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Just a note on the virus. Yes - there are relatively small number of malicious codes out there that target OS X compared to those that target MS operating systems. However, those that target applications are on the rise - which are often platform agnostic.
So the key there is actually the user knowledge and discipline in their online habits. My .02 is that the virus/malicious code argument is moot. I've known PC users to have never gotten themselves in trouble and mac users that have been phished (and the reverse is obviously also true).
The price difference has been beaten to death... so no point doing it again. The bottom line is - both have pros and cons. And as long as you can get what you need out of them, the rest comes down to personal preference.
I have to agree with some other posters---Apple has AWESOME customer service. They replaced my optical drive and power cord without issue, and just replaced my iPod last month. I live 3 hours from the nearest store and so they let me ship my stuff to them--free overnight shipping and very quick turn around.
My vote is for PC. I've had excellent customer service from Dell. They spent about an hour trying to get my optical drive to work right and then sent a new drive overnight when they couldn't and this was over a kids game that wouldn't run.
I'm not a fan of Apple. They make it too hard to move files. My husband has an Ipod and it sync's to one computer and only one so he can't listen to music from his ipod at work. I can plug my MP3 player into any computer I want and loading it is just drag and drop. Apple support sucks. I tried to get help from them in downloading music we purchased from them onto my MP3 and they were useless. Fortunately, I was able to figure it out on my own but it's so complicated I have to rediscover it everytime I need it. I hate itunes so much I've gone back to buying CD's (if one of my kids plugs her ipod into the wrong computer, we lose the library and itunes WILL NOT restore the files even if you have a reciept).
I have no intention of ever owning an apple computer or an ipod. You can scratch iphone too because I'm dumping AT&T for lousy customer service and lousy reception. Apparently, I'm in the 1% who don't get good reception . Figure that one out when I live in a major metropolitan area. I'm tired of not being able to use my cell phone indoors. AT&T tells me they don't guarantee reception in buildings. Um...just WHERE do you think I spend most of my time????
My vote is for PC. I've had excellent customer service from Dell. They spent about an hour trying to get my optical drive to work right and then sent a new drive overnight when they couldn't and this was over a kids game that wouldn't run.
I'm not a fan of Apple. They make it too hard to move files. My husband has an Ipod and it sync's to one computer and only one so he can't listen to music from his ipod at work. I can plug my MP3 player into any computer I want and loading it is just drag and drop. Apple support sucks. I tried to get help from them in downloading music we purchased from them onto my MP3 and they were useless. Fortunately, I was able to figure it out on my own but it's so complicated I have to rediscover it everytime I need it. I hate itunes so much I've gone back to buying CD's (if one of my kids plugs her ipod into the wrong computer, we lose the library and itunes WILL NOT restore the files even if you have a reciept).
I have no intention of ever owning an apple computer or an ipod. You can scratch iphone too because I'm dumping AT&T for lousy customer service and lousy reception. Apparently, I'm in the 1% who don't get good reception . Figure that one out when I live in a major metropolitan area. I'm tired of not being able to use my cell phone indoors. AT&T tells me they don't guarantee reception in buildings. Um...just WHERE do you think I spend most of my time????
My name is Ivorytickler and I am a PC....
that's unfortunate, and obviously, not everyone is going to love Apple and Apple products. I can say my own personal experience was the opposite of yours. I've had bad customer service from Dell. the only time I didn't have an issue w/ Dell was when I was gifted a desktop from a business that was still under warranty. maybe Dell customer service is better if you have a business grade product. but when dealing w/ my laptop, I just kept getting the run around and in the end, they didn't offer up any useful advice. on the other hand, I've had nothing but good things to about Apple's customer service. I'm fortunate enough to be close to a couple on Apple stores. my Macbook Pro can with a faulty adapter and they replaced it for me w/in 30 minutes.
w/ the itunes thing, I would make a backup. there's an option to back it up to a disk. if something ever happens to the library, you can easily restore it. actually I'd recommend anyone w/ music on their computer to back it up on a disk or hard drive, itunes or not
back to the customer service thing, if you live w/in short distance of an Apple store, you may find the Genius bar a good enough feature to warrant the higher price of a Mac. no need to ship off the laptop and have to wait for it for god only knows how long (in fact, some issues could be fixed in store or you'll be sent home w/ the new part), and you can speak w/ them in person instead of calling some random call center in India. for me, this was worth paying for
A Mac with MS Office (or MS Word or any other application in MS Office) can open files whether they were originally created on a PC or Mac, and it can save them as Windows files as well as Mac files. Of course there's also the "Windows" application, but I've never used it.
I've had both PCs and Macs, but the Macs were always my primary machine, and that dates back to the earliest of Macs. I believe I got my first one around 1986 and have never been without one or two since then -- mostly desktop models and a couple laptops.
My wife used our last PC as her main computer -- surfing the net, etc. We also had it to run a wide format printer/plotter that required a PC. She tried to keep the anti-virus software updated but was constantly getting some kind of bug. When it was time to upgrade her computer the last time we had sold that old printer, and she really wanted a Mac. So we now have two Macs and have never had problem one with either of them. We both spend quite a bit of time on the net but don't use anti-virus software on either of our Macs. *fingers crossed*
that's unfortunate, and obviously, not everyone is going to love Apple and Apple products. I can say my own personal experience was the opposite of yours. I've had bad customer service from Dell. the only time I didn't have an issue w/ Dell was when I was gifted a desktop from a business that was still under warranty. maybe Dell customer service is better if you have a business grade product. but when dealing w/ my laptop, I just kept getting the run around and in the end, they didn't offer up any useful advice. on the other hand, I've had nothing but good things to about Apple's customer service. I'm fortunate enough to be close to a couple on Apple stores. my Macbook Pro can with a faulty adapter and they replaced it for me w/in 30 minutes.
w/ the itunes thing, I would make a backup. there's an option to back it up to a disk. if something ever happens to the library, you can easily restore it. actually I'd recommend anyone w/ music on their computer to back it up on a disk or hard drive, itunes or not
back to the customer service thing, if you live w/in short distance of an Apple store, you may find the Genius bar a good enough feature to warrant the higher price of a Mac. no need to ship off the laptop and have to wait for it for god only knows how long (in fact, some issues could be fixed in store or you'll be sent home w/ the new part), and you can speak w/ them in person instead of calling some random call center in India. for me, this was worth paying for
as I side not, I will agree w/ you that ATT sucks
My experience with Dell is limted to my home computer. They've been great. They even shipped me a loaner set of CD's when I, accidentally, threw out the ones that came with my computer. They just asked I send them back when I was done. I have always been under warranty when dealing with them.
My experience with apple support was business related and had to do with trying to make software do what I wanted it to instead of what the programmer, who, obviously, knew nothing about how an engineer might use their product, thought I'd want it to do. It, usually, eneded with them telling me "It can't be done that way", me hanging up, finally figuring out how to do it and calling them back to tell them how to do it. I much prefer PC's. Worst case, I pop out to Sequel Windows and write my own macro. Last time I was using a Mac (required by my employer), you couldn't do that on a Mac.
Itunes needs to get friendlier. They need to allow redownloading of anything you lose because an ipod sync'd to a computer when you plugged it in. It's nonsense to write the software so that a computer sync's to one ipod. What if the family owns three ipods? Do they, really, expect you to have three computers? I can't tell you how many times one of my daughters has, accidentally, wiped out the other one's or dh's library. My MP3 library is still intact. After losing hundreds of songs my girls downloaded from itunes and being told "tough luck", we now back up libraries to a RAID and I buy CD's. I copy the CD's onto the computer and pack the originals away. I'm not an itunes fan but I'm not sure of other services so I do still let my kids use itunes. I just refuse to help when they have problems with it. I tell them it's their choice to use it and their problem to fix. Itunes gives me a headache.
You couldn't pay me to get an Ipod or a Mac. I like my dell desk top and my dell laptop just fine. And my MP3 player may not be fancy but I can copy anything I want onto it and plug it into any computer. I'm happy.
As to AT&T, I'm counting the days until I can break my contract. 29 days to go. There really should be a trial period on these contracts. I realized, within days that the service wasn't what I was used to with Verizon but it was too late. I'd signed up for two years of lousy service and accidentally butt dialing the internet (AT&T forces me to activate internet on my phone if I want to be able to send texts with pictures. I had it blocked with Verizon but could still send pictures.). I'm, probably, going back to Verizon next month but I am going to shop around. I figure it can't get worse than AT&T.
Recently, I passed an AT&T kiosk at a mall and stopped to check when my contract expired. They asked why I was dropping AT&T and I told them lousy reception. They asked to see my phone and then told me it was my phone and I just needed a new one. Um....THIS is the phone YOU sold me, you turkeys. Do you really think I'm going to buy another one after you sold me one that didn't work right and didn't have the decency to even recall it or replace it? I think they take the cake for lousy customer service. I once had to call customer support for my daughter's phone and ended up going over my minutes for the month because they kept me on hold for the better part of two hours and I didn't realize that the call used my minutes. I now know to call customer support from a land line.
As to anti virus software, I use MaAffee and I use Spybot to clean off spyware and other pups that my kids, invariably, download unintentionally. I've only had one virus get in and to fix that, we had to boot in safe mode and go to the McAffee site because the virus disabled McAffee. Fortunately, we use Safe Eyes to monitor and control the kids access to the internet so the virus could be contained before we went to the internet. That took a little work. I figure one of my kids probably downloaded it. They don't seem to realize that when McAffee warns you a site is dangerous, you DON'T go to it. Kids....they're the reason I have gray hair, lol.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 11-13-2010 at 04:59 PM..
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. Figure that one out when I live in a major metropolitan area. I'm tired of not being able to use my cell phone indoors. AT&T tells me they don't guarantee reception in buildings. Um...just WHERE do you think I spend most of my time???? 
