Is it worth buying a Mac?

No.

WHAT?! Yes! (It just depends on your usage. If you’re a gamer, I suggest a PC. If you’re at all artistic, I suggest a Mac.)

I love Macs! They’re beautiful: both in the graphics and the hardware department. They run smoothly and are sophisticated. The only negative thing is the difficulty of right clicking… a fact that drives me insane.

I’ve owned both Macs laptops and PCs, many in fact, and loved them all. As others have said, which one you buy boils down basically to two considerations: how much you can and are willing to spend, and what you want to do on your laptop. Be sure to “play” on both a Mac and a PC at the store. They’re different in a lot of ways.

If I could buy a Mac for the same price as a PC of the same specs, I’d buy the Mac. But I can’t, so I stick to a PC.

Spinel, I just have my right click set to be two fingers on the touch pad and click. It’s great.

No way.

The “Big” ones are tasty, but highly caloric.

I say absolutely. Once you start building a decent PC laptop (Dell or better) with Intel processor, the costs add up quickly. On a MacBook or MacBook Pro, the stock version is pretty equivalent to a top of the line Dell.

When you consider that you can easily get four or more years out of a computer, I think the price is totally worth it.

If one chooses a Wintel box over a Macintosh for reasons of money, they don’t understand that it’s a false economy and don’t deserve to use a Macintosh.

Computing should be enjoyable. Using the Windows OS is not enjoyable.

I wouldn’t suggest going with a Mac. They’re pretty, but not especially powerful, and it’s easier to go about maintaining a PC.

@Spinel Are you running around a lot? Cause you could get a wireless mouse.

Way to expensive.

If you can afford a quality computer, go with Macintosh. If you can’t afford a quality computer, save up until you can. If you think you can get more for less, go with a PC. Someone once said, and I paraphrase: “I am not rich enough to buy crappy products”.

@frdelrosario

Linux is pretty enjoyable.

In my estimation, no.
I mean, if you are a total dunce and inept when it comes to PCs, by all means, waste your money on a mac. If you actually know something about PCs, avoid Dell, HP and co. and build one yourself. Put in some effort, and you will get a machine vastly superior to either mac, dell, etc, for the same price, as with the prebuilt machines, you pay alot for the label alone, especially if it is a mac. And unless you act like a total moron, a Windows machine won’t give you any trouble and you can play around with the system to some extent if it does. Plus you can play games.

@gtreyger if you put the same money into a PC that you put into a mac you can have something much more powerful.

@uberbatman

Alternatively, you could not spend 4 times as much as you need to on a computer.

@Ivan this is also true :P

It depends on what you need to do. If you’re using it for school, and are running a lot of business programs, then you need a PC. If you’re using it for personal use, like taking notes in class, facebook, fluther, etc. the Mac kicks PCs butt into the next state. The reason why is threefold: 1) you take it out of the box, your turn it on, it goes. It sets itself up. 2) The number viruses written to attack Macs as opposed to what’s aimed at PC systems is miniscule. 3) You never have to defrag a Mac. Microsoft Office for Mac beats the PC version hands down.

I use both, PC at work and Mac at home. At home, we have 2 MacBooks and G5, and an Asus netbook. At work I have a Dell laptop. At least three times a week, I bring my MacBook to the office, and e-mail myself files because it’s just much easier to use.

I just bought (this week) a Toshiba Satellite PC Laptop for $800. I’ve often thought I would go for the Mac when it came time ot purchase a new laptop and all I have to say is F-that… I take pictures, daily. I screw around with music, daily, I edit video and photo daily, in a matter of only two days I have over 200 albums (and much more to come) on my laptop. You would think that with all this “artistic” stuff that I would need a Mac. WRONG. I have several friends who are programers, designers and engineers for studios so it is a little split when I ask for advice. Here is what I got:
19” 1080p screen, blue-ray player, Harmon-Kardon speakers, 6GB of Ram, 500GB Hard Drive, HDMI output, backlit keyboard, intelCORE Duo2 and Windows 7 plus and energy star. A much, much better purchase than branding a flipping apple on my screen. All the editing programs that I use are universal, they work for both platforms.
As far as defragging anything that happens maybe once every two years and should only take 45 minutes. Also, to get my laptop going all I did was pull it out of the box and turn it on.
Don’t believe the hype, there is a reason why it is sub-culture. Mac users want to relate to others who spend way too much money for things they could get in a PC.

When I was looking I would bring the Mac over to the PC and set them side by side and did a check list, the PC won everytime. Oh it does this? But the Mac doesent do that?? Oh you have to add that? But why is the Mac $1240.00 and the PC that does more priced at $800.00? Hmmmmm.

Absolutely, Get a Mac
you will never ever regret it.

I bought my first mac four years ago and I have never looked back.

I’d say so, but it’s something worth researching. A lot. I got my blackbook for 800$, used for a year off eBay, which was cheaper than the PC’s I was looking at. It’s now about 5 years old, and still running Call Of Duty 4 and other games quite well. It’s also great for everyday computing. My friends laptops or computers that are 5 years old are sitting in a garage somewhere collecting dust.

For me, the price was worth it (and still is) because the laptop or PC you get will last you for a long amount of time compared to a similarly priced PC.

The price is a lot, but when you think about it and research it a bit more, it becomes more clear. Too bad it’s still too much…

All these answers are great help ! Thank you :]

Macs are more expensive, but the operating system is vastly superior. In my opinion, it is very much worth the money. After getting used to a mac, I don’t think I could go back to a PC even if macs were even more expensive than they are now. I would simply save longer to get one.

@fireinthepriory

“operating system is vastly superior”

to… what?

@Ivan To windows.

@fireinthepriory

Not all PC’s use Windows. :)

A lot of funny answers in this thread.

I just recently upgraded my Mac and it simply reaffirmed that the myth that they are too expensive is untrue.

I had a Mac Pro for three years that I paid about $2,300 for. I just sold it for $1,300 after three years. I took that $1,300 and bought a brand new top of the line 27” iMac for $2,000. In a couple years I’ll sell that iMac for $1000 or more and throw in a couple hundred more dollars to get a brand new top of the line model. Macs hold their resale value unlike the $400 special at Best Buy. So compare my three years of use for $1000 to the person that is buying a new $400 every year because it breaks or gets too slow, etc.

Other examples: I bought an iMac two years ago for $999 refurbished. I sold it a year later for $1,000. I bought a G4 Mac Mini for $550 or so, and sold it for $300 after about 3 years, I bought a refurbished MacBook for about $900 and sold it for $700 about a year and a half later.

If you buy quality, you can resell quality to other people that appreciate quality. If you buy the latest piece of junk bargain bin PC, it is expendable and no one else is going to want to pay for your used one when they can go buy that week’s special for about the same price.

Macs aren’t better for art or design anymore, and PCs aren’t better for business. They are basically interchangeable at this point, especially with things like Boot Camp and Parallels that let you run Windows apps on the Mac if you have one that is Windows only.

For me it’s the attention to detail on the Mac. From the packaging to the hardware the the OS and software, they pay attention to every little detail and make the experience better for the user. This attracts third-party developers that also have an attention to detail which is why you have developers like Panic that make great Mac software with the same values that Apple has. Crappy software does not do well on the Mac. You can see the shovelware some developers try to throw on people on sites like Mac Zot. I’ve never even heard of most of the stuff they feature because it doesn’t sell well because it looks like a Windows application made with Mac interface elements. I appreciate the care and attention to detail and am willing to pay for it, especially when my computer holds its value so well and allows me to sell it and upgrade for a very small difference.

Not everyone notices or appreciates that attention to detail though, so that’s why the bargain bin PCs still exist and still sell. They technically work for most people. For the people that appreciate the difference though, there is the Mac and it’s a great option.

@Ivan PC = Personal Computer, which can be a mac, windows, whatever. It’s a pet peeve of mine when people just call windows boxes PC’s and leave out the mac and linux PC’s.

@Ivan Yeah, I should have been more specific… I meant to say Mac OS is vastly superior to the Windows OS! I can’t really comment on linux or unix since I don’t have a lot of experience with either, except to say that for the average user I think they’re a bit complicated if you just wanna pull your computer out of the box and use it to check your email or whatever.

@dverhey I think that’s what Ivan was getting at, actually.

@fireinthepriory Yeah, I think so too. More of a blanket statement, not really directed at anyone. Not sure why I directed it at Ivan.

@dverhey It happens. :)

If you can afford it and dont need anything too complicated get one. Otherwise NO. You could just get a linux laptop and have the best of both worlds. You’d be suprised what you can do with wine.

It’s worth it if either someone else is paying or you are rich enough that anything cheaper than a house is a minor expense and dropping $100 bills doesn’t hurt your personal finances.

They are nice machines, but so are Mercedes.

I have had my iMac for about three years and it works great. I paid $949 for it at the EDU store. So that is a little under a dollar per day. And I stare at this this thing for 8+ hours a day.

Apple simply doesn’t compete on budget hardware. My sister has a $600 Acer laptop. It has better specs than my computer but it runs like shit and is made of plastic and is flimsy. And it is so fucking big and heavy it never leaves the couch.

Mac all the way, worth every cent, no matter what you use it for.

@uberbatman Lot’s of power with crappy system doesn’t really do much for me. You can drop a Corvette engine into a pinto, but all you’ve got is a crappy car that goes really fast.

YES!! Apples are fantastic machines. They are asthetically pleasing as well as functional for just about any user. The operating software is top notch and the hardware is very durable. I have a macbook pro and it is a magnificant piece of equipment! I bring it everywhere and it just wows the masses. I’ve been a PC user my whole life and this little machine has completly rocked my entire world. Now of course such a decision would depend on the user and what you need the computer for because I wouldn’t recommend them if your looking for something cheap. This is a serious investment but you truly get what you pay for.

Get a mac.

my good old desktop iMac is now six years old and hasn’t had a single repair or issue, i use it everyday and as I’m self employed i have worked it really hard over the years i was so pleased with it i bought an ibook G4 a couple of years after and in 2008 a macbook pro for performing live music with.

so thats 3 computers in 6 years, all of which are working as well as the day i bought them… when i was a windows based PC owner i went through the same ratio but always as replacements to my hugely malfunctioning unsatisfying previous purchase.

And the money i used to spend on virus protection!

Get a Mac.

@Tenpinmaster Top-notch OS? It’s a BSD kernel and thus not terribly different from Linux as far as speed, stability, or safety goes, and I can get Linux for free and run it on a box that runs faster at half the price. Just remeber that not all PCs run Windows, and not all Linux distros are hard to setup/configure.
For what you pay for a Mac, the thing better not become obsolete in the next decade!

I think I’ll go with a Mac although many of you did put put a great fight for PC’s, Macs seems better with less hassle.

YAY! @WorryGem did my answer tip you over the edge?

@jerv mine was an absolute bargain

Oddly, I’ve never had any real hassles with PCs or Mac. However, I have had hassles coming up with over a grand, and when you consider that my current PC only cost me $50 and is still capable of performing every task I ask of it (including some hardcore games), I think I got a better deal.

Of course, I don’t have the prestige of walking around with an Apple logo, but I never felt like it was worth sacrificing my rent money just to look like one of the cool kidz. There is a reason I drive a Toyota and not a Maybach.

Maybe if the Mac actually had something special to offer that justified that price tag; something I can’t get on a PC…..
Or maybe if they returned to their early-1990s attitude and allowed licensed clones….

@Pcrecords I never paid a penny for anti-virus protection. In fact, the best AV programs for Windows are free, and Linux is nearly immune but generally comes with AV anyways, or has it available for free in the repositories.

@jerv all cool. He picked a mac.

I think that something that is often overlooked in the Mac vs Windows machine argument, is the machine’s life expectancy. I have used both, and all my Macs have remained useful much longer. I have just started looking into replacing a Powermac G4 450 (AGP – the only upgrade was RAM) from 1999. It’s never had any problems at all, I’m replacing it only because it’s finally no longer able to run some the newer apps I need or browse the internet (youtube, gmail, Flash, etc).

I own a Macbook Pro and an old iBook, both of which I bought refurbished and I’ve never had a problem with either, so If price is an issue look at going this route.

@forestGeek Considering the age of my machine, I am not convinced, especially not since I could easily replace the gut with a new mobo/CPU pretty cheaply (less than the cost of a new system) since the ATX form factor has been a standard for a long time. Why pay for a new case, power supply, hard drive, etcetera when you already have them?
Theoretically, you could do the same with some Macs (though they do tend towards custom form-factors for each new model) but the price of a new board/CPU combo borders on sodomy. It’s better now that they switched to many of the same standards as the PC world, but still…
However, I agree that refurbs are generally a good deal; generally cost-competitive with upgrading. Since my only real knock against Macs is the price, refurb Macs are not a bad way to go.
Oh, and for the record, I have a Powerbook 180 that still works aside from the dead battery. They are durable.

@Pcrecords To each their own. Hell, back before I had to buy my own hardware, I preferred Mac over PC myself.

No offense Mac fanboys but Mac’s aren’t that well made. The screen is just glued to the body and the plastic that makes up the keyboard is actually just cheap plastic coated in something. Everything that isnt made out of shiny eye candy is made out of paper and stuck together with craft glue. Oh and there’s the part where the screens ship out broken. Still it’s a good computer. Just not worth the money.

@Bugabear I see your point, but that’s one big blanket statement. My macbook (plastic) has been running just fine, absolutely no screen problems, case chipping, port issues, etc after 5 years. I also happen to carry it in my backpack for 8+ hours a day.

@dverhey That’s as may be, but I know of people with Dell, Toshiba, and other PC laptops that can say the same thing. Just remember that despite the inflated price, that doesn’t mean that the quality is automatically better.
If only they still built them like that PB180…

@jerv I didn’t say the Toshibas, Dells, etc. were of bad build quality, I was just stating my experience with mac hardware, not dissing others.

@dverhey I am aware. Apples are no worse either. All I am saying is that they aren’t that special.

Agree to disagree. I enjoy mine, and I’m sure you enjoy what you have.

Computers are special, whether they be Mac or PC.

Funny actually, it’s not all that funny, my hard drive crashed on tuesday, about 24 hours after I wrote this little quip. Surprisingly, the apple store nearby had a hard drive in stock and was able to fix it in less than a day.

classic

Yeah, I know, knock on whatever. If it didn’t happen at such a terrible time for schoolwork, it would be really funny.

It is SO incredibly superior. First reason: You do not need a computer degree to operate it. Second reason: It doesn’t have virus issues because it was modeled after linux. Third reason: Because it is fun. Fourth reason: Apple people are happier.
and so on…

1) You don’t need a degree to use Windows or Linux either. And trust me, I’ve seen enough misconfigured Macs over the years to know that they are not problem-free.

2) First off, not quite: BSD is slightly different, especially when it comes to licensing. In fact, that is why the clause in the OS X EULA that prohibits using OS X on non-Apple hardware is legally unenforceable. The only way Apple could enforce it is to remove all traces of BSD from OS X, and I doubt that will happen.
Second, Linux is cheaper. You can buy systems with Linux pre-installed. Hell, with the right windows manager, you literally could not tell the difference between Linux and OS X!

3) I generally have more fun doing the types of things that you can’t do on a Mac. Things like running games and other apps that you can’t get for OS X, troubleshooting and repairing my own systems when (now if, when) they break. (If you counter that Apples are more reliable then you are totally divorced from reality.)
The only thing I really like about OS X that I can’t get in Linux is RocketDock but since most of my computer time is on my netbook running Ubuntu:Netbook Remix, it’s rather moot anyways since the interface is equally “fun”, and the ease of adding (FREE!!!) software (and lots of it!!!) far exceeds any amusement from OS X eye candy.

4) The same could also be said of insane people and many drug addicts, so that isn’t really a ringing endorsement.

Just my take though.

@jerv

There are tons of window docks for Linux. The most popular is AWN (Avant Window Navigator).

I think we’ve beat this topic to death. We could go on and on, but in my opinion, just go with what works for you. No need to try and convince others to feel that way.

Yes, I know, I’m a hypocrite.

@Ivan Good to know, but the main reason I couldn’t find one was simply that I never really looked. The basic interface for UNR (UME-launcher) serves my particular needs better anyways, so why bother? Still, thank you.

@dverhey I beg to differ. This debate has been going on for over a quarter of a century and I don’t see it dying anytime soon. I agree with you on the rest of it, but I feel that we just have to acknowledge that this topic is immortal.

My computer is DELL.I like it and it works well.But if I have a chance ,I will try MAC.