Dont listen to other people. If you want to know, you can look on ebay to find out. Mac laptops only good for 3 years. No more. There are a few exceptions. It is not like the powerbooks or ibooks, those were really good.
complete bs
Apple tops 2009 customer satisfaction
http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/02/19/apple.tops.satisfication/
Apple leads HP, Dell in consumer satisfaction
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/06/25/apple.consumers.satisfied/
Simple. Look at the specs of one that is 5.5 years old right now. That would be a January 2004 model. Can you see yourself using that today? Is it powerful enough to handle your intended usage? and to run the applications you need? That will answer your query.So my question is this: If I buy a MacBook Pro now, of the current generation, will it last me for the next ~5.5 years? Or should I wait until just before I leave, get the educational discount and the best Mac hardware on the market then (Fall 2010)? The second option would be relying on it for only ~4.5 years, but that is still a long time, right?
I still believe mac portables are good for 3years only.
Simple. Look at the specs of one that is 5.5 years old right now. That would be a January 2004 model. Can you see yourself using that today? Is it powerful enough to handle your intended usage? and to run the applications you need? That will answer your query.
WHile I agree with the consensus that a mac can last you six years (after all i still use my G3 ibook from 2000 and my Powerbook from 2005!), however regrettably things aren't nearly as simple as this today.
Back with the PPC macs, upgrades were particularly slow, sometimes with only mild 0.2 Ghz processor upgrades in an entire year. With this limitation (caused by the slow development of PPC chips due to their heat and power restrictions), apple were to some extent forced to refine their OS to run more and more streamlined, ending (to my mind) with OS 10.3 or panther, an OS that seemed to sip from the computers processors and ram, rather than guzzle it down! In fact, it was so streamlined that it is recommended above earlier versions for macs built years before its introduction - no simple feat.
Now we are with intel, what is great is that the speeds of the machines we use are really increasing (even if sometimes it doesn't seem so), with upgrades far more often, and ones that provide significant progress with CPU, RAM speed and FSB etc.
The downside therefore of these faster macs is that unfortunately they don't tend to last as long as the old PPC ones.
The general rule with computers is that if they don't break in the first couple of weeks, they will probably never break if you are careful with them. So not accounting for any unlikely hardware failure, the machine should still be fast enough to keep up with most basic tasks, assuming todays basic tasks are the same in 6 years. But it probably wont be able to run the latest and greatest OS.
OH Snap! I completely forgot about my Mom's iMac... cira 1998 I think. Wasn't that the first one. It's still works, she just doesn't use it any more.Im still using an iMac over 10 years old. I would upgrade in 3-4 years however if you just stay basic 6 years can easily work.
I remember a client, a semi-retired interior decorator, who still used her Mac IIci, circa 1990, in 2001. Even when I sold her one of my older computers, an iMac, she kept the IIci at hand as a second computer. Indeed, she still preferred to use it, even though the System 7-based operating system installed on it couldn’t get her online to see the latest sites that required recent browsers to render properly. No matter. She could still use her aging version of ClarisWorks to put her business data in a spreadsheet, or print out mailing labels from the database module.
Lest you forget, today’s iWork, the direct descendant to ClarisWorks and AppleWorks, still doesn’t sport a database feature.
My point? Today’s personal computers really aren’t built to last, not even as long as the ones you bought 10 or 20 years ago. But just try to use the vintage Mac with current applications. Apple has gone through processor and operating system transitions that make it impossible.
This must mean there is not a single iBook that is currently functioning....anywhere.
Macbooks problems are/were logicboard, palmrest, keyboard, touchpad, screen, overheating, etc.
Mba: hinges, screens lines, overheating, kernel panic, etc..
mbp: overheating, crack glass trackpad, graphic problems, case shell bent problems, etc
I do accept that the ibooks were really good but other lines arent good
Your conclusions are faulty in that they're making assumptions about the future. Picking a 5.5 year old Mac and seeing how it runs today is THE single best way to estimate if a current Mac will last you 5.5 years into the future. It's based on known history, i.e. fact, not speculation.
Your points about PPC vs. Intel are irrelevant. Who is to say that Apple won't switch to ARM or SPARC or even develop their own non-intel architecture in a few years time?
Preposterous you say?
I bet you'd have said the same in 2004 if I told you Apple was switching all their machines to intel.
Fact is, nobody knows what Apple will do 1, 3, or 5.5 years from now. Not you, not me, not anyone here.
Macbooks problems are/were logicboard, palmrest, keyboard, touchpad, screen, overheating, etc.
Mba: hinges, screens lines, overheating, kernel panic, etc..
mbp: overheating, crack glass trackpad, graphic problems, case shell bent problems, etc
I do accept that the ibooks were really good but other lines arent good
That doesnt tell anything about the quality or how long a mac portable can last. I still believe mac portables are good for 3years only.
A computer can last 6 years IF you can put up with horrible performance in new applications. Most people cant. I definitely wouldnt want to use a computer for 6 years, it would be torture after the 4th year... but it would still be usable.