Should I spend less money on a Vista laptop, or more on a Mac laptop?

i would go with Mac simply because I own one. also you can get visa and osx on a mac so why not. plus studies have shown (i will find links later) that while the initial cost might be higher for a mac, the overall value is much greater in terms of length of ownership, ATC, things like that

plus considering your profile, the answer seems pretty obvious

Get a mac. Even Bill Gates finds windows unusable.

god i remember that article.

amazing

@dude, here’s what you do:

1) Change the Fields of Expertise in your Fluther profile to remove any reference to Mac, Apple, iPhone, OS X… and really, to anything else computer related.

2) Buy a Mac and get to work on actually gaining some real-world expertise in those areas.

I’d pay over $2000 not to have to use a Vista.

I have used mac, linux, and windows extensively for several years. They all have pros and cons that change over time.

IMHO I believe mac is your best choice. It is stable, intuitive, easy to use, powerful, capable, creativity inducing, and secure.

And using one you can still run windows or linux using VMWare, Paralells, or Bootcamp.

Bro I say the mac. However I agree with the above comments. You sound already like a fanboi or a want to be fanboi.

Mac, definitely a Mac

You’re already an expert on all things Apple so you must know the answer, right?

@damien That article doesn’t say much for microsoft does it. Seriously what was he thinking why not just bring it up in conversation rather then by e-mail.

Go Mac! It’s the best, trust me! I’ve had my Mac for a couple months and I could NEVER go back!

Not only does a mac work, look mac or apple is the big thing these days. Its cool, sleek, and sexy. Why not get a mac?

I just got a mac book pro last week and I’ve used PC’s since the early 80’s. I am thoroughly impressed.

If you switch to a mac just go in with an open mind. Do not expect to do things the same way on a Mac as you do on a PC. They have different work flows and on the Mac it’s a better work flow, IMO.

like the guy at Best Buy told me when I asked how are the mac’s selling. He said “its like a chevy dealership now selling Ferrari’s

Thanks and I also found this from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/getamac/faq/

Go to the bottom of the page. And thanks to MOST of your answers, I think I’ll go with a Mac. Thanks Again!

@Hollister: Isn’t that a problem? How many people can afford Ferrari’s?

If mac’s were just the tiniest bit more affordable they would double their sales. I spent over 14 months buying and saving apple gift cards to buy my macbook(long live lifehacker).

The price is a downfall, but like many people have said, it’s way worth forking the extra cash.

Who has two thumbs and should get a mac? You!

@randy, the price is actually not a downfall cost analysis

I’d say weigh your options before you definitely get a mac. I own a macbook pro (probably the coolest laptop I’ll ever own), which is really great and all, but you should first consider whether you really want to pay the extra few hundred for an arguably superior (but far from flawless) operating system and the unmatched aesthetics. I almost bought a lenovo thinkpad T61 with superior specs for $400 less and still kind of regret not doing so. I think what did it for me was the superior battery life of the mbp and the fact that the battery on the lenovo stuck out a lot.

I understand that macs are much more competitively priced than they used to be, but when I researched my laptop options, i still found that I could save a good chunk of money by going windows. This was primarily because your average pc laptop manufacturer (dell, gateway, lenovo etc) allows for so much more customization, and doesn’t force you to buy 2 gigs of overpriced ram and ridiculously expensive hdd upgrades.

Also, keep in mind that upgrading the hdd on your mac manually (at least a mbp) will void your warranty.

@waterskier, Well, that’s what I mean by worth it. You can buy a PC for cheep, but to match what you get in a Mac, you have to spend quite a bit. The only part that is “bad” (not that it really is because it’s such a good machine) is the fact that you can drop a couple hundred on a bottom line PC but you still have to pay quite a bit for a bottom line Mac. But then of course, compared to a Mac the PC sucks. Hell, in my opinion, compare any PC to a Mac and the PC sucks.

@randy, yeah i wasnt saying you were wrong, i was just supplying some info. you are correct though for sure

@tekn. Look I know they are more expensive but we are not talking that much more, at least in my opinion, and like was said above, over the long haul you can get your money back as in longevity, software updates, resale, etc. Plus look what you get out of the box. I bought my iMac for 1500 bucks right out the box and since then not a penny more(except for an external hard drive), and the software that cones with is great(iLife) not to mention no anti-viral software that I needed to get when I bought by last(and last) PC. My PC and all the software I needed cost ne just as much

I spent about six hours fixing my moms Vista machine the other day. (back-up, nuke, reinstall, get things back to normal) I would have charged her 35$ per hour if she hadn’t squeezed me out.

And she would have paid someone to do it if I wasn’t around. My iMac has ran for about two years without any real problems. Spending the extra money is worth it if your time is valuable.

@johnpowell. I have heard stories like yours many times

Maybe you should think about getting a used/refurbished mac at a cheaper price. If macs are as great as they say, a used one ought to do just fine. I know how you feel, I really want a mac but my first priority is getting my Canon rebel and I just don’t have the funds for both. Although I could convince my dad to get it for me. 21 and still daddys little girl.

[Fluther Moderator:] If I’d caught this question earlier I would have asked you to go back and edit it. Please provide more useful information (what you need out of a computer would be a great start) when asking questions like this, or they don’t really provide you with anything you don’t already know.

@ zarnold: why not add your own ram & hd to the MacBook?

@jp, just be glad you’re not in Texas. You might need a private investigator’s license to charge for such work:

“According to the law passed in the 2007 Texas legislative session, the private investigator’s license is required for repair technicians to analyze their customers’ computer data. This analysis is common for business managers who wish to track their employees’ computer usage or families who want to find out where their children or spouses have been online.”

“To obtain a private investigator’s license, computer repair shop owners would have to close their businesses for up to three years to either earn a criminal justice degree or complete an apprenticeship under a licensed private investigator.”

—

Simply ridonkulous.

@robmandu
That is insane.

depends on what you want.
Need a mac interface and make software? Get a mac! (or dual boot..)
Need windows interface and software, get a windows machine! (or dual boot)

people think vista is cruddy.. people lets be honest, how bad was XP when it came out.. it was yes it was worse than XP, XP has grown to the number one used OS in the entire world, built and sold cheaply. Vista is still in its baby stages and has way more potential than XP, just give it some time, all good things take time.

Second thing is, how much money do you want to spend?
starting at $1000 base price for a mac and reaching to the price of a small car?
starting at $400 and going as high as you want?

you can’t mod a mac, you can’t get new graphics cards etc. to put in them. You can with a PC.

If mac didn’t introduce its intel line mac would be far worse right now because it would only support its self. With a PC you can get any hardware and install the drives for it no matter where it comes from, not a problem. Try doing that on a mac.

Once again to price again, the cheapest mac you can get STARTS at $1000, even if you look on ebay whatever it’s still going to be a really high price.
Apple just has expensive products, I’m not saying they aren’t worth it or anything, I’m just saying if money is of concern to you, it’d be far better to go for a windows machine which depending where you look you can even find them for $300 if you honestly want to.

@XCNuse, Windows is “built and sold cheaply”, eh?

Will all due respect, please allow me to call you out on that crapola…

The cheapest Vista is Microsoft Windows Vista™ Home Basic for $199.

By comparison, you can get Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for a paltry $129.

And if you actually want all the features available in Vista, well you gotta pay out the ying yang for Microsoft Windows Vista™ Ultimate for $319.

(Excuse me, coughrip offcough)

Oh yah, that’s right. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard already is the full-featured do-anything version. Still just $129.

And guess what, when Intel won’t deploy Vista because “Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista,” well, things just ain’t looking all that great for Vista. It does not deliver on its promises.

—

I’m in full agreement with getting the right OS and hardware to do the right job. But I temper that with the old adage that any job worth doing is worth doing right. For Windows, about the only thing that comes close to that, in my book, are:

—1— enterprise/legacy applications for which there exist no alternative support platform (including web sites that do not conform to web standards, requiring IE6 or 7.)
—2— games.

For the average consumer, that’s right, about the only thing I think a PC is good for is playing games. And then, it’s only for the newest games for which one simply cannot wait for a port to a console or Mac.

—

[ This quip written on a Dell Latitude running Windows XP because of reason #1 ]

@ XCN: I’ve modded graphics cards in my Macs before; maybe it was only a dream?

Likewise with the off-the-shelf hard drives & RAM from Best Buy or Office Depot I installed earlier this year?

Thank you for all your answers and I am sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. Considering the answers you have given me I am siding with mac.

What mac laptops can you mod a graphics card in?
hard drives are easy to exchange for anything, laptops included, they’re all the same.
RAM, sure I don’t know about macs and notebook ram, not sure where you would get it but I don’t have a mac so I have no reason to know where to get notebook ram

It all depends on the type of work you are trying to get done. Is this laptop going to be your home or work pc? Both?

Get a Mac. I have a iMac and a Macbook and i love them both. You get what you pay for when you’re buying computers. Don’t waste money on something that eats up your resources. Be a good consumer and buy Apple.

@robmandu I can download both Windows Vista and OS X free. Windows puts out nothing but bugs. I’d rather spend my money on quality and performance. By that I mean the speed and non wasteful resource Mac. And you say that Vista is $199 and OSx is 129, Well, with all do respect, that makes Microsoft look bad. They’re putting out a faulty product for $70 more than a product of quality and originality.

After seeing @FreddieMack‘s note, I had to go back and re-read my last quip to be sure I hadn’t somehow written up something that recommends Windows. Thankfully, I had not.

@FreddieMack, I’d say we’re in full agreement as to the current state of the Windows OS these days.