Why buy a Mac?

sdfuk

sdfuk

sdfuk

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Hi

My wife has been persuaded by her brother to buy a Mac computer. I know that the look nice and that you don't have the clutter that you do with a normal PC but what are the pro's / con's over a PC? Sorry it's a noob question but I've never had a MAC and always used a PC for the last 15 years.

all she'll need it for are photos/email and some business apps such as word excel etc.

cheers for any reasons to buy/not to buy

S
 
Biggest reason to buy is that you turn it on and use it for several years without having any issues at all. I love coming home to my Mac after supporting a Windows environment all day.
 
Caged said:
Biggest reason to buy is that you turn it on and use it for several years without having any issues at all. I love coming home to my Mac after supporting a Windows environment all day.
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He speaks the truth, I spent a long time using a PC at home but I'd never go back now.

I work in IT and I spend large portions of my day using windows servers but when I get home I don't want to spend forever playing with my home computer to get it working just so, I don't want to spend time downloading 2 dozen security updates every month or updating AV software or windows defender or whatever else to make sure I don't get spyware.

I just want my computer to work, check email, edit photos, play music - the usual stuff, and thats why I love my Mac, because it always works, no hassle and no effort. I could get a PC running perfectly but I don't have the time to play around anymore - my computer has to be functional.

Answering your original question, it'll be good for email, photos, office stuff. Downsides are it's more expensive than a equivilent PC usually, you may have difficulty getting some software for Mac (though there is a whole world of very cool software available)

And it won't play games very much...
 
All good points stated above^^.

The only problem I have is with gaming and storage. I'd like to upgrade to a larger HDD, but I doubt I'd get one without having to purchase a new MB - Or, an external drive.
 
All the hard drives are upgradeable with varying effort. To be honest I'm quite happy using a external drive with my macbook pro, but it'll vary between users on that point.
 
If she is somewhat computer illiterate then a Mac would be far more forgiving.

If her brother heard her mention "Editing photos" and immediately assumed she needs a Mac, then it's not always true. You can build a far quicker photo editing machine in PC form for less money.

If she wants something for general computing use, IE no games, small scale photo editing, IE not medium format TIFF files, and doesnt mind spending a bit more.. A Mac would be a good choice.
 
as said above,i am pretty new to macs, about a year now but there is no way i would ever have a pc again.we now have 2 macs,macbook for my wife and an imac for me.just saving up now to buy 4 more macs. (for the kids)
 
I think as far as software is concerned it is the most pleasant experience I've had with a computer in a long time. Having used various iterations of Windows and Linux, the experience to be had with a Mac doesn't come close. And whilst like all new OS's come with a learning curve, OS X is very forgiving for newbies and pros alike.

Hardware-wise? Well you pay a premium for pretty solid engineering, some kind of upgradability depending on the product line and an attractive design to top it all off. Given how well integrated the hardware is with the software, it's bound to last longer than your average PC as well.

Granted, for all those tasks you mentioned that your wife will be performing can all be easily done on a off the shelf PC from your nearest electrical outlet and at a lower price too. But as far as the whole user experience is concerned, I'd rather pay the premium. I strongly suggest you and your missus get down to a retail store if you could, and play with it their computers in person. I think only then you can decide whether to grab a Mac or PC.
 
As said above, Mac just works. No need to mess around configuring the OS every day and messing around with security updates. Also the OS is a lot easier to use than windows I find. So if you have experience in windows then you will get used to Mac in no time. I would love have to a Mac as my main desktop now, but I can really afford it. Although I do have a Macbook and I love it :).

Plus if you don't like OS X which I doubt will be the case, you can dual boot both OS X and Windows XP or Vista on your mac. You can even dual boot it with linux :).
 
I think that the "Just Works" mantra is way overstated. Macs likely are more stable and user friendly than general Windows PCs, but there are still plenty of problems experienced by users all the time. Let's save "Just Works" until it is bullet proof :)

I like them simply because they are more pleasant to use day to day. The GUI is much more elegant and functional, there's a lot less visual and feature clutter in the OS, keyboard shortcuts are a lot more standardised between applications, windows are distinct from applications and the average quality of third party software seems higher. I think that because so many people spend the majority of their home computer time inside a web browser (an experience which is largely the same on all operating systems), it comes down to little things like those making a big difference.

Talking hardware, then they're undeniably well put together and well designed machines.
 
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wush said:
I think that the "Just Works" mantra is way overstated. Macs likely are more stable and user friendly than general Windows PCs, but there are still plenty of problems experienced by users all the time. Let's save "Just Works" until it is bullet proof :)
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Obviously nothing's perfect, but on the whole that motto is very true.

Could you unbox a brand new, unmolested Dell, plug in a DSLR camera full of RAW files, and have them importing into your photo editor (supplied and pre-installed) almost as soon as you've plugged it in? It's things like that that it refers to. The vast majority of things are so easy the workings of the machine become transparent.
 
You pay a premium for a much more user friendly operating system. That is often worth it, especially for less technical users. I wanted one but couldn't really justify the extra cost when I can get a PC to do what I want, but if you want less hassle and more enjoyment, go for the Mac.
 
bigredshark said:
H

I work in IT and I spend large portions of my day using windows servers but when I get home I don't want to spend forever playing with my home computer to get it working just so, I don't want to spend time downloading 2 dozen security updates every month or updating AV software or windows defender or whatever else to make sure I don't get spyware.
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I take it you've never heard of "automatic updates" or a virtual machine then?
 
I think a mac would be a good choice for the applications your wife wishes to use. iPhoto comes with every Mac and is a very easy to use yet quite powerful program, ideal for sorting out and adjusting your snaps. Mail is the email program which comes on every Mac and is very good, again very simple to use. You can buy Microsoft Office for Mac which would give you all the standard office applications found on PC's.

Check out the videos here and you will get an idea of the applications found on Mac's:

http://www.apple.com/uk/ilife/

As for paying a premium, you will forget about it as soon as you start using it and you don't pay that much more.
 
1337z0r said:
As said above, Mac just works. No need to mess around configuring the OS every day and messing around with security updates. Also the OS is a lot easier to use than windows I find. So if you have experience in windows then you will get used to Mac in no time. I would love have to a Mac as my main desktop now, but I can really afford it. Although I do have a Macbook and I love it :).
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I find I have to reboot my Mac more often than I do my PC for automatic updates, plus it takes a hell of a lot longer.
 
Wicksta said:
I find I have to reboot my Mac more often than I do my PC for automatic updates, plus it takes a hell of a lot longer.
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Ok then.

Longer, yes, it applies updates differently to Windows, that's why. More often? Maybe. But at least it doesn't pester you with a pop-up every 5 minutes asking you to reboot...
 
Wicksta said:
I find I have to reboot my Mac more often than I do my PC for automatic updates, plus it takes a hell of a lot longer.
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Doesn't that just mean Apple are fixing things to make the OS better? I like the fact they are keeping on top of the problems found in OS X. I much prefer the way Macs handle updates and personally I find it doesn't take that long at all.
 
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