If cost is the primary consideration, you should definitely buy another PC. They also provide considerable job security for tech support folks.

Yes, it's amazing that Apple computer products manage to survive.

Comparing PC to Mac as just different paint jobs . . . not really the same, when you consider the level of software and hardware integration.

Fools also spell Mac in caps, like so: MAC. MAC is usually a MAC address. Where as a Mac is the computer.

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

Have had nothing but macs since their inception. Am currently sitting in front of my 27" imac and recently bought the bride one just like it. She was a diehard PC user but now wishes she had switched years ago. She accesses her office PC server from home with the mac with never a glitch, unlike her PC that had to be regularly "tweaked" by the IT tech.

I have six imacs in the office that I upgrade every 5-6 years. In twenty plus years I have yet to spend ONE RED CENT on IT support (and I am next to computer illiterate). I have never had to "reboot", have never had a hard drive "crash" and never lost so much as five minutes of staff productivity due to a computer problem.

My wife has seven PCs in her office and she spends an average of $500 a month to keep them functioning and then has to upgrade every 3-4 years. You don't need a calculator to figure out which is the better long term investment.

They may cost a few bucks more but, if you are not a computer geek, macs are the only way to go; they are an appliance, like a toaster, plug them in and they do what they are supposed to do, day in and day out.

Jim

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2005 C240 4matic wagon (daily driver)
87 190D - 225K (on loan)
85 190D - 312K (on loan)
2011 Subaru Legacy AWD (Wife's)

That the biggest line of BS I ever heard. Usually comments like that are make by scared people. Scared because they portray themselves as "IT geeks" to their friends. But since they really don't know anything out a Mac, its krypotonite to them. And then since they dont know anything, they bash it since they dont want to look like an idiot.

The above is not my opinion, but many peoples' factual observation of the situation. In other words, the truth.

Apple does not close off anything. They operation system is open source. Its called the Darwin project and Apple contributes MUCH to it. Same goes for the web browser, Safari. The WebKit project is well and alive. They are much, much more open that MS will every be. They even release SDKs and update them frequently. And if something is PC only and they need it, at least they have options anyway.

I must say its funny that a Mac gets bashed on a Mercedes forum. I mean Apple designs every little detail. They invent manufacturing processes. The motherboards are designed and made "in house". Unlike most PCs that are just slapped together parts, Apple designs the product form the ground up. Sure they may place looks first, but it forces the engineers to get ever more creative.

Its simple. If you want the best, you buy a Mac. They even have great resale valve if you later decide to buy another. If you want something prone to viruses/spyware and something that can be used to prop a door open when its old and tired up then get a PC.

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

I only own macs too, I have 3 or 4 in service at the moment. I've never needed to load windows on one because I can get all the software I need. I'm typing this on an ipad, which works just fine for internet/email. I know a couple of folks who run specialty stuff in windows on their macs, but they can still avoid using windows the other 90 percent of the time.

My daughter is really spoiled because I have her set up with a MacBook and a 27 inch cinema display at home (she takes a bunch of on-line classes and needs a duel display); whenever she has to use a PC she complains endlessly (her school gave her some kind of netbook, it's never been out of the box).

There's no need to shop price like you have to do with Pee-Sees. Apple has retail presence in all 50 states so if you buy from their website, you'll pay tax, but shipping will be free. 3rd party sellers will often throw in extra memory or some cheesy printer as an incentive, but their prices will not beat Apple's website prices. You will save tax with them though. AVOID MACMALL LIKE THE PLAGUE. A great 3rd party seller is Small Dog Electronics. It's a good idea to check the Apple refurbished page daily. Their products carry the same warranty as new, I've bought at least 3 machines and I don't know how many iPods refurbed from them and they are identical to new. You can save 10-20 percent, but have to take whatever's available. It changes daily. I also can't recommend the extended AppleCare warranty enough, especially for a newb. You have up to a year to buy it from your date of original purchase. It extends your warranty up to three years. Unlimited phone support and as often as not you get to talk to a native English speaker, not "Peggy". If warranty repair is needed, they'll send you a shipping box next day fedex prepaid. I had a laptop last year turned around in less than a week with a new motherboard installed, door to door to door in 6 days. Great service. If you know anyone who's an educator, they can get a good education discount off the website too. Look for the link "Apple store for education". You have to log in and find your school, and can then buy at discount. It's usually enough to cover the tax on an entry level machine. As far as recommendations, unless you really need a laptop, the iMac is the best bang for the buck. I say that typing this on a 17 inch Powerbook however. By the way, it's a 2003 model and runs flawlessly, never had an issue and gets heavy music production and video/photo editing usage. Great machine. Get ready to be rid of viruses, spyware and all the other nasties that are a fact of life with M$ machines. You'll never look back.
Me? A Fanboy? Nope, just a cheapskate who doesn't like to spend money keeping machines safe and fixing and patching them all the time and who expects them to last a good long while and be worth something when I'm done with them, that's all.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Or, and this is the best part, if you happen to have a fault under warranty you can just take it personally to ANY Apple authorized service provider. There are two around my area. One downtown, one in another town. But the closest official Apple store is in Milwaukee. No matter where you buy it, you can take it to ANY service center for repair/replacement at no cost at all. Try that with a Dell. It will ALWAYS have to be shipped away!

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

You'd be better off buying more Berkshire-Hathaway stock. After 25 years since buying my first shares - I still buy more now and then.

My HP 15" works flawlessly, btw.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

Apple closes off ALL of their products. This is how they lock in their customers and make money.

Most computer manufacturers design their own motherboards, ever opened up a PC? They are generally pretty customized when from the big players (HP, Dell, Acer) And if by "in-house" you mean in a factory in China where they are made alongside PC's....then you are correct. Apple has a huge profit margin on their products vs PC makers, because their customers follow the "if its shiny and made by apple I will buy it!" mentality. People who do real work on a computer don't use a Mac. (excluding their cult of video editors) My brother does video animation and design, and he uses a PC I built him. 16GB of DDR3 ram, 6 core CPU, mega graphics, tons of storage...and it cost less to build than a lower end iMac. People complain that Windows is updated/released too often, Mac OS is a new release every 2 years or so, this would be an incredible headache in the business world.

I've been using Windows for 15 years and...amazingly...have never had a virus or malware despite running 0 software to prevent it. You end up with those things on your system the same way a person gets an STD. Visiting less-than-clean websites/establishments. Its always the same people who have their computer repeatedly infected. Mac's have security flaws just like any operating system, if more than 10% of people had them, you can bet there'd be a LOT more malware out there targeted at them, its a simple numbers rule.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

+1 on the porn site viruses

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Your comparing a gaming desktop to a laptop.


How is that fair?



Dollar for dollar, a homebuilt gaming PC is going to beat out any factory built PC. Thats an orange and an orange. Comparing a desktop and laptop. Thats an apple and an orange buddy.

I think it is called an "inferiority complex."

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

So tell me EXACTLY how they "close off their products"?

No they do not all design their own motherboards. Dell and HP use a third party company that they purchase the designs from. The only manufacturer that I know for certain on the PC is Sony that designs in house.

Define profit margins? Its Apple's margins bigger than others or are the others just small? Your comparing a Geo Metro to a Lambo. Which has a higher profit margin you think? Just because one company is better at business at others is NOT a bad thing. Welcome to capitalism!! I would rather buy from a stable secure company. Remember eMachines? Gateway? How did those low profit margins work for them?

"Mega Graphics", "Tons of storage"? Well you just shot any notion of portraying yourself as anything close to being a "PC guru". If you have to ask why, you further proved that point! lol And thats great that you built him a pro system for less than $700! Good for you!

"People complain that Windows is updated/released too often, Mac OS is a new release every 2 years or so, this would be an incredible headache in the business world." Please explain. Again, if you were an IT PC guru as you seem to want us to think, then the above statement is humorous. Constant 1.0 releases are a big, big pain in the PC world. Why do you think many companies are still running XP? Of course you would know that ANY large corporation never updates right away. This is true both on the Mac and PC side of things. So an update schedule is not very important in the business world. Duh. the problem is with Windows and the incredible amount of "critical updates". Those small pesky ones that can often break things yet seem to be so important and required. Windows has so many that came out any random time of the month they had to settle on a once a month schedule due to so many complaints. How many critical patches does Apple pump out? Maybe 2 or 3 per quarter? And the API architecture used means they rarely (if ever) cause an issue.

"I've been using Windows for 15 years and...amazingly...have never had a virus or malware despite running 0 software to prevent it." I totally believe you on that. But maybe you should try going online with them. Ever hear of port sniffing? Etc? If your computers have been online, they have been infected. Period. Software may get to it quickly and block/prevent damage. But if it landed on the system, its an infection. Its been proven that any new PC pulled out of the box and just plugged in online (and turned on) will be infected within 10 minutes without the user doing anything more than pressing the power on. I can find that report if needed, but its well know among anyone in the PC world so I am sure you read it.

More than 10% do. Try over 20%? Been hearing the whole gloom and doom for years about the Mac. STILL WAITING! Only had one virus on a Mac that I have seem in the past 10 years. You guesses it. Friend went to a porn site and it said to download a codec. It was a trojan. Did not actually do much other than interfere with Quicktime. But that has been the only instance. From what I see, since the vast majority of Mac users dont spend money on protection, even at your claimed 10% it would be a better an easier target than a larger group supposedly locked down. It would even be the ultimate feather in the cap to a hacker to release a Mac virus! Yet, still waiting!

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

The "closed box" argument is frequently raised as a criticism of Apple computers, however the PC industry is pretty much following that trend. Take a look at the "all in one" desktops from Sony, HP, Dell, Acer. None of which feature much in the way of expansion slots. Laptops, by their nature are "closed boxes" so there can be no argument that Apple's are unique in that situation.

Perhaps PC fans are remembering the days of the original Mac or Mac Classic, but even then, remember that those came with built in networking, SCSI ports, support for PostScript . . . all stuff that had to be added to nearly all PCs at the time.

For high end users who need modular construction, Apple does have a device for that.