Maybe I should say buy an *old* macbook instead a new one because it's the new ones that freeze. There are long complaint threads on Apple's site since it was released:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5481839 http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5296 http://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/07/apple-releases-fix-for-13-inch-retina-macbook-pro-keyboardtrackpad-issues http://notebooks.com/2013/10/31/apple-promising-to-fix-freezes-on-13-inch-macbook-pro Believe me it's still not the end. After the EFI update, the laptop fails to lock the screen randomly, and recently started to crash, more deadly - total crashes, the screen will not turn off even if I close the lid. Worse, it leaves no report on the system log... Other people reported the same problem on the first thread. But maybe I digressed too much here, but PCs with Linux should work well for any programming tasks. On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 4:05:35 PM UTC-8, Lei Zhao wrote: > > Just to add a few more data points here: I’ve had five Macs and none of > them had crashed more than three times. I used to own a top model of > ThinkPad and its motherboard died within six months. So, there can be some > luck involved and you ended up getting a defective unit, but a single data > point is not sufficient to say their overall reliability is bad. > > To answer Jason’s questions, OS X has changed a lot over recent versions, > especially Lion and Mountain Lion. But most of the major changes are > UI-related, like natural scrolling, mission control, etc. Missing them > could affect your productivity but shouldn't prevent you from doing > programming tasks. However, I won’t recommend an used Mac if it’s so > overpriced. 50% of the original price for a three year old is reasonable, > but I wouldn't pay any more than that. If you don’t have budget for a new > one, and you can’t find an used one, just keep using your Linux box. It > might not be as comfortable but wouldn’t prevent you from doing anything. > > Lei > > On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at 5:18 PM, Yin Wang wrote: > > I would suggest a new PC instead of an old Mac if the prices are similar. > Macs are good looking but not really that good in terms of reliability. My > new macbook pro 13" retina display and Haswell processor crashes badly. > Everybody was affected for late 2013 model. Apple released a firmware fix > but it's still not really fixed. Now it comes to a deadly stop once per a > day or two! Apple is quite loose these days for its quality control. A > day's using it would have discovered the problem. I have no idea how they > could have released these defective products. > > > On Tuesday, February 25, 2014 2:00:14 PM UTC-8, Jason Hsu, Rubyist wrote: > > I realize this is off-topic, but I understand that an overwhelming > majority of Rubyists use Mac computers and not PCs. I currently use > Linux-powered PCs. Yes, I ditched Windows years ago just like many of you. > Using Linux on a used PC is the cheapest way to compute. (I've been able to > buy a 4 or 5-year-old PC that works for as little as $40-$50.) > > I'm interested in purchasing a Mac to put myself on the same page as other > software developers. (I'm used to Linux distros that provide the look and > feel of Windows XP.) I will use the Mac for software development projects, > but I intend to stick with my Linux-powered PCs for general computing. (I > don't want to get locked into the Mac world, because it's so much more > expensive. Also, there is a case to be made for being versatile.) > > I'm thinking of buying a new mini (starts at $600), a new MacBook (starts > at $1000), or a refurbished MacBook (starts at $850). > > Some questions: > 1. How much has OS X changed over the past several versions? Is something > from 5 years ago obsolete? Linux, on the other hand, is free. Any current > Linux distro will work very well on a 5-year-old PC, and there are even > some Linux distros (like Puppy Linux and antiX Linux) that work well on PCs > that are 10 or more years old. > 2. Is it just me, or are used Macs so exorbitantly expensive as to defeat > the point of buying a used computer in the first place? I looked at > Craigslist and found a number of used Mac laptops selling for as much as a > new one. Most of the Macs selling for a few hundred dollars or less were > very old, such as G4s. (I understand that those are 10-15 years old. Good > luck getting even $100 or even $50 from a 10-year-old PC.) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rubyonrails-talk/d4e715d9-89de-40e5-9b60-9ca873893c31%40googlegroups.com > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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