I have been coaching a friend in her move to Mac recently. It’s new to her, and as a newb to the Mac, she is over-thinking things. I did the same. I was so used to struggling with Windows (not that I ever really realized it was a struggle, it was just normal) that when I got on the Mac it seemed difficult, but I was making it difficult. She’s figuring it out pretty rapidly though.
I used to be a Windows whiner. You know the kind, we tell everyone how awesome our Windows machine is, can’t be beat, why would you want a Mac. Oh sure, I only have to reformat it once in awhile, you know, about every 3-6 months (things get cluttered and the brain inside ceases to function normally, that’s a given, but I know how to deal with it – swift lobotomy for the machine and start afresh). Windows is awesome, they have updates for me to download almost daily! How nice is that? And the hunt for updated drivers when those Microsoft updates come out, gosh, it feels like a good old Easter egg hunt! There are so many options for upgrading RAM, the hard drives, the power supplies, motherboards, monitors, video cards, sound cards …. it’s like Christmas every week when the Future Shop flyer arrives! (too bad the bill has to arrive afterwards) And they come out with so much new equipment that I am unsatisfied with my machine within a year, and shopping within two. I always have the newest stuff. I get to feel superior because I know how to change all those things, and reformat, and spend a few days after every reformat in getting everything back the way it should be. I only have to reboot it once or twice a day when it hangs, or when that blue screen shows up.
My life got so dull when I bought a Mac. It worked right out of the box, no updates and no drivers to look for. Well that’s pretty boring. And it came without a whole bunch of trial software that I could peruse and then try to delete. It was clean! But it did come with full featured photo editing software, full featured video editing software, and a sound editing program that recording studios use, an integrated dictionary that worked across all programs, a search function that worked like a hot-damn!, a really great email program that fully integrated with a functional calendar and a great address book that you could use to click on an address and take you right to Google Maps to show you how to get there, so that was kind of exciting. But there was no time limited trial of virus software! Because there aren’t really any viruses? Well that’s pretty dull.
I mean, what was I supposed to do with all that free time I suddenly found myself with? All that time I used to spend waiting for Windows to boot up? Waiting for updates to install? Hunting for drivers? Dealing with broken software? What was I going to do with all that money I wasn’t spending at Future Shop all the time, getting new things for my machine to make it run better, faster, to create space for those Windows programs that keep getting bigger and bigger and taking up hard drive space and bogging down my limited video RAM? I don’t need to do that anymore? but, but, but….
But my PC was cheaper than my Mac.
Right?
Well, depends on what you consider cheap.
What’s your time worth? And are you actually comparing apples to apples (no pun intended)?
This issue came up recently. I know PC’s as well as anyone, I used to build mine and have made more purchases than most home users since I used to buy for myself as well as the lab I worked in, and we went through a lot of machines…because they got stolen relatively frequently. I also learned how to change just about every part inside, including motherboards, when things went wrong. I was a stellar software troubleshooter, and considered it a personal challenge to have every machine running in tip top shape. I battled viruses and stayed up to date, scanning every machine at least once a day. Very few bugs ever slipped past my security net, very few because it’s impossible to keep a computer really clean, the hackers are always ahead of the software designers and the virus scanners. And then, after one over-the-phone, long distance-computer-support call, I snapped. It had become an almost weekly event, “The computer help questions” I finally snarked out “You should buy a Mac!”
But I didn’t have one! So why did I say that? I’d dabbled with them in the distant past, but was of the mindset that “In my world, Mac’s aren’t useable machines, they won’t run ‘my’ software programs, and “change is bad!” The funny thing is that my Mother used to call on a regular basis for help with everything from printer issues to viruses. In the year and a half that I’ve had her on a Mac, the computer questions have dropped to near zero and the problems have been simple things like, “I deleted my bookmarks!” No biggie, we’ll just get them back from yesterday’s Time Machine backup!
Humans are such intractable creatures. We are so self important and think that what we have chosen, what we think, is right, absolutely right, and any differing opinion is plainly and simply “WRONG!” Period! Put on the blinders, dismiss any differing opinion as foolish, and carry on in our personal vacuum of “rightness” Usually I’ll spar with people on issues if they disagree, but only to a point, because when it gets down to an argument and not a debate, then there isn’t any point in continuing. I like to discuss different opinions, critically, logically. The world is not black and white, it is shades of grey, and there are usually more options than right and wrong. You can be right, but I can also be right. But too many people can’t handle that, they have to feel that they are right because they think the alternative is wrong. But that’s not always the case. When it degenerates to “whatever, and laughs or snorts of derision that imply idiocy in having a separate opinion, then it’s just become insulting and those are childish tactics of someone who doesn’t know how to engage in an intellectual debate. I try to not rise to that and will shrug and end with an agreement to disagree, but sometimes it gets under my skin. I try not to let it, but sometimes, sometimes…..like when people start in on subjects like sea lice…but that’s another debate.
Anyway, one thing that I keep hearing is “Macs cost too much” Really!?!? I don’t think so, but I suppose it depends on what you want out of a computer.
I want a computer to last for at least five years without having to put anything major into it. I don’t want to have to add RAM, change a motherboard, change a power supply, replace any fried components out of warranty. And I want it to work. I don’t want to do daily or weekly updates, I don’t want to have to reformat it, or even reboot it for that matter. If I turn it off, I want it to turn on really fast, and I don’t want to wait for programs to open. I want all the software to work seamlessly together, to integrate with each other. I want to be able to access my address book from my word processor without having to open the address book. I want to be able to access my photos without having to open my photo program. For years I tried to find that in a PC. The longest I ever went without a reformat was about 6 months. The longest I ever went without having to reboot at some point was probably a week. Usually at least one program has to be restarted at least every day. The longest I went without replacing or adding some internal component was probably a few months. and the longest I ever went without replacing the entire machine was three years, and that was painful… I usually lasted two before I was starting to hunt for the next “perfect” machine.
Then I bought the Mac.
To be fair, when I bought the desktop I immediately added more RAM and a few extra hard drives. I ordered those along with it instead of having it built with the machine because I found a source of less expensive RAM and hard drives. So arguably that was still in the initial build though, since I installed all of it before ever plugging the new machine in. And I’ve never opened the box since. It’s been running pretty much nonstop, going to sleep at night (not turning off or requiring a restart) for three years. I’ve never reformatted it, and I think I’ve rebooted it maybe half a dozen times in three years. I have put a new operating system on it when Snow Leopard came out, $35 for the operating system…nice! And it installed in about 20 minutes, and I didn’t lose anything or have to upgrade any drivers other than the one for my scanner, and that was an issue with HP not being on the ball with new drivers ready for the new OS, nothing wrong with the OS though.
The MacBook has been with me for about two and a half years now. I did reformat it once, I thought something was wrong, turns out it wasn’t and it was to do with a setting I had messed with. Two and a half years and no hiccups, no hissy fits, again, it just works. Plain and simple. I had purchased a $3000 Toshiba laptop that converted into a tablet. Beautiful machine. Within 6 months I was frustrated with it. It now resides in a drawer and comes out only at tax time. My MacBook cost $1500 less and is still going strong with no need for any more power, RAM, space, anything. I imagine I will be happy with it for a few more years and will probably get 5+ years out of it before I fall in love with something new. It’s looking like the desktop will probably last a good 5-8 years before I need anything else, if not longer.
So lets look at costs realistically. Assuming I was still buying PC’s every PC I have ever purchased cost me in the range of $2000 for the tower. My last Dell cost $4000 though. If my Mac is going to last 8 years or more, that’s four PC’s or $8000 (assuming I went with the lower priced towers). I went all out on my Mac, I have found that buying at the higher end means computers last longer and need to have things replaced less often, so I did the same with my Mac. My MacPro desktop cost me $3000, it was equivalent to the previous Dell in specs, but $1000 less expensive. I sold my Dell after two years, I had to give away a printer and a few other goodies with it just to get rid of it. My MacPro is now on year three and I have no desire to add or change anything in it. It is doing everything I want without breaking a sweat, and I have always pushed machines pretty hard. You can actually sell a three year old MacPro for almost what you bought it for! MacBooks also hold their value! Strange! PC’s are always junk when they are disposed of.
So, both my laptop and my desktop were over $1000 less expensive than the equivalent Windows based machines. That alone is case closed for me. And over the lifespan of both machines, I won’t have to buy two or three computers, so that saves me something in the range of $5000-$8000. But when I factor in the sanity quotient, the expense of owning a PC is even more prohibitive to me. I saw somewhere that someone said “PCs get sold, Macs get bought” I like that.
People are easily fooled by prices. When something claims to be $799, it usually needs a whole lot of upgrades or other bits and bobs in the near future to get it where you want it. But for some reason we still crow out loud that we got it for $799. We seem to completely forget that we spent another $500 (or whatever) on it and countless hours making it all just how we want.That time and money counts and can’t be waved off! That’s deceptive and unrealistic. And then there is lasting power. How many will you buy over 5-6 years? Still a better price?
Mac people and PC people are never going to see eye-to-eye on the term “comparable,” and it’s tiresome and useless to try and play the convince me game. If you think your PC you found is comparable to a given Mac, then it probably is, for you. Trying to explain what’s missing with your “comparable” machine is like trying to explain colour to a blind man, anyway. Mac’s seem a little expensive at first to a PC person like I once was, but once you switch you notice the value right away. I would gladly pay more to get all of the OS X features like the dock, exposé, iMovie, iPhoto, even the calendar and address book all working together seamlessly. But in reality, I did not pay more, I paid less! Plus… VIRTUALLY NO VIRUSES OR SPYWARE. After having a Mac for about three years I have never seen a virus or any spyware, and I do run the odd check if I feel suspicious, but I’ve never found anything. I would gladly pay more to not have to deal with the headache of spyware. (And Windows crashing/running slow 24/7)
It’s funny, I had to call Telus awhile back for something to do with my internet connection. The woman started down her checklist of things, I was pretty sure I had a router problem (their equipment). Before we got going I clearly said I was on a Mac, she said, “Please click the Start button.” I said “I don’t have a Start button, because I’m on a Mac, what would you like me to get to, Network settings?” She said “Now navigate from Start to ….” I interjected, “Excuse me, as I said, I am on a Mac” To which she replied “On a Mac? Oh, how strange, we never get calls from Mac users, they always work, maybe the problem is with the router itself.” I rest my case, when the tech support doesn’t know how to support you because the calls from Macs are so rare, it tells me that something about my choice to go Mac was a good one.
With respect to both Macs and Win-PCs, the true cost isn’t what you pay in the store (or online) today, but what you pay tomorrow. “But there’s so much more software for Windows,” people say. True, but what matters isn’t how much is there, but what you use. If all you use is MS Office, available for both Mac and PC, software availability really doesn’t matter. In general, Mac programs are less expensive, have better support, and are updated more often with new features. There isn’t anything I used to use that I haven’t found a replacement for on a Mac. Everything from photo editing to GPS navigation software, from geotagging programs to blogware. What I have found for Mac far outstrips any PC software I used to use on almost every level. I don’t game so I don’t care about that, if I wanted to game it would be on an isolated computer, one that didn’t have my personal and financial information on it. Gaming computers are the biggest target for hackers and viruses and you are just asking for trouble if you game on your work machine.
On the flip side, if everyone went Mac, there would be a lot of PC service people out of business. From a posting online – “Our school board spent months fighting about whether to buy Mac or PC. I backed out of the fight and invited an IT person from a local High School to help us decide. He managed 300 PC’s and 250 Mac’s. He told us that the Mac side could be administered by the Librarian. The PC side took all of his time (and money) to keep going. He said that if the school had only Mac’s, that his $72,000 job would not exist.”
But those are just my opinions. I have owned many PCs and I now own Macs (and a PC) If you haven’t ever owned a Mac, you can’t really defend your position, you can’t say PCs are better, and you can’t say there are no differences, and you can’t say one is cheaper than the other. Same goes if you own a Mac but have never lived in the world of Windows. You have to explore both before you can make a judgement. If, after spending time in both environments, you still prefer PC, then that’s what works for you, but don’t judge without spending time in the other world, that’s narrow minded. How can you say you don’t like something when you’ve never tried it?
Here are the opinions of some others:
From Bloomberg Businessweek (April 2009) – Mac vs. PC, What you don’t get for $699 – I hate the “I can buy a PC for $600” argument. Because that’s all it is, an argument. Not a debate, a debate has justifications and thoughtful discussion. An argument is just a series of contradictions where everyone digs in their heels and gets mad at each other, and usually doesn’t solve anything. This is a good piece on the difference between that $699 PC and a Mac. (And by the way, you can buy a Mac mini for $749…so there!)
Popular Mechanics (December 2009) – Mac vs. PC: The Ultimate Lab Test for New Desktops & Laptops An interesting comparison of computer speeds between comparable machines. Just look at the differences in startup times! When I pulled my PC out to do taxes I actually thought it was broken and started to panic when it didn’t turn on….just when I was about to get violent with it, it finally flickered to life.
From thestar.com (February 2010) – Mac vs. PC: the digital divide A humourous dialogue on the stereotypes.
From ComputerWorld (June 2007) – Mac vs. PC cost analysis: How does it all add up? A bit old, but a particularly interesting read on cost analysis and what most people “DON’T” factor in. It also deals with the issue that when comparing computers, stop getting stuck on the fact that you can buy a $600 box that really is a piece of crap. that’s NOT what most people are talking about when they say Macs are not more expensive than PCs. Get PAST that, OK!?!?
From MacWorld (same author as above) – Mac vs. PC cost analysis revisited Again, a nice objective piece on Macs and PCs and the value in both.
Why Mac vs PC price comparisons are never fair
And if you want a giggle after all that, this is rather cute…. Mac vs PC People