bozlady wrote:My daughter (who is graduating from LU this May) bought her first Mac over a year ago and has had NO problems. She's not a computer geek but she has accustomed to it quite well.
My hubby bought me a new Dell Inspiron laptop a few weeks ago with Vista pre-installed. I love it!!.. . . . . BUT.........my printer at home and work were working quite well for a week or so then all of the sudden they both stopped working. It's a problem with the printer spooler that has been very difficult to fix - google: Windows Vista Spooler Subsystem App error and you'll see that many people have had the same problem (Sly, you too?) Other than that, I have no complaints but when you can't print that can pose a bigger problem.
i'd consider an apple if it weren't for the fact it packaged a bunch of unnecessary products that drove it's price up. If they made that stuff optional (like webcam, lighted keyboard, etc.) so you can keep the price down, I think they would see more people jumping over to Mac, but witht heir rpices so much higher than a Windows alternative, I think they are cutting off a large portion of the market, which includes me. I mean honestly, I payed 1200 for this Dell. THe Mac with the closest hardware specs at the time cost about 1800 dollars. That's an awful lot of extra money I'd have to fork out and I still don't see how there was $600 of extra benefits in the Mac.
Also wouldn't consider getting one for it's still somewhat lack of compatibility with windows programs. If you want to use a Windows program, you still have to buy the Windows OS, then - someone correct me if i'm wrong - you have to shut down then boot into windows - but then, why have a mac if you have to boot into windows to use some programs? seems to defeat the purpose in my opinion.
I'll buy non-computer products from Apple, for example I intend on saving up some money for an iPod Touch here soon because there really is no alternative portable media player that offers as much with it as the Touch does. I think Cowon and Archos offer a somewhat similar product (although the Touch specs are still a little better other than hard drive size), but neither one has anywhere near the third party support for applications and accessories that Apple does. Meanwhile, in the computer market it is the reverse. Windows has much more third party support than Apple does despite Apple's growing market share. Many of the games and programs I use either aren't available for Macs or I'd have to repurchase (or illegally download) them just to use them on a Mac, and considering I use a lot of the Adobe and Microsoft Office programs, that could be quite costly and would take forever to download. That along with the price is my #1 and #2 reasons why I will not make the Mac switch for a very long time.
- By LU Armchair coach
- By TH Spangler