This is a post that’s been in the queue for about a month. I forgot about it until recently.
Over the past few weeks I’ve gotten a few question about the Mac, since I was the only one at the office that had one. Many of them think the Mac doesn’t crash. Many of them still think that their files won’t work. In general, just a bit of misinformation.
This is for you Windows users out there that might be a little curious about the Mac. The following observations are from my own experience. Your mileage may vary.
- Yes, Macs crash. Not as often as Windows, but they do.
- The Mac does not have a BSOD. Instead you get a Kernel Panic, and much less often. In 2 years, I’ve seen 2 on my Mac.
- Yes, applications of the Mac crash. Yes, just as often as they do on Windows.
- The Mac, just like your Windows machine, benefits from the occassional reboot.
- The Mac, unlike a Windows PC, works. Wifi works. Networking works. Plug and Play works.
- Just like the ad says, the Mac works out of the box. When I turned on the iMac for the first time, I ran through the initial set-up. Once Leopard was running, I started Garage Band and mixed a podcast.
- The Mac costs more. You definitely can’t go to Walmart and get one for $400. But, if you want to spend a week removing all of the software that is subsidizing the cost of that machine, go right ahead. If you want to compare a Mac to a PC based on price, then at least look at comparable equipment from Dell, HP or Lenovo.
- Anything you create on your PC you can open and edit on your Mac.
- The Mac is easier to use for most tasks. Some things that you can do on Windows easily, however, aren’t as easy on the Mac.
- The Mac will run Windows. You can install Windows directly so you can boot into Windows like you do now or you can install it virtually so it runs like a program on your desktop.
You have probably heard this a million times already, but if you are thinking about a new computer for home, you should take a few minutes to research the Mac. You can get them at BestBuy now, so you don’t have to be intimidated by the Apple Store snobs.
Surveys. Such a pain sometimes, but sometimes they do what you hope they would do; get someones attention.
On Customer Service
More and more I’m surprised by the level of service, or at least perceived service, that I have been getting. For example, last month I posted to Twitter a problem I was having with Acorn. That night I received an email from Gus and he got me sorted out right away. That is an awesome use of Twitter!
Recently I made a purchase at MacMall for the 4gb memory upgrade for the iMac. I know, I know. But they are local and I was hopeful that I wouldn’t have to wait too long for the memory to arrive and I was trying to save a few bucks on shipping. Ordering was simple and the memory was a good price, so I was happy.
Until the next day.
Apparently, when you order anything from MacMall, you are automatically put into their SpamBot 5000 email list. I say this because over the course of 9 days I received 9 emails from them. That’s correct, an average of an email per day, some of those were doubled up.
Besides that, they sent me 2 kits. Not 2 chips, 2 4GB memory kits. Idiots.
Then I got a survey. Sweet! In which I proceeded to skewer them on the email issue.
About a week later my phone rings and it’s a CS rep from MacMall calling about the survey. He double checked to make sure my name was removed from the email list and will be following up on the extra RAM. I was impressed.
I doubt I will get a call back from Apple after taking the “you bought a new mac” survey, but it’s worth a shot. I went a little easier on them, but still left a comment about the overall price, lack of USB ports and/or a memory card reader on these machines.
I’m not saying I will order from MacMall again by any means. However, after what has happened, I won’t give them a bad review if someone asks. And that’s all it took. Just a little paying attention by someone and a little follow-up. Sometimes it does pay to complain.
And today, I have a new Mac.
Yes, there is a new Mac on my desk
Yes, I bought a new iMac, the upper end 20″, and it’s a fine machine.
I know I have been complaining about Macs, mine in particular. But I have a feeling that those issues are because it’s a first gen MacBook and it is terribly underpowered for what I’ve been trying to do with it. I also think it might have a few port issues.
I even went so far as to price out a Dell system. Turns out the costs was about the same as this (granted for more machine), but I would have been stuck with Vista until Windows 7 comes out sometime in ‘10 (or so I’m hearing). And I have software for the mac that I own. Quite a bit too. I really didn’t feel like going through all of that again on the windows side.
If you haven’t had the chance to see a new iMac up close, it is really nice. The screen is very bright and crisp. While not HD, watching a DVD movie on it is completely acceptable. Even the sound from the built-in speakers isn’t horrible, on par with television speakers, maybe a little better.
I’m almost completely moved in and have already done a few things on it to break it in. So far, I can’t really tell how much faster than the MacBook it is, but I do know it feels faster.
Here are some thoughts.
Pro
- The screen is outstanding
- The config right out of the box is usable (2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive)
- I got an upgrade coupon for iLife ‘09 so it will only cost me $10 when it comes out.
- Whisper quiet. No, it’s quieter than that. Makes almost no noise
- New Apple Keyboard in the box
- It has 3 USB ports. Nice to have the extra.
- It drives my 20″ display no sweat
Con
- The screen is very shiny and refects pretty much everything. Worse than the gloss screen on the MacBook. It’s slightly distracting.
- New Mighty Mouse in the Box. I actually tried to use it. What a horrible little device that is.
- It seems to run pretty hot. I’ve read about this and it doesn’t cause any problems that I am aware of
- It only has 3 USB Ports. In the day where PC’s have as many as 10 on board USB ports (plus a card reader), this is really unacceptable.
I probably won’t do a full review, but I will say that even with those minor issues, it’s a great machine and I’m glad I bought it.
So db solicited for contributors here on donburnside.com and then gave me permission to post. However he never gave me any ground rules before he turned me loose…. That may have been a mistake on his part…
For now at least I’ll behave myself…
Actually a quick introduction, I’m Michael and db has had a link to my irregularly updated site in his sidebar for a few years now. I met db through the MINI community (you’re stunned I’m sure) and have somehow managed to become a semi-regular host over on White Roof Radio. According to the Personnel Directory here I’m also the Chief Plumber – again possibly not one of db’s better decisions. Then again I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express on New Years Eve…
Elsewhere I’m the Chief Photographer and Behind the Scenes Person over at www.mycruiseplanner.net (a position I just made up) as well as producer and co-Presenter with Patricia of The Mail Buoy Podcast. I’ve also got two Flickr streams that I post to, one for the Cruise Planners site and the other is my personal one that’s not cruise related. If you look hard enough there’s also a few other places on the web you can find me.
Anyway, until I can come up with something interesting to post I’ll solicit some input from the donburnside.com audience.
What are your tech predictions for 2009? Will there be chaos as the digital TV transition occurs in February? Will Steve Jobs leave Apple this year? Will Best Buy or Circuit City survive the year? What cool gadgets are coming this year? Leave a comment and let me know what you think….
No Sunday post today. Instead, a reply to a post by Nathaniel Salzman concerning the new Microsoft ads and Microsoft in general. I would follow that link first before reading on.
Interesting. I haven’t seen the new ad yet, but at least it says Microsoft more than the quirky Seinfeld ads.
A terrible product and user experience: Their products are the Achilles heal Apple is shooting arrows through left and right
Sure it’s bad, but if you’ve been using Windows only since Win98/WinNT4 it’s really not. It’s what you know. When I switched to Apple, I was going crazy trying to figure out the things I did on Windows with a few keystrokes and still have a hard time with the crazy symbols.
Convoluted systems: The user must constantly adapt and relearn, rather than having a system built and adapted to them and what they’re trying to do.
I’ve been using Windows since 3.11 and I don’t remember constantly relearning or adapting to anything. If anything, the way applications act on Windows is way more consistent than on the Mac in some respects. And Windows has, essentially, worked exactly the same since Win95. Vista I’m sure is different, but not too much from what I have seen.
I will say the primary reason for my switching is I got tired of fiddling. I’m a fan of “It Just Works”.
Corporate inertia: When was the last time Microsoft did something truly new?
There is the Surface thing, which is promising. Too bad nobody is really pushing it or coming up with a cool use for it.
I’m in no way a Microsoft/Windows fan boy, but I have been using it for almost 20 years (and DOS before that). I haven’t used Vista yet, but I can say that Windows XP for 99% of it’s users is a great OS, very stable and (as long as they are running IE7), fairly secure.
One thing everyone seems to forget is that while Microsoft was booming with Windows 95/98, Apple had System 7/OS9. While I have heard System 7 was ok, I know from a little experience (and what I have heard) that OS9 was horrible. Microsoft had ME, but as long as your hardware supported it, it was as good as 98. Apple didn’t start getting praise until they released OS X on a wide scale. Before that, they were relegated to hobbyists, print shops and (I wish this would come back) education.
Windows has been around for a while. Crappy ads or not. People will continue to use it as long as that’s what they have in the office. Offices will continue to use it as long as they have software developers that can’t/won’t ditch DOS, IE6 or INI/batch files. And, as long as one can go to Best Buy/Walmart/[enter local electronics store here] and pick up a Windows PC for less than $500, it’s going to be here to stay.
To be honest, I almost didn’t switch. The community surrounding the Apple and it’s products (including the iPod) are a little to enthusiastic for my liking. But I was able to get past that and see the quality of the product, which then justified the price.
I prefer the Mac by a longshot and try to get others to switch every chance I get. You just can’t discount Microsoft because they don’t know how to sell themselves or do anything revolutionary.
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