Richard

For shame. You would invest in a computer that is over priced and has hardware that is completely out of your control, as your primary?!?!

I kid. But, seriously, as your primary? I can see a Mac as a secondary computer that is used specifically as a graphics or video tool, but as a computer they are just a trendy gadget.

I suppose that my comments come from a biased point of view. One based in hand selecting the components and being integrated in all parts of the build, as well as a person who uses a huge variety of software that is just not released for the Mac platform.

To me, selecting a Mac as your primary computer is like cutting off a leg before you ever enter the race.

Mykala

I feel so torn by Richard’s comment, because on the one hand it makes me sad, hurt, and angry down to my very core, and on the other I feel like it is so uninformed, and that makes me sad, hurt, and angry down to my very core. Ok. I guess I’m not torn at all. Just sad, angry, and hurt. Down to my core. My very core.

I also kid. But, seriously, do you know how many designers/musicians/producers use Macs as their primary machines? Do you even know any designers/musicians/producers? :) Again, I kid.

But seriously.

Alexander Micek

lol, Richard — I’m glad I decided to leave my polarizing statement in! Welcome back to the Mac vs. PC quagmire, one of the oldest sources of conflict in the online world. I’d like to address your concerns from two perspectives: hardware and software.

Hardware
When examining Apple’s hardware prices, it is critical to understand their business model and how it differs from the model of a company like Dell. While Dell makes money from selling a huge volume of computers on razor thin margins, Apple makes money by selling fewer computers on higher margins (Apple is, after all, a hardware company). However, these facts do nothing to prove the misconception that Apple computers are overpriced. The key to keep in mind is that Apple never descends the price curve down to regions where margins are low. What’s more, in comparison after comparison, I’ve seen that machines of equivalent specifications from Apple and Dell come out in a dead heat, price-wise. The most I’ve seen is a $200 difference — for the typical computer user, this buys them fantastic support at a local Apple Store (e.g. Mykala didn’t purchase AppleCare, and they’ve replaced a piece on her laptop twice with no haggling and barely any waiting) and it also gets the buyer an operating system that, thus far, hasn’t been hit with major worms, viruses, or crapware. Those two benefits are huge.

Next, the perception that Apple hardware is out of your control puzzles me. Where does this come from? The Intel Trusted Platform Module era, perhaps? That was never used in any way to lock OS X to consumer hardware. Perhaps when Apple computers were running on IBM’s PowerPC chips, what with the opaque product roadmap and non-x86 architecture, this point may have held some water. Presently, an Apple computer is a collection of Intel (and yes, some ATI/NVIDIA) pieces. If those are to be considered “out of one’s control”, then by extension one must accuse half of the modders out there of producing machines out of their control. That’s a discussion to be taken up with the modders themselves — as for control over other things, then software comes into play.

Software
Why is software of interest when Apple is a hardware company? Well, because the misperception that the Mac hardware platform is exclusively for Apple software. Today, you can purchase a Mac and with incredible ease set up a dedicated partition (without a reformat, which is a big deal) for Windows and even some Ubuntu distros. As a result of this Boot Camp thing, an Apple can run far more programs and software than just about any box.

You’ve called the Mac “just a trendy gadget”, so I’d like to address this fallacy that a Mac isn’t suitable for “non-creative” serious sysadmin coding style work. Give me a standard copy of Windows Vista… it doesn’t even have a native SSH client, and yet Windows is used for plenty of serious work.

And then there’s UNIX, a bastion of serious work since literally the dawn of computing as we know it. Mac OS X is a verified UNIX flavor, with all the requisite underpinnings - it recently received UNIX Certification. OS X’s Darwin kernel has been continuously updated for at least 8 years and, under the terms of open source, has been released back to the community. This is undeniably serious and open work.

Besides objective facts, some of my personal experiences also inform my decision to go with a Mac. I watched Internet Explorer stagnate for years (years!) and TORE MY HAIR OUT trying to remove viruses due to that software, and due to its close integration with Windows. I don’t want to slipstream a custom version of my OS just to remove the insanely deep hooks that the WEB BROWSER has. This house-of-cards ideology in Microsoft Windows will be a foul taste in my mouth for a long time. Removing the browser in Mac OS X? (heck, in any other OS for that matter)… grab the icon and drag it to the trash. Incidentally, the Safari web browser, one of the most standards compliant browsers in existence, is itself based on an open source project called WebKit, which is yet another example of the open, serious work Macs can do.

On Building Your Own
This is not to say I have any problem with assembling your computer and putting whatever you wish on it (Linux flavors, etc). In fact I’m in the same boat: I have to purchase a decent amount of hardware to overhaul my Windows box to keep it running until I can afford to buy a new computer. I just take issue with someone standing, as if on a pedestal, and declaring the Mac is nothing like the UNIX based system they may be building, when it is actually extremely similar… or when they proclaim that Windows is purposed for more serious work. As for me? I’m tired of it all — when I want to work on a remote Solaris server, I want my SSH built in, and everything else to take care of itself. Macs do this for me, and provided they don’t manage to suck it up in the next four years, I’ll be buying one in 2012.

The Upshot
I am absolutely not saying anybody must get a Mac, but to refuse to consider one based on outdated misperceptions is insane.

Mykala

Ok, ok. Despite the fact that the melodrama and bitter sarcasm of my last comment was extremely entertaining to me, I must retract it and say, simply: See above.

This is why I date Alex Micek. Because when I want to give an inappropriately emotional (most often sassy and slightly snippy) reaction, he calmly and rationally supplies the straight facts.

We are the proverbial one-two punch.

Richard

I’m not saying that Macs don’t have their purposes. I did indeed admit that they are great for video and audio work. I enjoyed my experience with it in my art class because of final cut.

What I dislike about them is their lack of software support and by software support I implicate gaming. Gaming, the playing of and developing of, is a substantial part of my computer use (not so much these days as my computer approaches 5 y/o.) A Mac can just not come close to being supportive in any way when it comes to this area of computing.

A Windows partition is not enough to assist in emulation of games these days. Much of the code is targeted specifically at the hardware.

I still say that Apple doesn’t allow for one to customize hardware. I’ve been to the site and I’ve seen the options. For the price I would be paying I deserve more control. For an extra $500 I only get 2gb of DDR2 800mhz RAM?!?! Also don’t go with the ATI option. ATI cards are hot and slow compared to nVidia.

The only thing I really like is that their motherboard must be pretty intense to support 32gb of RAM (all be it DDR2 and a low clock speed.)

I suppose what it comes down to is that I can not condone buying a Mac unless you have cash to waste. I also can not condone buying an off the shelf PC unless you like headaches. I can only suggest building your own machine and tailoring it to your preferences. (Economics and Business student) It’s all about cost-benefit and any computer from a brand name is likely to take advantage of you one way or another.

Dan McKeown +1

Bah, forget all these informed and technical arguments. I just do not like the Mac mouse.

Amber

I read this during a Mac commercial… coincidence? I think not.

Nils

I’m with Dan, the Mac mouse sucks. It seems like both Mac’s and PC’s have their places and purposes. It comes as no surprise to me that PC’s are still the gamer’s computer. I have a couple roommates that still play graphic-heavy games (and World of Warcraft, wtf) and they swear by the DIY, build your own, Windows-based comp. But if you are into video and/or audio production/editing, Macs are definitely the best way to go (just as far as software availability goes, to my knowledge). Although the big animation studios tend to use Linux platforms for their high-end software. My Dad is a computer programmer and he swears by Linux. In a corporate building housing about 1500 employees, he’s probably the only one running Linux.

I want a Mac someday when I can afford one (they are too expensive). I would love to use Final Cut Pro instead of my Adobe Premiere editing software and there are a host of great audio editing applications that I would love to play around with that are largely Mac based.