@Fishrrman I just added a post to my profile and https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/23277778 under 'How many people in this forum stayed with Apple or left?' sums up how I felt about leaving.
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Is it even worth it to buy Apple anymore?
- Thread starter mikef07
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This is anecdotal and basically meaningless. Mac have their own incompatibilities. At the print shop I help overseee, there are many tasks the Apple machines we have can't or won't do, despite software being software available (control our RIPs over network, etc.). I don't discount all Apple computers because of this. Conversely, we have a mid-tier Windows notebook (Thinkpad T61) and a some low-level blue Dell notebook at the house that refuse to die, despite daily use. They are nine years old and eight years old respectively, still having at least a couple of more years left in them.
My wife and I are agnostic where operating systems are concerned. We are equally comfortable using both Windows and OSX. If Apple continues making machines that look nice on the desk out in the public area of our house, we will probably stick with at least the iMac series. If they decide to remove ports or otherwise radically reduce the machine's functionality, we definitely won't. We are partially invested in both ecosystems, so we could go either way at any point in time.
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I was a fan boy, but I would agree that Apple is not the company it once was. Without Steve, Apple is losing it's way. They have completely forgotten about simplicity and their level of innovation is nothing like it once was.
I bought the last 15" MBP classic which will likely be my last Mac. It has been a great computer and still works like a charm. When this one goes I'm going to get a desktop hackintosh so I can have more control over it's specs without being stupidly expensive. If Apple decides to run itself into the ground, then I'll at least have a kick ass PC at my disposal. This is what I'd suggest you do.
My company bought five or so Toshiba Laptops about two years ago and they've all had an issue with their pointer. And they've had a few other issues as well. PC quality is going down, in my opinion. And how could it not when margins keep getting squeezed for the manufacturers? Hold onto the good old ones you have because it might be hard to buy a quality PC in a few years.
I'm a lawyer, but I'm still the company's IT department for the most part. We had an issue this week with the printer on one of our warehouse PCs, but the problem turned out to be the embedded pre-boot software. Dell wrote it and it's also been known to cause problems. It got corrupted and fixing it was going to be too much of a hassle for a 6-7 year old PC, so we're just replacing it. It seems to me most of the software problems come from the OEMs loading weird and unnecessary stuff onto their computers.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both Windows and Macintosh. Windows is much more stable than it once was and I hardly ever have issues with the one I have at work or at home. I'd love to get a new Macintosh, but they don't really seem to update them when I'm looking for a new computer.
My position is similar to yours.
A PowerBook 170 was my first Mac laptop, a Quadra my desktop. Both quite useful, well built and supported. The journey between then and the first iPhone was very satisfying.
The introduction of the iPhone did change everything... within Apple. Now, just as you have outlined it's the changes of the post Steve Jobs era that have compromised Apple. Tim Cook, Jony Ive et al have become social butterflies consumed by awards, recognition of the Queen, Hollywood Celebrities, Rap and Hip Hop artists disguised as visionaries, and more.
I too continue to give Apple a chance to recover. Only time will tell if they choose to get back on track, provide the quality reliability and functionality they once did so completely.
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I definitely had not made up my mind when I posted. Things I love about the iMac are the looks, the fact that it is silent, and the fact that it used to have most of what I need included and that it just worked. By no means do specs mean much to me as I am not a power user. I would likely end up with an 27" i5, 16GB RAM, either a 1 TB flash drive or a 2TB fusion drive and I don't really care about video card. I don't game and pretty much do basic stuff. What prompted the thread was that the basic stuff I do like browse internet with safari (does not work and based on searches safari freezes for many people who upgraded to El Capitan), use mail (again issues with passwords always being asked for (known problem), messages like generating content to print that just hangs, etc), use photos (so laggy when one has a 1000+ pictures), use itunes (probably the least of my problems, but it is as if a 4 year old designed how to manage ipad content with itunes.), and finally use Calendar which has bugs throughout the program. Office is one of the final things I use and it seems to be the best (ironically) and I have no issues with office.
I absolutely understand why power users might have some issues with OS, but for a simpleton like me I am honestly surprised at how poor Apple QC has gotten. Hardware wise I have had no issues.
Even my iphone 6 has had major issues. For wifi to connect you have to be extremely close to the source or it does not work. I took it into the Apple store and they opened up their own ipad and iot showed maybe 10 wifi connections to connect to. Mine showed 2 (because I was close enough to the source). They said well wifi works. I explained we have 2 Apple computers, 4 ipads, 4 iphones in the house and mine is the only 1 that can't connect to 1 of the 3 hotspots in my house. They did not care so I ended up with a Galaxy S7 edge and love it so far. IMO it seems like Apple has gotten to big and too successful that they don't care about the user experience like they used to.
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You are asking for trouble if you always go with the latest version of OSX. I don't understand why people update year, after year, after year. Unless there is some very compelling reason to move up, I think it's usually best to stick with the version that originally came with the machine for as long as possible. Apple has a terrible record of support for their own narrow set of hardware, which is sad.
At this point in OS X's lifecyle, Apple is buidling off the base of Yosemite, so in theory, you'll be getting a more stable product with the latest and greatest. I've not installed latest beta, so I cannot comment on the overall performance or stability of that.
@bent christian I can't tell (from your profile) how many years you 'go back' but there was, in my experience, a golden age of sorts during which Apple's track record was extraordinarily good. For myself I habitually updated and upgraded almost without hesitation, and it never took long to confirm that Apple's offering would be good for colleagues.
I'll not attempt to define when that period began or ended but it was remarkable.
The landscape now is at least doubly complex.
If the machine was built within the last two years, sure. I don't have any reason to upgrade to Sierra. I don't need any of the extra features, and I don't want the bloat that will come along with it. If there were some performance optimization involved I would consider it. This seems unlikely. El Capitan runs great on this Late 2015. Why try to fix something that is not broken?
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Apple should be able to flawlessly support any hardware in any machine it claims the operating system will run on. The hardware set is very narrow, and they designed the machine! This is not the case. For such and already bloated operating system, it is sad.
I have a windows 10 gaming desktop and a 2010 mac book pro and I really don't have much problems with either OS. It sounds like you're having issues with the provided apps more than OSX or the hardware. Why not just stop using the apps that are giving you trouble? There are tons of alternatives out there.
In terms of problems with OS I've actually had more catastrophic problems on OSX than on my windows machines over the years. One of my early macbooks caught fire while charging and a school supplied macbook wiped itself twice. The macbook pro I'm writing this on has had the fan,sata cable, hard drive and ram replaced due to failure but to be fair it is a 6 year old machine.
Even with those issues I really enjoy the OSX experience. You get the power of unix but still have really nice aesthetics and a strong ecosystem that doesn't exist on any other platform. Plus you can always run windows or linux off a mac but running osx on a pc usually isn't worth the trouble.
In terms of problems with OS I've actually had more catastrophic problems on OSX than on my windows machines over the years. One of my early macbooks caught fire while charging and a school supplied macbook wiped itself twice. The macbook pro I'm writing this on has had the fan,sata cable, hard drive and ram replaced due to failure but to be fair it is a 6 year old machine.
Even with those issues I really enjoy the OSX experience. You get the power of unix but still have really nice aesthetics and a strong ecosystem that doesn't exist on any other platform. Plus you can always run windows or linux off a mac but running osx on a pc usually isn't worth the trouble.
It sounds like you really should investigate the issues you're having properly (perhaps with the help of someone good at troubleshooting) because they are certainly not normal otherwise there would be huge threads about this stuff. And I can tell you my experience is completely different although I have heard of some of these issues you describe.
Most of your issues are connected with transferring data online. Some of them could be legacy related (from which OS did you simply upgrade without trying a clean install). Unfortunately all operating systems can have issues with legacy content.
You say you have 3 hotspots. I'd definitely investigate that as wireless networks can be notoriously tricky. Do you only use Apple devices to create those? Generally it is best practice to use wired extenders whenever possible.
Password issues with mail are often due to app specific passwords but sometimes they can also be due to corruptions in the way keychain saves (or fails to save) the password. Again this could be a legacy issue. You don't mention whether you use iCloud or a third party email provider.
I could go on about each specific problem, but it would be better for you to actually start trying to solve these issues. And have no illusions about the grass being greener on the other side. I would personally hate to have to troubleshoot these kinds of issues on a Windows machine.
I've been with Apple so long, it would be hard to leave.
I also prefer OS X by a great deal, it is not a small difference for me.
I knew when Steve croaked it was going to be bad for the company, I was completely right on that.
Current Apple is pretty much just what I expected (or maybe a little worse, I thought they'd at least have the common sense to try and emulate Steve's ideology).
I see so much crap in the lineup, they (you people) don't update anything, you put out crap like the M380 that can't even work with setup.
My opinion is Apple should be down right ashamed, and they are embarrassing themselves. Why the hell as a company would you want to be like that?
I also prefer OS X by a great deal, it is not a small difference for me.
I knew when Steve croaked it was going to be bad for the company, I was completely right on that.
Current Apple is pretty much just what I expected (or maybe a little worse, I thought they'd at least have the common sense to try and emulate Steve's ideology).
I see so much crap in the lineup, they (you people) don't update anything, you put out crap like the M380 that can't even work with setup.
My opinion is Apple should be down right ashamed, and they are embarrassing themselves. Why the hell as a company would you want to be like that?
Wireless issues are not the hotspots. I use 3x Unifi (all wired) and literally 50 devices have been connected to these before at some point but my phone is the only devices that has issues. Go on vacation with the kids to maybe 10-15 different places over the last 2 years and 8 other devices have never had issues except my iphone. It's the phone. Period.
While I realize there are alternative options for some of the programs the alternatives I simply do not like as much. For the amount spent and the fact that I am not a power user they should just work.
Password issue is not the keychain. As I pointed out all of these issues are known. Mail is yahoo account
Not trying to be mean but you sound like you are making excuses. It reminds me of "your holding it wrong." I have spent hours trying to solve these issues.
I'm probably the only person on this forum that has a 2015 27" iMac 5k 4.0ghz fully spec'd out that uses it just to cruise Blackboard and occasionally Facebook. In my opinion, Mac's are well worth it- it just depends on your needs.
Now before I get jumped on about this, I paid next to nothing for the iMac and do plan on doing 4k video editing in the near future. But given that all my devices are Apple products, I love the fact all my notes, calendar, and iMessage are across all devices. Thats a big deal for me.
Now before I get jumped on about this, I paid next to nothing for the iMac and do plan on doing 4k video editing in the near future. But given that all my devices are Apple products, I love the fact all my notes, calendar, and iMessage are across all devices. Thats a big deal for me.
I dont think Tinhead88 is making excuses at all man.
He's simply stating that these issues are "not that widespread". I agree with this statement. If I was in your position I would do 2 hours of research and almost definitely have all the issues solved, if I didn't the local Apple store would be able to help me out.
It's a matter of willingness and unfortunately your clear mindset that Apple is horrible and you will be moving away from it makes this troubleshooting that much more difficult.
Instead of Making a thread "Is Apple even worth buying anymore?" Why not create one "How do I solve .......?".
You're being pessimistic about the situation instead of being open to suggestion and perhaps guidance with your software/hardware issues.
I feel like this is the sort of response a lot of Apple users, power or not, end up having.
They have some issues, blame Apple for not being perfect, then transfer back into Windows.
Shortly following this, they flame Apple and become robots at dismissing any comments or mentions of Apple, purely because their experience with Apple, had 3 issues, in the whole OS.
You mention you do not like the Alternatives to Apples software, yet you complain about Apples software over and over, contradicting?
I feel you are confused, angry at Apple, and just looking for attention to be honest.
Spend some time troubleshooting, and you will have a great OS, like most of us. Peace
Well I can agree that they are not widespread as in most of the time, but searching for each issue I can find numerous people with the same issue. Apple store has proved to be worthless with intermittent problems and won't even acknowledge some problems (iphone 6 issue I had). By no means do I think Apple is horrible -3 iphones, 4 ipads, 2 imacs, and a mac mini say otherwise.
I have already gone down the road of trying to solve some of these issues for months. For the Calendar issue it is force quit and restart app or reboot. That is the fix. Had my question been one of "How do I solve...?" then that is the question I would have asked. My question was "Is Apple even worth buying anymore?" which is why I asked that. I have received some answers and if you don't like the question I get it, but move on. Seeking attention? I just wanted to know if people have had the same experience and indeed many have that have posted. The QC has gone downhill.
Also there is no contradiction at all. I never said I did not like Apple's apps. I said Apple's apps have some QC problems. Please point out where I said "I hate Safari and do not want to use it". I said Safari freezes therefore I have to use an alternative. Chrome isn't bad, but I prefer Safari. You can do a search for Safari freezes El Capitan and get numerous results. I have tried all of the fixes and none worked.
Next time read what is written and don't waste a worthless response on me.
Likely what I will do is load Sierra fresh in the next few weeks and see how that works out.
Not for nothing, but I've needed to reinstall OSX more times then I have of Windows.
I don't do anything special, like running the bootcamp assistant and it messing up my partition to the point where I literally had to use gpt to delete the partitions.
I'm not saying Windows is perfect, I've installed windows 8 on my SP3 before because of issues, but comparing apples to apples (so to speak), I've had to do a clean install on my Macs more then having to do that on my Windows machines.
I probably won't be buying any more Apple desktops. They're expensive, hardly upgradable (especially the latest models), cost a lot to repair, and will eventually lose the new operating system's support, so you'll be forced to upgrade to the next paperweight at some point in the future.
My next system will probably be a hackintosh, and if that doesn't work out, then I'll use Windows 10.
My next system will probably be a hackintosh, and if that doesn't work out, then I'll use Windows 10.
I struggled with my decision to buy an iMac, because it was so expensive, but at the end of the day, I felt, I was getting value for my money. For me, a 5k 27" display plus a desktop (Dell) would run me close to 3k, because of the high cost of the 5k display. Did I need a 5k display, no but comparing apples to apples, I got a fantastic computer for 2k.
With that said, I opted for a SurfaceBook for my laptop, because I got more bang for my buck, and its been great. I've been using it extensively this week as I'm away on a business trip
I just bought new iMac a few months ago iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
My first experience with Apple and iMac is average, and if I consider the money I spent for it, I have to say 2 stars out of 5.
Personally I would never buy an iMac again. I would buy a higher spec intel machine other than Apple and install Ubuntu and if I must, dual boot Windows, the community at Ubuntu is fantastic. Most things are free and does the job. For example people commented how wonderful Preview was at handling PDF files, well I have experienced both - what I can do with Preview and what I can do with a free PDF reader/editor in Ubuntu. Preview sucks big time in comparison. But.... it all depends on the software you want to use. I have a particular software that only runs on Win/Mac. Overall, Apple is just a lot of money for product that has problems just like all the others. I expected less problems with bigger money.