's possible.

 

[Tyhr]

Originally posted by: StopSign
That's why you stick to other methods that are somewhat less than legal. No malware there.

Originally posted by: oldman420
Macs are superior at photo, video, and sound reproduction and editing as far as I can tell and the PC is far better at gaming and general functionality.

That's just an old stereotype from the PowerPC days. Macs and PCs use the same hardware so explain to me how that's possible.

Well, if you go by the argument that "Macs and PCs use the same hardware..." - then explain to me why PC's are better at games.

It has more to do with the OS than hardware (although you'd be pretty hard pressed to find the Firewire 800 on a PC, while it's native on Macs. Some PC's have the Firewire 400 - but after Windows SP2, their speed is reduced to FireWire S100 (100 Mbit/second). There's a registry hack you can use to bring it back up to 400 - but that's definitely not a user-friendly option).

There is a lot more software support for multi-media applications on Mac's than PC's, as well as the general consensus/experience/reputation/opinion that Mac's crash less than PC's. As well, when plugging in to video/audio hardware to a Mac - "It just works", and businesses/artists like that. PC's are a crapshoot when installing new hardware at times - "Jeez it's simple, just uninstall that driver, put in Direct X10, then re-install the new driver, then reboot, then blah blah..."

On the flip side, I do vfx, and I'll say PC's are leading that race over Macs (although the real big guns run proprietary unix)

 

[yh125d]

Do whatever you want, but I'll stick with PC's. Theres just something about carefully considering each component, hours wondering which motherboard to get, and days agonizing over how long it takes to ship to your house that makes me feel like my computer is all mine, noone elses. I still get goosebumps whenever a package comes in, even if it's just a fan or a cable adapter.

 

[Tyhr]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: Tyhr
if you're justifying your $2000-$3000 purchase just to play video games...more power to you.

Your statement is the entire basis of the PC argument; no [reasonable] non-gaming PC actually costs $2000. Just a few months ago I bought what was basically the fastest computer available (without SLI), and it was only $1600 canadian. Don't say I saved money by building it myself; I bought it at a local computer store and they assembled the whole thing for me.

That's not quite what I was getting at. I agree that a good computer could be had for around $1600 Cdn (that's close to what I spent...without a monitor).

Originally posted by: HybridSquirrel
reasons not too:

the 12" laptops that cost 3000USD
GAMES
GAMES
GAMES
Customizability(lol that a word?)
lack of programs
lack of overclocking
lack of coolness

reasons too switch

porn

I am more confused at the whole "gamer" thing. People that say Mac's are too expensive and then spend $2000+ just to play video games are just a little naive. Considering a decent amount of people make money from working on a Mac, while most gamers do not make money playing video games. (Note - I make money working on a PC, and I'm talking on the side movie projects, not my regular job, etc).

"Coolness" also is dependent on who's point of view. I guess gamers are cool to other gamers? Most of my friends in high school were impressed with my lEE7 computer skillz - but I can't say the chicks thought the same way. To the general population, "gamers" are not cool - there are other words to describe them, and they are not nice. Mac users seldom have that label - they get more artsy labels.

I'm not saying playing video games is not fun. I had a lvl 60 Druid in WoW before Burning Crusade - I just wouldn't tell "real people" about it, whereas I wouldn't have a problem telling people I use Final Cut pro on a Mac.

So PC's:
games
cheap

Mac's:
cool
not customizable

 

[DEredita]

Originally posted by: joecool

having said all that, i'm still curious, from experienced and objective observers (not just fanboys!), why i shouldn't buy a mac? and please, try to contain your comments to reality-based, objective facts.

thanks,

joe

I wouldn't buy a desktop Mac at this point - all the current models are near or have past the end of their life cycle. With exception of the Macbook - all the desktop models are in need of updates. For models like the Mac Mini, a newer model is due any day now.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: Platypus
Laptop ended up being 300 dollars cheaper or so with same hardware from Apple versus Dell, I use firewire a lot for music devices, and OSX is great + easy access to BSD shell.

No brainer for me, I'm no mac fanboy but it fit my needs more appropriately as a musician. I doubt I'd ever purchase a Mac desktop.. no reason in that case because of ridiculous cost premium. I could build something for a fraction of the cost and use XP or UNIX if I have to do any 'real' work. I won't go as far as to say it's not possible to do these things in OSX but there's just really no justification for me to use a Mac for something another OS does better.

I think if I get another laptop, it might be a mac, simply for the same reason bolded above.

edit: or not, I just checked them out and I swear they use to be much better for the price. Doesn't seem like much the case anymore.

 

[joecool]

Originally posted by: DEredita

Originally posted by: joecool

having said all that, i'm still curious, from experienced and objective observers (not just fanboys!), why i shouldn't buy a mac? and please, try to contain your comments to reality-based, objective facts.

thanks,

joe

I wouldn't buy a desktop Mac at this point - all the current models are near or have past the end of their life cycle. With exception of the Macbook - all the desktop models are in need of updates. For models like the Mac Mini, a newer model is due any day now.

yes, the mac mini is a little long in the tooth - 1+ years old - but is there really a refresh coming soon? if so, what's the buzz - what features will it likely add to the current mini?

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Originally posted by: yh125td
Do whatever you want, but I'll stick with PC's. Theres just something about carefully considering each component, hours wondering which motherboard to get, and days agonizing over how long it takes to ship to your house that makes me feel like my computer is all mine, noone elses. I still get goosebumps whenever a package comes in, even if it's just a fan or a cable adapter.

That sounds a bit... sad?

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: DEredita

Originally posted by: joecool

having said all that, i'm still curious, from experienced and objective observers (not just fanboys!), why i shouldn't buy a mac? and please, try to contain your comments to reality-based, objective facts.

thanks,

joe

I wouldn't buy a desktop Mac at this point - all the current models are near or have past the end of their life cycle. With exception of the Macbook - all the desktop models are in need of updates. For models like the Mac Mini, a newer model is due any day now.

What about the iMac? I mean aside from the lack of decent video cards, which is somewhat excusable since people don't buy Macs to game on, the hardware doesn't appear to be all that different from what you'd get on a PC from a different manufacturer. Maybe I misunderstood what you meant about them being near/past the end of their life cycles..

 

[DEredita]

buyers guide of when to buy a mac:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/


Product Mac mini
Recommendation: Don't Buy - Updates soon
Last Release September 06, 2006
Days Since Update 155 (Avg = 151)



Product iMac
Recommendation: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle
Last Release September 06, 2006
Days Since Update 155 (Avg = 168)



Product Mac Pro
Recommendation: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle
Last Release August 07, 2006
Days Since Update 185 (Avg = 206)



Product MacBook
Recommendation: Neutral - Mid product cycle
Last Release November 08, 2006
Days Since Update 92 (Avg = 204)



Product MacBook Pro
Recommendation: Neutral - Mid product cycle
Last Release October 24, 2006
Days Since Update 107 (Avg = 182)



.

 

[Imyourzero]

Ah, you mean as far as far as product refreshes from Apple, not just hardware specs. Gotcha.

 

[DEredita]

As much as the Mac Mini is my favorite model - based off of its small size and quietness - I would never pony the money up for this current generation. $1200 for a 1.83 Ghz Core Duo system - no way.

...oh before anyone starts barking about me saying $1200 for a Mac Mini - I would never order any computers or laptops without 2GB of ram.

 

[batmang]

the ONLY thing that makes me not want to switch to a mac is not having the ability to play all games like windows can. other than that, i absolutely love mac and osx.