Scot Finnie on Mac vs. PC pricing

Oh, okay. My mistake lumping windows in the same sentance as open source. And I apologize if the young man comment offended you, it's just that at my age most men are young men. El Geezero is fine.

a) PC users have been running mac os's on pc platforms for years before apple jumped on the idea.

b) "component quality" - as if mac hard drives, ram, processors, etc. are somehow higher quality, when they are exactly the same speed, size, and lifespan?!?!?

c) "case design" - one to chose from.

d) "display" don't fix what ain't broke - that is,why pay twice for a slightly higher quality display when I could buy two for the same price (that're already better video quality than hd?)

e) no, there is no contradiction there. It's impossibly easy to see the difference between a genuine site/program and a bunk one. I can proudly say that the only virus I've had in the past five years happened when my buddy tried to dl britney spears crotch shots while I was out of town. It was hefty, but the solution took less than an hour of my time, and that buddy isn't allowed to housesit for me anymore.

So, yeah. I can do anything and more that mac users can do on my pc's. Can you get a mac with four separate onboard processors for a total of up to 16 processing units, 64 Gigs of ram, 12 hard drives? I don't think proffesional computer geeks are going to choose a platform that limits their abilities to compute, do you? That's really all I was saying.

If you are just trying to do any of the million tasks that computers do and you don't care how or why it works, then I suggest spending more money on the mac. It will be the better solution for you. Laptops are usually better on the mac side as well.

If you want some real world examples look at what most businesses use. Having a doctorate in business, I know that a vast majority of companies large or small choose pc for a reason. Business studies every single minutae of cost down to how far an employee has to reach for something. The overall cost including aspects such as computing power, repair, replacement, training, and more brings you far more value with pc than with mac.

All else aside, I would remind you that I sell both systems and recommend mac twice as often as I recommend pc. The reason is that most people don't need the raw power, flexibility, and near limitless expandability of a pc. But if you're a techie geek like me who enjoys overclocking, heat distribution analyzation, pushing the limits of computing ability, etc. then you must own a pc, because these things can not be fully explored with a mac.

one more thing:

"You don't have to go in and explore the registry, add and remove software all day, and then wonder why your windows pc isn't working. That's like saying, "Well, I know it's my first time driving, but I wanted to see what it was like to go 100!" Well, not the smartest idea...."

"Well, what about the time you lose dealing with viruses and money spent on antivirus" - you say? OH HO HO Not true! The best anti-virus, anti-spyware, and tech support is available free online any time. And I can schedule all those programs to run at 3 in the morning while I sleep. How is this costing me any time or money?"

So, on the one hand, you're saying "Don't install mystery programs that hose your PC, newbie" and on the other saying "Download and run free AV and anti-adware programs that run overnight so you can stay safe." Is there not some contradiction here?

a) You don't know how old I am, so if you call me "young man" I reserve the right to refer to you as "El Geezero."

b) If you can say "open-source, non proprietary" in the same sentence as Windows, then you're definitely on something.

c) The post is talking about Scot Finnie's "arguing points" that you're busy "trump"ing, not mine, and I didn't call you any names -- I implied that you were smoking ganja. Not the same thing.

d) "Two computers for the price of one" is exactly what you get with an Intel-based Mac. If you're suggesting that everyone who has a serious interest in computing -- maybe someone who wants to run both OS X and Windows, or throw in a Linux distribution or four -- really ought to get two of your homebuilt PCs that you're building and teching for 1/2 the price of a Mac, with (I can only assume) the same level of component quality, case design and display, and with your undoubtedly professional workmanship, and with legally-purchased Home Premium Vista licenses to boot... well, we're beyond the question of WHETHER you're high, now we're on to "Where can I get some of whatever you've got?"

:-)

Let me tell you, young man, how devastated I am by the fact that you think I'm high. Funny how mac fans have to resort to name calling after you trump their arguing points.

#29: Wes, I think you're maybe a little bit high.

"Welcome to open source, non proprietary systems, that don't cost an arm and a leg. *Sniffffffff* Aaaaahhhh.....Windows!"

OK, now I know for sure that you're high.

Let me start by saying that I would recommend a Mac to 75% of the population. That 75% are going to be the poeple who don't care to know what's in their computer, don't care to know how their software is working and why. These are the people who just want to plug the thing in and start surfing the net, making home movies, or music. That's great, but how can any techie say that they prefer a mac?!? When you know how to properly operate a computer, all those crashing problems, viruses, or whatever cease to exist. You can go set up any configuration of any mac desktop, and I'll build you an identical pc AND tech it for about 1/2 the price....and I'd profit doing it. You can't deny that price break. 2 computers for the price of one trumps ANY crashing, time problems, viruses that any techie might have.

This brings me to another point, that mac users swear that macs never crash but pcs always do. I have built my last 2 pc's myself, and including 2 older pc's I've owned. I haven't had so much as a freeze in 5 years (Running the computers 24-7-365 mind you). There is a really simple reason for this: If you don't know what you're doing you can easily mess up a pc. So, just stop doing that. You don't have to go in and explore the registry, add and remove software all day, and then wonder why your windows pc isn't working. That's like saying, "Well, I know it's my first time driving, but I wanted to see what it was like to go 100!" Well, not the smartest idea. If you have hard drives, motherboard, processor, ram, optical (and in the past couple years even OS's) that are identical, then explain to me what's making one so much more stable than the other. (I am interested in hearing about the stability of windows on mac, because my buddy swears his windows mac is running faster than his OS X).

"Well, what about the time you lose dealing with viruses and money spent on antivirus" - you say? OH HO HO Not true! The best anti-virus, anti-spyware, and tech support is available free online any time. And I can schedule all those programs to run at 3 in the morning while I sleep. How is this costing me any time or money?

All those programs that macs come with are great.... for amatuer hour. When you want to do REAL video, photo, music editing your still gonna have to buy some software. But that brings me round full circle. If you aren't interested in learning how a computer works, then buy a mac, it is truly the best thing for you.

But if you want to eventually put together your own 10 TB 0-1 Raid, 64 Gig RAM, 16 processor computer with 10 optical drives and pretty much any style of case design you'd like, then the future is today my friends. Welcome to open source, non proprietary systems, that don't cost an arm and a leg. *Sniffffffff* Aaaaahhhh.....Windows!

How I wish that is also true in the Philippines. In my country, a 13"-MacBook costs around Php80,000+++, which is roughly $1500.

I realize this may be considered a bit self-serving, but you might consider checking out http://www.systemshootouts.org/ for head-to-head, detailed comparisons along the same lines as the article referred to.

What I find funny is that this feature comparison issue has always been there, Apple has consistently worked at being a leader not just in introducing new technology in graphics, peripherals, networking, etc (Gigabit Ethernet since the late 90s on almost every pro tower, for example) but in trying to cram as many of those various features into each machine as it can, given the target demo/price of the machine. I'm not trying to say that PCs haven't often had some small price advantage from using chips and other parts whose price has come done on volume (Intel, etc) vs Apple using Moto and then IBM chips and other higher cost parts over the last several years, but now that we're on an even footing hardware wise and Apple has the south asian supply chain from its iPod success we're seeing some really nice Intel Macs in terms of price/power.

I think its a mistake to think that Apple, SJ and Mac Users in general are some type of elitist niche, I think if Apple can continue on this path we may one day see the Walmart Mac and true marketshare competition. Seems insane now, but please tell me that in 1980-3 you would have envisioned a Windows world like we have today, AppleII was king in the mainstream computer space, if not C64. MS-DOS was still a niche player, gaining momentum but not dominant.

Also, for $299 the aTV is turning into a nice little cheap PC (albeit sans optical drive) but especially with HDMI out and 802.11n it has some nice applications beyond its original purpose. If they can just get the USB port to work completely the sky is the limit.

Guys, face it. Macs are more expensive than PCs, especially at the low end. Why? They're like the Corvettes of computers. Case closed.