mac's are so beautiful. and so useless.

[captainjack]

i want to splurge 1500 for a nice mac notebook but i'm afraid it'll just be a waste of money. buying software for it and whatnot is expensive as well.

[Ron Green]

1. Well, you can't shop for software at Wal*Mart.

But your computer will work properly. Since I got a Mac, all my computer stress is gone (except at work, where we are forced to use Windows.)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

2. You obvioulsy don't have a dual 2.5 ghz G5

:)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. So incredibly useless. Unless you do graphic design.

[miss_kitty]

4. Look upon it as a 'learning experience'

:P

[lil-petunia]

5. no way, dude

I have a powerbook G4, with 17 inches.

It does everything and more I need. For my legal practice, yeah, I have to run XP Pro on it, but only because two clients require me to run their billing software.

a dream machine

[Huckebein the Raven]

6. The great thing about a Mac when you are

computer lab full of windoze machines that are all occupied while at school is it's always open for me to use.

I didn't know s*** about Mac OS X but I just sat down one day and played around to get a feel of how it works and I use it everyday now.


Eventually I will make the switch and keep a PC for gaming purposes.

[Demit]

7. Plug and Play (Macs) vs. Plug and Pray (PCs)

Three more words: Cost of Ownership. Macs work seamlessly with their components. Buy your notebook and don't look back!

[miss_kitty]

10. yeah. I don't game. I used to get infested all the time

I went to Gibson Research and closed all that open stuff on my PC. I can believe the OP was serious-I'd slay for a Mac-for the learning experience.

http://www.grc.com/default.htm

[Placebo]

8. I have owned 7 Mac's in my life so far...

and they are all great!

My PowerBook works great (and looks even better), never crashes, and couldn't make me happier. And there really is never a problem getting software for it. The only thing that should keep anyone from buying a Mac is if they are a huge gamer, in which case, a PC is a better buy. But other than that, GET A MAC, you'll never look back.

[Imalittleteapot]

9. A friend who has been a PC user just got a Mac

iBook . She is so excited that it's so much easier to use than the PC. She was able to move all of her "stuff" from the PC to the Mac - Word, Excel, Power Point, etc. - by writing a CD from the PC to transfer the files and software to the Mac.

I've been using Macs at home and the office for years. We have several ancient models that are still in use at the office for small tasks. I have never had one die. They are solid.

Don't hesitate. Do it. You won't regret your decision!

By the way, just make sure you get enough memory to handle what you want the machine to do. If it's graphics you'll need a lot.

[cheezus]

11. since switching I haven't found ONE THING that mac can't do

as well or better than windows.

yes, a mac is more expensive than a pc. A lexus is more expensive than a kia.

[politicat]

16. not more expensive when comparing equivalents....

We figured this out when we went looking to replace the original laptops (the Toshibas that are now in East Timor as part of a UN program).

When you compare low quality chipsets and poor integration to Mac, yeah, they're cheaper. But to get an equivalent, it's about the same.

Mac just doesn't offer those junker machines. To get a well tested, integrated and tweaked machine from Dell or Gateway, you''re looking at an equivalent price.

Oh, and don't tell me the processors are slow unless you'd like a long discussion on the differences between RISC and CISC architectures, bus speeds, memory swapping.... It's apples and oranges... hell, it's beef steak and peanut butter (both tasty, but not really the same type of food...)

Pcat

[Ready4Change]

12. I'm a long time PC guy, got an iBook about 1.5 years ago.

It is now my regular machine. I only use my PC for PC specific games, and for software I haven't bothered getting Mac version of (yet.)

Part of this is because I got a wireless access point for my home network, and an airport (802.11b) card for the iBook. So I can now compute from my couch in front of the TV, rather than having to go to the room with the desktop.

There are many things I prefer about the Mac. Software just installs and works. I can usually delete an entire software package by dragging it's folder to the trash, without worries that it has left some parts behind to clog of the OS. Hasn't been touched by virii. And it connects to other wireless access points with extremely few problems.

However, a lot of the newer games are only on PC. The few brand new ones on the Mac as well now need more horsepower than my ol' G3 iBook has on tap. That said I still love this little book. It's a nifty thing.

[Desertrose]

13. surely you jest?

USELESS?? ahem...I don't think so!!!!

Love ALL my macs...have a G4flat screen and I adore it...for everything...yes I do a lot of graphics and its HEAVEN!

[politicat]

14. Depends on the software and being willing to buy it not at walmart.

We've got 4 mac laptops between the two of us (two backup, older iBooks and 2 15 1Ghz Powerbooks...). On games, we're limited, true, but neither of us play FPS and the games we DO like - strategy and RPG - are generally available at the same prices as the MS versions.

As far as office software goes: I think it's cheaper. I use Mariner Write for word processing. It does everything that MSWord does and is more stable (I've lost Word documents due to Word crashes; I've never had Mariner crash on me, and that's really important because I write for a living.... losing documents to crashes is catastrophic.) Mariner cost me $69. I also use Thinkfree Office, which cost $40 and has a word processor, a spreadsheet program and a presentation program. My partner uses Abiword (free) and Star Office (also free) but he's an open source person.

I use Macromedia products for web design and production - they're the same price as the Win versions. There are open source versions that run because Mac OS is based in BSD (thus, we can use a lot of Unix and Linux products. This is what my partner does.)

I purchased InDesign for less on this Machine than a peer paid for her Windows version (good shopping ability, though....) I haven't bought Photoshop yet, but it's going to cost me the same either way.

It's all in what you want - there's an equivalent for mac in 99% cases; Most of them are equally priced as the Win versions. Plus, there's TONS of open source software now.

Do your research. I don't know where you're getting your numbers, but they're not what I'm seeing and I use a Mac exclusively.

Pcat

[emulatorloo]

15. iLife comes free w your Mac, you dodobird

you can create yes create music with garageband

you can edit your video

you can edit your photos

you can burn DVDs featuring your video photos and music

what the hell else do you need to do? just buy the mac and start living.

www.apple.com/ilife

[kick-ass-bob]

17. How very 90's of you.

*yawn*