Anyone make the jump to a MacBook? Advice on ordering?

[wash11]

I've been buying Dell as long as I can remember. Always the high end stuff, loaded up with software from the factory. Current laptop from 2016 so I feel like I'm due. Problem is, I'm so unimpressed with Windows these days- ready to jump ship. I stay on my updates, don't go to questionable sites and never hit clickbait and use McAfee on all my gear. Since day one this thing has taken forever to boot up, Office suite locks up on the regular and the fucking cooling fan runs 24/7 even though the insides are completely clean and dust free.

Using my iPhone is a different experience altogether. It just always works. Seriously, not one problem ever and the interface is so smooth- I do as much as I can on it and as little as possible on the laptop.
Paying the extra money to upgrade to a MacBook, can I expect the same experience? Talking to Mac people is like talking to Subaru owners. Once they have one, they will never NOT own one again. Is it just brand loyalty hype or is it really worth it to make the jump?

Basic photo editing, email/writing, internet surfing etc- go entry level or go big with whatever the top dog is?

 

[SJP]

I have been on the Mac platform for the last 20 years. I use it for work. If you are using for basics listed above I would order just a basic MacBook. No need to go pro. The base line model with the new M1 processors are extremely quick. You will not believe boot time. No need to ever shutdown. Just open and it wakes up. On the flip side I make my living rebuilding, patching, and selling security solutions for enterprise windows environments. I understand what you are dealing with your current win laptop.

 

[Outdrive1]

I’m using a MacBook Air Pro. I mostly resize and edit photos, use Adobe, Excel, and Word. It never locks up. No matter how many separate windows are open. It’s solid. I remember my old windows based laptops that would lock up and take forever to get anything done. What a pain in the ass. If I had any complaint, I wish they were touch screen like an iPad but still the format of a laptop.

SJP is probably correct. Any new basic MacBook is going to do whatever you need.

 

[HOOTER SLED-]

I'm not a computer genius...but I noticed that when I switched over my desktop....it has SD ram for storage. Made for waaay quicker startup. Maybe a computer guy can elaborate. But it was like night and day.

 

[RiverDave]

Hold out for a minute Joel. I habe a nice MacBook Pro that has literally not been used we might be getting rid of..

Film guy says Mac released some
New whiz bang thing he wants to trade the desk top and the laptop for…. Mac
Offers trade in values. If we do it you can have it for that and it’s basically new (once again)

 

[DLow]

I’m going to upgrade my MBPro this year also. My current has lasted 10 years. Bought it for Christmas 2011. That’s pretty solid for a laptop that I have abused on a daily basis. Your basic MacBook will do everything you need.
I did upgrade my RAM to 16G myself after factory warranty was up. Very easy and made a big improvement.

 

[mesquito_creek]

When my kids started high school I bought each of them a macbook something or other.... I never saw or heard from either of them again regarding computer stuff. Four plus years of never having to perform any computer support makes the macbook a great investment for me in both cases.

I bought my youngest a macbook super expensive something or other when she entered college... she is a senior now and I have never seen or heard about anything about that computer her 4 years at school and she continues to use it. I think she still uses the 7 or 8 year old one she got for highschool as a backpack bang around mobile unit....

 

[Ducksquasher]

So we are looking at new computers for the kids (high school) and they are wanting iPad's with the keyboard attachments for their schoolwork. I use a Surface for work which is basically the same thing but in Microsoft version. I am not a computer whiz but I am concerned about the iPad's ability to use Excel, Windows, etc. like my wife's MacBook which is like 10 years old and is perfect! My oldest says that she uses her iPhone for as many things he as she can and with everything being on a Google drive on the cloud at school it is no issue.

Do the new iPad's function like a MacBook now?

 

[Racey]

Ive been using mid level Asus Vivobooks for years, they are about $500 on Amazon. They work awesome and at that price you can just toss them in the trash every couple years for 8 years and keep getting new ones for the price of an overpriced mac.

Dont use McAfee or any ither antivirus, the stuff built in actually works great, one thing Microsoft has gotten right. It was called windows defender but now it might be called security. It's built right into windows.

 

[paradise]

Ive been using mid level Asus Vivobooks for years, they are about $500 on Amazon. They work awesome and at that price you can just toss them in the trash every couple years for 8 years and keep getting new ones for the price of an overpriced mac.

Dont use McAfee or any ither antivirus, the stuff built in actually works great, one thing Microsoft has gotten right. It was called windows defender but now it might be called security. It's built right into windows.

Racey is right about McAfee, realistically that's just slowing your machine down.

Trying to switch to a Mac is going to be painful IMHO. I would get a new windows machine with as little loaded on it as possible and make sure it has an SSD and you'll be good.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Racey is right about McAfee, realistically that's just slowing your machine down.

Trying to switch to a Mac is going to be painful IMHO. I would get a new windows machine with as little loaded on it as possible and make sure it has an SSD and you'll be good.

Within a week he will have the basics down, within a couple weeks he will never want to go back. I'd rather drag my nuts on broken glass than go back to any windows powered piece of shit.

OP if you buy new get apple care....im on one that got replaced a month prior to expiration over MaK knocking over a white claw onto the keyboard lol. I made the switch 10 years ago...will never own anything else. The baseline MacBook Pro is all you need it does essentially everything you can possibly need.

 

[paradise]

Within a week he will have the basics down, within a couple weeks he will never want to go back. I'd rather drag my nuts on broken glass than go back to any windows powered piece of shit.

OP if you buy new get apple care....im on one that got replaced a month prior to expiration over MaK knocking over a white claw onto the keyboard lol. I made the switch 10 years ago...will never own anything else. The baseline MacBook Pro is all you need it does essentially everything you can possibly need.

To each his own.

 

[white tortilla]

I grew up on windows, went to Mac for high school and college, and back to windows now. Really to have a good experience with windows you need a decent machine.

I went back to windows because a lot of the programs I needed for work were windows based, and I didn’t want to run windows on a Mac. I tried it for a while and hated it. Since going back to windows 5 years ago, I don’t miss the Mac at all.

I have had an iPhone for 15 years, I agree for a phone there is no comparison for apple vs droid. Apple all the way.

But if you buy a decent laptop with a good CPU and sizeable ram storage, and a solid state drive, the current windows program works great. I think a lot of the “windows 2000” pains we remember were because the computers were using the disk hard drives, and those were a lot slower to move information.

I’m working on my computer 12hours a day.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Jumped years ago, never looked back

 

[angiebaby]

Racey is right about McAfee, realistically that's just slowing your machine down.

Trying to switch to a Mac is going to be painful IMHO. I would get a new windows machine with as little loaded on it as possible and make sure it has an SSD and you'll be good.

Why do you think it will be painful?


Jeff had a brand new Sony around 2010 that was always in the shop for virus issues. You can't run a business when your machine is in the shop for several weeks at a time. We decided to relegate that machine to the Torchmate and got Jeff a MacBook Pro in 2011 and never had another issue. I think we replaced a hard drive around 2018. It finally died this past winter. Video card. No more parts are available. I purchased my MacBook Air in 2012 and it's finally slowing down and the fan on kicks after about an hour of use which really slows things down. So we use it as a backup and purchased a new MBPro this summer. The only thing I have replaced in almost 10 years is a battery.

I thought there would be a huge learning curve. Nope. The only thing I really struggled with was not having that "explorer" icon . . . until I figured out it is the same as "finder." That was my biggest challenge. The scrolling/swiping mousepad is the best feature. I struggle with going back to a PC because they don't have this feature. Installation of program files has an extra step. One plus of buying a PC used to be that they came with MS Office. That is no longer the case and you have to purchase it anyway. I switch back and forth between PC (at work) and Mac (at home or when I bring my laptop to work) and I believe the Office for Mac is more user-friendly. Another major positive is the battery life. I can work for 6-7 hours without being plugged in. For me, this was something that was important so I could take my computer to the university and not have to deal with a cord. My MacBook Air fits in my large purse and weighs around 2 pounds. I wouldn't get another Air, but it makes for a great backup computer. I'm on it right now at the Chevy dealer waiting for the truck to be serviced.


Just my experience.

 

[ka0tyk]

I have many macbooks and imacs, even a mac pro as a server in my closet. If you're not a complete idiot switching to OSX isnt a big deal. Buttons are in different places, the windows key is replaced with the command key, etc. But for the most part all the applications are the same. You'll probably be sitting in chrome 99% of the time viewing RDP and Phub which shouldnt be that drastic of a change.

The new M1 processors are pretty slick. Huge improvements over the older intel chips. The biggest thing about mac/osx is how solid they are. Think about windows and PCs in general. Microsoft has to build a platform that supports literally QUADZILLIONS of diffrerent hardware combinations.. motherboards cpu architectures (amd or intel), bridges, video cards, storage, etc... the possibilities are endless. Whereas mac has a small set of hardware configurations they need to support. You're not dealing with drivers from some joe bob or xiao dong written at midnight on a saturday making instabilities with your kernel etc.

That being said, its not the MOST high performance computer ever made... especially for the cost. I have a full gaming rig, water cooled, etc and I literally only play games on it. I dont even browse the internet. But for everything else, work included, I use a mac.

 

[C-2]

your kernel

F* that guy! he's too sensitive

 

[paradise]

Why do you think it will be painful?


Jeff had a brand new Sony around 2010 that was always in the shop for virus issues. You can't run a business when your machine is in the shop for several weeks at a time. We decided to relegate that machine to the Torchmate and got Jeff a MacBook Pro in 2011 and never had another issue. I think we replaced a hard drive around 2018. It finally died this past winter. Video card. No more parts are available. I purchased my MacBook Air in 2012 and it's finally slowing down and the fan on kicks after about an hour of use which really slows things down. So we use it as a backup and purchased a new MBPro this summer. The only thing I have replaced in almost 10 years is a battery.

I thought there would be a huge learning curve. Nope. The only thing I really struggled with was not having that "explorer" icon . . . until I figured out it is the same as "finder." That was my biggest challenge. The scrolling/swiping mousepad is the best feature. I struggle with going back to a PC because they don't have this feature. Installation of program files has an extra step. One plus of buying a PC used to be that they came with MS Office. That is no longer the case and you have to purchase it anyway. I switch back and forth between PC (at work) and Mac (at home or when I bring my laptop to work) and I believe the Office for Mac is more user-friendly. Another major positive is the battery life. I can work for 6-7 hours without being plugged in. For me, this was something that was important so I could take my computer to the university and not have to deal with a cord. My MacBook Air fits in my large purse and weighs around 2 pounds. I wouldn't get another Air, but it makes for a great backup computer. I'm on it right now at the Chevy dealer waiting for the truck to be serviced.


Just my experience.

We manage ~1000 computers and the related IT infrastructure across various companies all on the business side. We don't mess with personal computers.

In that realm, we have way more issues with the few Macs we have to support. Issues with software not running correctly, missing features in MS office, configuration changes that won't stick, software that just doesn't exist for the MAC side. All around we just have more trouble. 90% of this is probably because we are a widows shop, manage Windows environments and use tools that are primarily built for Windows machines.

I do always crack up when people tell me they were constantly taking their work computers in for virus issues, etc. if that's the case either you or your IT person were doing something wrong.

As I said above to each his own, but I've had a few owners of companies tell me how they were switching to Mac at home and how it was the greatest thing since sliced bread only to switch back months later because it couldn't do X or Y. I personally find OSX painful to use but that's just my experience.

Oh and for the record, I'm an iPhone guy through and through.

 

[rivermobster]

I've been buying Dell as long as I can remember. Always the high end stuff, loaded up with software from the factory. Current laptop from 2016 so I feel like I'm due. Problem is, I'm so unimpressed with Windows these days- ready to jump ship. I stay on my updates, don't go to questionable sites and never hit clickbait and use McAfee on all my gear. Since day one this thing has taken forever to boot up, Office suite locks up on the regular and the fucking cooling fan runs 24/7 even though the insides are completely clean and dust free.

Using my iPhone is a different experience altogether. It just always works. Seriously, not one problem ever and the interface is so smooth- I do as much as I can on it and as little as possible on the laptop.
Paying the extra money to upgrade to a MacBook, can I expect the same experience? Talking to Mac people is like talking to Subaru owners. Once they have one, they will never NOT own one again. Is it just brand loyalty hype or is it really worth it to make the jump?

Basic photo editing, email/writing, internet surfing etc- go entry level or go big with whatever the top dog is?

You're current deal takes forever to boot cause it's on an old school spinning/mechanical hard drive. Pretty much any new laptop will have a solid state hard drive. My few years old Acer boots fully in roughly five seconds, with Win10 on it. Win7 is Considerably slower. I'm gonna guess Win11 will be pretty much instant.

MacAfee sucks. Kaspersky actually works and won't slow your system down. I've Heard Defender alone gets the job done, but I don't believe it scans your incoming email in Outlook, the way Kaspersky does. I'm not 100 percent sure on this though.

You laptop runs hot, cause the dielectric paste on your CPU is completely dried up. Any computer shop can fix this, but I personally wouldn't waste any money on something that old.

I'm going to guess your not running 365? Get it! For 99 bucks a year, you get the entire office suite, 6 separate account, with one terabyte of storage for each account! That's is the most smoking deal of a lifetime. I've been running it for years. Nothing ever locks up.

As for the switch to Mac...

Why? Their shit is double the price if you compare the hardware head to head. If you wanna spend a shit ton of money, for technology that's always a year or two behind, go for it.

The other issue is, you run a business. Have you Even seen big business run on a Mac? No, not unless we are talking about DreamWorks of course. The real world runs on non Mac machines. Keep this in mind at all times.

Check out a new Windows based laptop. Stay away from Dell, HP and all the other big names. Acer and Asus both make great stuff without charging you for a ton of crap you don't need.

If you wanna spend a few extra bucks, check out Lenovo, their stuff is pretty bad azz.

If you wanna spend double the money for no reason whatsoever, get a Mac machine.

 

[BingerFang]

Get the brand new basic mac book pro. You will not be disappointed and it will last you 5+ years and so will the battery.

I’m on my apple laptop 13 hours a day for work and it’s a 2014 model I bought in college. I want the fucker to die so I can buy a new one but I literally have no valid reason to get rid of this one yet and upgrade.

 

[ka0tyk]

Why? Their shit is double the price if you compare the hardware head to head. If you wanna spend a shit ton of money, for technology that's always a year or two behind, go for it.

The other issue is, you run a business. Have you Even seen big business run on a Mac? No, not unless we are talking about DreamWorks of course. The real world runs on non Mac machines. Keep this in mind at all times.

I work at one of the largest advertising agencies in the world... think coke/pepsi/nike/adidas/apple/amazon/nissan/infiniti/audi/subaru clients.

We are a 100% mac business.

Think of it this way... you operate a business. Downtime costs money. Sure you could run PC's but you'd need a IT dept/team/consultant to manage them, a AD server to implement policies that lock them out from getting infected, malware, or users doing dumb things that would otherwise cost you money.


Not to mention, have you ever looked up the value of a 3-5 year old PC? Its pretty much garbage at that point. Same thing with an android phone. 3-5 year mac, iphone? Still holds good value. Not only should you be looking at the cost to buy it, but what you can get for it when you go to sell it.

 

[rivermobster]

I work at one of the largest advertising agencies in the world... think coke/pepsi/nike/adidas/apple/amazon/nissan/infiniti/audi/subaru clients.

We are a 100% mac business.

Think of it this way... you operate a business. Downtime costs money. Sure you could run PC's but you'd need a IT dept/team/consultant to manage them, a AD server to implement policies that lock them out from getting infected, malware, or users doing dumb things that would otherwise cost you money.


Not to mention, have you ever looked up the value of a 3-5 year old PC? Its pretty much garbage at that point. Same think with an android phone. 3-5 year mac, iphone? Still holds good value. Not only should you be looking at the cost to buy it, but what you can get for it when you go to sell it.

Advertising? Yep. Makes sense.

Resale value? Seriously? We aren't talking about trading a car in here! I understand big companies sell off their old stuff to upgrade to new stuff regularly, but for a normal end user like Joel, none of what you mention here is a concern for him in any way shape or form.

Here is a brief list of viruses and malware that a lot of you Mac folks say don't exist...

All the Mac malware we know about

Wondering how many viruses exist for the Mac? Here is a list recent Mac malware attacks, viruses for Apple computers, and security threats that Mac users have suffered

www.macworld.co.uk

Happy reading!

 

[ka0tyk]

Advertising? Yep. Makes sense.

Resale value? Seriously? We aren't talking about trading a car in here! I understand big companies sell off their old stuff to upgrade to new stuff regularly, but for a normal end user like Joel, none of what you mention here is a concern for him in any way shape or form.

Here is a brief list of viruses and malware that a lot of you Mac folks say don't exist...

All the Mac malware we know about

Wondering how many viruses exist for the Mac? Here is a list recent Mac malware attacks, viruses for Apple computers, and security threats that Mac users have suffered

www.macworld.co.uk

Happy reading!

Never said they dont exist... but lets compare that list to a PC. I'll see you in 35 years when you're done reading it.

And for someone to say "we dont care about value"... thats just plain stupid or you wipe your ass with $100 bills.

 

[was thatguy]

Last home Dell I bought was in 2005 or so.
Desktop, over $2000
That was like the 3rd one I owned.
I HATED the thought of apple anything. Thought it was like a cult or playskool stuff.
Meanwhile back then Deb talked me into getting us IPhones. We never had smart phones at all before that and she was done printing maps and shit...lol. So she drug me into the modern world.
After about 6 month or more I found that getting on that Dell was the LAST resort. It was constantly fucked up. Debbie was always at war with it and for a while I was taking it in to the computer guy every time I came home.
Finally I got tired of it and went and bought an IMac desktop...it’s still my only home computer and I can’t even remember when I actually bought it? It’s WELL over 10 years old.
It runs excell and the entire Microsoft office suite better (for me) than the PC’s I use at work. I do have my old XP warhorse 20 pound lap buster for work, and will probably have to buy a new cheap PC to run my work programs, but if I wasn’t so cheap I’d get a MacBook and run windows on it only for that reason.
Seriously, I was the biggest Apple hater in the world, I could not have been more wrong.
Debbie could not fuck up her iPhone or iPad no matter how hard she tried.
That alone was worth the jump.

 

[was thatguy]

Advertising? Yep. Makes sense.

Resale value? Seriously? We aren't talking about trading a car in here! I understand big companies sell off their old stuff to upgrade to new stuff regularly, but for a normal end user like Joel, none of what you mention here is a concern for him in any way shape or form.

Here is a brief list of viruses and malware that a lot of you Mac folks say don't exist...

All the Mac malware we know about

Wondering how many viruses exist for the Mac? Here is a list recent Mac malware attacks, viruses for Apple computers, and security threats that Mac users have suffered

www.macworld.co.uk

Happy reading!

Never had a single one in 15 years.
Exist or not.

 

[Ace in the Hole]

I
'm going to guess your not running 365? Get it! For 99 bucks a year, you get the entire office suite, 6 separate account, with one terabyte of storage for each account! That's is the most smoking deal of a lifetime. I've been running it for years. Nothing ever locks up.


The other issue is, you run a business. Have you Even seen big business run on a Mac? No, not unless we are talking about DreamWorks of course. The real world runs on non Mac machines. Keep this in mind at all times.


If you wanna spend double the money for no reason whatsoever, get a Mac machine.

You realize that 365 is on Mac too right? I've ran more than one multi million dollar company off of a Mac... but im just a dumbass construction worker with a degree lol

 

[rivermobster]

Never said they dont exist... but lets compare that list to a PC. I'll see you in 35 years when you're done reading it.

And for someone to say "we dont care about value"... thats just plain stupid or you wipe your ass with $100 bills.

Of course I care about value...

That's why I would never spend double the money on a Mac.

As far as Resale value goes? zero fucks given. Technology moves So incredibly fast these days, anything a few years old is, well, old!

Today, SSD drives just plug directly into the motherboard to speed things up considerably. Bad azz.

Tomorrow? Who knows, maybe they will become a part of the mother board? Or maybe they will do away with the motherboard completely? Progress is exponential these days. Who knows what's around the corner.

To spend a ton of extra money to "future proof" anything (including resale) is pretty much a waste of funds.

In a big advertising business? Of course it has its place. For the average end user? I agree with Racey completely. Buy what you need for today and spend the savings on something else.

Small family owned business have to focus on saving money and getting the most (value) bang for the buck. No IT department required.

 

[rivermobster]

You realize that 365 is on Mac too right? I've ran more than one multi million dollar company off of a Mac... but im just a dumbass construction worker with a degree lol

Exactly. So why spend the extra money? LoL

Never had a single one in 15 years.
Exist or not.

Me either! Crazy right?

 

[was thatguy]

Exactly. So why spend the extra money? LoL



Me either! Crazy right?

I remember paying my subscriptions for Kaspersky...barely!

 

[Ace in the Hole]

Exactly. So why spend the extra money? LoL



Me either! Crazy right?

Because my Mac works, every single day without fail.....never had a PC that did that. Its faster, more durable, and the battery lasts...and lasts...and lasts some more. I also use a Mac based project management software that is tits lol

 

[rivermobster]

Because my Mac works, every single day without fail.....never had a PC that did that. Its faster, more durable, and the battery lasts...and lasts...and lasts some more. I also use a Mac based project management software that is tits lol

Ya know...

That is the ONE thing I've noticed about the iPhone, they go for Days on a single charge! Gotta give credit where credit is due. It's amazing how long those things perform like that.

But with that being said..

I'm still not gonna spend double the money for that one convenience!

 

[was thatguy]

Of course I care about value...

That's why I would never spend double the money on a Mac.

As far as Resale value goes? zero fucks given. Technology moves So incredibly fast these days, anything a few years old is, well, old!

Today, SSD drives just plug directly into the motherboard to speed things up considerably. Bad azz.

Tomorrow? Who knows, maybe they will become a part of the mother board? Or maybe they will do away with the motherboard completely? Progress is exponential these days. Who knows what's around the corner.

To spend a ton of extra money to "future proof" anything (including resale) is pretty much a waste of funds.

In a big advertising business? Of course it has its place. For the average end user? I agree with Racey completely. Buy what you need for today and spend the savings on something else.

Small family owned business have to focus on saving money and getting the most (value) bang for the buck. No IT department required.

Not exactly true.
Maybe with PC’s and windows?

My mac is old...like real old. I put extra ram in it a long time ago. It runs the latest IOS though as far as I know.
All updates free for over a decade. No paid upgrades or left behind hardware like they seem to do with IPhones.

He won’t be replacing a MacBook in 3 years unless he turns into one of those fan boys that have to have the latest gizmo. (I am not one of those! I skip whole generations of phones) It’ll be just fine for many many years.

 

[ka0tyk]

I'm still not gonna spend double the money for that one convenience!

and so you feel compelled to give advice on something you have zero experience with.

 

[rivermobster]

Not exactly true.
Maybe with PC’s and windows?

My mac is old...like real old. I put extra ram in it a long time ago. It runs the latest IOS though as far as I know.
All updates free for over a decade. No paid upgrades or left behind hardware like they seem to do with IPhones.

He won’t be replacing a MacBook in 3 years unless he turns into one of those fan boys that have to have the latest gizmo. (I am not one of those!)
It’ll be just fine for many many years.

Until recently, Mac and MS ran on the exact same hardware. The new M1 processor is, well, brand new!

Do YOU need one? Probably not. But everything tech increases exponentially these days.

Do you Need an iPhone with 3 cameras? Do you need a new laptop with the M1 chip? Do I need to upgrade to Win11?

Technology moves at the speed of light. Doesn't mean we have to run to keep up with it.

 

[rivermobster]

and so you feel compelled to give advice on something you have zero experience with.

Why would you Assume such a thing??

I have experience with all kinds of things I've never spent my own money on!

I've never paid for sex either, but I Damm sure know how it works. I have two kids in college to prove it!

So maybe I have paid for sex, after the fact?

 

[Kachina26]

Why would you Assume such a thing??

I have experience with all kinds of things I've never spent my own money on!

I've never paid for sex either, but I Damm sure know how it works. I have two kids in college to prove it!

So maybe I have paid for sex, after the fact?

There's no such thing as free sex.

 

[angiebaby]

I do always crack up when people tell me they were constantly taking their work computers in for virus issues, etc. if that's the case either you or your IT person were doing something wrong.

As I said above to each his own, but I've had a few owners of companies tell me how they were switching to Mac at home and how it was the greatest thing since sliced bread only to switch back months later because it couldn't do X or Y. I personally find OSX painful to use but that's just my experience.

Glad I could give you a chuckle today We had a small business that interacted with a lot of people daily. Work computer and personal were the same. When that computer has to go in the shop, no work can get done. There was no IT person. So, due to the incredible amount of viruses that plagued our PCs, this was the final straw and we put it to pasture where it wouldn't have access to the internet or need OS updates. It only has one job now. We got a new machine that interestingly enough had never had an issue in 10 years outside of the need for an updated hard drive about 8 years in. NOTHING. No need for an IT guy. Do you have any PCs that haven't been to the doctor in 8 years even for a checkup? So, I'm really glad that you like PCs, honestly. For what we were doing, the Mac worked for us with no downtime. Isn't it great that we have more than one type of machine to choose from? Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

BTW, for the OP, they used to give a teacher or student discount. If you know anyone, say one of your kids, you can say it is for them and get the discount. Not sure if they still do this or not. They are pretty simple as far as ordering. Just go online and pick your memory requirements, speed, any other extras you want, there aren't a lot. For what you are using it for, I don't think you need the top dog. A basic Mac is pretty well-equipped.

 

[C-2]

The only downside to a Windows computer these days is the third-party bloat programs installed on them. Buy an off-lease WORKSTATION laptop with a fresh version of standalone (no bloatware) Win 10 and you're good. you can get a $2K-$3K computer for $500 or less.

You don't need any anti-virus/malware programs, Windows Defender works great. I *thought* I saw a piece of malware a few months back and got "wood", but it was only some type of clickbait pop up that went away after the browser closed. Proof is in the reading - remember how many computer discussions about malware/viruses we used to read on RDP? When was the last time you saw a thread about malware, lol?

My refurbished 9-year old Lenovo desktop and off-lease 8-year old Lenovo ThinkPad "Carbon" laptop were both purchased for under $1K. A workstation is built to run at its highest performance levels 24/7. Think car motor vs marine motor. A workstation is a business machine, the majority of off the shelf laptops are for home users.

At work and for the past 5 years I've used 3 Dell laptops provided by the State without any issues, and my office desktop is also a Dell, same deal. They run without bloatware and/or third party apps (sans custom shells to run command line database systems.) Wifey also uses a Dell supplied by her work. Her personal Dell sucks ass due to all the crap that came loaded on it, whereas her work dell hums along fine.

Doing the math, I'm still $2K-$3K ahead of any Mac purchases I would have made. I enjoy working on the daughter's Macbook Air, just not enough to buy one for myself, I'm too cheap.

 

[mesquito_creek]

If anyone actually cared about value they would just man up on a cheap Linux box and work from console... Or worst case Linux with GNOME as the DE...

 

[King295]

My wife loves her MacBooks, I have a hard time using them since I've always been on a Window's based machine for work. I'm running a Dell XPS 17 9700 and I can't complain about its performance and the touch screen is nice. That being said, if I could go Mac I probably would.

 

[rivermobster]

My wife loves her MacBooks, I have a hard time using them since I've always been on a Window's based machine for work. I'm running a Dell XPS 17 9700 and I can't complain about its performance and the touch screen is nice. That being said, if I could go Mac I probably would.

This brings up another good point...

You can get Windows Laptops with touch screens now!

I just bought three Lenovo's for a friend of mine that runs a mobile home park, and she loves them. She refused to accept any sort of laptop without a touch screen! I have to admit, when I was setting them up for her, they spoil you pretty much instantly.

I bought my daughter a Microsoft Surface Pro for school and she loves that thing. One of these deals might be way cool when you're out walking the back 40 taking notes. Not cheap though, that's the only drawback with them.

Touch screens are pretty sweet indeed.

@wash11

 

[BingerFang]

This brings up another good point...

You can get Windows Laptops with touch screens now!

I just bought three Lenovo's for a friend of mine that runs a mobile home park, and she loves them. She refused to accept any sort of laptop without a touch screen! I have to admit, when I was setting them up for her, they spoil you pretty much instantly.

I bought my daughter a Microsoft Surface Pro for school and she loves that thing. One of these deals might be way cool when you're out walking the back 40 taking notes. Not cheap though, that's the only drawback with them.

Touch screens are pretty sweet indeed.

@wash11

There’s not one reason why I need to touch my computer screen… plus the mouse pad is way more efficient, lol!

 

[WhatExit?]

I use both - Laptop for work and MacBook Pro for non-work.

Unless you're into video, graphics and pics for work I'd never go with a Mac. Using MS Office Suite on a Mac sucks balls compared to a laptop.

But talking to Mac fanbois about using a laptop at work is like talking to the Speed fanbois about how they only own spots in a line.

 

[was thatguy]

The only downside to a Windows computer these days is the third-party bloat programs installed on them. Buy an off-lease WORKSTATION laptop with a fresh version of standalone (no bloatware) Win 10 and you're good. you can get a $2K-$3K computer for $500 or less.

You don't need any anti-virus/malware programs, Windows Defender works great. I *thought* I saw a piece of malware a few months back and got "wood", but it was only some type of clickbait pop up that went away after the browser closed. Proof is in the reading - remember how many computer discussions about malware/viruses we used to read on RDP? When was the last time you saw a thread about malware, lol?

My refurbished 9-year old Lenovo desktop and off-lease 8-year old Lenovo ThinkPad "Carbon" laptop were both purchased for under $1K. A workstation is built to run at its highest performance levels 24/7. Think car motor vs marine motor. A workstation is a business machine, the majority of off the shelf laptops are for home users.

At work and for the past 5 years I've used 3 Dell laptops provided by the State without any issues, and my office desktop is also a Dell, same deal. They run without bloatware and/or third party apps (sans custom shells to run command line database systems.) Wifey also uses a Dell supplied by her work. Her personal Dell sucks ass due to all the crap that came loaded on it, whereas her work dell hums along fine.

Doing the math, I'm still $2K-$3K ahead of any Mac purchases I would have made. I enjoy working on the daughter's Macbook Air, just not enough to buy one for myself, I'm too cheap.

Seems too wordy.
Should have used a Mac and cut it down to 2 sentences!!

Lol

 

[Flying_Lavey]

There’s not one reason why I need to touch my computer screen… plus the mouse pad is way more efficient, lol!

That's what I thought too. Then I bought one cause it was a good deal. Then I got a surface for my old job. I LOVED the touch screen. Makes browsing pages SO much easier. Selecting things also becomes a single handed task instead of 2 for speed or 1 for convenience. Try one for a few days then switch back to a regular laptop (what I have now) and you will see)

Macs work great. No denying that. Are they worth the money for 75% of the population.... no. We're they years ago when Windows REALLY sucked and was so cumbersome.... yes. Like others have said, the software side (non graphics stuff at least) just isn't worth the difference anymore. My last 2 computers I never bought anti-virus for, never had an issue over the 5+ years I've owned them. Hardware combinations van be had in any different combination allowing a more customized machine and price for it that matches the user's needs better.

Most all negative impressions of PC's vs Macs are typically from 5+ years ago for personal users. The technology now, both software and hardware, eliminates just about all of those problems.

Btw, my wife bought a HP laptop from Costco last year for $850. It is a pretty damn robust stats on it. Things is stupid fast and has given ZERO issues. She also is not good at managing her laptop (ignores updates, leaves dozens of tabs open, and almost never shuts the system down). She does a lot of the crafting stuff on her computer so I made sure she got at least a mid-grade processor but a substantial amount of RAM. So you can easily get a VERY capable machine for a good bit less or a really badass machine for the price of a basic Mac.

 

[wash11]

A lot of great info here, thank you everyone for taking the time to post.

 

[BingerFang]

A lot of great info here, thank you everyone for taking the time to post.

You are welcome! Everything new these days is gonna work fantastic and you will more than likely be happy with any product. However, if you have an iPhone, everything is synced with a MacBook. You can use iMessage and all your texts are synced up so you don’t need to pick up your phone to reply. Your safari pages of bitchin boating content you saved on your iphone will also be right there when you open your laptop safari. Any notes you put in your iPhone will be on your notes in your laptop and so on….

If you are an iPhone user and you have the extra money to spend buy a MacBook. If you are pinching pennies than buy something cheaper.

One last thing- The best part about a new apple product is that you can sell it for almost what you paid for it if you don’t like it.

 

[Flying_Lavey]

You are welcome! Everything new these days is gonna work fantastic and you will more than likely be happy with any product. However, if you have an iPhone, everything is synced with a MacBook. You can use iMessage and all your texts are synced up so you don’t need to pick up your phone to reply. Your safari pages of bitchin boating content you saved on your iphone will also be right there when you open your laptop safari. Any notes you put in your iPhone will be on your notes in your laptop and so on….

If you are an iPhone user and you have the extra money to spend buy a MacBook. If you are pinching pennies than buy something cheaper.

One last thing- The best part about a new apple product is that you can sell it for almost what you paid for it if you don’t like it.

Windows will connect to any phone (Im assuming it will work with an iPhone too..... not sure though since I do not have an iPhone) through a factory app. It works great. Texting via your computer is SOOOO much easier! It works pretty seamlessly and when at work, its so much more productive than having to pull out your phone and text someone from it or what not.

 

[Boozer]

I moved to a SaaS company in March that has a platform geared geared towards creatives.

Needless to say we use Macs. I’ve been a PC guy for 20 years and the switch to Mac wasn’t that difficult. I’m going ti be swapping out my personal computer for a Mac within the next 12 years as a result.

A couple things to note on Mac’s.

My first MacBook had the new M1 processor. It performed really well but had a huge limitation with displays. The M1 MacBook will only let you run one external monitor. You have to use the Laptop as your secondary screen. That was a huge limitation for me. I just had my MacBook swapped out for an Intel model and can run multiple external displays with no issue. I wouldn’t get an M1 MacBook until they fix the display issue.