Thinking about a new laptop...

[John Beef]

It really depends what you go for. Apple right now has, hands down, the best build quality of any laptop on the market. If I were looking at Dell, I would go with a business line laptop to get a 3 year onsite warranty. My company loves lenovo for some reason, but we had TONS of issues with the T540 series laptops and X1 Carbons that I would never use Lenovo personally.

Part of my job is purchasing computers for my department and I would agree with this. Lenovos have a lot of problems. I had to do a full motherboard replacement on one user's Lenovo laptop that she bought for her work here herself (not sure why she did this) and only got a 1 year warranty. The damn thing basically quit after one year and about two months.

I prefer Dells for business purchases. They're just built better and have basically no problems. Maybe one or two out of every hundred we buy. Also, another cool thing about Dells for business is you can buy one port replicator and it will work with every Latitude E-series laptop they make, going back several years. With Lenovo, they seem to make a different port replicator for every model and it's almost impossible to figure out which one you need if you are trying to buy the correct one for an older model.

As for a Mac, I have a Mac laptop and support Macs at work. There are lots of things to like about Macs. I understand why they have such die-hard fanboys. They're built better. They run very well and for a really long time. But then, if you want a 27" screen to go with your Mac laptop, you get to buy one that costs $1000. If you want a 27" Dell monitor, it's more like $250. Everything Mac is a lot more expensive.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

.... But then, if you want a 27" screen to go with your Mac laptop, you get to buy one that costs $1000. If you want a 27" Dell monitor, it's more like $250. Everything Mac is a lot more expensive.

I totally agree that everything is more expensive for a Mac... but I'm rockin' a $7 HDMI adapter to a $300 Samsung TV with no real problems for the times I need big.

 

[mezzio]

Only thing with Apple right now, is they're trying to get rid of ports and drives, make the units as simple as possible, so a lot of their new laptops don't even have a DVD drive.

That being said, you really won't find anything more reliable or faster. OSX loads so much quicker than Windows.

 

[drdoom8793]

Only thing with Apple right now, is they're trying to get rid of ports and drives, make the units as simple as possible, so a lot of their new laptops don't even have a DVD drive.

That being said, you really won't find anything more reliable or faster. OSX loads so much quicker than Windows.

As things go forward, laptops with built in disc drives will become extinct. As everything goes digital, the disc drive becomes far less import and will be offered simply as an accessory, as Apple does it now. Pretty much every PC brand has examples of models where this is the case as well.

 

[John Beef]

Yeah, I can't think of a reason to have DVD drives any more. It's only 4.7 GB of info. Anything you used to put on a writeable disk can now go on a flash drive or SD card. Faster, smaller, easier, rewritable.

However, I don't agree with the new MacBook air having only one port, and then having to use adapters if you want to use that port with USB, or HDMI, or charge the computer, but none of those things at the same time. That might be useful to someone, but not me!

 

[Brad737]

Thanks for the input so far, guys. It's pretty much a done deal. As tempting as the Mac sounds, I want a DVD drive and USB ports.

 

[mezzio]

Yeah, I can't think of a reason to have DVD drives any more. It's only 4.7 GB of info. Anything you used to put on a writeable disk can now go on a flash drive or SD card. Faster, smaller, easier, rewritable.

However, I don't agree with the new MacBook air having only one port, and then having to use adapters if you want to use that port with USB, or HDMI, or charge the computer, but none of those things at the same time. That might be useful to someone, but not me!

I only brought it up because a lot of us old school users still have programs we still use on disc, and will continue to have them until they give us a digital upgrade for free, lol... I used Photoshop 6 right up until my school gave me CS6, so like 12 years using the same program disc.

 

[rugerpc]

Mac.

I have used both platforms for 31 years.

PCs for specific software only available on that platform, Macs for everything else.

And I HATE the PCs. They are still non-intuitive in function and features even after trying to emulate the Mac interface for decades.

 

[markintime]

No easy answer, is there?

 

[Drew]

Left brained people like PCs

Right brained people like Macs.

That is all there is to it. None is better than the other. Each one has its strengths. For what the top of the line Macbook goes for, you can have any number of boutique builders set you up with a smokin windows based gaming laptop that will blow the mac out of the water in terms of performance. Personally, I find apple products too limiting. I am a gamer and I like to tinker, both which are non-starters on the mac. The software and interfaces are wonderful and they are intuitive though. However, todays Macbook is simply an iphone on steroids.

 

[garrett]

Hehe... You PC users sound like dudes comparing their Carvin to a PRS. Spec wise they sound equal or maybe even better than... but once you get the thing in your hands for a few weeks, you'll know whats up.

Totally agree. MacBook build quality is unmatched, and the things just plain WORK. Nowhere near the drama of dealing with Windows. Macs have always used the tech specs more efficiently, so just comparing numbers isn't enough.

If you use the iPad and iPhone, the integration is fantastic.

I've been living just fine without a DVD drive for a year and a half now. Actually longer, because the DVD drive on my previous MacBook died a good while before I got the new laptop. I think I've missed the disc drive once or twice, but it wasn't a major issue.

 

[Mixstar]

This Mac desktop provided a nice kitty loo when it failed.

 

[Blues Trucker]

They all break when you drop them on a tile floor. I sure do miss my mac. Windows doesn't work well. It just doesnt. That's why its up to 10 now.
The reason I don't have a mac right now is because I have guitars instead.

 

[andross182]

They all break when you drop them on a tile floor. I sure do miss my mac. Windows doesn't work well. It just doesnt. That's why its up to 10 now.
The reason I don't have a mac right now is because I have guitars instead.

Thats not exactly sound logic. Apple puts out a new OS every year as well, so if you were really going to split hairs, since Windows XP launched in 2001, Microsoft has put out 6 operating systems, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10. Apple Put out OSX 10.0 in 2001, and we are now on 10.10, which by my count is TEN operating systems compared to Microsofts six...:biggrin:

 

[John Beef]

I only brought it up because a lot of us old school users still have programs we still use on disc, and will continue to have them until they give us a digital upgrade for free, lol... I used Photoshop 6 right up until my school gave me CS6, so like 12 years using the same program disc.

Holy smokes! You're running the software off the disk? Like, not just the installation files are contained on a disk, but you're actually executing disk based programs? I can only imagine how awful the performance of that would be with an optical drive.

 

[andross182]

I only brought it up because a lot of us old school users still have programs we still use on disc, and will continue to have them until they give us a digital upgrade for free, lol... I used Photoshop 6 right up until my school gave me CS6, so like 12 years using the same program disc.

Rip it to an ISO and than install Virtual Clone Drive and mount the disc!

 

[John Beef]

Another mark against Lenovo in my tech news this AM:

Lenovo used shady 'rootkit' tactic to quietly reinstall unwanted software
Even when users reinstalled a clean version of Windows on some Lenovo devices, the software would still reappear.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/lenovo-rootkit-ensured-its-software-could-not-be-deleted/

So, say your system's firmware has a flaw that gets exploited by a hacker. Your computer starts doing strange things, so you decided to wipe and reinstall the OS. The hacker's software would end up right back in your brand new OS install and render the machine useless.

 

[mezzio]

Holy smokes! You're running the software off the disk? Like, not just the installation files are contained on a disk, but you're actually executing disk based programs? I can only imagine how awful the performance of that would be with an optical drive.

lol, no, just the install discs, I'm too lazy to rip and keep track of ISO and serial files

Thats not exactly sound logic. Apple puts out a new OS every year as well, so if you were really going to split hairs, since Windows XP launched in 2001, Microsoft has put out 6 operating systems, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10. Apple Put out OSX 10.0 in 2001, and we are now on 10.10, which by my count is TEN operating systems compared to Microsofts six...:biggrin:

You forgot Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, NT (and all the versions of that), 95, 98, 2000, server (and all the versions)... lets not forget all the service packs.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

This Mac desktop provided a nice kitty loo when it failed.

:spitcoffee:

 

[alantig]

Started on Windows back when it was Windows -2.0 (it ran on stone tablets). Wanted to try Macs for a long time but never quite made the jump. When my parents finally wanted a computer, we got them a Mac, if for no other reason than there was (then) less concern (but not no concern) about hitting malware and other nasty stuff. That led to us getting a Mac, and, other than for work, we've been pretty much all Mac ever since. I have XP and Win 7 running in a VM on one Mac (although I haven't used either in a while), and we bought a new laptop when work switched remote solutions and XP was no longer supported (that was the announcement - as it turns out, it was, and still is). The laptop is 7, came with install discs for 8 (never used them - just made sure they were in the box).

I honestly can't think of a compelling reason to recommend a Win box to anyone other than if that's what you're familiar with and you don't want to learn the Mac OS. It's not a horribly steep learning curve, but even all these years later, there are things that are second-nature to me in Windows that I have to look up on the Mac. Then again, there are things that are second-nature to me in DOS that I have to look up in Win, so...

Macs are more expensive, but I'm in the "you get what you pay for" camp. And what I got was far fewer headaches. I don't miss the days of tearing open the box and configuring jumpers and IRQs, and I don't miss fighting some of the conflicts I hit on my work machines. Which is not to say the Macs have been trouble-free - I've had one hard drive failure in 25 years, and it was a Mac.