Community poll forum: Have you ever considered moving to a Mac? Why or why not?

This month I home built a new PC with near top of line hardware. Cost me $1400.
The price difference to a similar spec iMac is negligible, but is more.

Similar with laptops. Top line PC laptops cost about same as MacBook Pro, but admittedly have an abundance of ports compared to MBP.

Apple builds excellent hardware, the OS X betters Windows in overall feel, and upgrading to newer OS X is smoother and changes easier to handle, unlike the gargantuan changes Microsoft pushes that hardware sometimes revolts.

Not saying Mac is perfect, but noticeably better then Windows + Brand X,Y, or Z hardware.

Note:
Windows 3.1 (self built) in 1993.
Macintosh PowerBook 520c 1995.
Using both systems since.

I did the move about 5 yrs ago , kept my PC , because my son didn't like the Mac . Now I have a IMac and a Mac book . When the pc falls it will be all apple

Hi msecour,
Microsoft office is available for Mac,
Google MS Office 2010, I think the 2013 is coming soon,
Regards,

I have Apple PowerBooks and MacBook Pros.

Memory upgrades are always very easy, and use industry standard DIMM's (in fact, I installed my Apple stock 1GB in Toshiba laptop, took it without issue).

Hard drive replacement are also not difficult.

I build PC desktops too, and discover I really don't do upgrades.
When new technology comes along, it's usually not compatible with my motherboard anyway.
Today the need to upgrade parts is very small, usually one has to upgrade the entire machine.

I have enough problems with iTunes. I pay for shows and don't receive them. If that's what Apple does for you, you can keep their products.

I don't believe I ever will.
Everything I need or want is found in my Intel based, Windows machine.
MACS are WAY overpriced for what you get. People who switch to MACS do so because they either believe it will somehow be better, because they have listened to too many commercials, and seen too many ads. Or they think of MACS as some sort of status badge, like it makes them cooler then the poor PC users.

Pro-Apple biased responses, Mr Koo?

How about "Yes, but I decided against it"? It is possible not to be madly in love with the glowing fruit.

I thought about it while I was still on and an XP machine. I didn't like the way Windows 8 was shaping up at the time, and thought that that was going to be my next computer. But then I remembered my old maxim, "You buy the computer for the Software you are going to be using on it, not for all the bells, and whistles it, or the OS has". So I stuck with Microsoft, but made sure that when I bought that new computer that the hardware would be up to date on it for the next seven to ten years, and that it had Windows 7 Pro on it. That way I could download a Virtual copy of Windows XP from Microsoft, for any of my legacy software that weren't compatible with Windows 7. I've had the system for almost a year now, and I think I made the right decision.

If I had gone with a Mac, I would have had to buy all new software for it to do the same job my existing software did. I may be buying more 64 bit programs, but on the hole, from my comparing them to similar Mac programs, I'm getting a better deal. At least that's the way I see it.

Regards,
TMV

Mac computers are the ultimate triumph of form over function, and an almost perfect example of the kind of selfishness that makes the world a more complicated and unpleasant place to live and work in.

Apple's product strategy of relentless, totally proprietary control over hardware and software is so obtuse that it seems a product of a crueler era where you lived in a company town, lived in company dorms, and ate company food, for which they would seize your whole paycheck every week. And Apple's tortious behavior -- that Samsung case is so ridiculous that it makes a mockery of patent law (contrary to that ruling, Steve Jobs did NOT invent the "rounded rectangle shape") -- is particularly unseemly for a company that stole its entire raison d'etre, the mouse-driven, icon-based graphical user interface, from Xerox. It smacks of an astonishing level of hypocrisy and greed.

And their prices! Do they craft their keyboards from platinum? There is no price point, and no performance point, at which Apple products (save the iPod in its various forms) are not completely blown away even by the more pointlessly premium-priced "compatibles," whether in the PC, tablet or smartphone). They do excel, albeit in their usual ridiculously overpriced way, in the music player realm. Apple should focus on this end of its product line exclusively and leave computers and cell phones -- which have to communicate with one another, you know -- to those more interested in actually BEING compatible with others.

Lastly is the area in which Apply truly excels, and that makes all the rest doubly annoying -- their marketing. Here they are the greatest geniuses on earth. They have largely followed the Republican Party strategy of attracting the least knowledgeable audience and then indoctrinating them, by very clever and subtle means including isolation, to hang on Apple's every breath, operating largely as a devoted cult, with Apple in the role of Jim Jones.

Do you REALLY think those "leaks" every time Apple offers up some tiny little incremental change with great advance fanfare are inadvertent? Their cult is thrown into rapture and lines up like they did for bread in 1931 for the privilege of shelling out half a large for something no more capable than about a dozen different products you can get elsewhere for free if you sign up for two years. They are so enthralled that, well, let's see if any of them elect to reply here (it is highly unlikely to be any kind of actual reply and rather just their usual vituperative ad hominem).

Also, I find it increasingly disturbing that this little weekly email is more and more devoted to the problems of the people who play with Apple toys, detracting from the attention paid to the users of real computers. Don't Applist cultists have their own newsletters? Do you think Apple users even WANT to be tech-savvy? If so, why on earth did they shell out SO MANY of their hard-earned dollars on a machine designed for the precise and deliberately chose reason of rendering technical knowledge superfluous?

I mean, I may not need to know how to fix a car to drive a car, but despite Google's recent efforts I still feel I need to know how to drive one rather than do it the Apple way, just turn it on and exist from there in blissful, artfully crafted oblivion.

No, I will never, ever buy a Mac.

Yes, Flatworm's post was a bit extreme, but I have to agree with most of it, if for no other reason than the fact that Apple tries to maintain such control over it's customers computing experience.
I have a serious problem with this type of thinking, and as long a Apple continues along those lines, I, for one, will be steering clear.
And, of course, not being a Mac owner, I also don't know all about it, but I see enough of it in iTunes and my iPhone to want to steer clear.
The fact that Apple lets Jailbreaking go as much as they do is a notable exception.
Somebody over there at least has the smarts to see that permitting jailbreaking is actually to their better interests....
I'm not so stupid to realize if they really wanted to shut down jailbreaking, they would do so in a heartbeat - these hackers ain't THAT much better than the mainstream developers...

Absolutely not. They are far too expensive for what you actually get, and do not give you nearly as much customization options as PCs. Not to mention program compatibility isn't what I would want it to be. They look pretty, but that's their main selling point. Plus Apple is becoming one of 'those' companies. They are getting to the point where their main goal is to squeeze as much money out of people as possible. An example is changing the port on the iPhone 5 just so they can charge people $30+ a pop for those stupid adapter things. There is nothing wrong with mini-USB but no, they have to take the more difficult router. I will stick to my Windows and Linux (preferring the latter more).

Macintosh is esthetically very pleasing. Unfortunately, the Apple business model has been and I expect will continue to be designed to suck every possible penny out of the poor saps who buy their products.

I don't like Mac. I've worked with a Mac when I was in college and I didn't like it at all.