MacBooks: How I became jelly

[Chrono212]

I have a new MacBook Pro on my lap.

However, it is not mine. It belongs to someone else and my housemate is setting it up for them. They've very kindly let me mess around with it until they can give it back.

The only thing is, I'm really very jelly. I worked at a couple of places that only used Mac's because, you know, if you can afford to only use Mac's you must be a successful business!*

*this is a bad way to tell if a business is successful, no matter what Apple's adverts portray

There are many things I do like about Mac's:
It's light, the battery is actually decent (even when using wifi), it boots up faster than you can say "freaking bloatware".

There are other things I don't like about Mac's though:
This laptop costs £1000. I don't have £1000. But I could save £1000.
Software is getting better with compatibility, but still not everything can work with it.
Apple's theology that old is bad and new is better, they say what you can and can't do.

What my rambling is trying to say, what should I do, dear users of the Escapist?

Save, save, save or just wait until I get a job (ha!) that gives me a MacBook, or similar?

 

[Genocidicles]

Just get a laptop PC with the equivalent power for half the price or less. Is a mac being slightly lighter worth £500?

 

[Wadders]

I know it's all down to opinion, and you're obviously enamored with said MacBook, but is it really worth you saving up £1000? Is it worth that much more than an average laptop at half the price?

In the end though, it just comes down to what you want to spend money on - everyone has stuff they splash their cash on that seems stupid or pointless to others. I'm one of those idiots that buys branded/designer clothing at several times the price of unbranded stuff, so I'm in no position to lecture you as to why you shouldn't buy a Mac. If you really want it, and it's worth that much to you, then go for it.

As far as the actual advantages it gives you go, I'm not much help. They certainly do look nice though - and as far as I'm concerned that's a big selling point on its own

 

[tippy2k2]

It's an old one but always good for a chuckle:

Apple's ARE getting better about not just being a simplified PC at twice the price but I still don't see the costs being worth it. However, those pros you listed can be pretty big freaking pros depending on your uses (if you're using it for travel/business, it being lighter and boots up lightning quick can be a HUGE plus).

Basically, is the lightness, the battery, and the boot-up speed a big enough convenience that you would spend an extra $500 for them? If yes, get the Macbook. If no, get the PC laptop.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Macbooks are way overpriced for what you're getting. You could get a pc laptop that's just as good for way less.

 

[azukar]

Comes down to what you want. Macs are lovely and easy to use. Windows 8 looks like Vista all over again.
Battery life on a Mac is great, no bloatware is awesome.

Here's another old-but-good comic that illustrates the ultimate point pretty nicely:

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/mac_pc.png

 

[Vault101]

$1000...for a laptop

you cant even play games on the damn thing, you could get a sweet ass gaming rig for that much

just get a regular PC laptop

 

[lacktheknack]

You have to learn a whole new OS, and if you're not extremely flexible, that can be quite irritating.

There's lots of good battery laptops out there. I'm on one right now that lasts for five hours without wi-fi, three to four hours with. Find one for those (they'll cost you about 400 pounds sterling, I think) and run "PC-Decrapifier" on it. And then install CCleaner (best freaking PC registry and temp file cleaner in existence, and free to boot!) and use it to turn off any remaining startup things. Boom, speedtastic startup with minimal effort.

With a bit of know-how, Macs are simply not worth the money. If you're dead set on getting one, then yeah, go ahead and by one, but I'm laying out a good alternative here.

 

[Dryk]

Apple's theology that old is bad and new is better, they say what you can and can't do.

Microsoft's been doing that too

In general consumer electronics seem to be moving from "Here are some tools, use your imagination" to "You want this thing, you want to use it this way. Why? Because we said so" and I really hate it

 

[lacktheknack]

$1000...for a laptop

you cant even play games on the damn thing, you could get a sweet ass gaming rig for that much

just get a regular PC laptop

1000 pounds sterling, actually.

http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

That's $1,487 Australian.

You could cram liquid cooling and a second graphics card into that sweet-ass gaming rig with that money.

 

[Vault101]

1000 pounds sterling, actually.

http://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/

That's $1,487 Australian.

You could cram liquid cooling and a second graphics card into that sweet-ass gaming rig with that money.

0_0

well thats just fucking rediculous...

I paid a little under that for my gaming PC..granted I paid a bit more because It was put together for me..but fuuuuuck

 

[Frezzato]

It sounds like you already know what you want. I'm not entirely happy about Apple soldering the RAM to the board (not sure if it's for all SKUs), and the use of the Thunderbolt port for both display-out AND Ethernet (which you have to buy adapters for), but that may change by the time you save up enough money. Also, maybe every Apple device will have Retina displays by the time you're ready. And I'll keep saying this until I'm banned from the forums, but Time Machine for Mac OS, it's incredible [http://macs.about.com/od/backupsoftware/gr/time-machine-review.htm].

I'm not partial either way.

-Owner of a MacBook, HP quad-core desktop, PS3, 360, Wii, blah blah blah.

 

[Vault101]

Microsoft's been doing that too

In general consumer electronics seem to be moving from "Here are some tools, use your imagination" to "You want this thing, you want to use it this way. Why? Because we said so" and I really hate it

at least they dont charge you up the ass for a white picture of an apple

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I'll keep saying this until I'm banned from the forums, but Time Machine for Mac OS, it's incredible [http://macs.about.com/od/backupsoftware/gr/time-machine-review.htm].

I have to agree there. Not only does it completely blow away any other free backup solution built into any other OS I've used, it's far better than most paid ones too. It made dealing with that aspect of things on my MacBook completely trivial, and it makes the built-in backup manager in Win7 that I've been reluctantly using (the backup manager, that is; I like the OS overall) on my desktop look like a joke in comparison. The way Time Machine works on a technical/filesystem level is much more elegant too, and you can easily browse through all the multiple layers of files and recover them using only the standard file browser because of how they're linked, or even from the command line if that's all you have access to.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

I have a new MacBook Pro on my lap.

However, it is not mine. It belongs to someone else and my housemate is setting it up for them. They've very kindly let me mess around with it until they can give it back.

The only thing is, I'm really very jelly. I worked at a couple of places that only used Mac's because, you know, if you can afford to only use Mac's you must be a successful business!*

*this is a bad way to tell if a business is successful, no matter what Apple's adverts portray

There are many things I do like about Mac's:
It's light, the battery is actually decent (even when using wifi), it boots up faster than you can say "freaking bloatware".

There are other things I don't like about Mac's though:
This laptop costs £1000. I don't have £1000. But I could save £1000.
Software is getting better with compatibility, but still not everything can work with it.
Apple's theology that old is bad and new is better, they say what you can and can't do.

What my rambling is trying to say, what should I do, dear users of the Escapist?

Save, save, save or just wait until I get a job (ha!) that gives me a MacBook, or similar?

GO PC.

This is written from a Mac.

It may look nice, but your going to run into all kinds of problems you can't afford to have fixed. The cords? It is basically made of silly string for how durable it is. I have issues with battery life, heat issues, and can't play many games on it. A laptop PC for the same price will play any game on the market on high levels (barring maybe Planetside 2).

One more thing, having the body being a single piece means crap will get under the keys and you CAN'T clean it out.

 

[Charli]

They're just not worth it... Why are you jelly unless you're a magpie, because that shine is it's only selling point over a decent PC or hell even a decent gaming laptop. I got my gaming rig for HALF the price my stupid sisters crappy Macbook Pro abomination. Hers is now bugged to pieces and might as well just be replaced for the service charge Apple will bumplunder you for. And mine looks like it's going to last me for over 5 years, maybe I'll upgrade the graphics card once along the road. I just don't need any bigger.

 

[JochemHippie]

The UI and Touchpad are quite orgasmic indeed...

Though they're expensive... Soooooooo, I'd say save up and get a good upgradable Windows lappy

 

[Playful Pony]

I can see why you'd want one. They have a great feel of quality to them, they look very clean and efficient (I'm a sucker for elegant design) and of course is pretty much THE name in the business these days. I still can't swallow the prices though, thats what's holding me back. Like when I tried to make my mind up between an iPhone and the Galaxy SII. The iPhone has the biggest name, and by far the biggest app market and a whole world of attachments available to it. Yet the Galaxy was more powerful, more comfortable to use and significantly cheaper (in my country anyway). To top that off the Galaxy also won every test it was included in, beating the iPhone and its other contenders.

To me, Apple products will always be about fashion more than anything. I told my brother he could get a really nice Galaxy SII and not have to work all summer to get it, or maybe have some money left over in the end. He still went for the iPhone, because thats what the kids in school has, thats what "everyone" needs to have. Like all fashion it is terribly overpriced =p. I have a slightly quirky taste in clothing, so I get my clothes from very diferent places than my friends. For the price of some jeans and a top at her store, I can get 2-3 complete outfits, including shoes! But because that gay man on TV said so, she just has to get those particular clothes... Ohw well =p.

 

[Griffolion]

The normal Mac Books have a decent repair-ability score according to [a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Teardown/9515/2"]iFixit[/a]. The Retina ones are [a href="http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2012+Teardown/9462/3"]nigh unfixable[/a].

[a href="http://techreport.com/news/22944/kaspersky-mac-os-is-really-insecure"]Mac OSX is incredibly insecure[/a].

[a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/kaspersky-apple-10-years-behind-microsoft-in-terms-of-security/11706"]OSX is 10 years behind Windows in terms of security[/a].

[a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/operating-systems/20585/apple-finally-admits-macs-can-get-viruseswell-almost-admits-it"]Macs get viruses[/a], [a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9225862/Fast_growing_Flashback_botnet_includes_over_600_000_Macs_experts_say"]and a lot of them[/a], [a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_22623716/apple-company-mac-computers-hacked-employees-infected"]you just don't see them because you've been convinced to not get AV software[/a].

[a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9211839/Apple_s_new_MacBook_Pros_raise_quality_concerns"]I'd have said that at least their build quality are good, but this is in contention, right now.[/a]

[a href="http://store.steampowered.com/browse/mac/"]The Steam library for Mac is still utter shite, even after 18 months.[/a]

[a href="http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/creativesuite/mastercollection.html"]Adobe Master Collection[/a] is available for both Mac and Windows, in equal measure and capability. I'm assuming you're even thinking of getting a Mac because you're in the creative business? Because there is no other reason to get one save for this. Even then, most software used in the creative industries are now cross platform, save for some stuff in the music industry. Why pay more for the same functionality?

I find the UI infuriating, nothing is in a logical place. It's in an "Apple" place. The only saving grace are the trackpad gestures.

In summary, you're paying a lot of money for a laptop that will primarily serve as a piece of bling. If that's your thing, then great. If you're wanting functionality that isn't unnecessarily killing your wallet, then laptops by other OEM's like Asus and Samsung are still the way to go (and they have nice design, too). If you're worried about bloatware, then just wipe the HDD and re-install Windows. It's not hard.

The fact that you're attributing a fast boot up time to "bloatware", and that a major selling point is a freaking light, are indicators that you're not particularly educated in the ways of the laptop. For the record, OSX's boot priorities are different to Windows', because they are two completely different OS' that operate in vastly different ways. OSX has the luxury of being able to focus on fast boot times, because it's not designed for potentially billions of hardware combinations that Windows is. So the developers have the time to really drill down and nail a quick boot sequence, alongside optimum file structure loading on log on. Windows must, and has been designed to, account for billions of hardware combinations, so excuse it if it doesn't load quite as quick because the developers have had to iron out compatibility issues instead of having the luxury of nailing down one tiny aspect of the OS design (but then again, a SSD solves all these problems). Windows is a far more advanced piece of software than OSX ever will be, for this reason alone, the fact it exists and works as it does is a damn miracle. Making an OS for, what, 20 (at most) different hardware combinations is easy when compared.

I understand that OEM's put a lot of their own shitty software on there, which is why I say to re-install Windows fresh. It's not hard, and perfectly legal.

Sorry, this came out as a bit of a rant, but I just don't want to see another person fall to Apple's marketing.

EDIT: I read the OP wrong, it doesn't have "a light", rather, "it's light". In response to that, you clearly haven't picked up one of the latest Ultrabooks, like the Asus Zenbook or the Samsung Series 9. You want light, you get them.

 

[an annoyed writer]

It's a decent computer, and I've been able to do a decent amount of stuff with mine, but if you want a good gaming computer stay the fuck away. From an incomplete keyboard(gaming-wise) to the lack of games on the system, it just isn't very good for a gaming computer. It isn't too bad on some other fronts, but if you want to do anything more advanced than photo editing and internet browsing you have to buy very specialized software for it, and that shit's hella-expensive.