It’s incompatible with my employer’s policies. The use of unapproved devices or software is not permitted. Sending internal company data outside of the company is also not permitted. Doing either can result in termination of employment.
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I'm having to give up on Apple Silicon and macos
- Thread starter Danfango
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Interesting thread. I can sympathise with the basic premise that Apple gear is too expensive for the comparative performance level.
But as I have no pressing technical need for x86/Windows, I thought I‘d add a couple of bullet points for what motivates me to spend the cash on a Mac.
1. Almost everything ”just works”. I don’t have to spend a lot of time configuring things, wrangling the networking, editing the registry or installing drivers or removing crapware. The time gained and frustration lost is considerable.
2. The app suite is excellent. Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Freeform are a very competent office suite, and together with Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Keychain, Notes, FaceTime, Music, Photos etc add up to several thousand dollars in value over the lifetime of a Mac if you look at renting comparable cloud-ready commercial apps.
3. Good looking hardware. It sits in my living room, I look at it a lot, I care that it looks good.
4. The ecosystem. With an iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV the interaction is very smooth.
I don’t make use of AppleCare, don’t think its good value for money if you’re careful by nature, but I imagine its a godsend for accident-prone people.
The bottom line is, if you’re careful with where you spend your money, Macs can still make sense in a price-conscious but style-aware home. Its a bit more outlay up front but you make it back in not needing an IT department, and the hardware lasts a good while.
But as I have no pressing technical need for x86/Windows, I thought I‘d add a couple of bullet points for what motivates me to spend the cash on a Mac.
1. Almost everything ”just works”. I don’t have to spend a lot of time configuring things, wrangling the networking, editing the registry or installing drivers or removing crapware. The time gained and frustration lost is considerable.
2. The app suite is excellent. Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Freeform are a very competent office suite, and together with Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Keychain, Notes, FaceTime, Music, Photos etc add up to several thousand dollars in value over the lifetime of a Mac if you look at renting comparable cloud-ready commercial apps.
3. Good looking hardware. It sits in my living room, I look at it a lot, I care that it looks good.
4. The ecosystem. With an iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV the interaction is very smooth.
I don’t make use of AppleCare, don’t think its good value for money if you’re careful by nature, but I imagine its a godsend for accident-prone people.
The bottom line is, if you’re careful with where you spend your money, Macs can still make sense in a price-conscious but style-aware home. Its a bit more outlay up front but you make it back in not needing an IT department, and the hardware lasts a good while.
Interesting side conversation on O365 here.
I much prefer Excel to Numbers in retrospect. I've run my business off Numbers for the last 2 years now but I moved some stuff back to Excel on Windows as an experiment and it is actually refreshing and so so so so much easier to drive from the keyboard. Numbers is far better for touch devices, particularly on the iPad but Excel on Windows is 10x more productive.
I much prefer Excel to Numbers in retrospect. I've run my business off Numbers for the last 2 years now but I moved some stuff back to Excel on Windows as an experiment and it is actually refreshing and so so so so much easier to drive from the keyboard. Numbers is far better for touch devices, particularly on the iPad but Excel on Windows is 10x more productive.
For me, AppleCare has been essential for in-warranty problems with all three Mac laptops I owned (swollen batteries, peeling screen coatings, bad video cards, etc.) that have nothing to do with accidents. [I've not needed to do a repair on on either of my two Mac desktops.]
This is anecdotal, and others may have better luck than me, but I'd personally be cautious about buying a Mac laptop without AC, even if you're not accident-prone.
I’m in the EU, where consumer law says there is a two-year warranty by law on all electronics, so that makes Apple Care less good value anyway. If a problem manifests with your device its likely to be in that first two years and covered by warranty.
It’s highly variable anyway, my stepfather had a 2009 27” iMac which needed repairs up to three times for screens with a yellow tint, and that was out of warranty and Apple still covered the repair costs. But apart from that one machine, we never had a Mac which needed repairs, laptop or desktop, and our use of Macs as a family goes back to the 1990’s.
Not according to this--cumulative laptop failure rates increase about linearly with age:
With Apple it's ~11% after two years and 17.4% after three.
Though you may be right that, for the average user who doesn't have accidents, it's not (actuarially) worth it. Say your MBP has a 17.4% chance of one major repair that costs $800. That's an average outlay of 17.4% x $800 = $140, while Apple Care for three years costs more than twice that. OTOH, you also get Apple Care phone support, which is very good.
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Yeah it's a bit clunky but mostly there. Also I have some automation I can't run in it (developed in VSTO). I desperately tried to get that working with Numbers and Shortcuts but you just can't do it as well.