Is it worth buying a Mac purely on the basis of reliability

trets77

i really did wince when paid nearly £1000 for my Macbook . when it came i really did think about not opening it and sending it back for a refund , i mean this is a lot of money that i could buy probably 2 decent laptops from PC world for .

18 months on and i love it to bits and think it was worth that hefty initial outlay . why ?

well it just works for a start ... not some of the time , not most of the time ...but all of the time . 18 months on it is still as quick and snappy as the day it was unpacked . i still have my old windows PC and i detest it with a passion now ( £450 Toshiba that is not a bargain basement machine ) . The constant crashes , the age it takes to anything , the 3 mins boot time , the security suite that constantly takes forever to update and forever to scan . not to mention the crap battery life and poor display .

before i had £800 Acer laptop that broke within a month ( sent back for a refund) , 2 £300 dells that grinded to halt within a year and my Toshiba . i honestly don't think i will need to get a new Mac for a a good number of years yet . think of it like that and yes the initial outlay is a lot , but you have machine that works and lasts IMO .

i love mac OSX as well , takes a tiny bit of getting used to , but when you know your way around it really takes a dump on windows from a great height . anti virus is free and almost not needed . it is also does not effect the computer in adverse way . Photo software is brilliant , as are the media players .

will never have a PC again .

forgotmyname

Dont forget apple's dont get infected... You wish..


http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174337/Apple_delivers_record_monster_security_update

Marty_J

forgotmyname wrote: »

Dont forget apple's dont get infected... You wish..


http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174337/Apple_delivers_record_monster_security_update

That Apple patch security holes doesn't mean anyone has actually exploited them.

MadTechie

I am a Mac & PC engineer / programmer and I can confirm a few things.
1. Mac's get less viruses (because viruses need to spread and Mac's only take a small corner of the market)
2. Mac's are "considered" more stable this is down to the hardware and the software, as most problems on windows is cause by drivers and crappy software where as their are less crappy developer wring mac app's/drivers and machine is built with matching hardware.*
3. re-installs are easier because of #2 (no having to find drivers for XYZ)
4. data recovery.. okay this can be harder on the Mac but get a copy of Drive 10 or TechTools and you should be okay!
5. Boot Camp.. this allows you to have your own partition and run windows yay! lol
(you can also use a program called parallels but i hate it, due to problems)
6. Less PC support.. you may finder it harder to get tech support or even some programs for the mac (but see #5)
7. Mac's are consider designer machines most people who use them use Photoshop/quark/indesign etc they are very good media machines
8. Upgrading cost apart from upgrading memory and HDD your need a need Mac.

okay by the sounds of the above it would sound like i am a Mac user but No.. i am a PC user mainly because the 85% of the development i do is on PC, (I have 4 PC's and 2 Mac's)

*Note: Mac got their "more powerful" sticker years ago, however they have now changed to the Intel processor but the sticker has stuck.. the processors we're more powerful due to the "right cycle" the CPU could perform that beat the Intel's CPU when it came to graphic rendering, this is no longer the code BUT the OS does has graphics in-mind.

spaceboy

Nowadays I see them as designer PCs. I wouldnt buy one unless I had a lot of money. Most people dont, and a PC is therefore perfectly fine.