Why I’m buying another Mac…

Scobie why not vote with your wallet. I’m tired of hearing you complain. Go buy a PC and don’t ever complain again.

As a Mac user for over 20 years it would take a lot more than one failure for me to cry like such a baby. In 11 years my business has had 3.45 hours of unplanned database downtime from Mac desktops deployed as servers and now 2 Xserves that do the job. In that time I have had a couple of failures that caught me off guard. Yes, I should have had disks backed up, I should have… but I did not. And yes there have been hardware failures, even one Mac arrived DOA. Remember Forrest Gump? Shit happens.

Grow up and get over it.

I work for very large Fortune 500 Company that has standardized on Microsoft Windows for desktops and laptops, and all the other Microsoft Stuff for e-mail etc. Because of the Virus-filled Windows world they have implemented so many security barriers and policies that it is almost impossible to get ones job done, without rebooting the machines at least thrice a day. Of my 8-hr work day I spend nearly an hour waiting for the machine reboots.

Working with Microsoft Windows stuff is cruel and unusual punishment.

“The vast majority of stuff is just more painless on a Mac than a Windows machine.”

For people who don’t know how to properly use computers, perhaps. I’ve had more problems on Mac OS than I ever had on Windows. The experience differs from person to person. If you know what you’re doing, any operating system will work well for you. If you’re inexperienced, Macs may work better but only because everything is so well integrated. Of course, that makes it hard to customize anything and third party programs not designed in close connection with Apple don’t work nearly as well as, say, Garage Band or Final Cut.

@ #27 – Viswakarma

Just because you’re at a fortune 500 company doesn’t mean that your tech department is any good. Ever thought that they may have just stuffed your setup? Maybe they have installed the wrong products… maybe installed them incorrectly… I don’t know many possibilities. Maybe your machine is just stuffed! Why must the problem be windows?

I’m at IBM and although I wouldn’t want to vouch for all of IBM – the staff around me don’t have problems like you suggest. In fact I would say that most of the problems I see people experience is with other people’s badly written software.

I have never know a windows machine to REQUIRE rebooting thrice a day. My machine is used pretty heavy duty and it gets put into standby at the end of the day and shutdown at the end of the week. Very few reboots in the scheme of things.

Paul,
There’s no such thing as a MAC. If you really had one, you would know it’s a Mac.

Oh for heaven’s sake. Just be like everyone else, and take the thing in to get it fixed. Hopefully, you’ll be helped by someone unaware of your public temper tantrum.

There’s a few things I don’t understand.
Assuming that this is due to the recent OS Software Update that caused you problems last week:

1. Is it not possible to reinstall the OS from scratch rather than buy a new Mac? Seems that buying a new Mac rewards Apple for releasing an OS update that trashed your computer.

2. Why are you using high-end video editing software? I remember when you did Channel 9 videos, you made due with Windows Movie Maker, and it was more than up to the task for your kind of videos. So iMovie would be more than up to the task for your videos as well. I know you love to spend money on Apple kit, but spending $1000 for Final Cut Pro seems whacky.

2b. If you really feel that you need Final Cut Pro, why didn’t you get PodTech to pay for it? For that matter, can you get PodTech to pay for your Mac?

3. You say, “now I know why people were angry at Microsoft” as if the situation is comparable. Apple’s lock-in is orders of magnitude greater than Microsoft lock-in. (Except normally Apple lock-in is praised (indirectly) while all other lock-ins are bashed).

Lastly, I used to live in Silicon Valley (no longer, thank God), and the people down there need to take their heads out of their behinds. There is NOTHING a Mac and do that Windows cannot wrt media production. Those San Francisco video editor Mac bigots that stick their noses in the air and refuse to take work from Windows or Linux customers are ignorant elitists, reminiscent of the Lisp machine elitists from back in the day.
http://dlweinreb.wordpress.com/2007/11/16/why-did-symbolics-fail/
” We [Symbolics] believed our own “dogma” even as it became less true. It was embedded in our corporate culture. If you disputed it, your co-workers felt that you “just didn’t get it” and weren’t a member of the clan, so to speak. This stifled objective analysis. (This is a very easy problem to fall into — don’t let it happen to you!) …
… But back then we really believed in Lisp. We felt only scorn for anyone trying to write an expert system in C; that was part of our corporate culture.”

(Though I’d guess that the avg I.Q. of the Lisp Machine elitists is 50% higher than that of the “Macs only, please” video editor elitists, but I digress…)

Anyway, it sounds like there may be a business opportunity in San Francisco for a video editors that do accept business from Windows and Linux users.

But yeah, welcome to the world of vendor lock-in, the likes of which you’ve never seen in the Microsoft world.

As I see it, all tech goes bad, its really how long will it take. But what I really would like to know is how much have you spent on Apple product since you left MS.

ps do you think this was user error OR product error

Keep on buying Macintosh!

“waiting to get their MAC’s fixed”

What part of their Money Access Center needs to get fixed?

Or, perhaps something belonging to their Media Access Controller needs to get fixed?

Neither one of those is something I would expect people to take to the Apple Store, unless, I suppose, their _Mac_ (abbreviation of Macintosh, not an acronym) had a problem with its Ethernet card.

More Leopard screw ups:
** MacBook, MacBook Pro owners suffer keyboard freezing with Leopard **
http://www.digg.com/apple/MacBook_MacBook_Pro_owners_suffer_keyboard_freezing_with_Leopard
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/11/21/macbook_macbook_pro_owners_suffer_keyboard_freezing_with_leopard.html

And Digg’s Mac fanboys aren’t even defending Apple on this one, they are admitting that this is a big problem. (There’s another post saying that Leopard cuts the batter life of PPC Powerbooks by 50%, but that’s an unrelated issue.)

The AppleInsider.com comments thread on the Mac Keyboard Freezing issue makes for interesting reading, including even someone downgrading to Tiger.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81413

Also, it appears the problem isn’t isolated to Mac laptops.

Buy the eee PC . Not a Mac, not a WindowsPC, but the other one….

go for a windows based PC, the vista looks as cool as a MAC

Well I have been using vista 64bit on my work PC for a while now and have to say that I am quite impressed. The user access control has had to go! Nightmare! But other than that all has gone well. I use CS3 (all of it) and so far have not had a single issue.

I tried Vista on my home PC but it had to go due to lack of drivers and i am not convinced the game performance is going to be good enough.

I can’t understand why people bother with Macs. Mac users represent such a tiny percentage of PC users that it would be like cutting myself of from the rest of the world. i have never found a Windows problem that someone has not written a free application for. Safety in numbers

You mean you haven’t got a backup machine already? What kind of professional tech dude are you?? Everyone knows that computers break.

I’m “locked into” Logic Pro on Apple hardware but I don’t mind since there is in fact nothing comparable on Windows for the price. But by the look of your videos you really don’t need FCP, as other commenters have pointed out.

I’ll wait a long time to upgrade to Leopard, though. I only just upgraded to Tiger, which is nice and stable now.

David, that is likely a RAM issue, if it is a real issue at all. It is amusing that people will pay at least a thousand dollars for a computer and then refuse to pay $50 for more RAM. Furthermore, the users who go to a forum to complain are self-selected, not the typical user with no problems. Your dedication to posting anti-Apple FUD is remarkable. Be sure to thank whatever deity you choose for it today.

Atheist, I do not understand why some people are such determined conformists that they will not even bother to learn why many in the know consider Apple’s software superior and Macs better designed.

Steven: my wife has a Mac, so we have a backup in the family. I have a Sony Vaio, which is how I wrote this post. So I DO have a backup.

Robert, I am like some others here, in that I don’t understand why you don’t take the machine in and have it fixed (or replaced). (Oh, and whoever you were commenting on everytime you walk into an Apple Store there is a line of people waiting to get their Macs fixed, that is because they HAVE THAT OPTION, which in many cases, WORKS. Where can I take my Dell in, outside of driving to Roundrock, have someone look at it, and have a good chance of walking out with the thing fixed?).

I know you have the extremely unusual benefit of publishing here and getting a million answers to help you trouble shoot, and I know you’re a tech savvy guy, but sometimes, you just need the guys who do this for a living to do their jobs. I’ve been lucky and havne’t had a failing Mac (nor anyone in my family) for 20+ years that I couldn’t fix on my own–including a 4.5 year old Powerbook that I upgraded to Leopard, and now gets better battery life, Mr. Balder. However, with 20+ Macs, I know that I am plain lucky there have been no problems, because as many have pointed out, these are computers that are manufactured by HUMANS, and things do go wrong, no mater who made it (despite smug advertising, which is just that–advertising, and anyone who believes advertising to be the truth should be reading the national enquirer, not Scoble’s blog).

For God’s sake, take it in and let them fix it or replace it. My buddy had a few problems with him MB Pro, and after a second trip to the Genius Bar, he saw the manager, they transferred his stuff to another machine, and he walked out with a newer (upgraded) machine. If you sit on your blog bitching about it, this ain’t going to happen.

Though I can’t stand using Windows machines (and I use them a lot, and in my experience they are more frustrating and problematic), I can live with them, and I follow the same advice–just get it fixed and move on. Why you’re buying a machine is your business, and I have to agree that PodTech should be paying for this machine, otherwise you’re BSing us about the state of affairs there (unless they actually require you to use Windows so like so many others).

Also, I want to hear the story about how this gets fixed, and if you do get another machine, how it works out. I’m about to upgrade (waiting to see if anything interesting comes out of MacWorld), but if we’re seeing more problems in MB Pros, I might just go for a beefed up MB–my wife’s one year old MB has been a pretty screaming machine (CS3, no probs) for a year + Parallels and XP + Office and a ton of other stuff, and I can live with that sweet bargain if the MB Pros are having quality problems–so let me know.

And finally, if you are really fed up with the Mac, please take my ThinkPad. It’s a great machine, and I highly recommend ThinkPads for those that must deal with Windows, but I can’t stand looking at the screen anymore until someone comes up with a reliable way to run OS X.

Please, get it fixed and let us know how it goes. And good luck.

Too bad John C. Welch doesn’t post here anymore. I would’ve loved to see him spin Leopard’s problems like a child’s spinning top toy. LOL

Oh, and Paul, sure those that report problems are self-selected, but Mac fanboys, such as yourself, don’t afford Windows that same consideration and portray reports of Windows problems as the norm. So please spare us. Windows has ten times the userbase tha Mac does, therefore, all things being equal, you’d expect ten times the reports of Windows problems as Mac problems. So naturally, there would be mroe reports of Windows problems, but you Mac fanboys skip over that fact and rather proclaim that Windows has more reported problems because it is trash. Intellectual dishonesty and hypocrisy all rolled into one.

Poweruser?

Paul: my Mac HAS been in the shop before. My son’s Mac has been in TWICE and needs to go in a third time.

Mine is in the shop again. I just bought another Mac as a backup.

Dell? They send you a new one and let you send your old one back. At least that’s what they did for me when I had troubles. That’s more convenient than waiting in line at a store.

Oh, at the Stanford University Apple store yesterday they weren’t taking any more Genius Bar appointments. They were full up by the time I got there at 2 p.m.

“Everytime I walk into a Apple Store there is a long line of people waiting to get their MAC’s fixed”

Man that’s totally bogus!! My old Quadra 700 I got in 1992 still works, as does
my iMac clamshell that I got in 2000!! Yes, I’ve had to replace some parts….but have done it myself!! My daughter’s Toshiba ,which is 3 years old, already had it’s
monitor replaced!!