Are MAC (apple) computers worth it?

Moe Money but Durable wrote:

More money but in the longterm less expensive than a PC. I converted over from a PC to MAC five years ago. It was the best computer ownership decision I ever made. I have more free time for running, and other life events.

Some of the claims in this tread are ridiculous. How much time can you *possibly* spend maintaining your PC, that it opens up measurable time savings for life events?

I have a MacBook and a couple of windows machines, as I need access to some software that's only available on OSX. I set up antivirus and backups on *all* of them, and I don't have to do much of anything else on *any* of them. The MacBook was much more expensive, and it's definitely the nicest machine. Would I have purchased it if I didn't really need it? Probably not. But I can understand how others who have the money would think the price difference was worth it. If you're really strapped for funds, buy an inexpensive PC. If you don't mind spending money for luxuries, consider a Mac. Just don't expect the difference to be life-changing. It's not.

I've had many PCs and two Macs. Until a couple of years ago, I would just buy a $400 ASUS PC on sale for $349 and keep it a couple of years.

But then Windows 8 changed everything. It was I went to Linux Mint in 2012. It can do almost everything the PC can do. LibreOffice is an excellent clone of MS Office. Frankly, I like it better than MS Office 10 or 13.

The biggest drawback is that there is no clone of MS Outlook for Linux systems.

That said, I do all my surfing, emailing, etc, on a $199 Acer Chromebook. It's comparable to the MacBook Air for those purposes and is only one sixth the cost.

If you don't build your own computer, you're not doing it right.

Self built PC user, but agree with this guy.

If you are buying an out of the box PC the price difference is minimal. Certainly good deals on windows laptops if you keep an eye out, but with a mac mini at 599 the difference is almost negligible.

For all the PC users with virus problems. Clean install windows and extra software to your preference. Buy a cheap hard drive either internal or external, and create a system restore image. If you ever get a virus you will have your specific configuration back within less than an hour. No more struggling to pin point a specific problem, which is a complete waste of time and usually ends with downloading more suspect applications to aid the process.

If we're going to be honest, 90% of people don't use a computer for anything besides the web. I was helping a middle-aged lady with her computer a while ago and realized she didn't know there existed anything on it besides her browser, which she hadn't closed in 5 years.

jamin wrote:

If we're going to be honest, 90% of people don't use a computer for anything besides the web. I was helping a middle-aged lady with her computer a while ago and realized she didn't know there existed anything on it besides her browser, which she hadn't closed in 5 years.

Exactly, which is why Chromebooks are so popular with middle aged & older people once they realize this. Chromebooks are very easy to use, & you don't have to pay extra for the things that most people don't even use.

$199 chromebook vs $1,100 macbook pro to use to browse the web.

over a grand wrote:

$199 chromebook vs $1,100 macbook pro to use to browse the web.

Apple makes money on Hardware, Google makes money on advertising. You get what you pay for.

not strictly true. It's a well known fact that Google sells its hardware (chromebooks, nexus phones & tablets) for heavily reduced prices in order to encourage more users to their software platforms. Of course, I'm not saying a $200 chromebook is comparable to macbook pro but I'm not sure the idea that you "get what you pay for" is completely true in this instance. The price difference is disproportionate to the quality difference.

Every time these threads pop up, I say the same thing.

Macs have a smoother operating system and are easier to use. Good reliability, less problems. Less bloatware, love the ecosystem compatibility. But pricey.

You can get a Windows PC with better specs for less money that a Mac. But you have to work with Windows, which Microsoft created to emulate a sorority girl stumbling around drunk on a Friday night.

Or you could build your own PC or buy a PC, and use Linux on that baby. Then you don't have to deal with either of Microsoft's or Apple's crap.

They tend to run windows better than PCs. Ironic.

Plus, it helps that apple makes the software and hardware. It's gimmicky advertising, but it certainly helps resolve issues faster.

As always it depends upon many variables, none of which were mentioned in the first post.

Desktop: no, unless you absolutely need some mac-only software. Build your own if possible (it is very easy and lets you pick the hardware you need for cheap). Run Linux Mint if possible (extremely easy to use, doesn't crash). Even if neither of those is possible, don't buy the mac desktop.

Cheap web-browsing laptop ($200 - $800): Mac doesn't make a laptop in this range, so the question doesn't apply. If this is what you're looking for, don't look at any $1000 laptops, including macs.

Pricier get-stuff-done laptop ($1000 - $1500): They definitely can be worth it, depending on your needs. The total hardware package is very good. It is hard to find the combination of battery life, screen, graphics, processor, light weight, thin, etc in any other laptops. However, I would again recommend running a version of Linux such as Mint unless you have a very good reason why not, and these can be somewhat trickier to install on Macbooks from what I've heard (?).

If you don't need Windows, then I think you should run Linux if at all possible, but I would still prefer the Mac OS to Windows. The hardware in Mac laptops (both the Airs and the Pros) are really good all-around combinations, but you pay for it. Lenovo Thinkpads are popular alternatives in this price and feature range (and you can usually install Linux easily).

Flunket wrote:

not strictly true. It's a well known fact that Google sells its hardware (chromebooks, nexus phones & tablets) for heavily reduced prices in order to encourage more users to their software platforms. Of course, I'm not saying a $200 chromebook is comparable to macbook pro but I'm not sure the idea that you "get what you pay for" is completely true in this instance. The price difference is disproportionate to the quality difference.

What I meant to say:

Apple: $999 (all inclusive)

Google: $199 + targeted ads

It all depends on your preference

If you can afford them, they are far superior to their PC counterparts. Windows machines are complete pieces of shit.

Eva Changing PeeCees wrote:

this here wrote:

Mac's are worth it if you are technologically illiterate and have a sub-par understanding of what it takes to keep a computer clean and working...

Spoken like a true computer guru.

You neglected that PeeCees are ever changing. Only people who don't value their personal time chose to waste their lives keeping up with the always changing computer cleaning requirements of PeeCees. Amazingly, the housekeeping cleaning requirements on MACs is minimal.

The house keeping requirements on a PC are minimal as well. I don't even have anti-virus software on my computer and it's been clean for 18 months. Even the updates are automatic.

The only significant difference between PC and Mac in terms of security is that PC has a lot more viruses made for it. You can avoid this easy problem by not being a complete imbecile and only downloading mainstream file formats from secure websites.

It's not worth it.

Apple Guy wrote:

Google: $199 + targeted ads

Google tracks everything you do when you use Chrome OS.

Google recently caught a child pornographer by scanning images in their Gmail messages. That's one bad guy caught. But, be aware that Google knows everything you are doing.

solid analysis!

Truisms wrote:

If you can afford them, they are far superior to their PC counterparts. Windows machines are complete pieces of shit.

maxim@s wrote:

If you don't build your own computer, you're not doing it right.

What's that supposed to mean. Alls you do is buy boards from Taiwan and plug them together. Does that make you a genius.

actual techie wrote:

If you don't need Windows, then I think you should run Linux if at all possible, but I would still prefer the Mac OS to Windows. The hardware in Mac laptops (both the Airs and the Pros) are really good all-around combinations, but you pay for it. Lenovo Thinkpads are popular alternatives in this price and feature range (and you can usually install Linux easily).

^This. I have a Lenovo Thinkpad, on which I replaced windows 8 with Linux Mint. Battery life suffers a bit under Linux, but this is apparently something peculiar to the Lenovo brand, according to the Linux Mint forum.

If you're reasonably computer savvy, you can take a $199 Chromebook and install Linux Mint via Crouton to dual boot, and then load LibreOffice. I'm typing this on an Acer Chromebook in the Chrome OS. On rare occasions, I'll surf to a website that Chrome can't show, so I'll toggle over to Linux Mint to use Firefox to view it. If I want to look at a Word or Excel file, I'll use Chrome, but if I want to edit an Excel or Word file, I'll use Linux Mint with LibreOffice. It's possible to edit Word and Excel on Chrome, but it's more convenient to use LibreOffice.

I never worry about malware or viruses. They can't run in the Chrome OS.

When I boot up, loading Linux Mint is optional. It takes about 30 more to load it. Then, toggling back an forth is just a couple of seconds.

fisky wrote:

It takes about 30 more *seconds* to load it.