5 reasons you’ll go Mac..and not look back
The recent media hype surrounding Apple’s famed iPhone and its new lineup of iPods has consumers flocking to Best Buy’s and Apple retailers nationwide; there’s a very good chance those consumers will try their hand at an iMac or Macbook whilest they investigate a shiny new iPod Touch or Nano. If you are considering making that scary switch from your dusty old Dell to a new Mac, here are 5 reasons why you will absolutely never regret your decision.
1. Your new Mac doesn’t have a built in expiration date; what I mean by that is, unlike that shiny new Dell or Gateway you purchased 2 years ago that just doesn’t seem to have what it takes anymore, your Mac will last as long as you like it to. One such example is Apple’s older G4 processor machines; though running (natively) an operating system two iterations back, they still function very well, and are more than capable of running the current OS without problems.
Once you’ve gone Mac, gone are the days of wondering when you’ll have to shell out for a new machine. Being outside the realm of planned obsolescence is a lovely feeling.
2. Ease of use – Macs are just inherently designed better for the uses of the average consumer. What, realistically does the average consumer use a computer for? Email, IM, music, and web browsing. You’ll find doing all these things are just more seamless on a Mac, and will cause you substantially less grief than navigating that cumbersome Windows OS.
3. Performance in perspective – following the last point, performance of a Mac is vastly superior to that of a Windows machine of equal specifications. This is due to the nature of OS X; you might have struggled to run a bunch of different programs on your PC, but OS X skillfully operates multiple applications like you’re only running one.
4. Safety and security – it has been said time and time again, and I’ll rehash it: no more shall you have to weekly clean your computer of viruses, malware, adware, and the like. All those nasty little infections don’t have homes on a Mac, and this will keep your mind at ease, and your Mac running much more smoothly than its Windows counterpart.
5. Peace of Mind – I group this last category as a sort of conglomerate of the previous ones, but I think this is particularly important: regardless of your age or computer knowledge, there is something to be said for not ever having to really worry about some aspect of your life; for some, computers are a large part, and for others they aren’t. But they are a part of life today, and relieving stress in one area is bound to make you a happier person.
There you have it, 5 solid reasons you will never regret your decision to purchase that shiny new Mac. Give it a shot, and if you think I’m wrong, I’ll take the blame(that’s more an example than anything..I really can’t do that).
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October 2nd, 2007
Very accurate!
October 2nd, 2007
By the way there are some Best Buy stores here in Louisiana that don’t have good Apple support. The sales people or the geek-squad in the Metairie, LA store don’t seem to interested in either demonstrating the features of the Macs or keeping them in good condition.
October 3rd, 2007
“One such example is Apple’s older G4 processor machines; though running (natively) an operating system two iterations back, they still function very well, and are more than capable of running the current OS without problems.”
So you’re stating older G4′s will run Leopard?
http://www.hitechsquad.com/2007/09/25/apple-announce-system-requirements-for-os-x-leopard-105/
October 3rd, 2007
What I’m saying, Ken, is yes: older G4′s are capable of running Leopard. I’m quite familiar with the article you’re referring to, but it is noteworthy that Apple will not support the G4 as capable of running Leopard because it won’t perform up to their standards for endorsement. However, it is capable of doing so (how well it runs is not the question; the point being made is in comparison to Windows machines, such “staying power” is unheard of).
October 3rd, 2007
I am not sure just how badly you have been affected by the RDF (reality distortion field) but for what it is worth:
“1. Your new Mac doesn’t have a built in expiration date” The whitebox PC I bought with Win98 in 1998 is still running just fine in my house with XP Pro SP2, 256 MB video card and a DVD burner–its a PII 333 and is still the primary surf-and-email box in the house. Expiration date? What expiration date?
“2. Ease of use” I understand that Macs finally got some right-click functionality–cause I REALLY wanted to smash those one-click mice. But anyone coming from Windows to Mac is in for a steep learning curve.
“3. Performance in perspective” I am not sure WHAT you have struggled to multitask, but it certainly isn’t multiple browser instances, multiple Office documents and Outlook. I don’t find it unusual to have 15-25 simultaneously open windows, without much hassle.
“4. Safety and security ” I haven’t EVER had a serious virus, and I haven’t had an infection since the missus messed up in 2001. Ditto spyware. Keep your machine patched with automatic updates, stay away from porn and warez, and you really won’t have a problem.
“5. Peace of Mind ” I guess this all depends on you perspective. Knowing that I can Google virtually any problem I have, and the collective experience of close to a billion other people will be put at my disposal, knowing that the largest software company in the world makes it its business to create, fix and secure my machine, knowing that when problems are found that there will be hue-and-cry followed inevitably by solutions, knowing that the platform is battle-tested –and scarred– and therefore less vulnerable to the unknown-unknowns than a platform not so nearly widespread or tested, these things give ME peace of mind. How you get yours is up to you.
October 3rd, 2007
Re: Nick67
“1. The whitebox PC I bought with Win98 in 1998 is still running just fine [...]”
Good man. ‘course, I’ll defy you to find another such machine.
One factor I would like to mention is the actual hardware – Dells, for example, have a tendency to fall apart. Conversely, the 68040 Mac (circa 1994) that we have runs like the day it was new.
“2. blah blah blah one button blah [...] But anyone coming from Windows to Mac is in for a steep learning curve.”
First off, the gratuitous mouse comment – not only did control-left-click always do the same things as a right click, anybody who is unable to deal with that can just plug in a mouse with as many buttons as they want. It’s not hard.
Second, the learning curve is much less steep than with going from windows to any other system, or any other system to windows. I generally hear of computer-literate mac newbies going from opening the box to normal use in less than a day.
“3. I am not sure WHAT you have struggled to multitask, [...]”
Funny. When I have that many windows open, either the taskbar tabs are too small to read or it puts them in infuriating little menus. However, what the writer was actually referring to was multitasking performance. This is an operating system performance issue (related to CPU scheduling, I believe), not a user thing.
“4. Safety and security†I haven’t EVER had a serious virus [...] Keep your machine patched with automatic updates, [...] and you really won’t have a problem.”
If you know what you’re doing, that is correct. If, like the vast majority of windows users, you don’t, then you will have a problem. Conversely, the odds are strongly against even the most clueless of newbies ever getting a virus on a mac.
“5. [...] knowing that the largest software company in the world makes it its business to create, fix and secure my machine, [...] followed inevitably by solutions, knowing that the platform is battle-tested –and scarred– and therefore less vulnerable [...]”
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1872574,00.asp
IE6 advisories: 2003-2005.
Workaround: 13%
Unpatched: 29%
Patched: 57%.
These are not good numbers.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/01/internet_explorer_unsafe_for_2.html
“For a total 284 days in 2006 [...] exploit code for known, unpatched critical flaws [...] was publicly available on the Internet.”
Also not good numbers.
I guess you take peace of mind where you can get it, but I never feel secure using windows. Even if it’s hardened, the number of new exploits being found is too great to ever be truly confident that you’re secure.
October 4th, 2007
Tristan,
There are probably more computers running Windows 98 or 2000 in businesses and various back offices than the total number of Macs in the wild. I know several people that have the same boxes they bought more than 6 years ago working just fine. If you pop the top of your somehow invulnerable hardware you will find the same hard drives, memory, and now CPU’s as the PC’s you seem to think are made with popsicle sticks and dental floss. It’s also good to remember this same hardware can run OSes other than Windows. Will a $300 dollar computer fail faster than a 1,400 dollars computer? Definitely. That’s true no matter what operating system it runs. I wonder how many of the Cubes are still humming along? Jobbites keep on about IE flaws, BSODS etc…Gaters talk about the one button mouse, toy machines. Both belong to the last century. As far as Mr. IE is death man from the previous posting, more people are starting to run Firefox, Opera etc..”The you know what you’re doing but every other Windows person is a newbie” (and somehow doesn’t know anyone with a clue) is as tiresome as the one button mouse argument. The majority of folks upgrade to run a software or game, which really made the Mac-PC ads funny to me (“PC, don’t feel bad about the home video being so much more fun than your spreadsheet….PC..PC.. Dammit will you stop playing Halo and look at my iphoto so we can have some fun?). All the trumpeting of the very good move to Intel giving you the best of both worlds is going to be a double edged sword. Buying a boutique PC will future proof just as well as your now boutique PC. The Power PC’s will not be able to keep up, anymore than the older Pentiums because of CPU and memory architecture. If the Wintels were as crappy as the Mac faithful like to think, American commerce and infrastructure would come to a screeching halt by BSODS, since last time I looked, it was almost 99% virus infested, poorly engineered, ready to fall apart Wintels. Maybe the gentleman in the previous post never felt secure using Windows. He might want to start worrying about where his money is since his bank is probably running Wintel machines.
If it makes you feel better about yourselves, by all means continue to pat yourself on the back for your discerning, intelligent, elegant choice in computing. The unwashed, brainwashed rabble will continue to laugh at what they think is an expensive toy because it won’t allow them to frag others online unless M$ is running on it. As someone who has used both for 20 years, neither extreme is true. Sometimes watching this argument reminds me of my nieces who were arguing several years ago about whose music was better N’sync or the Backstreet Boy’s.
October 4th, 2007
Ken:
You might notice that I use words like “most” and “average” (you might also note that I avoid personal attacks). For example, among my peer group I observe most individuals using IE, and a majority having malware infections. Firefox is gaining market share? Good. IE’s own market share is all the way down to — let’s check the magic 8-ball — 63%. Guess we’ll have to give it another five years.
At my workplace, we use XP and IE. The difference between my workplace (and my bank) and Joe Sixpack down the street (or even the gamer next door) is that they have professional IT people, who know what they’re doing and how to use backups.
October 5th, 2007
asc:
I didn’t mean to personally attack you, I apologize since it came across that way to you. I guess
“Good man. ‘course, I’ll defy you to find another such machine.”
was respectful and not condescending to the previous commenter.
“One factor I would like to mention is the actual hardware – Dells, for example, have a tendency to fall apart.”
Perhaps I should defy you to back that up with something more than an 8-ball?
I’m not denying the bottom of the line Dells leave something to be desired. Then again, you’re not limited to purchasing them. That’s the nice thing about having choices. I can build my own. I can buy a crap PC for $399 to use for a 6months until the latest, greatest, newest comes out and give it to the Boy’s Club. I can upgrade with new motherboards, cpu.
I could have bought a Cube and used it to make grilled cheese.
As far as your peer group all using IE and having malware, perhaps you should associate with brighter people.
October 5th, 2007
“was respectful and not condescending to the previous commenter.”
Sounded that way to me. It just means that I believe such machines to be rare. Phrased oddly, but I’ve never heard of anybody taking offense at that one.
“Perhaps I should defy you to back that up with something more than an 8-ball?”
I have a Dell laptop (2001ish). Windows (when it was installed, and re-installed) had strange graphics problems. This was a software issue, but the thing was supposed to be ‘built for windows’… or whatever. There was a burnt-out pixel. About half the keyboard stopped working. The CD drive stopped working. The RAM went bad. One of the batteries failed. The remaining battery holds about 30 minutes of charge(they were only completely drained twice or so). It was not the recipient of any soda spills or similar, and wasn’t dropped any more than average.
I have a Dell desktop(2003ish). I believe the first hard drive died, but that was a while ago and I don’t clearly recall the event. Later it started having random IO errors, resulting in it reading and writing random wrong bytes. As you can imagine, this lead to pervasive crashes and file system damage. It was not a disk or cable problem. Oh, and the case was poorly designed.
This is, of course, in addition to hearing many people complain about how Dells fall apart quickly.
I define my peer group as people of the same approximate age and social situation as me (i.e., average people — and I used “most” again). The people I intentionally associate with have a somewhat different knowledge set, but they aren’t relevant to the discussion.
October 6th, 2007
asc,
Well I guess going by this site, Macs don’t work well and fall apart.
http://www.macfixit.com/
Or here:
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/03/13/macbook-pro-noises-lcd-touchpad-other-problems/
or here:
http://www.appledefects.com/?p=138
I’m responsible for the purchasing of over 3000 Dells over the last five years. Were they all problem free? Of course not.You will have issues with 3000 of anything. The vast majority are still in service and malware free.I rarely need to deal with mechanical failures. I must just be lucky, or it’s good I only buy the better built business Optiplex and latitude lines. There are literary millions of Dells in homes and businesses, many having several generations and repeat purchases. I don’t see how this could be if they quickly fall apart.Businesses aren’t going to be viable if the computers are dying or unusable all the time. Packard Bells did fall apart quickly, and had about a 3 year run here in the US. NEC bought them out and the brand is somewhat popular in Europe, but NEC pulled them domestically because no one purchased them, they indeed had the problems you believe Dell has. Which brings me back to my original comments about the economy running with reliable PCs, primarily HP and Dell.
October 7th, 2007
I have to admit that I am unfamiliar with the failure rate statistics of Apple products. There will, as you mention, always be a few with problems if you build very many of anything.
There’s nothing in your post I particularly object to. When one hears about problems with a product, it is a good idea to keep in mind that the people complaining are among the small fraction who had problems. Guess I’ll keep than in mind that it goes both ways.