PC vs Mac vs Chromebook...which one?!

Nickbw

I have had computers right from the beginning. My experience of Windows of all flavours is that the software is expensive, licensing can be a pain and there are endless updates and hours of babysitting and housekeeping. I have dabbled with Linux over the years and in many ways it has been excellent. The main problem is that the main distros become unsupported or so changed that they represent a new learning curve, or no longer support "old" hardware specs. My experience of Apple laptops and desktops has been very good indeed. Make no mistake there can be problems, hardware and software, with Apple. However, installing and backing up is very easy and reliable. System X s ability to boot from external hard disks and the hidden restore partition with Time Machine are fantastic! The only downside to System X that I see is that Apple has decided that iOS is what earns their profits, and the OS is being revised to integrate with iOS, and in some cases that removes functionality from programmes iWork is but one example. The fact remains however that Lion, Mountain Lion and Maverics versions are still available and work! I would not go back to Windows by choice. My last experience is a Lenovo Thinkpad E520 with Windows Pro 64bit. It is quite good but not a winner.

gino76ph

Macbooks might be "indestructible" but they are far from perfect. I have seen WWDC 2014 and i must admit i was kinda drooling over the new features. But unless you have an iPhone or an iPad that will work alongside & hand in hand with OS X Yosemite then i will skip a Mac.

I like a PC which has:

4GB RAM
Touchscreen (a novelty really but a plus as far as i'm concerned)
Bright, colourful, sharp screen higher than 1366x768 (current CB's)
Backlit keyboard (not with CB's)
Stereo surround sound (C720 is alright but not good for watching movies for longer times)
2Ghz processor (current-gen Haswell or equivalent)
Quad-core or a fast dual-core
Usual wifi, bluetooth, SD card slots, 2xUSB ports
Fast and smooth "no nonesense" OS (Chrome OS is very smooth and seems straight-forward. But with low-spec machines...which i can understand why... a still immature Chrome Web Store it should be better.)

I'm not expecting much from my Chromebook. So far it does the job. But again i'm missing the specs of my ol' Macbook Air and the touchscreen/excellent sound/A1 screen of my Yoga 2.

If only my current Acer C720 Chromebook has a 4GB RAM, a faster processor, a touchscreen, better speakers, better screen resolution/quality then i will gladly swap it.

At the moment an Apple Macbook isn't my closest option as i can't afford it due to my personal/financial situation.

I'm considering a PC again but i have put off with the 4 hours install and the fact that it is very prone for viruses and hacks; recent news about a worldwide cyber attack initiative isn't good for reading escpecially if your a Windows PC user.

I wish i know why it came to 4 hours to setup my Yoga 2 PC, setting up wifi, MS account, Windows 8.1 and then those further updates. Four hours is the total before i can say i have a properly set up PC.