I've had to reinstall my MBP four times in the past 12 months.
They're not 100% perfect.
They're not 100% perfect.
Should I switch to Mac?
- Thread starter gojiragirl
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Why, thank you, Mr. Allen. That was most kind.
Yes, I do have to say that whatever "cool factor" may be attributed to a MacBook sort of went over my head, and had nothing to do with my decision. Hey, I'm a 46 year old life-long Star Trek geek; the "cool train" left my particular station a looooooong time ago.
I liked the MacBook Pro because of it's solid build design, the reported simplicity and stability of its operating system, it's size, weigh and thin-ish form factor, and because I found the new touchpad to be very intuitive and efficient for my standard usage, not to mention the many, many recommendations from trusted friends and family.
However, I was able to get about 85% of the stuff I liked about the MacBook on the Studio 14Z on an OS I'm relatively familiar and comfortable with, while at the same time avoiding some conflicts I would have had with some peripherals on OSX, all at half the cost. So, yeah, it came down to a cost benefit analysis for me, I guess.
Oh, and I ordered it yesterday, the 14Z. In "ruby red".
Got a great deal on it through my employee affiliat program. Now I just have to wait 2 weeks for it to be delivered. 
Whatever shall I do with my time ..., other than visit TBBS, that is. 
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And you call MAC people illogical?
Sheesh ...
Do a little research on hardware integration ... to start ...
--Ted
Come on TG, you should know better - Mac, not MAC.
One other thing, about Dell laptops. I used to be of the opinion that because Dell sell more computers than almost anyone else you would obviously see more people complaining about them on the Internet. However, almost everyone in my 65+ team at work has had a new Dell E6400 laptop in the past couple of months. We're finding the build quality on them to be substandard. Things are going wrong with them that don't seem to be anything to do with the extra things our IS department has put on them after receiving them from Dell. Memory failures, hard disk failures, battery problems, unusual BSoDs, display problems etc.
Of course, this is purely anecdotal evidence, YMMV.
A
Amaris
Guest
You're welcome TrekkieMonster. I try to be fair in all things. 
As a former warranty technician, I can tell you the ratio for failed laptops to desktops was 6:1 at the time, with that ratio widening toward the end of my two year run there. We were even expanding to handle more incoming laptop repair issues, and having worked on a few laptops and replacing more than a hundred thousand hard drives myself, yes, the laptops are junk, in my opinion.
J.
Come on TG, you should know better - Mac, not MAC.
One other thing, about Dell laptops. I used to be of the opinion that because Dell sell more computers than almost anyone else you would obviously see more people complaining about them on the Internet. However, almost everyone in my 65+ team at work has had a new Dell E6400 laptop in the past couple of months. We're finding the build quality on them to be substandard. Things are going wrong with them that don't seem to be anything to do with the extra things our IS department has put on them after receiving them from Dell. Memory failures, hard disk failures, battery problems, unusual BSoDs, display problems etc.
Of course, this is purely anecdotal evidence, YMMV.
As a former warranty technician, I can tell you the ratio for failed laptops to desktops was 6:1 at the time, with that ratio widening toward the end of my two year run there. We were even expanding to handle more incoming laptop repair issues, and having worked on a few laptops and replacing more than a hundred thousand hard drives myself, yes, the laptops are junk, in my opinion.
J.
You're welcome TrekkieMonster. I try to be fair in all things.
Yes, I know that about you.
Why you make TrekkieMonster cry?
Actually, I am well aware of the reliability disparity between desktops and laptops. While I agree there may well be some general build quality issues, I also think it has to do with the very nature of laptops' portability: they get jostled. A lot. Even when people are being careful -- and I see an amazing number of people who treat their laptops like a rag doll -- they just get jostled by their vary nature, unlike desktops. It's one of the reasons I really didn't want to spend much more than $1000 on a laptop, knowing its life will be limited.
As for Dell vs. other brands, I know I'm taking a calculated risk. But, my laptop experience is that I've had laptops through my job for the past 12 years. The first 3 were Dells, and each lasted 3 years with nary a whimper or hint of a problem (I do remember having a battery issue with one once.) I've had my current IBM T42 for about 3 years now, and in that time (starting at about 6 months) it's been through 3 mother boards, 3 hard drives, 3 keyboards, 2 fans, 2 AC sockets (whatever those are called) and one screen. My I.T. department and I have taken to calling it Franken-puter because, after the warranty was up, they just started cannibalizing other machines around the building. And I assure you, I have not treated this machine in any more harsh (or kind) a manner than the previous 3 Dells. So, I took a leap of faith. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't live to regret it.
I have a TiBook G4 which was purchased in 2002. Still works fine; and up until late last year it was my primary machine. So that's effectively a 6-year lifespan for the Apple laptop. I would have kept it longer except my brother gave me an "old" (2-year) one of his for free just 'cause the trackpad was acting up. (External mouse solves that!)
It's not pristine, of course. The fan is too loud, and I did have to get one hinge replaced a few years back. Plus the power cord broke at one point and I had to replace it with a compatible 3rd-party cord. But overall it's a very tough machine. Had a bit of trouble with the recent preponderance of HD video, but it was keeping up well enough otherwise.
Whereas my $7000 Dell desktop at work has had molasses-slow disk access ever since I got it. (Everything else about it is fine, it's just doing anything with the disk drags the entire machine to a halt.....and my coworker who got the same model but runs Linux on it has the same problem, so it's definitely a hardware thing.)
It's not pristine, of course. The fan is too loud, and I did have to get one hinge replaced a few years back. Plus the power cord broke at one point and I had to replace it with a compatible 3rd-party cord. But overall it's a very tough machine. Had a bit of trouble with the recent preponderance of HD video, but it was keeping up well enough otherwise.
Whereas my $7000 Dell desktop at work has had molasses-slow disk access ever since I got it. (Everything else about it is fine, it's just doing anything with the disk drags the entire machine to a halt.....and my coworker who got the same model but runs Linux on it has the same problem, so it's definitely a hardware thing.)
I know someone who worked at the warranty department of Apple; at the very least, his experiences are the same as J. Allen's; there's a lot of returnees, even some DOA's. Most MacBook Pro's have problems with the screen or the battery. Everything that you can think of is wrong with those screens; dark bands, dead areas, deep scratches, deformities, noise bands, very uneven backlights, you name it.
It seems to be the same with any laptop manufacturer; computer hardware is simply very sensitive to misuse, and laptops do get banged up a lot more then desktop hardware.
It seems to be the same with any laptop manufacturer; computer hardware is simply very sensitive to misuse, and laptops do get banged up a lot more then desktop hardware.
Not really, fairly trivial precautions have kept my Windows PC's clean for as long as I've had them, the worst I ever seem to get is tracking cookies. I spend a lot of time on the internet, and I install a lot of free software that I download online, and I've been known to pirate some TV shows in the past... and yet I've never been infected. I don't run anti-virus scans anymore because I don't get infected, I downloaded spybot today and ran a scan just to make sure and all I had was a few tracking cookies. The notion that Windows is constantly under bombardment from malicious software is not true.
When I worked for Dell's software support last year a customer rang in with a nasty infection that slowed down his PC and threw pop-ups at him every few seconds. It turns out that he was browsing the internet and he got a pop-up ad telling him that he was infected with a virus and he needed to download "Antivirus 2008" in order to get rid of it. Thinking he was being smart, he did exactly what the pop-up told him to do, but strangely the problem just got worse. So he did what another pop-up told him to do, he downloaded "Antivirus 2009" in order to get rid of "Antivirus 2008". You don't need to be a software engineer to figure out that his problems only got worse after that.
He blamed Dell, of course.The only major security hole that Windows has is its users, and there is nothing that Microsoft can do about that.
Now, if I know the universe as I do then I shall have contracted a serious infection by the end of the month.
Do you really want to pay 3 times as much for 2/3 the functionality?
Or, you could just get good anti-virus software like Trend Micro.
I've used Macs before. I wasn't impressed.
A
Amaris
Guest
Why you make TrekkieMonster cry?
I require the tears of the innocent so that I may thrive.
Oh, I do wish you the best. We received more Dell Latitude models than anything, since Dell's major foray is in business, and you'd think Execs would know better about treating laptops with care, but no, we had every type of problem, including Coca Cola in the circuitry.Actually, I am well aware of the reliability disparity between desktops and laptops. While I agree there may well be some general build quality issues, I also think it has to do with the very nature of laptops' portability: they get jostled. A lot. Even when people are being careful -- and I see an amazing number of people who treat their laptops like a rag doll -- they just get jostled by their vary nature, unlike desktops. It's one of the reasons I really didn't want to spend much more than $1000 on a laptop, knowing its life will be limited.
As for Dell vs. other brands, I know I'm taking a calculated risk. But, my laptop experience is that I've had laptops through my job for the past 12 years. The first 3 were Dells, and each lasted 3 years with nary a whimper or hint of a problem (I do remember having a battery issue with one once.) I've had my current IBM T42 for about 3 years now, and in that time (starting at about 6 months) it's been through 3 mother boards, 3 hard drives, 3 keyboards, 2 fans, 2 AC sockets (whatever those are called) and one screen. My I.T. department and I have taken to calling it Franken-puter because, after the warranty was up, they just started cannibalizing other machines around the building. And I assure you, I have not treated this machine in any more harsh (or kind) a manner than the previous 3 Dells. So, I took a leap of faith. Keeping my fingers crossed that I don't live to regret it.
True. Every laptop manufacturer has their issues. It's just Dell's that I know firsthand, so I just said what I knew.
Proof? Honestly. Tell me what I can't do with a Mac that you can do on a Windows based PC.
J.
Why you make TrekkieMonster cry?
I require the tears of the innocent so that I may thrive.
Nice retort.
And ... say ..., now that you mention it, that concept actually might work very nicely in a little fanfic project I'm working on .... Mind if I adapt that?
A
Amaris
Guest
Why you make TrekkieMonster cry?
I require the tears of the innocent so that I may thrive.
Nice retort.
And ... say ..., now that you mention it, that concept actually might work very nicely in a little fanfic project I'm working on .... Mind if I adapt that?
Sometimes I like saying things out of left field to catch people off guard, so you're welcome.
Oh, and yes, you may adapt that any way you like.
No, seriously that's cool.
J.
I've found after switching from a PC laptop to a Macbook that I have not had to sacrifice any of the functionality I had on my PC.
A
Amaris
Guest
Yep. I love my Mac, and have been very impressed by it's performance. It's 3 years old and runs all the latest software I've thrown at it.
J.
I love Macintosh Software, but the hardware is another matter. I've had all kinds of issues with it, which I won't go into here.
When it comes to browsing the internet, listening to & editing music, and watching & editing films, Macs are by far superior. My Powerbook (2005) shit the bed on me in January, but I'll be purchasing another Mac in a few months because this is what I need it to do.
If you'd like a machine that will be able to run, and be able to handle for that matter, most games out there, you'd be a fool not to purchase a PC. My brother's a huge gamer, and he'll be running a PC forever because of it.
When it comes to browsing the internet, listening to & editing music, and watching & editing films, Macs are by far superior. My Powerbook (2005) shit the bed on me in January, but I'll be purchasing another Mac in a few months because this is what I need it to do.
If you'd like a machine that will be able to run, and be able to handle for that matter, most games out there, you'd be a fool not to purchase a PC. My brother's a huge gamer, and he'll be running a PC forever because of it.
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