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["Sil Greene" <quack AT ibiblio.org>]

I'm actually thinking about their habit of selling upgrades, of
(apparently) not providing security fixes for older software, and of their
proprietary habits (as seen with recent iPod upgrades), as opposed to
their post-sales product support.  I agree, the hardware typically is more
robust than PC hardware and it's much rarer that I hear of Macs requiring
repair.  But Apple's pricing and sales practices are not consumer
friendly; from some perspectives they out-proprietize Microsoft, and
*that* is scary.


Now, all that said, I have considered picking up a used G4 machine just
for the hardware, and running some nice Linux or BSD variant on it.  The
beauty of that hardware, without the painful new-hardware-price or
gawd-must-I-deal-with-Apple software.  :)


--s


Evan Zimmerman said:
> I'll speak to the concern over Apple: I've used a Mac for most of my
> computing life, with forays into Linux and a continued forced
> existence with Windows, but I have never found Apple to be a problem
> at all.
>
> I've had a few repairs over time, and each time they were very
> reasonable and fast without the need for a service plan. You might
> hear a lot about this or that production problem, but honestly, I've
> used several machines that I hear people complain about (iBook,
> Powerbooks) and I've never noticed any of those flaws. I think Mac
> users are just unusually bitchy -- expecting perfection. Or I'm lucky,
> but 18 years is a pretty decent lucky streak.
>
> They're much sturdier than pc hardware in my experience however, and
> last longer (ie don't need upgrades incessantly), so any minor cost
> different (usually a coupla hundred bucks) is offset.
>
> Just my cents.
>
>
> Evan
> On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:59:18 -0500 (EST), Sil Greene <quack AT ibiblio.org>
> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Ian Meyer said:
>> > i started thinking about this the other night, and its a nice,
>> > different, flamewar-pronte topic for the list I figured...
>> >
>> > basically, I know a lot of mac users. I also know a lot of people who
>> > think they're great computers, but for one reason or another, don't
>> > have one. My question is simple: for all you non-mac users out there
>> > in INW land, what is the main reason you don't have a mac?
>> >
>>
>> Ooo!  Ooo!  This is easy.
>>
>> (1) price.  If I'm gonna shell out the dough for that machine, I want a
>> good one -- meaning fast, dual procs, lotsa ram -- and those aren't
>> cheap.
>>  When I go to configure my dream G5, I usually end up with a price close
>> to what I paid for my car, so I sleep on it.  Needless to say, I haven't
>> placed that order yet.
>>
>> (2) Apple.  I'm sorry, Apple seems to do a lot of things well, but
>> treating customers right doesn't appear to be one of them.  So when I
>> wake
>> up, after sleeping on my proposed order, I remember what assholes Apple
>> seems to be to their customers and I decide they really don't need my
>> money right now.
>>
>> :-/
>>
>> *plunk, plunk*
>> --s
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
>
> Evan
>
> _________________________
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> http://evanz.org
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