Are most Aspies Microsoft people.

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No, i see operating systems as a tool. I use some Linux Live CDs, Virtual machines with both Windows and Linux and fully installed OS on hardware. It depends on what i need to do my job or what i'm doing at home.

i.e. i NEED a windows machine to play games, run Reason on and so on, but some things can only be done on Linux, so i NEED that too.

The point is Apple is technically "niche" in every market.

Apple products are popular to a degree, due the products and Apple services.

Apple has good customer service (for the most part), I can schedule an appointment at my local Apple Store and they will fix it within 2 days unless they are busy.

They have nice employees, unlike other companies.
You can use their online portal to have them call you and schedule appointments for free.
Though it does cost money outside of your warranty to call Apple's 800 number for phone support.
Sometimes Apple even gives you a new product, if they cannot fix your existing product.

HP on the other hand, has generally horrible customer, which takes hours just to get a hold of someone.
Then it normally takes weeks to have your product serviced and repaired.
If something bad happens on happens on their end to your product, they charge your for it (this happened to someone I knew).

Dell can be just as bad.

Apple products are regularly rated higher than the competition by Consumer Reports, PC world, and the other tech sites and publications.

Apple products also come with tons of free Apple software.

You get on OS X:
iMovie (decent video editing program)
iBooks (Apple's e-reader program, syncs fully with iOS version)
iBooks Author (ebook maker)
Photos (this free with 10.10.3 update this spring, which is a decent photo storage and editing program)
Garageband (Music creation and editing tool)
Gamecenter (equivalent of XBL app on Windows)
FaceTime (You can video chat with anyone on OS X and iOS)
iTunes (The OS X version works like charm)
Mail (a decent email client, fully syncs with the iOS version)
Maps (decent map program, fully syncs with the iOS version)
Messages (decent IM app, fully works with all the major IM programs)
Notes (decent note taking app, fully syncs with iOS version)
Photobooth (a decent video recorder and picture taker with your built in webcam)
xCode (for those who want to program on OS X and iOS, only available to OS X)
Preview (it lets you view your photos, text objects, PDFs and most file formats)
iCalendar (great calendar app)
Pages (it's better than Word 2013)
Keynote (it's better than PowerPoint 2013)
Numbers (it good spreadsheet program, not a full replacement for Excel).
PDF readability and editing is built in to OS X, so you don't need Acrobatic reader and editor.

This is all right out of the box for free on every new Mac.

Windows would have me buy all this stuff.
There are tons of features and other apps I didn't list.

iOS has:
Pages
Numbers
Keynote
They all sync with iCloud allowing you to read and edit all the same files you made on Mac.
Health (a great health app with tons of options, it also works with other apps)
Apple Pay (only on iPhone 6 and up, great for those who want a safe way to use their credit cards).
Mail (syncs fully with OS X version, usable with most email accounts)
Photo
Calendar
iTunes (syncs with your OS X and Windows version)
Video player
FaceTime
Stocks
Photobooth
Notes
Reminders
Maps (syncs with the OS X version and provides you with turn by turn directions)
Voice memos
Calculator (has a scientific mode)
Siri
Touch ID
Podcasts player
Passbook (for digital cards and tickets)
Compass
Messages (allows you to message anyone on iOS and OS X and send file transfers to them).

All comes installed
Probably missing some.

If I had a 2012 Mac or later, I could use hands off and send my phone calls to my Mac from my iPhone (or to any other iOS device).
It also allows you to send files and continue doing what you were doing on any program that also exists on iOS.

Apple products also are optimized, which leads to very few issues in using them.
Apple products also retain their value, I can still sell my 5s for at least $200 AMERICAN!
I could sell my late 2011 Macbook Pro for at least $1300 if not more with all the software I have.

I could by a new Macbook Pro and recoup half my costs by selling my current one.

No other PC manufacturer and phone manufacturer has their products bundle with that much software, that has deep integration, that retains their value over the years.

I've run Linux Mint as my primary OS for over a year & a half & am pretty happy with it, despite some of the quirks. During that time though, I've always had at least one working Windows install on a dual boot to do things I can only do on Windows. (Games, Work that requires Windows programs, etc.)

In terms of Mac vs. PC for me over the past 20+ years I've found PCs to be less expensive, more configurable, easier to fix & longer lasting than Macs.
I've never really had access to large amounts of money, so being able to throw some parts together for a couple hundred bucks & have a decent fully functional system which will last for years has always really been a big selling point for me for PCs.
Apple & Macs on the other had were & still are all fully proprietary, expensive, difficult to reconfigure & fix, and become obsolete & pretty unusable after a few years as hardware changes and OSes are upgraded.
This is even true of the iPhones.

So sure, if you have & will likely continue to have access to plenty of money to spend on computers & devices, Apple & Macs are a great way to go, especially now that they run a Unix based OS on Intel chipsets.
If you're like me & you need your computer equipment to be as inexpensive, configurable, and long-lasting as possible, I'd stick with PCs.

That being said I loathe Windows & Microsoft to some large extent for reasons that go back to how Microsoft gained its PC OS near-monopoly & how that has continued to this day to force its inferior products down the the throats of IT professionals worldwide.

Actually iPhones are supported longer than Android OEMs support their phones.
A typical Android OEM phone, only gets two OS upgrades before the OEM ends support even though the phones can still run the newest Android OS.
The Android OEMs purposely withhold updates and OS upgrades to force the Android users to upgrade regularly.

iPhone 4 is able to run iOS7, iPhone 4s can run 8.
Samsung quit giving Galaxy S4 updates after the 1.5 year mark, to force them to buy new phones
You can root your Samsung phones to runt the current Android, but Samsung won't fix them.
Samsung does this for all of their phones and release new hardware faster than all the other phone makers.
Also Samsung Galaxy S6 (announced on March 1st), doesn't have a removable battery and memory card slot.
HTC typically gives one year of updates for their phones.
Though you can install the new Android updates if you root your phone, though HTC won't fix it.

Every Android OEM will gives you 1-1.5 years of support of their Android skin before stopping updates.
Their hardware can run updates to 5.0 stock Android, but they try to block you from doing it.

Apple is the best at supporting their phones, with each model of iPhone get 4 years of support.
Google is the best Android OEM when it comes to software support, though they don't go as far as Apple

As for Macs most 2008 can run Yosemite (current OS X), even though Apple doesn't "officially" support them.
This is longer than most PC OEMs and Microsoft support PCs.

Microsoft was given a big earful when Windows 8 came out and a large chunk of the PC market couldn't fully run Windows 8, without doing upgrades.

Though to be fair Microsoft purposely uses each new Windows to force new PC sales.
Anyone who can run Windows 8.1 fully, should be able to run Windows 10 fully.

The point being Macs have longer official market life that rivals high end PCs.
If you run a mid end PC or less, you are looking at 2-4 years of software and driver support.

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As for price:
The cheapest PC you can buy on the market is ~$200 at Walmart, though it has junk specs and runs XP.
The cheapest Mac is $499 Mac Mini without discount (you can regularly get discounts on Macs) and it comes with an iCore 5 processor. This is better than most PCs at the $499 price.
The Macbook Air line is line in price with it's comparable PC ultrabooks
The Macbook Pro beats out it's PC competition on price and specs, due to PC manufacturers clinging to old chipsets and integrated graphics cards due to costs.
The iMac 5k has no PC competition at $2,500. To get a 27" 5K monitor from Dell costs you $2,500 with no PC included (cheapest 5K monitor on the market).
The Mac Pro is supposed to be one of the best workstations money can buy and it is fully customizable and upgradable on your own.

Apple products regularly on discount at many retailers.

The point of the post is that Apple products have longer official support then their competition.
Apple products are no longer expensive compared to PCs running similar specs, thanks to PC OEMs cutting costs to the extreme.

I hardly use anything but Linux and UNIX.

In the old days, I really liked Vax VMS. There are some features there that I would really like to see with the Linux and UNIX operating systems.

I never did like Windows all that much.

From a gamer who invests the most in technology and computers, Microsoft windows all the way. Try running Skyrim with a hundred mods and 4k textures on an Apple Mac. Microsoft also have the highest compatibility rate when it comes to applications and games.

Clash of Clans on an Apple Mac versus The Witcher 3 in 4k on a windows OS, the choice isn't hard for me.

As the above user said, computers are more configurable and Windows supports a wide range of graphics drivers and engines, including Direct x11.2.

The mac just isn't powerful, it's like a toy compared to a high end water cooled rig running a couple of a Nvidia titans or R9 series cards on a 1300w power supply.

To xenocity, why would anyone play Clash of clans in 5k or the few old Mac titles like Bioshock infinite? Macs have an extremely limited game choice. Windows runs every single PC game out there and my 1440p at 120hz monitor cost me £200, there are many 4k 60hz monitors selling for £300-400 now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-CB280HK- ... 2a49aeb6d9

This 5k thing is a gimmick, there are no mac games to play, let alone in 5k. It won't support new technologies like Nividia G Sync or AMD freesync either. You can't change your hardware with a mac, let alone fit anything in it.

Most people just want compatibility with applications and games others use and Windows provides that.

In the 90's? What version was this? I haven't had any trouble with Windows 7 or 8.1, they run every program I ever need.

Maybe people study better on Linux or iOS because there aren't as many good games or apps to cause distractions.

On the contrary, I find my productivity goes down the drain when I'm using GNU/Linux, because there are just so many fun things to tweak and screw around with! Ironically however, I find my Xubuntu install works better with my printer/scanner than Windoze does. Heck, out of the box, Xubuntu and most other GNU/Linux distros are more polished and complete than any version of Windoze, since Windoze comes with very little in terms of included software or device drivers, as well as a horrible update system. Neither OS is perfect, but I find that Windoze is much more time consuming in terms of how long it takes to get working properly, with all the proper security updates and such.

As far as Macs go, they have OpenEmu. That alone makes me jealous. It may just be another frontend for RetroArch, but it's a frontend that looks extremely slick, and for some bullheaded reason they won't port it to any other OS. Retroarch's default UI, in comparison, is a total POS.



Ironically, I've heard that much of the original Windows NT design philosophy was inspired by VMS. I've never played with VMS myself, but I think it would be pretty neat.

I used to love Microsoft, I liked how customisable it was. I even had a Windows-based PDA before the iPhone came out and thought it was vastly superior. Plus I was forced to use an iMac years ago and it was dreadful. I used to build my own systems because I needed powerful computers for work. Eventually I decided I needed the hardware power of a Mac for work purposes but wanted to continue using Windows so I used the Mac as dual-boot with OS X and Windows 7 and it was better than previous computers I'd used. I started using OS X and realised how intuitive it was. Best of all, it never crashes, it never loses an hour's work for absolutely no reason, no viruses and I never want to throw it out of the window or stamp on it. When I have to use Windows at work now I realise just how sluggish and useless it is, but sadly a lot of software I need is not available on OS X yet. One of the real benefits of Apple for me is that I work away from a desk a lot of the time and having an iPhone and iPad which seamlessly integrates with my desktop makes my life very easy.

Apple solders RAM onto their motherboards and iPhone batteries definitely aren't user-replacable either. iOS was completely ganked from Palm OS & WebOS anyway, otherwise no way could it have been as popular as it has. FFR Palm OS & WebOS both had a Linux core. Unless you can swap out everything your computer uses or runs, at some level you're being scammed or feeding the publicity monster for others to be scammed.

Anything can crash, as a software tester I've seen hundreds if not thousands of OSX crashes. Viruses, trojans, malware and botnets include every variety of machine imaginable, including the ones in your pockets. In truth the most secure and often most intuitive option is choosing unicorn devices - aging hardware and kernel with really nice GUI. MeeGo Linux & Fedora are great examples of this. Honorable mention to Elementary OS although it's not my choice. The only Windows rev which hasn't bluescreened on me at least once is 10, and 8.1 has an indestructible registry error I can't seem to squish, and a machine running it and configured as a server on a Microsoft internal domain has a target on its' back for BSOD.

Macs are schematically identical to PCs except they run weird UNIX and are full of hardware rootkits making their parts impossible to reuse, and they're manufactured in little more than sweatshops. You'd be hard pressed to find a computer more wasteful than a Mac.

Stop fanboying. It's only getting you ripped off and lending a noobish demeanor.

The fact that it retains so much value isn't all bad, though I bet it plays into why even if I did have a major preference for apple it would still remain out of my budget. That said I do not have a Dell or an HP....its a Sony Vaio, I had HP desktops before well at least my family did it wasn't just mine and my last lap-top that was given to me was an HP I do remember the customer service being kind of lacking at best and seemed those machines had a talent for developing problems. And all those features are nice, but I probably wouldn't even use half of them...basically I use the internet, play league of legends, organize/transfer music, take/edit pictures but not a ton of other stuff so would not need all those programs anyways. I think apple is a good investment, especially if someone needs a more top of the line computer and soft-ware but for me it would be kinda silly to get an apple even if I could save up the money since I don't need all that and I don't have any other apple devices so don't need an apple computer that would be more compatible with them. I do have a PS3 which is also sony and my smart phone is an LG model that runs android.

But I get what you mean I think the apple image is popular, but its not necessarily reflected by how many people actually own apple products compared to other electronics companies.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 08 Mar 2015, 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

So you would definitely say that Microsoft is better for gaming than Apple? As of now the only PC game I really play is League of Legends but even so if I should upgrade to a new computer....if Microsoft is better for gaming I will probably stick with that rather than consider apple.

Basically what the "superuser"(s) in this crowd are getting at is that Apple is pretty much just a design company. They slap a brand on everything no matter how benign and tout themselves as the industry standard in pretty much every regard. They don't build the infrastructure of their OS, they don't build anything with simplicity of repairs in mind and they don't build anything remotely frugal. Cupertinites might mention the Mini, but the Intel NUC undercuts it by miles.

Also, Thinkpads/Centres & VAIOs as well as Dell have tons of discounts for students, nonprofits and open source folks. Anodization & Gorilla Glass =/= IT security.

You can run Windows within Parallel or VMware on OS X or install Windows via Bootcamp on the hard drive as a native OS.

I run Windows via Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro and fully game without any trouble.
Hell my Macbook Pro runs Windows better than any Windows PC OEM that I've used.

How is it that my Mac runs Windows better than My cousins brand new HP Laptop?
Or all the other people I know with newer PCs?

Because your Mac is an expensive PC.