Apple obsession or delusion

[boxst]

I've noticed this shift toward Apple hardware. I was sat in a meeting with 30 people yesterday and a good 80% of them had some form of MacBook (from Air to Retina Pro). Two years ago it would probably have been less than 10%.

Personally I like my MacBook Air as an item of quality and beauty, but actually prefer Windows (so have it running in Fusion for Office).

[clonmult]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I tend to think that its more like comparing a Seat to an Audi. Same underneath, different up top.

[clonmult]

nitrodave said:

Your mate is right, I would go with a mac any day over a windows machine, for business and pleasure.

Their lifespan is much greater, hold their value longer, no poxy anti-virus running in the background, they boot up in a matter of a few seconds. Just a far better and slicker experience.

I only use micorsoft PC's at work because I have no choice, and I hate them. Constant updates, goes sluggish every now and then, clunky interface...

I've heard plenty of people complaining about their Macs slowing down. And there are viruses on Macs ... and my Windows 8.1 tablet boots in seconds as well.

Always found the windows interface to be fairly clean and efficient. Although Windows 8.1 without a touchscreen is terrible - just install a start menu shell and its back to the Windows 7 way of working.

[Tycho]

nitrodave said:

Your mate is right, I would go with a mac any day over a windows machine, for business and pleasure.

Their lifespan is much greater, hold their value longer, no poxy anti-virus running in the background, they boot up in a matter of a few seconds. Just a far better and slicker experience.

I only use micorsoft PC's at work because I have no choice, and I hate them. Constant updates, goes sluggish every now and then, clunky interface...

My anti-virus makes no difference to my 2 1/2 year old Win 7 laptop and usually the sluggish performance of work computers is down to the IT dept rather than the OS in my experience.

[Bikerjon]

SBDJ said:

Not sure how you figure that; PCIe flash drives have been available to PCs for a very long time, as has thunderbolt. As for retina, there are PCs available with high resolution displays too - you can get laptops with 4k displays for example....

Indeed you can, but they're not *widely* available. it's still very much in the realms of geek tech in the PC market, yet apple brings it to the mainstream.

[J4CKO]

Mac stuff is very nice but its for consumers and certain desktop stuff, I work with databases and other heavy duty Enterprise Stuff where there isn't an Apple Logo to be seen, basically they make very nice toys and do very well from it.

[boyse7en]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

So that means that, for the majority of the inept, non-techie, non-IT pros that a Mac should be the default choice.

If I buy my mum (as an example) a computer, she wants it to email/web/print etc and will no doubt install something that looks nice/she is told to by an email/is malware/whatever. If it still works properly after that, without requiring intervention or repair, surely that is a good thing?

[bitchstewie]

J4CKO said:

Mac stuff is very nice but its for consumers and certain desktop stuff, I work with databases and other heavy duty Enterprise Stuff where there isn't an Apple Logo to be seen, basically they make very nice toys and do very well from it.

And fair play to them - people say Apple don't "get" enterprise and I suspect that actually they do, they've simple decided that they don't want to go there.

Ignore the fact that it's Christmas, just go in an Apple Store on any day of the week and stuff is flying off the shelves - they make so much money off consumer stuff that right now I just don't think they need the hassle of putting in place the infra to offer "proper" enterprise systems and support.

[boyse7en]

J4CKO said:

Mac stuff is very nice but its for consumers and certain desktop stuff, I work with databases and other heavy duty Enterprise Stuff where there isn't an Apple Logo to be seen, basically they make very nice toys and do very well from it.

Windows stuff is very nice but its for nerds, geeks and databases and boring stuff, I work with graphics and other heavy duty design software where there isn't an Windoze Logo to be seen, basically MS make dolled-up calculators and do very well from it.

</irony>

[SBDJ]

Bikerjon said:

Indeed you can, but they're not *widely* available. it's still very much in the realms of geek tech in the PC market, yet apple brings it to the mainstream.

I'm slightly confused by that logic.

Take thunderbolt for example - Apple include it on a small number of models and it's mainstream. The likes of ASUS, Lenovo, Sony, Acer and HP have or had laptops with Thunderbolt and yet that's geek realm?

The same for retina laptops. Apple have their MBP with retina on two models and that's mainstream - yet again ASUS, Lenovo, Toshiba and Acer have 4k laptops.

Now admittedly you won't always find these techs on a £300 PC world special, but that isn't exactly a fair comparison. Plenty of people buy high spec PC laptops, otherwise manufacturers wouldn't make them!

Then of course there is that large market of PC users who self build and spec themselves - yes, a geek audience for the most part admittedly, but I don't think that diminishes their value.

[Leithen]

J4CKO said:

Mac stuff is very nice but its for consumers and certain desktop stuff, I work with databases and other heavy duty Enterprise Stuff where there isn't an Apple Logo to be seen, basically they make very nice toys and do very well from it.

Unix was never going to make it in Enterprise......

[WinstonWolf]

'Doze is an easier target, makes more sense to crack it at the mo.

[RobDickinson]

Vizsla said:

'it's much better than Microsoft/Windows systems, it's state of the art, much faster, whereas Windows (Dell, HP, Compaq etc etc) is old technology, really clunky' (eh?)

Well thats utter bullst from the get go.

Apple release machines on a cycle that means they are often a step behind the technology curve.

They source the same hardware as Dell, HP etc. Intel CPU's and intel chipsets, same HDD's, IMO a poorer solution for hybrid drives. Limited expanability and use of laptop parts limits perfomance.


For perfomance an iMac is not great. But then if he is running office on it any machine from the last 5 years wouyld be fine.

Suckered into 27" iMac for office 365 he sounds a prick. Oh wait he is a managment consultant, I guess taken as read there..

[Xaero]

I have a £1.2k 2014 HP laptop at work running the latest version of windows. It's fine, but I'd choose a mac over it any day of the week, my macbook pro (2012 retina model) would probably fetch more now than the 3 month old HP would too.

It's not just pure components, as yes you get more value/power for your money on windows, but the whole package is more refined, screen, keyboard, trackpad, boot up speed, power adaptor, etc. All minor things on their own which window users point out equivalents for, but still windows throws up odd errors that just doesn't happen on mac's. They don't seem to slow with age either like windows do.

I've been away from windows for about 3 years now, and my work laptop was my first experience of moving back into windows (apart from when my parents call me to fix their windows computers), and I'm pleased I've stayed away, about the only good thing windows has is compatibility and reminding me why I should stick to mac.

[audi321]

I agree with those on here who are saying you're trying to compare a £400 windows with a £1500 mac machine. But it's mid range that the mac's take over.

Mid range and you'll get yourself a £900 windows laptop and stick it against a £900 MBP and the MBP will beat it for 'most' things an average person will throw at it, and be nicer to look at and use (trackpad etc) - (ok games maybe not, but even then a £900 windows machine ain't going to be great at high spec games).

And it'll still be worth £600 in 3 years, where the windows machine will probably be almost ready for chucking away.

[Kermit power]

bhstewie said:

People say Apple don't "get" enterprise and I suspect that actually they do, they've simple decided that they don't want to go there.

Not true. For the iPad at least, they're desperate to get into Enterprise, hence the agreement signed with IBM for the development of Enterprise-class apps.

[ZesPak]

audi321 said:

Mid range and you'll get yourself a £900 windows laptop and stick it against a £900 MBP and the MBP will beat it for 'most' things an average person will throw at it, and be nicer to look at and use (trackpad etc) - (ok games maybe not, but even then a £900 windows machine ain't going to be great at high spec games).

Took me all of 5secs to find:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/lap...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/lap...

That'll have you a low spec MBP with the amazing amount of 4GB RAM and stuff.

audi321 said:

And it'll still be worth £600 in 3 years, where the windows machine will probably be almost ready for chucking away.

Sure, 3 years, the average lifespan of a £900 laptop
Delusional or obsession, I really don't know what takes the lead with some people.

[RobDickinson]

We'll have the usual apple how well they are built statement soon too...

Being the 5th most reliable laptop brand behind some big names we all know.

A big big apple fanboy mate I know has just moved to a surface pro 3 and loving it, I know its a nice machine but the fact he is so into it surprised me.

[JimmyTheHand]

J4CKO said:

Mac stuff is very nice but its for consumers and certain desktop stuff, I work with databases and other heavy duty Enterprise Stuff where there isn't an Apple Logo to be seen, basically they make very nice toys and do very well from it.

pretty much all the heavy DBs and most of the large Enterprise stuff I see say RedHat when I shell into it. We do use Windows Servers, but it is amazing how often things like Sharepoint is running slow again

[George111]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Both cars, both get you from A to B in the dry. One does it faster, quieter, smoother and in greater comfort and greater reliability.

If you look at the quality of a Mabook Pro at £1300 and a basic Dell laptop at £400 the Apple is so, so much better, not just the hardware but the software, the integration, the backup, the support . . . it's all streets ahead of Dell and I'm not knocking Dell, good products especially their servers, but Apple tablets and laptops are so far ahead in terms of quality, reliability, usability and even . . . style. . . . that Dell/HP/Asus/ etc didn't see which way they went.