Should I buy a MacBook?

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deep

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Ok I can use a new computer

I have a Compac desk top in back room

and Dell notebook(1 year old) in living room to surf while I watch TV


and an old Sony windows 98 at my office that needs to be replaced

So I am thinking MacBook in living room

and the Dell notebook to my office :shrug:

Just came back from the Apple store and I am thinking of buying MacBook Pro

about $2000 will try for student discount, also.

the question is
I mostly just do internet these days.

I do save some word docs. and pics and tunes. So a hard drive of 120 seems plenty.

For $2000 I could buy two pc notebooks?

Will, I enjoy the Mac that much?
 
I use Macs and PCs on a daily basis at work and even though overall, I prefer the Mac, I have PCs at home. There's nothing the Macs do that my PC can't, and like you say, I paid half as much and have the same hardware specs. The only thing I do at home besides basic stuff (web browsing, Office, music, watching movies) is photo editing and web design. With a duo core processor and 2GB of RAM, the PC is performing just fine :D

There are some things my work Intel iMac does better than PCs, but I don't do those specific tasks at home, so there's no point in spending that much when it doesn't really matter.

I've never had problems with viruses, security, or reliability, so there's no reason for me to switch other than I'd like to. All of my PCs have lasted as long as I've used them for and then sold them. They are ten bazillion times easier to service than a Mac. I don't really fancy having to go to an Apple store anytime I want to make some modification.
 
There are no viruses and no spyware on OS X.

That's reason enough.

My MacBook(not pro) is two and a half months old and I couldn't be happier...especially with the boot camp software, you can run dual boot, and run both OS X and XP or Vista, whichever you prefer.

That's another thing - any PC laptop(or desktop for that matter) that you buy now is going to come loaded with Vista. I haven't used Vista yet but I've only heard bad things about it. That it's buggy as hell, very unstable, won't be really usable until a few service packs have been released, etc etc etc.

In short, yes, you should buy a MacBook if you can afford it.
 
Liesje said:


The only virus I've ever got in 5 years of computer support was on my OS 10.4 machine a few months ago. :wink:

Really? I've heard that it's near impossible to catch a virus on OS X.

Anyway, I'm having spyware problems on the XP partition of my MacBook(OS X partition is fine), so I'm not exactly the biggest Windows fan in the world right now.

Wow. The first 21 years of my life I was exclusively a PC user. Three months with a MacBook and I'm totally converted. I surprise myself.
 
There's just a coolness factor about the Mac, can't really put my finger on it....

Personally I've never had spyware problems, but I've always used a good antivirus on all my PCs and Macs and my web browsing/downloading habits aren't conducive to spyware.

It's not that the Mac OS is any more secure than Windows, but those who code viruses, trojans, malware, etc. do not code them for that OS b/c it's not as popular. It has very little to do with the OS itself, just the computing habits and preferences of those with far too much time on their hands.

The cost will always be the reason I don't have a Mac at home. Granted, I can use one for 8 hrs a day at work. My new laptop cost $1300 (includes 3 year warranty and I can have batteries, screens, and keyboards replaced even if they aren't broken) and a Mac with the same hardware specs would've cost well over $2000 before extended Apple Care. That was the deal breaker.
 
Oh, I know that all it would take is a bunch of assholes deciding to code viruses for OS X to end the 'no viruses' thing.

$1300 you say? My MacBook was somewhere between $1300 and $1800....there were rebates involved, free ipod....long story short I don't remember exactly what it cost, but it was in that neighborhood.

The Pros are quite a bit more expensive.
 
Yeah I looked long and hard at the MacBooks, but with the specs I got in my PC the it would have cost more than $1500 before 3 years of Apple Care. I'm really happy with the current laptop. It came with everything I needed and nothing I didn't. The Mac I wanted had too much of one thing and not enough of another and it couldn't be customized the way I wanted.
 
deep i got a macbook pro before beginning my 2nd year of grad school. in that 2nd semester i took a number of instructional technology courses. i'm just saying that so you can see how tech savvy and awesome i am.

not too long ago i sort of regretted not getting just a macbook, and just getting a pro. but with my pro i have burned dvds, created my own videos, and used guitar player for various music playing and editing. i don't think macbooks come with all that. so if you plan on doing those 3 things in addition to browsing the net, go pro. if not, stick with the macbook.

oh and don't get the white one. it gets palm stains.
 
The Macbooks are nicely built, and certainly stylish. The Macbook Pro is really unnecessary for your requirements (unless you need or want a larger screen size..which I know some people do).

I don't have issues with viruses on Windows - get yourself a good virus software, and use the internet intelligently and there shouldn't be an issue.

I worked with a Macbook (the white one) this summer, and found their wireless is buggy. All my Mac friends told me the same thing all last year during school, that their wireless signal tended to drop when the PC people still hung on to theirs. If you're using yours at home it's probably not an issue, but I know for heavy users who travel a lot, they have generally complained about this relatively constantly.

The thing I like about the Macbook is that it was built to be on all the time. And it's true about Vista - until the first service pack comes out, it's not that great. However, it's untrue that all laptops have it - look to buy directly from manufacturers and you'll see lots of them are dumping their XP versions. I know a few people got very favourable deals from Toshiba this way.
 
anitram said:


I worked with a Macbook (the white one) this summer, and found their wireless is buggy. All my Mac friends told me the same thing all last year during school, that their wireless signal tended to drop when the PC people still hung on to theirs. If you're using yours at home it's probably not an issue, but I know for heavy users who travel a lot, they have generally complained about this relatively constantly.

The thing I like about the Macbook is that it was built to be on all the time.

Odd, I've found that my Macbook picks up signals that PCs don't, and connects before the PCs do...

And, yes, I generally don't restart my Macbook more than once a week. It doesn't need to be, the only reason I do is because it's a good idea to reset the RAM every so often.
 
onebloodonelife said:


Odd, I've found that my Macbook picks up signals that PCs don't, and connects before the PCs do...


Definitely not the experience here from the Mac users. But, the wireless was an issue with the old Powerbooks as well (it was a recognized Apple problem), so I'm not completely shocked that depending on the wireless network, people still might be having issues with the Macs.
 
anitram said:

The thing I like about the Macbook is that it was built to be on all the time.

Yes, this is nice, although I've seen many Macbooks and Pros that have issues going in/out of sleep (or whatever the Macs call it). A lot of ours just get stuck for no good reason. The PCs will do fine left on as long as the user appropriately tweaks the power management. I get a lot of laptops that are only 2-3 years old that are basically dead b/c the kids left them on ALL the time, never bothered to setup sleep or hibernation, and wonder why the thing is basically burning up inside. My current laptop always sleeps, either when I shut it or after a certain period of time. I only ever restart it when I've installed an update or piece of hardware that requires a restart. I don't like hibernation, takes up too much memory.

I really wanted to get my mom a Mac, but I can't find any for the right price. I got her a full PC setup (desktop) for $150. I wanted her to switch to the Mac OS b/c for someone like her, the simplicity and user-friendliness would really help even if she had to adjust to the new OS.
 
I want to thank everyone for taking time to reply in here.


I have gone back and forth.

Right now I am still leaning macBook pro

and I am thinking I should wait a couple of months for the new leopard? os
 
If you wait for Leopard, you might as well wait for Office 2008 (provided it's released on time), if you have a working computer at the moment.
 
What is the advantage to keeping a computer on all the time?
 
indra said:
What is the advantage to keeping a computer on all the time?

If you're talking about a PC, when you have a lot of stuff installed in Windows, Windows can take a long time to load when you first turn the computer on, so the avoidance of that load time could be one reason.

Another could be if you're running a server on a personal computer...if you turn the computer off, the server goes bye bye until the computer is on again, and no one can access it.

That's just two possible reasons.
 
I'm looking at getting a MacBook Pro soon that'll be able to run Final Cut Studio 2, will the older models be able to well?
 
You shouldn't have a problem with FCS2, I would suggest staying with a Core 2 Duo Pro though, they're a lot faster than the Core Duos. Are you looking at refurbished from Apple?
 
There's one at the store:

Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4-inch widescreen display
2GB memory
120GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory
Built-in iSight Camera

1,699 from 1,999.

It looks good to me.
 
Thank you for the help.

Now I'm looking into whether or not to go with a glossy or matte screen. There are good arguments for both, I'll just have to see them up close.

For more hard drive space, I'll probably end up getting a huge external hard drive, apparently 1 hour of video in Final Cut = 13 GB. :|
 
No problem.

Glossy vs. matte...I know that matte is better if you need accurate color representation, other than that, I have no idea. Honestly, my Macbook has a glossy screen, and I've never had a glare problem with it.

You'll definitely want a massive external, or maybe a RAID, depending on how serious you are about video editing.
 
LemonMacPhisto said:

Intel Core 2 Duo
widescreen display
2GB memory
120GB hard drive
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB memory
Built-in Camera

1,699 from 1,999.

See here's where Apple gets me. Besides a different brand graphics card (w/ 224MB video memory), I have exactly the above (brand new, not refurb) for 1/2 the price. :scratch:
 
My new Toshiba is an ultra-portable, with those exact specs except my hard drive is 160GB, my graphics card is a 358 MB, and my screen is a 13", and it also cost considerably less.
 
onebloodonelife said:
No problem.

Glossy vs. matte...I know that matte is better if you need accurate color representation, other than that, I have no idea. Honestly, my Macbook has a glossy screen, and I've never had a glare problem with it.

You'll definitely want a massive external, or maybe a RAID, depending on how serious you are about video editing.

I was talking about getting a RAID today (apparently they come in terabtyes? :drool: ), especially since I can go back and forth with using my Windows desktop and MacBook files.

The added price of the Mac stuff is probably some of the awesome programs that come with. They shouldn't be expensive enough to warrant that price if the laptop itself can be sold for cheaper, but iLife owns my soul.
 
Exactly. :wink:

I can't complain, I'll probably end up bumming a copy of Final Cut Studio 2 from my TV Prod Teacher / the coolest person in the world.
 
LemonMacPhisto said:


I was talking about getting a RAID today (apparently they come in terabtyes? :drool: ), especially since I can go back and forth with using my Windows desktop and MacBook files.

The added price of the Mac stuff is probably some of the awesome programs that come with. They shouldn't be expensive enough to warrant that price if the laptop itself can be sold for cheaper, but iLife owns my soul.

:yes: RAIDs do come in terabytes...imagine all the space...
 
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