I didn't realize how popular Macs were

[yhelothar]

Walking around campus, I easily count 10 macbooks for every PC I see. It doesn't help that I attend the University of Spoiled Children (USC), but Jaysus Choist, seeing PC marketshare below 10% anywhere makes me sad inside. Well, mostly because I know the vast majority of them spent well over $1k on their MacBook Pros just to surf Facebook. On the plus side, they're not built like pieces of shit like HPs and Dells.

Seems like MS is mostly dead in the consumer market these days.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Macs popular among hip college kids? No wai.

Never heard that interpretation of USC, but I like it. Fits a couple of people I once knew.

 

[Kaido]

I primarily see Macbooks. Beyond that, there's a few high-end things like Alienwares here & there, and then your basic cheapo laptops. Heck, you can get a really nice laptop for $279 at Best Buy (got my mom one earlier this year - DVD burner, 15.6" screen, wireless, numpad, same price - $279).

 

[lxskllr]

You're in a microcosm that doesn't reflect the real world. Apple is hip and trendy, so children do what children do. They buy stuff that they think will make them cool. Some will keep Apple when they grow up. Most will move to Windows, and the smart ones will go to GNU/Linux :^P

 

[Kaido]

You're in a microcosm that doesn't reflect the real world. Apple is hip and trendy, so children do what children do. They buy stuff that they think will make them cool. Some will keep Apple when they grow up. Most will move to Windows, and the smart ones will go to GNU/Linux :^P

It's amazing. iPhones were so popular for so long, everyone loved them because of the cool factor, and now Androids are in - I don't see too many iPhones on campus anymore, because having an Android is cool. I'm like 3 generations behind on my iPhone, ah well :biggrin:

 

[mugs]

My company gives developers the choice of Mac, Windows or Linux. Pretty much everyone takes the Macbook.

Seems like a lot of my friends (early 30s, not particularly price-conscious) are using Macs these days. Even my two hardcore Windows fanboy friends from high school have switched to Macs.

 

[yhelothar]

I primarily see Macbooks. Beyond that, there's a few high-end things like Alienwares here & there, and then your basic cheapo laptops. Heck, you can get a really nice laptop for $279 at Best Buy (got my mom one earlier this year - DVD burner, 15.6" screen, wireless, numpad, same price - $279).

Agreed. I got my X61 Tablet with a 128GB SSD for $250 on eBay. The Core2Duo is more than fast enough for non-gaming. The stylus with One Note allowed me to consolidate my thousands of pages of notes from several years of classes into one little device that's accessible from anywhere(Office 2013 is cloud based).

I remote desktop to home when I need to use my beast of an OC'ed i7 quadcore for Matlab.

 

[Crono]

Walking around campus, I easily count 10 macbooks for every PC I see. It doesn't help that I attend the University of Spoiled Children (USC), but Jaysus Choist, seeing PC marketshare below 10% anywhere makes me sad inside. Well, mostly because I know the vast majority of them spent well over $1k on their MacBook Pros just to surf Facebook. On the plus side, they're not built like pieces of shit like HPs and Dells.

Seems like MS is mostly dead in the consumer market these days.

People get the wrong impression of PCs when they compare computers from a decade ago to current Macs. "HPs and Dells". Sorry, but you should be comparing to ASUS, Lenovo, and Microsoft Surface. In those areas PCs have just as capable and some as solidly and beautifully built computers as Apple, and potentially much cheaper.

I do like the Macbook Air, though, that's an excellent laptop. The new Pros have some ghosting issues proving that Apple isn't infallible, though their quality overall can be higher (but you usually pay for it).

 

[SparkyJJO]

I primarily see Macbooks. Beyond that, there's a few high-end things like Alienwares here & there, and then your basic cheapo laptops. Heck, you can get a really nice laptop for $279 at Best Buy (got my mom one earlier this year - DVD burner, 15.6" screen, wireless, numpad, same price - $279).

All that stuff you listed is like bare bones standard these days, and doesn't mean it is nice or junk. And at $279 I can't imagine it is built all that well.

 

[halik]

Mac are very popular with anyone that makes any kind of software btw; all the unix goodness and none of the downside of linux. I think I made the full switch in 2006; never looked back.

 

[lxskllr]

All that stuff you listed is like bare bones standard these days, and doesn't mean it is nice or junk. And at $279 I can't imagine it is built all that well.

How well does it have to be built for $279? I'm a fan of cheap portables. Portables get dropped and stolen, so I prefer machines that aren't a heartbreak when it happens. When you take care of them, even crappy machines will last a normal lifetime, so it's just money saved for other things.

 

[Fritzo]

Macbooks make a huge percentage of our clientele's workstations. They're still the best laptops on the market (to run Windows or OSX on), and they're the same price as high end laptops from other manufacturers.

So yeah, they're popular.

 

[SparkyJJO]

How well does it have to be built for $279? I'm a fan of cheap portables. Portables get dropped and stolen, so I prefer machines that aren't a heartbreak when it happens. When you take care of them, even crappy machines will last a normal lifetime, so it's just money saved for other things.

Sometimes that's true, but I see a lot of the cheap ones with rather premature motherboard failures, screen failures, busted hinges or other excessive wear from otherwise normal use, poor battery life (both runtime and aging), poor visual quality screens, annoying glitches like crappy touch pads that are irritating, or flaky wireless, plus the slowest possible hard drive and CPU that is currently available.

I know there are exceptions to every rule. I also ask whether buying a $300 laptop every 2-3 years is really better than a $600 laptop every 5-6 years.

 

[lxskllr]

I know there are exceptions to every rule. I also ask whether buying a $300 laptop every 2-3 years is really better than a $600 laptop every 5-6 years.

I'm still using my Eee from 2008. I paid $200 for it. I have a couple dead keys on the keyboard, but nothing I frequently use. I have a parts machine I can take the keyboard from, but haven't bothered.

So far I've only had one laptop die, and I've always bought at the bottom end. The one that "died" could have been fixed, but I got pissed, and it suffered... erm... structural failure :^D I got that one free for opening up a credit account somewhere. My mother's still using a lenovo I bought in 2007. No problems whatsoever.

I'm sure some cheap machines die early, but over a period of say 20 years, I think anyone who's reasonably careful will come out ahead by buying cheap.

 

[Joe1987]

To be fair, having a laptop that smells like cat piss keeps them from being socially acceptable

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19512174.aspx?pi239031352=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24741832

 

[SparkyJJO]

You must have more patience. I cannot stand slow, cheap, glitchy computers

 

[lxskllr]

You must have more patience. I cannot stand slow, cheap, glitchy computers

Well, there's a bit of that. I have lower expectations of portables. I use a desktop as my primary system, and a laptop is everything else. I don't expect the best from a portable, and I'm not willing to pay for it due to the damage/theft concerns. You can still get a decent machine that isn't glitchy though. You'll have tradeoffs in screen quality, weight, appearance, and maybe battery life, but it will still be fully functional, and get the job done. For the cost of an Apple repair, I can buy a whole new machine.

 

[JackBurton]

Because they're awesome, that's why.

 

[zokudu]

To be fair if I was buying it as my sole machine I would probably jump on a Macbook of some description. As it stands I use my Surface as my portable and remote into my desktop for anything else. I do think the 13 inch rMBP is a decent deal all things considered.

 

[RossMAN]

For corporate America I'd prefer a Lenovo ThinkPad T or Dell Latitude.

 

[dennilfloss]

I wouldn't trade my XPS 17 for a Macbook.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Well, there's a bit of that. I have lower expectations of portables. I use a desktop as my primary system, and a laptop is everything else. I don't expect the best from a portable, and I'm not willing to pay for it due to the damage/theft concerns. You can still get a decent machine that isn't glitchy though. You'll have tradeoffs in screen quality, weight, appearance, and maybe battery life, but it will still be fully functional, and get the job done. For the cost of an Apple repair, I can buy a whole new machine.

Yeah, I won't buy an apple lol. I do not like them, can't stand Mac OS, and buying one just to install Windows is rather pointless when I can get more laptop for less money elsewhere

Over all I'm happy with my 14" HP Probook. A little heavy and thick but it has a little more horsepower to it than most, so it's OK. Hopefully will last as long as my old Thinkpad T60 did (which still works, it just got too slow for my liking). My only real complaint about it is the screen. While it has a decent 1600x900 resolution the picture quality is pretty sad - poor color accuracy, very narrow viewing angles, and harsh to look at until I tweaked it. I should look around and see if there is a better quality LCD available.

 

[Kadarin]

Mac laptops are more popular because they are more better.

 

[Jeff7]

What kind of majors are you around?

<-- Spent a lot of time in the Engineering building. They wouldn't take too kindly to one of them there Mac things. :sneaky:

 

[zerocool84]

What kind of majors are you around?

<-- Spent a lot of time in the Engineering building. They wouldn't take too kindly to one of them there Mac things. :sneaky:

It's USC so the major doesn't matter.