Apple seeks dollars in former freebies

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Mileage may vary but my experience

is totally different.

One of the reasons I'm a big Mac fan.

>>> Generally (high quality hardware and software) maybe, but from I've seen... NOT TRUE >>>

You may have had a bad experience with Apple/Mac but it's the exact opposite with me (and apparently the many devoted users that continually place Apple at or near the top of customer satisfaction surveys).

I've used a Mac since day 1 (1984-85) and gone thru a half dozen models with the only problem being a sticky floppy drive (Sony) eject mechanism in an '89 era IIcx (after 3years use, it only partially ejected a disk... dept tech sprayed mechanism with wd-40... "fixed" drive then shot disk half-way across room!)

Original Mac, an SE (and Classic), IIcx, 7100/66, 9600/200, G4/500 and now a dual 1.42 G4 ... no problems whatsoever (knock on wood). (the 9600 and G4/500 are also still in use as secondary workstations and "test" servers)

I'm not suggesting Apple is perfect and there have not been problems but the loyalty and devotion to the platform speaks of more than blind zealotry. As many Mac users state, they generally actually enjoy USING their computers and work WITH them rather than ON them. (Much like (sports) car enthusiasts who just get enjoyment driving their car-of-choice (ie, the car's not just transportation from point A to B) rather than do-it-yourself mechanics who enjoy ripping apart/reassembling and continually tweaking their cars. Other than "blowing the doors off the other guy", driving is almost secondary.)

>>> I'm not just trying to be a jerk. I can only speak about what I've experienced. Macs, even post OSX, are no more reliable than PCs with decent hardware. >>>

When you throw "decent hardware" in (a brand name box rather than a do-it-yourselfer), you approach (or surpass) the cost of an equivalent Mac.

I've also found that many problems are Macs being used in a "Windows" world by Windows-centric users or techies.

I know that here (a Windows-centric community college) the Wintel techs freak out and freeze when they sit in front of a Mac. Trying to think or do Windows on a Mac usually doesn't work, leads to frustration and invectives often hurled at the Mac rather than the "blame" being cast on the would-be user/fixer who doesn't know what they're doing.

Ie, A known issue (by regular Mac users) for regularly crashing apps pre-OSX were extension conflicts. Find conflict (made relatively easy with Conflict Catcher or knowing what you last installed), remove offending extension (easily found and usually well labeled, or change loading order) and problem usually solved. Perhaps DLL hell would be Windows equivalent but nowhere near as easy to troubleshoot and/or fix

Ie, Pre-OSX, Mac apps needed "reserved" memory space. Bumping up memory allocation (easily done in Get Info window) usually solved app problems. Windows relied on lots of data swapping to disk so this wasn't an issue the average Windows tech would know about. (OS9, etc did use virtual memory via disk but it was rather weak)

Ie, Though rare, corrupted preference files can cause app crashes (even in OSX). just trash the app-specific pref file and a new one is automatically created at next app start up.

Ie, A tech here was stumped on how to set up an Internet connection on an older OS 8.6 iMac. I showed him the few steps (Apple menu... Control Panels... Internet) and had it set up in a couple of minutes (due more to my 2 finger typing of IP settings, etc). He just stared and said "Is that all there is? There must be something more we have to do." He wasn't stupid... he just wasn't familiar with the Mac and thought there had to be more to it (from his Wintel experience).

My point being, a user or tech unfamiliar with the Mac may not have the best experience only because they don't know what they're doing (thru lack of knowledge of Mac-specific issues/functionality).

>>> From what I've seen, the price hike is certainly NOT worth the money. >>>

Overall, IMO, the Mac is worth the money, even if (sometimes or not) slightly more than an equivalent (functions and quality) Wintel box.

The quality Apple apps are worth the money alone (iApps, Final Cut Pro/Express, DVD Pro, etc).

I guess it depends on how much you value your time (patching, virus hunting, fortifying/protecting, etc Wintel boxes).

*** a post (Milly Staples???) arguing Wintel can be made safe contained directions (from a security expert) on how to lock down/make safe your Wintel box that only a computer engineer would love (and have the ability to do)

*** many Wintel supporters/Apple bashers have wildly claimed there are equivalent or superior Wintel apps to the Apple iApps/other apps. Actual examples would be of assistance rather than unsubstantiated, nebulous claims (ie, match price, quality, capabilities, etc).

Posted by: MacCanuck   Posted on: 01/09/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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