Give my Dad reasons NOT to get a Mac!

[Super Toast]

Macs are expensive paperweights at best.

They're more expensive.

Have abysmal specs.

If they fuck up, it's hellish to fix.

It can't run 99% of 3rd party software.

The mouse and keyboard sucks.

And this douche uses them:

 

[icyneesan]

If its for work and all he will ever need to use it for is typing up stuff and maybe looking on the internet once in awhile its not a bad investment.

Of course you can do all the same on a 4 year old laptop which will probably cost you $100-200 at most. At least thats what mine cost me.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Avoid at all costs. They only take Mac parts and are built in a way to discourage do it yourself work. With PC's you can open them up and fix them yourself and any broken parts can be easily replaced with a wide array of replacement parts and not just very specific Mac parts.

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

made in china

 

[YawningAngel]

What does APART from the price mean in the OP? Macs function perfectly well as computers, and most of their 'deficiencies' are either purely cosmetic or due to a lack of familiarity (for example, I hate the window management and the whole 'expose´thing, but many of my (mac-using) friends don't). The reason that they're bad is because an iMac Pro with the same features as a 1500$ desktop will cost you more than twice that. There's nothing WRONG with macs, they're just ludicrously overpriced.

 

[Thee Prisoner]

Haaai Escapist.

In short, my Dad wants to get some Macs for work, and he is going to get one as his next laptop.
Now, I don't know much about them, but I'm completely against the idea, mainly due to the sheer cost of the things!

Gimme a hand guys><.

...And during writing this thread, I realise things might get out of hand. So keep this civil, and please give me actual reasons, not '0mg 4ppl3 r m0n3y hungry foo1z!!!!1!1!!!'.

Also, you can give me reasons why Macs are actually any good:].

Byaaa I feel like an idiot for not giving more detail about what he does.

It'll mostly be used for spreadsheets, and a lot of email sending. He'll be doing some graphic design too, as well as presentations(Y).
But it's not to a great extent- it's a Pneumatics/Hydraulics/Office Interior Design firm.

...anyone need any of that in the Heathrow area, give me a buzz;D.

Cheers guys!

First of all the Pro series Macs are good computers, but so are the high end laptops from other
manufactures. That is the key, if you are in business, you want to buy a quality machine. If you are carrying it around a lot, I suggest getting a warranty. I know many people say that a warranty is a rip off but it isn't for somebody in business who needs the support.

He needs to be smart about backup and maintenance, this a BUSINESS.

From what you said on how he is using the computer, you don't need anything high end but just a good reliable laptop. A Mac or something from the HP Pro series for example are reliable.

A good place to start is find out what programs he needs to use and see which platform works best for him. If he has been using Windows machines in the past and has software for it, you will have to consider going to the MAC means buying all new software.

Either way a good, reliable laptop isn't going to be cheap. There is a reason that Pro series from HP or others cost more.

 

[sulld1]

They don't play games.

Wait, you can Bootcamp it and run games on them fine, not to mention Steam's on it natively now. Um...

See, like that. If you have to tell me "You can install another OS to do something the default OS can't", you're doing something wrong. Telling me I can "Bootcamp it" isn't a selling point in the Mac's favor, it's a point in favor of keeping the Windows computer I already have and a point in favor of getting Windows on my next computer instead of a Mac. You should be telling me things Macs can do that Windows can't, not "here's everything Macs can't do, but it's cool because you can put Windows on it."

Thing being, "they don't play games" is the only valid argument for their inferiority. And even then, that's not exactly a design flaw on the part of the OS, it's just developers playing to the majority market. OSX is a fantastic operating system, much better than Windows has ever aspired to be in my opinion, and the creative design programs available on a Mac (and that come with it out of the box, for that matter) are incredible. The only problem is that most games aren't released for Mac, which Bootcamp solves. I have Windows installed on my Macbook, and the only thing I use it for is playing games. OSX is vastly superior for everything else. It's a solution to the one weakness, and more than worth dealing with. Thus, the only valid complaint against Macs is the price.

I'm going to plow in here, i have used a mac and windows and in fact linux and windows really is the one that stands out for me, okay i will admit that i still run XP because the last two operating systems are a joke ( i don't want to buy a three gig ram laptop to have 1.7 gigs taken up by the operating system and 'der pwetty colours on de desktop') but XP when stripped down is a very very fast operating system that will run applications just as quickly as any mac i have used, that coupled with the ability to run more applications and run games without having to bootcamp it kinda screams out to me. it also seems to me that you are a little besotted by your precious mac.

On another note, you seem to pass of the argument of price rather nonchalantly, erm.... have you seen the astronomical price for them.... it's a pretty massive deal if i can buy a better laptop for 400-500 dollars less.... Especially if they run the same damn hardware, answer me one question. What is different about macs hardware that means they should price it up by such an amount?

 

[Cowabungaa]

le snip

I haven't used OSX before, but "vastly superior" sounds prety dramatic. Care to back that up? Does it really have that much superfantastic programs you can't get on Windows? Maybe you know too where the claim that they're so amazingly superior for graphical design comes from. Again, are all decent and good programs for that line of work Mac-only? And why would that be anyway, under the hood they're just PC's anyway. And I would think that if they're so good for that work they'd pack a heavier hardware punch too, but most MacBook Pro models don't look so brilliant in that department. So what's up with all that?

And I also second that other guy who says you seem to pass off the price complaint rather nonchalantly, especially when I see a picture like this:

I mean sure, hardware-wise they're fine, afteral they're just PC's with a different OS (well, and spiffy design, they do look neat), but bloody hell that's insane. And if I look at the Apple site and see that they charge 400 freakin' euros (you can buy a bloody netbook for that...) for 4GB's extra RAM, I'd say that Apple can go fornicate privatly. They're like Alienware in that regard, only worse.

 

[DracheX]

Depends for work and stuff like that id say mac for entertainment and power ill have to go with a pc

 

[Numbers'85]

My god, seriously, enough with the 1-button stuff. No Mac comes with a non-right-click solution anymore and hasn't for years, especially not their laptops-- and why does everyone compare "basic" PC laptops with Mac ones, when the only way to get a PC laptop that actually does what a Mac does (Let's say an HP Pro 13" with -comparable battery life and weight-, forgetting the glass touchpad and whatnot) actually comes within about $200 of a Mac, anyway, and even then you get a little resistive touchpad and a bunch of latches, catches, and sharp corners all over the thing anyway.

Saying "Why spend the money on a Honda Accord when you can buy a Chevrolet Cruze? They both seat four people" is all well and good, but how about comparing apples to apples, seriously? ... could I have picked a worse way to encourage a fair comparison? Anyway, give it a fair comparison. Cheapest I can find is NC series HP Pros around here, and I'd have custom ordered them with the "cancer battery" (big fat stickout bastard of a thing) to get ten hours. Also, and before people say "netbooks get ten hours hur", netbooks also refuse to run more than six webpages at once and won't go over 2gb RAM. ... and don't get me started on the touchpads.

 

[CoverYourHead]

For graphic design work and presentations, really no problem for him to get a Mac. I mean, it'll do those things really well. And from what I've experienced, Macs do a much better job with Adobe design programs (like Flash or Photoshop) than PCs.

Basically, it really doesn't matter for him, and he may even be better off with one. So you'll have a hell of a time convincing him I think, aside from cost.

 

[loc978]

Pros:
...graphic design software tends to be more prevalent and user friendly under Mac OS... and getting Mac OS working on custom hardware is difficult if you don't know what you're doing.
Apple puts decent hardware in excellent casing and warranties the crap out of it all.

Cons:
Any company that sells factory-built computers charges entirely too much for their hardware. Apple even more so than most.

...so if your dad isn't into making custom PCs and modifying software to work with 'em, the Macs aren't a bad choice.

 

[DeXusLM]

Okay this needs clarification.

Try Bootcamp I have, it is ridiculously slow and I have tried it on every different Mac you can think of.
Not just a little slow I mean a $500 pc Vs $4K+ and still being much slower, and I am talking about the I7-970 here vs amd 945 phenom 2.

You can replace ram and HD on a Mac, you can also change the video card but you a restricted to a selection of at most 3 graphics cards with the juicy apple surcharge for the logo.

Seriously here are the Prices: (AU)

- Geforce GT 120 ($299) this almost made me puke, I have not been able to find a PC equivalent for sale as it is far too outdated. I can get a 210 for $39!!! wtf APPLE seriously

- HD 5770 ($329) Pc version I can get for $130

- HD 5870 ($579) I am currently using this card on my Pc and I paid that much when it first came out, now worth $333

Not too mention that apples cards are reference versions and Pcs versions are modified differently for each manufacturer and you will usually get better cooling or higher clocks or both.

Okay I am calling out apple on that videocard, I demand to fight steve jobs bring it on pacemaker or whatever and all

 

[Firoth]

*Right click*

Customization (graphics cards, memory, RAM)

And while it's true that PCs get viruses and have problems, those tend to be the result of something that someone did and can be fixed. When a Mac has problems...well...It's because it's a Mac, and out of the box is as good as it's ever gonna be.

 

[Numbers'85]

... right click. Like, say, every Mac has. Level any criticism you want against a Mac but unless you've used one, you're going to sound like a moron, seriously. The new trackpads? Right bottom corner or two fingers. New mice? two fingers to click for right, one for left.

Also you might notice, OpenOffice purveyor above, that there's a Mac version. Still free. Still exactly the same in all respects. Why is nobody actually being mature about this? Price is about the only criticism to level.

 

[The_Amazing_G]

macs crash way more then pcs my school got rid of all their macs and replaced them with pcs because of this

Really? My experience is completely the opposite. In fact that is my main reason for having one. I'm not much of a computer nerd, and if you're not a computer nerd you appreciate that Macs just work with a limited amount of fucking around. Less powerful? Sure. Shit at gaming? Sure. Expensive? Definitely. Paying for the shiny glowing apple because the cool kids have them? hate it. But it does work really well. My PC at work crashes every other day, I think I had used my Mac daily for about a year or so before it crashed. Every PC user knows Ctrl-Alt-Del because of the regularity with which you need to reboot the things. I have no idea what the equivalent is on the Mac because I have only rebooted maybe 2 or 3 times in a couple of years.

I'm with you, bringbackbuck. I think the reason has to do with the age of the computers. The were probably crashing because they were outdated, and the pcs probably worked better becasue they were newer. Schools aren't exactly known for their cutting edge technology.

 

[DeXusLM]

Haha my dad is a graphic designer I have used Macs since I was born, only got my first PC back in 2003.
I have used every mac you can name, I have also built any PC configuration you could think of from workstations to servers to Minis.

Anyone who supports apple is clearly uneducated, narrow minded and knows little in the ways of computers.

If you read my last post bottom page 2 you will see my problem.

Although I have little against apple except that they almost ruined my childhood as I had the greatest and latest tech yet I was stuck with playing photoshop, warcraft or doom, I can say happily that Macs were better Pre-2003.

RIP PowerPc chips, except for 360