Buying a New Computer

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Sometime in the next few months (maybe sooner) I'm thinking about buying a new computer for myself. I'm debating if I should stick with a regular PC or go with a new Mac Computer. I do understand the differences and the advantages.

Does everyone here think it's worth buying a Mac Computer over a regular PC?

I would like to hear everyone's opinions.

I think that the answer is "it depends" . . .

My son bought a mac recently after having a PC that he HATED. He loves the Mac, mostly because he can do design work on it (he's in urban planning). I think it's just more "intuitive" for him to use.

I, on the other hand, really would LIKE to buy a Mac, but am stuck using software that will only transfer to a PC (Ebay . . .) so I opted out and bought a Toshiba. Can't wait to get it on Wednesday!

My guess is that Macs are truly great (at least that's what I read, after doing LOTS of research on the subject), and are especially useful for people in design/artistic/etc. fields. I am limited in my knowledge though -- can't really tell you why PC's might be better.

I have Windows on a partition on my Mac. The more recent Macs with Intel inside, LOL, can run Windows as either a separately partitioned boot volume using Bootcamp, or simultaneously, using software like Parallels or VM Ware. I used Bootcamp because it came with the Mac, and installed the Windows 7 RC download that will die next spring, because that was also free. It works very smoothly but I never seem to use it.

My humble opinion is that the mac is way overpriced.

If you bought a PC, you could run Windows or Linux.

If you bought a Mac, you could run Mac, Windows or Linux.

Obviously the Mac provides more choice.

It's probably a better choice - IF you have the spare cash. If not, consider carefully the advantages of a dual boot system with Linux AND Windows.

That depends what the needs are. Sometimes, you need a computer that will do what you need to do, do it right, do it fast, and be easy to use all at the same time.

Mac.

I have a Mac, and it was the best decision I have ever made.

For general use (outside of gaming), I think OS X is easily the best operating system available, and it can only be run on a Mac. If, however, you have a need to run Windows, or you intend to run Linux anyways, a Mac is not necessarily the best choice because of non-standard design (weird keyboard layout, EFI instead of BIOS) and higher price. It is very high-quality hardware, though- all my friends who bought Dells have their machines fail on them for no real reason, and the Dell batteries in particular are known for ceasing to hold a charge about a month after the warranty expires. So you have to be careful what you buy hardware-wise, and the Macintosh computers are pretty trustworthy in that respect.

I think it's actually getting hard to mess up buying a computer. Macs are good for graphics work; Windows for everything else. Macs are higher in price, PCs are 'dirt cheap' compared to a few years ago.

honestly, money is NOT a big deal since the computer will last more than a year, so the "extra cost" is just distributed over time, making NO difference at all.

another vote for Mac.

Really? What if I wanted to build my own? That's against terms of service...
But I want to choose my own parts...
No.
I want to run an AMD CPU.
No.
I want to overclock.
...Fine, but the time will be wrong.


At the end of all of that, let's play some Half-Life 2... Wait, that's not available on Mac?


Considering all of that, I see no justification for paying 3 times the price for the same parts.

You fail to realize that 98% of the population DOESN'T WANT to build their computer. They want to open a box, plug in a wire or two, turn it on, and GO.

I'm debating this as well. Not that I really need a new computer... But I keep drooling over those new MacBook Pros (they are just so damn sexy ).

I don't know if I can justify a purchase though, since I mainly use Ubuntu anyway (I'm a big fan of open source). How customizable is OS X? It is Unix-based, so it should be familiar to me, but I fear that Apple may have hidden or locked down all the config files to make it more "user friendly", or to avoid piracy. But still, It comes with Garage Band, which seems to be good if you are an amateur guitarist like myself. I have long waited for an easy way to record my playing on a computer. Struggling with audio divers in Linux just doesn't do it for me.

I've promised to buy myself something after the exam this week. It is tempting.

Its not. Its just not.

The mac is a beautiful machine but you are not going to be able to mess around with the menus and the themes are quite limited(at least in respects to linux). You wont have alternate desktop managers like gnome, KDE, openflux, xcfe, and so on.

Other than that though, it is fully Posix compliant. The file system is close to linux, but it isnt just a matter of config files being locked or missing: what uses them is just not there.

Like others have said, Mac is plug in and go, but its at a price of flexibility. Its hardened against corruption by the user, but again, the price is access to the inner workings.

I am going to hold off (and ask you to) until Orwell replies. Hes quite familiar with OSX and can better inform you.

You have failed to take my post in context. I'm fully aware that most people don't want to build their own computers, but I was dispelling the laughable notion that the Mac provides more choice than the PC. If you don't have the option to use whatever parts you want, then you don't have more choice, you have less. Whether most people want to build their own computers is irrelevant; even if they don't want to, the PC gives them a choice, the Mac doesn't.

That's not true. You can add PCI cards, you can add graphics cards, and sound cards. You can add your own hard drives and other storage options. You can add more memory. The only thing you can't change, is the processor...and even then, who cares?