Where's the Mac Love? (Was: Re: Advice on Purchasing home PC - TESCO or DELL??)

alexjohnson

(deleted.)

Mr_Skint_2

The only problems with a mac are.

Parts are overly expensive
You cant just pick them off a shelf
Repair time for a mac is 3 weeks on average

All facts stated by a user test between a mac and a windows based PC
on the gadget show, overall rating was that a PC was better in those aspects.

Mr_Skint_2

alexjohnson wrote:

I watch the Gadegt Show but I'm not sure there's much Mac-love going on there, either! On parts and replacability: that just isn't true, at least not anymore. Virtually all the main parts you might look to replace (hard drive, memory, and for towers, optical drives) are industry-standard. Motherboards aren't but if you are someone that wants to do that, I think you qualify firmly as a PC tinkerer! What parts are left?

I would also question where the repair stats come from. If you go to PC World (and please, please don't) then sure, they probably have a guy who opens PCs there and then (and, per Gary Glitter, has a poke around your hard drive to see what s/he can find!) but I guess it's possible they send off Macs. I don't know. If you go to an Apple specialist or the Apple Store, they may do it on the spot. I'll give you that you may have to look a bit further for a Mac specialist - but that does include every John Lewis, and I think for most people the chance that the thing breaks at all is more important than how long it will take to get fixed if it does, no?

Go on, you know you want to...

PC world have a 3day turnaround that they try to keep to whilst repairing desktops, as for laptops they get sent away and can have a 3week turn around aswell, But go into any Shop with a qualified mac engineer and say that I want this or that repaired they will send it off and then its a 3week turn around.

espresso

alexjohnson wrote:

Not many Mac users here are there? I was looking at Princess Fiona's post asking whether to buy a Dell or a Tesco PC and as the tears welled up, I thought I would reply.

A group of friends have a wireless network using notebook PC's, however another girl has an old G3 imac which she does like and is reluctant to give up. Can you suggest an easy and cheap way to simply connect this imac to this wireless network? There are many add on devices that easily allow this to be done cheaply for PC's but the devices that I have seen do not have drivers supplied to enable then to work with an imac!

Any ideas Mr mac?

patflanel

Having been a Mac engineer for 15yrs the reason for macs taking a bit longer to replace motherboards is that they are ordered as needed. Apple boards are high quality unlike some of the PC mboards. Why do you think that they (PC) are so cheap? Ceratinly not because they have the level of engineering in them or the highest quality parts.
Yes there are some downsides to owning a mac but if they are more reliable, last longer, need less time maintaining, as yet need NO AV SOFTWARE and are easier to use I'd say that the plus points far outweigh the negatives. I have 2 macs at present and when any of my PC pals see how easy everything is to use and it just 'works' they are quite envious but like most folk won't take the step forwrd and buy one. I know how to use my PC they cry. Well sorry most folk don't. I have a good friend who does a lot of video work eg weddings and uses a PC. In fact he just spent over £1000 on a new one. My mac can do all that his does, easier, no crashing with the blue screen of death, no need do defrag, run AV, antispyware etc. So in fact it gets the job done quicker and easier. What's the problem? I don't want to relearn how to use a computer. The thing is, you don't. Just think howh you would like to do it and most of the time it works. Macs are by no means perfect but for productivity they are better than most.

/jumps off soapbox/
:beer:

Oh and maybe the reason there are less post on here from Mac users is that they have much less problems.............

Mr_Skint_2

Mmm why dont macs need an AV? Just curious, but not Bi :rotfl:

patflanel

Mr_Skint wrote:

Mmm why dont macs need an AV? Just curious, but not Bi :rotfl:

As yet there are NO virus's for OS X. There is proof of concept (APPLE plugged that) but as of yet NOTHING. You can run AV software if you don't want to pass on a PC virus via email but you can be sure in the knowledge it won't affect your OS X Mac.

Mr_Skint_2

Mmm Strange that Norton have just released a new security upgrade for mac.
And to say there are no real threats, I suggest you install some AV now.

Click the link http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/g/macvirus.htm

wolfman

patflanel wrote:

My mac can do all that his does, easier, no crashing with the blue screen of death, no need do defrag, run AV, antispyware etc. So in fact it gets the job done quicker and easier.

This are just as easy for me. No blue screen of death, crashing, no need to defrag, run AV or anti-spyware etc... and I have a PC.

Just because someone has a PC, does not mean they use Windows. PC's are much more flexible than Mac's in this sense. And they certainly don't have to be poor quality in terms of build. With a Mac you have far less choice, I can pick my components suited to what I want.

A Mac provides a great out of the box solution. I do like using the Mac's at work, but personally wouldn't give up my PC for one yet (especially with Apple changing archictecture). My PC is unique, I know what's in it, and how to maintain it. It never causes me any problems.

I actually run a dual boot with Windows XP and Fedora Core 4. Windows doesn't cause me any problems at all. AV, anti-spyware and even defrag all sit in the background working away.

C-3P0

Mr_Skint wrote:

Mmm Strange that Norton have just released a new security upgrade for mac.
And to say there are no real threats, I suggest you install some AV now.

Click the link http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/g/macvirus.htm

I have to agree as I have found two viruses on my mac and thats
why I have the latest norton security suite.

patflanel

Mr_Skint wrote:

Mmm Strange that Norton have just released a new security upgrade for mac.
And to say there are no real threats, I suggest you install some AV now.

Click the link http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/g/macvirus.htm

If you were selling AV software then you would hype up the risks. !!
The mac viruses referred to on the site are for OS9. I reapeat THERE ARE NO KNOWN VIRUS(S) FOR OS X. There are security threats which is why Apple release security update as and when needed, they don't hang about when the threat is real. As for Norton - Malware in the extreme, causes more problems than it solves. If I want to check an email for a virus I use CalmAV X. Only too save my PC owning friends though. :A