Very good advice because troubleshooting and fixing Macs are not as openly known as for PCs. My friend is a service technician at one of the local Apple Care stores and he tells me they have a brisk business of Macs coming in with both hardware and software problems. My sister-in-law spend six hours at Apple Care with her MacBook last week and still her problem was not resolved. She had to leave it there instead of taking it on her scheduled vacation.
They are just computers a the differences are not as big as some make them out to be. No worse than any other forum. Go to the PC Forum and make a recommendation for a Mac, see how well that goes over. Or go to the Olympus Forum and reccomend a Nikon or Canon SLR instead of 4/3rds. They love that, especially when it's about full frame.
Maybe for you, but it's not that difficult.
That doesn't mean anything. The PC shops have a brisk business too, probably more so.
That can happen with any product. What was the problem?
But I was only offering opinions as the OP asked, not recommending a PC. The crowd here is really tough if you don't offer praise to the Mac.
To me, it means that all those posts I read that say get a Mac and avoid the problems that plague PCs is only a myth. And you are adding to that myth with your "probably more so" kicker. The "more so" is likely because there are more PCs out there and the failure rates are no different.
They loaded a new OS and some of her Mac programs don't show up or don't open.
So tell us, where can we find lots of Macs that have been eaten alive by viruses and other malware?
I have 3 PCs and one Mac all running fast and smoothly without any viruses or malware of any kind. So you tell me, what's my problem?
You probably mean "in the Windows world", right? Because PCs are Windows, Mac OS and Linux.
Yes, in the US, PCs are generally taken to be Window computers. Just the way word usage has evolved here in the US.
As others have said, specing a Mac is not that different than specing a Windows box - all the RAM you can afford, enough HD space for what you do, and then the rest of the money on the CPU. If you plan to run Aperture, get the best available video card as well - Aperture likes all the video card it can get.
In terms of viruses and malware, there is something to be said about a 'carefree' internet and online mail experience, which is what you get with a Mac....for at least now anyway.
I know what I have to do and have done so successfully for many years. It's worth it to me to get a computer that I have more control of than one with the proprietary stuff that's more costly to purchase, upgrade and repair. And I decide the configuration of my computer.
While troubleshooting and fixing Macs is not as widely known, the Internet levels the playing field considerably. There's a wealth of information in the Apple user forums alone, not to mention the countless Mac tech web sites. When I wanted to crack the cases of my older Mac laptops to upgrade the hard drives, back before Apple put the instructions in the manual (as they do with the current models), I simply went to ifixit.com, downloaded the DIY instructions, and got the job done for free.
A couple of points: Apple Care is worth it because Apple proprietary parts are expensive to replace, not like your relatively inexpensive standard ATX PC stuff and Apple Care is reasonably priced insurance.
You're very wrong here.
Indeed, there are smart hackers out there. And they hack Mac OS X as easy as Windows.
I am? Please feel free to enlighten me of these rampant OSX viruses that are impairing systems. Fact of the matter is that if you don't give root access, a virus can invade a Mac system, but can do little damage. This is totally the opposite for a Windows based system. Again, feel free to support your comment.
Thanks for the read as it proves my point with the sandboxing comment. Viruses can enter a Mac system, but there is little they can do once there unless they are given root access, which is the key. Windows is different in this regard, and if a virus gets in, can wreak all kinds of havoc on the registry and file system. Certainly gives Paul Cooke job security.
