Notebook crapped out, now what...

I don't know when the changes were made. For $1,200, though, the MacBook I have is a pretty damn good bargain.

 

OK, I've read through at least a dozen of these threads on laptops over the past few months. I'm in the market for a new laptop, but I'm not pressed to make a quick purchase. I just want a better one.

So, here's the chance for all you Mac folks to sell me. I've never used one, at least not seriously attempted to do work on one. The mac that closest compares with the notebooks I've been checking out is at least $400 more expensive.

Why should I consider spending more money for a machine that I'm gonna have to spend some time figuring out how to use? Are they really that much better?

 

Not to rain on the MacBook parade, but mine recently started shutting down randomly from time to time. Looking around on the Apple website, it seems like a common problem that a lot of people have been experiencing after a few months of use.

Other than the random shut downs for no reason at all, the Mac has been great.

As far as the right-click function goes, I think you've always been able to right-click if you plug a two button mouse into the machine. All Mac desktops still come with the one button mouse (I think) and the laptops only have one button on the trackpad thing, but if you plug a two-button mouse in, it works fine.

 

My old shop used Macs and I hated them. They crashed at least three times a night and it didn't matter when we got the brand new G5s, they still sucked. I am very wary of Macs, but maybe it was just our piece of shit tech guys, I don't know.

 

The major hardware fault of Apple is that insists to produce the same shitty mouse that people obviously don't want. You can right-click with a Mac as long as you don't use the mouse they provide, rather a third-party mouse. However, on my MacBook, I can "right-click" by tapping with two fingers. Works great.

But I justify shelling out more money for the hardware. I bought the iMac in 2001, and sold it last year to my paper to put in one of the sister-weeklies. Things still works fine (as long as it's OS X and not that piece of shit OS 9). By the time I'm ready for a new laptop, they'll probably run on flash drives (like iPods) and will be about two-generations into the product.

 

right click? don't need it. don't miss it

 

eMacs suck. Totally. Don't hate on Mercedes because you had a bad experience with that goofy, $22,000 hatchback it sold in the late 1990s.

Macs rarely crash, the new intel machines are smokin fast, the OS is highly intuitive, support is easier because the method for fixing problems is more uniform, doing things like making CDs or DVDs is easier, Applecare > any other warranty plan, resale is better (I just sold a BROKEN 1999 powerbook for $350) ... and that's in addition to MacBooks looking cooler than anything else around.

 

OK, if I were in the market for a new laptop, and if I were perhaps looking at a Mac laptop...

Is it worth it for the widescreen, either 15 or 17? I think they look cooler, and if I want to watch movies on the road, I always buy the widescreen version. I've heard that they're much heavier, and are harder to find a backpack to carry them in.

True? Or worth it?

 

I keep wanting to get a Mac, but it never seems to work out monetarily at the time I need a computer. I bought a compaq this past February when I was having battery problems with my other one. The compaq works good enough for me and it came with a warranty that covers physical damage, so come March or so of next year, I'm going to back up everything and then go do a scientific experiment and see how well they hold up when you drop em from really high places.

As for the Macs, the ones we have at work are pieces of shit and lock up so often, it's not even funny. As for the laptops, one of my work colleagues was in a tizzy when his Mac blew up a few weeks back. He went running off to buy a new one. So, they're not perfect, but I do like them. I also hear they're susceptible to cat piss! LOL

 

Fuck Macs, Ipods and all that shit. I have an iMac for my office machine and the thing is the most unstable piece of shit I've ever used. Surfing the web is always an adventure in crossing your fingers and hoping and praying the thing doesn't crash. Then there's the beauty of the Mac network. We have one machine in the office which when it uses the save function is totally slows down every other machine in the office.

I'd rather have a blue screen of death than a bomb or folder with a question mark any day. I can at least fix the blue screen of death without much help....

 

Had two Dell laptops crash on me within eight months. First one had the fan burn out and nearly fry my computer. The second -- which was not even six months old -- crashed on me the night before the Par-3 in Michigan. Fortunately, the WalMart SuperCenter had Toshiba's for $560 each. Bought two and have been humming along.

The Dell guy can blow me.

And on the subject of piece-of-crap Dell's, my home computer's hard drive crashed last spring when I was on the road. Thought my wife was going to have a stroke; she lost most of her teaching stuff. I lost plenty, but had e-mailed much of it to my work computer.

Back up your stuff, folks.