I'm done

[GGJstudios]

Here's the reality. In theory Apple's tech is outdated because it's not the most current. However, it is capable and capable in my book prevails. Capable for me doesn't come in the form some processor that is on the market today. Capable is building a quality solid machine to run a quality solid OS. When Apple stops providing that I'll return to Windows 2000, my most favorite MS OS to date. I'm pretty sure my Xeon MP didn't start under performing just because the Nehalem came out.

I completely agree! My early 2008 MBP is working flawlessly, as it has since day one. I use it extensively and it never fails to perform. It is in no way obsolete, just because newer models have been introduced. That's why I have no need to buy a newer model at this time, and why I could care less whether Apple releases a new model this month or 6 months from now.

Think about it. PC manufacturers don't want the buying public to be satisfied with their computers for 3, 4, 5 years or more. They want them to buy a new one every year. So they intentionally trickle new developments every 6 months or so, hoping to catch them in a weak moment, with a warm credit card and low self control. They're playing those who are naive enough to fall for their marketing scams. "Let's dangle a new processor (that might offer 8% real-world improvement in performance) in front of them! Maybe they'll fall for that!" Like shiny bits of tinfoil on a fishing hook.

I used to buy a new notebook every year, because there were such dramatic improvements from year to year. Then it became every other year. Lately, notebook performance has been so high that most notebooks will successfully do the job for all but the most demanding users, and do so for 3-5 years.

When your current computer no longer does what you need it to do, then it's time for a change. If Blu-ray is a big deal to you, you shouldn't have bought a Mac in the first place. If gaming is a priority, you should have bought a computer designed around gaming.

I believe the two major reasons why anyone would be "wetting their pants" desperate for an updated notebook are:

1. Those who have a fixation on having the "latest and greatest", either to compensate for low self-esteem or for bragging rights, which is essentially the same thing. This has nothing to do with whether or not the user actually needs the latest and greatest, since they're likely using a computer more for play than for work.
2. Those who are anxious to make up for the poor buying decision they made when they bought their current computer. They bought it just because it's pretty or cool or just because it's a Mac, rather than really knowing what they need a computer for and determining which computer would best suit those needs.

"Mommy, Billy's mom let HIM have a bike! I want one, too!" Mommy says, "Not now", so the kid storms off to his room, fussing.
"Apple, Sony's notebook came out with Blu-ray! I want the MacBook Pro to have it, too!" Apple says, "No new MBP updates yet" or "No Blu-ray on MBP", so the kid storms off to buy a Sony, fussing in a forum post.

 

[GoCubsGo]

It's obscenely priced.

Agreed. However, my windows machines were updated so frequently (home grown IBM type clones) that over the course of 3 years I had paid for (and then some) the new PowerBook I purchased with a price tag of over $2k in 2005.

To me, the value of my dollar is not how much it costs today, it is how much it will cost me tomorrow. Now, the other side can be that I am spending $2k over the course of 3 years on a windows box but the tech is up to date, whereas the tech in the PowerBook remained unchanged on my desk for the same 3 years. While this is indeed the case and a wonderful (and powerful) argument, it still did not stop me. It then goes back to the OS for me. I did not feel as though the PowerBook needed a hand in running smoothly, but evidently I thought the Windows box did. This is a very important statement. I've found that people seem to have their Macs a lot longer than people keep their windows box. I have a long love affair with Windows. It has always served me well but I felt (again) that it needed constant attention and updating. I value my time a bit more than some I guess.

Unfortunately though people are going to see this as me being a fan girl and again, that's ok, but the bottom line is what suits my needs won't suit everyone else's and I certainly don't expect it to.

 

[maflynn]

It's obscenely priced.

Agreed. However, my windows machines were updated so frequently (home grown IBM type clones) that over the course of 3 years I had paid for (and then some) the new PowerBook I purchased with a price tag of over $2k in 2005.

That has always been the issue with Macs. The gulf between a windows box and Mac box has only grown with the popularity of netbooks. yes, I'm comparing apple and oranges but for the regular consumer out there. They see 400 bucks for a netbook and 2500 for a Mac.

 

[BothBarsOn]

and I do, but being a mac forum, we generally post mac stuff. If the OP wants to buy a PC. fine, but there's no need to post on a mac forum.

I'd like to apologise for (virtually) snapping at you! I'm in a bad mood today. Sorry.

 

[maflynn]

I'd like to apologise for (virtually) snapping at you! I'm in a bad mood today. Sorry.

No worries

 

[DoNoHarm]

What is ever the point of these threads? Is it for the drama, the glitz, the glamor? To shove it up Apple's ass that one lowly customer is no longer willing to wait? What is wrong with the tech they're providing today? Oh it's not the most current? It sucks because it's not i5 or i7? Oh because suddenly these new processors hit the market, Apple doesn't update so your MBP is a piece of ****?

OK fair enough. Go then. Go buy whatever suits you. I'd have to ask what all of you people want a Mac for anyway. If it's really OS X then you'd realize that the tech they have now is quite functional and powerful enough for everyday applications both professional and non-professional. People see this new processor come out and they immediately decide that their current machine or the current lineup is inadequate. What does Dell or IBM have over Apple? They cater to this very attitude. They continue to update their tech pushing out pieces of **** machines because you, Joe Consumer, needs it so bad!

Here's the reality. In theory Apple's tech is outdated because it's not the most current. However, it is capable and capable in my book prevails. Capable for me doesn't come in the form some processor that is on the market today. Capable is building a quality solid machine to run a quality solid OS. When Apple stops providing that I'll return to Windows 2000, my most favorite MS OS to date. I'm pretty sure my Xeon MP didn't start under performing just because the Nehalem came out.

Now understand this, eventually Apple will have to update their tech, I'm not saying it's up to date I'm saying it's still very capable and not crippled by the idea of a new processor on the shelves. Call me a fan girl or what but quite frankly I'd take OS X on last year's tech over Windows on this year's tech.

Enjoy surfing forums on your windows box for under $1080. I hope it somehow meets the needs your Fall 2008 MBP couldn't.

Outstanding response that I feel misses a really important benefit the OP is sacrificing when leaving Mac: The outstanding customer service. Just read these boards. I recently made the mistake of getting the Google Nexus One. The device was incredibly glitchy and had such poor functionality. The whole experience reminded me of windows XP/Vista. To be fair, it was worse, with daily crashes and touchscreen problems. As I tried to troubleshoot the problem with the Google/HTC, I really missed the "OK we'll just take care of it" that I got from Apple with my Mac when I had problems.

I'd rather stay in the "walled garden" and yes, have a slower DVD player and maybe even slightly lower overall specs if my overall experience and customer service backup is as high quality as Apple. But everyone decides that for themselves.... Good luck, OP.

 

[cobalt79]

Ditto what Jessica said. Pointless attention seeking.

If you don't like it, don't read it. If this is the case, why not just remove forums entirely and force anyone with new information mail it to arn and have him sort it out?

I'm looking to buy my first Mac, and eagerly awaiting the refresh. But I'm not going to plop down my hard earned dollars for out-of-date/older technology simply because there's a glowing orb on the back.

Neither should anyone else.

Sadly, while some may argue that the current tech is good enough for their current needs, will it be good enough in 2-3 years? When I buy my laptop, I want to get at least 3 years out of it. Anyone who buys a D2C laptop now may not get the same useful life out of it, and will have spent more money doing it.

 

[splitpea]

I think the MBP delay has made a lot of people wonder if the advantages of OS X over Windows 7 make it worthwhile being tied to one hardware manufacturer.

I have to agree with this. Even though I *know* that Windows won't cover my use case nearly as elegantly as OS X (due to lack of a POSIX base), I find myself wondering whether I could make it work, simply because of the relative price points and up-to-date-ness of the hardware.

Then I remember that I'll be spending at least as much on software as on hardware regardless of the platform, and I go back to waiting. Oh well.

 

[phrint]

When I buy my laptop, I want to get at least 3 years out of it. Anyone who buys a D2C laptop now may not get the same useful life out of it, and will have spent more money doing it.

Your way off base there buddy. You really think the C2D won't be valid three years from now? My PowerBook G4 lasted five years and it was still running like a champ when I bought it. The C2D will still be a viable chipset many years from now. Don't kid yourself. And you really think Arrandale will only be good for three years once it comes into Apple's laptop line? Wow!

I do agree with you about the current pricing. Anyone who buys the current C2D MBP and pays retail for it is not thinking straight.

 

[dernhelm]

Agreed. However, my windows machines were updated so frequently (home grown IBM type clones) that over the course of 3 years I had paid for (and then some) the new PowerBook I purchased with a price tag of over $2k in 2005.

To me, the value of my dollar is not how much it costs today, it is how much it will cost me tomorrow. Now, the other side can be that I am spending $2k over the course of 3 years on a windows box but the tech is up to date, whereas the tech in the PowerBook remained unchanged on my desk for the same 3 years. While this is indeed the case and a wonderful (and powerful) argument, it still did not stop me. It then goes back to the OS for me. I did not feel as though the PowerBook needed a hand in running smoothly, but evidently I thought the Windows box did. This is a very important statement. I've found that people seem to have their Macs a lot longer than people keep their windows box. I have a long love affair with Windows. It has always served me well but I felt (again) that it needed constant attention and updating. I value my time a bit more than some I guess.

Unfortunately though people are going to see this as me being a fan girl and again, that's ok, but the bottom line is what suits my needs won't suit everyone else's and I certainly don't expect it to.

I agree. In my professional career, I worked on PDP, Vax, 17 varieties of Unix platforms (really - 17 - not kidding - including OS/X), and of course Windows. I'm now a .Net programmer. I work in Windows all day long. There are things I like, and things I don't, but the require a lot of care and feeding. I used to have nothing but windows and linux machines at home, and I spent a lot of time keeping them working.

Now when I go home, I have two Macs. An Oct 2006 iMac (C2D), and a Jan 2005 G4 Powerbook. Both are antiquated in computer years, both serve me faithfully in everything I do at home, photo/video editing, part time mac/iPhone programming, all the kids homework, web surfing, DVD/Netflix viewing, iTunes as my Media Center (ripping my DVD collection), etc. I added some additional RAM to each of them, but that's about it.

The LONGEST I've ever owned a PC laptop was 3 years from IBM, HP, or Dell was 3 years - at that point it was ready for the scrap heap. My PC towers lasted a similar amount of time, after a couple years I was replacing motherboards to support the newer processors, RAM, and Video Cards, and resinstalling Windows. It was "cheap" each time unless my case/power supply was no longer up to snuff, at which point I was spending north of $1000 anyway. Plus all my time to keep it upgraded and running.

At the end of the day, my Macs simply run. Day in and day out. I'm not playing tech support twice a week from work when the kids need to work on an assignment, and when I can pry the kids off of them, I get to actually PLAY on my computer at home, and not work on it.

 

[splitpea]

Your way off base there buddy. You really think the C2D won't be valid three years from now? My PowerBook G4 lasted five years and it was still running like a champ when I bought it. The C2D will still be a viable chipset many years from now. Don't kid yourself. And you really think Arrandale will only be good for three years once it comes into Apple's laptop line? Wow!

I do agree with you about the current pricing. Anyone who buys the current C2D MBP and pays retail for it is not thinking straight.

Sure, it'll be a valid processor in 3 years... but I bet the i5 will run Adobe's CS 7 suite better.

 

[Yvan256]

Well, that's it. I'm also tired of waiting for a Mac mini i3 so I'm switching too.

I'll be using an ATtiny85 from now on. It's much, much, much cheaper than a Mac and much, much cheaper than a Windows Box too.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go compile Linux, Open Office, Firefox and MPlayer to make them fit in 8 KiB of code space and also make them all work with only 512 bytes of RAM.

 

[ippikiokami]

I agree. In my professional career, I worked on PDP, Vax, 17 varieties of Unix platforms (really - 17 - not kidding - including OS/X), and of course Windows. I'm now a .Net programmer. I work in Windows all day long. There are things I like, and things I don't, but the require a lot of care and feeding. I used to have nothing but windows and linux machines at home, and I spent a lot of time keeping them working.

Now when I go home, I have two Macs. An Oct 2006 iMac (C2D), and a Jan 2005 G4 Powerbook. Both are antiquated in computer years, both serve me faithfully in everything I do at home, photo/video editing, part time mac/iPhone programming, all the kids homework, web surfing, DVD/Netflix viewing, iTunes as my Media Center (ripping my DVD collection), etc. I added some additional RAM to each of them, but that's about it.

The LONGEST I've ever owned a PC laptop was 3 years from IBM, HP, or Dell was 3 years - at that point it was ready for the scrap heap. My PC towers lasted a similar amount of time, after a couple years I was replacing motherboards to support the newer processors, RAM, and Video Cards, and resinstalling Windows. It was "cheap" each time unless my case/power supply was no longer up to snuff, at which point I was spending north of $1000 anyway. Plus all my time to keep it upgraded and running.

At the end of the day, my Macs simply run. Day in and day out. I'm not playing tech support twice a week from work when the kids need to work on an assignment, and when I can pry the kids off of them, I get to actually PLAY on my computer at home, and not work on it.

The flaw in your argument is in the details.
Notice that you chose to replace the motherboards to support new processors. Why? While I upgrade a lot it's partly due to the mere fact I CAN upgrade more than need. But this is what causes most of any headaches i have with a pc. If i had just kept the same configuration that i got working in the first place it would be fine.My mom is still running an AMD Athlon released in 03. She does word processing, excel, watch streaming movies and listens to music with no problem.

The problem I found (when i was younger i worked as a technician building computers for a local company) with pcs is people not only look for cheap parts but for the cheapest parts. If you were willing to spend close to what you are for a mac on a PC and did your research you can easily build a solid pc that would do everyday task for many years.

BTW for everyone that isn't willing to listen to people change. The OP obviously liked Mac when they had it. The Op posted his/her honest opinion and stated why the op changed. This information is useful to people that are straddling the line and might make the same choice. And honestly, if attention is what the OP wanted obviously they would be more well suited to posting this topic in a windows forum than this one where everyone wants to take them down for being honest.

 

[linuxcooldude]

It's obscenely priced.

I learned long ago you have to pay for quality. For the same price you pay for 2-3 PC laptops you could buy a Mac & last 2-3 times as long. PC laptops use the cheapest parts to get you the cheapest price.

Thats why Macs have such a high resale value. You can sell your macbook pro for $1200 three years from now...put in $400-$600 and have another high quality product...so which is cheaper in the long run?

 

[theLimit]

I'm not thrilled about the wait either, and the competition is very enticing in regards to specs and price. But I will continue to wait, because no matter how powerful or inexspensive other laptops are, I know I won't be happy with anything but a Mac.

I recently sold my 2+ year old MBP for about 60% of what I paid for it because I'm waiting on this refresh. I sold early so that it didn't lose even more value after the refresh. The machine was more than powerful enough for my use, but I wanted a smaller and much lighter machine.

I'm now waiting on an Air refresh, not because I need the power of newer CPUs and GPUs, but because I'd kick myself if I bought one now and they were updated. The price is too high for me to justify right now, but a refresh will bring down the prices of the current models. It may also bring features that would make me buy the new model. I know a refresh is imminent, so I wait.

Having owned several laptops over the years, I've never been content with any besides Apple. It's not that other machines can't meet my needs, nor is it blind fanboy-ism. It's just that after a decade of using various machines, I've found that I am more productive and generally happier with a Mac.

The only thing that has changed for me is that the Air meets my needs better than the Pro. Having half the power doesn't bother me (although only 2GB RAM would be an annoyance), but having half the weight would make me want to use the machine more, and take it with me more places, therefore giving me more for my money. I've tried netbooks as well, and have gotten mo pleasure out of using them.

I've spent this long figuring out what I want from a laptop, so I will patiently wait a bit longer. If some people can be happy with a different brand, good for them. If some need a computer now, buy what fits your needs. My main need is a laptop that I will actually use, and I've learned from experience what that is. When Apple gets around to meeting my needs, I'm ready with cash in hand, though sooner would be better.

 

[kainjow]

Please next time just use one of the existing not-waiting threads.