So you still want to be in the Mac echo system?

[vindibona1]

I ran a photography studio for decades, and for the longest time the studio was all Mac. I kept upgrading to a point as the improvements came fast and I didn't keep my Macs too long. I began switching to PC's about the time that OS9 got replaced with the first OSX. OSX wasn't ready for prime time and it was literally years before printer drivers and other necessities were no longer available. Quark Xpress I don't think ever recovered.

Fast forward a bit. Since, I have had a Mac here and there and have never had a Mac last me longer than 6 years. My average PC can go at least 12-14 years and is outdated with heavier software before it breaks.

The last Mac I had was 6 years old and I put $250 in repairs into it TWICE and it still wasn't right. I gave it to my youngest daughter who didn't have a laptop.

BUT JUST THESE PAST TWO WEEKS... My oldest daughter who was raised on Macs and is sort of a Mac evangelist had her Macbook Pro's screen go wonky. $600 in repairs for the screen. Two weeks later... that 6 year old Mac is dead as a doornail.

Just yesterday I was helping a client who has a lot of images for products he is selling is also having a problem with his main Mac. It's just "choking". So what does he do? He removes Photoshop from it... and I now can't edit his images from his system. I'm sure this issue was his fault because he doesn't know how to manage assets... But I've been so far removed from Macs that I couldn't help him.

Sure there are problems with PCs, and I know there are those with great success stories with Macs, as I ONCE HAD. I've said this before and the situations I've been running into these last months have concluded, at least in my mind that Macs have a shelf life before repairs of about 5 years. At 7 years Apple considers them to be done and won't even repair them. In my opinion if I can get an equivalent PC for half the price and make it go for twice as long as a Mac, I'm way ahead of the ball game. The only downside are the very few Mac only programs (i.e. Final Cut Pro) that you can't put on a PC. That's ok. There are plenty of programs for everything on PC.

Im just venting due to my daughter's EXPENSIVE ordeal.) She's going to buy another Mac and there isn't a thing I can say to her. Oh... And her husband, after 5 years needs a new Mac too. Bottom line: You do you. I'm just sharing my experiences. Bah! Humbug!

 

[Chrislaf]

I am typing my reply on a 2013, 13 inch retina MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD running the latest version of Mac OS X. This laptop is still my primary laptop at over 9 years old. I am not plugged into the wall because the built in battery is still working and still lasts for about two hours depending on what I am doing. I process all of my photos on this laptop using Lightroom, Photoshop and Topaz software. I edit the occasional video using Final Cut Pro X. Remember, this laptop is going on 10 years old.

In our household, we still have old MacBooks from 2008-09 that are still working perfectly - that's 14 years old or more, so your rant about Apple and Macs being unreliable and problem ridden is nonsense. Yes, there may be some units that may have problems - that's why we have a warranty, but in general most units are trouble free and if there is a widespread problem there is usually a repair program to fix the problem. Every manufacturer has problem units - just look at DJI.

There are excellent quality PC brands as well, as you have experienced. Ranting about Apple and Macs just because your daughter had problem's with her unit and you know other people who have had problems does not mean that every person who buys a Mac laptop or computer is going to have a problem ridden unit.

Oh, and did I mention that I have and old MSI netbook that I bought years ago that still works perfectly except for a dead battery. It runs Windows XP and even a hacked version of Mac OS. It was, and still is a great quality netbook but sadly has been long been outdated.

Chris

 

[Tufargon]

IMHO you can't explain to Mac and IOS users why you think Winblows and Android are in your opinion better. In most cases they will defend Mac and IOS to the death and not even hear you. I'm 100% sure you'll see some posts in here like that. Bad mouth a Winblows PC and nobody cares, bad mouth a Mac and be ready for the wrath lol. Live and let live I say. Buy what you like and prefer.

 

[Deleted member 170519]

Your experience with your Macs is about the way my experience was with PC.
I switched to Mac after the disaster of windows 95. Every month I was having to rebuild the OS. Windows puts too much trash everywhere making it almost impossible to fully uninstall software. I think since 1999, I have had a total of 4 Macs. 2 iMacs 2 MacBook pros. None of them have ever given me a hardware problem. Now, I have an iMac and MacBook Pro with the M1 processor. I take my laptop to work since they have a windows 11 machine I refuse to work on.
But, I won't defend my use of Mac OS and IOS except to say I have spent less time in maintenance with my Macs than I did with Windows PCs. Use what you like.

 

[brett8883]

I ran a photography studio for decades, and for the longest time the studio was all Mac. I kept upgrading to a point as the improvements came fast and I didn't keep my Macs too long. I began switching to PC's about the time that OS9 got replaced with the first OSX. OSX wasn't ready for prime time and it was literally years before printer drivers and other necessities were no longer available. Quark Xpress I don't think ever recovered.

Fast forward a bit. Since, I have had a Mac here and there and have never had a Mac last me longer than 6 years. My average PC can go at least 12-14 years and is outdated with heavier software before it breaks.

The last Mac I had was 6 years old and I put $250 in repairs into it TWICE and it still wasn't right. I gave it to my youngest daughter who didn't have a laptop.

BUT JUST THESE PAST TWO WEEKS... My oldest daughter who was raised on Macs and is sort of a Mac evangelist had her Macbook Pro's screen go wonky. $600 in repairs for the screen. Two weeks later... that 6 year old Mac is dead as a doornail.

Just yesterday I was helping a client who has a lot of images for products he is selling is also having a problem with his main Mac. It's just "choking". So what does he do? He removes Photoshop from it... and I now can't edit his images from his system. I'm sure this issue was his fault because he doesn't know how to manage assets... But I've been so far removed from Macs that I couldn't help him.

Sure there are problems with PCs, and I know there are those with great success stories with Macs, as I ONCE HAD. I've said this before and the situations I've been running into these last months have concluded, at least in my mind that Macs have a shelf life before repairs of about 5 years. At 7 years Apple considers them to be done and won't even repair them. In my opinion if I can get an equivalent PC for half the price and make it go for twice as long as a Mac, I'm way ahead of the ball game. The only downside are the very few Mac only programs (i.e. Final Cut Pro) that you can't put on a PC. That's ok. There are plenty of programs for everything on PC.

Im just venting due to my daughter's EXPENSIVE ordeal.) She's going to buy another Mac and there isn't a thing I can say to her. Oh... And her husband, after 5 years needs a new Mac too. Bottom line: You do you. I'm just sharing my experiences. Bah! Humbug!

This is a discussion as old as personal computing itself and as strongly as you feel your way there’s just as many (including myself) that feel just as strongly the other way.

One of this issues comparing the two is that Apple designs and makes all the hardware for Macs but on PCs there are infinite number of manufacturers and assemblers for the hardware. Therefore, you can’t just say PCs are better than Macs because PCs are just a type of computer not a brand. There are PCs made with good parts and PCs made with god awful parts.

 

[Chrislaf]

This is a discussion as old as personal computing itself and as strongly as you feel your way there’s just as many (including myself) that feel just as strongly the other way.

Exactly.

Before retiring, I worked in both platforms on a daily basis and there are pluses and minuses to both. Ranting about one or the other is not going to change anyone’s mind.

Chris

 

[thispilothere]

I have 3 iPhones, the oldest is a 6S!, 2 iPads and an M1-based Mac Mini - they all work great. Even the 6S still works well! Every other Apple product I've tried has been overpriced trash and software is usually years late getting to the platform.

If you really love the OS and aren't doing video rendering with 10-20 layers of FX, Mac is fine. If you're good with Windows, can build and upgrade yourself and want access to newer software, PC will cost less and do more - which, ironically, used to be Apple's slogan.

 

[vindibona1]

I loved my Macs unti I realized- so much money. So little time. I think we had 4 or 5 Macs plus a server. The upfront cost wasn’t the biggest issue until we realized that the life of each unit was very short. JME

I guess Im ranting because of my daughter’s $600 repair bill 2 weeks before sudden death of her MacBook Pro. Just another experience with that brand. Sorry.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I Have a Trash can mac pro 2013 with 64 Gig Ram and I pray everyday its stops working so i can get a New Computer , but this thing is a Tank , its unstoppable. lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water , and Wait till the end time to get a new Computer.

 

[anotherlab]

The Mac vs Windows debate will go on forever. I use both and one is not better than another. It depends on what you use it for and to a certain extent, what sort of budget you have to play with.

For the most part, Windows laptops are disposable devices. I have decent HP laptops for my daughters and wife, and all of them have failed at least once. I rarely buy protection plans for devices, I did get them for the HPs and they have paid off. Repeatedly.

For laptops, it's hard to fault the Apple Silicon series of Macbooks. I have an M1 Pro Macbook Pro and it just runs all day on battery and the fan never kicks in. My i9 Macbook spins the fans if you even look at it funny. My day-to-day machine is a Windows 11 box that I built last spring with premium (at the time) parts. It's fast and is upgradeable. If something fails, I can replace it. If anything fails on the MacBook, it goes back to Apple. And that's a tradeoff that I'm willing to accept for the battery life and performance. I also have a 3-year service plan on the Macbook because when it fails, the only thing that they do is replace the entire motherboard and that isn't cheap.

For the most part, most of the apps that I use are available on each platform. The development tools that I use are better on Windows, but I have stuff that is only available on the Mac. The Adobe tax is the same for each platform.

Your mileage may vary and contents do settle during shipping. Pick the platform that makes the most amount of sense to you and ignore the nay-sayers.

The one thing people don't talk about as much is how to back up your stuff. That's more important to me than the current kit of PC hardware that I'm using. I go on the assumption that everything is going to fail and I hope that it all doesn't fail at once. I'm a big fan of personal networked attached storage (NAS) devices, like the ones from QNAP or Synology. They are cheapish and you can cram a bunch of disks in that use some form of RAID. In addition to my NAS box, I also back up my stuff to another PC that used to be my primary box and also to an external hard drive. And the cloud.

 

[4 inch pistons]

Never had virus protection fully work on a PC. Bought my first iMac in April 2O11 and while a little slow it still works fine and never had a service call. Replaced it with Mac Mini last year. My Dell’s were regularly needing malware and virus attention. All computers frustrate me to a degree but the Mac less than others. To each his own.

 

[PAW]

Questions mere mortals cannot answer:

• Windows or Apple
• Ginger or Mary Ann
• .45 or 9mm
• Ford or Chevy
• Paper or Plastic
• Tastes great or Less filling

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Im still thinking about Ginger or Mary, lol

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in the Rain. Land on the Water.

 

[JeffreyS]

And you created this post because.....?

 

[philztoy]

I have dabbled in Mac's but never got used to them. I have had good luck with them working for a long time. But they mystify me.

I have had a lot of PC's. The one I am typing on this right now randomly blue screens. My IT people couldn't figure it out so I bought a new one as my main computer.

I always looked at Mac's as being more of the creative video and photo editing computers and PC's more of the business and word processing computers.

So I tend to use one for certain things and the other for other things.

I wish I could find my slide rule. I remember thinking that was complicated when I was a kid. Computers make that childs play.

 

[MaximusCZ]

Mac air is amazing for couching. It's way better than anything windows you can get at that price.

For desktop, PC is better value for hardware, (Ill stay out of OS discussion).

 

[anotherlab]

For creative uses, I'm more likely to use my Windows desktop over my Macbook Pro. The apps for the most part are available for each platform. As a laptop, the MBP is better than Windows laptops for performance and battery life for the apps that I use it.

 

[Gagey52]

I tried the iMac, could wait to get back to my PC. My wife is using the iMac which I have to admit has lasted longer than the MS studio. My problem is that i just can’t send the Mac to a local store for repairs which we don’t have. I have to freight it to the east coast which costs me more in freight than the repairs. With my PC I can track the problem and repair or replace myself.
Your welcome to your Macs I’ll stay with my PC, I’m comfortable with them and I know them, but I did try.
Regards

 

[karlblessing]

I'm primarily a windows user, I am familiar with OSX, Linux, FreeBSD, etc. I could use either but I'm using a PC desktop.

However at the current moment, for someone looking into a new system that's not tied down to a particular architecture, it's very difficult to build anything on the PC side for the same price as the Apple M1 and M2 machines and even come close to it's performance (though if you only get an 8GB ram M1 system, the limitations will show itself when you start trying to do video editing with a lot of nodes, so sticking to 16GB+ is still important).

So realistically, I'm seeing that the M1 and M2 systems are going to be around for quite a bit and will probably hold higher value in reselling, because at the present time, you can't get a $1,000 PC system to preform as close as a $1000 refurbished Macbook Air M1 with 16GB unified memory.

 

[anotherlab]

My employer provides my MacBook Pro and they have Apple's 3-year warranty on it. There is almost nothing user-serviceable with a MacBook. Basically, you have one part and it's called "MacBook". And that's fine. I've been doing iOS development for 10 years and have not had a single hardware failure with 4 Macbooks and one Mac Mini. On the flip side, you can't upgrade them. What you buy is what you get until you get a new one. With all of that said, the Apple Silicon machines are fast and last all day on battery and I have yet to hear the fan kick in.

My Windows PC, I built myself. If something fails or I want to get something bigger/better/faster, I can replace that part. It's faster than my Mac and has more RAM and storage. But it's not portable and when I have to go somewhere, it's the Mac that goes into the backpack.

At the end of the day, use the machine that you are comfortable with, can afford, and runs the software that you use. Ignore what other people about "cults".