On Apr 30, 2010, at 19:20 , Adam Maas wrote:
My experience is otherwise. Mac's are good machines, but not
best-in-class for reliability, middle of the pack is more like it.
Apple's reliability rep died with the PowerMac 4400. They only have a
reliability advantage over cheap white box or really low-end hardware.
Faster? yeah, PC's are pretty much always at a given spend level with
the sole exception of the Mac Pro which is competitive against the
other workstation-class machines in its price category. Apple is
completely lacking in anything resembling competitive performance per
dollar on the desktop for less than the base-model Mac Pro, they do
better on the Laptop side, but you still pay a premium for their
machines which is not reflected in the performance.
When I bought my latest laptop, I got a machine from HP almost
identical in spec the mid-range 15" MacBook Pro aside from clockspeed
(the clockspeed was noticably lower, 2.13GHz vs 2.53 which was
current, but I saved $1000 and got otherwise high-end specs), but it
came in at less than the base model MacBook in cost, and I got
features which the Macs lack (like a dedicated docking station) This
is pretty typical of the midrange market for Laptops.
I disagree with you on the reliability question.
I've never, ever, had a Mac (after they got away from the original
design, which suffered from heat) that failed electronically or
physically, other than hard drives, none of which were Apple supplied
drives. Never memory failure, cpu failure, motherboard failure, CD or
DVD ROM, monitors, keyboards, cables, speakers, etc. Never. Much of
that gear I still have, and it still works just fine, including two
PowerBook Duos, which were originally a 210 and 230 models, that I
upgraded to 2300c with a color LCD screen on one, and left the 210
upgrade with it's original B&W LCD screen. Both has Duo Docks which
contained color monitors, hard drives, modems, and external connectors
for all available peripherals. I last used the 2300c as a cash
register and database for a yard sale in 2007, at which time it was 15
years old. I can still purchase new battery packs for it, though I
won't for obvious reasons.
When working as a consultant, or in an IT division, or personally, the
only problems I've encountered were software or networking errors
caused by either the users, or the wrong choice of peripheral
equipment. In the early days, 1984 to 1987, I had my share of sad Macs
pop up on me, but they could always be traced to such things as an
over-clocked CPU coming loose in an aftermarket crimp socket, a memory
chip's legs oxidizing in their socket and needing cleaning, or the
connection coming loose for my "BackPack" 20 meg hard drive that
hooked on to the back of my Mac Plus and drew power from the Mac's
power supply.
By the way, just so you know what an idiot I am, this fanaticism about
computers beginning in 1973 with Atari, Sinclair, Epson, then Apple
and Mac, with parallel interests in Porsches, a powerful audio video
wall in the family room, and racing, cost me the dream marriage to my
second wife. Take heed, you younger set. Never ever become so involved
in your hobbies that you forget what is really important in life.
It's not that life is too short, it's that you're dead for so long......
— Anon
Joseph McAllister
pentax...@mac.com
http://gallery.me.com/jomac
http://web.me.com/jomac/show.me/Blog/Blog.html
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