Tell them: To break a PC you work on it. To break a Mac you have to work at it.

Paul Howland - 15 June 2007 01:14 AM

See, the problem with bundled software, is that most people don’t actually want most of it, so pretending that people have to rush out and buy equivalents to the whole bundle is simply false.  It may make you feel you’ve made a good argument - but it won’t really convince anyone.  I have iLife on my Mac and basically only use iPhoto and iTunes.  I’ve occasionally used iWeb.  That’s it.  iTunes is available for free for Windows, as is Picasa, and I’ve no doubt there are several free web-authoring tools too.

The ones that don’t want this functionality, well, they really aren’t the target for Apple. The bundle demos and the cheap PC alternatives work ok for them because they don’t really care for the end product. Apple’s iLife is targeted at PC people that have used the PC bundled software or randomly picked out a few bargain titles from the store shelf and found them wanting. Apple wants the people that have had the bad experience to come into Apple stores and be exposed to a good experience. Without that initial bad experience (for many just the never-ending sea of undifferentiated crap-ware is a nightmare of choices) it’s hard to sell the value of simplicity and relative quality in Apple’s digital hub.

Apple’s basically looking for the customer that is disgusted with too many choices, and an obvious need to make an educated choice they don’t necessarily want to go through the effort to learn about. The “Engineered Experience.”

And re free virus software… I think it was Ars that referenced the latest anti-virus evaluation, and most of the popular free options came out pretty low. Of course, the ideal consumer Mac customer would balk at having to assess 16 different anti-virus apps on 4 different objective metrics.

though i own a windows notebook i still bought an ibook.  from a design standpoint, i like how the hinge looks and i wanted to try out something new. what can i say, i just love tech.  hearing about all those logic board issues and fading keyboard lettering and overheating issues etc i really dont think the mac hardware is of a higher quality.  macs are also less buggy and more secure.  the security issue has already been argued to death by both camps.  in the end macs are more secure, partly because of the OS’es themselves and partly because of the greater windows installed base.  As for bugginess and speed comparison of both OS’es, a part of the reason Windows is bloated and buggy is a consequence of the tens of thousands of past and present motherboards, GPU’s, chipsets, RAM speed and brand etc… each version of the OS X merely has to contend with a hundred motherboards at most, an even fewer selection of graphics solutions, very selective with memory dimms etc… but however valid the reason is, the conclusion is still the same, windows is buggy and less secure.

All in all, i give the design (no small feat) and OS stability and security to the mac. would it be enough reason for a user to buy one?  depends on a lot of things.  for my mom who has never used a computer and will probably just browse the net and use skype then definitely - the learning process for a newbie is easier.  for a gamer, no, since it would mean buying a copy of windows (assuming were talking legit) and you can add that to an already expensive macbook pro system.  simply overwhelmed by the number of choices and dont want to read reviews in order to select the best software from the thousands (mostly crap) available - buy a mac. of course for those on a budget, the choice is easy.  there are a lot of other possible considerations and they usually exist in combination with each other and the level of importance one gives to an attribute is different so the answer is different for each person.

for those who are willing to venture on the windows path, i would recommend reading the following articles and download the very capable programs and utilities named therein. 

http://techsupportalert.com/free-vs-paid-av.htm

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

for basic users (non-gamers) windows is quite good (speed and security wise) if you know how to maintain it - think of it as a small price to pay for having a limited budget.

i still cant get over how nice the ibook hinge area looks and i’ve had my ibook for 29 months now.

one thing i do recommend is buying a good registry cleaner.  jv16 powertools is in my opinion one of the better ones and is money well spent.

Apple has definitely let some questionable parts into their designs… the original iMac had it’s video board issue, and various iBooks and PowerBooks over the years have had issues with this or that bit. I don’t think it has so much to do with the quality of the design as Apple hasn’t really had the luxury of consistent designs upon which to learn. Since they have have changed designs and even architectures, I think they suffer teething problems more often than the PC camp does, and if one’s being strictly honest Apple hasn’t had the best track-record in admitting/sorting out these issues.

I think we people reference the “quality” of Apple’s hardware they are more often speaking to the physical and logic design that goes into them, rather than using more standard components and materials like you get on the PC end. Somewhat like the idea of a european car or (heaven forbid) a British car vs. say a car from GM. Unfortunately initial quality does not always translate into resilience, though it often helps.

falleneagle - 16 June 2007 12:46 PM

one thing i do recommend is buying a good registry cleaner.  jv16 powertools is in my opinion one of the better ones and is money well spent.

For Windows? I don’t know, I’ve heard bad things about them. Some actually tend to make things worse.

I get asked “why a Mac” all the time. Usually it’s just an honest inquiry as to why I chose Mac. And it’s genuine. Many people still don’t realize they can run Office on Mac. The shareware on Macupdate is as impressive as any i’ve seen on any PC. Security is great. Blah blah blah. What I like to do is show them some output. Show them how easy it is to set up a network. Or create a wonderful slideshow with iPhoto and burn it to a DVD. Apple’s output is slick and professional and speaks for itself. The angle depends, of course, on the skills of the person asking. Beginners will appreciate the ease of use and stability and low maintenance requirements.

Other than that, you can always tell them the Mac runs both Windows and Mac software.

But if they are the type of person that is ‘cheap’ rather than ‘value’ oriented, they will fall for the $400 PC = $999 Mac. This person cannot be helped. They cannot grasp why any person would buy a Lexus when a Geo Metro does the same thing.

bugsnw - 17 June 2007 07:08 PM

I get asked “why a Mac” all the time. Usually it’s just an honest inquiry as to why I chose Mac. And it’s genuine. Many people still don’t realize they can run Office on Mac. The shareware on Macupdate is as impressive as any i’ve seen on any PC. Security is great. Blah blah blah. What I like to do is show them some output. Show them how easy it is to set up a network. Or create a wonderful slideshow with iPhoto and burn it to a DVD. Apple’s output is slick and professional and speaks for itself. The angle depends, of course, on the skills of the person asking. Beginners will appreciate the ease of use and stability and low maintenance requirements.

Other than that, you can always tell them the Mac runs both Windows and Mac software.

But if they are the type of person that is ‘cheap’ rather than ‘value’ oriented, they will fall for the $400 PC = $999 Mac. This person cannot be helped. They cannot grasp why any person would buy a Lexus when a Geo Metro does the same thing.

That frustrates me too, on the PC side as well.

A fine PC machine can be built for $800-$1000. And I do mean fine (Reliable and performance geared parts). It’s just that the subsidized OEM machines always look more appealing to the average consumer. Most consumers tend to trust the manufacturer. The “If it breaks, it’s on them (Manufacturer)” mentality is a constant with the average consumer.

When I see someone buy a $400 PC machine with a Maxtor Hard Drive, an unknown Motherboard, and questionable Power supply and case, I cringe.

That is true, but most people are not building their own machines so they buy the heavily subsidized “cheap” box, and yet price is probably the primary reason a lot of people don’t even look at a mac.

I’m a dual system user. (Dodges flak from both ends of no-man’s land) I’ve been a PC user since the 90’s and a Mac user since Y2K. (More flak) I have a 1GHz Celeron minitower sitting in a spare room, and a 3GHz P4 tower in the bedroom. I’m typing this in the living room on a Pismo, which runs cooler in these Summer days than the 1.25Ghz G4 AlBook. A former coworker looked me up a few years ago, and asked if I had a computer she could use. I dusted off a Lombard and walked her through Mac basics. (She had used IBM PCs at work, previously) Fortunately, she hooked up with a real Mac expert a few streets away, and calls for help ceased. Then she asked about playing a DVD movie. I said that the Lombard could do such under Mac OS 9.x, but not under OS X 10.3, which was OK for a time. Later, I found a 669MHz G4 TiBook wasn’t up to “doing DVD,” so that became her OS X movie machine. In contrast, I’ve had an interesting time “defending the castle” against Windows malware, and find the recent addition of broadband via an AirPort Extreme Base Station reason for real fear. Overall, the Mac experience has been routine, while the Windows experience has been frustrating, full of odd error messages, and being buried alive by waves of patches from Redmond.

That is very well said Wahiawa.  The mac just works...’nuff said.

I’m not sure Macs are the best choice for everyone. I like to say that to do something a Mac might take 3 steps and a PC 5, but if you can only do 2, it still won’t get done. And if you easily handle 5 or more, both will work out. It’s just that most people will fall in 3-4 step gap.

There’s a couple articles I wrote on My First Mac that address this topic in detail: Why Buy a Mac - What’s the difference, really? and 6 Reasons to Buy a PC Instead of a Mac. You can see them here:

http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/why_buy_a_mac
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/pc-instead-of-a-mac/

There are certain people for which a pc is a “better” choice...but really for the vast majority of people who are not Geeks Macs will do everything they want a PC to do.

The OS will soon be irrelevant. Have you not seen spreadsheet online on Google ?.

And yes beside ilife what it is that the MAC allows me to do that the WIN platform cannot allow me to do?. Nothing really. I enjoy the sleek look & feel of my OS X and not to worry about virus but that is really where it ends and of course the sleek finish of the laptop.

I still use Microsoft Office MAC on my Powerbook G4. When I do JAVA development I use the Powerbook G4. But since most of the clients demand windows development and .NET I go back to windows and use visual studio 2005.

It is not just the OS that gives value to Microsoft - It is the surrounding eco-system of developers that Microsoft has built and the development tools that it has provided that adds substantial value to the OS and enrich literally in $$$ the WIN32 and .NET developers around the world.

Yes but given the fact that you can have all of that with a new mac which can run windows, linux and macos other than the fact that you can build a PC from scratch or get one for 300 bucks I see no reason not to buy a mac.  You could do all your development on one platform with a mac.