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Dynamyk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 8, 2005
648
0
Toronto
Ok I've pretty much decided I'm going to switch when the updated Ibooks come, I just want to hear what you think the 5 weak points of Apple are. In the other thread you only hear the good things.

Anyone ? :)
 
Well I will give it a try:

1. You want to play games or more specifically you want to games that aren't available for Mac.
2. You are in Law School and required to take exams on Windoze-only software.
3. You enjoy building your own PC.
4. You enjoy viruses and system crashes :)
 
well... once you use a mac, it's pretty difficult to ever use windows again, so you'll suffer if you have pc's at work :p
 
njmac said:
well... once you use a mac, it's pretty difficult to ever use windows again, so you'll suffer if you have pc's at work :p

Very true njmac.

Hmm, lets see...Top 5 reasons not to buy a Mac...

1) You are fond of having viruses.
2) You enjoy having spyware on you computer.
3) You like system instability.
4) You think Windblows XPee and Bill Gates are the two best things in the world.
5) You hate enjoying your computer.
 
It's true: Once you go Mac, you don't go back.

But, there are a few reasons I can think of:

* Niche Windows markets: law schools seem to hate Macs, as do a number of vendors of very specific kinds of nonprofit software (not the everyday Office/Email, etc...) - I'm sure there's others, too.
* If you're really, deeply, seriously, into gaming - I'm not much of a gamer, but there does seem to be a dearth of games in the Mac market.
* If you like DIY computers: there's a lot of hackintoshes out there, but you can't just go down to Fry's or CompUSA and pick up a G4 MoBo and start outfitting it to your tastes.

Believe me, I'm really trying here to think of more legitimate no-go-switcho reasons, but contrary to my other post today on the upsides of Macs, it's a bit of work...
 
1) You have to use AutoCAD
2) You want the absolutely cheapest purchase price (not necessarily the cheapest total cost of ownership)
3) ...err
4) ...Oh yeah...no that's not it...
5) ...ballast?
 
1. You don't mind rebooting your computer
2. You accept the idea that software freezes most of the time as a usual event.
3. You love downloading security updates every week.
4. You appreciate that Internet Explorer sometimes has it's on unique set of html code that no other browser uses.
5. You enjoy the fact that an image looks different on every PC as opposed to looking the same on every Mac.
 
IJ Reilly said:
6) Bill still isn't rich enough to afford a decent haircut.

If Bill can not afford a decent haircut then none of us can. ;)
If Bill got a decent haircut then he would lose his nerdy look - something that he is unwilling to do (that mans gotta keep his image).
 
On a serious note:
1. Cheaper to build a PC
2. Linux is free
3. If configured properly, Gentoo is faster than OS X
4. Linux has more options, (ie: easier to change look and feel)
5. Most Mac hardware is not upgradable
 
Don't buy a mac if...

You want to prevent urges to buy additional Macs.

You want to prevent urges to buy other Apple products.

:)
 
Realistically, from an enthusiastic buyer of both pc and mac products

1. XP isn't that bad, rarely crashes... about equal crashes to the # of "spinning beachballs" I get
2. You are more interested in powerpoint/word/excel in a corporate enviroment rather than ilife/video/music (more a personal environment)
3. Cheaper - this is a positive and a negative. Macs are actually just as cheap as Pc's , but apple makes a huge gross margin (>30%) vs dell which is less than 10%. You are not paying for quality - you are paying for profits for the shareholders. This is often misunderstood. Case in point: you can get 2 dell 24" displays for the price of 1 23" apple display... profits are amazing at apple for a reason.. gross margins!
4. You need 100% compatibility with windows.. again usually a corporate issue with proprietary software
5. The customer support from apple is really hit or miss, similar to most PC makers. You can find an equal amount of disgruntled users from both.

I use both PC and Mac products. Macs for music/video/some powerpoint and PC for corporate work. it works well. There is enough cross compatibility. I don;t see why "switch" is a big deal. I happily use both products and I am very satisfied with both. 10 years ago, both products cost a lot more and offered a lot less. Everything else in the world except high technology has increased in price. I am happy with both.
 
powerbook911 said:
Don't buy a mac if...

You want to prevent urges to buy additional Macs.

You want to prevent urges to buy other Apple products.

:)


I hear that!!

Here are my five reasons:
1. I loves me some spyware/adware/viruses! cleaning up after them is SO FUN!
2. The blue screen of death has such a beautiful glow..
3. I NEED TO RIGHT CLICK! I just can't deal with Macs! ONE BUTTON! OMGWTFBBQ!! I can't plug in a USB 2-button mouse!
4. The lack of quality software.. I love crashes. It lets me be less productive in a longer period of time.
5. Solitaire.

Oh, also I want to tick people off by NOT using a PowerBook that I got for free. I like for it to gather dust in a corner.
:rolleyes:
 
5. You work for Microsoft, so you have no choice.
4. Trojans and spyware actually turn you on.
3. Pointless, time-wasting tinkering is your one passion in life.
2. Peer pressure from your redneck PC friends.
1. You were dropped as a baby. (for this i feel sorry for you)
 
katie ta achoo said:
2. The blue screen of death has such a beautiful glow..

Oh, but don't you just love the pretty blue glow - so very peaceful and serene after your peecee crashes and you lose 3 hours of unsaved work.
 
We often say that Macs "just work", and the problems are indeed fewer and further between, but I don't know a single computer user who has never needed a question answered.

For that reason, I advise people to get a PC if their one and only source of support is from a family member who knows nothing about Macs. For example, a senior citizen new to computers asked me for advice about getting a computer, and told me that everything would be set up by his PC-expert nephew (not a Mac guy). I knew he would not be going to retail stores or going online for advice, so his "support department" was PC only. My advice? Not the time to get a Mac.

This could apply to a work situation too. If the I.T. department in your company does not know about Macs, and you aren't in the position to be the pioneer that changes their mind, or survive on your own in a PC-centric company, that's a valid reason that a PC would suit you better.

Neither of these situations seems to apply to you, Dynamyk.
 
Lacero said:
5. You work for Microsoft, so you have no choice.
4. Trojans and spyware actually turn you on.
3. Pointless, time-wasting tinkering is your one passion in life.
2. Peer pressure from your redneck PC friends.
1. You were dropped as a baby. (for this i feel sorry for you)

Great post Lacero! :D
 
powerbook911 said:
Don't buy a mac if...

You want to prevent urges to buy additional Macs.

You want to prevent urges to buy other Apple products.

:)

I second powerbook911's post. Everthing started from my first Mac purchase by getting the Ti PB about 4 years ago (I have not used Mac before that; I had to buy that Ti because it was a very beatiful notebook). Since then, additional PBs, ACDs, USB hubs, Firewire hubs, iPods, iPod accessories, many many mouses from Logitech, Wacom tabelt, keyboards, LaCie external hard drives, speakers, iCurb, cleaning goods, bags, CS2, Macromedia MX2004 Studio, and on and on. I am always at the look-out for new accessories I can use with my Macs. It is very addictive.
 
skubish said:
Well I will give it a try:

1. You want to play games or more specifically you want to games that aren't available for Mac.
2. You are in Law School and required to take exams on Windoze-only software.
3. You enjoy building your own PC.
4. You enjoy viruses and system crashes :)
You forgot the most important one about style...

5. You like black plastic notebooks, and ugly $10 PC desktop enclosures.
 
sbb155 said:
2. You are more interested in powerpoint/word/excel in a corporate enviroment rather than ilife/video/music (more a personal environment)

The Mac version of M$ Office is fully compatible and mostly better to the window$ counterpart :rolleyes: So this would be a moot point I think.
 
1. Web development. You CAN NOT develop for IE on a Mac unless you either have a PC or have memorized every conceivable compatibility problem between Explorer and.. everybody else
2. Mac versions of PC software tend to be kinda chintsy, at least in my experience. Office v.X is ok but there *are* certain quirks between it and the industry-standard PC version. And then there's the Mac IE.. *shudders*
3. Considerably less choice when it comes to hardware and hardware upgrades. But thank god for USB and Firewire
4. Price, of course; and related to that, 'bang for your buck'. My dad just bought a brand new 3.2GHz PC for $700, monitor included. That was a steal, but it's not unheard of. Apple doesn't even offer speeds that high, and to get close to it you'll have to shell out $3000. Blahblahblah, megahertz myth, come on: deep down you all know it's true that Apple's behind (as, indeed, the folks who've received the Developer Macintels have now confirmed...)
5. If you're expecting a cure to all that ails you in the PC world, think again -- Macs do crash, they can be painfully slow, and their software is sometimes buggy. The lack of viruses/spyware is true (then again, it's also true that it's very easy to run a spyware-free PC without much effort. The key: completely ditch Internet Explorer and any program that uses the IE browser control), but a lot of the other stuff you hear about OS X is just hype.
6. As far as software goes, backwards compatibility is practically a forbidden concept. By way of contrast, old shareware programs written for Windows 3.1 in 1992 still run perfectly fine on my XP SP1 laptop (and yes, I still use them, dadgummit!).
7. Every year and a half when Apple releases a new minor upgrade to OS X they treat it like it's a brand spanking new OS -- and expect you to pay for it. To a longtime PC user, this sounds utterly ridiculous and inappropriate. Tiger is little more than OS X Service Pack 4, with some cute bells and whistles thrown in.
8. iLemmings, and the possibility of being perceived as one

..oops, that was a little more than 5. Well, as you can tell I'm not totally enamored of Apple. Don't get me wrong: I could probably write a list thrice as long for reasons TO switch, as I myself will be doing just as soon as they can get their act together and release the next Mini. But let us not be blind to their faults.
 
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