All good things to consider. I do reccommend that you get at least a mac that has the i7 quad chip if you can afford it. You will be happy with it for a lot longer. The 2011 15" MBP is $500 more, yes. By far a better performer than the base 13". Are you concerned with being underpowered in four years and needing a new mac? If you plan on upgrading later on and earlier than I do it wouldn't matter though.. and you could "get your feet wet" for a steal relatively speaking on the 13" MBP.
One of the reasons I don't look at macs as expensive is because I use the same ones for 5-7 years and they pay for themselves with the added efficiency and reliable performance. You won't see a ten year old Windows machine still running unless it's been visited by six different doctors with six different opinions.
I have two twelve year old macs that run like teh day I bought them, no added investment other than ram.
I get your point, but unfortunately my maximum budget really is 1200€. As such, the best Mac laptop (and I do want a laptop; I want to carry it to faculty almost-daily) I can afford is a MBP 13''. Besides, I feel that my money would be better spent if instead of paying for the i5-to-i7 transition, I invested on a SSD instead. I doubt that on real-life situations, I'd get my money's worth out of an i7 in comparison to an i5.
My current laptop lasted 4 years and it still runs... strugglingly, but it does. I have no fear of keeping a laptop for 8 years as long as it fits my needs (check them a little below on my reply
)
I'll be honest… I've not spent much time with Windows 7, so I can't do a side-by-side feature comparison for you. But over the years, I've had to use different versions of Windows at different times (for testing websites, or because I'm using someone else's PC), and for me the experience is one of many, many little annoyances that grate on my nerves over time, and I just can't wait to get back to the Mac.
Part of that experience is because I'm used to the Mac. For people who are used to Windows, they can have something of the reverse experience when switching to a Mac for the first time. On the other hand, I know plenty of people who have switched from Windows to Mac and never looked back. I can't say I can think of anyone I know personally who has done the reverse.
At the end of the day, it's a personal thing, and the only way you can really know is to force yourself to learn the ins and outs of Mac OS X, and spend a bit of time with it. A few days will probably tell you what you want to know. Either you'll be wishing you were back in Windows… or you'll be heading for your nearest Apple Store.
Thanks for your input. Unfortunately, I have no one who would be willing to lend me a Mac (I probably wouldn't lend a Mac of mine either
) to try it out. I have watched Apple's tutorials and saw a lot of youtube vids / read reviews. It looks
insanely appealing. But watching can only get me so far... which is exactly why I created this topic: to ask for an in-depth, knowledgeable opinion on why I would benefit more from Lion in comparison to Windows. I use it from time to time on my friends' laptop, but only in 5-minute bursts. It really doesn't allow me to have what I'd call a solid position on the matter.
The 300gbp difference is for the OS and for build quality. To me it is worth it on both accounts. There are some things that make osx better. I've been a unix user since before Windows 1. When windows came out our company started switching to it. Now everybody is on xp or 7 and there are only a handful of unix boxes left.
Meanwhile at home I used Linux as much or more than Windows. I was impressed with the way I could take a Linux drive and toss it in another system and it would just work. If I tried that with NT, 2000 or XP I was looking at blue screens. When I got a Mac, at first I still had Windows boxes and Linux boxes. Now they are all gone with the exception of 1 Linux box I keep around as a web server. Everything I learned over the years on various versions of Unix still works on OSX but you know what? The gui really is good enough in osx that it serves all my needs.
Yesterday I found out that Apple "took away" the ftp server in Lion. I need it for my scan to ftp scanner and it only took a few minutes to get it back. This is one of the rare examples where I have used terminal and sudo since switching to Mac. OSX serves the newbie and the power user equally well.
Thanks for your contribution.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I'm not such a power-user. I am a med-student, which means that my working software can be limited to Office and SPSS. On my free time, I browse the web, chat, listen to music, watch videos, and sometimes emulate GBA/Nintendo DS/PSX/PS2 if the laptop will alow it (the NVidea 320m MBP did).
I intend to start music editing (I studied music for 10+ years; it's one of the reasons the Mac is on the top of my decision table). I also intend to learn how to use Photoshop, and perhaps even learn how to use Linux: just for the fun of trying it out. Perhaps this list of needs and wants can help someone help me.
I'd go with the platform that best suits your needs.
Windows 7 is Microsoft's best OS to date. From rumors win8 looks to be a great update with many features, possibility exceeding that of Lion
You need to ask yourself if the apps you use are available on the mac, whether the options that Lion removes from users is important. "Save as" for me is very important to me.
So far Lion appears to be quite buggy so you may want to want until 10.7.1 or 10.7.2 to really judge the OS's worth and stability. With that said, Lion is Apple's best selling OS in history.
Am I making a case for windows 7, no but rather making a case that Lion needs to smooth out some of its rough spots.
I think the design and quality of a mac exceed that of many other PC makers, the integration of apple software and hardware is excellent. OSX in general is a better OS then windows, more solid, less malware - a better manager of its resources. Lion specifically is a tad buggy though
For discussion's sake, let us go back to Snow Leopard vs Windows 7. How do you feel about that confrontation? Also, what features were you referring to when you mentioned Windows 8?
Thanks to everyone for your input!
