What it comes down to is choices. Apple has made design decisions with their products and have given very few options to meet various needs. Meanwhile, their competitors continue to sell a lot of machines with a clearly inferior OS because they give people hardware choices at a reasonable cost.
Although this post makes some great points, I don't think "choices" explains the preference for PC hardware for the majority of buyers. I would venture to say the biggest reason is "stereotypes." I still hear people say things like, "Macs are best for graphic design" or "my company can't afford Macs because they're too expensive" or even "I couldn't open that web page, it must be because I'm on a Mac."
That being said, maybe Microsoft is on to something, since the purpose of this ad campaign seems to be perpetuating stereotypes. They don't even mind perpetuating the stereotype that Macs "look better" as long as they can also perpetuate the stereotypes that Macs are underpowered and overpriced.
Your posts as well as MANY others are the reason I created an account.
Consumer choice is why "M$" will be around for a long long time. Not all of us think we will be movie producer the second we buy a Mac.
Most PC users are running programs that Mac simply doesn't have. I.E.- Anything from Autodesk. You know, the programs that probably designed the building you're sitting in.
You are really clueless, aren't you?
I didn't say that Apple should be the only developer, for God's sake! Apple is literally PLEADING for more devs to come (and they are coming!)
3rd party devs weren't listening to Apple due to low market share (read my comment about Sculley). Now Macs are growing, and since many PC devs had a good experience developing for the iPhone, more and more people are jumping IN!
What other benefits are there of owning a Mac and I'm just talking hardware here. All I can see is the styling, the rest is just OSX which you can easily install on a PC or a netbook even. That's why I'm completely dismissing Macs because all it is a piece software you have to $900 more for.
OS, bundled software, support, and quality of components, uptime, ease up upgrade (with Migration assistant or the fact you can pull a hard disk out of one Mac install it in another and it will boot without SSID issues, or dirver issues.) I don't have to buy additional codecs for my computer to play a DVD, I don't have to buy additional software just to burn a DVD, I don't have to buy anti-virus software and renew it every year. I don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a real incremental backup solution. I don't have to worry about missing or corrupt dlls.
$900 more? I've made that money back 8 times in the last year alone, just in the amount of time I've saved.
I know this doesn't apply necessarily to consumers, but when the software I run on my computer costs $25,000, I don't care how much the computer cost, and when I make that money back on the first project I do, I don't care there either. I know plenty of companies around here that have bought MacBook Pros to install Windows on it and run Revit. They went that way because the PC that could run it just as well cost $500 more and wieghed 14 pounds. Plus because they weren't going to be discontinuing the MacBook Pro and replace it with something "similar" which happens all the time in the PC world (btw, the only thing similar in those PCs are the color) it makes supporting them a lot easier.
I had 6 PCs come in to the shop this weekend frantic because "I run My Business off this thing, I need it fixed now" Why anyone buys a $600 consumer laptop to run their business off of is beyond me. (Why they don't backup is a completely other issue) The quickest I could get the parts in was 8 days later. For Apple, I wait until they deliver the part on the Next Day. Dell can't do that anymore, they stopped that practice 3 years ago.
When you have a problem with Windows on an HP, Dell, or whatever, who do you call? The computer maker? They will send you to Microsoft, if Microsoft determines it is a driver issue, they will direct you elsewhere. When you have a problem with Mac OS X, you call Apple. You get the whole package.
Am I denying Apple computers cost more, No, do they cost too much? I don't think so, because my return on investment is always over 100%, can I get that with a PC, perhaps, never had a reason to try. I just know that since I've serviced over 4,000 computers in the last 3 years, I know what I like.
Try BOOTING your Laptop from the desktop or vice versa on the PeeCee.
PCs have nice case designs? Just my opion, but I have yet to see one. Some of the VAIOs weren't too bad (but failed next to a Mac). Would you like a root kit with your PC virus/ad/malware ridden nightmare?
Simbian. Yeah, we all want a Simbian Honestly, do you think anyone has even heard of a Simbian? Really?
Are you retarded? Why do you insist on spelling it as 'Simbian'. It's Symbian and it's the OS that powers most/all Nokias + Sony Ericcsson smartphones to name a few.
Back to the advert, I just read that the laptop he bought only costs $1099. What an idiot! If Microsoft are paying for it, why didn't get he spend the whole budget of $1500. Advert makes a fair point but the guy in it is a tool!
"where he can easily spend several hundred dollars just trying to match the features and usability of the free iLife and Mac OS X tools Apple bundles with the MacBook. "
Uh, ever heard of open source? You name 1 piece of software that comes with OSX or Windows and I'll find a piece of open source software that _functions_ just as well.
OS, bundled software, support, and quality of components, uptime, ease up upgrade (with Migration assistant or the fact you can pull a hard disk out of one Mac install it in another and it will boot without SSID issues, or dirver issues.) I don't have to buy additional codecs for my computer to play a DVD, I don't have to buy additional software just to burn a DVD, I don't have to buy anti-virus software and renew it every year. I don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a real incremental backup solution. I don't have to worry about missing or corrupt dlls.
$900 more? I've made that money back 8 times in the last year alone, just in the amount of time I've saved.
I know this doesn't apply necessarily to consumers, but when the software I run on my computer costs $25,000, I don't care how much the computer cost, and when I make that money back on the first project I do, I don't care there either. I know plenty of companies around here that have bought MacBook Pros to install Windows on it and run Revit. They went that way because the PC that could run it just as well cost $500 more and wieghed 14 pounds. Plus because they weren't going to be discontinuing the MacBook Pro and replace it with something "similar" which happens all the time in the PC world (btw, the only thing similar in those PCs are the color) it makes supporting them a lot easier.
I had 6 PCs come in to the shop this weekend frantic because "I run My Business off this thing, I need it fixed now" Why anyone buys a $600 consumer laptop to run their business off of is beyond me. (Why they don't backup is a completely other issue) The quickest I could get the parts in was 8 days later. For Apple, I wait until they deliver the part on the Next Day. Dell can't do that anymore, they stopped that practice 3 years ago.
When you have a problem with Windows on an HP, Dell, or whatever, who do you call? The computer maker? They will send you to Microsoft, if Microsoft determines it is a driver issue, they will direct you elsewhere. When you have a problem with Mac OS X, you call Apple. You get the whole package.
Am I denying Apple computers cost more, No, do they cost too much? I don't think so, because my return on investment is always over 100%, can I get that with a PC, perhaps, never had a reason to try. I just know that since I've serviced over 4,000 computers in the last 3 years, I know what I like.
Support - I dropped my laptop, phoned Dell and they came the next day and replaced my motherboard so I guess Dell does do Next day support.
Quality of components - If by higher quality you mean the same, then yeah. Fact is there are only a certain number of manufacturers of HDD, Mobos, GFX cards etc that it's all the same.
Codecs - Way more FREE codecs on PC. Never had to buy any codec to play DVDs, MKVs etc
Drivers are a problem for Windows, that is true. Btw, you're telling me that those companies could not find MacBook Pro equivalent Windows laptops for less?! I don't know where they were looking...
Apart from every design house, advertising company, video editing company, sound studio, etc. The only person I know who doesn't use a Mac is my brother... who works for IBM.
I've not seen so much PC trolling for years. This must be costing MS a fortune.
You know, since so many are speaking if deception, I remember when the powermac mobile g4 was touted as a mobile studio from Apple and sweetwater, yet even pros knew better and I saw all mac studios suddenly buying AMD Athlon rigs for gigastudio, apple was lying through their teeth.
Now I love my MacBook pro's and under powered MacBook and hackntish, but I also got them at 30% off from apple retail friends via their 25% personal discount, sad thing is, as a mac specialist, they could never afford these machines.
Anyway, I want to talk about microsoft. Whir it's true vista stunk, it's also true that msft was also supporting 4-5 different os's, now they have only one and it's getting rave IT reviews. Add to this all the new app stores, great new non apple smart phone, 50 million plus users with 2 year contracts about to expire, a bad economy, new microsoft os and commercials while apple refresh prooves weak, no i7 for consumer, still the ECC for workstation which translates to apple rapping you for ram, and of course GPU and many think Apple could be in for a very hard time. Also, google msft's new mobile, very iPhone like, not that it matters as even apple uses msft for eZ pay in stores, and we could see apple struggle.
In the end, if Apple responds, the consumer wins, if they don't and let AT&T bury them with restrictions and lowley refresh, apple could go to under 5% in a year or so.
I really couldn't understand a word of that but my hunch is that it was incorrect.
I expect big things with Snow Leopard. Can you believe a company is actually trying to optimize performance? The standard has been just wait for new hardware to come out. Of course, the real goal is to make an efficient multiprocessor environment. No doubt the wave of the future.
Just for the record, while I agree the new commercials are some of the strangest marketing ploys in memory, Win 7 has the same stated overall basic design goals as SL.
Tighter, faster code, ripping out lots of routines papered over for a decade or more, able to function better on fewer resources, e.g., Vista won't even run at all on Netbooks, but 7 runs at least as fast as XP on Atom processors, a cleaner, leaner UI, etc.
So both are set to be uber-maintenance releases rather than all about tacked-on new features and eye candy, though both are sure to include some of that for the ooh and ahh crowds. And the buzz from respected sources is that MS is actually going to hit most of its mark this time. So if 7 gets a B+ and SL an A, for a company with 90% share, that will be a victory.
And despite all the hue and cry here, for more and more users (we're not all propeller heads) the PC OS wars are more and more irrelevant until someone comes up with a real paradigm shift which neither major is working on, settling for mostly hardening and maturing their existing franchises.
That is, as the net evolves, OS X and Windows are really becoming more and more just platforms from which most users, the great bulk of non-technical users, launch browsers and do virtually all their computing in the cloud (or company network), reducing Macs and PCs to mostly overspecced terminals.
Every day previous differentiators like Office and iLife (and soon even graphically rich games) matter less and less, with their platform-agnostic web equivalents improving by leaps and bounds. I still use Word, but my simple spreadsheet needs (including live sharing and access from any PC) are met by Google Docs just fine and I won't bother with Numbers or Excel anymore. Ditto for Picasa over iPhoto.
The real bottlenecks in the world where the net itself is the computer, and the web its OS (v 2.1 approximately) aren't within PC's but in the pipes and servers they access.
Google understands this and is working on an OS (or so I've read) which basically extends Chrome down into hooks to hardware, which they may even give away, so that you'll boot up very lean on a netbook which is all about giving all resources over to web computing, optimized, of course for their growing stable of services while bypassing both MS and Apple, and this will be fine for many.
Meanwhile, Apple "gets" that the real OS wars are clearly moving to lightweight, portable, ubiquitously connected devices which integrate web computing with telephony, video and imaging ("takin' and postin' pitchurs"), which is why iPhone OS is Apple's real strategic initiative these days, and where Android, Symbian, Blackberry, etc. and maybe even Palm may provide more competition than MS. There will be a winnowing out in this space, but I doubt it will be reduced to two companies + open source as PC's have been. There are simply too many possibilities for devices and too many ways people will be using them
Fully powered personal computers are by no means dead, but are already on the road to gradually becoming a niche for professionals and hobbyists in a multi-tiered world of many computing devices.
Support - I dropped my laptop, phoned Dell and they came the next day and replaced my motherboard so I guess Dell does do Next day support.
Quality of components - If by higher quality you mean the same, then yeah. Fact is there are only a certain number of manufacturers of HDD, Mobos, GFX cards etc that it's all the same.
Codecs - Way more FREE codecs on PC. Never had to buy any codec to play DVDs, MKVs etc
Drivers are a problem for Windows, that is true. Btw, you're telling me that those companies could not find MacBook Pro equivalent Windows laptops for less?! I don't know where they were looking...
To sum up, to each their own.
You were comparing hardware, but you made a statement about paying $900 more for the software, so in fact, you were not comparing hardware alone.
My point is you are paying more for the software, and the support, and the rest...but since you don't have the option to buy a Mac without that stuff you have no idea what they'd charge for it.
As far as far as the hardware being the same...not true, Apple's Motherboards are not the same as anyone elses, they are designed specifically by Apple and manufactured by Intel, and just because the Graphics Chipset is the same, it does not mean the entire thing is the same. Why do you see 3 different video cards for the PC with the same chipset have dramatically different prices, the graphics card is more than an nVidia Chipset.
And the firms I've seen buying MacBook Pros have looked at over a dozen PC notebooks, but the MacBook Pro is the baseline. This is also true for the University of Cincinnati's Architecture school, and Miami University's Architecture School
Average people don't know anything about codecs, let alone where to get free ones.
The Dells that might get next day support are bought from them directly likely, but if you buy one from a retailer, the parts come from a different division of Dell, in fact tech support comes from a different place.
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux. <- remember? the guy who keeps getting left out of the room..... It's a good operating system.... but the reality is you can build a better machine yourself than you can buy from either Apple, HP or Dell. For half the price..... then you can throw a copy of Linux on for nothing. Why buy a Mac when you can have it all for a fraction of the price?? Not only that....I know no one wants to believe it but... High end PC components are better than high end Mac components, it's just a fact..... You can't get quad core 3gig overclockable to 4 gig Mac components. You can't get crossfire dual core graphics cards with a gig of ddr5 that runs video and games seamlessly. You can't get huge power supply's to run massive hard drives of 2 terabytes in size. You don't have the luxury of looking into AMDs quad cores or tricores or picking up these components and unlocking extra cores. You can't pick up ddr 3 16000 memory for your Mac. I know I'm talking about high end specs here but..... User experience goes a long way...does it really go that long? It's great, you guys love your Macs but to pretend they aren't PCs wraped in pretty packages and that the OS isn't just a flashy version of Linux is a joke. Honestly, we are all PCs. Just some of us like options.
Lastly, a lot of you feel like your fighting the "man" when you purchase a Mac. Youre just in another "mans" corner. Be brave and try linux if you really want to make a difference or feel good about yourselves. It's the OS that doesn't brainwash you and doesn't want to.
I am sure they did all the clever editing of their commercials using Final Cut Pro. The commercials simply prove how stupid Microsoft really is...but then it wasn't a big secret either. The place where I work installed Office 2007 and what a POS that is!
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux. <- remember? the guy who keeps getting left out of the room..... It's a good operating system.... but the reality is you can build a better machine yourself than you can buy from either Apple, HP or Dell. For half the price.....
1) OS X is not a retooled version of Linux.
2) Having an OS that does the same basic things does not make it the same.
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux.
Um, lets not confuse it...the evolution of OSX came through Linux. It's based on Linux like Windows is based on dos.....alot of evolution has occurred in the mean time but...... Windows is no longer dos based but you sure as hell can see the remnants of it.
Um, lets not confuse it...the evolution of OSX came through Linux. It's based on Linux like Windows is based on dos.....alot of evolution has occurred in the mean time but...... Windows is no longer dos based but you sure as hell can see the remnants of it.
No, no it's not. Perhaps you should read up on the history of computing a bit before you continue down this road.
Comments
What it comes down to is choices. Apple has made design decisions with their products and have given very few options to meet various needs. Meanwhile, their competitors continue to sell a lot of machines with a clearly inferior OS because they give people hardware choices at a reasonable cost.
Although this post makes some great points, I don't think "choices" explains the preference for PC hardware for the majority of buyers. I would venture to say the biggest reason is "stereotypes." I still hear people say things like, "Macs are best for graphic design" or "my company can't afford Macs because they're too expensive" or even "I couldn't open that web page, it must be because I'm on a Mac."
That being said, maybe Microsoft is on to something, since the purpose of this ad campaign seems to be perpetuating stereotypes. They don't even mind perpetuating the stereotype that Macs "look better" as long as they can also perpetuate the stereotypes that Macs are underpowered and overpriced.
Your posts as well as MANY others are the reason I created an account.
Consumer choice is why "M$" will be around for a long long time. Not all of us think we will be movie producer the second we buy a Mac.
Most PC users are running programs that Mac simply doesn't have. I.E.- Anything from Autodesk. You know, the programs that probably designed the building you're sitting in.
You are really clueless, aren't you?
I didn't say that Apple should be the only developer, for God's sake! Apple is literally PLEADING for more devs to come (and they are coming!)
3rd party devs weren't listening to Apple due to low market share (read my comment about Sculley). Now Macs are growing, and since many PC devs had a good experience developing for the iPhone, more and more people are jumping IN!
What other benefits are there of owning a Mac and I'm just talking hardware here. All I can see is the styling, the rest is just OSX which you can easily install on a PC or a netbook even. That's why I'm completely dismissing Macs because all it is a piece software you have to $900 more for.
OS, bundled software, support, and quality of components, uptime, ease up upgrade (with Migration assistant or the fact you can pull a hard disk out of one Mac install it in another and it will boot without SSID issues, or dirver issues.) I don't have to buy additional codecs for my computer to play a DVD, I don't have to buy additional software just to burn a DVD, I don't have to buy anti-virus software and renew it every year. I don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a real incremental backup solution. I don't have to worry about missing or corrupt dlls.
$900 more? I've made that money back 8 times in the last year alone, just in the amount of time I've saved.
I know this doesn't apply necessarily to consumers, but when the software I run on my computer costs $25,000, I don't care how much the computer cost, and when I make that money back on the first project I do, I don't care there either. I know plenty of companies around here that have bought MacBook Pros to install Windows on it and run Revit. They went that way because the PC that could run it just as well cost $500 more and wieghed 14 pounds. Plus because they weren't going to be discontinuing the MacBook Pro and replace it with something "similar" which happens all the time in the PC world (btw, the only thing similar in those PCs are the color) it makes supporting them a lot easier.
I had 6 PCs come in to the shop this weekend frantic because "I run My Business off this thing, I need it fixed now" Why anyone buys a $600 consumer laptop to run their business off of is beyond me. (Why they don't backup is a completely other issue) The quickest I could get the parts in was 8 days later. For Apple, I wait until they deliver the part on the Next Day. Dell can't do that anymore, they stopped that practice 3 years ago.
When you have a problem with Windows on an HP, Dell, or whatever, who do you call? The computer maker? They will send you to Microsoft, if Microsoft determines it is a driver issue, they will direct you elsewhere. When you have a problem with Mac OS X, you call Apple. You get the whole package.
Am I denying Apple computers cost more, No, do they cost too much? I don't think so, because my return on investment is always over 100%, can I get that with a PC, perhaps, never had a reason to try. I just know that since I've serviced over 4,000 computers in the last 3 years, I know what I like.
Try BOOTING your Laptop from the desktop or vice versa on the PeeCee.
PCs have nice case designs? Just my opion, but I have yet to see one. Some of the VAIOs weren't too bad (but failed next to a Mac). Would you like a root kit with your PC virus/ad/malware ridden nightmare?
Simbian.
Are you retarded? Why do you insist on spelling it as 'Simbian'. It's Symbian and it's the OS that powers most/all Nokias + Sony Ericcsson smartphones to name a few.
Back to the advert, I just read that the laptop he bought only costs $1099. What an idiot! If Microsoft are paying for it, why didn't get he spend the whole budget of $1500. Advert makes a fair point but the guy in it is a tool!
Microsoft should easily be able to beat prices for 17" laptops.
Which Microsoft computers do you think would qualify?
The Microsoft computers
Exactly which Microsoft computers are you talking about?
"where he can easily spend several hundred dollars just trying to match the features and usability of the free iLife and Mac OS X tools Apple bundles with the MacBook. "
Uh, ever heard of open source? You name 1 piece of software that comes with OSX or Windows and I'll find a piece of open source software that _functions_ just as well.
Ever heard of applications?
OS, bundled software, support, and quality of components, uptime, ease up upgrade (with Migration assistant or the fact you can pull a hard disk out of one Mac install it in another and it will boot without SSID issues, or dirver issues.) I don't have to buy additional codecs for my computer to play a DVD, I don't have to buy additional software just to burn a DVD, I don't have to buy anti-virus software and renew it every year. I don't have to pay hundreds of dollars to get a real incremental backup solution. I don't have to worry about missing or corrupt dlls.
$900 more? I've made that money back 8 times in the last year alone, just in the amount of time I've saved.
I know this doesn't apply necessarily to consumers, but when the software I run on my computer costs $25,000, I don't care how much the computer cost, and when I make that money back on the first project I do, I don't care there either. I know plenty of companies around here that have bought MacBook Pros to install Windows on it and run Revit. They went that way because the PC that could run it just as well cost $500 more and wieghed 14 pounds. Plus because they weren't going to be discontinuing the MacBook Pro and replace it with something "similar" which happens all the time in the PC world (btw, the only thing similar in those PCs are the color) it makes supporting them a lot easier.
I had 6 PCs come in to the shop this weekend frantic because "I run My Business off this thing, I need it fixed now" Why anyone buys a $600 consumer laptop to run their business off of is beyond me. (Why they don't backup is a completely other issue) The quickest I could get the parts in was 8 days later. For Apple, I wait until they deliver the part on the Next Day. Dell can't do that anymore, they stopped that practice 3 years ago.
When you have a problem with Windows on an HP, Dell, or whatever, who do you call? The computer maker? They will send you to Microsoft, if Microsoft determines it is a driver issue, they will direct you elsewhere. When you have a problem with Mac OS X, you call Apple. You get the whole package.
Am I denying Apple computers cost more, No, do they cost too much? I don't think so, because my return on investment is always over 100%, can I get that with a PC, perhaps, never had a reason to try. I just know that since I've serviced over 4,000 computers in the last 3 years, I know what I like.
OS - I was just comparing hardware.
Bundled software - Again, comparing hardware only.
Support - I dropped my laptop, phoned Dell and they came the next day and replaced my motherboard so I guess Dell does do Next day support.
Quality of components - If by higher quality you mean the same, then yeah. Fact is there are only a certain number of manufacturers of HDD, Mobos, GFX cards etc that it's all the same.
Codecs - Way more FREE codecs on PC. Never had to buy any codec to play DVDs, MKVs etc
Drivers are a problem for Windows, that is true. Btw, you're telling me that those companies could not find MacBook Pro equivalent Windows laptops for less?! I don't know where they were looking...
To sum up, to each their own.
I guess in the end, if you want it to work consistently get a MAC. If you like power and versatility get a PC.
Or you can get all of it on a Mac... Because I have never heard af a computer named MAC. Isn't that an adress or something?
Yeah but we don't buy them.
Apart from every design house, advertising company, video editing company, sound studio, etc. The only person I know who doesn't use a Mac is my brother... who works for IBM.
I've not seen so much PC trolling for years. This must be costing MS a fortune.
I guess in the end, if you want it to work consistently get a MAC. If you like power and versatility get a PC.
Great argument...
You will need the"power and versatiltiy" because it won't work consistenly.
You know, since so many are speaking if deception, I remember when the powermac mobile g4 was touted as a mobile studio from Apple and sweetwater, yet even pros knew better and I saw all mac studios suddenly buying AMD Athlon rigs for gigastudio, apple was lying through their teeth.
Now I love my MacBook pro's and under powered MacBook and hackntish, but I also got them at 30% off from apple retail friends via their 25% personal discount, sad thing is, as a mac specialist, they could never afford these machines.
Anyway, I want to talk about microsoft. Whir it's true vista stunk, it's also true that msft was also supporting 4-5 different os's, now they have only one and it's getting rave IT reviews. Add to this all the new app stores, great new non apple smart phone, 50 million plus users with 2 year contracts about to expire, a bad economy, new microsoft os and commercials while apple refresh prooves weak, no i7 for consumer, still the ECC for workstation which translates to apple rapping you for ram, and of course GPU and many think Apple could be in for a very hard time. Also, google msft's new mobile, very iPhone like, not that it matters as even apple uses msft for eZ pay in stores, and we could see apple struggle.
In the end, if Apple responds, the consumer wins, if they don't and let AT&T bury them with restrictions and lowley refresh, apple could go to under 5% in a year or so.
I really couldn't understand a word of that but my hunch is that it was incorrect.
I expect big things with Snow Leopard. Can you believe a company is actually trying to optimize performance? The standard has been just wait for new hardware to come out. Of course, the real goal is to make an efficient multiprocessor environment. No doubt the wave of the future.
Just for the record, while I agree the new commercials are some of the strangest marketing ploys in memory, Win 7 has the same stated overall basic design goals as SL.
Tighter, faster code, ripping out lots of routines papered over for a decade or more, able to function better on fewer resources, e.g., Vista won't even run at all on Netbooks, but 7 runs at least as fast as XP on Atom processors, a cleaner, leaner UI, etc.
So both are set to be uber-maintenance releases rather than all about tacked-on new features and eye candy, though both are sure to include some of that for the ooh and ahh crowds. And the buzz from respected sources is that MS is actually going to hit most of its mark this time. So if 7 gets a B+ and SL an A, for a company with 90% share, that will be a victory.
And despite all the hue and cry here, for more and more users (we're not all propeller heads) the PC OS wars are more and more irrelevant until someone comes up with a real paradigm shift which neither major is working on, settling for mostly hardening and maturing their existing franchises.
That is, as the net evolves, OS X and Windows are really becoming more and more just platforms from which most users, the great bulk of non-technical users, launch browsers and do virtually all their computing in the cloud (or company network), reducing Macs and PCs to mostly overspecced terminals.
Every day previous differentiators like Office and iLife (and soon even graphically rich games) matter less and less, with their platform-agnostic web equivalents improving by leaps and bounds. I still use Word, but my simple spreadsheet needs (including live sharing and access from any PC) are met by Google Docs just fine and I won't bother with Numbers or Excel anymore. Ditto for Picasa over iPhoto.
The real bottlenecks in the world where the net itself is the computer, and the web its OS (v 2.1 approximately) aren't within PC's but in the pipes and servers they access.
Google understands this and is working on an OS (or so I've read) which basically extends Chrome down into hooks to hardware, which they may even give away, so that you'll boot up very lean on a netbook which is all about giving all resources over to web computing, optimized, of course for their growing stable of services while bypassing both MS and Apple, and this will be fine for many.
Meanwhile, Apple "gets" that the real OS wars are clearly moving to lightweight, portable, ubiquitously connected devices which integrate web computing with telephony, video and imaging ("takin' and postin' pitchurs"), which is why iPhone OS is Apple's real strategic initiative these days, and where Android, Symbian, Blackberry, etc. and maybe even Palm may provide more competition than MS. There will be a winnowing out in this space, but I doubt it will be reduced to two companies + open source as PC's have been. There are simply too many possibilities for devices and too many ways people will be using them
Fully powered personal computers are by no means dead, but are already on the road to gradually becoming a niche for professionals and hobbyists in a multi-tiered world of many computing devices.
OS - I was just comparing hardware.
Bundled software - Again, comparing hardware only.
Support - I dropped my laptop, phoned Dell and they came the next day and replaced my motherboard so I guess Dell does do Next day support.
Quality of components - If by higher quality you mean the same, then yeah. Fact is there are only a certain number of manufacturers of HDD, Mobos, GFX cards etc that it's all the same.
Codecs - Way more FREE codecs on PC. Never had to buy any codec to play DVDs, MKVs etc
Drivers are a problem for Windows, that is true. Btw, you're telling me that those companies could not find MacBook Pro equivalent Windows laptops for less?! I don't know where they were looking...
To sum up, to each their own.
You were comparing hardware, but you made a statement about paying $900 more for the software, so in fact, you were not comparing hardware alone.
My point is you are paying more for the software, and the support, and the rest...but since you don't have the option to buy a Mac without that stuff you have no idea what they'd charge for it.
As far as far as the hardware being the same...not true, Apple's Motherboards are not the same as anyone elses, they are designed specifically by Apple and manufactured by Intel, and just because the Graphics Chipset is the same, it does not mean the entire thing is the same. Why do you see 3 different video cards for the PC with the same chipset have dramatically different prices, the graphics card is more than an nVidia Chipset.
And the firms I've seen buying MacBook Pros have looked at over a dozen PC notebooks, but the MacBook Pro is the baseline. This is also true for the University of Cincinnati's Architecture school, and Miami University's Architecture School
Average people don't know anything about codecs, let alone where to get free ones.
The Dells that might get next day support are bought from them directly likely, but if you buy one from a retailer, the parts come from a different division of Dell, in fact tech support comes from a different place.
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux. <- remember? the guy who keeps getting left out of the room..... It's a good operating system.... but the reality is you can build a better machine yourself than you can buy from either Apple, HP or Dell. For half the price..... then you can throw a copy of Linux on for nothing. Why buy a Mac when you can have it all for a fraction of the price?? Not only that....I know no one wants to believe it but... High end PC components are better than high end Mac components, it's just a fact..... You can't get quad core 3gig overclockable to 4 gig Mac components. You can't get crossfire dual core graphics cards with a gig of ddr5 that runs video and games seamlessly. You can't get huge power supply's to run massive hard drives of 2 terabytes in size. You don't have the luxury of looking into AMDs quad cores or tricores or picking up these components and unlocking extra cores. You can't pick up ddr 3 16000 memory for your Mac. I know I'm talking about high end specs here but..... User experience goes a long way...does it really go that long? It's great, you guys love your Macs but to pretend they aren't PCs wraped in pretty packages and that the OS isn't just a flashy version of Linux is a joke. Honestly, we are all PCs. Just some of us like options.
Lastly, a lot of you feel like your fighting the "man" when you purchase a Mac. Youre just in another "mans" corner. Be brave and try linux if you really want to make a difference or feel good about yourselves. It's the OS that doesn't brainwash you and doesn't want to.
Guys,
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux. <- remember? the guy who keeps getting left out of the room..... It's a good operating system.... but the reality is you can build a better machine yourself than you can buy from either Apple, HP or Dell. For half the price.....
1) OS X is not a retooled version of Linux.
2) Having an OS that does the same basic things does not make it the same.
Guys,
Listen.... I've realized that a vast majority of you are trying to compare specs and another chunk keeps yelling about user experience. the Mac OS is just a retooled version of Linux.
Don't you mean NextStep?
Um, lets not confuse it...the evolution of OSX came through Linux. It's based on Linux like Windows is based on dos.....alot of evolution has occurred in the mean time but...... Windows is no longer dos based but you sure as hell can see the remnants of it.
No, no it's not. Perhaps you should read up on the history of computing a bit before you continue down this road.