Get off your high horse, Apple fan boys.
Two high profile domainers recently made the switch from PC to Mac. I’m not joining the club. My wife’s employer forces her to use a mac, and actually using one of these things shows you they aren’t perfect and not worth the fuss.
Before I get started with 5 reasons to not buy a Mac, here’s a little situational humor…
I was sitting with a group of entrepreneurs the other day. One said he was having problems with his laptop. A mac fan in the group said, “well, you could just get a Mac”. To which another person in the group said, “yes, or I suppose you could just get a typewriter”.
So here goes….
1. Macs aren’t bullet proof. Everyone complains about Windows. To be sure, Vista is not Microsoft’s finest product ever. But Macs aren’t perfect either. When my wife got her Macbook a year ago the keyboard would randomly freeze up. It turns out the operating system was shipped with an error and she had to download a patch. Oh, and most Macbooks are completely software based, so you can’t do things like eject a DVD or change the volume without doing it through the software.
2. Where’s the right click button? Yes, I know you can adjust the system to work with a right click. But that defeats the simplicity. Software applications use the right click button for a reason.
3. Compatibility. So you want to use that special software program on your Mac? Good luck. Even Google releases PC versions first, then Mac. Now wait…what’s that? I hear a fanboy saying “well I can just install Windows on my Mac”. Again, that defeats the purpose. How many Mac buyers know how to do that? And those pricey cords you need to buy to attach your Macbook to a monitor? There’s a reason people hate proprietary products like that. (By the way, never buy memory at an Apple Store. They’ll charge you 4 times what comparable memory costs).
4. Apple Store employees. They look smart with their long hair and geeky t-shirts. But I think half of them have never used an Apple product in their life before working there. They sell you the wrong cord or give you the wrong answer. It got three different answers asking three different Apple store employees if my Firewire car iPod adapter would work with the latest iPods. (Correct answer: it won’t, Apple changed the charging to USB a while ago and now you have to buy an adapter).
5. Money. Call it the Mac tax. Pay 35% more for comparable equipment, not to mention more for compatible software and accessories (see #3). That’s the subject of a new Windows advertising campaign:
But in a nod to the Apple fan boys out there, here’s one of the funniest Onion News videos I’ve seen in a long time.
David J Castello says
The Onion video is classic.
Marg says
I’m always very happy to be using a Mac when news of yet another PC-targeted virus/worm hits the internet. Hopefully that nice warm feeling will continue this April 1st…
Andrew Allemann says
Marg – the irony is that as Macs grow in popularity they will be targeted more
michael berkens says
Andrew
the right click button is a non-issue is just a one time setting that takes 5 seconds and its there just like a PC.
As far as Money goes the machine is more but I don’t think I’m going to have to throw it out every 18 months as I have been doing with my windows PC for the last 8 years, so it might be MUCH cheaper in the long run.
Andrew Allemann says
Michael, the cost thing certainly isn’t a big deal to me. My #1 issue is compatibility.
michael berkens says
I have no programs I used before that I can’t use on the Mac.
Of course almost everything I do is web based, except for excel and word which you have to re-buy.
Andrew Allemann says
One thing that annoys me is these students at UT will send me their resumes and I can’t open them b/c they created them on their macs.
Domain Name Media says
How much longer could a Mac last than a PC? Let’s say a PC lasts 18 months, and a Mac lasts 33% longer at 24 months.
After six years you would have purchased 4 PCs versus 3 Macs. Using the $999 vs $629 in the ad, your total spend would have been $2,516 on PCs and $2,997 on Macs. While you bought fewer, you still spent more.
Obviously this is a hypothetical, but just wanted to put that out there.
Great post Andrew, I really enjoyed that Onion video.
Kevin Ohashi says
Welcome to the pragmatic side 😉 I’ve got windows desktops and PCs that I have had for well over 5 years and running fine. Has nothing to do with OS. I think PC’s biggest problem lately is the bloatware you get when you buy it at a store. Install a clean version of Windows XP and you will be amazed how fast it is.
Oh yea, Apple (Safari) got dominated at Pwn2Own, as the easiest browser to hack. Good news for macs, security through obscurity never wins in the long run.
Dave Snyder says
I could not agree more with this article. Besides the iPod, Apple has blundered with most of their products as far as I’m concerned. And even the iPod is pretty high-maintenance for a small piece of electronic equipment.
There are many other reasons to hate Apple as well, including the fact that ALL of their software programs make themselves the default player without asking you; and then, after you go through the whole process of changing your default player back, the program will actually ask you if you want to change the Apple program back to being the default player. Apple itself has an inferiority complex mixed with a strict sense of elitism.
mayed says
well man, i guess there are couple of things you said i believe true …
the apple employees never used a mac before working there … and you always get different answers from different stores for the same question …
to be honest with you .. i always blame the consumer when they depend on the sales man to buy a product or even trouble shoot some problem ….
the lack of product information among sales men is very common here in my region … usually i dont count on what ever they say …. i do my home work research and then based on the result i make my decision ….
i am new to mac specially after the huge failure of vista.. and i gotta tell you .. it is really solid either way, software and hardware … but it has some limitations in term of softwares as you just mentioned ….
Richard Lee says
Nice article Andrew! Finally, someone with balls to talk about the truth behind Apple zealots which combine ignorance with arrogance. The same people who think that buying the world’s safest car is going to make them parallel park better.
Not only do Apple store employees not use an Apple product, there is no way in hell they could afford one since they, at least in NYC, work on minimum wage. When I buy a burger at McDonald’s I know with a fair amount of certainty that the cashier has no idea what bovine growth hormone is. And at the Apple store, it’s fun to walk in and ask the same question to different employees and get wildly different answers, but the same consistent blank stare.
It is ironic that they call their tech help desk the Genius Bar, when the only genius at Apple is dying. Long live the wizard of oz.
Ritz says
I had to buy a phone last December to keep me connected to the net on the move and the only one that came to mind was apple’s iphone. (with all the buzz around it!)
the day I was buying the phone, the nice chaps in the store (not an apple store!) asked me why was I going for an iphone when everybody was going crazy over the HTC-HD in Singapore.
I’ve never heard of them, but thought,..why not give the HTC a try. What really convinced me though was the fact that I was going to be limited by the iphone and its proprietary characteristics!
You’d need Itunes to get music on the iphone – I just want to drag and drop my music-, you can’t simply download/install programs straight off the net without going thru Apple. YEs it has bluetooth ,.. but ONLY connects to a bluetooth headset! you can’t extend it’s memory unless you upgrade to the latest version.. (and probably pay for it!)
the HTC-HD is windows OS, and has no limitations..
If apple drops the proprietary side of its products, then microsoft should start worrying.
jp says
This article is great!! I am so excited to chime in on it.
For those of you that don’t know, aside from being a domainer I run a Computer Repair shop here in San Diego. We service PC & Mac, and Andrew is Spot on with his arguments.
Do you want to know what is so darn special about Macs? It is their marketing department. Apple could sell a bag of Elephant crap to the queen of england if they wanted to. They have mastered brainwashing the masses with their big promises and shiny colors. When in reality the macs have almost all the same problems as the PC.
We get plenty of Macs in the shop for repair. All the same stuff breaks, although when it breaks on a Mac I make alot more money then when they break on a PC because the parts are waaayyyy more expensive, and people are happy to pay more labor to fix a mac because it is reasonable to pay $600 to fix a $3k computer, where nobody would pay $600 to fix their $1k pc. So for this I actually like Mac.
It is true though that Macs get less viruses, but it isn’t becuase there is something magical about the Mac that keeps it from getting viruses. The reason behind this is simple. Market Share. Viruses today are 99% profit motivated. So if you were the virus designer, who makes money off every computer you infect, and it takes time to produce this virus, wouldn’t you target PC instead of Mac since you’ve got a much larger user base? The day that more people use Macs than PCs will be the day that people start saying that PCs get less viruses than Mac.
Anyway, I really look forward to seeing the ucoming comments on this one. I look forward to hearing all the die hard Mac fans defending their 3x as expensive computer that does all the same stuff my PC does, just because Apple’s marketing has brainwashed them to do so. Its alwasy fun to watch, and when their Macs break, maybe I’ll get lucky enough to get paid to fix them, and make enough money on each one that I can buy a new PC each time. LOL.
BTW/Disclaimer: I own and use regularly several of each type of computer, both Mac & PC. Also, IMHO Vista is pretty bad. 9 times out of 10 I can get my work done faster on a Mac than on a Vista PC. For this reason I’ve got XP on almost all of my PCs.
jp says
Forgot to mention one of my favorite things/problems about mac. When your mac crashes it usually comes without warning. You just turn it on one morning and you get a frowning mac face staring at you, almost mocking you. I hope you had a backup, or say goodbye to all your pictures or pay me big money for data recovery (it it is even possible).
On the PC there are usually warning signs so you can catch these situations early on. The mac seems to like to keep going like everything is fine until one day it just stops.
BF says
I am BF, and I’m ALSO a PC 🙂
SL says
Nice article. It’s worth mentioning that one benefit the Mac has is its kernel is BSD based. So the core permissions/security is beyond reproach. Privilege escalations will always be a problem for misbehaved apps. Having said that, imho Conficker wouldn’t stand a chance on BSD or Linux if the roles were reversed (Apple+Linux distros had 90% share).
But it does look like MS is starting to take security seriously. Give it about 5 years and it may be safe to use a Windows machine again; fingers crossed.
Totally agree with the hardware comments.
Andrew Allemann says
If you bring your Mac into the Apple Store to be fixed, they usually say they need to send it out for repair and it will take a couple weeks. A couple weeks? I guess no one uses these for business.
Roger Collins says
Macs are a luxury but well worth it if your time is valuable. Of course they are not perfect but every study and my own experience has shown they are more reliable than windows.
For this Internet age where much of the software we actually use runs on a LAMP server, your mac is more compatible than windows since it is BSD and runs all the software Linux does. Hmm, do we call that BAMP?
I use Parallels and Windows NT Professional on my mac just for the only two apps I use that need that old bag of drivers called Windows: Quicken and QuickBooks.
Once you go Mac you never go back.
cello says
I have been using mac’s for the last 15 years. I was a total fan until my mac died after three years of normal use. I contacted Apple and they said that the life of a mac is only 3.5 years. Because I own all mac software I was forced to by another mac for even more money. Going forward I will be looking to switch to a PC because I can’t afford to replace my mac every three years. The main problem is the logic boards. Google logic boards for macs and you will find that there are thousands of people upset with the way that Apple is handling dying macs that where purchased about 3 years ago.
Peter Von Cleesen says
Since the day Mac OSX was released in the early 2000’s we’ve been hearing from people like you “well macs don’t have viruses now but wait until next year…”.
So should we again wait until 2010, Its been nearly 10 years of the same useless argument. Get over it already!
Andrew Allemann says
@ Peter – remember, you have to get some sort of reasonable market share before virus makers go after you 🙂
Kevin Ohashi says
http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3788241/Apple+Recommends+Antivirus+for+Mac+Users.htm
Even Apple is recommending AV software since last year. That ‘useless’ argument seems to hold some water with the makers of the OS.
Andrew says
Here is the information that I have gathered of Mac vs Windows: So u think a Mac can beat my PC? Challenge Accepted.
Ram: Mac: 4GB Ram vs PC: 24GB Ram I win
Processor: Mac: 2.2GHZ Quad-Core vs PC: 3.33Ghz Six-Core I Win
Hard Drive: 750GB 5400RPM vs PC: 650GB 7200RPM
I would call it a tie since I get more RPM but Mac Gets more Space.
Winner: My PC (And mine looks MUCH cooler lol)
Ask your self….what is the $2000 mac can do that a $500 windows computer can’t? The answer is nothing.There is a reason why apple doesn’t make their Opertaing System compatible with any computer. People could see it offers nothing more than windows and they couldn’t sell their overpriced toys to hipsters.
EMILY says
MAC’S ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUY A MAC NOT A PC 🙂