Macintosh laptop vs others, why mac?

JonJ678

JonJ678

JonJ678

Soldato
Joined
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England
First off I will say that I have never owned a Macintosh, though I have occasionally 'used' one. I'm yet another uni student who likes the idea of a laptop, and am trying to determine if a mac is more suitable than the alternatives. Say, a vaio, as this seems a reasonable windows alternative.

On that note, in the interests of keeping this about hardware, please leave the os x vs vista fight out of it. From my perspective I'm forced to pay for at least one of them and I'll run debian anyway.

So, the hardware seems similar. The same intel processors, same speed ram, same hard drives. Does anyone know how the motherboards or power supply systems compare?

The casing is different on each, but it is hard to tell without stripping a mac apart whether the build quality and cooling systems are different. Since such effort goes into the aesthetics, is it fair to say that the internals are pretty much the same?

I know little about screens but would be interested if mac do anything nonstandard here. Battery life seems very good with the mac, I'm sure I'd adapt to the keyboard.

Warranty looks similar. Same attitude of 'void if you do anything to the hardware' that other people follow.

However this is as far as I've got. I can't work out what the fascination is, and here seems a good place to ask. Enthusiasts using Macintosh suggests there's good reason why, and I'd like to know what it is.

In a few days I will visit a 'genius' in one of their stores to ask their opinion and to judge for myself just how arrogant the title is. I will be annoyed if it becomes evident that they know less than me, but pleased if their technical support is competent.

So, what can the fans of Macintosh laptops tell me?

Cheers :)
 
The os is the main draw for me, though I also like a lot of the software. If you're going to run debian it's a waste of money.
 
Oh. So much for that then, I was hoping I'd missed something. You three have spared one of their store workers a difficult conversation, and probably saved me some money. Probably counts as a good deed for the day, cheers
 
As an added point, some people have had success in getting a refund for the price of Windows from the computer manufacturer if they document declining the EULA and erasing Windows. I believe legally you are entitled to such a refund.

As for the original question, as others have said, the hardware is nice but not worth the premium without the whole Mac + Mac OS X tie-in.
 
To be fair, a Macbook Pro is far nicer than any PC laptop I've ever come across - but you do pay for the privilege.

The build quality of them far surpasses anything from the generic PC laptop manufacturers.
 
If you want to run Debian anyway then just get a Dell Latitude / HP EliteBook / ThinkPad. Don't bother with cheap plastic crap.

If you feel like trying out OS X then go for the MacBook Pro.
 
As said above, you can't come and say that you don't want to hear about the operating system because what gives Macintosh's the upper hand is the operating system. Since the switch to Intel the hardware is basically the same as a PC anyway. It's how the OS uses the resources, not how fast the hardware is that counts.
 
What tempts me is that I don't find the MacBook pricing particularly high when you compare to decent laptops sold with Windows. Yes, compared to lower-end plasticky Dell stuff it's pricey, but with the build quality you get with the Mac and the level of refinement of the design, the Vaio is a reasonable comparison.

You can get an MBP for £899, and get at least £100 off that with the student discount. Still couldn't be classed as cheap, but you don't get a lot of Vaio for £800 either.
 
I was a windows guy up until about 3 weeks ago. Bought myself the 13" unibody. When I first opened it and used it the first thing that struck me was the battery life. I've never come across a laptop with such a long battery life.

Initially I was going to give it back and buy a £400 windows equivalent but tbh OSX was the clincher along with boot camp with is great while I'm at work. Shame the battery life drops when using windows, but my intention isn't to use windows anyway, it's just when I'm using it at work.

Now the actual case oozes quality every time I go back to my work laptop i hate the plastic feel of it and the keyboard is also just a joy to use.

My only gripe is the glossy screen which I hate. It's like I'm lugging around a CRT everywhere I go. I'll soon get a anti glare sticker to sort that out though.

Know I know what all the OSX lovers were going on about all this time. I know you don't want to make it a operating system war but unless you just want it for the looks and feel go for something else if your not using OSX and save some money.
 
JonJ678 said:
Umm
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Very hard to work out what you're asking here.

Your requirements:
1. Low cost
2. Laptop form factor
3. Supported on Debian for use with linux applications

Windows 'compliant' lappy
1. Low cost (see refunded windows)
2. Laptop form factor
3. Windows refunded, supported by Debian install and linux apps

Mac
1. Higher cost (paying for design and little features)
2. Laptop form factor
3. OSX, which can't be refunded but you can install debian over it or perhaps run VirtualBox with debian in a VM but some of the functionality may not work as the drivers haven't been sorted. Or use OSX apps but those may not be 100% compatible.

Objectively - that sums up the situation.

If you feel like you want the design then get the Mac as the OSX is really an option but try OSX for a while.

I moved from WinXP on my desk machine to Kubuntu for 1.5 years via dual boot. I then moved from the desktop/kubuntu to my 2007 MacBook Pro with OSX and not looked back.
I've used Parallels to run my work XP install in a VM for two years, along with RH 64bit installs for work applications without problems.

The only issue I have found with going OSX is that some proprietary formats such as MS Office Word exports from openoffice or pages (iWork'09) aren't as good as they should be. Other than that OSX has blown away my kubuntu install in performance (even with my special 64bit, SSE and autovectorise GCC compilation).
 
JonJ678 said:
In a few days I will visit a 'genius' in one of their stores to ask their opinion and to judge for myself just how arrogant the title is. I will be annoyed if it becomes evident that they know less than me, but pleased if their technical support is competent.
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uh?

They're not sales staff, they're tech support. They fix things. Booking time with a genius to see if he knows more than you is a ridiculous notion.

He'll know more than you about fixing Macs, and that's his job.

He may well know much less about Windows than you, but I'm sure you can forgive him that.
 
PardonTheWait said:
uh?

They're not sales staff, they're tech support. They fix things. Booking time with a genius to see if he knows more than you is a ridiculous notion.

He'll know more than you about fixing Macs, and that's his job.

He may well know much less about Windows than you, but I'm sure you can forgive him that.
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That.
 
For running Debian, I'd go for a netbook. :)
OllyM said:
To be fair, a Macbook Pro is far nicer than any PC laptop I've ever come across - but you do pay for the privilege.

The build quality of them far surpasses anything from the generic PC laptop manufacturers.
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Shame the same can't be said for the non-pro macbook, a friend of mine has had her audio jack and mouse button break shortly after the warranty run out!
 
I've been a windows user ever since the first OS from MS arrived. Recently I decided to take the plunge (got a refurb macbook) after getting sick of Windows's general bloat (yes even 7) and pathetic iTunes on the platform.

I've never used OSX in my life, and the closest I've come to it is Mobile OSX on my iPhone lol. Leopard was so incredibly polished and just so good to use that I'm already considering an iMac if I could find room for it.

OSX is the main draw, it does all the same things Windows does yes but it does them so much better. I like the architecture of the OS and the way apps are self contained without scattering crap everywhere. I was pretty gobsmacked when I installed my first app and was like "is that it?".
 
JonJ678 said:
Oh. So much for that then, I was hoping I'd missed something. You three have spared one of their store workers a difficult conversation, and probably saved me some money. Probably counts as a good deed for the day, cheers
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Sorry, had to add this... you're accusing the genius team of arrogance while you talk like that?

I'm not being funny mate, but they're not scared of you, you're not some towering and intimidating fountain of awe-inspiring PC knowledge, and they don't give a **** what you know about PCs anyway, they sell Macs, and they're there to help people, not argue with them. You're not really going about it the right way if you want to get the best from their staff, all you'd get from me when I worked there if you bowled in talking like that would 'I think you'd probably be better off sticking with PCs'... which is all anyone gets when they come in hankering for an argument!
 
PardonTheWait said:
Sorry, had to add this... you're accusing the genius team of arrogance while you talk like that?

I'm not being funny mate, but they're not scared of you, you're not some towering and intimidating fountain of awe-inspiring PC knowledge, and they don't give a **** what you know about PCs anyway, they sell Macs, and they're there to help people, not argue with them. You're not really going about it the right way if you want to get the best from their staff, all you'd get from me when I worked there if you bowled in talking like that would 'I think you'd probably be better off sticking with PCs'... which is all anyone gets when they come in hankering for an argument!
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Read some of his other posts. They get better. :p
 
Oh I missed the bit about booking time with a store worker so you can make yourself feel smug. Enjoy your Linux I guess, keep that stereotype alive!
 
Caged said:
Oh I missed the bit about booking time with a store worker so you can make yourself feel smug. Enjoy your Linux I guess, keep that stereotype alive!
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I'm actually quite amazed that a bunch of Mac users have been out-smugged by a Linux user.
 
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