What Makes You Buy Apple? (year after year)
Just curious.
I don't mean to be intrusive though.
Is it simplicity? Hardware design? Unix?
Do you feel it is intuitive? Or just familiar?
I feel a bit stupid for just asking....
It's something along the lines of a "how did we come to exist?" question, i know
But as much as i simply accept the status quo of why everyone at an Apple forum uses Apple, this question has come up in my mind, because I'm planning to take a closer look at Apple hardware myself.
I'd been on windows for years, and that's what i use, it's where all my software is, it's what i can use without looking. Everything is where i expect it. Much like touch typing. In fact i just had to press the break key when my anti-virus somehow started a forced re-boot without consulting me first. Sometimes i go for a month or two without rebooting, as long as memory permits. Some software leaks like a sieve though. Anyway, that canceled the re-boot, as always...I tend to use keyboard shortcuts a lot of things...
I've mostly built my own machines for home use and at work use whatever the company provides.
Anyway, I'd love to to hear your side of things. To me, Apple has looked like a bit of a walled garden, and an expensive one at that, but you guys and Apple users in general seem like people with higher standards (for all things in life), so that probably doesn't feel the same way to you. I'm outside, looking in....
Dan
P.S. Any opinion appreciated
...even if it reflects badly of me 
I don't mean to be intrusive though.
Is it simplicity? Hardware design? Unix?
Do you feel it is intuitive? Or just familiar?
I feel a bit stupid for just asking....
It's something along the lines of a "how did we come to exist?" question, i know
But as much as i simply accept the status quo of why everyone at an Apple forum uses Apple, this question has come up in my mind, because I'm planning to take a closer look at Apple hardware myself.
I'd been on windows for years, and that's what i use, it's where all my software is, it's what i can use without looking. Everything is where i expect it. Much like touch typing. In fact i just had to press the break key when my anti-virus somehow started a forced re-boot without consulting me first. Sometimes i go for a month or two without rebooting, as long as memory permits. Some software leaks like a sieve though. Anyway, that canceled the re-boot, as always...I tend to use keyboard shortcuts a lot of things...
I've mostly built my own machines for home use and at work use whatever the company provides.
Anyway, I'd love to to hear your side of things. To me, Apple has looked like a bit of a walled garden, and an expensive one at that, but you guys and Apple users in general seem like people with higher standards (for all things in life), so that probably doesn't feel the same way to you. I'm outside, looking in....
Dan
P.S. Any opinion appreciated
...even if it reflects badly of me
Comments
It's not so much how good Apple is, as such, but more so how bad everyone else is.
This
I have never bought something from Apple that I later regretted, so I can buy from Apple with confidence.
If it is of any value, I used to use Windows and Linux for years before getting my first Mac, I still use Windows and Linux on a near daily basis, I just prefer Mac OS X.
Mac's for me were first, before Windows even made a appearance, so that had a lot to do with influencing me.
I stuck with Apple through the hard times and bought hard when Steve Jobs returned to the company.
Mac's over the years have simply worked extremely well, only 1 WDEF virus in over 20 years, came on a game disk before the internet was even a thought.
Hardware also has been very reliable, nothing is perfect of course, but I always got good care from Apple. They worked hard to win my loyalty and I responded by hooking up a lot of friends.
Desktop publishing and the like was a new field, which needed young minds which I got involved in. It also required a much more detailed screen, better looking fonts and graphics and more powerful interfaces, so it looked better than those bare bones office PC's with their jaggies text.
I dappled in using Windows here and there, couldn't believe the trouble people went through to use them. Glad to have a Mac that worked reliably and paid a bit more upfront to get a better quality system that winds up costing less over time as it lasts much longer.
Some people like headaches, they like to tinker and have a challenge. Fighting to get their computer to work for them, when actually they are working for the computer.
Others just need a machine to do what they need it to do as they are busy doing something else.
For those people they need a more reliable and stress free computer system.
But Mac's can run Windows, either via Bootcamp (a partition program and drivers) or via Virtual Machine software where one can run multiple OS's and even keep various snapshots so they are always updating a virgin install.
That's how I like to keep Windows, very virgin, just updating the original install and transferring files from backup. Never use it online except to update it.
I have the choice of all the major OS's, even a developers beta of Chrome OS to mess with and enjoy, on the best hardware there is, all for a measly $1000 a year for hardware.
because it
works
year after year after year
no viruses
my 99 strawberry imac is still working just fine running 10.4x
no corruption
stylish
AND THEY WORK
i have owned macs since my first mac 1984
since that time i have had to only one time get a tech to fix it
and it was my fault for screwing up a firmware update.
simple easy robust universe
it has simplified my life
its has impacted my life as much as any other tech in my life every day, in every way my life is better because of MAC.
i am windows free
What makes me buy it is the box of the product, the smell when I open it for the first time, the way how everything is well-organized, the simplicity of the products and the software, the design and it makes me feel special. It helps me a lot with everything.
I am an exchange student from Bulgaria, Europe and I am currently in the Detroit Metro Area, Michigan. I am here for a year, away from my real family, living in a host family's house. It helps a lot. I have the iPhone 3GS and the MacBook Pro 13-inch ... I don't know how I would survive without them, they are something like a little part of the motor of my life, the motor that keeps it moving! And my 5th Gen. iPod nano ... while I am running, this is my best friend!
That's why I love Apple!
Well it's certainly not the price! I'm on my second mac from 2003. The reasons I stayed with the mac is the same as the posts above. I'm sitting on the fence right now whether to replace my aging powerbook with a new mac. The one thing holding me back is the price. I want a modern i5/i7 mac for about $1200 can. After using the mac for decades, I'm still not sold on its value.
Uh, your machine is like 7 years old.
1200/7 = $172 a year
You didn't have to pay for anti-virus, you likely bought your software once.
A typical cheap PC lasts 3 years, usually has to be reformatted twice a year and anti-virus costs $xx a month.
I think you got tremendous value for your money.
Uh, your machine is like 7 years old.
1200/7 = $172 a year
My powerbook g4 did not cost $1200 can. It cost 3X that amount. Where can I get an i5/i7 for $1200 can.?
My powerbook g4 did not cost $1200 can. It cost 3X that amount. Where can I get an i5/i7 for $1200 can.?
Dell or Acer likely, but the rest of the hardware won't match a Mac.
Then there is the malware costs to figure in.
http://www.systemshootouts.org/shoot...05_lt2000.html
And it's nice to be back
Uh, your machine is like 7 years old.
1200/7 = $172 a year
You didn't have to pay for anti-virus, you likely bought your software once.
A typical cheap PC lasts 3 years, usually has to be reformatted twice a year and anti-virus costs $xx a month.
I think you got tremendous value for your money.
Though Spot, i don't exactly share your opinion on the PC thing. But then, we are all a bit biased.
I personally have gone 5 years on the same installation of XP, and an average PC is good for ~five years anyway, before it is obsolete for work purposes.
It can do another five as a garage or basement machine if you periodically blow the dust out with canned air. Heat is what kills. Cheap* HP desktops though, will fail right after the warranty is up, regardless of maintenance. Or even before
Memory upgrades are good to consider if you are keeping anything for over 3 years. Newer software tends to grow in size and memory consumption with every year, since programmers often use a $3,000 top-of the-line machine (compiling speed is most important, and so is decent performance of M$ Visual Studio, which is quite bloated) and forget about real world performance.
As for PC maintenance/security, here are a few tips that will go a long way.
1. Use a router. I'll even say it twice if i have to...
Many viruses and botnets ping IP addresses to utilize flaws in the Windows network stack.
A router, even a cheap one, is a hardware firewall, and will absorb outside attacks. As long as your public IP does not point to a PC, random scanning attacks will fail. You need one to share a cable connection anyway.
2. A free anti-virus is better than an expired paid one. AVG Free is good enough for many people.
3. Supplement your anti-virus with malware scanners and hosts blacklists. My choices: Spybot S&D( immunize! ...that's the first blacklist. Remember to update and re-immunize), Adaware SE (which is also a good scanner like the 1st), and lastly, Javacool's SpywareBlaster. SB is only a blacklist. All three are free.
4. Do not use IE. There are plenty of choices. Firefox, Opera, Chrome, even Safari for Windows...
5. Turn off Images in your mail client. Gmail does that by default. What images do is they notify the spammer that the email was opened. Only open image file attachments. M$ office and PDFs should be run thru an off-brand viewer, since they may be used to exploit Acrobat and Office flaws.
6. Change the default password on your router. If you don't want to, log into your router once in a while and check if the DNS number fields are blank. They should be, if you are letting your ISP do DNS lookup. Otherwise they should match the ones you've entered yourself. Weird ones mean that one of the machines behind the router is infected with a DNS-changer virus, like Zlob. They do exist for Mac too! All traffic gets routed thru that DNS server that the malware guys have put up.
7. Don't install questionable software, always make sure it's genuine. Cnet's download.com is a trustworthy place if you need to find something.
8. Always update. Set Windows and your anti-virus to update automatically. Update malware scanners once a week.
-
And a purely maintenance tip... well, two:
If your computer is slow booting, go to Run and type msconfig. There in one of the tabs is a list of helper apps that exist for many installed programs. Keep the ones that are related to hardware drivers and anti-virus, but uncheck a lot of the other stuff. There's labels on most of them to tell you what they are.
If you need to fix a corrupted file in XP, don't reinstall. Repair.
Boot from the XP install disk and select install (from the options of Install, Repair, Exit), and select which drive/partition. It will ask if you really want to install over an existing installation. It is there that you press "R". That's it. It will purge all of the system files and install new ones from the disk. All personal files will be intact.
If you are positive you have a rootkit though, you'll need to backup all files and zero-out the drive. Then do a format and a clean install. I'm sure you can probably hand-nuke the rootkit if you really knew what you are doing and do the Repair, but that's never for sure.
Of course, i'm a techie....so this may be all greek to a lot of people. But it's not that much work really.
Dan
* "Cheap" can actually be expensive, if you are buying high-spec hardware from HP. They do cut corners on every performance category
It is mainly the simplicity. But I also don't have to use anti-virus software and thats is a great perfomance advantage.
Ah, the horrors of Northon AV... that's had to be the slowest thing out there.
You have a really good point there
Luckily, with AVG, while it does slow down my wake-up time, it idles cleanly.
Windows definitely needs more routine maintenance.
Dan
Ah, the horrors of Northon AV... that's had to be the slowest thing out there.
You have a really good point there
Luckily, with AVG, while it does slow down my wake-up time, it idles cleanly.
Windows definitely needs more routine maintenance.
Dan
yea the maintenance is kind of annoying, but AVG definitely doesn't slow down my computers. it uses like 3 mb of ram.
Uh, your machine is like 7 years old.
1200/7 = $172 a year
You didn't have to pay for anti-virus, you likely bought your software once.
A typical cheap PC lasts 3 years, usually has to be reformatted twice a year and anti-virus costs $xx a month.
I think you got tremendous value for your money.
who pays for antivirus?? AVG free is so good for a free program. its probably better than the paid crap of McAfee and Norton.
Uh, your machine is like 7 years old.
1200/7 = $172 a year
You didn't have to pay for anti-virus, you likely bought your software once.
A typical cheap PC lasts 3 years, usually has to be reformatted twice a year and anti-virus costs $xx a month.
I think you got tremendous value for your money.
if u buy a PC from del or HP maybe, try Lenovo/IBM or Sony for long life
plus most IBM's that i see are still are working today just fine that are 10+ years old, with out replacing any parts
the problem is the major PC makers (HP & dell&acer, etc) make pieces of junk that do break in 3-4 years.
I personally preffer my Thinkpad T61 (Lenovo), i have had it for a little under 3 years and i have never had a problem with viruses, and have never had a problem with viruses that icould not fix myself.,
also someone asked who has all the browsers, i had chrome, ff, IE(8), IE(8)64, Opera, Safari
I also have a macbook pro, but compared to my Lenovo all it has is DDR3 ram.
if u buy a PC from del or HP maybe, try Lenovo/IBM or Sony for long life
plus most IBM's that i see are still are working today just fine that are 10+ years old, with out replacing any parts
the problem is the major PC makers (HP & dell&acer, etc) make pieces of junk that do break in 3-4 years.
I personally preffer my Thinkpad T61 (Lenovo), i have had it for a little under 3 years and i have never had a problem with viruses, and have never had a problem with viruses that icould not fix myself.,
also someone asked who has all the browsers, i had chrome, ff, IE(8), IE(8)64, Opera, Safari
I also have a macbook pro, but compared to my Lenovo all it has is DDR3 ram.
Sony is notorious for poor build quality.