Actually reading some posts here did make me realise something.
Windows is not that bad
I'd prefer OSX any day, but together with the baggage that OSX comes with, Windows is definitely a fair compromise.
However on portables, IMO there is no compromise. MacOS actually edges out Windows XP by a huge margin. And for that I mean HUGE.
Anyway, even as I'm typing this I already have various parts for a new Conroe powered "PeeCee" converging on my location from all over the nation. The sobering fact? While this new machine might not be the fastest most "kickass" machine sporting the latest and greatest, it certainly does come with.. a Conroe E6300 processor (1.83Ghz), a Gigabyte top of the line mainboard with good capacitors (see me other post, yes I am a sucker), 2GB of insanely good DDR800 Muskin modules, and a "average" Geforce 7600GT card. Final cost for all that? Around A$1800.
For that price I can probably get an iMac 17" for $200 more. The iMac also comes with a display, a similarly fast CPU, significantly slower ram (and less of that too), and probably questionable capcitors on its logic board, and let's not forget the slower graphics card. But all in all, it is a Mac.
It's pretty good value.
Ironically though, if I am to choose between the hopscotch of parts that'd form the next PC, and an all in one integrated iMac, I will take the bits in a heartbeat. Nevermind MacOS, nevermind Applecare.
Why's that the case?
1) Mac users always like to point at PCs that freeze up, or BSOD every now and then, and over generalise these occurences to all PC in general.
It's actually not true. If you get a $600 box from Dell, perhaps so. But if you price out your components generously, hey.. your machine can actually be just as capable of getting that 1-2 month uptime as any other Mac. I'd even go on the record here and say that the last time I've seen a "blue screen of death" was almost 30 months ago, and that's cos I had a dodgey graphics card die after I.. abused it.
Hence, here I have the choice. I can get good components, or I can get cheap components. For Apple there is no choice, I pay top dollar and get what Apple decides to put in, be it good components, or more often than not the same cheapies and a lavish helping of thermal goop.
2) Virus!! Spyware!!
I actually made a post sometime back on how to "compute safely" in Windows, so I'm not going to repeat it here. Either way, when you have an OS that is capable of running easily 99% of the world's software, obviously you got to take responsibility for that freedom.
Anyhow to Mac users who are going to counter this point with a fanboish "Ha! One app on the Mac platform > 10 apps in Windows!" and then cites that one and only good example.. iPhoto.
Sure, iPhoto is good.
Find me alternatives to:
eBay Turbo Lister (both iSale and GarageSale costs money)
EAC (Max does not support C2 extraction)
ICQ (Adium does not support ICQ Xtras)
Filezilla (I like Transmit, but again, it costs money)
There's probably a lot more, but I'll just leave it at that.
3) AppleCare rocks... not.
Has anyone ever did a cost assessment of AppleCare?
Let's take a look at the price of Applecare for an Apple equivalent of an upgradeable tower desktop, the Powermac G5. The "cheap" dual 2.0 model prices in at A$3199 with APP costing $419. That's a decent Computer:APP price ratio. For the MBP on the other hand it gets more interesting, the base 15" MBP also prices in at A$3199 with APP costing $579.
That's almost 20% of the cost of your machine. What kind of service do you expect for that kind of money?
The thing about Applecare (at least previously for the PPC based machines), is that unlike PCs, you pretty much only have one source for servicing.
That's right.
Applecare is basically "Ok, we extort an extra 15% out of you now. Don't wanna pay up? Fine, walk out this door with that computer of yours, and I guarantee you, it will fail between the first year and the third year. On that day when you come back in you will wish you have never been born.."
With PCs, no biggie, just get a compatible alternative part, put it in, and bam, it works. Obviously this point doesn't hold for laptops but you get what I'm trying to drive with PCs.
That, and the fact that it isn't really THAT great level of service.
Ok, I'll scoot off for now. Everything said I still think OSX is fantastic for laptops, but on desktops much of those advantages kind of deminishes.
