To Mac or not to Mac ?

mrochester

Lucero wrote: »

Just an FYI, technically, legally, bootcamp, dual booting are against the EULA for apple. The best way is to use a hyper visor program like virtualbox or parralels desktop to have Windows on your MAC so that you can still access and use all your old programs.

That's definitely not right. Apple supply a bit of software that guides you through the installation of Windows on a Mac. You may be getting confused with the reverse; it is against the EULA to install OSX on anything other than Apple hardware.

InsideInsurance

I assume they ment getting Mac OS X to install onto non-apple hardware and dual booting that way rather than installing windows on a mac

bigdave196

Yes it's in $ and yes it's about the (used to be) top-of-the-line Mac Pro, but the principle still stands

mrochester

I think the OP is looking at buying a laptop, not a high end workstation.

uptomyeyeballs

That example is for the most powerful Mac there is. It's only for people looking for a professional setup, like a music studio or high end graphic design studio. Not relevant to the OP. Prices are also unrealistic. Mac Office cost me £85. The operating system (OSX Lion) was £25. The hardware subsidises the software in my opinion. Good after sales support and people who'll sit with you, demo things and answer any of your questions in an Apple store are what sets it apart from others.

gazzer82

I use Mac's and PC's every day in work and i have to say Mac's win hands down. That said they are expensive and for some people unnecessary, but for those people i would still recommend saying away from windows and going with a chromebook, ubuntu bases system, or hell and iPad and avoiding the inevitable malware, viruses and annual rebuilds they require to keep the working efficiently.

Then i am a bit biased as a large part of my job is supporting media server system as an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician and PC support technician, guess which platform creates significantly more support issues . . .yup PC's. They are also infinitely more complicated to troubleshoot due to the mishmash of hardware and incompatible drivers that is a usual PC system.

Jnelhams

You could of course buy a nice shiny Windows laptop and install Ubuntu Linux on it...job done.

bigdave196

uptomyeyeballs wrote: »

That example is for the most powerful Mac there is. It's only for people looking for a professional setup, like a music studio or high end graphic design studio. Not relevant to the OP. Prices are also unrealistic. Mac Office cost me £85. The operating system (OSX Lion) was £25. The hardware subsidises the software in my opinion. Good after sales support and people who'll sit with you, demo things and answer any of your questions in an Apple store are what sets it apart from others.

bigdave196 wrote: »

Yes it's in $ and yes it's about the (used to be) top-of-the-line Mac Pro, but the principle still stands

Nice to see you read the whole post. I know the prices are unrealistic, that's my point, but they're prices that Apple charge.

I can play the same game with a Macbook Pro. Except it's not as fun because there's not as much choice.

15-inch 2.4GHz Macbook Pro:
Want another 100MHz on your processor? £190. You could overclock it and get another 500Mhz at least for free. Except oh wait you can't because it's a Mac.
8GB of RAM instead of 4? £160. The most expensive compatible RAM I could find was £50, but most of it was £30 - £40.
7200rpm HDD instead of a 5400rpm? £40. Again, the actual price difference is about £20.

And then we come to the "accessories". Anywhere between £21 and £70 for an adapter should you want to connect your Macbook to an external display. Virtually every other laptop has at least one standard video out port built in.

mrochester

bigdave196 wrote: »

Nice to see you read the whole post. I know the prices are unrealistic, that's my point, but they're prices that Apple charge.

I can play the same game with a Macbook Pro. Except it's not as fun because there's not as much choice.

15-inch 2.4GHz Macbook Pro:
Want another 100MHz on your processor? £190. You could overclock it and get another 500Mhz at least for free. Except oh wait you can't because it's a Mac.
8GB of RAM instead of 4? £160. The most expensive compatible RAM I could find was £50, but most of it was £30 - £40.
7200rpm HDD instead of a 5400rpm? £40. Again, the actual price difference is about £20.

And then we come to the "accessories". Anywhere between £21 and £70 for an adapter should you want to connect your Macbook to an external display. Virtually every other laptop has at least one standard video out port built in.

It doesn't sound like the OP needs anything other than the basic spec which makes the cost of upgrades or accessories a bit of a moot point. All manufacturers charge a premium to make upgrades to the base spec. There is nothing new or unusual about this.

leseul

<rant>It seems that every threat across all of the internets that includes the words "pc" and "mac" in the post seem to degrade into a battle of the platforms. Having spent time with a broad spectrum of OS' I'm disappointed to see people seemingly choosing a corner and sticking to it out of stubbornness (in my opinion) - Every OS has it's pro's and cons and fills a different niche. If they didn't, we would only have one. Apple OS has the benefit of stability and speed (among others), something apple can optimise as they know exactly what hardware it's going to run on.</rant>

The OP wasn't asking about the drawbacks of apple pricing, that's another topic (one that's been done to death) - what he WAS getting at is that he has a ton of legacy windows programs and a heap of data and was looking into his options of retaining as much as possible.